Skip to main content

Homeless people profiled in SN&R cover story

In its current edition, the Sacramento News & Review [SN&R] has a cover story, called "Living Homeless: Faces and Stories from the Streets of Sacramento" that pictures 17* Sacramento homeless citizens and tells us a little, in their words, about how they became homeless and what their lives are like.

I know three or four of the people that are profiled.

I appreciate that it is a good idea to have the public come to better know homeless people as individuals, rather than as an amorphous crowd. I think that SN&R did an earnest job and was appreciative of the people interviewed.

Still, knowing several of the people, I'm disappointed about how they "came off." The people I know, animated by their spirits, as opposed to caught in hard-focused photographs, are fully splendid.

The brief bios of each person seemed incomplete, to me. But that is likely to be because I want the public to know more and feel closer to each person. SN&R was probably wise not to exhaust its typical readers with too much content.

I am hopeful, though, that the project/article makes a good impression on the public, presenting homeless Sacramentans in their variety. NOT knowing the people profiled probably results in a fully good impression of the individuals, on the whole.

Sadly, I've lost my earphones and cannot hear some of the people's stories, taped for Capitol Public Radio. Hopefully, y'all who read this blogpost will have a speaker or earphones and will be moved to click to the SN&R story and hear the audio.
----
Of additional interest. Three posts in Kevin Fiscus Photography blog about Fiscus taking pictures for the SN&R article: "Last week I participated in an event at Sacramento City College"; "Sacramento News and Review - Homeless Connect"; and "Robert."
----
* Only 14 of the people are depicted in the hardcopy edition of the story.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

The Sukhothai Traimit Golden Buddha was found in a clay-and-plaster overlaid buddha statue in 1959, after laying in wait for 500 years. It's huge and heavy: just under 10 feet tall and weighs 5 1/2 tons. At the beginning of their June newsletter , Loaves and Fishes relates a story, taken from the beginning of renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's 2008 book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology . The first part and first chapter in Kornfield's book is "Part I: Who are you really?" and chapter 1 is called "Nobility: Our Original Goodness," which ought to serve as a clue to what the beginning of the book is about, not that that sentiment isn't strewn through-out the chapter, section and book such that what Kornfield is telling us should be crystal clear. Somehow, the not-ready-for-primetime management at Loaves & Fishes have managed to use Kornfield's wise and kindly words in a way that mangles th...

In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day

Calvin [a "green hat" in Unfriendly Park] makes the argument for continued incompetent management. Hobbes represents me — only, in real life, I don't have that good a coat . In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day In one respect — and only one — that I can think of, Loaves & Fishes is NOT hypocritical: The management hates the way America is run and wants to turn it into a backward communist country . Consistent with that, Loaves & Fishes’ management runs its facility like a backward communist country. The People’s Republic of Loaves & Fishes. A seemingly minor thing happened on New Year’s Day. A couple of people smoked a joint in Loaves & Fishes’ Friendship Park and one of the park directors, or both of them, determined, at about 10am, that, in retribution, they would punish all the homeless there by closing the park for the day. This is something the managers of the park do all the ...

The Big Picture (The good, the bad and the ugly in Homeless World Sacramento) Part I

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? -- William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice While I feel certain that homeless people (including myself) deserve the sympathies and aid of the public and much robust support from the government, I don’t think this because I believe Sacramento’s homeless population could pass as a cross section of the general population (as we're often portrayed). The homeless, who are the bottom 1% socially and economically in our society are, as you would suppose, disproportionate to the whole in being mentally ill; or mentally unusual; or psychically beat up; or depressed; or addicted; or in having quirks or criminal records or spotty resumes or damaged psyches that frustrate getting or holding onto a job. Too, among the homeless are a great many who are asocial – who will steal or destroy things without a moment’s consideration of others who are hurt by these actions. There are also man...