25 Portraits Of Homeless People In Philadelphia

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/25-portraits-of-homeless-people-in-philadelphia-2012-8?op=1

***SNIP

"The reaction I get most often is, 'Thank you,'" says O'Hay, a recovering alcoholic who was nearly homeless himself. &quot They say) thanks for not ignoring me. Thanks for not passing me by. I can't tell you how many times I've heard those sentences."
The pictures and interviews are published in his Flickr project, Everyone has a Name. Some of them are shared with permission in this slideshow.


I've known Ray for nearly 20 years.

Ray
When I met him, he was a young, married school teacher and talented poet who owned his own home.


"I'm not gonna lie to ya," Russ said, "I'm a drunk. But I got other problems too."
He took a long pause. "Ghosts," said in a half whisper. "I got ghosts."


"People pass by in the street," said Lemuel, "and they don't see the need--they just see a number."
This was my introduction to Lemuel Davis.

[cap]

1. I volunteer in a soup kitchen in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia

and there is an incredible dignity in our clientele. We have a picture of Jesus standing in a line for food just to help remind us that when we look into the eyes of the homeless we are seeing the face of Jesus.

[Quantess]

2. Better get used to seeing them

because the number of homeless people is not going to go down anytime soon. Not at this pace. Also, depression can be very debilitating.

But a surprising bright spot is that this article was from the business insider.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. K&R We could make poverty a rarity so easily and so cheaply.

[ananda]

4. And we could do that without shaming people..

.. or imposing conditions on them, like going to church or
believing a certain way.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Exactly. Cut the DoD budget by 80% and obviate the need for the DoD.

And the money saved is more than enough to take care of our people, the rest of the world's poor, and have enough left over to pay down the debt.

No wonder we are not allowed to talk about it.
K&R

[L0oniX]

5. War on poverty? The MIC isn't interested that kind of war...

and neither are the war pig profiteers in our government.

[BOG PERSON]

7. freedom,

horrible freedom

[Quantess]

10. Oh, come on!

Other wealthy nations have just as much freedom as the USA, but not all of them have such a wide chasm of income disparity.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. kick. n/t

[BrendaBrick]

9. k&r

[Bluerthanblue]

11. thank you

this is an excellent post. Hope many people take the time to read and think about this.


k&R

[renate]

12. great to see this on a business-oriented website!

But it's kind of interesting that most of these photos at this guy's Flickr account only have two or three hundred views, or less; the story didn't garner much extra traffic.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7204187@N03/sets/72157625750612325/

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer--it really is great that a story like this is on businessinsider.com--but it might be nice for him to get some DU traffic and love.