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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2017)
Street Roots • March 31-April 6, 2017 TALESE, from page 12 either because they have their own shame, and their own secrets, and their own willingness or their own eagerness to be divorced from others.” “They are in the shadows of our vision,” Talese added. “And because they don’t offer us any reward for caring, they don’t increase our sales, they don’t increase our ratings or give us hits... they represent nothing that’s desirable. And so, they go from generation to generation, generally, unrecognized in any meaningful way.” Talese believes homelessness should be a bipartisan issue. “I don’t care whether it’s an Obama world, or a Trump world, or George Bush, or whoever the president is,” he said. “There’s no excuse for how little regard and humanity is shown to people who have lost their way.” Especially in a city as wealthy as New York. “I have seen how sad the city is in the shadows of some of its churches and some of its stores along main avenues in the afterhours from 6, or 7, or 8 o’clock at night — especially in the warmer months,” Talese said. “The city of New York, with all of its money, shouldn’t have those sights. They’re the result of our own greedy capitalism and our lack of heart as a democracy.” As for the person he wrote about in “The Homeless Woman with Two Homes”, Talese called several salon owners he knew and News hoped to get her a job, but he never heard from her again. “She said she’d call me, I gave her my phone number, and I then called these people before she was supposed to call me back, and they said yes, they’d be glad to see her [and] offer her a job if she was as qualified as I thought she probably was,’“ Talese said. “She never called me back.” Homelessness has skyrocketed in New York City in the years since Talese wrote about the homeless woman. Over the past two decades, the homeless population living in the city’s shelter system has increased 115 percent, from 23,868 in 1994 to 60,000 in 2016, according to the New York City Department of Homeless Services shelter system census. For most New Yorkers, Talese said, homeless people “are considered an inconvenience.” It’s an observation he made nearly 30 years ago, after he took the time to get to know a homeless woman at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street. “These mysterious people live among us each day, sleep at our door, walk shoulder-to- shoulder with us on the street,” Talese wrote in “The Homeless Woman with Two Homes.” “Yet, regrettably, we do not know them, and too many New Yorkers, with the donation of a few quarters daily, are able to buy their way out of whatever momentary concern or discomfort is caused by the presence of the homeless.” Courtesy of Street Sense / INSP.ngo LAUGHINGPLANET.COM Page 13 Hank Aaron’s Pen by Avendor I rummage through thoughts Like a raccoon through garbage I quietly dream Like a slow moving snail I don old clothes Like a tree wears moss These bones clink and clatter In the wintertime gales I see a beautiful girl Six ways from Sunday I believe a showdown Is surely coming soon I believe Spring’s returning It hasn’t failed me yet I need room to grow And my own safe room I’ve been on vision quests Like indigenous shamans I loved Magic Johnson When I was a kid I never grew out of My love for Greek Mythology I’ve tried to make sense Of this crazy Id So I’m going to make my heart Pure as white chocolate And I’ll seek to make my mind A fountain for the Gods This mouth of mine I will continuously varnish And this pen will bud, like Aaron’s rod.
