Blog, I

Genesis: Man On The Corner, Abacab

“Who’s the lonely man there on the corner,
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know.
But he’s there every day now.
And he’s just waiting for something to show - oh.”

While a young soldier in training, I had free time to listen to cassettes and dwelt on this song. What little I’d come to know of homelessness of others created graphic images that would stay in my mind for years, to compare with things to come I knew not of.

This wasn’t about in depth problems. I’d asked John; the man in the video above; if I could take a picture of his shoes in exchange for a cigarette.

Strange as it sounds, it’s never failed to get a shot when used.

The quality of the above movie is also reason for the recent monetizing my regular readers have been seeing lately on the blog, in hopes of purchasing an actual handcam with better resolution.

Homeless man found dead in Springfield; is this just the beginning? While it’s not Springfield in Jacksonville, Florida, this can come to be a view and a feeling that we ourselves here could go through by going down a similar path one day.

Christian Aid spokesman John Davison: “We believe that forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor people in the developing world”. Click here for the source.

Ruthie In The Sky’s been running for as long as I’ve been blogging. Here, there, hither and yon, it’s a decent read of points and times of someone trying to find something. Reactions she gets in all kinds of situations and places while just trying to get a place to sleep sometimes.

Doing my usual Googlesearch on blogs, I picked up on Bubble Jam Delite’s entry Wherever I Lay My Hat:
Japanese Homeless Sheltering In Net Cafes & MacDonald by Simon Magus. It led me to do searches through a number of engines where I found the term being used regularly.

It’s interesting to me since McDonald’s is the same company that was using potatoes from ‘Tater Farms’ to supply some of it’s plants with produce, before the farm was busted for swindling workers through sales of drugs and alcohol and higher prices than worth…course it was illegal, course it was wrong, but it’s an example of how homeless people were used.

American based business…using homeless americans for profit…providing Japanese homeless shelter…IF they buy something to stay and sip…all night long. Just ironic and kind of funny.

Good YouTube vid of a family experiencing homelessness. Shows another example of people doing what they can, but still having barriers keeping them in the system.

Over a year ago, my family had the chance of meeting Fan, her brother, sister, father, and mother. Dad as over 70. Sister was less than two. Fan’s 15 now.

The family came from China. Dad is an engineer, similiar to what my grandfather did with aircraft carriers. I have been humbled many times when he has complimented me on my role as a father. Words cannot express the feeling when someone says something that simple in a language not their own.
Fan’s smart. Fan doesn’t know about something that she may learn in American Classrooms, given her classes to come in High School. I asked her questions at times, when she and my children would teach other Chinese and English phrases. She has no knowledge of Tiananmen Square or the protests of 1989. I didn’t think it was my place to tell her…in all honesty it changes nothing to her now, and in due time she will learn when it is right.

We take for granted much of what is available to us, information being one of the first. Fan has a beautiful mind, wonderful outlook, sweet and kindest of hearts I know in a young person. She’ll do well.

Her family was able to get an apartment before our family did. They are currently working on home ownership at this time.