Category: Homeless

Overflow

Not that we don’t have enough problems, but it is now Hurricane Season. Covid causes death, despair and disease. Rain and wind destructs, demolishes and decimates. Any way you look at it, society gets eradicated in an unpleasant way.

The canals await the rainfall, already over their early June limit. Deadly frogs live around them. Lizards and geckos which didn’t die due to climate change (no cold spell) abound and there is no species to eat them or drive them away. Unbelievers continue to ignore the signs, partying on the beaches and in the clubs. Well, so-be-it.

Mother and Child Reunion

Here is Sharon with our bear, Theodore, who she has had since she was a baby. I adopted him when we were married; Judge Archie Gorfinkel signed the papers. He has offered love and support many times and has had surgery to repair the ravages of aging. If anything happened to Theodore, Sharon would probably sit shiva.

So, how many kids have friends like Theodore whom they rely on in times of trouble? Look at the kids being shielded from the pain of the fires in CA or the devastation in Syria or Yemen. When grabbing for straws or the last vestiges of your homestead, you probably don’t reach for the family bear.

Think about making a donation of a bear or 200.

The Soup Kitchen Of Boynton Beach Needs Diapers

Meet Enrique Zuznetta, executive director of The Soup Kitchen of Boynton Beach, a privately funded place where people can eat and obtain supplies. Many bring food, thinking that is what they need. But the place also distributes clothing, personal care items and cleaning supplies.

To whom, you ask, does the Soup Kitchen serve? I never ask. If someone comes they get. But the people are financially challenged, unable to make ends meet. Some may not even be, well, you can figure it out.

We always ask his what he needs. He always says baby things: diapers, wipes, toys, baby clothes. He’d like to expand, but, as you can figure out, this is FL, a vast place with no heart and little charity.

Now, you could send diapers or wipes or a check to them directly by one clicking your Amazon Prime account or you could send them to me (9205 Clearhill Road, Boynton Beach FL 33473) and I will deliver them. The only thanks you get are the ones you give yourself for disinterested generosity.

Do a mitzvah today.

Felix is Dead

So I walk around with a camera, using it to document the race, humans etc. It may not make me smarter or stronger, but I feel better about life. Meeting and talking with others makes me less stupid and more aware how we are all different. I don’t ask for stories. I ask if I can help. Felix didn’t want help. He said he was ready to die. No one knows for sure, if he went. I learned when I went to the food pantry and my images of him were on the door. Last people heard, he had been taken to a hospice.

Felix lived here, right off the highway. He lived in the woods. He could have had a place if he wanted one.

His front yard.

Garage and reading room.

Pay Attention To Those On The Street

So, Donny Douchebag, our coldhearted faux President of the United States proposes to cut funds for the poor. What will happen to these people? Yes, they could work if they had homes, places to store their things and health care. What would you want them to do?

I feel Bannon’s bum body pushing this legislation. His boss doesn’t understand poor. Bullies squash their adversaries and then either walk over their bodies or joke about their predicaments. The President and his buddies would rather see dead and decaying bodies in the street than offer support. More money for them. More power for them. And less for those who due to either not being born rich, being a victim of a social or medical disease or having a diagnosable mental problem, don’t have a chance.

I have never been hungry, poor or without a place to live. Have you?

 

Amy Beede, Dead in Burlington VT

Amy Beede-1

My heart breaks inside. I shed tears for her. I shed tears for all of them.

I knew her, you could say, as well as you can know anyone you meet on the street, Church Street. Bought her paints and paper for her art. Bought her coffee. May have loaned her a buck or two or three. Never got them back. Didn’t know Amos. Can’t know too much about someone you meet on the street, either.

Beaten to death for not a good reason. And, in a homeless camp where she spent the night, because she missed the bus back to Milton where she had a place to live and family. I hope the killing wasn’t motivated by gender animus, but who knows?

No way to die; especially when you don’t want to and aren’t ready to. So many I knew on the street suffered undignified deaths as they struggled to understand life. She was always looking up, even when she wasn’t.

Amy Beede support-1

Amy tried to help others, despite her own personal problems, as much as she tried to help herself. Knew a ton of people and didn’t like a whole lot of them. A noble person she was. And that isn’t easy when you don’t have comfort zones to hide out in or a complete understanding of whom you are.

Before I left Burlington, we spoke. I suggested that she not come down from Milton every day and that she find things and people up there who would be of interest. “Nope,” she said, “Burlington was where her life was.” And, that is where it ended. Badly.

 

Boynton Beach Has Homeless

Boynton Beach Bum-3

So, I haven’t given up this life long special project, photographing the homeless and hapless. I see them everywhere, sometimes smelling them before they come into view. Giving them money helps no one, but I feel better, even if it’s only $1. Doug here begged me to help him. He started to tell me his story. I couldn’t listen. I couldn’t breathe. He asked if I knew of a shelter in the area. Like, who am I in this episode? Who are any of us?