You Don't Have to be in the Right. . .

I've been down and out before. I generally try to do it alone rather than in public. In San Francisco, there are many who go public whether by circumstance or choice. I would like to assume circumstance, though over the years I have made a small study of it. I went to grad school in anthropology for a brief spell, and while I was there, I earned a reputation as the "Bum Anthropologist" for doing many of my field studies on these "urban nomads." I used to make a habit of talking to them often, though I have fallen out of the habit for a number of reasons. These people who migrate without homes are akin to the cowboys of centuries past. They are unsettled people who survive by working piecemeal. Studies show that they make up a significant part of the American workforce economy.

At least that is what I was reading a long time ago. It seems less true today, but that is merely anecdotal.


In San Francisco, there are also a lot of proselytizers. Some are mere talkers, but others seem to have staked out a territory from which they operate, some with elaborate props. They are good entertainment, I suppose. I was amazed at the number of people who would stop to argue with them as if a simple, well argued idea might be a turning point somehow.



I don't like photograph human misery. When I was in China, I made a conscious effort not to. But in the U.S., it is hard to watch people preaching on street corners while a fellow lies on the ground a few feet away and not take note. It is difficult not to photograph the juxtaposition of happy, healthy people struggling with shopping bags who walk by a man writhing on the ground unnoticed.


Apparently, though, the fellow in these photographs was known. After wallowing on the cement for ten or fifteen minutes, a policeman came by and said, "OK, Charlie, get out of here," and the fellow sat up, got to his feet, and staggered off.


Of course, I did nothing to help him. Indeed, as I turned to go, a big, disheveled looking fellow began arguing with me about the way I was walking. I said some unkind things to him that caused an observer to chastise me.


I am not casting stones. I cannot afford to. But as one of my friends once said to me, "You don't have to be in the right to criticize."