I’ve been a social worker for many years and you don’t put in that kind of time without seeing a few things: unexpected moments of community, bodies, genuine concern for others, handguns, random acts of kindness, and swords, so many swords, but two years ago I came into a hard scene that occupies my head more than most, finding the remains of a tenant I … Continue reading Secondary Trauma…
Like many of you, I have been reading about the coming forced evacuations of the 120 plus homeless people who currently reside nightly underneath the Pontchartrain Expressway in downtown New Orleans. City officials began handing out 72 hour notices on Monday evening, citing health violations, safety concerns and drug use as parts of the problem which are necessitating this move. Outreach workers will be on … Continue reading The shelters may not be the answer for all under the Pontchartrain Expressway…
I woke up this morning in San Francisco, stumbled to the coffeemaker and then to my desk…and after turning on the computer, I put on the latest release by GoatWhore, one of New Orleans finest metal bands and leaned back in my chair. Coffee was good, not chicory good, but certainly Peet’s good. I heard shouting from the street, then police sirens and I turned the … Continue reading It’s a love/hate thing…now featuring GoatWhore!
By the time any of you read this, I will have left my comfy confines in the Midwest for a far more uncertain future on the West Coast…San Francisco to be exact. Got some money saved, a lot of social work experience, several contacts and possibilities and a 2nd job interview already scheduled for three days after my arrival… Oh, and did I mention the … Continue reading Today would be that day…westward.
The Tenderloin: the TL, Little Saigon, the Loin, Tenderloin Heights… Fifty square blocks or so wedged between San Francisco’s downtown Civic Center – City Hall, the courthouses and Federal buildings – and the main Shopping/Financial Districts with your Niketown’s, Apple Stores, Macy’s and rapists like Bechtel, the banks and their assorted bullshit…fifty square blocks crammed into the center of San Francisco that too many people of this city either try to ignore or take great pains … Continue reading So, this is the Tenderloin…San Francisco…
Compassion… That’s right, compassion… I keep hearing politicians talk about hard choices, about tough decisions and being realistic…you know, their usual line and all of it typically means only one thing…but I’m getting ahead of myself here… Let me start over… So, few days ago I was blocking traffic on a bridge as part of a national day of action. Good time, didn’t necessarily agree … Continue reading The hardest political choice…
I know I said I’d be back on Monday, so I’m late, my bad… been doing some thinking this week about the website, reading the news, hanging out, taking a break…etc…and the one thing I can’t seem to get out of my head is this… The number of people from Transocean, Halliburton and British Petroleum who have spent a day in jail as a result … Continue reading A day late and a dollar short…
So, four months from now on March 1st of 2012, I am finally out of the Great White North and heading back to what I thought might be New Orleans. Would certainly make sense with all the writing I do on this site that this town is where my interests lie, and it is, but the damned economy…here’s the thing that keeps throwing rocks in … Continue reading Be back Monday…the trouble with the (personal) economy…
Ahem…for reasons of disclosure, let me start out by saying I am a social worker…I am a social worker but I am also not stupid. I’ve worked in some social programs in my day that were, shall we just say, not cost-effective. However, let me also say that those days were a long time ago. Things have changed in my field and now pretty much … Continue reading And round and round we go…NOPD windfalls…
Hey everybody… So, the patient is wheeled into the emergency room on a gurney, after letting his best friend, George W Bush, talk him into slitting open his right wrist. He’s bleeding pretty bad, could die if the doctors don’t act quickly. Hearing the call, Dr. Obama rushes into the room and quickly stitches up the cut, but only a quarter of the way before going on vacation. But the … Continue reading An “adult crisis” metaphor for the economy…
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 