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…
Sometimes, events just write themselves, such as this article at Think Progress…highlighting the two events in Houston last Saturday. At Reliant Stadium, Presidential wannabe Rick Perry and 30,000 others got together and prayed for the lord’s guidance in solving both the nation’s problems and Perry’s seeming inability to not wear a suit that doesn’t choke his neck til his head looks like a well coiffed … Continue reading Pencils, not prayer…
I haven’t voted in an election, local, state or national since the year 1992. I voted for Clinton. I felt it was important at the time to do so as I was convinced the GOP was working on destroying the things I felt were important to not only save, but bolster…but then Clinton went and did all the destroying: bombing Iraq, depleting the social safety net, … Continue reading My first vote in 20 years…
Hey, I thought this whole oil spill deal was all kinda, you know…over. At least that’s the impression I got watching all them there sparkly British Petroleum commercials, but man, over the past two days, the news has been flying pretty serious again in the Gulf, and between you, me, the courts and the water…I think this has just begun…Maybe I just got distracted by … Continue reading And so it begins: Year Two…
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 