Category: photography

Paul’s Place

 

He’d sit on Cherry St, just up the street from Rite Aid. Before the Gear Exchange moved to Church St, the yellow jackets would chase him from under the enclosed area in front of the door.

Sometimes he put his crate near the wall near the grate so he could stash his beer (avoiding a ticket for an open container) and his litter (so he wouldn’t be burdened during travel).

Told not to block the sidewalk, he’d sit close to the street, putting his box or his butt in a place where cars backing into a parking space wouldn’t hit him. He’d also chase the sun.

He usually travelled with his friend, Eric.

He went to the park occasionally. He didn’t like the drug scene, the phony friendships, or the antics. Eric learned from him, helped him and was with him close to the end. Eric is now alone on the street.

Paul O’toole Be Dead


Someone found Paul dead on a grate in downtown Burlington, probably in the same place I had found him time and time again. I just wasn’t around this time. Many tried to help him, too. They weren’t there either. Come on now; we all got lives. His sister, Mary, and Matt Young had a plan in place to put him back in treatment. He went to FAHC, I am told, and wasn’t able to deal with the protocols. So he died, needlessly, or so it seems. So it goes, Vonnegut would say.

 

 

No one has published a book for do gooders, especially those who don’t expect and aren’t interested in thanks for their charity. We do mitzvot because we can, not because we want something in return. Let us thank others for the chance to give, before we ask for thanks from those we serve.

 

 

Others out there who are also in need should not suffer the same fate. While we can never do enough, we should not stop trying, despite the best efforts of those in trouble to resist or obstruct. Our community is only as good as our committment to those least desirable to help.

You might think our friendship wasn’t worth the effort! Could be. But, I will do it again, gladly. And may God comfort his family among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. Amen, brother.

Steve Charges His Chair

 

Multitasking. Begging and recharging.

Steve says he has been homeless for three months. He lived with his brother who died. Just hard to imagine that a man with one leg, who is losing his second to diabetes, doesn’t have a place to live. He blames it on a social policy that provides housing for people from Eastern Europe who fled to avoid ethnic cleansing. Not an uncommon complaint in Burlington and not one supported by any facts. I suggested there wasn’t enough aid for all who needed it.

 

Miro Walks Church Street

 

Weather slightly bitter, as am I for being shut out of the caucus this weekend for reasons I cannot even imagine, but who cares about either of these problems. I will continue to live here, hoping the place lives up to its promises.

Miro walked alone up Church Street. He seemed upbeat about the election and upbeat about serving at a time when the job would be more difficult than if someone forced from office by term limits had succeeded in his task and all he had to do was color in the spaces. Why anyone would want to be a hall monitor in this zoo, escapes me. He thinks he can do the job, okay, but for what reason?

Charming, personable, knowledgeable and seemingly experienced in the ways of small city government, can he, if elected, move the city ahead, leaving the 1950’s where it is mired and make it a place more attractive to a growing upper lower and middle class than a nomadic college crowd? More crime. More poor. More vacancies. Not so chic shops. Lots of coffee shops and semi-fast food, but not a lot of cuisine. Does he support art? How about help for the hopeless and hapless. Is he a puppet of the authorities he has served or a visionary? He says he is a hands on problem solver; if nominated, he gets a chance to run for a  thankless job.

Good luck dude. Thanks for the portrait.

Enlightened Tax Policy

 


Jobs my ass. Eliminate cigarettes to promote healthy living and sell lotto tickets out of machines. We already pump our own gas. The poor and less educated are the biggest consumers of these items whose sale through sin taxes support our spending. Next, no more minimum wage jobs at Cumberland or 7/11. It leaves the rich to tax who are expected to use their wealth to produce jobs through the trickle down effect. Right.

Sweet and Kate

 


Just relaxing, which is what parks be made for. Were the housing problem to be solved, many of the other issues creating tension like overcrowded prisons and illused hospitals would be eliminated. Then feeding people healthy foods and educating them about civic duty could be the focus of public debate.

Mic just wants to go home to take care of his dogs.

Shopping Carts on Church Street Sunday Morning

Weather uncertain. Could rain. Or it could just be raw. At least one of these men has a place to live. The other two carry their worldly possessions around in a shopping cart. Now I do realize that over 2,000,000 shopping carts are stolen every year, worldwide, creating a terrible problem for storeowners and adding to the cost of anything we buy at a store that employs them. But, I would hesitate before depriving the people who use them of a vehicle that has no carbon footprint and allows them to have their property nearby, protected from the elements as much as someone with no place to live can expect to have.

“Red,” the Barber of Greefield MA

 

Moving along with our lives. Going to Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turner’s Falls MA. Rented an apartment in nearby Greenfield. Needed a haircut and beard trim. Only had to look around the corner for a barber. A red and blue spiral tube gave the location away.

Meet “Red,” the Barber of Greenfield. 62, found retirement boring, went back to his true love, cutting hair. Still shaves the neck, but not the face. No facials. Striped drapes come from 60’s. Sanitary instrument holder is a 40’s antique. He offered bare walls to display my work. Looking forward to him meeting my street people.