Reading the LA Time’s reporting on the homeless population in the LA area has made me reflect on how important it is for news organizations to act as advocates for the homeless community. Their input, investigation, and overall contribution to the national discourse about homelessness in the United States is an important and irreplaceable facet in bringing exposure to an issue that many Americans would prefer to ignore. In a recently published article about LA’s homeless problem the author wrote, “skid row is — and long has been — a national disgrace, a grim reminder of man’s ability to turn his back on his fellow man. But these days it is only the ugly epicenter of a staggering homelessness problem that radiates outward for more than 100 miles throughout Los Angeles County and beyond.” The author hits a note for me, a thought that political energy only gathers when the problem becomes unbearably visible. For the “invisible” homeless community, exposure is all-important. Skid row has always been a “national disgrace” as the LA Times put it, but I think to a majority of Americans skid row and other similar settlements are a disgrace simply for being visible.
A second thought I have had recently pertains to the book I read for our last presentation. The book was “Down and Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History,” in which author Kenneth Kusmer argues that homeless communities have been, at times, the most progressive and accepting groupings in the country. Kusmer suggests that gay men were attracted to life on the road, and that Black men faced less persecution relative to government institutions. Gender norms were also broken down as the few women who traveled on train cars assumed masculine characteristics or facades. Personally I find this to be an ideological stretch, but there is an implicit point worth some merit. Economic class is the one thing that can unite people, and money is the most powerful of all social constructions.