A painful juxtaposition on BoingBoing today:
Xeni Jardin posted a lengthy clip of a New York Times op-ed by Barbara Ehrenreich, titled "In America, it is increasingly illegal to be poor." The clip included the story of a Washington, D.C., homeless man who was ejected from his shelter bed because there was a warrant for his arrest:
... Mr. Szekely, who is an ordained minister and does not drink, do drugs or curse in front of ladies, did indeed have a warrant -- for not appearing in court to face a charge of "criminal trespassing" (for sleeping on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb). So he was dragged out of the shelter and put in jail. "Can you imagine?" asked Eric Sheptock, the homeless advocate (himself a shelter resident) who introduced me to Mr. Szekely. "They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless."Immediately following this story, another post by David Pescovitz told BB readers about a business in the Washington suburbs that designs fantasy bedrooms for (clearly very well-off) children.
The cognitive dissonance almost knocked me over. Maybe BoingBoing is the sound your head makes when whiplash happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment