.
Was doing some housekeeping, and realized I hadn’t yet posted this. Artist Andres Serrano in the Guardian:
Sign of the Times was conceived in early October when I started to see what I perceived as a greater number of homeless people in New York City. As a native New Yorker, it surprised me because I had never seen so many people begging and sleeping on the streets. It occurred to me to start buying the signs that the homeless use to ask for money.
I immersed myself in the project, going out almost on a daily basis and walking five, six, seven hours a day. Once, I even walked 12 hours around the city – uptown to Harlem, East and West, downtown to Battery Park and back home to the East Village. I never took transportation anywhere because I felt that since the homeless live on the streets, I had to walk the streets like they do. After a while, a few said to me, “I’ve heard of you. You’re the guy going around buying signs. I was wondering if you were ever going to find me.” I bought about 200 signs and usually offered $20 which they were happy, even ecstatic, to get. (Once, though, I saw a sign that said, “Just need $10”. So I said to the guy, “I’ll give you $10 for it” and he said, “You got it. I guess the sign did its job!”)…
Tehanu
This is agonizing. I couldn’t even finish watching. There are posters in my workplace about not giving to people on the street but to “organizations” because that’s “more cost-effective,” but how the hell can people keep turning their faces away from other people’s immediate need?
NotMax
$20?
Can’t. Resist. The. Obvious. One-liner.
What has four fins and flies?
bewleys
Fuck organizations!
You douche-bags will argue and cajole all day about fucking pot legalization.
It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread….
Give the guy a fucking dollar, you are not his God.
His buzz is his/hers.
He just doesn’t talk about ¨Bridgegate/Ghazi¨ with his round table, they are looking for food.
And doesn’t give a rats.
bewleys
Oh Yeah, since I’m here….Obama is a ¨Boob¨². Brit
And I voted for him twice. Like there was a choice.
Do something more than snark, which isn’t even that good anymore.
Alumni of ’08.
PurpleGirl
I sometimes give something to pan-handlers I see on the street. When I worked in mid-town I’d see this one man by Grand Central Terminal. He stood absolutely still, no movement at all, for hours a day. He never asked for help, just stood there holding his cup. Something about him hit my heart and soul. I’d find some money to give him. Sometimes (on payday) I’d look for him and give him some money. After a few years I didn’t see him any more. I hope he found help and/or a better way to live. But he sticks in my memory.
Liquid
Socialist Fuckstick =/= Fascist Dicksmack.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tehanu:
Nor could I. I made it as far as the homeless and hungry veterans (one, I think an Afghanistan vet, had something like “homeless and humiliated”) and couldn’t stand it. All warm in my bed.
Fuck.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: If you gave away every penny you have, it would not solve the problem. Give to charities and individuals in the short term, but the only long term solution is to work for policies that eliminate poverty and provide support of the mentally ill who constitute a large number of the homeless. I know you do that already.
Omnes Omnibus
@bewleys: @bewleys: It may be the lateness of the hour, but I seem to be missing your point. Except that you are angry, right?
karen marie
Great adventure, wonderful signs, but I was surprised and disappointed with how awful the video was. It was difficult to see each sign well with the zooming. Whoever thought that was a good idea should lose their privileges for a week.
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re correct. The only real solution is a change of policies and society. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the rich.
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: It is painful. For many years I lived in DC. I bought a house in NE. An area that wasn’t the best. A few blocks from Union Station. I kid you not at times I had to walk over and/or around homeless people sleeping on my stoop. This was a total foreign thing to me, because before I lived there I live in a small rural town and well homeless people were not out in the open like this.
There was one guy, Earl, that I started to talk to. And I did the same thing everytime I saw him. I went to Union Station, the huge food court in the basement, and got him a meal. At first he didn’t want to accept the food. But eventually he did. I felt it was the least I could do.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: To be fair s/he might have gotten around to watching that Jeremy Scahill doc on Netflix. It is pretty goddamn depressing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Liquid: With or without the ether?
Tommy
That video is so hard to watch. Can I tell something of a happy story. A miracle really. One of my best friends is Patrick. He is a few years older then me. His parents left him and his three siblings on the side of the road when they were all under 10. A family drove by and picked them up. Took them to the police station.
They then worked to adopt them all.
And in a strange twist of fate, that guy that stopped to pick him up had a patent on making aluminum. He was rich beyond words. My friend is in his 50s and he is playing it forward in every way he can. He does things that makes me feel small I don’t do more.
A few years ago I was at his house and he was making a crib. Hand built. I was like dude you don’t have any kids, what are you doing. He said one of the people that worked for him was having a child and he was making it for him. And he also had hired a lawyer to help him become an American citizen. That was his gift to him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, of course I do. And of course I also know it’s a systemic problem that’s going to require a major change in policy, and even more, a complete inversion of the way we as a society choose to address this shame in our midst.
ETA: or what PurpleGirl said first and better.
ruemara
@Tommy: let me know if Patrick would like to hire or adopt a slightly used jamerican.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: Here is something I just want to throw out there. I now live in a small rural town. You might not think there are homeless folks here. I found there are, and maybe the most painful is they are often young. There is this coffee shop/bar I go to. It is kind of where the hipsters go (I might be one of those guys). I found they don’t turn anybody away. If you want to come in they let you.
I started to talk to a few of these folks. Even let them stay at my house for a day or so. I felt strange doing this for a number of reasons, like the first being they are young enough to be my kids if I had kids. I didn’t want them to think I was some pervert. I just said hey you can take a shower. I have some cloths I don’t often wear you can have. If you need a phone to call somebody I can do that.
That bar is no longer open, but I kind of wonder where those kids went. And they are kids IMHO.
James E. Powell
@Tehanu:
how the hell can people keep turning their faces away from other people’s immediate need?
Callous disregard for others seems to be an easily acquired habit.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E. Powell: It isn’t always callous disregard. If I gave money to one person asking for it, am I obligated to give money to the next one? If not, what criteria should inform my choice? If I give $20 to one person, does it have a different effect than giving $1 to 20 people? Did the guy come up to me and say he was a Viet Nam Marine vet even though he is obviously too young to have been there really need money? If so, was it right for him to lie?
Edited.
? Martin
@Tehanu:
Volume. There are so many who need help, that it seems hopeless to try.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: IMHO it is close to an impossible situation. I can’t tell you what you should do. This is a situation close to my heart cause as I mentioned above for years homeless people literally were sleeping on my door step. I never knew what to do.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: (1) My mind has yet to recoil in horror. (2) “Oh those poor brown people.” But if anyone really cared they’d be in Syria to provide some form of relief before they were kidnapped/murdered. (3) Ether has distorted my faculties.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Well, that goes to my earlier comment, we need to work on poverty and mental illness treatment.
Omnes Omnibus
@Liquid: Or you are just kind of a dick. I am going with that for now.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: We need to protect heavily-armed men from the mentally ill. God knows it takes a brave man with body armor and the right to murder anyone they please to keep us safe.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: Actually I’m just throwing it against the wall. I apologize.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed like ten fold.
But I wonder if they want help or the help we think they need. There was a homeless shelter just a few blocks from where I used to live in DC. I’ve been there. Gave money to it. By all accounts as a homeless shelter it was pretty nice. I would mention this to people and they didn’t want to go.
Mostly I think this goes to mental illness. I mean what rational person would prefer to sleep on the street when they could have a roof over their head? It makes no “logical” sense. But it begs the question of if mental health services are offered how you get them to take them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Liquid: @Liquid: Dude, pick a persona for the evening at least.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: It is the Dickensian question: “Are there no workhouses?” And the response, “Some would rather die.” A Christmas Carol resonates through the ages.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s a mix of optimism and despair. As a white/male/american I’ve already won the lottery. My worst day is still better than 2/3 of the people on this planet.
Then it’s overpopulation/lack of clean water/lack of food/&c. What are we going to do?
Tommy
I am just watching Chris Hayes and his segment on abortion. I am so darn happy I live in a blue state!
Heck like a block from the house my brother and his wife live in there is a Planned Parenthood office. Right there and open. Signs on the road outside it. Nobody protests it. It is just what it is. A place for women to get health care. Heck the place is in a strip mall. Bar next to it.
Tommy
@Liquid: I saw this post by a grad student years ago. He had won an essay contest to spend a day with Warren Buffet. He expected he’d learn about investments. This or that.
Not so much.
Buffet for the entire day told him he had won the lottery. He was born in the United States. He was so lucky and he should embrace that. Things are not perfect here, but he could have been, statistically speaking, born in some terrible place where he didn’t even have clean water to drink.A computer was a foreign concept, cause they don’t even have power.
Makes you think …..
Omnes Omnibus
@Liquid: I don’t know the specifics, but I presume that logical consistency won’t hurt.
Botsplainer
@Tehanu:
Easily. I do it daily, and have personally rousted aggressive panhandlers from the lobby of my previous building when they were hitting up support staffers by elevators.
Liquid
@Omnes Omnibus: Best I ever felt was helping to build a few “hovels” in Mexico. We had some dedicated people. I even discovered a family quirk: Hauling two buckets of concrete with a thin wire handle. I set it down and my right ring finger stuck. Turns out my father my uncle and my Grandfather all had the same ‘catch’ on the same finger. It was just nice to help a few people in need. I guess it doesn’t matter.
James E. Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wasn’t thinking about a specific “got any change?” situation – more the general state of things. I have been surprised and extremely disappointed at the way “screw them, I got mine” not only persisted but flourished in this prolonged recession/depression.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Is Bill Donohue the odds-on favorite to destroy this Serrano work? (if anyone’s having a hard time placing Serrano’s name or significance, here ya go: one of the most beautiful, inspired works of art I’ve ever seen, destroyed because it was misunderstood and mischaracterized)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I heard about this on Q on the CBC.
On a happier note, I came across something that Steve might like – when JC wins the lottery. Goldtatze suspended cat playgrounds.
(via a comment on G+)
Cheers,
Scott.
sparrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree. I also make comments when I have people in my car and I give a corner sign-holder money (after I drive off). Like “this is a damn shame and an indictment of our society”. I’m tired of tip-toeing and being polite. Most people just clear their throat and look the other way.
Elmo
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Can I ask a favor? I know it’s impossible to explain art, but I genuinely don’t understand the beauty or inspiration of “Piss Christ.” It’s a crucifix, which I personally think is an ugly thing by itself, in a jar of urine. Is there a deeper meaning I don’t get?
I am not being snarky. I really don’t get it, and I’d like to.
Cervantes
@Elmo: No problem. A good analysis of the subject — meaning an analysis I like, obviously — can be found in this program (mp3 download). I particularly appreciate Australian art critic Rod Pattenden’s thoughts:
Remember, “Piss Christ” is from 1987.
Barbara
I was wondering if I’d be the only person to recognize Serrano’s name.
The way I’ve always interpreted the photograph, “Piss Christ,” is that for all the piety of many (not all, of course) of Jesus’s followers, they metaphorically piss on his message, neglecting to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc., instead doing the types of things the aforementioned Bill Donohue does (so if I was Mr. Donohue, I wouldn’t be too pleased by that photograph, either).
There’s always a conversation going on among an artist’s early and later works and there’s definitely a lively one between “Piss Christ”and “Signs of the Times.”
Barbara
I should add that there are always many ways to interpret an art work — didn’t mean to sound like I thought my version was righter or truer than Cervantes’ (which makes many beautiful points). If nothing else, the arts teach us that there can be many “correct answers.”
elmo
@Cervantes:
Thank you. I still don’t get it, not really, but that’s at least an analysis that makes sense to me.
I think I would “get it” better if the jar were full of blood, instead of urine, but then you wouldn’t be able to see the crucifix. I’ve always considered the crucifix – the cross, really – to be the most horrific religious icon imaginable. A holy symbol that represents torture and death? How does that make any sense?
Anyway, I appreciate the insight. Thanks.
Cervantes
@Barbara: Thanks, but those beautiful points made were by Rod Pattenden, next to whom I’d be a mere heathen[*].
[*] Literally and figuratively.
Cervantes
@elmo:
Well, I’m no expert, but you could think of it as representing self-sacrifice.
Right.
Also, if you’d actually seen the thing in 1987, you might feel differently.
The Other Chuck
@Omnes Omnibus: I heard someone tell me before, and I’ve repeated it to others since: yeah, what’s on the sign might be a made up story, but that’s not the important part now, is it?
That said, I’m not terribly cool with people claiming vet status who aren’t, but it doesn’t say much good about us either if the only homeless we consider worthy of help are vets. I also don’t make a habit of giving to panhandlers, since while homelessness is rarely ever a lifestyle choice, pandhandling is somewhat more so — there’s many many more “invisible” homeless who aren’t panhandling. That also said, I can’t look down on it enough to not give my spare change that would otherwise just end up in a change jar. Not really going for noblesse oblige, just seems to be the decent thing to at least do occasionally is all.
Princess Leia
One of my heros- and why I became a catholic worker-
“In the winter of 1978, Mr. Kirwan was a graduate student in sociology at George Washington University preparing for a conventional career in business or government. One freezing night, he passed a homeless man keeping warm on a heat grate near the State Department. The man asked for food. Mr. Kirwan ignored him and kept walking to his campus dorm room. There, unsettled, he had second thoughts and took back a bowl of hot soup to the man.
So began a life’s mission. Mr. Kirwan continued bringing food to homeless people at 21st Street and Virginia Avenue NW.
“One night, as I brought down a large gallon jug of hot split pea soup and set it down on the cement block near the heating vent where they gathered, a rather rough-looking fellow picked up the jar of soup and, in one motion, broke the jar over my head,” Mr. Kirwan recalled.
“Instead of running away, I asked the man why he had done that. These were probably the first words I had ever spoken to any of them. He told me that I was doing nothing more than bringing food to the dogs. I was bringing food, setting it down like I was feeding them out of a pet dish and then just walking away. He said, ‘Talk to us. Visit with us. We don’t bite.’ ”
Mr. Kirwan did begin visiting. “What happened that night,” he said, “was that a first barrier had been broken in my perceptions of who homeless people are. I realized that these men and women on the streets had feelings, just like me. They wanted to be loved and respected and listened to. They cared that someone cared about them, but just giving food and a blanket was not enough.”
Soon after, Mr. Kirwan opened his George Washington University dorm room to his new friends. One homeless man stayed a month.”
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Elmo:
What is says to me, a secular humanist and former Catholic who appreciates the message if not religion, is that the more you denigrate and degrade Jesus’ philosophy, the more beautifully it shines through.
Tehanu
@SiubhanDuinne:
Me too. I do support “organizations” — I just stopped only giving to orgs. Maybe I’m not solving the “real” problems by occasionally giving change to some random street person, but maybe just the human interaction does some good.