Homeless Book Club of Madison

I had the privileged to photograph a meeting of the Homeless Book Club of Madison yesterday. The event was to document a meeting between Garth Stein, the author of "The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel",  and the members of the Homeless Book club.

The book is about an old dog looking back at his life and knowing that as soon as he passes he will come back as a human.  

But I'm not here to tout his book.  What got me was that I was expecting something different when I attended this meeting. For me "homeless" typically meant those nutballs, beggars and fruitcakes you see begging for spare change on The Square.  However, except for Susan, I honestly could not tell who was homeless and who was running the show yesterday.  I guess my point is the next time you hear the word "homeless" don't think of the weirdo's begging. Think of normal people, like you and . . . . some other people who just could not make ends meet and have no place to live.

This is from the first page of the book.      

A funny thing one member of the club asked Mr. Stein was what kind of dog Enzo was as it's never mentioned.   He said that each country that the book is printed in (it's a #1 NY Times Best Seller and ranked #61 in Amazon which is 5,928,701 above my moms book) has a different dog on the cover according to what they believe would be the most appropriate dog.  I WISH I could remember hte dogs . . . .grrrrr  sorry.

Here is a little photo of the event as it was held at the Bethel Lutheran Church.  Since January they have placed 6 individuals into home.  They have computers for members to do various things and it's a very good operation.

To learn more about the Homeless Book Club of Madison check out the blog Streets of Madison.
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Then there is this whole Middleton thing about the people protesting the Middleton Schools for allowing parachute jumpers to perform - they also did not like the rock climbers that stressed to the kids about achieving goals.  They believe that once the kids see a parachute jumper they will all flock to join the air force or something and Middleton Schools are promoting WAR.

Yea - a bunch of "liberal" hand wringing social workers I say.  It seems that many people in Madison and Middleton consider themselves "liberal"  ONLY, if you a agree with their liberal views.  If you have an opposite view then you are not allowed to speak or show that point of view or you will be protested upon because "we are liberal and we can not stand non-liberals".

John F Kennedy said a liberals is "someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal', then I’m proud to say I’m a 'Liberal'".

Oddly the word liberal means something different in Europe where it is more closely associated with a commitment to limited government and laissez-faire (**) economic policies and more closely corresponds to the American definition of libertarianism

(**)-means allowing industry to be free from state intervention, especially restrictions in the form of tariffs and government monopolies.

ANYWAY - how the hell did I get on this subject anywho . . . . . hmmmmmmm

FLASH SIDEWAYS!!

iPhones are getting a new pay plan - no longer will there be a flat $30 data charge. Seems 3% of iPhone users use 40% of the data streams, so heavy users will be charged more.  What I';m wondering is will there be a time when I can unhook my iPhone from my hand?  Will the fun wear out so I will not be forever holding "my precious?".

Also - I JUST found out that Trevor Hoffman has not been any good since balderdash spilled beer on his Trevor jersey!!! 

Gotta run
Rod