Setting Prisoners Free

Their combined length of homelessness outnumbers all the days I've endured on this planet. I'm only thinking of 3 chronically homeless friends, and I'm almost 41, so calculate their reality to see the deep and disturbing truth of our modern capitalist society! I don't write this to lament, but rather to celebrate! Homelessness should have never been their reality, but it struck all 3 of them and it never let go! Until we entered this blessed week..... Years of sleeping under viaducts, in trains, abandoned buildings, homeless shelters, loading docks, in dumpsters, on couches of some compassionate friends and under the hazy starless Chicago sky are finally coming to an end! Years of relentlessly trying to find somewhere to chill out during their days are also coming to an end! They'll have their own place of refuge; to relax, without a security guard or police officer invading their tranquility, by asking them to get up and move on! Years of being surrounded b...

Certain people have unknowingly and unexpectedly inspired me! The deaths of these photographed friends actually sparked a flame, causing me to want to throw gasoline on it; making the fire ferocious and last forever! Nick, George, Walter, Dave, Don and Walter aren't heroes, saints or even role-models; actually, to be honest, these men were often extremely successful in bugging, irritating and causing continual drama and conflict in my life. Now to reveal another nugget of truth; in different ways, these men were all horribly rejected, hated and despised by most people who passed them on the street. These men aren't pretty, they were all homeless and undeniably qualified among America's "least of these". I would also say that they rank incredibly high on Chicago's "undeserving poor" list. These are fellas that the "so called" elite in Uptown want to stomp on and boot out of the neighborhood; they look dreadfully unsightly, uninvitin...