Between 700,000 and 800,000 people are homeless on any given night. People like Roger and David who when they moved to Dallas thought it would be a haven. Most families become homeless because they are having a housing crisis. About half of the families experiencing homelessness over the course of a year live in family units and about 38 percent of those homeless within that year are children like the gay youth who represent who represent 20 to 40 percent of homeless youth. Homeless people report that their major needs are help finding a job, housing, and financial help for the rent such as the couple who lived in their car for about a month getting food from a local pantry and making sandwiches in the car and collecting non-perishables. Twenty percent of the homeless report that they get help finding housing. In 2002 three days before Christmas Roger and Dave were on a two to three-week waiting list to get into the Samaritan House, a residential facility for thos...
Courtroom sketch artists unfold the history of some of the most famous trials with the stroke of lead across a page. Heavy black satchels full of over 200 markers make up their professional lives. In the wake of more cameras in the courtroom some people believe that these unusual artists will disappear in the name of progress. Outlines become faces as testimonies emerge. Witnesses or defendants are often cartoons in themselves, so how do you draw a cartoon of a caricature? In between drawing, artists listen to details coming from the lips of those on the witness stand. Five years ago these artists made a couple of hundred bucks a day or more. Courtroom sketch artists fill the empty space where cameras are sometimes not allowed and they even have their own fraternity. Their work often promotes laughter among their own little group, more so than tears. Speed is also a factor if you want to be a courtroom sketch artist and their work can sell for as much as $10,000 a piece. Gary M...
On March 19, 2008 I found out my oldest sister Joy has Stage One breast cancer. I was going to wait to write about this. It seems that I’m being insensitive (maybe I am) by going ahead and writing about Joy’s diagnosis. Those last two words in that sentence I just wrote look like a foreign language to me. Joy’s Diagnosis. It doesn’t seem real. I’ve always been one to have delayed reactions to things. When my parents told me they were getting divorced as a child I didn’t cry right away, but retreated to my room. I’ve been that way ever since. On the surface I guess it would appear that I am cold but that is hardly the truth at all. I just have always used writing to deal with tragedies and problems in my life. Joy, 52, didn’t get her mammogram done last year because she was busy although she had gotten it the year before. Five years ago her husband of 25 years died in a car accident. She still has her grown daughters (my nieces) and her four grand...
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