A Brief Interlude

I realize that this blog is supposed to be about Web 2.0 and technology and how it relates to what I do and I promise that I’ll get to that, but bear with me while I take a brief interlude.

I woke up this morning at 3:40 a.m. Pacific. I thought maybe at first it was due to the hotel bed or perhaps because my body is still on central time and I’m used to waking up at 5:30 when I’m in Kansas. However, lying there, I realized that my insomnia wasn’t entirely due to discomfort or central standard time. It was due, in part, to the fact that I’m not used to seeing so many homeless people.

Each day that Andrea and I or Gamage and I walked along the streets downtown or by Fisherman’s Wharf, the homeless have confronted us. I’ve watched people who were very obviously mentally ill walk into traffic or yell incoherently at other people or at people who can only be seen by their eyes. I’ve watched as they sit with a pan or cup between their legs, mumbling to themselves until you walk by and they ask, “Spare some change, sir?”


I’ve walked by alleys where the smell of piss and unbathed humanity is so overwhelming that I now hold my breath when I walk by them on my way to the conference. On two different occasions I’ve watched men suffering from DT’s stumble across busy streets. Both times I was positive that I would see them get hit. I’ve seen one man who had been beaten up, his cheek swollen, possibly broken. I watched this morning as one man walked aimlessly up and down the block for 20 minutes because he had no real destination.

When I first got here, I wondered how people could be so callous and simply walk by their fellow human beings without even a glance. Now I have some sort of idea, though. They do it because if they don’t, they’ll be up at 3:40 each morning wondering why in the hell we can build such amazing technology, why we can afford iPads, laptops, million-dollar homes and quarter-million dollar cars, why we can do such amazing things with our minds and our hands, but still can’t solve this problem.

They do it because they aren’t interested in seeing a problem that diminishes the beauty of this amazing city. If they have any humanity in them at all, they do it for the same reason that I now do it: Because if we look directly at these people, we’ll be forced to acknowledge them and if we acknowledge them, we’ll feel a sense of moral obligation to do something. Anything. “Spare some change, sir?”

I want to step back for a moment, though. I want anyone who is reading this to think about this one thing with me. They, like us, only want a bit of dignity and if they tell you otherwise, it may be illness talking or perhaps that this has been their normal for so long that they've forgotten.

Picture it in your mind. The homeless are: friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers… at one time they were children. Their dreams and aspirations did not include growing up to be an alcoholic or mentally ill or someone who has lost their job. Their dreams did not include wearing layers of filthy clothing, reeking of urine, alcohol or both. Their dreams did not include asking the question, “Spare some change, sir?”

Again, I realize this is supposed to be about technology and Web 2.0 stuff. Believe it or not, it really is. Someone once said (and I don’t know who because I don’t have an internet connection at the moment) that if they had a long enough lever and a fulcrum placed in the right position, they could move the earth. I know they meant it literally. I have an idea, though and I think I can move the earth metaphorically. With the right lever and fulcrum, I think that I can move the earth. I’m going to pray about it and I’m going to talk with my wife about it. Then I’ll let the world know about it. The Web (2.0, even) is my lever and the internet is my fulcrum.