Still waiting...

A couple of people have asked me how Shasta is doing. When I posted my first interview with her, in May, she thought she was eight months pregnant. It turns out there was a miscalculation. The baby isn’t expected till the end of this month--so she and Art are still waiting for their baby, but being Art and Shasta, they’re working full-out right up to the due-date. Both attended a four-hour meeting today to discuss the campaign for the Homeless Bill of Rights. I was one of two photographers taking pictures during the meeting, and I’m happy to say I’m one of the photographers who will be documenting the campaign as it continues.

This campaign is about the criminalization of poor people in the USA. It’s about racism, stereotyping, racial profiling by the police, unequal application of so-called justice, xenophobia and the anti-immigrant movement, and the mass incarceration of people of color and people who are mentally ill. How can I not do all I possibly can to support this campaign?

I am not generally fond of four-hour meetings, but it was an honor to spend the day working with a room-full of people who share a profound commitment to social justice. As I reviewed my photographs, all taken in a crowded meeting room, I felt fondness, admiration, and respect for each person who was in that room. A set of pictures of all of them is here.  You will be hearing more about the campaign in the year to come, and I’d love to enroll more photographers in Oregon and California in documenting this campaign as we pursue our goal of expanding the campaign to all of both States. Art and Shasta are still waiting for their baby. The world is still waiting for the society Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked for: one that devotes its energies to providing enough for those who have too little, rather than adding to the abundance of those who already have much.