I am not having the best of days for reasons I'll not go into here but my day has been changed for the better by someone else's blog. The Homeless Guy is Kevin Barbieux's blog and is one of the very best uses of the medium I know. Kevin is homeless and uses the computer at his local library in Nashville to record his experiences in one of the most enlightening blogs out there.
Kevin speaks clearly and eloquently about his life and sheds light on the minutae of homelessness as well as the big issues. He is seems admirably broad-shouldered about the recognition that his blog has bought him and doesn't canvas readers for sentimental reaction or the sympathy vote. Some have criticised his decision to place a PayPal donation button on his site, calling it 'online begging' but Kevin defends his decision, citing that he believes folk are donating to help maintain the site not the author. However, this hasn't prevented Kevin and his site attracting criticism, mostly in the form of small-minded yet vitiolic and scathing attacks on Kevin and the homeless in general via the Comment features. Far from simply ignoring these, Kevin has stepped up and broadened the forum for debate by utilising a free discussion board service, in a move that I'm sure would find favour with some of the literary heroes listed on his site. Through this board, Kevin has offered to answer questions and queries that anyone wishes to put to him and, for the most part, the discussions are moderate and interesting.
I encourage all to surf over to The Homeless Guy and judge for themselves.
Posted by bignoseduglyguy at October 19, 2002 09:45 AMthan for this theme - it's actually smart for me.
Posted by: simeon at May 10, 2004 12:37 AM