sidewalks and side effects
24 images Created 13 Jan 2015
Singer/Songwriter Tom Waits said in an interview once that while talking to men on Skid Row, he learned that every one of them ended up there in some way or another because of a woman.
He wrote about this in his song Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda).
Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did I've got what I paid for now
See ya tomorrow, hey Frank, can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you, to go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing Matilda with me
I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley And I'm tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English, and everything's broken And my Stacys are soaking wet.
-‐Waits
What if Waits’ woman (Matilda) weren’t necessarily a woman, but in fact a metaphor for drug abuse?
In the County of Los Angeles more than 58,000 women and men are homeless. Skid Row has the highest concentration of homeless in the US, between 5,000 to 8,000 people living without permanent shelter in a 50 square-‐block area. The 2013 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reports that at least 30% of homeless individuals live with severe and persistent mental illness.... jails have replaced mental hospitals, and the criminalization of poverty and mental illness runs rampant. Most Skid Row residents commit crimes related to their homelessness, and are chemically dependent to cope with their daily traumas.
The drug addiction, the mental illness, and the disease is all rampant on Skid Row. During the Ronald Reagan Administration, mental hospitals were shut down and subsequently their patients were released. The idea was that with the advent of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other medicines of the like– paired with social security and disability assistance– the sick and disadvantaged would be able to go forth and take care of themselves. The result was an influx of sick and mentally ill homeless individuals. This continues today.
Considering all this, Sidewalks and Side Effects is attempting to ask which is the cause of the situation: is it the mental illness and addictions that led these people to the streets, or is it the streets that caused the mental illness and addictions? In the end, does it matter?
He wrote about this in his song Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda).
Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did I've got what I paid for now
See ya tomorrow, hey Frank, can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you, to go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you'll go waltzing Matilda with me
I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley And I'm tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English, and everything's broken And my Stacys are soaking wet.
-‐Waits
What if Waits’ woman (Matilda) weren’t necessarily a woman, but in fact a metaphor for drug abuse?
In the County of Los Angeles more than 58,000 women and men are homeless. Skid Row has the highest concentration of homeless in the US, between 5,000 to 8,000 people living without permanent shelter in a 50 square-‐block area. The 2013 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reports that at least 30% of homeless individuals live with severe and persistent mental illness.... jails have replaced mental hospitals, and the criminalization of poverty and mental illness runs rampant. Most Skid Row residents commit crimes related to their homelessness, and are chemically dependent to cope with their daily traumas.
The drug addiction, the mental illness, and the disease is all rampant on Skid Row. During the Ronald Reagan Administration, mental hospitals were shut down and subsequently their patients were released. The idea was that with the advent of antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other medicines of the like– paired with social security and disability assistance– the sick and disadvantaged would be able to go forth and take care of themselves. The result was an influx of sick and mentally ill homeless individuals. This continues today.
Considering all this, Sidewalks and Side Effects is attempting to ask which is the cause of the situation: is it the mental illness and addictions that led these people to the streets, or is it the streets that caused the mental illness and addictions? In the end, does it matter?
