It was a cold day. Approximately fifteen men waited outside the shelter. That’s were I met David. I asked him if he would be willing to let me interview him about being homeless. His focus was on having a warm place to sleep that night. He said that he would be willing to talk to me if he did not get a bed, as long as he could get to the other shelter by 8:00pm, to see if he could get a bed there.

At last the man in charge of the shelter came out and asked each man in line for a number between 1 and 100. By now there were 24 men waiting for a chance to get a warm bed for the night.  The man asked if there were any new people here, who had never stayed at this shelter. Two men raised their hands and were allowed to go inside. There were a total of five beds available at this particular shelter for men and there were twenty two men needing a place to spend the night.

The man in charge walked down the line and asked each of the men for a number. He wrote it down on his pad. When he got to me, he asked if I needed a bed –  I was standing outside the line. All men glanced at me. I just nodded my head and said “no”. In my head I was thanking God that I could respond “no” to his question.  He move on to the next man and continued down the line until he got everyone’s number. He walked to the entrance and announced the names of the fortunate few who would be able to spend the night in a warm bed.

The twenty two other men started to walk away. Knowing that this shelter was not an option tonight.  David approached me and asked me if I still wanted to talk to him. I said yes and he walked to Moore Square Park which was one block away. There I caught up with him and preceeded to videotape “A Conversation with David”.

I hear Sierra Club Socks are up!

Sockfather here…  Well, what’d you expect?   With all of the crazyness in the housing market, bail outs and the uncertainty in the global economy, only one thing makes sense.  Establish a new global currency.  Speaking of new global currency,  join me on November 1 for the Sierra Club Socks Sock-athon. It’ll take place on line at http://www.sierraclubsocks.com and it will benefit the Sierra Club and with each pair of socks that you purchase, another pair will be donated to the National Coalition for the Homeless.  Something good’s gotta come out of this crazyness right?

Help her make a difference.  Tell your friends and even your enemies. We need to come together on this.
It will help The Sierra Club and provide socks for homeless.

- The Sockfather