Well, I
started out trawling for an interesting story. I can therefore tell you that
there is a guy, Patrick
McConlogue, who observed a homeless person living down by the Hudson River
in New York City. McConlogue thought there was something interesting about the
guy—he didn’t seem crazy, he wasn’t talking to himself, he was reading and
writing. So McConlogue, who is a software engineer, devised a test—he would
approach the person and offer two alternatives. The first, he would give the guy
$100. The second alternative was a laptop computer, three books on Java script
writing, and lessons every morning for three months.
Guess what?
Leo, the homeless guy, chose the second offer. And it developed that Leo is a
sharp guy—he’s particularly passionate about the environment…but let McConlogue
describe it:
It
turns out Leo is a genius particularly concerned with environment issues. As I
sat there becoming increasing stunned, he rattled off import/export prices on
food, the importance of solar and green energy, and his approval for “efficient
public transportation initiatives [referring to NY’s new Citibike]”. He is
smart, logical, and articulate. Most importantly, he is serious. It’s up to him
if dedication is also his gift.
So
he returned the next day with the following stuff:
Samsung Chromebook with 3G
(access to code academy etc).
Beginner:
“JavaScript for Beginners”
Intermediate:
“Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja”
Advanced:
“Javascript the Good Parts”
Solar
charger for the laptop.
Something
to hide the laptop in. (Anyone have ideas? Email me: pmcconlogue[at]gmail.com)
McConlogue
then went on to write a blog post entitled
(infelicitously) “Finding the unjustly homeless, and teach them to code.”
Vitriol
exploded across the Internet. Were there “justly” homeless people, critics
demanded? Was McConlogue really suggesting….
One guy
tweeted, “I hope the homeless guys takes the 100 bucks, just to mess with this
condescending dick-face.
Guys? This
guy is a software engineer, not a public relations expert. Of course he was
suggesting that some people deserved to be homeless. Oh, and remind me
again—what are you doing for the homeless?
“It’s so
very hard to do good to people,” Margaret Mead once said.
You want to help—but is that money you give some homeless person going for food
or drugs? And will Leo—despite his brains—be able to stick to three months of
learning Java script?
My gut
tells me that Leo is very likely bipolar and is currently exhibiting no
symptoms—but what do I know? At any rate, it’s an interesting experiment—and I
hope it works.
So
that got me thinking about The Soloist, Nathaniel
Antonio Ayers, Jr.—the former student at Juilliard whom Steven López, an LA
Times reporter,
befriended. Ayers dropped out of Juilliard when he had a psychotic break—and he
never quite got his life back again. So López got involved, got Ayers an
apartment, contacted Ayers’ sister; he did a mammoth job of helping a person who…
…was not
always easy to help.
What do you
do when you convince a landlord to rent an apartment to a psychiatric patient,
and then the tenants start complaining—why is that guy in 4D walking around
outside the building all night?
He’s pacing
because he’s hearing voices and he’s scared to be in his apartment. Or he
attributes some magical power to a ritual in which he must walk nine times
around the building, saying a talismanic series of phrases. And if he gets it
wrong, he has to start all over again. Or maybe….
You get the
picture.
OK—so Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. made a film—also called The
Soloist in 2009. And what’s up with Ayers now? Now that the book has been
written, the movie filmed? Anyone still concerned about Ayers?
I’ve
looked. Ayers’ sister has a foundation to
help artistically gifted people who are suffering psychiatric illnesses, but
there’s not much info on Ayers there. So the most recent info came from Pat LaMarche in Huffington
Post from April of this
year. Here’s part of what
she wrote:
Ayers wants to
change what people call him. He wants to be Tony Ocean. He has emblazoned the
new name all over his violin case; his trumpet case hasn't yet been
monogrammed.
Ocean says
"his" reporter made him a household word: "I have a reporter.
His name is Steve Lopez, from the LA Times. He made me famous. I went to the White House. I was in the
China Room. I flew Alaska Air. They made a movie about me and about his
book." It seems this fame is the reason Ocean has dumped his old name.
"I threw the other one away. I want to be Tony because I like the food
there." Ocean took the menu for Tony's lunch counter out of his trumpet
case to emphasize the name change, "and because my mother liked to call me
that. I picked Ocean because I like the sound of the ocean. I like the rolling
sound as it comes and goes."
Ocean
likes the sound of the music he hears on Skid Row too. "I was a
Cleveland-born person. I decided to move here because the center of town has
Beethoven. And you can get food. They have a pot full of beans and they will
give you some," Ocean explains without mentioning exactly who
"they" are. Then he referenced his audience as a reason to stay,
"And Steve Lopez says, 'you were playing your violin for your
friends.'" And that's reason enough for Ocean to stay on Skid Row.
Well, most
people make their choices in real estate based on something other than where
Beethoven is. And those people who do, like Ayers?
Not easy to
do good to….
