The first panel says, "I think people should know more about this place." Overall, I think the Tenderloin is under covered beat with stories that need to be told. Also I think the Tenderloin is greatly misunderstood. Both locals and foreigners alike are afraid to go into the Tenderloin. And to some degree they many be right to be scared. It has the most narcotics transactions in the city. It also has houses some of the meekest champions of social justice in the city.
The second panel reads, "There is good people. There is bad people."
The good. They are some of its highly visible leaders in church organizations, police officers, activist and volunteers that help the needy of the Tenderloin everyday. Folks like Reverend Cecil Williams begun a progressive approach to the poverty in the Tenderloin. I was greatly inspired by a UPS tour group with employees from all over the world. The group included people from Indiana and Tennessee all the way to Ireland and Tokyo. They all had come to the Tenderloin to see the adversity that exists even in one of the most developed countries in the world. It was obvious that by the end of the tour, many of these individuals who had never seen poverty before were looking at the world in a different light.
The bad. They are those who neither live or work in the Tenderloin yet come here to sell narcotics to its drug addicted population. According to the captain of the Tenderloin police station, these drug dealers come mostly from Richmond and Oakland. They post in front of drug recovery centers in the Tenderloin and make drugs available to the most vulnerable to its harm.
The ugly. Some may think that they are the people who do live in the Tenderloin. The drug addicted and the homeless. However, those that I have met are very nice but just can't seem to get a break. Their addiction or lack of education is the main reason they are in the situation they are in. They urinate and defecate on the sidewalk not from desire but from desperation.
So maybe the ugly are those who turn a blind eye to the problem that is begging them for help on the sidewalk. They may be asking for money but all some may need is compassion. According to a volunteer at St.Bonifice the folks of the Tenderloin are deemed as unworthy for help by too many.
The final panel reads, "So I think I just want people to know that don't just judge a book by its cover. There's a lot more inside."
By Nelson Estrada
There's a lot more inside.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nelson.