June 2000
Last night on Friday, a man was found dead on San Francisco’s hard streets. I saw him once in a staff meeting; the name he went by was Trent. He was part of Media Alliance and participated in Community Newsroom at POOR. He had addiction problems; I don’t know the drugs used: it’s a non-issue. But Homelessness is ultimately what killed him.
To be homeless, focusing your mind on more than immediate food, shelter, and clothing is difficult enough to many, for some nearly impossible.
Trent did it, turning a so called negative outcome into an asset, an expert on the vagaries of threadbare survival.
Someone or thing cut Trent’s thread... Who, why, when are questions we may never know, but someone does, SOMEONE DOES!
We can all rise, learn, and move on: Trent proved that. I hope he has found a resting place; no longer worried about anything except returning to learn a few more lessons.