Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Nice, I wonder how long it took for them to miss their work boots? I wonder if they came back later that day or the next and found them? Thank you to the good Samaritan who hung the boots up there for their misplaced owner to spot.
@OzarkHillbilly: My first response was hmm, shoes of a homeless person, the church demanding silence about the problem. Thanks for reminding me there can be kind responses.
@Mr. Prosser: Interesting interpretation. I wouldn’t have gotten to it without your suggesting it (the shoes being in too good of condition for a homeless person’s shoes being one of my disconnects). My reaction was that in the area where I live, sneakers or running/basketball shoes thrown over a phone line are (in the annals of our urban legends) a marker for a place you can make a drug deal. I was thinking that shoes over a street sign might be a similar indicator in another place/urban legend.
ETA: While I’m here, I’ve decided to note that while I appreciate the suggestion you make (unkind though it may be), my experience is not as much that churches demand silence on the reality of homelessness as that they maintain a relatively strict silence on notions that Christian (and particularly Calvinist) doctrinal biases toward poverty==lack of favor with God play a role in how society addresses homelessness. My inner Manichaean (mentioned in another post) takes no sides on that question, seeing plenty of blame for everyone.
Nice, I wonder how long it took for them to miss their work boots? I wonder if they came back later that day or the next and found them? Thank you to the good Samaritan who hung the boots up there for their misplaced owner to spot.
@OzarkHillbilly: My first response was hmm, shoes of a homeless person, the church demanding silence about the problem. Thanks for reminding me there can be kind responses.
@Mr. Prosser: Interesting interpretation. I wouldn’t have gotten to it without your suggesting it (the shoes being in too good of condition for a homeless person’s shoes being one of my disconnects). My reaction was that in the area where I live, sneakers or running/basketball shoes thrown over a phone line are (in the annals of our urban legends) a marker for a place you can make a drug deal. I was thinking that shoes over a street sign might be a similar indicator in another place/urban legend.
ETA: While I’m here, I’ve decided to note that while I appreciate the suggestion you make (unkind though it may be), my experience is not as much that churches demand silence on the reality of homelessness as that they maintain a relatively strict silence on notions that Christian (and particularly Calvinist) doctrinal biases toward poverty==lack of favor with God play a role in how society addresses homelessness. My inner Manichaean (mentioned in another post) takes no sides on that question, seeing plenty of blame for everyone.