I watched a man take a picture of a guy who was sleeping on the purple line of the L this morning. I assumed (as I'm sure the picture taker did) that the sleeping guy was homeless. He had his backpack and was stretched out across two seats. The guy who took the sleeping guy's picture on his phone then proceeded to text it to someone. The guy was sitting next to me so I witnessed the whole thing. I didn't see what he texted (I didn't want to be too obvious) but I assume he was making some derogatory comment about the sleeping guy. Then again, maybe he was texting a friend to say, "No one should have to sleep on the train like this! It's an outrage that there are so many homeless people on the streets!" But the cynic in me doubts this guy had any sympathy for the homeless guy.
Now I have my own issues with the homeless panhandling and stinking up the train cars and sleeping across multiple seats on the L. However, I would never take a picture of a homeless person to make fun of him/her. That's just mean and cruel. The thing that killed me about the guy taking the picture this morning was that he smelled like he'd crawled out of a bottle. Yeah, at 7:00 AM that dude smelled like he'd been drinking all night. He looked clean, ready for work, etc., but your pores don't lie! If you drink like a fish, that alcohol seeps out of you even after you've showered. I've smelled it before and I smelled it again today. Maybe the photographer had a drinking problem. Who was he to judge someone else who fell on hard times? He should try getting some help for himself and stop taking pictures of strangers on the train.
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