RUSH: I was just talking about homelessness in the context of paying people to be in poverty and people in poverty to do mediocre things that everybody takes for granted. Well, it turns out there’s a companion story out of San Francisco requiring a trip back memory lane, back to the archives for a homeless update.
(Playing of the Homeless Update Song: ‘Ain’t Got No Home’)
RUSH: That’s Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry from 1956.
(The Frogman continues.)
RUSH: Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry here with exciting vocal portrayal, our homeless update theme, title of tune, ‘Ain’t Got No Home.’
RUSH: This is Clarence impersonating a frog.
FROGMAN: I ain’t got a mudder. I ain’t got a fadder. I ain’t got a sister.
RUSH: A homeless frog.
FROGMAN: Not even a brudder. I’m a lonely frog. I ain’t got a home.
RUSH: Our homeless update comes from San Francisco, which is probably the national capital of homelessness and has been for quite a while. The story is from the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Six months ago, Dave Tompkins — bereft after the death of his closest friend — looked at a map of the United States and tried to decide where to live. His eye fell on San Francisco, and he made a snap decision. Two weeks ago, he finally arrived, after hitchhiking from Jacksonville, Fla.’ (Laughing.) I’m sorry, I can’t help but laughing. Six months ago the guy looks at a map, and says San Francisco is the place. Two weeks ago he shows up. He hitchhiked all the way from Jacksonville, Florida, with his white Labrador, Banjo Betty. ‘Tompkins counts himself among the city’s homeless, though technically he has a roof over his head — a 1980 RV that he bought through www.craigslist.org for $1,000. But the 45-year-old divorced man who lives on about $400 a month in disability payments said his vehicle has accumulated so many parking tickets he fears he might lose it. Tompkins’ westward-ho campaign was motivated by the same impulses that historically propelled outsiders here: temperate weather, tolerant culture, scenic beauty, progressive social values.’ (Laughing.) Really? Is this what inspires the homeless to go to San Francisco? Let me read you the whole paragraph. ‘His westward-ho campaign was motivated by the same impulses that historically propelled outsiders.’ So anybody that went west, anybody that migrated to San Francisco, was no different than the homeless who are now doing it. The reasons are ‘temperate weather, tolerant culture, scenic beauty, progressive social values.’ (Laughing.) Six months ago when he was in Jacksonville, Florida, this is why he decided to go to San Francisco?