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Gretchen Hughey's avatar

I really appreciated this thoughtful review. In response, I think I first have to own my lack of sophistication in my thinking about this issue as well as an internal resistance to offering people who are homeless as much compassion and empathy as they deserve. In my own writing (about adoption and foster care), I advocate often for people to humanize kids who have been in foster care and consider them with radical empathy. I'm disappointed that I have so often struggled to do that for people who are homeless. In so far as this book helped me challenge those feelings, I found it to be beneficial, a net good, as you said.

That being said, I hadn't really thought deeply about the portrayal of Dr. Jim and I appreciate your critiques of the way he was presented in the book. As a teacher, I'm very familiar with the pressure on people in helping professions to let their (underpaid, undervalued) work take over their whole lives. The school district in our town gives out teaching awards every year; very often the recipients are people whose work occupies almost all of their waking hours. That may be an admirable choice for those for whom it's a true passion to live that way, but I resent the pressure it puts on all teachers to live like that. So, I understand why holding Dr. Jim and his lack of boundaries up as a standard is problematic. One question I had in that regard while reading the book: it seemed like the implication was that Dr. Jim wouldn't have been able to form close relationships and be as effective in his work if he had had better boundaries. Do you think that's accurate or do you think physicians/service providers can be highly effective even while maintaining schedules around boundaries and personal contact?

Last point (in this already very long comment), your point that the voices of people who are homeless were not centered in this book is an important one. I'm not sure to what extent most people experiencing homelessness are also able to take a big picture, high level policy view of the issues contributing to the homelessness crisis but I think including their voices, narratives, and opinions is important regardless. Similarly in the world of adoption and foster care, there isn't always significant overlap between people who have been in care and people who have the skill set and power to effect change in systems but to leave former foster kids out of the conversation (or include only salacious/tragic details about their lives) is objectifying and disrespectful.

Thank you for your thought provoking writing!

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Kathryn Craig's avatar

I haven’t read that book, but you explained your perspective really well. Those criticisms could be applied to how so many issues are addressed.

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