Lamar and Sons

- black man - disabled - father - homeless - Vietnam - Navy  Veteran - past drug abuser - experienced wiseman 

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START FROM THE BOTTOM UP :)

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Bibliography

1. 4 Ways to Help Homeless Veterans: Factual Picture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.homecarehoney.com/blog-or-story/4-ways-to-help-homeless-veterans/

2. An epidemic of childhood trauma haunts Milwaukee(images). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2017/3/23/epidemic-of-childhood-trauma-haunts-milwaukee.htmlAs/Is. (2015, September 30).

3. I'm Homeless, But I'm Not... Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZi6KwfBGS8&feature=youtu.beBeyoncé. (2016, December 9). Beyoncé - 

4. Formation- little boy and police. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ

5. Charles Bukowski Factotum Quote Explained and Elaborated. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.coolnsmart.com/blog/charles-bukowski-factotum-quote/Fisher, J. (2019, January 31).

6. Rent. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXUMr_MO5E&list=PLfzQcC-MVTTNvhx2QSCRN5dxCqTftvxVv&index=4

7. How To Avoid Denial of Social Security Disability Benefits: Picture/Image. (2016, December 21). Retrieved from http://www.pissd.com/2017/01/avoid-denial-social-security-disability-benefits/

9. Keith, T. (2009, June 16). Toby Keith - American Soldier. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrMeBR8W-cMassie, V. M. (2016, August 23). 

10. Lillie Harden was Bill Clinton's welfare reform success story. Welfare reform failed her. (image). Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2016/8/22/12583376/welfare-reform-history-clinton-lillie-hardenOlito, F. (2018, November 2). 

11. An optical illusion tricked firefighters into thinking a building was burning. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/optical-illusion-burning-building-2018-11Parracho, L. (n.d.). 

12. Life in Crackland (image). Retrieved from https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/life-in-cracklandPowell, T. (n.d.).

13. Award-Winning Book 'Evicted' Comes To Life Through Traveling Exhibition. Retrieved from https://www.wuwm.com/post/award-winning-book-evicted-comes-life-through-traveling-exhibition#stream/0Smith, R. S. (n.d.). 

14. African Americans (image. Retrieved from https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/african-americans/Tenant 

15. Eviction: What You Should Know as a Renter. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://realestate.findlaw.com/landlord-tenant-law/tenant-eviction-what-you-should-know-as-a-renter.htmlTrailers, M. C. (2017, February 27). 

16. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Official Trailer 1 - Will Smith Movie. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMOBlEcRuw8

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The insidious part of instability is that it comes at a kid from so many different levels—in terms of stress on their parents, losing basic resources, and then losing their home. It’s this very core thing of stability of place, where you’ll be sleeping or eating. Housing instability crashes every support system a kid could have.

Gina Adams

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“In the mid-1980s, crack hit the streets of Milwaukee and Lamar started smoking it... Lamar remembered losing his job and his apartment... Lamar ate snow during the days he was trapped in the abandoned house.” (27)

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“The police ain’t protecting us,” Buck said.

“I feel you on that. But all police are not the same...If I was in the neighborhood, and it was rough, I’d want the police to clean that hit up too.”

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“You can’t hide nothing from God,” he told them, “so don’t hide it from your daddy. Do what you do at home...I’d rather for you to do it at home around me than out there on them street corners.” (pg 23)

“I’m blessed,” Lamar said, looking at Luke and Eddy... “My boys okay.” (pg 27)

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How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?

Charles Bukowski

This man works three different jobs (janitor, drove a forklift, poured chemicals for Athea Laboratories), has to pay $550 to Sherrena for rent, has his Social Security denied, and only has $78 for him and his two sons. 

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How do you leave the past behind When it keep finding ways to get to your heart It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out 'Til you're torn apart RENT! How can you connect in an age Where strangers, landlords, lovers Your own blood cells betray What binds the fabric together When the raging, shifting winds of change Keep ripping away Draw a line in the sand And then make a stand

This connects Lamar to both the song “Rent” from the musical and Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?” in a sense that his identity has changed completely through time. Trying to get his rent money on time has become an essential part of his life that it tears him apart mentally and emotionally. When it comes to betrayal, it almost seems like his whole country betrayed him, after he fought in the Vietnam War. As the “shifting winds of change keep ripping away,” he gets closer and closer to the complete homeless side of life, on the streets with no necessities for him and his two sons. 

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