A bum's bum

Wait, that doesn't sound right.

I've been messing around for a while with a post about the Denver Post laying off mushy lib columnist Jim Spencer, but everything I've come up with sounds too mean. So I'll just quote a little from Spencer's farewell column:

I wanted to fight the upcoming battle for decent, affordable health care for all Coloradans.

I wanted to continue as a witness for compassion in the immigration debate in a state that cannot afford to hate Mexicans.

I wanted to champion the radical but indispensable quest to reform and pay for great public education from preschool to graduate school.

I wanted to show kids where to find alternatives to gangs.

I wanted to keep calling out powerful people who violate the trust of the people they are supposed to serve.

I wanted to keep challenging myself and others to understand the homeless, the disabled and everyone else who scars our narcissistic vision.

I wanted to keep begging young people and adults to find ways to settle their differences without resorting to fists or sticks or knives or - God help us - bullets.

I wanted to keep explaining the fundamental immorality of intolerance for people whose values, faiths or lifestyles differ from yours.

I wanted to continue to separate science from religion and church from state, trying all the while to respect both.

I wanted to continue exploring workaday corners of Colorado that might otherwise be ignored.

Again, keeping the mouth shut. But in order to challenge myself (and others!) to understand homelessness, I took this picture today:

Check this guy out. He's like, a Master Bum. He's clean (at least, his clothes), his stuff is neatly packed, he's got the really cool-looking Dalmation mix leashed to his buggy, and he has a freakin' bedside lamp to read by. That's class.

Update: Westword's Michael Roberts wrote last week on the Post's ongoing downsizing.