Liberty

Five homeless guys in the background of a replica of the Liberty Bell, and none of them fits any of the standard clichés about homelessness.

The guy on the far left has obviously had a lot of education, and knows enough about photography to know that flare would have been a serious problem with this shot before Canon made its glass virtually flare-proof.

The black man second from left leaning on his shopping cart refused all my meager offers of food or money. Nothing! No thanks! No kind of hand-out! And he wasn’t even hostile about it, just independent, I guess, and proud of it.

Kid of the far right was hungry, and accepted a sandwich and iced coffee, and also sort of surreptitiously let me know that his friend with the shopping cart would probably accept some bottled water, if I simply put it down at a respectful distance and disappeared, and that’s exactly what I did.

Five guys down on their luck, and all of them excellent company for each other, and for me.