Edurance

March 13, 2004 12:22 PM

Endurance - "During the performance of Endurance, 26 participants took a one our turn standing motionless on the same square foot of sidewalk. Challenging Seattles' vagrancy laws, which prohibit loitering, each participant dedicated their stand to the memory of a friend whose death resulted from a life lived on the streets." (flash)
posted by atom128 (9 comments total)

Thiis is excellent. Back in '96 I spent some time with the 'street' people of Seattle and the squatter culture. It was an incredible learning experience that taught me a great deal about my own addictions and how easily the human spirit can be sacrificed for so little. Not long after, I lost my first of several friends to heroin, by death and by a complete loss of their character over time. This really took me back. Thanks, atom128.
posted by moonbird at 12:47 PM on March 13, 2004

Deep atom128, so deep it hurt and I needed it to hurt, we all do, thank you, thank you, thank you....
posted by Elim at 12:49 PM on March 13, 2004

Nice link.
I clicked on it without reading the post, thinking it had to do with The Endurance.

Ultra side-note: Damn, the sun comes up at 4am in Seattle?
posted by Busithoth at 1:20 PM on March 13, 2004

that's powerful stuff. thanks.
posted by o2b at 2:33 PM on March 13, 2004

so they're protesting a law that limits a certain way of living by drawing attention to the danger and high death rate of that same way of living? I don't get it.

I'm not really in favor of anti-loitering laws, but showing me how many people die from living on the streets certainly makes me think that helping these people, rather than sitting by as they destroy themselves, might be a good idea.
posted by rhyax at 2:46 PM on March 13, 2004

am I the only person who had a hard time listening to the audio part of it? the echo makes it really difficult to understand.
the text is very, very moving, though.
thanks for the link.
posted by j at 4:51 PM on March 13, 2004

makes me think that helping these people

Anti-loitering laws aren't created to help these people, rhyax, assuming those are the laws you're talking about. Anti-loitering laws belittle these people by implying that they're just hanging around being a nuisance or an eyesore. I've witnessed homeless people being ticketed for loitering and for panhandling. It's a disgusting sight.
posted by dobbs at 5:38 PM on March 13, 2004

Not an easy performance to take in. Thank you, atom128 for the eye opener.
posted by Feisty at 5:46 PM on March 13, 2004

By not moving these people on , you're helping them to raise money for an addiction , i have seen people die who were allowed to sit there and sit there and raise pound after pound for bottle after bottle after bottle after bottle until their internal organs packed in.
Simply moving people on isnt the answer though, it does imply that people cannot be bothered , well , a lot of people cant , it particularly bothers people with addictions in positions of power, an approach of being hard assed with people yet steering them towards help at the same time so that they can break out of the cycle would be a better approach imho.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:16 AM on March 15, 2004