Homeless Role Models

Summary of “Homelessness is Often Voluntary” “It is Difficult for Athletes to be Role Models” is an article written by Gary Sailes and originally published in the USA Today Magazine on September 11, 2001. The original title was "Professionals Athletes: Cultural Icons or Social Anomalies." This is a newspaper article by the Society for the Advancement of Education. Sailes relies entirely on his education being a sports sociologist and opinion in this article, the main point of which is that the professional athletes be morally obligated to take the responsibility of acting as role models. Salies begins with Charles Barkley and expressed his opinion toward the controversial issue of athletes should be role model Following a description of how the will not’s live, Salies offers ways to solve this homeless problem, all of which result in pushing these homeless people into the
next community. Salies ends with a brief plea to help the truly needy. This article was not successful for several reasons. The kind of information presented in the article was a strong factor in the article’s failure.
While the author had a clear thesis statement, he presented only his own point of view, thus producing an article that had no balance. Most of his statements were general and lacked support. For example, Salies said that the will not’s, an arbitrary group of homeless people, choose to live on the streets. He further characterized this group as thieves and scam artists. Another reason the article failed was the manner in which the information was presented. Rather than appealing to the reader’s intelligence, Salies played on the reader’s emotions. The homeless were presented as a happy group (“take delight in sharing tales of derring-do”) who lead a carefree, if not enviable life (“The rest of the day is spent in an alcoholic stupor among friends, laughing, crying, joking…”). The reader, then, no longer views these homeless as needing his sympathy and help, but rather as a group to be shoved out of sight and onto another
community. Finally, the author’s tone was inappropriate for such a serous problem as homelessness. His word choice points to the callousness with which he views this group. For example, he describes homeless as “folks” who enjoy “scams” and spend most of the day in an “alcoholic stupor.” He even goes so far as to make fun of the average American who will spare some change for these street people, who he believes are unaware of the ruse. If sarcasm and callousness are not sufficient to turn the reader against the article, the concluding statements certainly are. Salies’ solution to the problem of homelessness is to lock up areas where they live and forage, thus forcing these people into another community and onto the people who live there. It is probably true that some homeless people choose their lifestyle. There are, however, numerous reasons these people make such a choice. As a society, we need to do more than brush these people aside, salving our own consciences with the half-truths presented in Salies’ article.

Many will also argue that athletes are hired by their employer and are paid to do their job and are not paid to be role models. This makes sense and it is true that they are not paid to be a role model but whether they like it or not athletes are role models.
Now, does that mean they will be a good role model? Of course not, there are also bad role models! But yes, they are role models, it is just one of those things that come with their job.