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
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