homeless man gets job due to his voice

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Homeless man with "golden voice" chking into rehab

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nanook</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I will pray he gets the help he needs. I am glad he is going to the rehab, though only if he has the right intentions will it work. Is he going because he WANTS to, or because he HAS to now...is the big question. he has no choice but to go, really. None atall. The world is watching.

Time to poop or get off the pot, Ted!

Godspeed. </div></div>
The problem is that most addicts would rather be dead than being sober.

And rehab is not a cure.

Since it does not attempt to deal with the desease.

It simply try to train the patients to cope with the symptoms.

This require willpower....... And willpower is only effective on a temporary basis.

As a result is very ineffective with people with short attention span.

Addicts usually have short attention span.
Making the protocols next to impossible for them to master.
They tend to need constant support.
Which they eventually refuse.

[Suesumba]

Re: am impressed with this man's family...am impressed

if it turns out the mother isn't blind, i'll kill myself

[Suesumba]

Re: homeless dude with the great pipes

why di lazy maddarayta dem noh merge dis tappick wid di next same tappick? dem fraid?

[CeaBee]

Re: homeless dude with the great pipes

u looking work?

i just saw the two yesterday and both a them over 3 pages long now.

[RichD]

Re: homeless dude with the great pipes

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">why di lazy maddarayta dem noh merge dis tappick wid di next same tappick? dem fraid? </div></div> yuh lucky mi nuh have time or mi woulda delete this post

[CeaBee]

Re: homeless dude with the great pipes

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">why di lazy maddarayta dem noh merge dis tappick wid di next same tappick? dem fraid? </div></div> yuh lucky mi nuh have time or mi woulda delete this post </div></div>

i shoulda delete it too..but me too lazy

[evanovitch]

Re: homeless dude with the great pipes

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">why di lazy maddarayta dem noh merge dis tappick wid di next same tappick? dem fraid? </div></div>

y u neva jine di one dat was already stawted...u did fraid

[evanovitch]

A bit of tarnish on his golden rise from homelessn

<span style="font-weight: bold">A bit of tarnish on his golden rise from homelessness</span>

By Gloria Goodale, Staff writer / January 12, 2011

Los Angeles
Homelessness is back in the news. But in contrast with this past week’s feel-good story about the formerly homeless Ted Williams being lifted from a life on the streets into a home, job, and instant fame, this week’s narratives pull back that media curtain on a darker side.

Mr. Williams was taken to a Los Angeles police station for questioning after a Hollywood hotel altercation with his daughter that reportedly was so loud that an employee phoned the police. There were also allegations of substance abuse.

On the other coast, the Washington-based Alliance to End Homelessness released a report showing a three-percent rise in homelessness nationwide. Says Alliance president Nan Roman, both events are sobering reminders of the deeper problems driving people to live on the streets.

“When someone is lifted from a life on the streets like Mr. Williams, we all cheer and are happy for him,” says Ms. Roman. But, she adds, “all that attention and celebrity is almost always focused on the anecdote, not the real solutions to the problem of people being homeless.”

According to a press release issued Wednesday by the “Dr. Phil Show,” Williams has agreed to enter a rehab facility “for his alcohol and drug dependency.” A one-on-one interview with Dr. Phil will air Thursday. The press release says the decision was taken “with his family’s support.” His ex-wife and five family members will also appear on the show to discuss what they say are his ongoing substance abuse problems.

The media rise and fall of Ted Williams is an all-too-familiar story to Andrew Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. While he appreciates the fact that Williams puts a face on homelessness, he says that having gifts is not the man’s problem.

<span style="font-weight: bold">“My first reaction was that we have at least 4 men with that very amazing radio voice, others with tremendous singing talent, a brilliant comedian, and others with incredible gifts, but as Ted said, a drinking problem has been his downfall,” he says. That is why the mission focuses instead on what Mr. Bales calls “Life Transformation, including a 12-step program. When lives are transformed, gifts will shine.”</span>

Instead of the celebrity frenzy that enveloped Williams after his YouTube video – captured on a Columbus, Ohio street corner – went viral, Bales says the recovering alcoholic would be much better served with a low-profile transition that included a team to help him handle both the money and new opportunities and “maybe even a chaplain on his side.”

That’s because, as he points out, the issues that brought him to the street in the first place are not going to magically disappear when the national media spotlight turns on. In fact, he suggests, that glare has most certainly not helped Williams adjust to his new circumstances. People caught in the celebrity crush have little understanding of how fleeting that embrace can be, he says.

Bales says the “Today Show” was quick to rush Williams on the air when the story first broke, but Bales feels the host, Matt Lauer, was equally quick to distance himself when the new allegations broke, calling Williams “that formerly homeless man with the golden voice.”

Instant fame can be every bit as addictive as a drug, points out sociologist BJ Gallagher, author of “It's Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been.”

<span style="font-weight: bold">Even folks without a history of substance abuse can wilt under the pressure of such attention, she says. Look no further than that other viral video sensation, Scottish singer Susan Boyle, who ended up in the hospital for mental exhaustion after her rush to fame.</span>
Like many who held their breath as the Ted Williams saga unfolded last week, Ms. Gallagher says, “<span style="font-weight: bold">I didn’t think it would last, at least not so perfectly, but I didn’t think it would come down so quickly.”</span>
Genuine solutions to homelessness must include tackling the issues that drove a person out of a stable home, says Ms. Gallagher. But those are so much harder to wrap into a neat narrative, she points out, because real life is so much messier than the fairy tale. “We are a very optimistic people and we like our happy endings,” she says.

[Nanook]

Re: am impressed with this man's family...am impressed

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">if it turns out the mother isn't blind, i'll kill myself </div></div>

OMG for funny. See it deh Sue, you should be the next SNL host, why have you not been discovered yet?



So will he be on dr. Phil today?

[Suesumba]

Re: am impressed with this man's family...am impressed

nothing in this story is adding up or i'm just a bitter individual. i wouldn't want to meet that man again. why shi soh eager --- 15 minutes bla bla? why do the dr. filth thing? why why why?

i think this story is entirely contrived.

[JAmerican Ooman]

Re: am impressed with this man's family...am impressed

&quot;Dr. Filth&quot;

Sistren... you missed your calling.. You doing Stand-Up somewhere???

mi belly

[Nanook]

Re: Ohio Homeless Radio Man Briefly Held By LA Pol

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kia</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I think he was using a metaphor to demonstrate that he has no privacy now Nanook. Not that he flicks the ciggy out of the window (unless there are no ashtrays?) </div></div>

On second thought, after seeing this jerk on ET just now, he is smoking a cigarette in his limo and the window is halfway down and he is giving an interview and blowing smoke all over the person interviewing. He has no broughtupsie! NONE ZIP NADA. He is in his own little world. I bet you anything he DOES fling his ciggie butts out the window! If there are no ashtrays the idiot should wait to smoke till after he gets OUT of the vehicle. <span style="font-style: italic">ish ish ish firebug litterbug.</span>

I do not like him. I won't even like him sober if he makes it but that doesn't mean I don't wish him all the best. I don't really want to hear his voice on my TV or radio either. It might give me nightmares.

What a dog and pony show..

[evanovitch]

Re: Ohio Homeless Radio Man Briefly Held By LA Pol

come now Nanook...u expek a man who has been homeless fi awhile to have manners...funny enuff the average person doesnt have manners...how many times have u exited a building ongle to come upon peeps smoking even doah di sign seh dem suppose to x amount of space away from di building...now wid snow a blow bout di place i exited City Hall having gone to pay di dawg license and di peeps a smoke pon di balcony even doah dem no suppose to....

we expek the man to exhibit behaviours dat him might not have had in the first place...go easy

[Nanook]

Re: Ohio Homeless Radio Man Briefly Held By LA Pol

You are right Vannie...I will try to use restraint. Just that the lit cigarette thing bothers me bad. I see it on the roads here and it makes me bex. To hear him comment on ET about how an every day activity did not help because I see it on the road now and then and it is my biggest pet peeve, littering/lighted especially!

I hope the best for him, but mostly for his mother. I notice she has not been back on the scene. Smart lady, who must be angst ridden at the moment.

[Nanook]

Re: Ohio Homeless Radio Man Briefly Held By LA Pol

Vannie, now I have to tell you the part of my post I erased before I posted...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Click to reveal.. <input type="button" class="form-button" value="Show me!" onclick="toggle_spoiler(this, 'Yikes, my eyes!', 'Show me!')" /></div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div style="display: none;">the littering I have noticed from what I have seen by their out of state plates are the tourists! </div></div></div>