Brianna,
Don't let some of those nasty comments posted on that article bother you. Look at it this way: You've already got seven pages of comments, good and bad. That means that possibly thousands have read that article about you. Many of them might actually buy your book.
The negative comments are clearly from JWs, some JW apologists, far right nay-sayers, and total idiots who are the very people that want to treat the homeless like lepers. I know you have had criticism in the past for "not being homeless enough." How could you be homeless - and yet have a cell phone and a laptop? From their point of view, you were "too rich to be homeless."
I can understand how some people might think that way - if they haven't read your book. I firmly believe that those who actually read your book will wonder how you managed to survive the way you did and still remain sane.
Everyone needs to learn a little empathy. Don't criticize someone if you don't know their story. I once went to lunch with a co-worker. A one-armed crippled man in a wheel chair accidentally blocked his path as we were driving through a shopping mall parking lot. I could see that one of the wheels of the disabled man's chair had stuck in a pothole and he was struggling with his one arm to force the wheel up and out.
Getting all impatient, my companion rolled down his windonw and started yelling at the guy to "get the move on." Finally I climbed out of the truck and went to offer the poor fellow some help. "Normally I'd say no," he said, "but maybe it would be a good idea if you could help me just this one time." He mentioned that he'd been wounded in Viet Nam many years before, but now that he was older his strength was limited. "Every so often I need to ask for help, but I hate it," he said."Tell your friend I'm sorry I blocked his way."
I climbed back into my friend's truck. "Said he was wounded in Viet Nam."
"Yeah, right," he replied. "Maybe he'd have been better off if he'd taken one in the head instead of the spine."
I just shook my head, astonished at this guy's total lack of empathy. I should have said something, but I chickened out. I decided anything I said would die a lonely death inside this guy's skull. But after that I disliked him to the point that I avoided him completely. I was done with him and his bullshit bully attitude.
That's what these naysayers are doing with you. The are just being bullies. They are trying to say that you should have been "more destitute or more homeless." You shouldn't have inherited anything from your father. You shouldn't have collected unemployment. You were living off the dole because "you wanted to live that way." You were poor and homeless - not because of your job - but because of your "spendthrift ways and lack of character." And of course, "God was punishing you" for leaving the good life your Jehovah's Witness family had given you. Jeeeezzzz...
They need to read your book. More important - they need to get a life.
JV
