My brother was an amazing, complicated, loving, sad and talented person. He had a degree from CU Boulder in English, was certified to teach and taught ESL, started many different ventures and was always ready to help someone out, if he felt they were doing something good for the world. He was naive and kind-hearted to a fault and he was an awesome artist, loved music and philosophy. He loved his family and was so excited to be “Uncle Baird” to his two nieces. Baird was always the first person to help someone in need- he gave the most amazing, all-encompassing hugs and so many people spoke of the energy he brought to any room. He came from a ‘normal’ family that loved him very much.
He died a homeless man in Venice, CA.
He moved to CA in February to ‘finally follow his dream’ and work toward becoming an artist. It was clear to those of us around him that he wasn’t ‘quite right’ as his facebook posts about conspiracy theories and the ‘government watching him’ became more frequent. It seems that combined with a mental health crisis, he fell back into a pattern of substance abuse when he got to CA and things very quickly deteriorated. I was contacted in April from a friend of his who had seen him at the Venice boardwalk, pushing a shopping cart, in the pouring rain. A month later, he was dead.
In that month my parents, his friends and I tried our hardest to get him help. We reported him missing, arranged for a psych intervention and hoped he would get arrested. Friends would give him a little bit of money, take him to eat and talk to him. Unfortunately, legally there isn’t much you can make a 36 year old man do- and as you already know this sad story has the worst ending imaginable.
Although Baird said he ‘chose’ to be homeless and ‘finally felt pure joy’ and that it was really just ‘urban camping’, I am 100% sure that if given the chance to have a safe, clean place to shower, wash his clothes and sleep- he would have jumped at it. I imagine people looking at him the way I used to look at homeless people and it just breaks my heart. I feel like screaming “BUT HE WASN’T REALLY THIS PERSON” he is the person that always wrote the best cards, gave the most thoughtful presents, always called on your birthday. He is the person that Lily still wishes every night to “play hide & seek & draw pictures with” he is not some sad, crazy man wandering the boardwalk with his shopping cart. But to so many people, that’s all he was- all he will ever be to them.
One lesson his death has taught me is that judging a homeless person by their crazy talk, smelly clothes or “money for beer” signs isn’t acceptable. Somewhere, somehow in some capacity someone loves them. Someone misses them. Someone has tried their hardest to help them.
It is because of this lesson that I am trying to do things for the local homeless services here in Flagstaff. We had a mini food drive for Lily’s birthday and our Holiday party is focused around a coat/warm things drive. I encourage all of you reading this to do something for the homeless in your community. Realize it’s not a sane person’s choice to freeze to death, eat from a trash can or sleep on the street. It doesn't matter if it’s a donation of your time, money or the warm clothes from your closet there is always something we can do- no matter how tight we think we are on money or time.
If you’re in the area please drop off anything warm to our house on 12/17; coats, hats, mittens gloves, old sleeping bags etc. We will make sure they get to the people that need them.
There is a Memorial Fund established in Baird's memory & is part of the "Billion Dollar Green Challege". Please donate if you can.
Some local homeless resources:
http://www.flagstaffshelterservices.org/
http://openinn.org/
http://www.tgcaz.org/
Hope Cottage
Flagstaff Folks- please add more to the list in the comments.
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