Opinion: Down and out in L.A.: The view from skid row
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For some on Los Angeles’ skid row, the inauguration of President Obama offered a ray of hope for many whose daily lives contain little of it. Times staff writer Carol J. Williams visited residents there to get their perspectives on today’s events in Washington:
Sheri Wilborne has voted for president only once in her 44 years. When she cast her ballot for Barack Obama in November, she said, it was the first election day when she wasn’t incarcerated, on parole or too deep in the fog of drugs to cast a ballot. “It was the right time for me in my life. Before I was too strung out or too loaded. If I wasn’t in jail, I was on my way to it,” Wilborne said as she watched the inaugural ceremonies on a big-screen TV at the Lamp Community center on downtown’s skid row. Wilborne was among 16 people providing a running commentary as they watched the inauguration together. From her perch at the end of a grubby floral sofa covered with a blue blanket, she praised the new president’s wife as “a classy lady.” “Like Jackie Kennedy,” added Kevin King, just paroled last month after his fourth California prison term on drug charges.
Read more from skid row on L.A. Now.
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