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TRAVEL BLOG

7.23.01

What a Difference Between the Quality of the Items Handed Out by Air France and at the Shelters!

Judie Jones used to live in a Boston homeless shelter known as “The Fright Center.” She hated it. “‘I thought, `Where else could I go that I would be shown humanity and treated with the graciousness of an international traveler?’” Boston’s Logan International Airport was the answer. Boston Globe reporter David Abel writes (readers must now pay a fee to view the complete story) about the 66-year-old Australian who, with several other older homeless women, spends just about every night in terminal waiting rooms. Jones says it’s not such a bad scene.

"I feel much more at home here because I can be a person of the world, not some statistic,” she says, snatching another clump of butts from an ashtray outside Terminal E. “It’s big and it’s free and there’s no oppression. It’s really a fascinating place. The views are great, for which I pay nothing. I love watching the airplanes and the sunrise. And another thing: There’s always someone to talk to.”

Posted by Michael Yessis • 7.23.01
Categories: Weblog • Australia • France • Global Village • In the News