By MIKE SIMONS Staff Photographer on Jun 16, 2013, at 6:00 AM Updated on 6/17 at 10:01 AM
EMSA transports 16 year old Magenia Parish to an ambulance at Patrick Park May 13, 2013. Parish is homeless and pregnant and started feeling pains. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
I held certain beliefs before I met Magenia Parish.
I believed that a child could never be homeless and alone. I thought there were too many safeguards in place. From DHS to the schools to local police how could a child truly be homeless and alone. Sure, I knew there are homeless families that have children, but those have or at least should have an adult looking out for the child's best interest.
I believed when I saw a homeless person, as much compassion as I had for them, on some level it was a choice to be homeless. They are adults and capable of making choices for themselves. But, here is the problem with that, when I met Magenia Parish I thought she was in her thirties. I now wonder how many other children I have seen on the streets and looked the other way. Hoping not to be hit up yet again for money for a sandwich, just bus fare or the rare and honest, “I need a beer.”
I believed that prostitution was a consensual crime and a waste of police resources to combat it. Magenia is a child and my heart breaks when I hear what she has done for a warm place to sleep.
I don't know the answer to the horrendous problem of youth homelessness. All I can do is point a camera at it. I hope that someone much smarter than me sees this story and has the answer.
Meeting Magenia profoundly changed me. I hope that my pictures and this
story will profoundly change you.
A life worth living? from
Tulsa World on
Vimeo.
Follow Tulsa World Photo on Twitter.
PHOTO & VIDEO: View photography, videos and visual journalism from the Tulsa World staff.
