{"id":4571,"date":"2026-10-13T16:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2026-10-13T20:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:38:02","slug":"the-sad-sound-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4571","title":{"rendered":"The Sad Sound of Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three days ago, <strong><em>World Homeless Day<\/em><\/strong> passed almost unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 10 October, the news was consumed by wars, economic recession, Trump\u2019s latest frustrations, forthcoming elections and the endless churn of political headlines. Yet there was barely a word about homelessness, nor much sign of political leaders being pressed to confront this widespread and deeply human crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That silence should trouble us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The media rightly describes itself as the watchdog of democracy. But a watchdog that only barks at the issues that dominate the news cycle is hardly doing its job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here are three simple questions for them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2022 Where was the scrutiny of those in power over homelessness?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2022 Where were the difficult questions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2022 And why weren\u2019t you biting harder?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They are rhetorical, I know, and that is precisely the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Photo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cHobo\u201d News, established in 1913 by James Eads How, was a groundbreaking publication uniquely created by, with, and for hoboes (the itinerant, often homeless, migrant workers who travelled the country looking for labour). Championing the marginalised, homeless and impoverished working class, the newspaper served as a vital forum for news, creative writing, poetry and social advocacy tailored specifically to the hobo community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">True to its mission, the paper proudly carried the distinct slogan: \u2018A Journal of the Homeless, for the Homeless, and by the Homeless.\u2019 Through its pages, the publication not only gave a dignified voice to migrant labourers, often shunned by mainstream society, but also provided them with practical advice, organised support and a shared sense of identity and solidarity during a turbulent era in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not advocating for bringing back the <em>Hobo News,<\/em> but rather pointing out that solutions are always within reach when we genuinely commit to finding them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The media rightly describes itself as the watchdog of democracy. But a watchdog that only barks at the issues that dominate the news cycle is hardly doing its job<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"{\"authors\":[579],\"author_categories\":{\"579\":\"1\"},\"fallback_author_user\":\"2\",\"ppma_author_box_select\":\"\",\"selected_authors\":[{\"id\":579,\"display_name\":\"Dan Costinas\",\"is_guest\":0,\"category_id\":\"1\"}]}"},"categories":[49,64,573,50,123,250,13],"tags":[575,574,576],"ppma_author":[579],"class_list":["post-4571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-experimental-prose","category-impartial-journalism","category-non-fiction","category-picks","category-tales-to-heal","category-trails","tag-homelessness","tag-press","tag-watchdog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"authors":[{"term_id":579,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dan-costinas","display_name":"Dan Costinas","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dc.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dc.jpg"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Dan","last_name":"Costinas","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4593,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions\/4593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}