Kevin Dolan and his son, Sean, created a website to tell Tim’s story and provide a venue for visitors to give donations to help Tim and others like him.

Some might find this to be a touching thing for two people to do for another man who is down on his luck…but there are many who disagree.

The problem? It’s called Pimp This Bum!.

Some homeless advocates find the whole thing distasteful.

Some homeless advocates say the Web site does little to address the underlying issues of homelessness. Even the name makes Anthony Love bristle.

“He is a person. His name is Tim. And to pimp anyone is not something I would endorse,” said Love, president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County.

The Web site also stirred up an Internet debate over the merits of the Dolans’ approach. One blogger named KatDish commented: “Your impassioned pleas for helping Tim get off the street don’t hold much weight when you ask him to hold up a sign that says “Pimp this Bum” and let people know he needs a Sharpie and a cheeseburger.”

The Dolans, however, claim that is isn’t, and never was, their intention to exploit or demean Tim. Quite the contrary.

“We wanted to insult people’s sensitivities so that they would go to the site and see Tim, and people seem to have fallen in love with him. He’s funny and doesn’t blame the world for his situation,” said Kevin Dolan, 55, a marketing specialist from the Houston suburb of Katy who started the Web site with his 24-year-old son, Sean.

If the site had been called “Help the Homeless,” many Web surfers might just have clicked on past, says Sean.

Here is the first interview with Tim:

I can see Anthony Love’s concern about the possible exploitation of the homeless. The Associated Press article linked above notes that the Dolans intended to test an advertising campaign and create publicity for their new Internet marketing business. It was son Sean who suggested doing some good and helping the homeless. So I can understand Love’s concern that maybe the Dolan’s don’t have completely altruistic intentions.

That being said, it isn’t as though this is Bum Fights or something similarly demeaning and unethical. I agree with Love that this site isn’t doing anything to address the underlying issues and causes of homelessness. But…the publicity has caused Seattle-based Sunray Treatment and Recovery to give Tim a spot in their alcohol detox program free of charge. The program normally costs $13,800 and lasts 35 days.

The donor’s list is rather long at the time of this writing and the Associated Press article will surely bring forth more donations.

With another website title, maybe this wouldn’t be newsworthy…and that kind of adds credence to Kevin and Sean Dolan’s point about the name not being exploitative, but instead was designed to get attention.

When AOL ran this story the comments were…less than kind. Of course, this is somehow Obama’s fault. Not that it should be surprising that AOL users can be ignoramuses.

On the first two pages of comments I saw, for every one comment that was sympathetic to homelessness, there were three that either slammed the homeless, or discovered a way to make political attacks in the guise of commenting on the story.

What really disturbed me is that this first one received a three star rating from other readers.

This next guy decided to use the opportunity to call all Democrats bums. How witty.

This next fine human being found a way to both slam Obama as well as attack immigrants. Note, no mention was made of the homeless situation. One track bigot, I suppose.

This is another that received a three star rating from other readers.

This next person is just…well, filled with hate and anger. And an inability to release the caps lock.

This fine human being just wants to know why anyone should care. Sadly, this one got a four star rating.

“Nookiecat” regurgitates the same tired rhetoric about how everyone that is homeless got there through their own mistakes…and therefore fuck them. Three and a half stars for this level of inhumanity.

While, as noted above, I see the Dolan’s point about being controversial to attract visitors…based on the AOL comments I don’t know if it is really working. Whether you try to be low key in your aims to assist others or you are more outrageous with your presentation…you can’t make people care that choose not to care. The comments above illustrate how hardened many people can be. How many people refuse to care about others.

So what do you think? Is it a good thing or is is exploitation?

And if you are as ignorant as some of the AOL users listed above, you need not bother commenting. Find somewhere else to spread your ignorance.

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