Could Be Worse:

You Could Be In Jail.

Like about 2-3 Million Americans. Like about every fourth African American male in this country at one point in their life. Like Dennis Sobin, who once got himself locked up for filming a French Artsy Avant Guard film that might have received some Palm D'Or award or something in France (where all the women run around on the beaches topless), for shooting film in a nudist colony in Florida where there happened to be entire families with children partaking of the sport of nudery- which earned him a "child performance" porn Federal charge and forever a federal record. Shocking you say? Porn artist he isn't- Artsy Fartsy Filmy guy from New York he is- and he found himself locked up. So what does someone with an indefatigable Joie De Vivre do in that situation? Eventually Dennis started a Foundation where he encouraged artistic talents of people in Jail. White guy from Queens, developing talents of all colors, creeds and sexual orientation- because God is Good-all the time- to everyone who loves him.
You would be amazed at what prisoners can do with all that time on their hands. Some of them have prior formal art training. Some of them should be in a museum- and some of them are- they are in the Safe Streets Foundation Gallery a few blocks from the White House that Sobin runs. www.PrisonsFoundation.org

You can see Dennis on nice days not sub-below weather around Dupont Circle displaying his art open air style. He has a program where he gets volunteers from everywhere to send Christmas cards to inmates everywhere. America has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Many of these people are forgotten or cursed at Christmas time for all the trauma and drama they put their families through.









Today, Dennis Sobin plugged in an electric amp to his guitar and played beautiful Christmas music in the basement conference room of Saint Matthews Cathedral in downtown Washington, DC to an audience of about 60 cold, hungry, homeless men and women who ate the hot dishes Miss Mary (canonization soon to follow) cooked at 5:00 am where after they helped themselves to a bag of underwear and toiletries for the week. Dennis got rousing applause and standing ovations from those who were not too tuckered out from the sleepless night in a grim shelter to rise in gratitude.



There are truly amazingly good people in the World who have seen Hell and came back victorious over bitterness- and contribute something that brings such Joy to so many people-

Keith Olberman should give this guy a "Best Person of the Week" award. Oprah should fund the permenant gallery. If you are looking for year end charitable contributions, put the Safe Streets Foundation on your Christmas List. More people will appreciate it than you can imagine.