On a recent afternoon in Dupont Circle, I interviewed one of my long-time customers, Michael Carome. He’s an advocate and nonprofit worker at Public Citizen and he is a great guy. The day we talked, I was pretty depressed by everything I’m going through. But our conversation really turned that around.
Mr. Carome has been an anonymous customer of mine for over a year and never let on any affiliation with our newspaper. But he has a special interest because his brother is the executive director of Street Sense Media. So, to me he was just an average citizen, like many customers, who support giving the homeless people of the world a greater voice. And we need people like that, people like Mr. Carome, people like you.
Damon Smith: Mr. Carome, how was your day?
Michael Carome: My day was good.
And where did you go to school sir?
I grew up in Cleveland and I went to undergraduate college at Georgetown University. Then, I’m a physician, so I went to medical school in Cleveland.
So you’re a doctor by trade, but you put all that aside to do what you do now?
Yeah, I left clinical practice several years ago to join Public Citizen and took a different path into the medical arena.
We’re a nonprofit consumer advocacy group and we fight against the corporate interests that dominate government. We seek to represent the average citizen who needs protection from unsafe work environments, unsafe drugs and medical devices and unsafe products. We work for stronger policies and regulations to protect the average citizen.
That’s great sir. And me being the average citizen — thanks for your protection of the people. So you’re doing a great cause for the greater good. And you seem like a very educated guy, so you could be doing a lot more things for capital gains. What drives you to do what you do?
There are many people who aren’t able to represent their interests before government and it’s very rewarding to engage in work where we can seek stronger consumer protections and improve public health.
So how does that go into what you do day-to-day?
I direct our health research group and we focus on issues related to patient safety, such as making sure the Food and Drug Administration is appropriately regulating drugs. We also do
work on occupational health and safety — so we push for stronger regulations to protect the health and welfare of workers.
Is that challenging sometimes?
Yes, but it is always interesting.
And I appreciate it, Mr. Carome. As a consumer and as a person in public, I’m always asking “Well, who’s looking out for me?” And every day I walk past people like you who are looking out for me. So I appreciate what you do. It’s actually uplifting. So back to homelessness, sir. We’re an industrialized society and you’re a professional person. What are your views on homelessness as a whole? Do you think the government is doing enough?
I think anyone who works in Washington, D.C., or any city, can’t help but notice that homelessness remains this mysterious, chronic problem in this country. And unfortunately, at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level, not enough is being done to help eliminate homelessness in this country. We have a government that’s more interested in promoting the interests of the wealthy and corporations — not helping the average citizen who needs help, and that includes the homeless population.
And this is coming from you, an educated, upper-middle class gentleman. He goes out of his way to make things better. With homelessness, myself formerly homeless, I’m trying to do something better for mankind and Street Sense is a voice for the unheard. So Mr. Carome, what would you like to see people in power do for the homeless?
I think the solutions are obvious. We need the government to invest more money in developing affordable housing and reaching out to homeless individuals and providing them pathways to finding their way out of homelessness. And that involves providing education, job training and resources. Instead of spending billions of dollars or trillions of dollars of tax breaks for the wealthy — we need to invest more money in programs that will help the homeless.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
