Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2000)
AGGIELIFE ondiiy, April 10, 2000 THE BATTALION Page 3 II 0 M E L 1 I a (vee£e/to( Student recounts experiences during 24 hours of poverty erns ov( ;taffaUhesitete students who ii® ;irc students, ;uid they’re himisl I timer also defended 77/i ion to publish a photogra one of the 12 Aggies killed?: ith the eol lapsed log stack. "We chose to run it because[»: it Tim Kerlee was still alive5 ous." Turner said. "This pi® n as a heroic person, he's dk cue crews to other injured stut 1 ink that shows uhatkmfek? The panel also speculate ion fire. “I wouldn't be surprisediii?; h ;i lot more regulation andsf I wouldn't be shockedifitii® le.” said Kelly Brown, a repat ■ firi 'cm-C 'ollege Station Eagle. I timer said that ifit does cotit® may no longer be a student# "I think it will be an engineer'® i token student participatiotii e the element that made bo#! 1 ' mi I think that’s sad,”shesaii Viany on the panel said reports infctrmation in the crisisatmos^' . 1 (S w as also a problem, n one instance, Stack said,ky ed the number of fatalitiesliailil , based on informadoriwl ihers were not immediately^ ted. w as slow in updating theofitf sideration for the families, i were extracted from the pile Sf r . and w e wanted to makesufsl ■ lef drethey found out frotnM oTT/je Battalion repoitedtb'f cd by a crane hitting the stad students were saying, that a? •upporters, several studentsaK'^ ally impacts all ofourlives'| t we are going to havetothD cars,” said Catheryne Green' 1 lajor. “I came today becausi ed, so I can better makedej sill be aired on C-SPANatalf |Dr. Don Albrecht [Angela Adams [Christopher Allen [Cindy Beard Josh Briggle Amber Buehler | Anthony Chen Kate Cook Eric Dickens t Jeremiah Dye Stacey Huag Kim Jackson Thomas Kelton Kristen Knight Jimmy Martin Kristen Mattern Beverly Mireles Tamara Nagy Emily Perkins Megan Phelan Stephanie Rosier Paul Rosin,.rtrygd Sarah Skinner Steve Smith Elizabeth Torline Krystina Tran Jeremy Weisinger BY ERIC DICKENS The Battalion The transition from college student to home less person is an abaipt one. Until you have found yourself bent over a trash can, leaning all the way to the bottom to pick up three nickels, you simply cannot under stand what it is like to be homeless. This past Friday night, while most students either partied, went to the movies or maybe even studied, I and 27 others took the opportunity to try and understand that lifestyle. We participated in “Homeless; for the Weekend,” a event hosted by Twin City Mission, and got a small taste of : , what daily life is like for the homeless.Upon meeting in the Twin City Mission chapel on Fri day afternoon, we turned in all our personal be longings and traded our clothes for some donated to the mission’s Community Closet. An infonnation sheet we received about tire project said, “the life of a homeless person is filled with uncertainties and inequalities.” To simulate this, event leaders handed out demerits throughout the day where students were randomly stricken with set-backs. We each found ourselves with in equalities such as blindness and illiteracy, and had to deal with them accordingly. Then we were sent out into the world. With a mixture of emotions ranging from curiosity to uncertainty, we left the shelter in groups of four or five with the mission to collect money by any means necessary and to find a way to feed our selves if we planned on eating before breakfast the next morning. The self-esteem one builds up after years of striving and achieving in school and other fields can get tom down pretty quickly once you start soiling through garbage for aluminum cans. A pound of aluminum will earn someone a whole 37 cents, making each can worth acouple of pen nies each. We learned to keep a constant vigil for cans, looking aloiig every curb, in every trash can and iii front of every closed down store. However, looking for cans is an easy activity compared to begging for change. If you were ap proached by a fellow student who asked you for a quarter to make a phone call, chances are you would give it to them. But if the same student was dressed in donated clothes and smelling of trash, would you be as likely to help them? From many our experiences, the answer is no. Getting people to look at you, let alone give you money is a difficult endeavor. Most of us had found it impossible to earn enough money for one person to eat, let alone the entire group so we knocked on the backdoor of lo cal restaurants in hopes that they would give us whatever food they were going to throw out. While begging at backdoors for leftovers we often got responses coldly saying some variation of “We don't do that here,” but a handful of the local restaurants gave out food that was going to be wasted and some, like Gina’s on North Bryan, even went as far as to make something new for us. This generosity was deeply appreciated, but it raised the question of whether these restaurants had been so gixing because they recognized that we were not tmly homeless. This thought was first brought up when one of us asked a man tor some money and he gave us two dollars. When asked why he had acted so generously, he answered, “Because y’all aren’t really homeless." App;irenl- ly the only way one can get sympathy for being in need is to not be in need. Weary from a day of wandering the streets of Bryan looking for change and sympathy, the groups met that night and frjked about their day’s experiences. However, the relaxed mood of the meeting evaporated as Sue, a true home less woman wandered into our meeting. Sue is a perfect example of the kind of frustration that many homeless feel when day after day they are ignored, rejected and forced to life off the scraps of humanity. Sue rebuked us as being “rich Ag gies” who “don’t have a clue what it’s like” to be homeless and lamented on the stress she feels. Talking to Sue and listening to her troubles left us with a heart-wretched feeling of helplessness and a bitter guilt for all the luxuries we take for granted. Hearing Sue and spending our day ask ing for moncy and help, everybody began to un derstand the desperation they feel everyday. Saturday’s schedule looked very similar to the day before’s. After an early morning two mile walk to the recycling center to trade our ac cumulated cans for a couple of dollars, the rest of the day was spent slowly learning the hardest pail about being homeless. During the day they can go out and beg for money and food, but many of them simply sit around the front of the mission and pass the time. If there was one defining emotion to describe the life ofa homeless person it would be lonely.’' The days go by absurdly slow' when you have very few belongings and nowhere to go. Most of the homeless students wandered the streets or found a warm place to take a nap, but nothing could speed up the hours. We were fortunate to be homeless in six groups of four or five students. Twin City’s patrons usually spend their days alone or chatting with whatever oth- er patrons are hanging out in frontofthc mission. The busy life most students are accus tomed to is nowhere near as taxing as the the slow lonely ,!$ne theitorpeless live. The pufp6§q ofthc “I lomeless for a Weekend” event was to raise our aware ness of the problems affectirfg homeless people. I lowever, spending 24 hours on the streets in a 28 person group only hints at the life of a homeless person. As one participant put it, “This ex perience isn’t the real thing.This is probably as far away from A&M standards as we can get, but it’s still just a taste.” Nonetheless, it is important for students to take the opportunity to try and understand how this part of society works. Too often we get used to the luxuries of daily life as a college student. Students think having to wait for a park space constitute hardships. We complain about cafete ria food and forget those who are happy to get the donated leftovers from Sbisa We look at our clos ets and think we need some new clothes or shoes, overlooking the fact that this morning, just down the road, people woke up this morning and had no other clothes to put on. A&M does a good job at promoting student involvement. Events like “I lomeless for the Weekend” are great ways to open our eyes. However, true improvement in the homeless sit uation doesn't come from 28 students living out of a shelter during the w eekend. The process of change begins when we, not as students, but as people have compassion in our hearts for fire less fortunate. Then we have to let that compas sion urge us to donate clothes, food, time, and, at the very least, a sympathetic ear. Marium Mohiuddin Editor in Chief . Iattauoh (ISSN #1055-4726) is piistal®' gti Friday during the fall and sp«!i| lay through Thursday during the siMimse®' ra'ty holidays and exam periods) atTwMF dicals Postage Paid a! College Station,lliiF ER: Send address changes to BieJalW 'c rsity, 1111TAMU, College Station, It 110- : The Battalion news department is bs? ' at Texas A&M Univeisity in the Diwsnf | i, a unit of the Department of Joumaisilfc jj 013 Reed McDonald Building. Newm|ff' "| ; Fax: 845-2647; E-mail: ThebattatoiP I ite: http://battalion.tamu.edu Using: Publication of advertising does oac o or endorsement by The Battalion, ational display advertising, call 845-2i.lT dvertising, call 845-0569. Advertising tffs/ i eed McDonald, and office hoots areStf" iy through Friday. Fax: 845-2678. rjjjtions: A pad of the Student Services Is exas A&M student to pick up a singW on. First copy free, additional copies 251.* ms are $60 per school year, $30 forte if: er, $17.50 for the summer and SlOffE;' by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or Amenta" 1 5-2611. ^ LIONS .Gate € FILMS # A LIONS CATE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY oAAocicUioti uuth psieA&ntl a FREE ADVANCE SCREENING TEXAS A& M UNIVERSITY @ Rudder Theatre 8:00 PM Tuesday, April 11 FREE ADMISSION* while passes last INFO?: call SP0 845-1515 http://films.tamu.edu * Passes available at Rudder Theatre Box Office or Lobby. Passes required. Seating is limited and not guaranteed. Please arrive early. Presented in association with MSC Film Society. olio- to- *iOU ARRID ANTI-PERS PI RANT & DEODORANT ’ Campus- 11 ; e rCenter.ccm sixdegrees’ www.sixdegrees.com J.L riir NETWORK EVENT THEATER*