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
â–  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
â– 
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*