As I was leaving Five Guys with my family in Dupont Circle, Saturday, I was met by a rather pleasant smile attempting to sell me a Street Sense newspaper. As the conversation played out and I realized what Street Sense does, I also realized that this may make a good, short blog post to provoke some thoughts and create some discussion.
“If you happen to pass the corner of Connecticut Avenue and L Street, or stroll past Metro Center, or walk through Dupont Circle, it's hard to miss the energetic, outspoken, charismatic Street Sense vendor by the name of L. Morrow,” the Vendor Profile in this week's edition reads. I did buy a copy and do every time there is a new issue out as I pass by one of the vendors.
Street Sense is a very good and interesting organization. It is a Washington, D.C.-based 16-page biweekly street newspaper that was founded in 2003. Its mission is to offer economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness in our community through a newspaper that elevates voices and encourages debate on poverty and injustice. It features news, editorials, poems, and art about homelessness and poverty and other social issues – all written by homeless people or people very concerned about the issue. Street Sense vendors pay thirty-five cents for each paper to cover publishing costs and then sell each paper for one dollar. According to their website, as of June 2009, Street Sense has about one hundred active vendors, selling sixteen thousand newspapers every other week, with the average vendor earning forty-five dollars a day. The vendors choose where to sell the papers throughout the city.
In the article the above excerpt comes from, L. Morrow is profiled as he has been selling the newspapers for a while now. In the article he is quoted as saying, “Homelessness is a state of mind; you don't have to look or smell bad. If you have self-respect and dignity, others will respect you. I live in a homeless castle; my ceiling is the sky and my bed is the soft sheets of heaven.” The article is ended with another quote from L. Morrow: “I want to spread the word that we've all got to help one another: spirituality, mentally and financially, if possible.”
I see a couple of parallels between the statements he made and some of the theories we have studied in class. For example, L. Morrow speaks about it being essential for everyone to help one another financially, if possible. This is generally a sentiment that is echoed on the local level and is carried, through politicians, to the national level and sometimes implemented as policy. Through this, politicians talk about the redistribution of wealth. Also, on an international scale, politicians talk about it in terms of foreign aid to other countries (something that the US does a lot, although it is only approximately a percentage point of the US Government's budget). This aligns with liberalism and its beliefs across the world.
The discussion of homelessness can also bring us back to our class discussions about statelessness. L. Morrow stating that homelessness is a state of mind is a very interesting aspect to bring into the conversation – the point that it depends on how you define homeless. The Augusta Chronicle did a profile on a fifty-eight year old man named Bill Johnson who lives in a tent, under a bridge in Augusta. He is quoted: “It depends on how you define homeless. I'm not homeless. I live in a tent under a bridge.” McManus writes that he would hitchhike to Florida and live with his mother, he could find his sister and live with her, but he just wants to stay in the city that he loves and cannot find a job in. In addition, homelessness does not only describe people sleeping on the streets – even if you have a roof over your head you may still be homeless. If your home is unsuitable for you to live in, or you have no right to stay in it you could be classified as homeless. Citizens being “rejected” by the governmental system, or those being evicted, feel homeless and feel a sense of detachment from the state that they know and love. Many stateless people, as Arendt points out, have no sense of self-identity, no feeling of belonging. This runs parallel with homeless people and can take a very interesting toll on their mind and how they contribute to society.
"I want to thank you for buying the Street Sense paper and listening to me. Keep up the kindness, because the world needs more of it." -- L. Murrow
I'm curious what everyone thinks about this homelessness topic...
Thought provoking post! I've actually read about Street Sense before, although I've never had the privelege of meeting a vendor. Your comparison of statelessness to homelessness is interesting. However, I think one of the major problems with both stateless people and homeless people is that not having a physical address makes it more difficult for these individuals to receive, for example, governmental aid. What do you think would be a positive solution for this issue? Obviously many homeless individuals do not want to give up their lifestyle, so how do we best incoroporate that into providing the homeless with the rights they are entitled to as citizens?
ReplyDeleteRyan, this is great! I definitely didn't know anything about Street Sense!!! If not for anything else, this is a fantastic lesson about some D.C. culture!!!
ReplyDeleteAbbe -- thanks for the kind words. I think it's important to note that a stateless person probably is not recognized by the state as a citizen, so they literally do not have a "place" in the country. However, a homeless person a homeless person may have citizenship and a place in society but, in many cases, may not be taken care of by the state as much as "regular folk" are; also they may have the stateless person's state of mind. In terms of receiving government aid, that is a pretty difficult thing to do for most homeless people. Homeless shelters may be a good form of this (although most are not run or funded by the government). I think homeless shelters are the best way for the government to aid the homeless population. "Helping the poor...", "government welfare for the poor...", etc. are all talked about by politicians, but you don't often hear much about what we can specifically do for the homeless.
ReplyDeleteEthan -- thanks. I was excited to hear that DC has something like this and that the city supports and embraces it.
ReplyDeleteI've actually never heard of Street Sense before either and next time I'm near Dupoint I'm definitely going to look for the vendors. With the idea of incorporating rights for homeless do you think you could also look at this situation with Liberalism viewpoint? Not all homeless people want to be in homeless shelters but yet probably do want similar rights. Liberalism focuses us on the idea of having equal rights but does someone who has no home really have equal rights as the rest of us?
ReplyDeleteRachael they've actually got a vendor that stands right outside of CVS in Tenleytown sometimes!
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you can definitely look at the situation from the viewpoint of liberalism. Liberals like to spread democracy, peace, etc. But that doesn't mean they won't tolerate poverty or war. I found a video recently that used a high school campus as a metaphor for Liberalism. The interviewee was saying that there is just so many different opportunities -- to join organizations, to make friends, to be a part of all sorts of activities that are fun and mutually beneficial to lots of people. You can also be the high school bully and get in fights all the time. There are opportunities for bad things to happen or for good concepts and you make what you want to make out of it. I think that's the difference between liberals & realists -- realists may say that if it's good for me it must be bad for you and they may play off of the homeless situation in one state to get ahead with theirs, or something to that effect may play out. Liberalism explains that there are so many ways to combat this than just "dealing with it" through homeless shelters and having someone else use it to their advantage.
In terms of the rights... they may have equal rights, but not of the same caliber... Or it may depend on how you define "rights". That's an entirely new can of worms, but it's important. They definitely have the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" but it may mean something completely different to them and us. Obviously they don't have the tangible "rights" or privileges (as I like to call them) that the rest of us do.
Does that make sense? -Ry
Hey Ryan
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post as another way to think about our IR theories. I'm curious as to how constructivism could also be applied to the issue of homelessness. Constructivists often talk about the role of identity in affecting decision making, and I had never thought of homeless people as wanting to remain homeless. Could there be a constructivist explanation for that?
And I've seen the Street Sense vendors around, but I never knew anything about the paper they were selling, so thanks for teaching me something else about DC :)