My very proud LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I found myself aghast at a recent "poverty and homelessness awareness" event on campus, in which students listened to live music, speakers on homelessness, and competed in a cardboard structure-building competition. Then, the students slept out on the quad. The article in the student paper highlighted how one student said they wanted to build a "cardboard castle," but they didn't have enough cardboard. The article rampages onto several students who slept out on the quad, and what a sacrifice it was. Not a word was mentioned about actual homeless people. What kind of place is this!

here's the letter....

"My comments are in response to the poverty and homelessness awareness activity on Friday night, and the corresponding article from the Statesman. While the event clearly intended to promote empathy and understanding for poverty and homelessness, as various speakers addressed the issue, the mock-simulation of homelessness, in building and sleeping in cardboard shelters, seemed more like and irreverent parody than an exercise in empathy.

The feature event of the evening, the cardboard shelter-building competition, encouraged students to create caricature-like shelters; practically equating them with sand castles. After a full evening of dancing and socializing, some students took to the shelters as they braved a night out among the elements.

Inasmuch as these activities attempt to recreate scene of homeless life, they irresponsibly misconstrue reality and ultimately distract students from really understanding homelessness.

The recent article in the Statesman seemed predominantly interested in the shelter-building competition and the sacrifices of the students who participated in the event. Yet the article made no mention of the actual homeless, who live daily in such conditions. It seems the goal of increasing empathetic awareness of poverty and homelessness escaped even the statesman staff.

In this instance, it seems the awareness of poverty and homelessness was superseded by a preoccupation with the worthiness of the very efforts to be aware.

What might one of the homeless we’ve met think of the cardboard shelter-building contest? Maybe they would disregard it as a harmless gala, but in my opinion, it would seem as if students too comfortably gloss over the stark realities of homelessness in exchange for an alternative, more comfortable depiction.

I acknowledge this might be an overreaction, but I feel like my intentions in submitting this observation are in fact parallel to those who organized this activity.

Considering the relative scarcity of homelessness in Cache Valley in comparison to larger cities, some might already accuse us of being particularly unfamiliar or misunderstanding of the issue. Hopefully, we will never be guilty of that, as we place more attention on constructing activities that are informative and enjoyable, without being disrespectful."

take that you self-consumed, self-congratulatory naive sheltered youngsters!!!