"You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation." -Marian Wright Edelman
I guess you could say I'm in the business of being a flea. I wouldn't normally characterize social activists as fleas, but I suppose in some ways it makes a lot of sense. More often than not, they are the people talking about things no one else wants to hear. Often my activism has taken a global scope, but this past week I have been paying a lot of attention to a national, and indeed very local, issue. I have learned a lot of useful things in my classes at GW, but I have learned even more from my experience living, working and volunteering in the District of Columbia. One of the valuable lessons my volunteering experience has taught me is how to interact with and learn to appreciate the homeless.
So many people prefer to walk on by and ignore people living on the streets because it is easier and more convenient to pretend they do not exist, but they are human beings with feelings and life stories just like the rest of us. Each of them has a unique story for how and why they became homeless, and it is rarely the story you are expecting. Being homeless is also not the easiest job in the world. Forced to carry all of your belongings on your back as you trudge back and forth across the city to seek the social services, health clinics, and food you need is an exhausting endeavor.
But I digress from what I've been working on, which is an issue far beyond simply ignoring the homeless, to outright attacking them. The DC Department of Health and Human Services found in their survey that 1/3 of all homeless people have been attacked by non-homeless people during the time they've been homeless. There are approximately 6,000 homeless people in DC- so that's a lot of attacks. Far too often- these attacks are fatal. On Christmas Eve night, a man named Yoshio Nakada was senselessly murdered about a block from GW's campus. When I got back to school I was talking to my friend Amanda and she was so upset that something like that could happen- especially so close to campus- and she wanted to hold a vigil to honor Mr. Nakada, as well as to bring awareness to the issue of hate crimes against the homeless.
Wednesday night was one of the coldest nights we've had in awhile. It had been icy and rainy most of the day- and just in general was not shaping up to be a night when a lot of people would show up for a vigil that was going to all be outside. I was completely blown away by the attendance we had. I've learned from my experience as a student organizer at GW that you're lucky if you have 15 people at anything- and we had almost 40 people show up. We had several signs made and passed out candles to everyone who attended. We walked silently through campus and ended up outside a church that houses a breakfast program Mr. Nakada often attended- where a few of us spoke. We had speakers from the National Coalition for the Homeless, as well as a couple of men from their speakers bureau of homeless or formerly homeless individuals, one of whom spoke about being attacked 5 times while he was living on the streets.
It was inspiring for me to see all of the people who cared enough to come out on such a cold and dreary night- but what has also been astounding to me is the interest it has caused. Though it was mostly Amanda and I working on the details, word spread around campus and I even got a couple of emails about it from people I don't even know (through listservs, etc). It was covered by our school newspaper, The Hatchet- and while I am always disappointed in reporters' abilities to actually convey a story, I'm glad they at least covered it: Hatchet article
I was especially surprised to get a call Thursday afternoon from the Fox 5, the local Fox news channel. Even though they had missed the vigil, they were interested in doing a story about student interest in the issue as well as the broader issue of attacks against the homeless. Amanda and I met briefly with their reporter yesterday, and while once again my words are taken out of context- I was still excited that they were interested enough in the topic to give it some air time. However, I was shocked when I got home last night and was looking up the story on their website to see what they had done with it, to find out that yet another homeless man was brutally beaten on Tuesday and died last night in the hospital. If you're interested, you can find the story here (click on the sidebar video to watch the newsclip): Fox5 News
That's probably enough of my soapbox for one day- but it's been a big part of my week. I was encouraged to see so many students at the vigil on Wednesday, but clearly there is so much more work to be done... guess I'll just keep "strategically biting" away.
So many people prefer to walk on by and ignore people living on the streets because it is easier and more convenient to pretend they do not exist, but they are human beings with feelings and life stories just like the rest of us. Each of them has a unique story for how and why they became homeless, and it is rarely the story you are expecting. Being homeless is also not the easiest job in the world. Forced to carry all of your belongings on your back as you trudge back and forth across the city to seek the social services, health clinics, and food you need is an exhausting endeavor.
But I digress from what I've been working on, which is an issue far beyond simply ignoring the homeless, to outright attacking them. The DC Department of Health and Human Services found in their survey that 1/3 of all homeless people have been attacked by non-homeless people during the time they've been homeless. There are approximately 6,000 homeless people in DC- so that's a lot of attacks. Far too often- these attacks are fatal. On Christmas Eve night, a man named Yoshio Nakada was senselessly murdered about a block from GW's campus. When I got back to school I was talking to my friend Amanda and she was so upset that something like that could happen- especially so close to campus- and she wanted to hold a vigil to honor Mr. Nakada, as well as to bring awareness to the issue of hate crimes against the homeless.
Wednesday night was one of the coldest nights we've had in awhile. It had been icy and rainy most of the day- and just in general was not shaping up to be a night when a lot of people would show up for a vigil that was going to all be outside. I was completely blown away by the attendance we had. I've learned from my experience as a student organizer at GW that you're lucky if you have 15 people at anything- and we had almost 40 people show up. We had several signs made and passed out candles to everyone who attended. We walked silently through campus and ended up outside a church that houses a breakfast program Mr. Nakada often attended- where a few of us spoke. We had speakers from the National Coalition for the Homeless, as well as a couple of men from their speakers bureau of homeless or formerly homeless individuals, one of whom spoke about being attacked 5 times while he was living on the streets.
It was inspiring for me to see all of the people who cared enough to come out on such a cold and dreary night- but what has also been astounding to me is the interest it has caused. Though it was mostly Amanda and I working on the details, word spread around campus and I even got a couple of emails about it from people I don't even know (through listservs, etc). It was covered by our school newspaper, The Hatchet- and while I am always disappointed in reporters' abilities to actually convey a story, I'm glad they at least covered it: Hatchet article
I was especially surprised to get a call Thursday afternoon from the Fox 5, the local Fox news channel. Even though they had missed the vigil, they were interested in doing a story about student interest in the issue as well as the broader issue of attacks against the homeless. Amanda and I met briefly with their reporter yesterday, and while once again my words are taken out of context- I was still excited that they were interested enough in the topic to give it some air time. However, I was shocked when I got home last night and was looking up the story on their website to see what they had done with it, to find out that yet another homeless man was brutally beaten on Tuesday and died last night in the hospital. If you're interested, you can find the story here (click on the sidebar video to watch the newsclip): Fox5 News
That's probably enough of my soapbox for one day- but it's been a big part of my week. I was encouraged to see so many students at the vigil on Wednesday, but clearly there is so much more work to be done... guess I'll just keep "strategically biting" away.
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