Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, November 29, 2004
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■ In my opinion
No room at the GOVERNMENT INN
Sudan has been accused of displac
ing 1.6 million people from their
homes in Darfur. Russia is chided for
forcing Chechens in Ingushetia back to
Chechnya, where they must now live
on the streets. What do these violations
have to do with the United States? All
three countries are atop the Geneva
based Centre on Housing Rights and
Evictions list of top offenders.
Although the U.S. has not dis
placed people from their homes be
cause of ethnic reasons or forced
convictions, the fact still stands that
our nation is home to millions of
house-less citizens, who are crimi
nalized for offenses such as sleeping
in public parks. According to the
Centre, this violates the U.N. state
ment of human rights, which in
cludes a standard of housing ade
quate to promote health and
well-being. There is such an extreme
stigma against the homeless that
most Americans choose to put the is
sue out of their minds completely.
Subscribing to the belief that the
homeless are dirty drug abusers who
live on the streets out of choice
rather than necessity makes it easy
to ignore the sad plight of our na
tion’s lowest class.
Unfortunately, the tactic of U.S.
policy-makers seems to be one of
disregard as well. Where were the
campaign agendas to reach your
neighborhood can-collector? Both
Bush and Kerry fervently cam
paigned for education of the nation’s
children, conveniently ignoring the
1.35 million children per year who
live on the streets. The No Child Left
Behind act didn’t just leave these
AILEE SLATER
FURTHER FROM PERFECTION
children behind, it left them suffo
cating in the dust. Although Bush
has put the nation into severe debt
through increased wartime spending
and tax cuts, his 2004 budget includ
ed no new resources for the 3.5 mil
lion people living on the streets. Ob
viously, with numbers like that,
current funding is not doing its job.
Accountability is the major problem
with funding programs to help the
homeless. The homeless are in a cycle
in which economics prevent them
from seeking out the right to vote,
leading to political agendas that do
not include their needs and ultimately
lead to another generation of home
less who will once again not have a
voice in the political sphere. On the
other hand, giving money back to the
rich is easy: They respond with their
contributions and their votes.
Other harmful cycles which often
occur in homeless population relate
to drug abuse and prostitution.
When children grow up without
homes, food and access to education
or employment, they will be likely to
turn to drugs or prostitution in order
to make money. Without access to
birth control or sexual education
services, young people are likely to
become pregnant, beginning the cy
cle once again.
One argument against policies to
help the homeless is the idea that
people on the streets are there by
their own will, and the government
is not responsible for them. Howev
er, as seen through the occupation
and rebuilding of Iraq, the U.S. gov
ernment has no problem putting
money into causes for which it was
not directly responsible.
Also, most homeless people find
themselves in their situation because
of a previous failing of responsibility
by the government. Sixty percent of
the homeless are single mothers with
children, most of which have turned
to the streets as their only alternative
to an abusive relationship. About 35
percent of the homeless are mentally
ill. Although the government has
pledged to help both of these groups
of people, they are conveniently ig
nored once out on the streets.
The U.S. is the richest nation in
the world, yet is doing less to help its
homeless citizens than over 150 oth
er countries. What this nation needs
is a strong national agenda against
domestic violence, and drug and
prostitution policies based on reha
bilitation rather than criminaliza
tion. Putting tax money back into the
pockets of the rich can surely wait.
For politicians, ignoring the home
less is easy; people on the streets
hardly have the capacity to fight
back. It is time for citizens in all
classes to remember and recognize
the experience of the homeless as a
harsh reality that needs to end.
aileeslater@dailyemerald. com
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■ Editorial
Constructing
rockets takes
priority over
education
During his re-election campaign, President
Bush talked about returning “fiscal sanity” to
this country. It was a statement so shameless
that it should have cost him a second term. How
did his conscience allow him to say such a thing
after nearly four years of two-fisted spending and
gasp-worthy federal defects? Congress had to
raise the debt ceiling for goodness sake!
But this political myth — that Republicans
are the best doctors for our nation’s economic
health — is an enduring one, but a myth none
the less.
Case in point: the FY05 federal spending bill.
The $388 billion omnibus bill, passed by Con
gress last week, is chock-full of pork-barrel proj
ects, 11,772 projects at a cost of
$15,780,533,623 to be exact, according to Tax
payers for Common Sense. Some are pet proj
ects, some are corporate handouts and some
are just plain stupid.
Here are a few examples of the later:
$25,000 for curriculum development for the
study of mariachi music
$45,000 for A+ for Abstinence for absti
nence education
$300,000 for CyberSeniors, Inc. - Experience
Senior Power Program
$250,000 for Country Music Hall of Fame
But the congressmen and congresswomen
did manage to stop some spending. At the 11th
hour, House Republicans instituted changes to
the bill that the American Council on Education
said could cost 90,000 students their Pell Grant
eligibility. An additional 1 million could face re
ductions in their awards. The change involves
using more current tax information when deter
mining a family’s level of need. The FY05 budg
et also contains language that caps the maxi
mum Pell Grant award at $4,050. President
Bush has said he wants the maximum to be
$1,000 higher.
Republicans were clamoring for the change
in order to cover a more than $3 billion short
fall in the Pell Grant program. And there it is,
the fiscal sanity President Bush has promised:
Filling budget shortfalls with money meant for
low-income students while ensuring corpora
tions get their welfare packages fully intact. It
is uncompassionate conservatism at its best.
What is a more important spending priority to
President Bush than Pell Grants, the largest fed
eral aid source for college students? Sending a
person back to the moon by 2020, of course.
Congress took the first step toward accomplish
ing Bush’s goal of boldly going where several
men have gone before, by passing a larger-than
expected NASA FY05 budget ($16.2 billion).
But this is just the beginning: The new space
craft alone would cost $24.7 billion, according
to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the College
Board estimates that students are facing tuitions
over 10 percent higher this year. So as tuitions
are skyrocketing, Bush is thinking about rock
ets. He cares more about sending a person to
the moon than sending a person to college.
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