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OPINION
Friday, May 18, 1984
Page 6
The MiL-igan Daily
Homeless deserved better
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By Eric Mattson
Gail is in her thirties, pregnant, and
homeless. She was hanging out at the
Daily for most of the day, and now, late
at night, she joined me and another
reporter upstairs.
She asked if we had any cigarettes,
and when we said we didn't, she picked
up a butt from the floor and smoked it.
Gail wasn't very talkative; she just
mumbled to herself while she doodled
on a phone book.
Gail told the security guards that she
didn't have anywhere else to go-the
temporary shelter at St. Andrew's
Church doesn't open until 10:00 p.m.
They finally persuaded her that she was
on University property, and when they
read her the trespassing statute, she
decided to leave.
Gail is one of at least 50 homeless
people in Ann Arbor. They are a very
diverse group, but they all have at least
one thing in common: For one reason or
another, they cannot fit into society the
way that society wants them to.
The homeless come from all walks of
life. Some have been released too soon
from state mental hospitals due to the
funding problems hitting nearly every
part of the federal government, some
are the stereotypical street people, and
some are just down on their luck.
According to Paul Brown, president
of the Shelter Association, some of the
homeless suffer from mental problems,
but the temporary shelter at St. An-
drew's has shown that the homeless are
no more likely to be violent than any
other group. In fact, the homeless are
actually more likely to be victims of
crime since they are often incapable of
defending themselves.
They are not a very potent political
force, so anything the government does
for them is what the government wants
to do for them. A group of concerned
citizens in Ann Arbor tried for months
to help these people, and they finally
triumphed when they found a permanent
site for a homeless shelter.
There was, of course, a problem. The
proposed site was near a church.
Religion is supposed to reach out to
people, not reject them because they're
poor. But the folks at St. Nicholas
Greek Orthodox Church didn't quite see
it that way. They supported the idea of
a homeless shelter, of course, and even
subsequently offered to finance part of
it, as long as it wasn't near them.
These "religious" people, who
previously had done little to find
shelter for the homeless, started
screaming as soon as they discovered
that the shelter might be placed near
by. They said that the homeless are
potentially dangerous, and the well-
being of the congregation's women,
children, and elderly might be jeopar-
dized by these strange people.
The homeless do give us something to
fear, but that fear is poverty, not
violence. Most people give lip service to
helping the poor, but if the poor are
going to be helped right next -door,
forget it.
Many of Ann Arbor's homeless people
are actually quite interesting, and some
of them are more intelligent than a lot
of people at the University. They are
capable of establishing a niche in
society if they have someone to help
them, and the homeless shelter that will
be opening soon is a potential boon to
Ann Arbor as well as the indigents.
Those in charge of the shelter, however,
must try to make the house more than
just a shelter. It should be a place
where people can go to begin
reestablishing their place in society,
not just a place to spend the night.
The main trouble with many of the
government's social programs is that
they serve to perpetuate the problem
instead of alleviating it. This would not
be the case with the proposed homeless
shelter. Since Ann Arbor's homeless
shelter will be directly controlled by a
non-profit organization, the shelter
may actually help the homeless get
back on their feet instead of helping
them onto their knees and letting them
stagnate.
It is essential for the program to do
more than just provide a bed and a
shower. To really begin to conquer the
problem, the public has to realize that
the homeless are not much different
than the rest of us, and the shelter must
establish programs to help the
homeless become assimilated with the
rest of society. Paul Brown intends to
implement various day programs for
the shelter this fall, after the shelter
has been established. Let's hope effec-
tive programs don't become stodged in
the quagmire of community hostility
and indifference.
Mattson is a Daily reporter.
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UWie Afhdbtgau BU1IQ
Vol. XCIV, No. 7-S
94 Yeors of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
The PSN parry
AT ONE POINT, the University and the
City of Ann Arbor may have thought the
arrests last March of 11 members of the
Progressive Student Network sitting in at
Prof. George Haddad's laboratory would
knock the wind out of the local anti-militarism
movement.
As it turned out, they couldn't have been
more mistaken.
Instead of taking the convictions for
trespassing as inevitable, the 11 PSN mem-
bers and their attorneys are preparing to offer
a spirited and innovative defense to the city's
charges.
On May 1, the 11 defendants, as part of a
request for discovery of evidence, asked the
court to order the University to turn over a
large amount of previously undisclosed in-
formation pertaining to Haddad's research.
PSN deserves to have access to this infor-
mation.
One of the PSN's defenses against the
trespassing charge is that the behavior of the
11 defendants was justified because they were
acting "to prevent a threat to the health and
safety of all of us." Conclusive proof of the
character of Haddad's research could cer-
tainly be very important to establishing this
justification. Without access to this infor-
mation, it is very likely that the 11 PSN defen-
dants will be denied a fair trial.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
We 're all Native Americans
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To the Daily:
Marla Gold's article (Daily,
May 13) about Indians at the
University is quite right in calling
attention to the chauvinism in-
volved in referring to Columbus
(or some other European) as the
discoverer of America, despite
the fact that the continent was
well populated long before he
Zoned out
To the Daily:
As residents of Braun Court,
a seven home street across from
Kerrytown and the Farmer's
Market, we feel the need to in-
form the Ann Arbor and student
communities about the fate of
this area.
Beginning this month, there
are plans to convert the homes in-
to retail space. This follows a
trend in the downtown area of
turning residences into buildings
for commercial use. We feel that
low and middle-income housing
should be maintained in Ann Ar-
bor. As students at the University
of Michigan, we know this need
for affordable housing is even
greater for those on limited
budgets.
On Tuesday, May 22 at 7:30
p.m. there will be a public Plan-
ning Commission meeting held at
City Hall to discuss the proposed
conversion of Braun Court. We
urge all concerned citizens to at-
tend and show their support for
our efforts to have our street re-
zoned as strictly residential.
-Elissa Driker
Deborah Kanter
May 16
arrived. And it is not just
America. Around the world, by
and large, we count a place as
discovered only when some
European finds it. Africans and
Asians are apparently unable to
discover anything, .even when
they are standing on it.
Unfortunately, the article itself
exhibits just the same sort of
chauvinism in referring to In-
dians as "Native Americans."
For that assumes that only
Europeans can be invaders or
newcomers. Everyone else
must be a "native."
The fact, however, seems to be
that there were many waves of
immigration into North America.
before the Europeans arrived.
There is no reason to believe that
the progenitors of any modern
Indian tribe were among the
original inhabitants of this con-
tinent. The Ojibway and the
Navajo are no more native to
North America that are the
Italians and the Poles.
we are, all of us, far too late to
be anything other than
newcomers here. And the lands
we live on, and the resources we
use, were all seized from groups
and cultures which were here
long before our own.
-George I. Mavrodes
May 15
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Straightface by Gordon
town, my
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