As the weather begins to get colder and the holidays grow nearer, most students plan out the details of their visits home to spend time with their friends and families. Some take time for others and opt to participate in alternative breaks with a focus on volunteering or doing research.
Unfortunately, others in Madison don't have the luxury of traveling anywhere, including warm shelters from the brutal cold. The homeless of Madison are left without warm places to sleep in the harshest of conditions, but there are some who are attempting to change these conditions in new innovative ways.
The newly created Homeless Cooperative Newspaper, an idea put together by the Madison Warming Center Campaign, has given a new voice and a new job to many in the homeless community. According to its mission statement in the first issue, those who are homeless or "those who are equally disadvantaged" are employed and are responsible for the marketing of the paper. Seventy-five cents of every dollar donated for a copy is given directly to the vender.
This is in no way an end to Madison's large homelessness problem, but it is at least an attempt to prove that there are those who are willing to work for a living but are currently without employment. The Homeless Cooperative gives homelessness a face and a voice. In the Letter from the Editorial Collective, Claire Muller, Ryan Richardson, and Mel Motel claim to attempt to "personalize these issues, transforming the abstract idea of homelessness into the personal reality of homeless individuals with their own complex and rich voices and life stories." They are well on their way to accomplishing that goal.
On one of the colder days last week I picked up a copy of the Homeless Cooperative Newspaper. The vender, "Merlin," was also the man this issues top headline was about, so he offered to sign it for me. He also corrected misinformation in the article about him; he only has a place to sleep two or three nights a week, not every night. The article, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," was about the new law that bans panhandling in certain areas on State Street and the Capitol Loop. It is commentary from a person directly affected by the law and is very effective in pointing out the negative aspects of it.
This paper has given people in Madison a chance to learn more about the homeless community in their city. There are articles by and about different people who live on the street in Madison. While I might have been cold on my way to class, Merlin was out in the cold attempting to earn enough money to get food.
Reading through my signed copy of the paper, I noticed a section that I have not seen included in many other publications. There is a "Hearts and Minds" section that is dedicated to publishing works of poetry and art by members of the community. In this section there is a sobering poem about contemplating suicide next to a comic strip entitled "The Adventures of Dumb and Dumber Homeless Man." This section of the paper goes even further than the interview with Merlin on the cover to show more of the people it is trying to help. The words and pictures show that the people who are homeless and contribute to this paper are real thinking human beings.
The paper is available on different parts of State Street and Library Mall and the venders accept $1 donations for them. This is a new form of intelligent panhandling in which those who donate receive a paper of well-written articles, poems and short stories. Personally, I can't wait to read the continuation of "Jimmy the Troll's" story "A Life According to Troll" in the December issue.
Julie Isen ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.