OPINION
3
March 15, 2010
ARBITERONLINE.COM
Homeless for a day
THE BUZZKILL
JFAC
ALLEN SPURGEON Journalist
At 6 a.m. last Tuesday, I stepped out my front door armed with nothing but a pad of paper and a pen. Dressed in an old flannel shirt and a pair of ratty cargo pants, I was ready to be homeless for a day. After scrounging up some cardboard from a dumpster, I made my way to the Albertsons on Broadway. Unfortunately, I started too late in the morning. Sitting on a grassy knoll outside the Albertsons parking lot, I witnessed a plethora of shoppers driving in and out. But by the time I finished making my sign, “Anything will help God bless,” the stream of cars had slowed to a trickle. My sign complete, I staked my spot on the corner and begged for my breakfast. After five and a half hours passed, I had received more insults than donations. “Get a job,” followed by some type of profanity was the most popular remark, and the least original. The most hateful comment came from a middleaged white guy, who, I believe, had not taken kindly to the "God bless" appendix on my sign. He informed me, “You are cursed to the hell YOU brought on yourself.” Then he quickly drove off, which didn’t bother me in the slightest because who wants to be in the company of someone like that? Initially I found the rude comments humorous, but their abasing nature soon began to wear me down. While negative slurs and derision were more commonplace, donations also trickled in. One kindly old lady wouldn’t roll her window down the entire way, but was willing to stick a dollar bill out of the slit for me to run over and retrieve. Small pocket change was the usual donation, but like my sign said, “Anything will help.” By 2:30 p.m., when the lunch time rush died down, I had managed to raise $3.23, one button, several Albertsons receipts, and one peppermint candy (which had served as my breakfast and lunch) and I was ready for a meal. After
Thanks for screwing us JOSH GAMBLE Columnist
This week, the Weekly Buzz Kill is going local -- right here in little ol' Boise. I’m taking a break from whining about society as a whole and focusing in on the Idaho State Legislature. More specifically, I’m looking at the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC). Congratulations, JFAC, you’ve managed to do something irritating enough to tear my gaze away from pissing off conservatives and onto you. It’s like you just slipped on Sauron’s ring and now the Buzz Kill Nazgul are on your tail. But enough with my redundant lead -- what the hell are you guys thinking? Last week, JFAC decided that higher education doesn’t really need all of the state funding it has to work with, so they proposed cutting an extra $32 million out of the budget. In response, a group of students from various Idaho colleges marched on the Capitol Building on Mar. 10, carrying signs with slogans like “We’re already poor,” “Don’t price us out of education” and “Us Idahoans need our higher edumacation.” Thanks to budget cuts, students from BSU and ISU are both facing tuition increases at around 10 percent. For the record, that’s more than I make per paycheck. Seriously, JFAC, college kids are one of the poorest groups of people. Don’t you watch television? We’re struggling to make ends meet, pay the rent, and afford text books (which are a total racket, but that’s a rant for another day) all the while taking on debt before we even have a career. It’s like pumping a dry-docked ship full of water and then tossing into the sea. Look, I know times are tough and we’re all tightening our belts. I know you’re making some hard decisions. However, being able to afford college is hard enough as-is. The more expensive you make it, the fewer people who will start showing up. A college education is becoming increasingly essential to make a decent living in America or when trying to get a job outside of the service sector. So here’s my solution (and I know it’s nowhere near this simple): let loose all the potheads. You’ll reduce the number of inmates in Idaho prisons, and if you impose a fine for possession, instead of jail time, you’ll make money off of them. Then, take that money saved and put it towards colleges. You’re spending money on potheads either way, but at least this way you’re doing something productive with them. We’re broke, you’re broke. That’s just the way it is right now. It’s cliché, but students are the future of America, and we need a hand up to get there. It takes state funding to keep higher education affordable. American universities, including Idaho’s universities, represent golden opportunities for both the individual and the nation. Isn’t that what America stands for? Don’t take that opportunity away from America. Don’t take it away from us. Want to contact me directly? Find me at www.twitter.com/arbitergamble or send me an e-mail to onlinecoordinator@arbiteronline.com.
MITCH ESPLIN/THE ARBITER
Arbiter journalist Allen Spurgeon panhandles as he tries to walk in another man's shoes for a day.
You are cursed to the hell YOU brought on yourself. purchasing exactly $3.23 worth of deli meat, and getting a few weird looks in the process, I went outside and found a quiet corner behind Albertsons to eat. I was getting tired of all the abrasive comments and disapproving looks and needed a break. Behind the store I met a harmless looking gentleman who called himself Rex. After comparing signs and exchanging pleasantries, I told him that I was writing an article about being homeless for a day, and asked if he had any input. After bribing him with most of my recently acquired meal, he was more than happy to answer my questions. His most interesting comment was, “Too bad you weren’t out here the other day.” “You mean the day it was raining?” I inquired slightly perplexed. He seemed like a nice enough guy,
but maybe he was angry that I was just a ‘fair weather’ homeless person. “Yeah,” he replied, “big bucks on rainy days. You get use to the wet and the cold but people feel more sorry for you when it rains and it snows.” And with over 15 years of experience, he should know. I talked with Rex for a while longer then we went and "hit the evening rush." Between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. I made almost double my morning income, $6.15, and with far fewer insults. At 6 p.m. I said a parting farewell to Rex, left him with the contents of my cup, and trudged home. Tired, hungry, and very cold, I arrived home a short time later, glad that my day of being homeless was over. My 12-hour stint of being homeless gave me a small glimpse of the truly desperate world these people live in. Considering they live this
life day in and day out, the pain and degradation must be almost unbearable. On Nov. 18, Bethann Stewart of the Idaho Statesman reported that in October, there were anywhere between 2,000 and 4,500 homeless people in Boise on any given night. That is an increase from 2007 where it was estimated that anywhere between 2,020 and 3,078 people experienced homelessness in Ada County over the course of the year. Next time you see someone sitting on a street corner try to put yourself in their shoes. Then realize their situation is probably significantly worse, so have a little compassion. Maybe it means that you will have to forgo a soda the next time you pass a vending machine, but you can be happy knowing that you helped someone survive.
State funding cuts mean higher student fees
GLENN LANDBERG/THE ARBITER
Concerned students from Idaho universities protest proposed budget cuts to higher education Thursday. JASON DENIZAC Guest Opinion
Okay, I get it: students in Idaho aren't much for protest. We are too busy with our lives to harbor much discontent. Worse still, we take it for granted that tuition will keep
going up every year by leaps and bounds. As a result, we as students let the legislature walk all over us. It's no secret tuition has been rising, and fast. Faster than inflation, faster even than healthcare costs. Fulltime resident student fees for one semester in fall 2003 were
$1,625. This past fall, they had risen 50 percent to $2,432. Inflation for the same period was just 17 percent. In 2003, the earliest data available from the Boise State Budget Web site (http://finaid.boisestate. edu/budget), Boise State University received $72.7 million in state funding. Student fees brought in $50.7 million. By the current 2010 budget, state funding remained stagnant at $78.8 million, while student fees climbed to $84.5 million. For too long, the prevailing argument has been that universities have other funding sources, so it's easier to cut state funding. Other funding sources? That means our tuition. The state is balancing its budget on our backs. And since most students at Boise State depend on financial aid, much of that tuition is in the form of debt. Not only is the state cutting the quality of our education through decreased funding, it is setting up our generation to graduate with
thousands of dollars in student debt all while in an uncertain job market. It's no secret that many of our best and brightest leave Idaho after high school. Many are enticed to stay in-state due to the affordability of our universities. If Idaho is to keep its most talented and productive citizens, it must show a commitment to fully funding our public universities. Very few of my fellow students were with me at the Capitol on Thursday. But if we want to make sure the legislature knows it can't treat university budgets as its personal piggy bank, we students must make a statement. The Idaho Student Association is a new group formed for the sake of uniting students from institutions statewide to send a clear message to the state legislature to stop balancing the budget on the backs of students. For more information, check out www.idstudents.org. Jason Denizac is a senior studying political science.
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