(no subject)
This week is Hunger and Homelessness week at Gustavus. My club, ASAP (Actions Supporting All People), sponsored this week with a series of events as well as a sleep out. Today is the last day and it's sort of bittersweet but at the same time a relief to have it end. It is currently below zero and the wind blowing the snow around up here is merciless. I have been homeless for the past three and a half days. I did not bathe, did not change clothing, slept outside in a box and on the floor of the chapel, ate mostly what was given to me, and had no room to go back to except for public buildings. This was an incredible experience and although many ridiculed me saying that it wasn't exactly like the real thing, that first night in the box outside broke me. It broke me to the extent that the seven miserable hours of shivering and the one hour I slept that night still haunt my body. Luckily the weather was only a little below freezing and there was no snow. But, last night it stormed and snowed and I could not imagine what it would be like to go to sleep in a box like this every night of the minnesota winter and have to get up in the morning to beg for food or even go to work. Last night we had pizza and politics and it seemed that the republicans and the democrats here were in agreement with the fact that we need to do something drastic to change the way our own people have to live. Every 3.5 days the number of people killed in hunger and homelessness related causes is equal to the number of people killed by the atomic bomb dropped upon Hiroshima. See, we can all read these cold hard facts and feel for the people but I have found that after having this experience it becomes more realistic than you can imagine. To make matters worse, we sponsored the showing of the walmart movie after pizza and politics and I couldn't handle it very well. I watched a documentary which proved what many of us have been trying to tell and make clear to others, we live in a sick world. Curled up on the floor of the chapel last night, munching on the tomatoes and lettuce people had left for us to eat, laughing about how horrible we all smelled, and seeing tears in each others eyes as we realized people had to sleep outside in this weather, a few of us began to discuss what had gone wrong in our society and the hopelessness we have felt and continue to feel even more deeply. We don't know how to change the world entirely and it seems there is no time left to do it. This is the truth, there's no way to argue otherwise, however we can attempt to make a difference now and I truly hope that I can.