LETTER: Quad activity in poor taste
Editor,
My comments are in response to the poverty and homelessness awareness activity on Friday night, and the corresponding article from Monday’s Utah Statesman. While the event I’m sure was well intentioned, as various speakers addressed poverty and homelessness, the mock-up simulation of homelessness, in building and sleeping in cardboard shelters, seemed more like and irreverent parody than an exercise in attempted empathy or understanding.
The feature event of the evening, the cardboard shelter-building competition, encouraged students to create caricature-like shelters; practically equating them with sand castles. After an evening full of dancing and socializing, some students took to the shelters as they braved a night out among the elements.
These activities, while literally comparable to elements of homeless life, fail to encourage the appropriate sensitivity that should accompany an exercise in understanding the sober realities of homelessness.
Likewise, the recent article in the Statesman seemed predominantly interested in the shelter-building competition and the sacrifices of the students who participated in the event. Yet the article made no mention of the actual homeless, who live daily in such conditions.
In these instances, it seems the awareness of poverty and homelessness was superseded by a preoccupation with the worthiness of the very efforts to be aware.
What might some of the homeless we’ve met think of the cardboard shelter-building contest? Perhaps they would disregard it as a harmless gala, but in my opinion, it would seem as if students too comfortably gloss over the stark realities of homelessness in exchange for an alternative, more comfortable depiction.
I acknowledge this might be an overreaction, but I feel like my intentions in submitting this observation are in fact parallel to those who organized this activity.
Considering the relative scarcity of homelessness in Cache Valley in comparison to larger cities, some might already accuse us of being particularly unfamiliar or misunderstanding of this issue. Hopefully, we will never be guilty of that, as we place more attention on constructing activities that are informative and enjoyable, without being disrespectful.
Jeff Martin