Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, young man! Here in Amerikkka, you only get one chance to make a life for yourself and if you fail, it’s your own fault! We are all born with equal opportunities, right? Racism and sexism and ableism are over! Class hierarchies don’t exist, and if the economy goes under, well, you should have thought about that before you tried to, like, have a life, and stuff. Oh wait. you mean the world doesn’t work that way? I don’t live in a Candy Land-esque society where lollipops fall from the sky and everybody gets a fair chance? The myth of American Dream is over!? Well, gee .
On Oct. 19 The CT ran an article titled “Cabell library tightens rules on homeless.” Apparently in response to the VCU administration’s irresponsible planning, incredibly lax admittance policy and mismanagement of funds (your tuition money) the Cabell library is simply too small to accommodate all of its students. The solution: NO HOMELESS ALLOWED!
Although many, including myself, might see the enormous expansion of VCU throughout downtown Richmond as contributing to the problem of homelessness and gentrification in our fair city, apparently we see fit to kick the homeless while they’re down. Jeanne Hammer (Administration and Policy Development unit of VCU) said the Cabell Library is focused on serving the university and not the public. Truly, Ms. Hammer? Our public university ought not serve the public?
Loosely worded, the Cabell library’s new policy requires the Cabell facility only be used by individuals with state-issued photo IDs for academic work. I wonder how the rhetoric about the homeless became an issue in the first place when so few students really use the library to pursue academic work.
As I write this article, I can see roughly 10 students on Facebook, one admiring some lolcats, one watching surfing videos, one or two playing some strange farming game, and another laughing at videos of people falling down on YouTube. There is talking, laughing, flirting and general socializing all around me. According to the new library policy, all of these students ought to be removed from the facility. Why have they not been asked to leave? They don’t look homeless. This policy is clearly bedded in our prejudice against Richmond’s most forgotten residents.
The homeless have nothing to do with the overcrowding of our tiny, out of date library. As a nerd, I spend a lot of time in the library. In my years at VCU I have noticed that homeless individuals typically enter the facility in the cold months of the year during the daytime, when there is little opportunity for shelter elsewhere. They usually sit together at a table in the stacks and politely read for several hours. They are, by no means, any more disruptive than the general student body.
VCU administration, faculty and students: It is time to stop hating on the homeless. As the economy continues to decline and the myth of the American Dream dissolves with it, perhaps it is time for some compassion and understanding. Making the homeless invisible might relieve your guilty conscience, but it does not make them disappear. We cannot simply ignore and shut away valuable members of our community because we find them unsightly. Stop the judging and actually get to know a homeless person! Frankly, I would rather be sitting next to a homeless man than the dude-bra next to me laughing at fat people videos.