That according to Leonard Muya, a homeless gentleman who lived in the 2 week temporary shelter in Northfield,  is half the problem. Muya gave a talk in the Northfield Community Action Centre the past Thursday, 19^th November on the issues surrounding homelessness in Minnesota.

For Muya, homeless became an issue out of nowhere. The son of a navy veteran, he dropped out of his Mechanical Engineering bachelors at the U of M when tuition money ran out and he was unable to find enough loans. Yet Muya made the best and found a job in a factory in Northfield. But in the spring of 2006 he was laid off, and when he was unable to find another job, he lost his car and his apartment as well.

Through the Salvation Family free daily lunch program in Mankato, Muya met a group of people who lived in homeless camps from spring to the beginning of winter when homeless shelters are closed.  According to Muya, Minnesota has very few options available for its almost 3000 homeless people. Many homeless people avoid going to county authorities because county’s answer to their problem is to place them in a Group Residential Housing where they have to live alongside people with mental disorders such as schizophrenia which they feel unsafe doing. “I was more comfortable being in jail than being in a group home with schizophrenics” said Muya.

For Muya, being homeless has led to a vicious cycle that makes it incredibly difficult for him to find a job. “Employers need an address, or at least a phone number and if you are homeless, you can’t provide either. Small things like showering in the morning to look presentable and even being able to get to your workplace make a huge difference in your ability to hold a job, and as things are in the current economy, it makes it quite certain that the homeless shall remain so” said Muya.

Muya spoke about his experience traveling from one homeless camp to another between Mankato, Waseca, Faribault, Owatonna and Albert Lea with a group of 25 30 people. The people in the camps tend to lead a nomadic life in order to keep a low profile and not be busted by the cops. Muya emphasized how homelessness leads to substance abuse problems and not the other way around. “The despair of homelessness drives most people into drugs, and alcohol to escape from reality” said Muya. When unable to find place in shelters in the winter Muya along with other homeless people hopped on top of trains and traveled south to the warmer states only to came back to Minnesota in the start of Spring.

Northfield residents discussed many aspects and possible solutions to the problems of homelessness at the meeting. Muya explained that according to him the best model to alleviate homelessness is what the state of Wisconsin has with Proctor and Gamble where homeless people placed in shelters are situated in jobs at factories with Proctor and Gamble. A part of their earnings is directly transferred to the shelters ensuring both a place to stay and  a job.  While the CAC operates the only emergency homeless shelter in Northfield which provides temporary shelter for one family or individual at a time in a local apartment for a period of 14 days maximum and a transitional housing with support services program where the CAC operates two units of transitional housing for homeless individuals and families where households pay 30% of their income toward rent and can rent the housing for 6 months to 24 months, the need for a more centralized shelter in the Faribault-Northfield area was expressed at the meeting.

The possibility of copying the model in Wisconsin by establishing re-employment programs with area companies like Faribault Foods, Mclane, Mcquay and Malt-O-Meal was brought up by many Northfield residents. Jim Blaha, CAC director and the organizer of the talk said that this definitely was an area where careful conversation with the companies could help them make inroads and persuading the companies by giving them benefits in the form of tax cuts and subsidies for employing homeless people might also be another aspect to be looked into.

Another idea brought up by Muya was the possibility of establishing co-housing programs with families and church organizations that are willing to help homeless people. According to Muya, a lot is said on homelessness and homeless people but not much done. “Northfield and Faribault have the resources and wealth to help out!” said Muya. While many people attending the talk discussed the possibility of establishing co housing programs, the issue of trust also came up. “I am open to helping and supporting homeless people by letting them live in my house, but I do not want to worry about going to the grocery store and coming back to find my house robbed” said Mr. Andrew Bergound,a gentleman present at the talk . While Muya agreed that trust issues will be a large part of establishing any co housing program, he also emphasized that homeless people commit crimes because of desperation and that crimes committed by homeless people are very often stereotyped and stigmatized by the press. According to Muya, a recent article in the Northfield News did exactly that: “When Jim Hammerand approached me he said that it will be a ‘small article’ about the CAC event but then he spinned it and put me on the frontpage detailing my criminal records after doing a background check on me, which I thought was biased since I was trying to provide solutions to raising awareness and ways we could prevent and solve it” said Muya.
A question brought up at the talk was whether for many homeless people, their way of living is a choice. According to Muya, while it maybe a lifestyle choice for a few, for most homeless people, it is usually the result of some sort of traumatic experience they have gone through. “I met many military veterans that had been homeless for many years and many had chronic illnesses associated with being shell-shocked” said Muya. Muya spoke about his own experience trying to find a job, “the only job I found was at McDonalds and at the pay-rate of minimum wage it is impossible for a single adult to afford rent, food, utilities, insurance and other costs! That’s real, and folks from Northfield are affluent and many cannot empathize with what low-income and poor people go through” said Muya. Yet at the same time, many people from Northfield present at the talk emphasized how much they really wanted to help homeless people, but because of a lack of an efficient system to provide such support, they wren’t able to do much. “We have the access to resources and connections to help homeless people out and we should try to do our best to do what we can because of our position and not expect homeless people to do that for themselves” said Ms. Susan Lott, a Northfielder present at the talk. 

While Muya’s long term plan is to go back to school to do a Computer aided Design program he first has to deal with finding permanent residence and a job.

Mahal Burr working on her book in the Gould Library

Burr’s inspiration for the book came from Dear Dr. King, a book compiled by a Memphis teacher who asked her students to write to Dr. Martin Luther King and talk about their hopes, fears and aspirations in regard to racial issues. The book deeply affected Burr and she felt inspired to do something similar to this project. Thus Burr applied for the Davis Peace Prize project, which funds students with 10,000$ to do a project for empowerment in the community. While she was selected as one of the two finalists, she unfortunately did not win the funding for the project. But her attempt to use letters and raise awareness in the community gathered the attention of Adrienne Falcon, the director of Carleton College’s Academic Civic Engagement program. Falcon put Burr in touch with Dina Fesler, the president and founder of Children’s Cultural Connection, which raises funds for twelve charities across the world and fosters peace by promoting the understanding of other cultures among American children.

One of the projects started by Children’s Cultural Connection was an exchange of letters between students in Northfield, Washington D.C. and New York schools to students in Iraqi schools. The program gathered a lot of local and national attention when Gunnar Swanson, the program manager of War Kids relief and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, started a 1000 mile walk on July 4 2009, from Dallas, Texas to Northfield, Minnesota. The walk was Swanson’s effort to raise funds and awareness for War Kids Relief and CCC and as a part of the walk he stopped everyday of in a different school to talk to the children there about children like them in Iraq and encouraged them to write letters to them. Gunnar’s walk came to an end in Cannon Falls on September 11, 2009 where he walked the last part of the mile under a tunnel of hands formed by the children from Cannon Falls public schools.

When Burr met Dina Fesler to discuss the project, she felt inspired to do something more with it. “Here at Carleton, there is a lot of discussion but not much doing,” said Burr. Thus she decided to work with CCC in compiling a book from the 1200 letters written by students in Cannon Falls schools and some 15 letters that CCC translated and gave her from children in Iraq. The book is compiled on the basis of common themes in the letters and with every page being compiled by a different Carleton student. Some of the themes under which the book is compiled are: Family, Fears, Aspirations, What I like to do etc. “What really touched me about the letters was that when writing about their own hopes, dreams and aspirations, the students wrote about what they wanted for the Iraqi kids” said Burr.

One student from Cannon Falls wrote: “Hello there! My name is Rebecca or Becca if its easier for you to pronounce. I am from Cannon Falls Minnesota and we took time out of out choir class in school today to write you these letters. I am not sure how old you are but I am currently 14. I just wanted to take the time to you that we over here in America are worries about you guys and truly care”; Kati, another student from Cannon Falls wrote, “My name is Kati. I’m short, funny, cute, have lot of friends and now your one of them”. Burr scanned and included the drawings and illustrations of the students in her book.

Burr’s book includes a page of quotations from the 15 letters from children in Iraq that she received through CCC and which had been translated into English for her. The replies from Iraqi children showed not only how the war has affected their dreams and hopes but how they, like children all over the world are alike to them: Ari Kakawla Ali, a 13 year old from Baghdad wrote of his dreams, “I want to see my country rescued from war and terror and I hope to become a police officer in future to save my country from war and terror and do good deeds” while 14 year old Nabaa Majid wrote of her fears, “I hate to see killing in front of me, and terror”. “My dream is to study the subject which I like which is engineering”, wrote 14-year-old Nabaa from Baghdad.

A Page from the book

The book is being  sent by Children’s Cultural Connection to Oprah and Obama to showcase the work their foundation does.  The book is available for sale here for $12.95, with all proceeds going to CCC. A reading of the book will be held in connection with the Iraq war works exhibit on 11^th November in the Gould library athenaeum at 7pm with a group of students from Cannon Falls coming to Carleton to read their parts from the letters they wrote.

As the Obama administration battles with the senate deadlock over the healthcare bill , it is interesting to note that in general the American public is pretty evenly split in their attitude towards the reforms. According to this week’s poll done by the Rasmussen report, which has been tracking support for the Healthcare reform bill, only 44% of the public is in favor of the reform while 50% are opposed to the plan.

A Northfield resident who did not want his name to be disclosed said that while he thought that the healthcare industry definitely needed change, he did not like Obama’s healthcare reform plan, which according to him, “will take away the power from independent doctors”. “We’ll have another Canada here” said the man, nodding his head in dejection.

On the other hand, Jen, a nurse practitioner at Allina Medical clinic, really hoped that Obama’s healthcare bill gets passed, not only because she strongly supports universal coverage, but also because it allows coverage for students and non students alike under their parents insurance plan till they reach the age of 25. “My son is 25 and is low income and does not buy health insurance because he thinks he cannot afford it. What if he breaks his leg while skiing? He’s going to go bankrupt!” said a concerned Jen.

Paul Carnahan, A Vermont resident who was visiting Northfield, said that what he liked best in Obama’s healthcare plan was the coverage of small, independent businesses. Something which is really important as insurance coverage  provided by smaller businesses has gone down 22% in the last 15 years. Carnahan also felt that efforts should be made towards providing coverage to illegal immigrants too though he felt “absolute inclusiveness would be difficult to achieve”.

Dr. Julian Bond, an important civil rights activist, who was visiting Northfield last week to speak at Carleton College, said that while the original reforms had been watered down a lot, he was sure that the bill would get passed and  that“will be a big step towards civil rights and equality”.

But Mike, a Northfield resident, was dissatisfied with Obama’s Medicare reform plan. “They stink!” said Mike, “I voted for Obama, and am really disappointed because I am going to lose a lot of money because of the healthcare reforms.  Obama has completely ignored the senior white Caucasian male from his healthcare demographics”.

Ben, another Northfield resident, blamed the “lobbyists behind the insurance companies” for the current poor state of the Health care industry. Joy Feilen, a Massage Therapist, echoed Ben’s view. According to Joy, the bureaucracy surrounding healthcare made it “stuck in the muck”. “American capitalist theory is not working in regard to Healthcare” said Joy. “We need to remove the profit” said Joy firmly, “or else, Healthcare will fully progress into becoming Sick-care”.

I usually taught ESL to higher classes, but in spring, I was asked to teach ESL to a group of six year olds who were doing poorly in their English class. The group consisted of 4 girls and 3 boys, all of who were of Latino origin and when I met them for the first time, they all looked small and cute.

They initially thought that I was Latino too, but they soon realized that my Spanish was limited to ‘Ole’ and ‘Amigos’.  Then began a harrowing one and a half hour session where I tried to get them to spell words and they tried to make fun of me. They made fun of my name, my accent and when told I am from India, one little girl asked me if I rode an elephant! I was amused and laughed it off.

One day I arrived at the school to find that the class my group belonged to was having a cake and ice cream party. Happily, I grabbed a plate from the teacher and sitting beside her, started eating my share of ice cream and cake. A little later, a middle aged Latino woman carrying a big cake entered the class and spoke to the teacher in Spanish. I figured that she was the mother of one of the boys in class and had brought the cake to celebrate her son’s birthday. The lady spoke to the children in whatever broken English she could and smiled a lot at the kids as she offered them pieces of a gorgeous chocolate cake.  To my surprise, the same kids who had been clamoring over cake a few minutes ago refused the cake she offered them. A sense of realization dawned on me.

The lady left and a little later the teacher distributed the same cake, which was eaten up by the kids.   As I sat back in the bus back to college, I realized that the Latino community in Northfield was not only hurt by racism they faced from outside the community but that racism had created an atmosphere where many Latino’s ended up despising what they associated with the the culture that got them discriminated against.

And, sadly, they may have a valid point. Research shows that many Latino people are discriminated for speaking Spanish in professional settings. Many people in the Latino community have fallen victims to the propaganda against other Latino’s, especially recent immigrants and those believed to be illegal.    This Internalized Racism has become a major problem in the Latino community for it hinders the empowerment of the group as a whole.

Yet, the question remain, in an environment of negativity which affects their parents, older siblings and maybe themselves, how do you teach a group of six year old’s that their culture is valuable and to be treasured?

The Skinner Memorial Chapel at Carleton College, where the convocation address took place, was packed with students, professors and Northfield residents who braved the unexpected rain and cold of the Friday morning to hear Mr. McConnell, a Carleton alum who was the only speechwriter for the Bush -Cheney administration to remain all 8 years .

Mr. McConnell graduated from Carleton in 1986 with a BA in economics after which he went on to Yale law school and started working for Vice President Dan Quayle. It was Vice President Quayle who nudged him to go work for George W. Bush’s 2000 election campaign in Austin, Texas from where he went on to the White House.

Even when he was at Carleton, Mr. McConnell’s friends and professors knew of his deep interest in politics.  Professor Steven Schier of the Political science department, whose classes Mr. McConnell urged the students in the chapel to take, told me that Mr. McConnell was a friendly and smart student of high integrity. Professor Schier remembered that even when Mr. McConnell came into Carleton as an undergraduate, he was an avid Republican and a Reagan fan: something that was and remains to this day a rarity at Carleton.

Dan, a sophomore at Carleton who was present at the chapel told me, “He [Mr. McConnell] is obviously obliged to say good things about the [Bush] administration but he sounds really convinced about their uprightness and integrity which, honestly, came as a surprise to me and most Carleton students I guess”.

And convinced Mr. McConnell was, as he told the chapel that the most important aspect to his time and career in Washington DC was that his idealism was never dimmed; “You are working with the President of United States who is the successor of many great men and yet I never thought the less of him for it, he was always the good guy and it was good to know that one of the most powerful people on the Earth was also one of the least pretentious” said Mr. McConnell.