| Show The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION All Saturday December 27 1997 Vice Presidents Stunt With Kids Misses the Homelessness Story CAL THOMAS LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE We haven't heard WASHINGTON much about the homeless since the Clinton administration took office nearly five years ago Until then homelessness was said to be the result of Republican insensitivity and the economic policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations Vice President A1 Gore thrust the homeless back into the spotlight just before Christmas when he rounded up a group of children from a Washington DC homeless shelter and brought them to the Department of Housing and Urban Development where they served as props for an administration announcement to spend $865 million to help the homeless find homes and hope Displaying his theological ignorance (matched only by his environmental ignorance) the vice president said that Mary and Joseph were homeless In fact they had left home to pay taxes in another town They found a no vacancy sign at an inn and had to camp in a stable While traveling I have been turned away from motels because they were booked to capacity but in seeking other accommodations I never viewed myself as homeless A HUD spokesperson said the homeless children were briefed before the event Jessica Christie said the kids were shown a picture of Gore before he showed up and were given background information so they would know why he is important That would be instructive for the rest of us The vice president then showed up to what must have been wondering eyes He read them a Christmas story (but not the Christmas story) When the event concluded the homeless kids having were shuttled back served his purpose to their shelter where they could ponder the important company they had briefly kept Gore told them not to worry because some of Americas publishers were going to donate hundreds of thousands of books to them and other homeless kids Former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder now head of the Association of American Publishers said Every American needs to know that reading out loud to children is as important as fastening their seat belt Things are looking up for the homeless no thanks to government Since government benefits have declined 20 percent of the homeless have checked into rescue missions according to the International Union of Gospel Missions Instead of a government check rescue missions seek to change lives from the inside out IUGM Executive Director Rev Stephen E Burger says: Those who d lost benefits tend to be alcohol- - and men and women in their 40s and 50s who previously received Social Security Disability and SSI benefits The government has finally done away with their drunk checks While rescue missions cannot force people to change they can lead them to confront the responsibility they have to deal with their problems and can empower them in ways that secular government cannot How cynical of the vice president to use homeless children as props and then immediately thrust them back into their world In the story of the Good Samaritan the one who tells the injured man by the side of the road to have a nice day is condemned while the man who picks up the injured traveler and instructs the innkeeper to care for him at his benefactors expense is praised Real compassion isnt a government check and it isnt using the wretched unfortunates as backdrops for ones political aspirations Why didnt the vice president ask the kids to spend the night or give them sleeping bags or some other substantive gift that might have eased their misery? Ask yourself If you were homeless would you prefer a meal and a home to a book? No child should have a life where theres no address for Santa Claus to come on Christmas morning Gore said in his most compassionate voice Thanks to Gores quick eviction of the homeless kids (they were there for 90 minutes which included the briefing) Santa could see all of them together in a homeless shelter Mrs Bushs story time was better than this drug-addicte- Remembering Those Trying to Make a Difference PATRISIA GONZALES ROBERTO RODRGUEZ CHRONICAL FEATURES We often meet SAN FRANCISCO selfless people who struggle to dignify life and challenge the daily moments when despair might otherwise creep in Rarely do we ask them what inspires them in their own daily lives but we decided to do so this Yuletide season Vivian Lopez who works at Dona Ana Community College in southern New Mexico spoke of her delight in listening to the gallos (roosters) and birds chirping outside her home in the morning She surprised us We thought she would have talked about great people or events but instead she reminded us of one lifes great treasures Indeed the sights and sounds of dawn especially in the desert are both concert and canvas to behold When we were in Collingswood NJ recently we posed the same question to our friend Nancy Mallory People winning and people overcoming lifes difficulties she responded In continuing the conversation she observed that as a society we are always at war with each other partly because weve never been taught to be good human beings We study everything except how to be human For Rev RT Conley of Dallas its helping people who are down and hungry He gets You cant buy that feeling such a great feeling doing so that he sometimes feels selfish He became an environmental justice activist when he encountered lead poisoning in his community some 50 years ago "What motivated me was seeing kids getting sick and having to go to the clinic For Arminda Ayala a hospital administrator in Phoenix its the "Last Chicano Supper artwork and the words inscribed and to all those who underneath: " died scrubbed floors wept and fought for us It reminds me of all the regular people I see in buses janitors Usually they're brown people she said Even in adversity we find hope Margarita Rosario from the Bronx NY told us that it s hard for her during the holidays She lost her son and nephew (Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega) in a police shooting several years ago and today is part of Parents Against Police Brutality in New York She said the memory of her son is what inspires her He w'ould want me to do what I'm doing People inspire Catherine Davids a counselor at the University of Michigan at Flint including political activist John Trudell (Santee Sioux) singerssong-writer- s Richard Cyr and Pat and Anna Shawnoo and the artwork of American Indian political prisoner Leonard Peltier These good people are my morning prayer They are a vital connection between me and the Creator They guide me throughout my waking hours and I am never lonely Their courage keeps my feet on the right path Censorship is what motivated noted au Its rare Its Its a fiesta thor lshmael Reed of Oakland Calif to become a writer and civil rights activist In high school he was threatened with being sent to see a psychologist because he was championing the underdog That's when I found out you can fight back (against injustices) with writing" Another friend who finds power in words is Liliana Lopez a journalism graduate student at Columbia University She is motivated to tell the narratives of Mexicans in New York Lopez who was born in El Salvador and raised in Washington DC says she knows what it is to be voiceless By telling their stories of atrocities and abuses of what it is to be an I'm also tellimmigrant in this country ing my story Sometimes our own inspiration arrives in the mail Ricardo Sanchez of Seattle recently wrote to us about five students from nearby Yakima who want to pursue a higher education One of them a former gang member named Santana said he wanted someday to wear a suit But a big stumbling block is that some of them don't have immigration papers Sanchez wrote: Alma a beautiful young woman said: Please do something about it Maybe you can change the law so that anyone who gets a 35 GPA can get accepted into college Then she cried We are not going to forget Alma Sanit tana Jim Bodeen (their teacher) cannot continue" concluded Sanchez Nor shall we forget anyone else who is trying to make a difference in the world nor the rooster's crow on a beautiful morning one of a kind and ITS ON SALE BURSTING like a holiday pinata Rustica's warehouse is filled with our recycled wood and iron furnishings OLE! 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