He sits on the steps of the under-utilized Crowell-Collier building, arranging bags that encompass his worldly goods. He needs a shave. His hands are dirty. He wears a new “Navy” hat that came from the shelter. His name is Bob and Bob is homeless.
“You look at me and feel sorry,” he says between sips from a large can of Steel Reserve ale. “But you’re the shithead. I can pick up and leave right now and never look back. How about you?”
Bob, no last name please, won’t say how long he has been homeless. “I been a free spirit my whole life,” is about as close as you’ll get. He spends his time panhandling and searching for cigarette butts. His “butt trail”, as he calls it, leads him from the main branch of the library to the Union Club parking lot, to the Eagles front steps. At each stop on his search, Bob sifts through discarded cigarette butts. “Here’s a keeper.” Bob says when he finds one that is still smokable.
According to the Homeless Outreach Project, approximately .8 percent of the population or two million people are homeless in the United States. Of this two million, approximately half a million are mentally ill.
Bob denies that he has any mental disability. “I know’d what’s happening around me.” Though he denies a disability, Bob might be found the next minute asking for your name for the hundredth time or for more money.
Smoking a discarded butt, Bob tells me about his life. “I’m from up Baltimore (Ohio) way. I growed up there, but aint been back for a long time. Don’t know if there’s anyone left who would know me.” When asked about his family, Bob says, “They don’t want nothin’ to do with somebody like me, my Mom was a nice lady but she’s been dead for awhile. Since she’s been gone, I told ‘em all they can kiss my ass.” Alienation aside, Bob shows that he has a soft spot for them. “I guess it aint their fault. Sometimes I aint so lovable.”
According to the Homeless Outreach Project, approximately 40 percent of the male homeless population are veterans. Bob says that he is no exception. “I was in the Army a ways back.” He says that he qualifies for a pension from the army but has never applied for it due to the needs of the government. “They need it worse than I do.”
Bob does alright when it comes to food. He makes a circuit from one church to another as they offer the homeless meals. “The secret is to be early. If you’re late, you don’t get nothin’.”
As we waited in line at Saint John’s Lutheran Church for their weekly meal for the homeless, a look around at Bob’s fellow diners shows a cross-section of race, age, and gender. Children play as their parent or parents try to calm them down. Some of the adults sit on the sidewalk, talking with one another or just to themselves. They come in all shapes and sizes with one thing in common, they are hungry. “I like this place. You get a care package.” Bob says after dinner, holding up a Kroger bag with an apple and a bologna sandwich inside. “It’s my midnight snack.” He chuckles.
Bob sleeps on the steps at the Crowell-Collier building. He says that he prefers it to the shelter where they ask a lot of questions. “I can sleep here and nobody bothers me too much. If you take the charity, they’s some nosy sonsabitches.” Bob says that he keeps warm on cold nights by using layers. “You can stay warm if you know how. The give us blankets when it’s cold. You have to put one around your feet, one on your head, and then one on top. You’ll always stay warm that way.”
Bob does not glamorize the life of the homeless, but he can be philosophical “This life sucks if you let it, but if you got what you need it aint so bad.” He says, taking a drink from his beer and holding a cigarette butt in the other hand. “Hey you got five dollars?”
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
PBK UNFAIR TO SCE STUDENTS
Since 1992 Wittenberg has had a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron of Ohio. In that time, no one connected with either Phi Beta Kappa or the School of Community Education can remember a SCE student being invited to join the organization. When asked if he could recall such an instance, Fred Tiffany, past president of the Wittenberg chapter and associate professor of economics, replied, “I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.” Dr. Elma Lee Moore, Dean of the School of Community Education, concurs, “I know of no SCE students who have been asked to join the honorary.”
According to the Phi Beta Kappa Society web site, “Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most widely known academic honor society with over half a million members and chapters at 280 American colleges and universities. Only about 10 percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Only about 10 percent of the arts and sciences graduates of these distinguished institutions are selected for Phi Beta Kappa membership. Each year, about one college senior in a hundred, nationwide, is invited to join Phi Beta Kappa.”
Among other stipulations concerning eligibility for membership, according to the web site, candidates must be pursuing a bachelor’s degree in a college of Arts and Sciences or its institutional equivalent. They must also be majoring in an area of liberal arts or sciences. Departments such as economics, music, or management are not considered for eligibility because they are considered professional studies. Candidates must complete not less than 90 semester hours (or equivalent) of liberal work among the 120 hours ordinarily required for the degree. Knowledge of mathematics and of a foreign language at least minimally appropriate for a liberal education need also be demonstrated and can be ascertained by proficiency testing.
Professor Tiffany explains how these final requirements are met at Wittenberg. “These are satisfied by having at least a language 112 course and a calculus course.” He makes no mention of the national stipulation of proficiency testing.
According to Tiffany, “Seniors must have a minimum GPA in liberal arts courses of 3.6. Juniors must have a minimum of 3.8. Non-liberal arts courses (i.e. MGT, EDUC, and Music EDUC and other “applied” courses) do not count in these calculations. No more than 10 percent of a particular class may be elected. Therefore the cutoff is sometimes at a higher GPA. There are several related requirements that ensure that there is breadth in the student’s courses. These are generally satisfied by meeting Wittenberg’s general education requirements.”
Of the 2211 student at Wittenberg, 112 are SCE students. This is according to the Wittenberg web site and the office of SCE, respectively. Therefore, approximately five percent of the student population is SCE students.
According to Tiffany, there were 35 inductees into the Witt chapter of Phi Beta Kappa this year, 25 seniors and 10 juniors. Over the lifetime of the chapter, 18 years, and if this year’s crop of scholars is indicative, approximately 630 students have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Wittenberg.
According to the SCE office, it is typical that 30 SCE students graduate each year. In the 18 years of the existence of the Wittenberg chapter of PBK, approximately 540 SCE students have graduated. Approximately 20 percent of these 540 students graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts or Sciences, or approximately 108 students.
Of the approximately 630 students who have attained Phi Beta Kappa membership, none have been selected from the pool of approximately108 SCE graduates in the past 18 years. Though this is the case, Professor Tiffany says, “Yes (CSE students are eligible), if they meet the qualifications.”
Dr. Moore says, “We have a number of outstanding students who should qualify, both past and present.” She also states, “I inquired about this several years ago because of the number of outstanding students we have had in SCE over the years. When I inquired about membership for our students, it seemed that it would be very difficult to be considered because the courses for acceptance had to be completed here. Because many of our students in SCE are transfer students, some courses that would have made SCE students eligible, were completed elsewhere.” Yet, according to Professor Tiffany, course completion criteria is as follows, “Senior students must have completed three full semesters of academic work in residence at Wittenberg and be fully registered for a fourth semester. Juniors must have completed at least one semester of junior year college work at Wittenberg.”
According to Professor Tiffany, “There is no application process. The faculty/staff members review student records in February, have an election just before Spring Break, and hold an induction banquet, usually in early April. Only faculty/staff member of Phi Beta Kappa may vote to elect student members.” He says that there are approximately 20 faculty/staff members of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Fitz Smith, current president of the Wittenberg chapter, and Professor Tammy Proctor, current vice president, were out of the country and unavailable for comment on this story.
According to the Phi Beta Kappa Society web site, “Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most widely known academic honor society with over half a million members and chapters at 280 American colleges and universities. Only about 10 percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Only about 10 percent of the arts and sciences graduates of these distinguished institutions are selected for Phi Beta Kappa membership. Each year, about one college senior in a hundred, nationwide, is invited to join Phi Beta Kappa.”
Among other stipulations concerning eligibility for membership, according to the web site, candidates must be pursuing a bachelor’s degree in a college of Arts and Sciences or its institutional equivalent. They must also be majoring in an area of liberal arts or sciences. Departments such as economics, music, or management are not considered for eligibility because they are considered professional studies. Candidates must complete not less than 90 semester hours (or equivalent) of liberal work among the 120 hours ordinarily required for the degree. Knowledge of mathematics and of a foreign language at least minimally appropriate for a liberal education need also be demonstrated and can be ascertained by proficiency testing.
Professor Tiffany explains how these final requirements are met at Wittenberg. “These are satisfied by having at least a language 112 course and a calculus course.” He makes no mention of the national stipulation of proficiency testing.
According to Tiffany, “Seniors must have a minimum GPA in liberal arts courses of 3.6. Juniors must have a minimum of 3.8. Non-liberal arts courses (i.e. MGT, EDUC, and Music EDUC and other “applied” courses) do not count in these calculations. No more than 10 percent of a particular class may be elected. Therefore the cutoff is sometimes at a higher GPA. There are several related requirements that ensure that there is breadth in the student’s courses. These are generally satisfied by meeting Wittenberg’s general education requirements.”
Of the 2211 student at Wittenberg, 112 are SCE students. This is according to the Wittenberg web site and the office of SCE, respectively. Therefore, approximately five percent of the student population is SCE students.
According to Tiffany, there were 35 inductees into the Witt chapter of Phi Beta Kappa this year, 25 seniors and 10 juniors. Over the lifetime of the chapter, 18 years, and if this year’s crop of scholars is indicative, approximately 630 students have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Wittenberg.
According to the SCE office, it is typical that 30 SCE students graduate each year. In the 18 years of the existence of the Wittenberg chapter of PBK, approximately 540 SCE students have graduated. Approximately 20 percent of these 540 students graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts or Sciences, or approximately 108 students.
Of the approximately 630 students who have attained Phi Beta Kappa membership, none have been selected from the pool of approximately108 SCE graduates in the past 18 years. Though this is the case, Professor Tiffany says, “Yes (CSE students are eligible), if they meet the qualifications.”
Dr. Moore says, “We have a number of outstanding students who should qualify, both past and present.” She also states, “I inquired about this several years ago because of the number of outstanding students we have had in SCE over the years. When I inquired about membership for our students, it seemed that it would be very difficult to be considered because the courses for acceptance had to be completed here. Because many of our students in SCE are transfer students, some courses that would have made SCE students eligible, were completed elsewhere.” Yet, according to Professor Tiffany, course completion criteria is as follows, “Senior students must have completed three full semesters of academic work in residence at Wittenberg and be fully registered for a fourth semester. Juniors must have completed at least one semester of junior year college work at Wittenberg.”
According to Professor Tiffany, “There is no application process. The faculty/staff members review student records in February, have an election just before Spring Break, and hold an induction banquet, usually in early April. Only faculty/staff member of Phi Beta Kappa may vote to elect student members.” He says that there are approximately 20 faculty/staff members of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Fitz Smith, current president of the Wittenberg chapter, and Professor Tammy Proctor, current vice president, were out of the country and unavailable for comment on this story.
Friday, April 9, 2010
steve austria column
When Dave Hobson (R-Springfield), Uncle Dave to his friends, left office, he anointed Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek) as his successor. Conventional wisdom says that a first term congressman, like a young child, should be seen and not heard. Dave Hobson knew this and served his time in the house well. Unfortunately, Mr. Austria hardly waited long enough for Uncle Dave to get his fishing pole out of storage before showed the world the wisdom of keeping quiet.
In a Labor Day column of 2008, Austria plagiarized part of the column from the Department of Labor’s web page and also the Wikipedia web entry for Labor Day. Austria’s camp admitted the gaffe and offered that they had merely omitted a citation. Try that with your English 101 Professor.
Then Mr. Austria showed that he was not only an unwilling to abide by the rules that others must abide by, he also rewrote history. In February of 2009 in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Austria said:
“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”
He gained the enmity of the entire country, sans Pat Buckley, for getting it wrong. Not only was he wrong, but this is OUR representative to congress and the world. He was reiterating a fact that John McCain got wrong in the campaign and tried to make it his own, even though both were as wrong as they could be. Mr. Austria said that he had been misquoted.
During his campaign for congress, Mr. Austria accused his opponent, Sharen Neuhardt (D- Yellow Springs), of harboring an illegal alien. Neuhardt had taken a Rwandan refugee (Ishema Umuhoza) into her home. Umuhoza sought political asylum from the genocide in Rwanda and Neuhardt and her husband, both attorneys, were helping Umuhoza with his case. Umuhoza was in the country legally. Mr. Austria’s attempt to use the plight of a Rwandan refugee for personal political gain is not only vile; it is also below the office in which he serves.
Steve Austria represents one of the most distressed districts in the nation. In a move that probably gave Uncle Dave heartburn, Mr. Austria refused any earmarks for two years in a row. Someone needs to tell Mr. Austria that federal funds make a difference to the economy of a distressed district. The purpose of such funds is to spark economic growth and development. Mr. Austria shows that he represents himself with the same self-serving display of ignorance with which he misrepresents history.
The jobless rate of the Seventh District is over ten percent. At least one out of ten people that he was elected to represent are unemployed. Many more are getting by, paycheck to paycheck. There is little left over for a candy bar, let alone health insurance. Yet, Mr. Austria held the party line and voted against the Health Reform Bill. Perhaps someone should remind him that he represents the Seventh District and not John Boehner.
Steve Austria has sponsored 3 bills (395 out of 440) and co-sponsored 2 (410 out of 440), none of which has been made into law. Mr. Austria, and the Seventh District, would have been better served if he would have spent his time more productively and taken a history class.
In a Labor Day column of 2008, Austria plagiarized part of the column from the Department of Labor’s web page and also the Wikipedia web entry for Labor Day. Austria’s camp admitted the gaffe and offered that they had merely omitted a citation. Try that with your English 101 Professor.
Then Mr. Austria showed that he was not only an unwilling to abide by the rules that others must abide by, he also rewrote history. In February of 2009 in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Austria said:
“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”
He gained the enmity of the entire country, sans Pat Buckley, for getting it wrong. Not only was he wrong, but this is OUR representative to congress and the world. He was reiterating a fact that John McCain got wrong in the campaign and tried to make it his own, even though both were as wrong as they could be. Mr. Austria said that he had been misquoted.
During his campaign for congress, Mr. Austria accused his opponent, Sharen Neuhardt (D- Yellow Springs), of harboring an illegal alien. Neuhardt had taken a Rwandan refugee (Ishema Umuhoza) into her home. Umuhoza sought political asylum from the genocide in Rwanda and Neuhardt and her husband, both attorneys, were helping Umuhoza with his case. Umuhoza was in the country legally. Mr. Austria’s attempt to use the plight of a Rwandan refugee for personal political gain is not only vile; it is also below the office in which he serves.
Steve Austria represents one of the most distressed districts in the nation. In a move that probably gave Uncle Dave heartburn, Mr. Austria refused any earmarks for two years in a row. Someone needs to tell Mr. Austria that federal funds make a difference to the economy of a distressed district. The purpose of such funds is to spark economic growth and development. Mr. Austria shows that he represents himself with the same self-serving display of ignorance with which he misrepresents history.
The jobless rate of the Seventh District is over ten percent. At least one out of ten people that he was elected to represent are unemployed. Many more are getting by, paycheck to paycheck. There is little left over for a candy bar, let alone health insurance. Yet, Mr. Austria held the party line and voted against the Health Reform Bill. Perhaps someone should remind him that he represents the Seventh District and not John Boehner.
Steve Austria has sponsored 3 bills (395 out of 440) and co-sponsored 2 (410 out of 440), none of which has been made into law. Mr. Austria, and the Seventh District, would have been better served if he would have spent his time more productively and taken a history class.
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