WISPIRG simulation places UW students in role of homeless

Check out statistics provided by the US census bureau regarding the numbers of people who are actually drug addicts. Further more, the lack of a cure for mentally ill people is not a cause to abandon them and let them starve, especially when they do not have the skills that other people, without mental disabilities, have to survive and obtain resources and jobs. In Nazi Germany, the mentally disabled citizens were not only abandoned, but they were systemically killed because they were seen as a liability to society. Is this the fate you condemn them too, for death through ignorance leads to purposeful genocide? And people do not choose to live on the streets. That is not an option for the families who are turned away from shelters because there simply is not enough room. The Bill 72 mentioned in the article would allocate 50,000 dollars to shelters around the Capitol to keep people off of the streets and in places where they may be able to better themselves through assistance in job searches.

The program's intent was not to eliminate drug addicts as a stereotype of homeless people, but to acknowledge that other people, the majority of homeless people in shelters, who have jobs, try to better themselves, get an education, and provide for families are dealing with issues that many of us could never imagine. Students at this program were not affiliated with any political party and indeed WISPIRG is non-partisan as well. Claiming a leftwing cause has no evidence to back it up and therefore should not be used. So if you truly want to criticize a program run by an organization that has hundreds of volunteer hours, raises thousands of dollars, systemically educates people and works with professors and politicians on a first-hand, first-name basis and provides opportunities for student involvement in campus, then I suggest you research the facts first. The majority of homeless people are not drug addicts. They are the in fact the minority. The few people on State Street that you witness buying drugs and alcohol are not representative of the 8,000 homeless people in Dane County. In fact, you cannot assume that all of the people on State Street use the money for drugs and alcohol. Have you stopped to consider the possibility that they may buy food or bus passes that allow them to go searching for jobs. Or that one of those people actually teaches classes at the University?