IF youre ever walking downtown and are approached by somebody selling a newspaper, Denver Voice, I recommend that you buy it.
I myself hesitated a split second before deciding not to pass the hawker by because a light switch in the back of my mind flipped on: Wait, this is what your Dad and his brothers did.
Back in the 1920s, countless Denver Jewish kids and teens helped their parents put food on the table by hawking the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. Each boy had his corner. Each afternoon after school they sold the papers and brought home pennies and nickels to put on the family table.
Thats how poor they were.
And so I stopped. I plunked down $2 for a Voice and looked in.
I found out that this newspaper is like no other in Denver. Its salesmen are, in fact, as close as one could get to those Jewish sons of immigrant parents 100 years ago.
The Voice, you see, is published for and sold by the homeless (or people who would be homeless were it not for their jobs selling the Voice).
The difference between the Voices salesmen is not in the pennies of a century ago (the $2 of today). The difference is that many of its salesmen have no home to go to to plunk down the few dollars.
A newspaper marketed by the homeless?
Yes, and a very professional newspaper at that.
The writing sparkles.
The grammar is perfect.
The layout professional, attractive.
The photos expressive.
By putting down $2 for the Voice, one is not just employing the homeless. One is gaining access to important information and perspectives.
Take the February, 2012, edition, for example. It contains a lengthy interview with Mayor Michael Hancock about homelessness.
The questions are tough and the mayor doesnt duck.
Just the kind of interview one would want.
The mayor is sensitive, but not pandering. He is asked:
A lot of our [homeless] vendors cant work a normal job, they cant do the 9-5, they cant do physical labor. Should business do more to accommodate someone that has health problems or addiction problems that makes them unreliable. How do you balance that?
On one side the mayor says this:
I know for a fact that there are employers that show tremendous capacity and compassion for employees who are challenged . . . Im an employer now and there are times when you are called on to have greater level of patience and compassion than you normally would as an employer.
And he says this, on another side:
Businesses have a mission . . . and there comes a time where theres a limit to what you are able to and can do with the employees that are challenged. And I understand that.
Is there a balance?
The key to me is that I have to get you to a place where you can be successful, but [I] cannot allow that to be done to the detriment of the organization.
The Voice presents an honest grappling with real problems, neither a one-sided, unrealistic sop for the homeless, nor by its very existence and reportage a blind eye to their potential.
THE mission of the Voice is succint, clear and admirable:
Our mission is to facilitate a dialogue addressing the roots of homelessness by telling stories of people whose lives are impacted by poverty and homelessness and to offer educational and empowerment opportunities for the impoverished community.
The most immediate of these empowerment opportunities is the chance to sell the Voice. One of its house advertisements says:
56% of our consistent vendors live in permanent housing.
48% of our vendors report paying in full for their housing with the income they make vending the Denver Voice. Clearly, by reading the Voice, one fulfills a biblical imperative not to ignore the stranger in ones midst.
You dont have to be a newspaper publisher to know that this is a difficult enterprise. The Voice asks: Please become a monthly member at whatever amount you can afford, or become a member of our Circle of Dignity for a one time donation of $150.
My own request is more modest (not that the Voices request is extravagant). Ill let people set their own charity priorities and make their own decisions. I do not violate that stricture by recommending that you put down $2 when you see a vendor of the Voice. I think youll feel rewarded, as I do.
More examples from the paper:
Photographer David M. Page was surprised when he met a group of homeless people who were volunteering at a clean up in Boulder. That chance encounter led to a project that changes his views on the world, and could change yours.
First Homicide of 2012 in Washington, D.C. serves as a stark reminder that listing the homeless dead is an unending task. The lives of the homeless are often cut two or three decades short due to exposure, easily treated chronic diseases, addiction, or violence.
Are you into fashion?
LItineraire: Canadian designer makes clothes to protect homeless people. (By Sandra Mathieu. Photos by Francois Miville-Deschenes. Article credit: www.streetnewsservice.org/LItineraire Canada. Translated from French into English by Emanuela Campbell.)
And: Ex-Homeless man.
I like the epigraph at the beginning of the paper:
I sing the song because I love the man;
I know that some of you dont understand.
Neil Young, The Needle and the Damage Done
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
