Tabatha Deans

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Today was my first day of officially volunteering with the paper. Like every newspaper office I’ve ever walked into, stacks of papers lined one wall, there was coffee along with several well-used cups, and discussions of politics and current events flowed between several men settled on a smattering of mis-matched chairs spread about the office.
I realized pretty quickly that the current events they were discussing were actually stories taken from the “Onion,” a publication that was pure fiction and presented as satire. I left them to their debate and began my first official task—organizing the stacks of papers. I’ve been to a lot of “morgues,” (the room where past editions of the papers are stored) and have yet to see an effective way of managing the newspapers.
So I set about re-arranging the piles by year, then by month. Even as I organized I knew that six months from now, as with all “morgues,” my efforts would be invisible, as new editions get thrown on top of the old. The men eventually tired of their debate, and I suspect were more than a little curious about me. The new volunteer, a woman, stacking papers in the corner.
One by one they came over to introduce themselves, and give me their input on the organizing. Several of the men had written articles or poetry for the paper, and each pulled out past editions with their writing in it. I was quite taken aback by the quality of their stories/poems. Raw, in a Charles Bukowski kind of way, but pretty powerful. When it came time to leave, I’d done a fine job of organizing, and the gentlemen walked me outside, shaking my hand and saying they’d see me later.
I’ve started another blog which I will update weekly with news/info and experiences specifically with the homeless. Click on “From my window” at the top of my blog if you want to see it.

March 12, 2012 - Posted by Tabatha Stewart | Uncategorized