They came to me in the middle of the night. They were young and beautiful and dressed up like they were about to go out. I had about an hour’s warning, and their knock on the door was light so as to wake no one who wasn’t already up. When Read More…
Corn tortillas were being warmed over an open gas burner, perfuming the kitchen with that taco night scent. A simmering pan bubbled and spat, and I spotted a mounded bowl of shredded jack cheese. Tomatoes, lettuce and onions were arranged like birthday balloons in bright colors, and bottle of crema Read More…
“We’re going to go on an adventure.” My mom had woken me up sometime after midnight to tell me this news. I blinked in the low light, trying to wake up fully. “What?” “You’re going to pack up your backpack for a trip. Bring clothes and the stuff that’s most Read More…
If you attended high school in the United States, you probably read a story called “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. It’s a story about a poor woman who borrows a necklace from a friend and loses it. She then panics because she believed the necklace was worth a great Read More…
It is one of the first things that makes students uncomfortable when moving to Berkeley — the widespread poverty. Encountering this social welfare problem tends to be strange because for the majority of students, this level of poverty is only seen on occasion and probably not seen in our hometowns. Read More…
At the end of one of my classes last semester, I happened to glance over at the guy sitting next to me. My thoughts were elsewhere, but when my eyes caught sight of his backpack, I couldn’t avert my gaze. He was pretty well organized, and with a slot set Read More…
Veteran Kelly Johnson speaks about homelessness and his past.Surrounded by a pile of tattered backpacks, Kelly Johnson squints against the sun’s glare as he recollects the years he spent searching for a home. Johnson, 51, is one of the hundreds of homeless veterans that the Obama administration seeks to house Read More…
The city of Berkeley has made significant strides in combating poverty in recent years, despite a high concentration of people living below the poverty line in Downtown Berkeley, according to a recently published report. The report, released by the Brookings Institution Thursday, shows that Downtown Berkeley is a neighborhood of Read More…
