When Political Stunts Go Wrong.. And Give You Pneumonia
A New York politician’s self-imposed homelessness challenge went awry this week
when he caught pneumonia.
By Marina Koren, December 20, 2013
Every
now and then, politicians announce they will attempt to live like
some of their poorest constituents for a few days. They emerge
unscathed and usually enlightened. This week, however, such a
political stunt ended up sending a New York City politician to the
hospital.
Two
days into his three-day
experience of
living as a homeless person, sleeping on subways and visiting
shelters, Queens City Council member Ruben Wills came down with a
case of pneumonia.
The
Democratic politician was diagnosed at a Brooklyn hospital Tuesday
night, which he entered without an ID or insurance card. The next
morning, Wills opened doors for customers at a McDonald's and pumped
gas, using the money people gave him to pay for a $25.99 bottle of
antibiotics.
The
councilman returned home but vowed to try again when he receives a
clean bill of health from his doctor. "I needed to experience
homelessness to really properly advocate for the homeless
population," Wills told the New
York Daily News at
the start of his challenge.
The
recent trend of living like the less fortunate began with the
so-called SNAP challenge. Last December, then-Newark, N.J., Mayor
Cory Booker lived on
the $4 per day budget of food-stamp recipients enrolled in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sharing the experience on
social media. In June, more than two
dozen Democratic members of Congress did
the same to protest a proposed $20 billion cut to the federal
program.
In
July, Democratic candidates for New York mayor spent
a night in
East Harlem's Lincoln House at the request of the Rev. Al Sharpton,
who wanted to highlight the poor conditions inside the city's
public-housing complexes. As the Democratic primary loomed, Anthony
Weiner tried the
food-stamp challenge, while Christine Quinn joined a
Staten Island resident on her 95-minute commute to work. Bill de
Blasio, the eventual winner, lived
on minimum wage for
a week, earning about $92.
These
"challenges" usually draw mocking criticism, from the
public and opposing parties. But unlike people who are actually
impoverished, the politicians who undertake them get to return to
their usual, sometimes luxurious lives after a couple of weeks of
relative discomfort. This time, however, the lawmaker probably did
not expect to bring the lesson home with him.
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