The Poor win for a Change

The Poor win for a Change

fiction
edward w Pritchard

Prince William of Britain had spent a very cold night behind a dumpster in downtown London, to bring attention to the plight of the poor in the British Isles. Our President, B Obama had heard of the Prince's noble act and invited Prince William to stay with him, all night outside in an American City. To accent the plight of the homeless and to make event more newsworthy the President suggested a place that was really cold. The news media took the bait and reported the story as a challenge from the American President to the Prince, to stay outside in the chosen city, which was Buffalo New York, in the dead of winter, on an sub zero night, with a howling wind coming across Lake Erie.

On a Friday night in January 2010 Prince William and President Obama, who were both very fit and hardy, spent a very long cold night sleeping under some boxes in the downtown area of Buffalo New York. In the morning they garnered international media attention for the homeless of the world by joking about the cold as they had breakfast at a small Buffalo, NY tavern. They both hoisted a beer fortified with a little fine French Brandy and had a hearty American breakfast that included some hot buffalo wings. Just before the feast, the older man, the American President, mentioned to the media, that because of the intense cold he had lost nearly five pounds during the night and was very hungry from the ordeal. The comment about weight loss, and the implied relationship between the cold and dieting was ran on all the American evening news shows the next day, primarily because there was also a picture of both men, that morning in the buffalo tavern,in their T-shirts. The picture was also plastered all over the internet. The Prince later caught a little flack in Britain about the beefy T- shirt pose being undignified for royalty. In America, however President Obama joked with the Media that he really only ultimately answered to his wife. The President's wife hammed a little at Mr. President for the media, but she was in truth a good sport about the whole thing and was genuinely proud of her husband as a man for helping the poor.

The Mayor's Economic Development Office of the City of Buffalo during the next few days began to promote Buffalo as a place to lose weight in the Winter, and contradictory, as the place with the finest Bar food in the Country. Anyone who has sampled that City's Bar food can attest that although a jingoistic claim, the assertion was feasible and at least reasonably true, depending on individual taste.

Over the rest of that week, about six hundred Americans, some Europeans and even a few people from as far away as Japan had come to Buffalo to spend the next Friday night in the cold. The new arrivals came to Buffalo ostensibly to lose weight,and to sample the areas bar food after their all night ordeal. The six hundred people who came were usually young, well to do, adventurous and people who could on a lark, afford the air transport to Buffalo

Some two years before the President and Price William had spent that long cold night in Buffalo there had been a local court decision in Buffalo regarding the homeless sleeping on the City streets. Buffalo being an open minded place, had after debate, allowed the homeless to sleep on the streets under certain restrictions. The main part of the restrictions to allowing one to sleep on the street was the purchase of a $5.00 permit from the safety director. Anyone sleeping on the streets required a permit to limit the number of homeless in the downtown area. The number of permits in Buffalo issued by the safety director was limited to 200. After the original issue of the permits for $5.00 each, it took 19 months, but eventually all 200 of the permits were purchased by the poor and homeless. On any given night, in cold Buffalo, there might be several hundred temporarily homeless persons with permits, sleeping behind dumpsters, under bridges and in doorways and as long as they had a permit the police did not hassle them.

The 600 new young arrivals, who came to Buffalo to spend the night to lose weight after seeing the American President and Prince William on TV, found out about the permit law. Upon inquiry they found out that Buffalo, was a strong blue collar, pro labor town, and would be equitable in it's law enforcement, concerning the permit law. The police had voiced that they strongly supported the enforcements of the permit law, and said that their position was poor or rich could sleep under bridges as long as they had a permit. Once the 600 new arrivals realized that no new permits were available from the safety director, they began to approach the poor and homeless about buying an existing permit. Such resale was permitted if the permit was bought directly from the original owner.

The poor and homeless proved to be uncanny business people, and because of the demand, and wealth and competitive spirit of the 600 visitors to Buffalo, the permits were selling for over $4000 dollars each and the new buyers were happy to get them.

The fad of sleeping in the open in winter, faded quickly, but for a few weeks the very poorest citizens of Buffalo became traders and their lives were temporarily made a little easier because of their entrepreneurial efforts.

President Obama and Prince William again brought one final round of media attention to the plight of the homeless about two weeks after their original night out in the cold in Buffalo. They were one morning across New York State, in New York City at the Stock Exchange and opened the exchange with applause for the poorest citizens of Buffalo. President Obama said on the occasion, that the poorest citizens of Buffalo had proved that everyone wanted to make money for themselves, and with a level playing field could do so. He concluded that every American, and all our friends in Britain, should be proud of the poor of Buffalo NY, and we should all thank God for temporarily bringing a little solace to their lives.