No Vacancy for Polar Bears on DC Streets
By Jessica Hillyard - Sep 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am
On Tuesday morning, In the bustling, newly redeveloped neighborhood of Columbia Heights in Washington, DC, onlookers took note of what appeared to be a homeless person rummaging through a trash receptacle outside of the Metro station. Frankly, there’s nothing at all odd about seeing something like this in a 68-square-mile city where nearly 20% of the population lives in poverty. What was different about this particular individual was that (s)he was wearing a polar bear costume. Soon thereafter, a bomb squad was called in and the intersection was cordoned off in order to follow up on a report of a suspicious package in the very same trash receptacle.
Other reports of homeless polar bear sightings have cropped up around the city. It seems as though these polar bear ensembles–some complete with a shopping carts full of belongings and cardboard panhandling signs–are part of a Greenpeace campaign to draw attention to global warming. While such a campaign is a notably innovative approach to advertising the effects of global warming, the bomb scare highlights the difficulties of implementing a largely viral street campaign.
Part of the problem is that some of the roving polar bears–intentionally, no doubt–lack any kind of explanatory device. Although locals may grasp the random significance of a scruffy looking polar bear in passing, the meaning may very well be lost on tourists and out-of-towners. Considering the homeless epidemic in the city, some may even interpret the spectacle as an unstable and potentially dangerous individual wearing a goofy mask to hide his or her face, as a bank robber might do. Even worse, advocates for the homeless population could take offense to what they might perceive as an insensitive public mockery of homelessness. In a city where the reality of homelessness is so readily evident, exploiting the culture of homelessness for any reason other than to help prevent it should be frowned upon. Or has homelessness become such an ingrained facet life in the District that we no longer see the injustice, even when we’re bombarded by beggars on a daily basis?
Greenpeace would do well to take its close call in Columbia Heights as a signal that perhaps it needs to reassess the idea behind this well-meaning but poorly executed campaign.
Image courtesy DCist.
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