A Room with a New View; S. Lopez

The man outside says he is John Madison, Vietnam veteran. "Shortly after 1 started," Fox wrote in a letter, "a Korean fruit stand opened. At first the street guy would bum them for food and money." AgentsofChange It looked like only a matter of time before one of them drove out the other. But that didn't happen. Reprinted with permission from The Philadelphia In quirer, April 9, 1989. "Pretty soon they had him helping unload their truck in the morning when it arrived from the food distribution center." This despite a language barrier. On some level, maybe because both Madison and the Koreans were on the edge of things, they made a connec tion. "Next he was sweeping the sidewalk, then driv ing the trlick for them, all the time his appear ance improving." Partly because he was getting paid by the Ko rean fruit vendors. A couple bucks here, a couple bucks there. What was emerging, gradually, was the new John Madison.

"Better clothes, haircut, apparently now off the street. And the wild look disappearing from his eyes." What Fox didn't know-nobody knew-was that Madison had taken to camping in a quiet al cove near the Boy Scouts of America office sev eral blocks away. Though it was still the street, to him it was a fancier address, fit for a man of his upward mobility. New Responsibilities "As the fortunes of the vendors improved, they, along with their relatives, bought several shops on the block, and the street guy became re sponsible for maintaining all of the shops, as well as the street and sidewalk along the entire block." Fox watched as the John Madison Corporation conquered new territory. With a household broom, he had staked out the west side of 20th Street from Market to Chestnut. He had the side29 walk so clean you had to look twice to figure out what was wrong with the picture. He even dug cigarette butts out of cracks.

And he was diversifying. "He is now holding down two jobs~ollecting trash for a private hauler in the early morning and then arriving (usually hanging off the side of the trash truck) to work fOf the Koreans and oth er merchants." Madison's abilities did not escape the notice of the management of Nuts to You, one of the few remaining non-Korean businesses on the block. Manny Radbill, the owner, occasionally had Madison clean his van. One time Madison found money in it and immediately gave it to Radbill. Debbie Alexander, Radbill's manager, remem bers the time she handed Madison a Christmas bonus. He refused. Muchout of Little To John Madison, words and possessions are confusing fragments of a complicated world. His luxury is to need so little. His only vice, Radbill says, is a beer or two on a warm afternoon, a habit the Koreans do not seem to appreciate. Most of them, however, see in Madison a little bit of themselves. He works hard, says Hyun Jin. What else is there?

There is Peter Fox, watching the whole thing out the window. And there's Madison, the man he used to step over. "It has been very inspiring to watch all of this happen. It's a great reflection of the Korean mer chants, refugees themselves, who in establishing themselves and their families in this country have found room in their plan to reach down to some one more displaced than themselves and pull him up with them." Madison says he's off the streets now and rents space in a North Philadelphia house for $3.00 a night. He liked hearing that people have seen the change in him and appreciate what he's done for the block. As Madison smiled at the thought, broom in hand, Peter Fox watched through the window. D IDEAS ON LIBERTY Self-Reliance I yield to no man in the world in a hearty goodwill towards the great body of the working classes, but my sympathy is not of that morbid kind which would lead me to despond over their future prospects. Nor do I partake of that spurious humanity which would indulge in an unreasoning kind of philanthropy at the expense of the great bulk of the community.Mine is that masculine species of charity which would lead me to inculcate in the minds of the labouring classes the love of independence, the privilege of self-respect, the disdain of being patronised or petted, the desire to accumulate, and the ambition to rise. I know it has been found easier to please the people by holding out flattering and delusive prospects of cheap benefits ... rather than by urging them to a course of self-reliance, but while I will not be a sycophant of the great, I cannot become the parasite of the poor.

-RICHARD COBDEN 30 The Coming Push for National Health Care by Terree E Wasley C onservatives and free-marketeers across the country have cause to celebrate these days. For the fIrst time in decades, Congress has eliminated a welfarestate program. Repealing the catastrophic care plan for the el derly has raised hopes that future spending sprees on health care will face insurmountable opposition in Congress. Health care experts, journalists, and broadcast commentators have ad vised that other forays by the government into health issues, such as mandated benefits, long term or nursing home care, national health insur ance, and nationalized health care are virtually dead in the water. The Wall Street Journal even remarked that this recent defeat has killed for now any further attempts to socialize American medicine. Despite this remarkable success in rolling back one program, now is not the time for those who believe in free markets to relax. If current wis dom is correct, then the Bush Administration has a unique window of opportunity through which to propose major reforms to this country's ailing health care system, bringing it back into balance with our freemarket convictions. The time may be right to urge significant changes that would curtail spiraling health care costs, making health care more affordable and offering citizens the chance to choose the way to provide for their own future health care needs.