David Cook
There were men weeping in Chattanooga on Wednesday, and they wept for two reasons.
In the early morning, one man began to weep as he was told the good news: he would have a place to sleep, blankets for his bed, warm water with which to wash, and three hot meals a day. The man had been homeless, having run to Chattanooga from the Congo, where millions of his people lay dead by a corrupt government that was chasing him because he spoke out in favor of democracy. He found asylum, true asylum, in the walls of the St. Matthew's shelter with 10 other homeless men.
And so he wept with joy.
The second type of weeping began yesterday afternoon when countless homeless men, women and children began a trail of tears of sorts, as they were told of approaching bulldozers and policemen and city ordinances. Forces behind certain developments on the North Shore want the area sanitized; apparently, people without homes are not as important as selling new homes. So their hidden camps will be destroyed and once again they will try to slip into the cracks of nowhere.
And so they wept with despair.
At what point will the Christian church in Chattanooga begin to speak up? At what point will this Christian city begin to align itself with the ones that Christ himself embodied? Christ was very clear: "When you feed the hungry, clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted, you will find me there.''
Yet most of our hungry, naked and afflicted neighbors are weeping today.
Mary Ellen Galloway, the leader of Chattanooga's Interfaith Homeless Network, is one of the most powerful speakers in the city. At a recent presentation, she told her audience, very clearly, that she was outraged. And that they should be outraged too.
"There are children sleeping in cars tonight in this city,'' she said. "There are children who will eat their only meal of the day in the school lunchroom. There are hundreds of families who have no home.
"And I am outraged!''
If you thought our city's blueprint to end homelessness or the upcoming Farmer's Market complex was a solution to this outrage, think again.
Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. This statistic was true before the impending mortgage foreclosure crisis, which will now add hundreds of local families to this number.
The Union Gospel Mission on Main Street will soon close and not reopen. The "progress'' on Main Street did not include a homeless mission as part of its plan, and enough money was put on the table so that the mission finally sold out and closed its doors. Roughly 50 people were given shelter there each night. Where are they to go now?
There are no city-funded shelters for homeless citizens in this town. None. The only shelter beds are mission beds; in other words, before you are given dinner, you have to hear a sermon.
When we step back, we realize that in all our majestic downtown progress, the only progress is for the wealthy. There is no development for the poor.
And unless the churches in Chattanooga find reasons to be outraged, this will not change. And, as theologian James Cone writes, they will be heretical, for any church not on the side of the oppressed is no church at all.
The good news: there are solutions to demand.
In Denver, when city employees go home, the city offices open their doors. Sleeping cots are placed throughout the city buildings, and the homeless are given shelter. In the early morning, they rise, clean up and then leave before the downtown awakes.
Why not in Chattanooga?
In Portland, homeless citizens and the city government worked together to create a community called Dignity Village. Homeless people built sustainable, low-cost shelters and live in intentional community together, growing their own food, making democratic decisions, living as neighbors to one another. It has become a model unto the world.
Why not in Chattanooga?
In New York City, the organization called Common Ground takes federal grant money and restores old, run-down hotels, turning them into permanent housing for the city's homeless. They have a 99% success rate, as the tenants work as waiters and cooks in the downstairs renovated ballrooms (which they rent out for parties) and in the coffeeshops and stores inside the hotels. There are support systems, and more importantly, there is love and community.
Why not in Chattanooga? Why not at the old YMCA near Main Street?
The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate City Hall. How much would it cost to clear the field just a mile down the road, past the Times-Free Press and before the Farmer's Market, and let all the displaced homeless _ victims of our city's "development'' _ set up tents? We could provide port-o-johns. Police could patrol. The camp would be right across from the Community Kitchen.
How much would that cost?
How much would it bless the soul of our city?
Churches of Chattanooga, how long will you keep silent?
(David Cook is a former journalist for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. He currently teaches American history at Girls Preparatory School and can be reached at dcook7@gmail.com)
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I'm not a member of any church. I gave up on organized religion many years ago. But I am a Christian, if an imperfect one. And I want Mr. Cook to know that I will stand up and do my part. I will buy a bus ticket to Denver, Portland or New York for the first 10 homeless people I can find that will accept the ticket. How responsible are we for each other's poor choices. I've stopped to offer work to people holding up signs that say, "Will work for food." But they never actually have wanted to do the work.
They want a hand out. Are we less compassionate if we want to teach them to fish instead of buying them a meal at Captain D's?
Mr. Cook teaches at one of the most affluent schools in our area. Why not start at GPS, Mr. Cook? Put the cots in your classroom and start your own program.
The fact also remains that society has done its' best to ban the Christians from running such programs. Prayer in school has been outlawed. Christian principles have been overshadowed by teaching politically correct drivel that takes our impressionable young ones further away from knowing what true character is.
I found a void in Mr. Cook's article that raised the hair on my own neck: an absence of his own personal responsibility for this problem. Are only Christians responsible? I know several churches in this area that feed the homeless regularly (even making the news a while back for not having a permit to do so at Miller Park) and shelter and clothe the homeless. I've been to meetings where the homeless are welcomes and encouraged to make better choices. These meetings have been sponsored by church members. I've never seen Mr. Cook at those meetings. Nor have I seen one on the calendar of events at GPS, where he is employed.
I think it's important for all of us to remember that every time we start pointing our finger at someone else there are 3 pointing back at us. I'll do my part, Mr. Cook. Hopefully we can help send some of our local homeless to Denver, Portland and New York to take advantage of the resources available there. Thanks for the idea.
Jeremiah Flagstone
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Instead of calling on churches to support government sponsored theft through taxes to support the homeless, maybe Mr. Cook should have called on churches to help the poor and down-trodden themselves.
Christ's message about the poor, no matter what communists believe, was not about taking from the rich to give to the poor through a government program. Churches should help the less fortunate.
A good potential ministry for churches to do would be to create work programs for the homeless. The Apostle Paul said, "if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat."
Ted Jameson
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You have some very heartless readers, that means I have some very heartless neighbors. In response to Ted Jameson quoting the apostle Paul, I would respond, "Are you willing to work for $5.75 and not eat?"
What incentive is there to work for the rich in this town and remain hungry and homeless sir?
Brian Wood
Apison
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Mr. Flagstone and Mr. Jameson make some good points, but I have to throw this in:
In my estimation David Cook is a very genuine person and is sincere in what he believes. My impression is he's a gentleman, bottom line. One which I just don't agree with on this topic. We exchanged a couple lengthy emails on this subject, away from this forum, in which we both put it all out there. Honestly, I felt more like I was communicating with an Episcopalian minister than a U.S. History teacher....and, please, none of you Episcopalians send me hate mail. I can't imagine that, anyway, sort of like getting chased by Amish with rubber pitchforks.
After this exchange, I boiled our communication down to its essence, and the difference was David views this as a spiritual/moral issue, where my sorry old carcass boils it down practically. David sees it as a challenge for Christianity to question or confront itself, like Christ going into the houses of ill repute to save the fallen, or something. This is where we part ways, and I'm not saying it is not because he's a better man, spiritually, than me. He sees something in the challenged and unwashed that I don't, something positive and salvageable, and he seems to see it 365 days a year, not just around the Christmas holidays. I mean, who reading this would knock the homeless on Christmas Eve? And who would think of them kindly on Aug. 10?
Me, I just can't see this perfect world where the homeless are sheltered on East Main, in spitting distance from where young, affluent urban pioneers are buying renovated $300,000-$400,000 spaces in those old structures. In a few short years, most of this small area will be a bustling place where children are being raised, young folks will be jogging and cycling, artists of all stripes are creating, and the food will be pretty darned good, too. I'm looking forward to it. It's starting already, you all should run down there and sample what's already begun.
But where we differ is I can't imagine this new neighborhood, with the seven dozens of homeless wandering around during the daylight hours which Mr. Cook envisions. Who in the world wants their children to be exposed to this?
Maybe, just maybe if you could house only the salvageable ones in the crumbling old YMCA building down there (and how are you going to figure out which of these people are salvageable?), there's some kind of a happy ending. I just can't see it happening.
As far as whether David Cook is being hypocritical in his stance (which never changes), I questioned that myself, leading to our correspondence. I don't think so. The man believes what he says, or he wouldn't keep coming back with it, time after time after time. If he had an agenda for himself, in my opinion, he would be showing up at all the functions where his absence has been duly noted, trying to feather his own hat and gain some sort of recognition. And I'm not sure (har-har) the GPS administration would allow him to set up cots, or if he'd even want to do that. Last time I looked, many of those GPS girls are pretty darned cute. Lots of negative scenarios. Yeah, it sounds like he's saying it's all a good idea, in someone else's community, and that fine point sounds a little fishy. I'll leave it to God to judge whether there's any hypocrisy, and which way it flows.
My wisdom ends at my billfold. Few of us have much extra to spare for anything, these days. Churches have always been the best conduit to help the downtrodden; you put Uncle in charge of it and the limitless funding thing kicks in, and it's yet another boondoggle.
John R. Smickle
Chattanooga
jsbottomfeeder@juno.com