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latestblog ~
October 5th, 2008 another Uptown
shelter closing...
We just found out that one of REST's two men's shelters is
being closed by the church that has housed it for over a decade. The
Sun-Times calls it a dispute over heating costs. We don't really know
the reason, but it is another blow to the homeless people who live on the
North side. We've heard that the city wants homeless people in our
neighborhood to move to shelters on the West side or downtown. But
people - even if they have no address - feel a connection to their
neighborhood. You wouldn't normally ask a Southsider to move to the
West side - can you expect people who are currently homeless to feel any
different?
I wonder if this decision comes in part out of the tension
between old and new residents in Uptown? We are planning to hold a
gathering to consider how to build more community feeling and maintain the
diverse character of the neighborhood.
What makes you feel connected to your community?
Send me your thoughts - I'll post some of them here. minister@PeoplesChurchChicago.org
peace, Jean
September 30, 2008
Last Sunday we watched part of a June speech by Van Jones,
the dynamite and oh, so "articulate" young man from Oakland who is
bridging the divide between environmental and racial justice. A Yale law
school graduate, he mentioned testifying before Congress to help get the Green
Jobs Act passed in 2007, and having members of Congress come up to him and
tell him how "articulate" he was - and yet, wasn't this an awfully
expensive program? Each person from the 'hood would cost $15,000 to
train, where if they trained "job ready" people it would only cost
$3000. How could he justify this "waste" of money? Van
had to bite his tongue.
Van Jones is working for a society with no
"waste," like the factory that has zero pollutants: a society
that doesn't leave anyone out, where all people are considered valuable
potential participants. "If you don't invest in these
youngsters," he said, "If you don't spend this $15,000 and give them
some hope and some skills, then you're going to be spending $50, $60, $70
thousand locking them up, forever!"
After the service, we had lunch - a great potluck - and
talked about what Van had said, and our responses to it. People
mentioned hope, and the power of not leaving anyone out, and how moving it was
to hear him talk about the indigenous peoples of the world, and how much we
need their wisdom about caring for the Earth.
It was moving for me to be part of this sacred
conversation. We are just learning how to be with one another around
difficult subjects, and to be honest and respectful and true to
ourselves. It is sacred because it touches our hearts so deeply, because
to talk about things that have been hidden away is to shine a healing light on
them.
In the gospel of Thomas Jesus says, "If you bring forth
what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that
within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you." G.Th. 70
(Patterson and Meyer trans.)
I like to think this saying means that we shouldn't keep
things bottled up inside - it's poison!
If you want to watch the whole speech by Van Jones, it's on
the UUA website: http://www.uua.org/events/generalassembly/2008/112314.shtml
Don't miss the next Sacred Conversation, October 26th, when
Keith Scott, organizer and former zoo educator, talks about the intersection
between the criminal justice system and race.
peace, Jean
September 19, 2008
I read an amazing little essay by Deepak Chopra, talking
about our national psyche and how it is being played out in the Presidential
election... dovetails with what I was talking about last week, about the
wicked witch and how she expresses our darkest desires for revenge, even
while we can disclaim her.
This Sunday, we'll celebrate the Fall Equinox - the moment
of equal light and dark, the change from summer to fall, the anticipation of
winter. And how light and dark play out in our lives.
peace, Jean
September
11, 2008
Seven
years after the horrific events of September 11, 2001, we seem to be caught in
a time-warp, as the Bush administration wages a "war against
terrorism" that they are now calling "generational" - that is,
they expect it to drag on for at least a generation. I wish the
mainstream media were more willing to question the assumptions Washington is
operating under - if alternatives to war were presented seriously, people
would have something to think about, be able to make an informed choice.
I
heard a powerful interview on NPR (Terry Gross) with Andrew Bacevich, military
man turned history professor, author of a number of books, most recently, The
Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, in which he stresses the destructiveness of belligerence
as foreign policy and the value of openness - not secrecy - in how our
government ought to operate. I hope everyone gets a chance to hear
Bacevich when he comes to Chicago on his book tour, October 12-14.
We
are still digesting the events of 9/11 - we can find some meaning in that
senseless destruction, through hearing the stories of survivors - how we as
human beings dealt with the unthinkable. Would we also have been the
ones in the cafeteria saying, "But what about my eggs?" as the
manager tried to get her employees to shut down the cooking line and evacuate
the building? No knowing, of course - but how human!
Many
of us yearn for the feeling of safety we used to feel before that day in
September seven years ago. I hope we can realize collectively that
security is a false wish - living in a bunker is not what I would call
living. We are safer - more resilient as a people - if we can come
together to live life fully in a community that offers the most in freedom and
shared responsibility, to make sense of whatever happens - to share the
stories.
peace,
Jean
The Peoples Church of Chicago