The week before last we were at Jubilee Partners looking at refugee issues. (Jubilee is a Christian community that takes in refugees from all over the world.) Besides the refugees, Jubilee has full time staff and volunteers. One of the regular volunteers is Ted Gaylord and his wife from Senaca Lake, New York. They are retired high school teachers who are active with social justice projects in their church and come to Jubilee each year for several months. Mr. Gaylord said to me that he has heard many heart wrenching refugee stories since he’s been coming here. For instance, he’s heard stories of little children being forced to walk out in front of rebel troops in the jungle — as “mine sweeps.” He’s heard first person accounts about the genocide in Rwanda, the genocide in the Sudan… Mr. Gaylord said being cloistered in a small white town in upstate New York can be quite a narrow experience. And volunteering at Jubilee has broadened his world view considerably.
retreats for the homeless…
I interviewed Don Beisswenger who is a retired professor of theology at Vanderbilt University. He now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is extremely active with various projects to help the homeless (and others on the margins) in that city. He said he taught about “practical theology” at Vanderbilt which, in part, means connecting the gospel message with the present in quite tangible ways. And Jesus was forever talking about helping the poor and so, well, that’s what professor Beisswenger does. Besides his extensive work in the city, professor Beisswenger also established the Penual Retreat Center in nearby rural Ashland City, Tennessee. It’s a retreat center, with a twist. He offers free getaways for the homeless — who are often perpetually trapped in the city. What’s more, if they want, the homeless can also work around the retreat center grounds during their stay — for pay. Note: Professor Beisswenger added that the prevailing climate in society is one of “charity” toward the poor. And he finds that tremendously one dimensional. That is, he said we should be looking at the systems that are keeping the poor, poor.
carrying his cross, literally
Our Jonathan and I came across a most fascinating man today in Atlanta. He had decided to ‘pick up his cross and follow Jesus,’ literally. On his shoulder was a heavy, 15 ft. long wooden cross, with a small wheel at it’s base. Josh Sarhan, 33, had left his home in Rogers, Arkansas, 37 days prior. Each day he walks, on average, some 15 miles. He witnesses to people about Jesus. Sarhan laments about the current state of the nation, saying we’ve become so tremendously “secular” and have pushed God out of so much of every day life. We have, in essence, become “a house divided.” (And he wasn’t talking about partisanship in the Congress.) Sarhan, who was involved with a Christian fellowship group in Arkansas, said he plans to walk 9,500 miles through the country in total. He said he left with no money, yet almost every time he stops at a restaurant someone will pay for the food (often anonymously). Or shortly after he pays for the food, someone comes up to him on the street and gives him money out of the blue. He also left with camping gear “…but I’ve never had to use it,” he smiled. Sarhan said each night someone either puts him up in their home, or give him money for a motel. “God always provides, it’s been amazing,” he added. Jonathan and I signed his cross. It’s filled with the signatures, and remarks, of those he’s met along the way.
And if all this isn’t bad enough…
We’re in Atlanta, Georgia, to look at urban poverty issues… Today we attended a presentation by Kevin Moran, a long-time social justice advocate. He, tongue in cheek, said the following were some Atlanta “Chamber of Commerce” figures. For instance, the fastest growing group of homeless people in Atlanta are: children under the age of nine. And Atlanta is the poorest city in the country for children. As an example, 48% of the children in Atlanta living below the poverty level — live in families with annual incomes of less than $15,000 a year. Moran also noted that the minimum wage in Georgia is $5.85 and hour, which yields $12,168 a year, before taxes. He said juxtapose this against the average two-bedroom apartment in the city, which would rent for $834 a month. Moran said when you do the math, you’d have to earn $16 an hour to afford one of these average apartments. Translated, all kinds of people here are living in tremendously substandard housing, or on the streets. Moran also noted that 40% of the homeless here are veterans. And if all this isn’t bad enough, Moran noted that the Georgia governor has recently proposed a 3% cut to social services statewide in order to work toward a balanced budget. Moran went to the capitol building, with a group of others yesterday, to adamantly protest this move. Note: Moran added that although we’re the wealthiest nation in the world, we have a wider gap between rich and poor than any other country. Note 2: A man in the audience said he grew up Black in one of the poorer areas of Atlanta. He said the only way out of his neighborhood for many kids was joining the military. So basically, he said, to escape the poverty cycle he had to get involved with killing, or be killed himself. He, ultimately, was sent on a tour of duty: to Vietnam.
shadowy stuff in Central America
I interviewed a man in Atlanta who was with the Special Forces. (He requested anonymity.) He said he was sent to a country in Central America during the Reagan era. He was there to train rebel troops in “jungle warfare.” He, and other Americans, were also there to run support on military operations. At one point, he was sent to scout a rural village for possible insurgence. After three days of observing, he determined there was no suspicious activity in the village. “They were just farmers and their families,” he said. However he continued that counter to his report, his commanding officer ordered the troops into the village. This, he said, would have meant the killing of many innocent civilians. He refused. The commander held a gun to his head. He still bravely refused. Eventually the commander backed off, and the operation didn’t go forward. This retired Special Forces operative told me he believed, on one level, that the commander would have written up the raid as a valiant victory to further his military career. On yet another level, he said he wouldn’t have been surprised if, in a shadowy way behind the scenes, that this was also tied to a covert “land grab” by corporate farming concerns in the country… Today is the anniversary of the death of Bishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. He was killed in 1990 by foreign troops trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia… Our administration would work to close the School of the Americas, as it would work to avoid those ‘shadowy’ military operations in other countries to “protect of our interests.” Note: Today our family volunteered at a meal for the poor at an outreach in Atlanta. One of the guys I talked to is a ‘modern day hobo.’ Like in the days of old, he hops freight trains and takes them all over the country. Even though he romanticized the travel to a degree, reading between the lines (or between the tracks in this case), he seemed quite a restless soul.
a spiritual ‘no brainer’
We’re back in Atlanta, Georgia, continuing to look at urban poverty issues… Today I sat in on an excellent presentation by Nelia Kimbrough, a long-time social justice advocate in this city. (Ms. Kimbrough is on the staff at The Open Door Community here.) She described an insidiously steady progression of discrimination against the poor in Atlanta. She said while this was happening in phases (closing of homeless shelters, demolishing of low-income housing… it began happening in an accelerated fashion prior to the Olympics being held here in 1996. At one point, the city even offered one-way Greyhound bus tickets to anywhere in the country — to the homeless. Now there are only two winter homeless shelters in all of Atlanta and one of them (that houses 700 homeless) is on the verge of closing. Ms. Kimbrough pointed to a recent edition of The Atlanta Progessive News. An investigative piece in the paper chronicles alleged behind-the-scenes links between the Central Atlanta Progress, which represents business interests in the downtown area, and putting pressure on the shelter to close. Ms. Kimbrough said this is yet another saga of power and greed trying to trump basic human rights… Later today, I got in a conversation with a homeless man. I asked him if he knew about the possibility of the shelter closing and he said he did. I asked him if he knew much about the Central Atlanta Progress putting pressure on the shelter. He said he was just vaguely aware of the group, then paused. “Don’t they realize we’re people just like they’re people?” He mused. And more than even that… If you’re Christian, for instance, don’t we realize that our salvation hinges on how we treat these homeless people, and others on the margins of society? It’s kind of like a spiritual no brainer, if one is versed in :the gospel message.
…we’re going to the doctor too much.
Talked with Don Shawl, 54, at the Mercy Health Clinic (see previous entry) in Athens, Georgia. He is a construction worker who has been laid off for two years because of the recession. He also has a list of health problems: diabetes, heart issues, an infected tooth… He has no health care insurance currently. However, the services at Mercy is free… and apparently quite good. Mr. Shawl said he’d been coming to the clinic for three months and had been treated with the utmost professionalism. For instance this day, he was seen by Dr. Jonathan Davis who volunteers at the clinic. He said Dr. Davis not only diagnosed a specific problem that he was having, but he took the time to give Mr. Shawl an in-depth explanation of the physiological dynamics of the issue. He said seldom, if ever, had he gotten such considered, thorough care… I spent the rest of the day talking with Dr. Davis, who is the kind of common sense doctor we would consider for: Secretary of Health. On the front end of the health care debate, Dr. Davis said a health care issue that’s not getting much discussion is, well, that we’re going to the doctor way too much these days. And we’re taking too much medicine to boot. He said that he estimated that as much as 30% of visits to doctors are simply not needed. Dr. Davis referred to these colloquially as “runny nose and sprained ankle visits.” What’s more, not only are we extraneously going for these kinds of visits, but we are often given medication for things we could simply tough out. We’ve, in essence, become addicted to always being comfortable. “The immune system is a marvelous thing,” said Dr. Davis, referring to the curative properties of the immune system, given time. (Dr. Davis gives annual lectures to the new Chinese students at the University of Georgia here about common sense ways to treat these minor injuries and illnesses at home.) Dr. Davis said another reason that people aren’t discouraged for coming in for these minor things is because: “…medical people get paid for these visits.” Dr. Davis is a graduate of Covenant College in Look Out Mountain, Tennessee, and did his residency at a Community Health Center in Appalachia. He now works as an emergency room doctor in rural Georgia. Note: I put up a campaign flier in “Jittery Joe’s” coffee shop in Athens. I’m sure my potential 2012 competition are indeed ‘jittery,’ knowing I’m out here. (Sorry.) More seriously, we’re asking our supporters to go to the home page, click on the “hand out” button at the top, and post them in your own local “Jittery Joe’s,” or wherever. This is our answer to the million dollar TV advertising. Thanks.
an answer to the health care debate, in Athens, Georgia
More on Jubilee partners in following entries… I’m fast forwarding to our next stop in Athens, Georgia, today, and a tremendously refreshing and innovative “free clinic.” While the health care debate grinds on in D.C., a solution — at least a partial solution — is evolving in the trenches out here. Mercy Health Center (MHC) is “…a community of volunteers [that] provides quality healthcare in a Christ-centered environment to our under-served neighbors.” MHC was started at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Athens in 2001. Over time, it became ecumenical and moved to a new facility on Oglethorpe Avenue. Like an Amish barn raising, the clinic was partially built by appreciative patient capenters, plumbers, electricians… Each morning at the clinic is started with prayer among the staff and volunteers. And in the course of a month, there are some 400 volunteer doctors, nurses, general citizenry and University of Georgia students doing medicine, intake, janitorial, filing… There are also six full-time and three part-time paid staff. Mary Baxter is an assitant administrator here. During a tour, she told me that several churches in town donate monthly to the clinic, several others donate quarterly. Besides monetary donations, other churches provide “in-kind” donations. For instance, several churches cook dinners for the evening clinic workers a couple times a week and local places like Subway and Chic’ Filet donate food. Another church does yard work at the clinic. It’s Ms. Baxter’s contention that it is, indeed, the church’s responsibility to help the poor. And MHC is, indeed, trying to do it’s part. Last year there were approximately 5,000 patient visits for people below the poverty line who have no health care insurance. And the clinic provides a full scope of services from dental, to cardiology, to gynecology, to physical therapy, to vision, to neurology, to general surgery, to orthopedics… In fact, one of the most poignant (and inherently tragic) health care stories was of a local woman who had a severe, compound leg fracture. MHC Director Tracy Thompson told me the woman had no health care insurance and couldn’t, in any way, afford the $3,600 she’d need to put up front for an orthopedic doctor. She excrutiatingly limped around on this badly broken leg for 10 days, finally connecting with MHC in desperation, and tears. “I prayed with her on the phone,” said Ms. Baxter, who then arranged for her to come in. MHC’s orthopedic doctor assessed the extent of the injury, then helped set in motion a series of things that would allow her to get surgery at Athens Regional Hospital, for free… Ms. Thompson gave me a fact sheet on MHC. It noted MHC has served over 2,950 patients since 2001. In 2009 alone, approximately 12,562 hours were donated to the clinic. The majority of MHC patients are “working poor.” Approximately 35% of MHC’s clients are Hispanic… Ms. Baxter also explained the medical help is intertwined with spiritual help here. That is after each medical visit, patients are given the option of going to another part of the complex where members of “prayer teams” talk and pray about an individual’s concerns, etc. An holistic approach that is so much the essence of the ethos of the clinic. Note: MHC also has a pharmacy stocked with things like doctor free samples and financed, in part, by a $2,000 a month stipend from Athens Regional Hospital. Among it’s programs are: “Mercy on the Road” (in partnership with St. Mary’s Hospital). Mercy volunteers take a “medical bus” around the countyr to screen blood pressure, blood sugar levels and provide medical resource information… “Lay Health Promotion Program.” This is a programt hat trains people from at-risk communities to become health advocates in those communities. A 40-hour course trains people in detecting high blood pressure, breast cancer and diabetes.
“It just broke my heart.”
From Atlanta, we headed a couple hours east to Jubilee Partners Community in Comers, Georgia, for a series of interviews. The first day we met with Brad Smith who gave us a tour of the rural property. Jubilee was started some 30 years ago as a Christian community. Their mission quickly became helping new immigrants to this country. The first people they took in were “Vietnamese boat people” who were fleeing communist oppression in the wake of the U.S. military pulling out of Vietnam. On the property is a cluster of cabins where these immigrant groups spend the first two months in America. Here they are housed, fed, tutored and learn some about American customs and so on. Smith said Jubilee houses up to 30 immigrants at a time and averages about 100 immigrants in the course of a year. In addition, 12 staff members and 12 volunteers currently form a “community of caring” around these new arrivals. Jubilee has taken people from 31 different countries (the Sudan, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Nicaraugua, Afghanistan…). By the time they get to America, Smith estimated many of these people have been in refugee camps between 10 and 15 years. He said the stories of poverty, oppression, war, and so on, are tremendously overwhelming. What’s more, Smith said after their two month stay at Jubiliee, the immigrants are then situated in metropolitan Atlanta where they assimilate into low paying chicken factory, hotel cleaning, garment shop… jobs, amidst the crowded bustle and violence of the city. Smith said in the face of this, one father of a family from the country of Mouritania in Africa, approached him and innocently asked: “Isn’t there perhaps a quiet farm around here where we could tend sheep like we did in our country?” Smith had to tell him no, understanding what awaited the family in Atlanta. “It just broke my heart,” Smith lamented.
legal help for the indigent…
I talked with Brandon Hollis from the Georgia Justice Project while in Atlanta. This is a non-profit organization that was started in the late 1980s. They currently represent 30 prisoners spread throughout 22 prisons in Georgia. The project is designed to help indigent prisoners who can’t afford legal counsel. Mr. Hollis makes regular visits to get background information and assess the needs of the prisoners. He said a common denominator among most of these prisoners is that they come from poor settings and seldom had a father at home. One of the prisoners has currently in prison for 29 years. He was sentenced at age 14, for murder. Mr. Hollis said that while what his agency does helps cut down on recidivism rates and helps make society safer; it, however, is essential that we look at — and change — the systemic factors (poverty, racism, broken families…) leading to so much of this crime. Note: Mr. Hollis also told me he just finished reading the book Them by Nathan McCall. It is about the trend toward more and more “gentrification” of urban areas in America. And as the “gentry” move back in, the homeless and others on the margins are forced out… After the interview, our family happened across the “5-Points” area of Atlanta, where this gentrification has been going on in a big way (“young urban professionals” — yuppies — everywhere, upscale eateries, fancy shops…), and not a homeless person, or any low income housing for that matter, in sight.