"Do you have good religion?"

Ever since reading The Children, by David Halberstam, I've been a huge fan of Rev. James Lawson. (Did I mention huge?? Completely in awe of him, might be more accurate.) So, I was excited when I got to church last Sunday and noticed that he was the scheduled preacher of the day. As expected, he did not disappoint.

"Do you have good religion?" he started. The topic already interested me.

"I know God has a hand on my life, but I have questions about what religion has convinced me to believe," he continued. I'm quickly getting sucked in and started wondering, "How is he going to break this down...and what is he going to say that I can apply to my life?"


It was very apparent to me that Dr. Lawson doesn't live in his Civil-Rights-hero past. He is very much in the present. However, to illustrate his point, he told about his experience on the Freedom Ride. He explained that during the stop where they were beaten and then arrested and put in jail, they experienced a lot of hatred and terrible actions. While in jail, they dealt with one guard in particular who was terribly abusive. Yet, even while experiencing the hatred and evil that came from him, Dr. Lawson recognized, "This man is a neighbor according to Jesus."

Wow. My faith just came alive again! All of a sudden, I had a new realization of what I do and why I do it! In the incidents I briefly explained in my last post, the drug dealer is a neighbor. The guy who was so "out there" on drugs that he traumatized several people is a neighbor. The guy who jumped me a few years ago for a few dollars is a neighbor.

Dr. Lawson went on to explain how they approached the situation in the jail cell. "We will try to treat that man the way he did not treat himself," he told everyone and then explained to the guard, "You are still a child of God and we will still treat you as our neighbor."

Again, wow. That is powerful stuff!

And what was the result of their actions? 

Change.

Did it work for everyone? No. Was it over night? No. Is racial reconciliation perfect today? No. But by approaching everyone as a child of God, what Dr. Lawson realized was that, "We have the opportunity to help our neighbor and to help them come alive--NOT by asking them if they have been saved!"

Dr. Lawson realized that the most powerful way to demonstrate Christ is not to ask if they've been saved or to work on "saving" them. After all, we can't save someone else, anyway, can we? The most powerful demonstration of Christ is to treat the person like a neighbor who doesn't even treat himself that way.

Our world is different today because of what people like Dr. Lawson did back then. How can I do my part today to make the world different for the generation behind me? The lesson is no different and it is no small statement.

Treat even the seemingly most "untreatable" as my neighbor.

"You're not scared of black people"

After my lunch meeting, I parked my car in the CityWalk@Akard parking lot and began walking to the front door. A guy at the bus stop hollered out at me that I looked good. Humored and ego a little bit inflated, I smiled, said thanks, and kept walking. He asked me where I was going. I slowed my pace and said I was going into the building. He asked about the building. I stopped and walked closer to him so I could explain.

"It's an apartment complex," I told him.

"For homeless people?" he asked.

Though I wasn't sure where he got that idea, I explained that CityWalk@Akard offers housing to people who are formerly homeless and people with lower incomes.

He asked what my job was. I explained that I am the Director of Community Life and told him that I am supposed to help create activities and services in the building in order to create a vertical community.

By this point, he asked me if I was from here.

"Here?" I asked, wondering if he was talking about my current physical location, my neighborhood, Dallas, or Texas, in general. "No, where are you from?" he continued.

While I was still trying to figure out what location he was referring to, he continued, "Because you must like black people. ...I mean, you didn't keep on walking, gripping your purse close to your side," he demonstrated.

I laughed with him over that comment.

But six hours later, I'm still bothered by it.

From what I can tell, he was a friendly guy who was interested in having a conversation. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to talk to him. However, I'm disturbed by the fact that Q knows the society he lives in is not always friendly toward him. In less than 30-seconds, Q is able to pick up on how someone feels about him and others who look like him. I would like to believe that there's no need for him to make that judgment call on whether or not a certain ethnicity is friendly to people of his skin color. The reality is, it *is* reality. Q was just pointing out the obvious. That's a wake up call.

CityWalk, Director of Community Life

I used to wonder what I could possibly do if I weren't running after-school programs. I have done it for so long, I've never been quite sure what other skills I might have. With my new job responsibilities, my opportunity has come to test out the knowledge I've gained over the years of working in Jubilee Park, Turner Courts, and Roseland Homes.

After it was understood that the education department would soon be ending, I was presented with the opportunity to become the Director of Community Life at our CityWalk@Akard initiative in downtown Dallas. Though I was still grieving the idea of losing what I loved (the education programs), I tried to wrap my head around this new opportunity.

It wasn't until I got my feet wet and started working at Akard this past week that the realization and acceptance set in of just how exciting my new job will be.

Some research might be in order...and if you'd like to understand more about CityWalk, you can read some of Larry James' blog posts on CityWalk HERE. (you may want to start from the bottom and read up so you'll understand the whole initiative).

CityWalk is made up of a variety of people...all who have to qualify based on income. CityWalk takes a Housing First approach. The objective is to work with people on setting and achieving goals. I am excited about that, but I also see it more as an opportunity to engage the entire community in an endeavor to become an ideal community...a community where formerly homeless, mentally ill, single parents, married couples, college students, children, White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian, can not only live together, but begin to engage each other in conversation, watch out for each other when arriving home from work late at night, providing good role models to other peoples' children, and all-in-all creating an amazingly healthy community.

My job will challenge me to combine everything I know about education, social work, and health disparities and utilize my experiences with each.  The job does not come without it's challenges. Think of a horizontal community much like where you may live and put everyone together in a vertical building in much smaller apartments with very close proximity to their neighbors. This can be challenging with even the most problem-free situations.

So, along with learning the technical aspects of what I will be doing, my week has been full of highlights.

• After meeting Mr. Simpson and Mr. Solis, I could swear they are shadowing my every move as I see them walk through the halls and go from floor to floor chatting with people and moving about the high rise, always with a smile and a greeting.
• While standing at the elevators, a very tall (about 6'5") young man walked off the elevator immediately out-stretching his arms and coming directly toward me with a very excited greeting a a huge smile. It was Jazz, one of my "kids" from our University of Values summer program about four years ago.
• A Sunday afternoon art class for kids where three girls sat completely engaged in creating abstract art...and then listening to two of the girls (5th and 6th grade) have a conversation about their favorite artists, how the Eiffel Tower was built, their love of going to the Dallas Museum of Art, their knowledge about positive and negative space, and their general love of the art and music.
• Meeting Ms. Carey, who is very interested in having an arts/crafts room and classes for adults and who also wants the Rainbow Days classes for her three year old.
• Attending a Friday evening Crime Watch meeting with about 20-30 residents who engaged in the conversation and seemed very interested in creating a safer vertical community. 

I have much more to learn. This is all new to me. I am currently reading about Atul Gawande's approach, looking into the Common Ground initiative in New York, looking at YWCA's financial literacy classes, and thinking about a new "neighboring" concept that will put all of our volunteers and residents in horizontal relationships that are full of reciprocity. Stay tuned for more information and updates!

People just don't understand

I'm just reading this article from the Dallas Morning News:

Dallas ISD's plan to raze homes for new school leaves some angry over offers 

I have lived in the Jubilee neighborhood for the last 15 years. A friend of mine called the other day asking my opinion on the DISD desire to use eminent domain to tear down all of the houses where he used to live. He has since moved out of the area, but many of his friends and neighbors still live in the houses they intend to tear down and they are upset because they will be losing their homes in the upcoming rebuild of O.M. Roberts Elementary.

They have legitimate concerns. Many people have lived in the Jubilee neighborhood for decades. So this comment by "CabMeb's Girl" on the Dallas Morning News article caught my attention:

Let's face it, those houses on that land are not worth $120,000 to $150,000. Although I feel sorry for them,I have to ask if they wanted to put the place on the market today, would they be able to get more than $50,000? DISD does not owe them anymore than what the home and property are actually worth. We would all like to retire to a nice house or see our parents be able to do so, but we retire to what we can afford be it a $50,000 house or a multi-million dollar mansion.

Allow me to address CabMeb's Girl or anyone that feels that way...

You are right. The homes the families live in may not be worth $120,000-$150,000. Often, the homes people in my neighborhood are dilapidated. If they aren't dilapidated, they are old. To sell them at market rate, they might only bring $50,000, as you suggest. However, those families aren't making the decision to sell them, are they? Those families probably recognize that they can't sell them for much so they stay in the homes, regardless of their condition. As the article suggest, many of the residents are older and only bring in a small pension every month. They know they can't afford buying a new home so they haven't even bothered trying. They are content where to live with what they have.

So, when you say they should be happy with what they are getting, you aren't taking into account that they are not the ones choosing to move. Providing them with $50,000 and asking them to find a new home gives them just enough money to put them in major debt. They deserve to be compensated with enough funds to find a home somewhere else. Even the homes that have been built in Jubilee Park over the last five years average about $95,000.

I'm guessing your next comment might be that if they're willing to live in a dilapidated or old house now, then it shouldn't hurt them to move into another home just like that. But let me ask you if you would be willing to do that. Most of the families in my neighborhood have lived there for years. They have friends and neighbors they know and trust. They have people to watch their home when they are gone, they have friends to borrow sugar from when they run out, they have children who have established friendships with other kids in the neighborhood. So for me to ask or expect them to move out of their neighborhood, incur debt they don't currently have, or move into a low quality home they will not have the funds to fix up is unconsiderate in the least, but more accurately very arrogant.

I truly hope that DISD begins thinking about and considering the families in the neighborhood. They are not asking for any handout. They are not trying to get rich. And I am sure that they, too, would love a high quality school for their children and grandchildren. But what may seem like an easy thing to do in a neighborhood where people have a lot of access to disposable income, that is not the case in my neighborhood.

Please, let's think of the families.

Hootin' and Hollarin' 2008

What happens the third weekend in the small rural town of Gainesville, Missouri (population 595) every year?

Hootin' and Hollarin'!

What, you may ask, is Hootin' and Hollarin'?

Hootin'-and-Hollarin'--an annual festival, started in 1960, that celebrates the Irish heritage of many of the residents in Gainesville, Missouri. The hill country arts and craft festival features float and costume parades, square dancing, old time music, outhouse and bed races, hog-calling contests and more.

Growing up in this rural community, I learned to value blue grass music and good community and family celebrations. Hootin' and Hollarin' provides an annual homecoming for those of us who graduated and moved away. Each year we can go back and be assured we will see many former classmates, family, and friends.

Each evening, Thursday through Saturday, from 9:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. large groups of people assemble...some to watch, some to dance, and some just to enjoy the music. I love watching the older men as they pull up a piece of plywood and clog, their feet shuffling in quick movements unexpected for men their age. Young and old gather on large square wooden skids so that the pounding feet of the square dancers can be heard. It's neat to watch each age group of dancers add in a younger one or two so that they can learn from the older generation.

Check out the video (above) and some pictures (below) so you can enjoy it, too.(if you look close, you can see the "Hillbilly Funnel Cakes" stand and the float that has an outhouse with a person sitting inside. We have a sense of humor about our cultural heritage. :)

Afraid of what we don't know

Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake.

But we aren't afraid. We know they guy with the crooked eye is Davey the Baby's brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, that's Rosa's Eddie V., and the big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he's Fat Boy, though he's not fat anymore nor a boy.

All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. that is how it goes and goes.

~Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, p. 28

I can relate. People are scared of my neighborhood, too. I think once they come and visit me, they realize it's not so scary. I think. Who knows...maybe they still think it's scary.

But I'm not afraid.

I know that Gino, next door, is a deacon in the church. Roy and Lupe and their family, across the street, marched in the Immigration March not because they're illegal, but because they believe in rights for all people. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are an older couple that are very active in their church and do what they can to protect, make change in, and love their neighborhood. Mrs. Brown works at a healthcare place and Mr. Brown is a crossing guard for Richardson schools. Ray, J.J., and some other older men who I can never remember their names, love to stand outside, shoot the breeze and bar-b-que every chance they get. Miss Dorothy, across the street, gave me potted flowers when I first moved in to my house. Twin brought me mums from the nursery up the street when he found out the potted plants I had on my front porch had been stolen. Main and Tiffany are college students and are constantly talking to their friends in the neighborhood, encouraging them when they are discouraged, talking to them about college, and trying to help them to be on a path that is productive. Zabrina has "adopted" (without the paper work) a girl in the neighborhood and treats her just like her other two daughters because the girl's family isn't always around. Mr. Vidal is very well-read and teaches his children to read and learn about Mexican history and other stuff that the schools don't teach. Brenda has raised her grandson while his mom was in jail, along with taking care of her own mother, and now takes care of her daughter's other baby because her daughter is back in jail again. Chris has worked at Baylor faithfully for about 8 years or more, getting up to be there by 5:00 a.m.

I could go on and on. I just wish people knew the things that I know about my neighborhood. Then maybe they wouldn't be so scared of it.

Neighborhood stories

As I sat on my front porch this morning, I saw two police cars drive up and park across the street. I was sad when I saw them go over to my neighbor's house and bring out one of my friends.

He's around 35 years old and has two felonies on his record. He's been out of prison for a while now. I don't know what he did or didn't do for the police to pick him up. Although I know that he makes choices just like the rest of us and is still responsible for his choices, it still made me sad as I watched them bring him outside and lean him against the police car and handcuff him. I know he could see me sitting on my porch and I just thought of how that might feel knowing people in the neighborhood could see everything that was happening.

From talking to him, I don't get the feeling he's proud of his record nor do I think he would be proud of being arrested. He encourages kids not to take the same path he did. Unfortunately, I think he poses a more "do as I say, not as I do" role modeling...which doesn't work real well.

I guess some people might be happy to know that the police are doing their job and getting "bad" people off of the streets. I guess that's true and I suppose I should be glad. I've heard stories about the things he's done. It's always so hard for me to imagine these people who are so kind around me being such menaces to society.

I really have no big message or no big solution. It just makes me sad to see people with such potential making bad choices.

Health and our Inner Cities

I love front porches. In my neighborhood, everyone comes out in the evenings after it's cooled down. I learn so much from sitting on my front porch and watching the neighborhood. I love to watch as people work in their yards, sit in lawn chairs under shade trees and relax, work on their car, and walk around the neighborhood. Everyone waves and says hi as they go about evening routines.

Our inner cities (which is where I live) have a lot of different issues. I don't have to tell you that. You see it on the news...you hear the reports...you see the maps that show the geographic areas that have higher crime rates, poorer nutrition habits, higher mortality rates, etc. But tonight as I sat on my front porch, I realized something...

What those reports don't tell you is that not everyone in our inner-city communities are like that.

Tonight I waved at Shirl and J.C. (husband and wife in their late 40's, early 50's) as they walked by my house. When they returned about 30 minutes later, I heard them begin to talk to their niece who is probably in her 30's. They told her they had discovered a new route to walk. At that point it dawned on me that my neighbors are not one of those negative statistics that are always presented by the media and other reports.

I began to think about the times I've seen Shirl and her entire family--husband, kids and grandkids--riding their bikes down the main street near our houses. Shirl and her family take walks every day. I watch her sister, Stella (my next door neighbor...also probably in her 50's), leave for the gym nearly every morning. She has a membership at 24-hour fitness. Ms. Stella and I have talked about her high blood pressure and how she does different things like working in the yard, walking, working out, and watching her eating habits in order to lower her blood pressure.

Ms. Stella, Shirl, and J.C. are not only taking care of themselves, they are instilling good habits in their kids and grandkids. They are making their health a priority. Maybe they didn't have great health habits when they were younger. Maybe that's why they have health issues now. I don't know. But I do know that to look at my neighborhood and read off a bunch of statistics is a mistake.

I've seen and heard about a lot of "programs" that do good things in and for the community. But, perhaps more importantly than the programs, are the people in the communities who are influencing other people. Too often, I think we give the "programs" and ourselves the credit...when really we should be looking at the people in the community who are making a difference. Aren't they the true heroes who should be given a pat on the back??