A Holiday Meditation

Winter 2003

A Publication of The Poor People's United Fund
Writer: Kip Tiernan
Editor: Celia Wolf

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

It is Christmastime. The time of hope, and of dreams. And, I am reminded of a little piece of paper taped to a friend’s refrigerator many years ago. It read, “Hold our hands in yours, oh Lord, so that those who hold our loving hands may find you there.” It is those hands where the Lord is hiding, in the hands of those who reach out daily and touch someone. The betrayal of the poor of this city has always remained in the hands of the policy makers and the policy breakers.
As humanists, we live on hope. We are prisoners of hope – hope against all impossible odds and the opportunity for us to embrace the inscrutable darkness. It is hope, that thin red thread that dominates the tapestry of our raggedy little lives. It is hope that keeps us, like that woman in the Old Testament, running in the streets shrieking for justice because none can be found in the synagogues or churches.

The late, great Richard Cardinal Cushing, in his 1966 pastoral letter, The Servant Church, said it best when he said, “We must show the world what it means to live in Christ….” In that same letter, he went on to say, “We have seen in our generation where the path of super patriotism leads, and only the fool will venture upon it. Let America realize that self scrutiny is not treason. Self examination is not disloyalty. Let those who would be so articulate in defending the territorial integrity of America, be equally articulate in defending the constitutional rights of our citizens and their freedom of expression.” And, finally, he said, “The poor and the dispossessed of this country will never secure justice for themselves until they are given the opportunity to achieve legitimate power – though education, through economic self sufficiency, and through the opportunity to present their just demands in an organized manner.”

Cushing’s theology and his politics were, we think, divinely inspired. That we still need shelters and soup kitchens in the 21st century is a sad commentary on our ability to concern ourselves with solving the most basic of human needs…to provide for the common good. Yet, in this year of our Lord, 2003, there is more hunger and homelessness than when we started Rosie’s Place and the Boston Food Bank over 28 years ago. What does that say about us? Why do we continue to hold hostage millions of our sisters and brothers whose only crime is the crime of being poor? We have the capacity to end it, but we lack the political will. What is wrong with this picture?

This has become an age of cynicism and cultural Christianity. Cynicism has become a standard by which we define human needs. A cynic is one who believes that all people are motivated by selfishness, and cynicism has captured the imagination of everyone, it seems. “Throw the bums out!” and, “The poor and the homeless are ripping us off!” and, “Unemployment benefits are budget busters!” But, who are the bums? Who is the enemy? Is it the homeless that are ripping us off, or is somebody else? And, who are they to tell us who the enemy is?

“Poverty consists, not in the absence of one’s possessions, but in the increase of one’s greed.” Plato said it and it seems as true today as it was in his time. Who benefits from a decreased standard of living? Lots of people do! Big business! Government! The very, very rich!

As the cultural Christians are fond of saying, “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” We have a pretty good idea. Perhaps the same thing he did as a twelve year old in the temple as he watched the money changers.

Today, the world is ruled by the money changers. And, so is social policy. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? On this, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, the world’s first publicized little homeless boy, perhaps we should begin again to ask what he would do. What we seem to be lacking is a universal critical voice. Even reform needs reform, after awhile. In fact, the alternatives we began so many years ago have become an acceptable standard of living for a growing number of our sisters and brothers. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

The preservation of our values depends upon attention to the truth. To the extent that we shroud our problems and attitudes in Harvard Business School language and smoke and mirror politics, we continue to erode the very values that we claim are so important to us. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

We have learned, over the years, that poverty is not just the result of inequities or inequalities, but rather a particular consequence of action by the privileged to preserve and enhance their wealth and to deny others – a kind of shoring up of the status quo. We have learned that politics is not always so much about how you vote as it is about how you may be forced to live….or die!

Mel King, former state representative, once said, “We might have come on different ships but we are all in the same boat now.” We are all affected by society’s massive indifference to what is happening in the name of good government. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? We all know what he would say in this, our winter of discontent,

We pray for a brighter tomorrow as we trim the tree!

In faith, in hope, in love,

Kip, Fran, Georgia and Celia

From Revolutionary Patience

by Dorothee Soelle

The holiday season is upon us. It is a good time to reflect on why we do what we do – why we continue to fight oppressive forces and institutions without losing hope. The following is part of a poem in a collection entitled Revolutionary Patience, by Dorothee Soelle, a German feminist theologian. It expresses some of our reasons for continuing the fight and continuing to pray.

Because we care about the brotherhood of all
not just of Christians or of some other group
but of all those who continue
those who bear our mark into the third and fourth generations
of all the dead who lived before us
and whose dreams we betrayed
because we care about our brothers and sisters.
That’s why we sometimes say
OUR FATHER

Because our task is never accomplished
and our longing does not diminish in the course of life
because Christ does not slake our thir– - but makes it more acute!
That’s why we sometimes say
WHICH ART IN HEAVEN

Because we live in places where others have a say over others
in factories and schools
because we know that tyranny
is the most common offense
to the name of God.
That’s why we sometimes say
THY KINGDOM COME

Because we are not without fears about ourselves
not without doubts about ourselves and our way,
not without irony toward our own efforts.
That’s why we sometimes say
THY KINGDOM COME

Because we need faith for the kingdom we are and we build
and encouragement for our work so that we don’t plan in vain
That’s why we sometimes say
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER
AND THE GLORY

and count on the fact that God is
FOREVER for us.

Ballad of the Landlord

by Langston Hughes

Landlord, landlord – my roof sprung a leak –
Don’t you ‘member – I told you about it last week?
Landlord, landlord – these steps is broken down,
When you come up yourself, it’s a wonder you don’t fall down.

Ten bucks you say I owe you? Ten bucks you say is due?
Well that’s ten bucks more’n I’ll pay you till you fix this house up new.
What? You gonna get eviction orders? You gonna cut off my heat?
You gonna take my furniture and throw it in the street?

Uh-huh! You talking high and mighty – Talk on till you’re through.
You ain’t gonna be able to say a word if I land my fist on you.

Police! Police! Come get this man.
He’s trying to ruin the government and overturn the land!
Copper’s whistle! Patrol Bell! Arrest!
Precinct station. Iron cell. Headlines in the press.

Man threatens landlord. Tenant held – no bail.
Judge gives Negro 90 days in county jail.

The above poem was recited to his class by Jonathan Kozol, a young Boston school teacher. For this, he was abruptly fired from his job as a school teacher. Shortly thereafter he wrote a book about Boston school children titled, Death At An Early Age and went on to write about homelessness in a book titled, Rachel and Her Children. He has since gone on to write many more books about poor children including Savage Inequities, Amazing Grace, and more recently, Ordinary Resurrections.

Revolutionary Mandate I

by Julius Lester

These are not the times to take your friends for granted – to assume that they will always be there. They may not be.

And if you wait until the next time to tell them that they are very
special to you
You may wait until
someone calls you and says that
so and so’s body was found
beneath the bricks
of a dynamited building or
so and so was blown like water from a fountain over a midnight highway
or
so and so was shot while he slept.
Therefore
it is hereby mandated
(by the poets and artists and musicians who are responsible for
the spirit and soul of the revolution) that when you finish this poem
you are to call your brothers and sisters, and in your own way
make them know that you love them
that because of their love you have become more you

Let them know

Five minutes from now
You may never have the opportunity again.

Prayer From the Burned Out City

Litany from the Underground for Leader and Response
by Robert Castle, Jr.

Oh God, the City, for people to live and work and to know one another, Help us to love the City.

Oh God, who lives in tenements, who goes to segregated schools, who is beaten in precincts, who is unemployed, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who hangs on street corners, who tastes the grace of cheap wine and the sting of the needle, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who can’t read or write, who is on welfare, and who is treated like garbage, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who lives and no one knows his/her name and who knows he/she is nobody, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who pays too much for rent for a lousy apartment because he/she speaks Spanish, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who is cold in the slums of winter, whose playmates are rats – four-legged ones who live with you and two-legged ones who imprison you, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who is children in the grave, burned in the project fire, Help us to hear you cry.

Oh God, whose church down the street closed and moved away, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who is old, and lives on 70 dollars a month, in one crummy room and can’t get outside, Help us to see you.

Oh God, who is three and whose belly aches in hunger, Help us to touch you.
Oh God, whose toys are broken bottles, tin cans, whose play-yard is garbage and debris, and whose play-house is the floors of condemned buildings, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who sleeps in bed with his/her four brothers and sisters, and no one hears him/her, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who is uneducated, unskilled, unwanted and unemployed, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who is chased by cops, who sits in jail for seven months with no charges brought, waiting for the Grand Jury and with no money for bail, Help us to know you.

Oh God, whose blood is red, whose skin is black, whose red blood is on the billy club, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who works all day, who feeds and cares for her children at night and dreams of better days, Oh God, who was laid off last week and can’t pay the rent or feed the kids, Help us to be with you.

Oh God, who is a bum, a chiseler, who is lazy because people say you are when you don’t work, and you want to work and can’t find a job, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who is dressed by the suburbs from the church clothing store, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, who works all day for bare survival and is still poor and humiliated by landlord, employer, government, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who is without power, voiceless, and who has no share in his/her destiny, Help us to join you.

Oh God, who is overwhelmed by the indifference and apathy and status quo of so many who are good Christians and in church on Sunday, Help us to join you.
Oh God, who is tired of the church and its ministers and priests, irrelevent and unbloody, Help us to join you.

Oh God, whose elected leaders only know you exist election time and represent themselves and not the people, Help us to touch you.

Oh God, whose local papers distort the truth, never listen to you but represent the comfortable and the powerful, Help us to hear you.

Oh God, who is poor and has all kinds of programs being planned for you, and people to speak for you out of both sides of their mouths, Help us to be with you.

Oh God, who is sold a bill of goods by phony white liberals, Help us to stand with you.

Oh God, who is spoken for by black established leaders who the people do not know, Help us to stand with you.

Oh God, who has leaders, black and white, who sell you out, Help us to be with you.

Oh God, who couldn’t take it any longer and was on the streets this summer/winter and was called a hoodlum, communist, agitator, bum, wino, junkie, Help us to know you.

Oh God, who is fed up with it all and who is determined to do something, who is organizing people for power to change the word, Help us to join you.

Oh God, who has had it and dreams of a new day and is on the march across the land that he/she might make his/her own destiny, Help us to join you.

Oh God, who is black and who is white and who would change the world for peace, justice, truth and love, Let us organize together.

Oh God, who is black and who is organizing for his/her own black power, Help us to support you.

Oh God, who still is, Help us to be.

Oh God, who is full of guts to be, Help us to join you.

Oh God, who is all peoples together in peace, all truth, all justice, all love, Help us to love you.

Oh God, the City, we need you.

Oh God, the City, we need you.

Oh God, the Holy City, We love you.