Take Back the Flag

“If God intended for us to eat creatures of the land, he would have made it bigger than the sea.”

The quote above was the first of many theories shared by a nameless gentleman I met today at the St. Anthony’s dining room in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco.  The Tenderloin gets it’s name from the extra pay San Francisco police officers used to receive to take the patrol routes in the ever-dangerous neighborhood, which let them eat great cuts of meat for dinner every night.  The Tenderloin has a storied history of immigrant waves to the United States, rich with culture, but it’s also been the regular home of the under-class and the poorest of the poor in the city.

I followed the idea about the sea, but it got obscure after that.  The theories to follow today at lunch went from the “the time of female rule is now after 13,000 years of masculine rule” to “it’s the time of lightness as the head and tail of the earth coincide.”  The mind behind these theories belonged to an individual you might expect to find in free lunch dining hall in a charitable church in the middle of a neighborhood abounding with homelessness.  And this man was what you might expect:  kind, aware of his surroundings, but keenly focused on his astrological theories.

Needless to say, it was an eye opening experience to eat (free) lunch with him.  As the St. Anthony’s staff member explained, my generation is used to homeless individuals in cities across the country.  (To the staff member in his sixties, this was something still relatively new.)  But it’s obviously a different perspective when you wait in line with the folks carrying all of their possessions, and then dine with them in the middle of a basement dining room in a neighborhood you usually avoid.

What was most striking was not the astrological believer, or the men who grabbed food, quickly sat down at our table, and silently and quickly ate their meal without a word to the rest of us, or the elderly individuals who rolled in by wheelchair, but the men who made up the rest of our table for the entirety of our stay.  One man attended college in San Jose and used to work in technology before he retired recently.  Now he dines with the “poorest of the poor” in St. Anthony’s.  Who knows where he lives?  Another came from Boston to San Francisco years ago when his company relocated, and yet another college attendee (never mentioned whether or not he graduated) joined our conversation to swap San Jose stories with us.

These men had no theories from astrology books.  My conversations with them were like those I have with my family and friends.  We talked politics, sports, and San Francisco.  I expected nothing different from these men, but seeing and living it in person was a completely different experience.  I knew that not all homeless people in America were drunk or high all the time (especially in a time of recession), but the real conversations still changed my perspective.

Talk about the budget problems for California with both the guests and staff of St. Anthony’s strongly reminded me of our moral responsibility to our brothers and sisters, and of the awesome potential for their more direct involvement in their own larger community, from neighborhood, to city, to state, to country.  President Obama‘s incredible life story from his childhood through his experience in low-income areas of Chicago to the presidency brought community organizing to the forefront.  (It even got play at the Republican National Convention, when Rudy Giuliani foolishly made fun of his work.)

Budget shortfalls in California are likely to close four senior drop in medical clinics and the only walk-in pharmacy in the Tenderloin.  If these closures go through, we all lose.  Morally and economically, these loses are dangerous.  But they hurt the people in that neighborhood the most.  And it seems like these people have many barriers to break through to get exert their influence on policy at all levels of government.

Most important, they don’t have the money that big corporations and even rich individuals have to support candidates and causes, and then request favors down the line.  Money is a tricky issue because of the conflict of our first amendment right to share our opinions, even if it means using our money, and the obvious perverse incentives that campaign contributions bring (see the relationship between donations and committee positions, but all of this is a topic for another day in the near future).

Furthermore, the individuals with the most to lose, are likely to be homeless and have difficulty even registering to vote.  Even working class Americans who have a home and are registered voters are hampered by the need to work long hours with no chance to stand in line.  Herein lies the potential for community organizing.  In his time in Chicago, Obama addressed important issues, such as low-income housing and job training in the neediest neighborhoods.  A similar approach in San Francisco, and other cities, could give a first-person, passionate voice to a cause that, even with strong advocates, is lacking influence.

I don’t know much about community organizing in the Tenderloin or San Francisco.  And I don’t think I’ll be leaving my job tomorrow to take up the cause directly.  From my six hour experience, and many hours of thought afterward, I have been reminded of the plight of homelessness in many of our great cities, and learned first hand, for the first time in a long time, that I can make a positive difference in the lives of many–including my own–with a small contribution of time, energy, and care.  I plan on going back to St. Anthony’s, and I encourage you to seek out a similar place to help.  Clearly, as you can see, a thought-provoking day.

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