Posts Tagged ‘homelessness’

Feeding Hungry Souls Under the Fremont Bridge

Feeding Hungry Souls Under the Fremont Bridge
  Soft, off-key voices drift into the dark of downtown Portland. Small against the daunting sanctuary of the Fremont Bridge overhead, the students sing. A worn and heavily stickered guitar accompanies the voices. The music shudders as the player pauses, squinting through rain-speckled glasses. Mary...
November 22nd, 2012 | Featured | Read More

Bag Lady

Bag Lady
  The woman pulled the red stocking hat down over her ears. The wind whipping through the alley singed her skin with cold. She held the collar of her coat under her chin. Wished she had a scarf. “It’s worth the cold,” she thought out loud. “What’s in the food box is worth anything.” She...
July 21st, 2012 | Fiction | Read More

Of Health Care and Human Rights

Of Health Care and Human Rights
Words swirl around the issue of healthcare in the USA as if it were some kind of arcane medieval discussion along the lines of discerning how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. But healthcare, like love, is no abstraction. It matters, and makes sense, only when it directly touches – or...
May 25th, 2012 | Democracy, Editorial, Family, Social Justice | Read More

No Preaching Allowed

No Preaching Allowed
In the mid-section of her ordinary life, my friend Denie, whom I’ve known since before we were old enough to vote, felt what she described as a call of God to minister to the homeless. She wasn’t sure what that meant for her life, but she was full of faith and unction that she had received a bonafide...
June 14th, 2011 | Featured, Social Justice | Read More

The Human Cost of Short-Sighted Policy

On Monday Mom’s social worker called to say that the program she works under was about to lose almost 90% of itsfunding, which comes from King County.  This kind of a cut would functionally eliminate the program for nearly all of the 150 (of the most vulnerable/severely mentally ill) people who use...
October 28th, 2010 | Blog | Read More

Thoughts on Shame

Thoughts on Shame
Shame is my least favorite emotion. It’s different than guilt. Guilt I can deal with. Guilt compels me to action. I can confess my sin, ask forgiveness and strive to do better next time. Shame is the stranger who leads me down a dark road where more shameful things await, things that will surely cause...
April 1st, 2010 | Essays, Featured | Read More

Lessons from the Homeless

Lessons from the Homeless
Count me among the millions. It’s been a year since I lost the best job of my journalism career, working as an editorial writer and columnist for a family-owned newspaper. Call it what you like – riffed, cut, layed off, let go – I joined the ranks of the nation’s unemployed. Tears welled up in...
March 29th, 2010 | Featured, Social Justice | Read More

Money Is Not the Answer

Money Is Not the Answer
My 12 year old daughter has gotten up almost every Thursday at 4:30am for almost two years to go cook and feed breakfast to the homeless population of Baton Rouge.  The breakfast is served at the Baton Rouge Dream Center’s Roselawn location, which is just off Florida Blvd, right down the road...
November 17th, 2009 | Featured, Social Justice | Read More

Feast and Famine

This week at Lehigh University, where I work, is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.  On Thursday many of us in the community will be wearing t-shirts to represent our support in fighting this sad reality within our communities, country, and world.  I wanted to share the story printed on the backs...
November 5th, 2009 | Blog | Read More