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August 2007vol. 26, no.7

The Open Door Community – Hospitality & Resistance in the Catholic Worker Movement

HOSPITALITY

FREE

Open Door

The

Community

Calvin Kimbrough

By Roger Cooper

Arriving in the dead of night,The dead arrive,Dead.

They are carried home in casketsCovered by fl ags,Resting row on row,A rising body count,Cargo in the bloated belly of a transport planeIndifferent to its burden.

Doubly deadIn the minds of those who follow the news:Television commentaries,Radio reports,Newspaper narrativesOf families facing their isolated painAgain.

Their quiet corpsesArrive and depart painlessly,They separate in darkness,Unseen,Invisible,

Except for those who waitAnd mournBeside another womb,An empty burial pit,An unbegotten tomb.

How many more will have to dieBefore a great nerve awakens In the rest of usA long And lowlyKeening cry?

Editor’s note: Roger Cooper is a retired Psychologist who lives in Lady Lake, Florida. His poetry has been published in various poetry journals. He is also active in the Hoederlin Society and travels often to Tubingen, Germany for its meetings.

Our Analgesic Anesthetic War

www.thememoryhole.org

By Heather Bargeron

Editor’s note: LaTanya (Tanya) Scott, a homeless friend of the Open Door Community, died on May 16, 2007, at the age of 34 after a long struggle with HIV/AIDS. The following is adapted from a refl ection that Heather Bargeron, Resident Scholar at the Open Door, shared at a memorial service for Tanya at Mercy Community Church. The Open Door later held a march around the block and into the alley behind our house where Tanya had often lived. Cards, drawings, and a cross were placed there as a remembrance (see page 6).

Many people have mentioned that Tanya was a humble woman, that she was courageous and calm in the face of her illness. True. But as the stories told by her closest friends here have suggested, Tanya was well-known for some other qualities. She was a smart ass, and she was stubborn. That is also part of why we loved her. It was part of her charm. I loved Tanya for her spunk. Each time I visited her at Grady Hospital, in the care home where she was sent, and in the hospice center where she fi nally passed, she was wisecracking or sometimes even cursing the nurses and doctors who cared for her. Sometimes she even cursed me and others who came to visit her. Underneath this edgy smart aleck was a very tender woman, which was also what made her so loveable. Yes, often when we arrived to visit, Tanya would hide under the covers and give us one-word answers or just grunts when we asked how she was doing. But eventually she would perk up, start cracking jokes, and by the time we had to leave she was begging us to stay. She loved to hear the Psalms read, and she loved for us to pray with her. We would always pray before we left Tanya and remind her that she was well-loved. Then she would say, “I love y’all, too,” and ask us to call her that night. During a visit with Tanya in the hospice center just a short week before she died, we were once again reminding Tanya of all of the circles of people who love her and are constantly praying for her. She nodded silently as we spoke,

and after a long pause, she said, “I got a lot of friends, don’t I? I got a lot of friends.” I think her assurance of that fact was as much comfort to me as it was to Tanya. I needed to know that she knew that she was not alone. A few hours before she died, Jeannie Alexander and I sat for a long time with Tanya. Once again we reminded her of the many friends who loved her and were praying for her. We sat in silence a long time, listening to Tanya’s labored breathing. We held her small, frail hands and read Scripture to assure her and ourselves of the goodness and faithfulness of our God. I remember that Jeannie read these words from Psalm 27:

I know that I will live to see the Lord’s goodness in this present life. Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord.

When I think about Tanya’s life and death, I am angry. It’s hard for me to believe that Tanya knew the Lord’s goodness in this present life. I am grateful to her social worker at Grady, who was determined that Tanya would die in a dignifi ed place with good care, which she did. But I am angry that Tanya had to be dying in order to get housing. Why didn’t we, the people of God, make sure that Tanya, a woman created in the image of God, had access to “the Lord’s goodness” — housing, food, health care — when she needed it? God, forgive us. I can only hope that our visits with Tanya — listening to her wisecracks, rubbing her feet, fi xing her a green salad with thousand island dressing when she wouldn’t eat anything else, reminding her of all the people who love her, reading her the Psalms, and praying with her — gave Tanya a taste of the shalom that God intended for her. I pray that we will learn how to practice love better so that all God’s children may know the Lord’s goodness in this present life. Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord.

Remembering LaTanya

founded in New York City in 1990, is one of the largest non-profi t developers of so-called supportive housing for the homeless. Common Ground’s approach is bottom-up, in which they invite the homeless to participate in focus groups to determine the ideal housing unit. What a novel idea — asking and listening to the homeless to

discover what they want and need!Taking the premise that the

homeless want a place to live that is small, private, safe, and cheap — just enough space for themselves and their belongings — what are the ideal housing units? One ideal housing unit is the rooming house or fl ophouse. Cubicle housing with the barest amount of space, providing roughly 200 to 300 square feet, like a small hotel room or effi ciency.

On April 30, 2006, in The New York Times, there was an article titled “Discovering What Makes a Flophouse a Home: A

Hospitalitypage 2 August 2007

Hospitality is published 11 times a year by the Open Door Community (PCUS), Inc., an Atlanta Protestant Catholic Worker community: Christians called to resist war and violence and nurture community in ministry with and advocacy for the homeless poor and prisoners, particularly those on death row. Subscriptions are free. A newspaper request form is included in each issue. Manuscripts and letters are welcomed. Inclusive language editing is standard.

A $7 donation to the Open Door Community would help to cover the costs of printing and mailing Hospitality for one year. A $30 donation covers overseas delivery for one year.

HOSPITALITY Newspaper

Editor: Murphy DavisPhotography and Layout Editor: Calvin KimbroughAssociate Editors: Eduard Loring, Gladys Rustay, Lauren Cogswell, and Anne WheelerCopy Editing: Mary Byrne, Julie Martin, and Charlotta Norby Circulation: A multitude of earthly hostsSubscriptions or change of address: Charlotta Norby

Open Door Community910 Ponce de Leon Avenue NEAtlanta, GA 30306-4212www.opendoorcommunity.org 404.874.9652; 404.874.7964 fax

For more information about the life and work of the Open Door Community, please contact any of the following persons.

Tony Sinkfi eld: Hardwick Prison Trip and Food CoordinatorGladys Rustay: Jackson Prison Trip and Food Coordinator Dick Rustay and Lauren Cogswell: Dayspring Farm

CoordinatorsHannah Loring-Davis: Harriet Tubman Clinic CoordinatorBrother Eduard-the-Agitator Loring: Street Preacher and Word On The Street HostPhil Leonard: Administration and Finance, Hardwick Prison Trip, Resident Volunteer ApplicationsNelia and Calvin Kimbrough: Worship, Art, and Music

CoordinatorsChuck Harris: Volunteer CoordinatorMurphy Davis: Southern Prison Ministry

Calvin Kimbrough

By Houston Wheeler

Editor’s note: Houston Wheeler is a minister in the United Church of Christ, a community organizer and researcher and friend of the Open Door Community. This is the seventh in a series of articles for Hospitality on the issues of displacement and affordable housing.

My approach has always been to empower the poor to take responsibility for their lives. It has always been a bottom-up process, in which the poor themselves determine their specifi c goals. Invariably, what the poor lack are the resources to accomplish their goals. So, as an organizer, the primary task is to create a process whereby the resources get mobilized and channeled toward accomplishing specifi c goals determined by the poor themselves. This means the poor determine the outcomes.

About 15 years ago, I worked with a developer who wanted to build affordable housing units for the homeless. He said, “First let’s talk with the homeless to discover what they want and need.” We discovered that the homeless with whom we talked want a place to live that is small, private, safe, and cheap. Just enough space for themselves and their belongings.

Last month in Hospitality, we examined Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Regional Commission on Homelessness and its “Blueprint to End Homelessness in Ten Years.” I pointed out that the commission’s vision and resources won’t come close to ending homelessness by 2013. In addition, the commission developed its plan without much input from Atlanta’s homeless.

The Common Ground Community,

‘Cubicle Hotel’ Is Reborn as an Experiment in Giving the Homeless What They Want.” According to the article, “Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, believes that the decline of the lodging houses, boarding houses and S.R.O.’s (where residents could rent not a mere cubicle but a fully enclosed room) ‘was probably a big contributor to the emergence of homelessness.’”

Another ideal housing unit is the shotgun house, small three-room houses originally built in the early 1900s. Each house is simple, can be constructed in a month’s time, and can be designed as a single-family house, duplex, triplex, or row house.

While everyone might end up agreeing about what the ideal housing unit is, there is always the underlying question of how the city would fund the development of suffi cient and affordable housing for the homeless. If this question could have been answered 10 or 15 years ago, when it was fi rst asked by the Open Door and other housing advocates, then that housing would have been completed by now. However, with rising costs for both land and materials, the solution gets ever more complicated. For our government, business, and religious leaders, the solution today is for them to listen, which means hearing what the homeless are saying they want and need, and also hearing what the Scriptures have been saying all along. Listen again to that miracle story in Matthew 14 when Jesus fed the 5,000:

The Prophet looked over the city

where he could see and hear the 15,000 homeless who were starving for a place to live. With over 4 million people in the metro area, the homeless were less than a half of a half of a percent. The Prophet said, “Providing funding to house the homeless is everyone’s responsibility, not just government, not just churches, not just non-profi ts, not just corporations — everyone’s responsibility.”

The Prophet further pointed out, “Now, every day there are real estate closings and with each closing there is a real estate transfer tax. And if the closing involves a mortgage, there is an intangibles tax. In 2006 in Fulton County, the transfer tax totaled $18.2 million and the intangibles tax totaled $46.5 million.”

So, the city’s leadership, acting on faith that providing funding to house the homeless is everyone’s responsibility, allocated $25 million a year for 10 years, totaling $250 million, to build affordable housing for the homeless.

And behold, the Prophet looked over the city where 15,000 formerly homeless men, women and children were housed, no longer starving for a place to live. The Prophet gave thanks to God that the city’s leadership listened to the homeless and provided suffi cient funding to house the homeless.

Do You Hear the Homeless Starving for a Place to Live?

Errata:The June-July issue of Hospitality was volume 26, number 6.

The photograph on page 10 of Moira O’Neill was made by David Biesack.

Rita Corbin

The Open Door Community serves thousands of pitchers of ice cold sweet tea to our friends from the streets during the summer — a fi ne sign of Catholic Worker hospitality.

First let’s talk with the homeless to discover what they want and need.

HospitalityAugust 2007 page 3

Hunger & Gifts, continued on page 8

By Brother Eduard-the-Agitator Loring

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for LovingJusticeThey shall be satisfi ed.

Jesus, The Human One

Pastor Loring, Pastor Loring, There is a Famine in the Land.

Sister Durant, 1976

Give us this day our daily bread.Jesus the Jew

There is no such thing as strong coffee, only weak people.

Hezekiah 4.11c

I am the Bread of Life.Jesus the Bread-Maker

Part OneMemorial Day, May 28, 2007: What in the Hell is Going On?

Hunger in Atlanta.

The Word of God to unjust rulers and prophets to the Mainline:

Should you not know justice? — you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the fl esh off their bones; who eat the fl esh of my people, fl ay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like fl esh in a caldron.

(Micah 3:1b-3, NRSV)

On Monday we served our traditional Memorial Day meal honoring all those who have refused to go to war. Each year, we set up tables in the back yard and have a feast that is known all over the streets of Atlanta. We have been sharing this meal for years and years with our hungry friends. We always serve 500 folk. That is the most we can welcome, given who we are, the size of our community, the number of our volunteers, the strength of our kitchen, and the energy in our fl esh. The Catholic Worker dictum is “Stay Small.”

This year we experienced something new: We turned away more than 200 people.

What in the hell is going on in Atlanta? Do the Jews, Muslims, and Christians not know that we are in the midst of a famine in Atlanta? Have all the soup kitchens closed because the volunteers need time off to celebrate war? Are the Hebrew Scriptures, the Koran, and the New Testament just for the days of worship and really have little do to with human hunger and injustice? Is Jesus a phony? Is the Gospel baloney? How in the hell could the Open Door Community have to turn more than 200 people away? In this city of might, notoriety, wealth, and free market expertise?

Have the image-makers seduced us? Lies for profi t? Shirley Franklin and Horace Sibley lie daily about the reality of hunger and homelessness in our city. It just doesn’t work to tell the truth in a city that has the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. papers and four or fi ve theological seminaries funded by Coca-Cola with free tickets to the Coke Museum for all quiet scholars.

Have we for too many days believed the fi lth from Central Atlanta Progress? Directed by a Jewish man, whose faith puts alms, fasting, and care for the poor at the top of the list in honoring Yahweh-Elohim? He, with Shirley Franklin and Horace Sibley (both Presbyterians), has said there is no famine. That people on the streets can get plenty to eat: “Just come to City Hall and get the list of places.” When Murphy Davis asked for the list, no one could fi nd it or the Mayor.

The Food Bank gives away millions of tons of food every year in Atlanta, and the business community supports it well. So what in the hell is going on in Atlanta when more than 700 people walk from all over Atlanta to the Open Door Community for food and more than 200 are turned away empty-handed and empty-stomached?

Surely, we don’t believe Police Chief Richard Pennington and our Killer Police Force when they say all the hungry folk are just pretending? That they are just begging for dope? Do not help anyone, they advise; those strangers might hurt you. If you see anyone strange, call the police. Well, the strangest people in Atlanta today are our police. Have we been seduced by the American way of life, which is death?

Hypocrites. Hypocrites. Hypocrites.Can academic Jews, Muslims, and Christians get

angry about hunger and famine in fat Atlanta? What is wrong with us? Silence equals death. Who got hold of us? Award-winning books, tenure, accolades of brilliance abound, and there are people dying of starvation around us. How long were those tassels at this year’s graduation?

What the hell is going on in Atlanta? Seven hundred came to our little yard. Five hundred ate. More than two hundred went away empty-handed, empty-stomached.

Can pew-padded sermon-lovers get up and feed the hungry like the sermon hinted for us to do? Feed the hungry. Feed the hungry. Anybody ever heard of that before? Not this Memorial Day, I take it.

Ah, it is so much safer, easier, and more convenient to be pissed off at Bush, or be a pro- or anti-abortion advocate, or even to oppose the Iraq War, than to even know what is going on (like famine), much less act, in our own city, on our own sidewalk, in our own neighborhood. As important as it all is, don’t we fi nd it much easier to discuss far-away political problems than to look outside our church doors, or beside the synagogue, or across the street from the mosque. All air-conditioned, sweet with incense or deodorizers, and fi lled with the nicest, friendliest people you ever saw. “Ye hypocrites,” said a Jew from long ago about folk like us!

Oh, the weather was great this Memorial Day. Gas costs were down by a penny at the pump. It was a great day for making merry and remembering the sacrifi ces of those who believe the Augustinian Constantinian Jesus that war can be just, especially when we need it to be. All the while more than 700 men and women, boys and girls, walked in the heat, afraid of the police, jeered at by drunken college students and skinheads, toward the Open Door Community. Hungry. Hungry. Hungry. Yes, there is, Ms. Durant, a famine in the land.

Speaking of that Jew so few truthfully know, let me

share something else he taught for partying folk on Memorial Day in a city where the stench of famine is hidden on the seven fl oors of local jails and kudzu patches:

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. (Luke 6:24-26)

Jesus of Nazareth was an angry man from Galilee. As a child he had heard the peasants’ stomachs growl and the children moan from hunger while the Roman and Jewish religious elite drank the best wine and followed the Sepphoris University Guide to Healthy Heart Eating.

Of course, it is not polite to quote such scriptures. I would not have made a good slaveholder, would I, Erskine?

What in the hell is going on in Atlanta? The city has neither religious communities, businesses, political parties, civic groups, nor personal friends that can keep folk fed. Amazing. And I don’t mean grace.

They, the others, the strangers within our gates, They and Them, Those People: Oh, but we keep hearing, “Don’t talk about us and them.” We need unity, understanding, and cooperation. We are one body with one Lord. What is the big difference that we are fat and they are hungry? Different Memorial Days for different memorials.

Most of the folk we turned away were African American. Most were male. Most of them have been or will

Hunger & Gifts: The Jesus Prayer, Part I

Fritz EichenbergThe Lord’s Supper (1953)

Academy of Art’s summer show. Michael Sandle, a painter with the venerable Royal Academy, said he was so angry about the loss of life, the chaos, and the futility of the war in Iraq that in a mere 10 days he “dashed off” a 15’x 5’ painting titled “Iraq Triptych” depicting Tony and Cherie Blair leaving Downing Street as Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Blairs are the middle sketch between a British soldier beating an Iraqi prisoner on the left and a section on the right showing corpses piled up to the windows of Downing Street.

Sandle said he was so outraged by Blair’s parting comments — that God would be his judge on the morality of his decision to follow George Bush into war — that he turned to the story of “Paradise Lost” to depict the temptation

by Satan, with the Blairs as Adam and Eve. The painting on the left is called “Corporal Payne’s Chorus,” based on a 2006 court martial. The soldier had invited others to listen to a recording he made of what he called his “choir” of screaming victims.

God help us all in this deeply violent world, and God bless the artists among us when the truth comes screaming through.

Open Door T-shirts get around! At the onset of the most recent invasion of Iraq, our friends at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker designed a poster that they made into a T-shirt (you’ve probably seen it often in Hospitality). It says, “NO WAR / Our God

is Love / Our Gospel is Peace / Love Your Enemies.” We ordered so many of them from L.A. that Catherine Morris fi nally said, “I think it’s time for you to make your own!” We did, and since that time, we’ve distributed hundreds of them. We often run into people we don’t even know wearing the shirts—at the top of the shirts is “Open Door Community, Atlanta, GA.” In June, we got this note from Steve Clemens of the Community of St. Martin in Minneapolis:

“While I was in Mississippi a couple of weeks ago doing Hurricane Katrina rebuilding, our regular Wednesday vigil group had a larger action at Alliant Tech. As seen in the photos on the accompanying link (http://alliantaction.org/archives/action/2007/062007/0620071.html), two of our radical nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet were wearing the black Open Door T-shirts I gave them for their steadfast peacemaking efforts.” Make a good T-shirt and it will surely get around. Thank you, L.A. Catholic Worker!

On June 28, the state of Georgia executed John Hightower, ending a three-year respite from executions in the Peach State Gulag. It is a very sad time for John’s family and friends—all of us who loved and respected John. And a sad time for everyone in the state of Georgia to live in a government that continues the stupid, expensive, and destructive practice of killing those in its “care.”

On July 16, we spent a long day with Troy Anthony Davis and many of his family members joining together to fend off his July 17 execution date. Because Troy is factually innocent of the crime for which he is sentenced to death, his case has attracted worldwide attention.

There was never a shred of physical evidence linking Troy to the crime, and recently, seven of the nine witnesses who testifi ed against Troy at his trial have recanted their testimony and indicated intense police pressure to lie. Troy’s sister, the indefatigable Martina Correia, has given her life to fi ghting Troy’s conviction, and the fruit was evident as letters and telegrams poured in from around the world and Amnesty International USA joined in to demand that

Hospitality August 2007page 4

Inch by Inch, continued on page 8

GiveA Work of HospitalityThe Open Door Reader

A Work Of HospitalityThe Open Door Reader

1982-2002Peter R. Gathje, editor

384 PAGES

INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX

ISBN 0-9715893-0-5

I write with enthusiasm and appreciation for your sharing your vital ministry of so many years in “A Work of Hospitality.” It is obvious to me that no word better expresses what God calls us to be about in the urban world than the concept of Hospitality. But you make the word come alive and provide us with vital and helpful clues that make the concept have a reality and specifi city that provides a real challenge. My grateful thanks, Rev. Bill Webber New York, NY

Dr. George W. “Bill” Webber was President of New York Theological Seminary from 1969-1988

The following amounts are suggested as donations: $15.00 per single copy, up to 10;

$12.00/copy for 10–29;$7.50/copy for 30+.

Shipping & handling included.Make donations payable to:

“The Open Door Community,” 910 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E.

Atlanta GA 30306-4212 If funds are not available,

copies will be sent at no expense.

By Murphy Davis

Life at Dayspring Farm is good. This sabbatical year for Eduard and me is a deep and wonderful gift. After twenty-six years at the Open Door, to have a year out of the regular schedule and hubbub of 910 is quite a different pace. We had lots of plans for the year, and — true to form — it has all turned out quite differently. First of all, we have traveled much more than planned. The serious illnesses and the death of several friends and family, a number of weddings and other important family events — all have meant that Dayspring has been more of a “home base” than our yearlong location. But what a joy it is to come back, again and again, to this beautiful land.

We are spending much of our time tending the land — more of a surprise to me than to Eduard. He has worked diligently to develop a wetland/swamp area at the south end of our land. And already, the birds and other creatures are coming and fi nding a space there. The fi rst great blue heron to show up was exciting, and we’ve seen a few snakes and turtles, and thousands of frogs who up until recently struck up an unbelievable chorus at twilight. We look forward to more and enjoy the sense of making some small response to the global environmental crisis that is moving so much faster than anyone will say publicly. Closer to the farmhouse, around the feeders, we enjoy the constant fl utter of goldfi nch, Carolina chickadees, titmice, two pairs of cardinals, and the evening serenade of the wood thrush. An indigo bunting and several rose-breasted grosbeaks have graced us for several days here and there, and the pair of pileated woodpeckers who have nested in our woods for many years continually awe us.

Another big development is our use of rain barrels to collect water from the roof and downspouts for watering the trees, shrubs, fl owers, and Lauren’s tomato plants, lettuce, and other treats. Our friends and former Resident Volunteers Sue and Marc Worthington, who live in arid New Mexico, are advising us and sharing what they’ve learned.

Around the farmhouse there are four enormous Southern magnolia trees. Because of a slightly cooler climate, these lovely trees bloom later than the ones in Atlanta, and the huge fragrant fl owers continue to bloom all summer. We usually even have a few stray blooms into September! Most of the writing projects we set out to accomplish, however, are turning out to be more of a long-term work than what we are going to fi nish within this year. As always, we struggle to balance the life of activism and the contemplative work — a lifelong journey for sure.

Our friend Gordon Bittern from Aberdeen, Scotland, sometimes sends us bits and pieces from the British and Scottish press — always, of course, things that are not covered by the mainline American press. A good one recently was an article about a giant painting opening at the Royal

Inch by Inch: August ‘07

The Farmhouse at Dayspring Murphy Davis

By Stacy Rector

There was once a man whom the good law-abiders called “the worst kind of monster,” a homeless junkie who robbed a restaurant with a gun. When all was said and done, a fi ne man — a police offi cer — lay dead. Even though the junkie did rob the restaurant, he didn’t shoot the offi cer. An eyewitness lied, as sometimes happens, and the homeless man was sentenced to die anyway.

Through the power of God at work on him in prison, the junkie was set free of the junk. His faith grew, and he became a witness to the love and compassion of Jesus. But many law-abiders still called him “the worst kind of monster.” They had to, after all, because they planned to kill him.

After 25 long years, his time of execution drew near. When asked what he wanted to eat for his last supper, the man replied, “I would like a vegetarian pizza given to a homeless person.”

“What?” many of the law-abiders exclaimed. “Monsters don’t feed the homeless. … We don’t even do that.” And they said “No!” and killed him.

Seems like the end of a tragic story, doesn’t it? But with God, things are rarely what they seem. Philip Workman had been a homeless junkie living in Memphis who admitted to robbing a Wendy’s with a gun

from pain, as his skin broke open further from the maggots eating him. The smell was so intense even one of the paramedics struggled to keep her composure.

After he was rinsed off, the paramedics lifted him onto a stretcher, and then they began to negotiate the turns out of the house. As he was being wheeled out the front door, several of us assured him that we were glad he had come to Manna House, that we would be keeping him in our prayers, and that we would come to

visit him in the hospital. He was soon in the ambulance and on his way to the Med.

Then the cleanup began. The porch, the living room, and the clothing room — all had a trail of liquid from his chair. The shower room was the worst; the fl oor was covered with the maggots and the crud that had covered this man. As we cleaned, the intensity of what had taken place began to sink into my heart.

I have heard the story of St. Francis embracing a leper, overcoming his repulsion to share God’s love. I have heard the stories of Jesus stopping to heal a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, and stopping to heal lepers, the blind, and the paralyzed. Now somehow it seemed that I was in those stories. I wondered if Francis had gagged at the smell, or Jesus had been repulsed by the ugliness of illness. I know I had gagged

HospitalityAugust 2007

Reports, continued on page 8

page 5

Editor’s note: It is with some hesitation that we share the following stories from Emmanuel House in Memphis and the Open Door. The daily reality among the desperately poor is sometimes more than we can bear to even tell you. We think of these events happening on the streets of Calcutta and Mother Teresa and her sisters lovingly caring for these who are for us the presence of Christ in his most distressing guise (Dorothy Day). But on the streets of our cities — on the streets of the United States of America — the gruesome reality goes on day after day. Medical care for the poor is cut again and again. Addiction and mental health services have been practically nonexistent in recent years. And we are left (and privileged) to mop up the consequences. Please pray and raise hell on behalf of the poor. And please pray that we might always grow in love. Please come and join us.

Maggots, Shit, and Blood: June 14, 2007By Peter R. Gathje

What kind of society is so disdainful of people in need that a man who is poor, a double amputee, and has AIDS lives on the streets? Such a man came to Manna House today. He was pushed up the ramp to our porch and a few of our guests asked me if he could get a shower. My fi rst response was that the list for showers was full, but then the smell from this man told me that he needed a shower right away. Two of our guests helped me lift him in his wheelchair up over the stoop at our front door. As we did, I noticed drops of some kind of liquid coming from under his chair.

A few minutes later, as Ashley and I tried to lift this man into the showers, I found out where the drops were coming from. His backside was covered with a foul combination of shit, urine, blood, and maggots. He told us he had come to Manna House hoping we could give him a shower, and get him cleaned up enough that he could return to the streets. I thought initially we might be able to rinse off the fi lth covering him and get him into a shower. But it quickly became evident that he needed medical attention. Just one attempt to rinse him off while he still sat in his wheelchair left the shower room fl oor covered with a smelly mess and several of us gagging.

Kathleen called an ambulance. Once the paramedics arrived and they were told of the situation, they said he needed to be cleaned up before they would take him to the hospital. His care, they said, would be better if he came without so much fi lth on him. Each of these three paramedics was compassionate, generous, and professional. They and Kathleen came up with a plan by which he could be moved from his wheelchair into the shower. His clothing was gently removed and he was eased onto a small plastic chair in the shower stall. This movement left him shaking

Reports From the Front Line

Pizza Resistance in Tennessee

Pizza Resistance, continued on page 9

Brian Kavanagh

while high on cocaine in 1981. No one is exactly sure what happened as Philip came running out of that Wendy’s. He was hit on the head with something, and his gun fi red. Shots rang out, and when the dust settled, Lt. Ronald Oliver lay dead.

A man named Harold Davis told offi cers that he saw the whole incident from the parking lot. This was not the fi rst time he had come to police hoping for reward money. Mr. Davis testifi ed in court that he saw Philip point his gun at the offi cer and fi re. The jury found Philip guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death. Philip couldn’t remember what happened and accepted the sentence.

Only later, when a Nashville attorney began to investigate, was the truth uncovered. Mr. Davis lied. He had not been in the parking lot and fi nally admitted his perjury to the court. A woman who was with Mr. Davis at the time of the robbery also came forward and corroborated his story, as did a polygraph test. Ballistics experts were called in and demonstrated that Philip’s gun did not kill the police offi cer; he was instead tragically killed by so-called “friendly fi re.” Five former jurors asked for clemency because they sentenced Philip based on a lie. Still, the state wouldn’t listen and continued seeking death. Even when Lt. Oliver’s daughter asked the state to stop the execution of Philip Workman because she did not believe that he killed her father, the state would not listen.

Philip fought hard and suffered much. He had six execution dates set and was moved to deathwatch four different times. The last time, on May 8, he prepared to die. When asked what he wanted to eat for his last meal, Philip asked that a homeless person be given a vegetarian pizza. He didn’t ask for lobster or steak. He didn’t ask for chocolate cake with ice cream. He didn’t ask for one thing for himself. His last act, his last meal, he gave to someone else, to a homeless stranger: to someone whom most people rarely consider on their best day, much less their last day.

The state refused to deliver the pizza. The stated reason: The state could not use taxpayer money for such a charitable purpose. So with an empty belly but lips full of prayer, Philip was strapped to a gurney, and after 17 agonizing minutes, breathed his last. The state had taken his life, and yet …

The pizza started showing up. Donna Spangler, a Nashville resident and some of her friends, donated 150 pizzas — $1,200 worth — to the Nashville Rescue Mission. Linda Carter, a member of Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville, took nine large pizzas to the Campus for Human Development and shared dinner with the homeless there. The People for

Hospitalitypage 6

Out In,

910& Around Photographed and Compiled by Calvin Kimbrough

August 2007

In Memoryfor John Washington Hightower

By Diane Leslie WigginsJune 26, 2007

I pray for you tonightJohn Washington Hightower.

For deep, deep sleep; for wings;and for the southern cross

to guide you awayfrom this tormented land —

no longer sweet homefor those of us left here.

Diane Wiggins was a Resident Volunteer at the Open Door Community when John

Hightower was executed.

RememberingLaTanya

John Hightower Vigil

Bernard Ivory (with the cross) and Heather Bargeron (drummer) led our procession up Ponce de Leon Avenue on the way to the alley where LaTanya Scott often lived. Once we gathered in the alley we constructed a memorial for her on the fence from cards and drawings. Open Door Resident Calvin Simpson (middle left) places a card on the fence in front of Chad Hyatt’s drawing of LaTanya. Please see Heather’s remembrance on front page of this issue.

On May 26, 2007 Georgia executed John Hightower. The Open Door Community leads a vigil on the front steps of the State Capitol each time there is an execution. Lauren Cogswell (top picture) led the vigil. Tony Sinkfi eld (left) led us by reading Psalm 46. Dick Rustay (right) read from a letter he had recently received from a prisoner at the state prison in Jackson, where Georgia’s Death Row is housed.

HospitalityAugust 2007 page 7

July 4th Families

Memorial Day PicnicOn Monday, May 28, we celebrated Memorial Day by having one of our traditional summer picnics — hamburgers, slaw, baked beans, potato chips, iced sweet tea and watermelon. This is the meal referred to in Brother Eduard-the-Agitator’s article on page 3 of this issue. Smiley James (above) serves in our shady back yard. Open Door Resident Bernard Ivory (left) cooked hamburgers on a hot grill. Ronald Williams, a former Open Door Community member and current volunteer (right), serves up baked beans for a table.

We celebrated July 4th with another back yard picnic for 500. Our “holiday” meals are great times for families to join us as volunteers. Helping us serve were two sets of fathers and sons. Peter, Ellis and Oliver Roberts (above, on the left) live in Atlanta and are regular weekly volunteers at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast. Mark, Chris and Gabe Harper (above, on the right) live in Athens, Georgia, and come to help in the summer. Mark is a former Resident Volunteer and pastor of Covenant Presbyterian in Athens. The Thompson family — Jeraime, Daren, Graigory and Terri (left, left to right) — joined friends Calvin and Smiley James as volunteers who helped us serve the meal.

be in prison in the United States of America. So when we speak of these 700+ hungry folk, maybe we should have a workshop on “undoing racism.” That would get the fat cats off the golf course and into the serving line, I betcha!

Of course, there is deep irony in this Memorial Day memory. We honor the dead, but not the dying. We honor those whose blood is stilled, but not those still bleeding. And no mistake about it, this day is about buckets and buckets of blood. What in the hell is going on in Atlanta? Of the 700+ who came to our home with only 500 welcomed inside, many, many were military veterans. A few from Korea, a lot from Vietnam, and growing numbers from Iraq. But now, they have returned from foreign wars to bleed under bridges. Their feet bleed as they walk miles for a sandwich. Their hopes bleed as they are refused help by those who promised them the good life for “serving their country.” Their dreams bleed into desert sands of emptiness. We have fi nished with them. They are now trash. Disposable. They fought for us and came home to hell.

So while the big parade goes a-marching on Peachtree Street, and politicians Black and White, Democrats and Republicans, tell us of the honor and glory of our soldiers, these veterans limp away. Hungry. And the jailer polishes her keys. And the mortician with the county contract for paupers licks his jowly chops.

“Hey, man. This barbeque is really great. Flip me a couple more ribs.”

Hunger & Eating

In recent months we have discussed hunger and eating in these pages. We found that one of the unifying experiences in human life is that we all get hungry. We all need to eat three or more times a day. Not only do we need to eat, but we need to eat food that is nutritious, not poisoned by government policies that sacrifi ce safety inspections to support agribusiness. We need tasty dishes prepared slowly and with love. In fact, one of the primary promises and guarantees of biblical faith is that there is enough good food for every single person who on this good earth does dwell.

Eating is one of the great dis-unifying experiences in all human history and social life. Diddledamn and we don’t know why, do we? Some folk eat; some folk do not. Some folk eat well; some folk do not. Some folk eat in North Atlanta and spend $15 for a hamburger; and some folk stand in our yard before coming into our home for a bowl of soup and a sandwich. And some folk are so dazed and disoriented that they cannot remember when or how to eat. Hunger and eating are fundamental to faith and performance, to mercy and justice, to abundant life and the hell of oppression. Hunger is violence and ends in death. Eating can be sacramental. Good food provides the means and context of a life fi lled with love, hope, and abundant vitality.

We all have to eat. For those who

and been repulsed. I also know God spoke to me about just going forward and doing what needed to be done to care for this man who had come to Manna House.

I am also left angry and frustrated. I know that TennCare has been cut. I know how public hospitals like the Med bear the brunt of care for the poor and their funding is cut and cut and cut. I wish President Bush and Governor Bredeson would have seen what I saw this morning and smelled what I smelled. I also wish they could have been in our shower room to meet this man who, through the humiliation of strangers caring for him, seeing him in this way, remained patient and dignifi ed and forgiving of our attempts at care. I also wish everyone who speaks disdainfully of the poor, of people on the streets, and who do not give a damn about people suffering for lack of health care and housing, could have been there. Maybe standing together confronted with the smell of feces and rotting fl esh, we together could come up with a way to care for people in need. Maybe standing there together, we would take to heart Jesus’ words that our humanity is at stake in whether or not we feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, give drink to the thirsty, and visit the prisoner and the sick. Maybe we might even get angry enough to demand the changes we all need to live together as a compassionate and just society.

Calvin Kimbrough responds from Nine-Ten:

Friday night a week ago (6/22/07), as I was closing up 910, I had to ask James Davis, a former resident of the Open Door whom I had never met before, to leave the yard. James is a double amputee — both legs gone to frostbite. He was out of his wheelchair and his legs lay on the ground in the back yard, while James was drinking mouthwash. He was talkative and understood he had to leave our yard since he was drinking. He asked if he could leave his legs. I brought them inside.

Hospitalitypage 8

Hunger & Gifts, continued from page 3 Reports, continued from page 5Inch by Inch, continued from page 4

August 2007

the death machine be stopped. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles held a mara-thon (and unprecedented) seven-hour hearing on the case. In the end, the board issued a 90-day stay of execution.

Will they simply hope for the publicity to die down so that they can quietly send Troy off to the death gurney? Or will they do the right thing and lift his death sentence so that the conviction might be challenged in court?

Remembering John Hightower and the other 39 brothers who have died so uselessly in the Georgia death chamber, please add your voice to demand justice for Troy Davis. More information on the case is available from Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (www.gfadp.org).

Please write to:

State Board of Pardons and Paroles2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SESuite 458, Balcony Level, East TowerAtlanta, GA 30334-4909Fax: (404) 651-5282

Thank you. And please pray for Martina. As she fi ghts on for Troy, she continues chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Along with her 18-year struggle for her brother’s life, she pours out her life for women with breast cancer. It’s one of the most creative ways to struggle for one’s own life you will ever fi nd.

Murphy Davis is a Partner at the Open Door Community.

follow the wine-drinking, feasting, crowd-feeding Jew who was barn-born, what we eat, with whom we eat, how we eat, where we eat — all of these are defi nitive for faith and practice. Hunger creates an absolute necessity. Whomever — or whatever reason — stands in the way of every single person receiving bountiful, healthful, tasty food needs to be torn down, transformed, made just. We are to welcome everyone to the family table for food, love, and compassion.

We can’t cut a fruitless tree down without an ax and fi re to burn the stump. We can’t pick and share fi gs without a basket and a table. When it comes to hunger and eating, we as people of faith must take a hammer to capitalism and greed and beat it into a just system where eating is a human right. For, according to Psalm 98, Yahweh-Elohim is on the way to America and will “judge us with justice and fairness.”

God hates hunger. God is terrifi ed to see starvation. Jesus suffers hunger in Darfur, Fulton County Jail, at the Open Door Community, on the streets. God is calling us right this minute to hit the streets, hard, loud, and clear, to end this ludicrous injustice and violence and death in God’s creation, in the bellies and bodies of God’s image.

Let us pray.

Eduard-the-Agitator Loring is a Partner at the Open Door Community.

On Monday morning we got word James was at Publix supermarket, in bad shape. Tony went up to check on him. The Publix folks had seen him around their store since Saturday. They called an ambulance. Mr. Davis was not responsive and had almost no pulse; he was taken to Grady Hospital. Tony brought his wheelchair back to 910 and cleaned it. On Thursday during soup kitchen, someone came to the door to tell Tony, who was on house duty, that there was a man in a wheelchair out back. Tony went out. It was Mr. Davis — in another wheelchair, but in the same predicament, drunk, with his bottle of mouthwash, not alert at all. Tony wheeled him into the living room and called an ambulance. Eventually they took Mr. Davis, his wheelchair and his legs to Grady.

As soon as he is stable, he will again be dumped out on the street. There is no place for him to go — no matter that he is a double amputee in a wheelchair, sick, addicted, and totally unable to care for himself. For all the money spent on emergency care for him in the last week, he could have had care for a month or more, if we only provided that sort of care somewhere.

And there are probably several thousand more double amputees rolling around in wheelchairs in our rich and bored country — all needing a place to live. I pray for forgiveness and for change.

Editor’s note: Brother Eduard-the-Agitator told us that Mr. Davis lost his legs from exposure during a time of very cold temperatures around fi fteen years ago. Eduard worked with Mr. Davis to get him back to his home in Eatonton, Georgia. Dick Rustay learned that he lived there with his mother for those years until she died. Mr. Davis said then he just “came to pieces” and ended up in Atlanta again. After three weeks of drinking mouthwash, rolling around the streets of Atlanta, being in and out of Grady Hospital, and leaving his legs twice at 910, grace met up with Mr. Davis. On Saturday (7/7/07), Barbara Schenk summoned Nelia Kimbrough to the front door where Mr. Davis was waiting with his daughter and son-in-law. They had come to Atlanta, found him, and were taking him, and his legs, back to Eatonton. We pray for them and for Mr. Davis. Peter Gathje’s story was also published in The Cross Examiner, newspaper of the Emmanuel House Community in Memphis where Pete and his wife, Dr. Jenny Case, live and work. Write to them for a subscription at Emmanuel House, 51 North Auburndale St., Memphis, TN, 38104.

I wish President Bush and Governor Bredeson would have seen what I saw this morning and smelled what I smelled.

Ethical Treatment of Animals heard about Philip’s request and delivered 15 pizzas to the mission. The Oasis Center, a shelter for teenagers in Nashville, received 17 pizzas from a Minneapolis radio station.

And the pizzas kept multiplying. Pete Gathje and Jenny Case reported that in Memphis at Emmanuel House, a house of hospitality, 20 large pizzas were served courtesy of Elizabeth Vandiver from Washington. In Portland, Oregon, the Sisters of the Road Café — a drop-in eatery for the homeless — began receiving pizza. In Connecticut, Bob Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, reported that 500 homeless people enjoyed 150 pizzas. And Fabian Hathorn, along with other French activists, sent $200 to the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing to buy pizzas for the homeless. All told, over 1,500 homeless people nationwide so far have enjoyed a pizza party because Philip Workman, executed by

HospitalityAugust 2007 page 9

Join us as a Resident Volunteer

Contact: Phil Leonard at opendoorcomm@bellsouth.net

or 770.246.7625For information and application forms

visit www.opendoorcommunity.org

Live in a residential Christian community.

Serve Jesus Christ and the hungry, homeless, and imprisoned.

Join street actions and loudandloving non-violent demonstrations.

Enjoy regular retreats and meditation time at Dayspring Farm.

Join Bible study and theological reflections from the Base.

You might come to the margins and find your center.

Calvin Kimbrough

Recommended Reading

By Ed Weir

Editor’s note: Ed Weir is one of the founders of New Hope House in Georgia, a ministry to the families of the men and women on Georgia’s death row.

I spent a few days with friends Diana George and Chuck Harris in Blacksburg, Virginia — the home of Virginia Tech University. I had no intention of relating to the killings by Seung-Hui Cho of college folks. But it happened.

Chuck was driving me around when we passed a professionally made sign at a Pentecostal church. It had the letters VTU and 33 on it. I thought there were only 32 victims. Then we came to the Blacksburg Baptist Church located directly across from the campus. There was a long row of fl agpoles with mostly American fl ags, but a few representing other countries. I counted the poles — 32. Aha — I was thinking — same old Baptist folks that like to execute people in Georgia. Chuck had pulled into the church parking lot. Then I saw this sign next to the poles:

A CALL FOR REMEMBRANCE AND PRAYERWhile only 32 fl ag poles were donated to the town and

ultimately to our church for the project, it is important to also remember the Cho family in their grief. Our prayer is for

the healing of everyone touched by the tragedy of April 16, 2007, and for every family on earth touched by the struggle of

profound mental judgment.

I was not prepared for this concern for the Cho family. By now I was ready to visit the place where students had placed 33 memorial stones. These were small stones and

On Remembering Victims A Visit to Virginia Tech

small tokens of memorabilia with a printed name on paper at each stone. But there was one stone with no name. Chuck said that Cho’s name had been there until recently. Someone must have just taken it. Chuck said the stone representing Cho had been missing before for a week, but it was returned.

Last night John Hightower was executed by the state of Georgia. Our state is fi lled with mentally and spritually impaired people who want to execute people. We see this often in the jury selection process at death penalty trials. If such people had known John before and after the worst moment of his life, there would not have been an execution — maybe. The students who knew and spent time with Cho knew him in a different way from the way he was during the breakdown of his sanity.

There will be a stone remembering John Hightower. It will have his name engraved. Those of us who knew John will remember him as he really was. And many of us will be glad for the gift of two of his sons, Michael and Chris. They journeyed with us and livened up the long bus trips when we attended meetings of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in various cities. On the return trips at night, they helped us continue the energy we got from the conference by leading us in song and stories.

There are other stories around the issue of remembering 33 people rather than 32. What an encouraging sign of hope. A strange thing happened last night: I dreamed that the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the death penalty. And that reminds me of this quote from the book of Joel: “Your old men [that would be me] will dream dreams. Your young people will see visions.” The latter would be the young students who envisioned a faithful way to respond to the terrible violence on their college campus.

Tennessee as “the worst kind of monster,” chose to remember a homeless person as his last act on earth. Perhaps we haven’t even heard of all the pizzas served in Philip’s name, and it is still going on!

I don’t believe that Philip intended to start a movement of “pizza resistance” (the term was coined by Pete Gathje). Philip just wanted to follow Jesus, so he chose to feed a hungry person as if feeding Jesus himself. Some scoffed. A letter to the editor of The Tennessean in Nashville mocked his compassion, quipping, “Philip Workman’s last media stunt is feeding a homeless person.” When the lines of good and bad get all blurred, people lash out, call names, and tremble. Death row inmates aren’t supposed to care about anybody, much less the homeless.

And yet again, resurrection life bursts forth out of a death chamber. The request of a condemned man to feed one homeless person becomes a feast for more than 1,500. The power of love resists the power of death through pizza delivery! It takes only a tiny bit of yeast to leaven the whole crust.

Editor’s note: Stacy Rector is a Presbyterian minister and the Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK). She has spent time living and volunteering at the Open Door Community and is a member of our wider community.

Pizza Resistance, continued from page 5

Philip just wanted to follow Jesus, so he chose to feed a hungry person as if feeding Jesus himself.

Rita Corbin

Sharing FoodChristian Practices

for EnjoymentBy L. Shannon Jung

ISBN:978-0-8006-3792-7Fortress Press

Paperback176 pages

$15.00

Ira Terrell, the Open Door Community’s runner, invites you to join him. His training runs begin

around 4:00 a.m. after he’s made 35-50 gallons of fresh coffee for the folks in the yard. He would love to have some Resident Volunteers join him in his life and works of mercy and justice, and for next year’s

Peachtree Road Race.

Hospitality August 2007page 10

A $7 donation covers a year’s worth of Hospitality for a prisoner, a friend, or yourself. To give the gift of Hospitality, please fi ll out, clip, and send this form to:

Open Door Community 910 Ponce de Leon Ave., NE

Atlanta, GA 30306-4212

this year give

___Please add me (or my friend) to the Hospitality mailing list.

___Please accept my tax deductible donation to the Open Door Community.

___I would like to explore a six- to twelve-month commitment as a Resident Volunteer at the Open Door. Please contact me. (Also see www.opendoorcommunity.org for more information about RV opportunities.)

name__________________________

address ________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

email___________________________

phone__________________________

HOSPITALITY

volunteer needsat the

Open Door Community

For more information, contact Chuck Harris at

odcvolunteer@bellsouth.net or 770.246.7627

People to accompany community members to doctors’ appointments.

Groups or individuals to make individually wrapped meat and cheese sandwiches (no bologna or pb&j, please) on whole-wheat bread for our homeless and hungry friends.

People to cook or bring supper for the Community on certain Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evenings.

Volunteers for Monday and Tuesday breakfasts and for Wednesday and Thursday soup kitchens.

Volunteers to help staff our foot clinic on Thursday evenings.

By Father Emmett Jarrett, TSSF

Editor’s note: Father Emmett Jarrett, an Episcopal priest and former member of the Open Door Worshiping Community, is, with his wife Anne Scheibner and their two children, a co-founder of St. Francis House in New London, Connecticut. On Good Friday, he and several friends blocked traffi c in Groton, Connecticut, to call attention to and protest the torture and denial of rights of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. We are happy to share his statement to the court. Emmett wrote: “The charges were dismissed and court costs waived. Our local folks are not nearly as enamored of the Bush war as they might once have been. The prosecutor regularly brings his children to court to introduce them to Cal Robertson, who’s been doing this for 25 years!”

My name is Father Emmett Jarrett. I am an

Episcopal priest and a Third Order Franciscan. I live and work at St. Francis House, 30 Broad Street, New London. On Good Friday, April 6, 2007, I was arrested by Groton Town Police after a Stations of the Cross service at the U.S. Navy Submarine Base New London, in Groton, and charged with “obstruction of free passage.”

Good Friday is the day every year on which Christians remember Jesus of Nazareth, who was tortured and murdered by an unholy collusion of church and state two thousand years ago. The nature of his “crime” was that he “proclaimed good news to the poor, release to captives, and the year of God’s Jubilee,” which constituted then, as it does today, an offense to the empire that tortured and killed him. Good news for the poor continues to be bad news for the principalities and powers of imperial governments. Release for captives reminds us of those imprisoned in another Navy installation, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who have been held without charge, without adequate legal counsel, without the right of habeas corpus enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and without being able to know the “evidence” against them or confront their accusers — some of them for fi ve years.

The Good Friday Guantanamo Protest

My friends and I, on Good Friday, obstructed free passage of a public street in Groton to call attention to the plight of those who are tortured every day in Guantanamo by agents of our government. I do not deny that I did this action, nor do I dispute the laws that protect citizens by regulating traffi c. This is not an “unjust law.” But our action serves to bring to the attention of the government — even at the local level — the real crime being committed in our name: torture, unjust imprisonment, and illegal war.

A few days ago, a friend in Atlanta [Murphy Davis] sent me this statement by the French writer Albert Camus, dated August 8, 1945 — two days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing 150,000 people, and the day before the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, using the Catholic cathedral of that city as the aiming point for destruction.

Camus wrote:Before the terrifying prospects now available to

humanity, we see even more clearly that peace is the only goal worth struggling for. This is no longer [simply] a prayer but a demand to be made by all peoples to their governments — a demand to choose defi nitively between hell and reason.

In this court today, I make this demand. The action

my friends and I undertook was a small thing. The venue is local, but the consequences of war and torture are also local. The people being tortured and killed in Iraq suffer these consequences. The poor and the homeless in New London County also suffer because of the diversion of wealth from social good to war and corporate profi teering.

I am prepared to suffer the consequences of my action, in the hope that anything I suffer may serve, in a small way, “to make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” (Colossians 1:24). Violence will not protect us from terror; only love can do that. I ask this court to join me in this witness, and make a stand against state murder, torture and war.

Freedomwalk ‘07September 9-15

The 12th annual Freedom Walk, the Prison & Jail Project’s week-long journey for justice through southwest Georgia, will be held September 9-15, 2007. The walk will begin in Donaldsonville (Seminole County) on Sunday, September 9, at the Seminole County courthouse and jail. It will conclude on Saturday, September 15, in Lumpkin (Stewart County). It will cover about 150 miles. Along the way there will be times to meet with freedom fi ghters in rural southwest Georgia communities and lift up the Native American and African American history of the region. On the walk’s last day in Lumpkin there will be a rally at the Stewart County Detention Center to call attention to prisons-for-profi t and the plight of undocumented workers in our country. This facility is a 1,500 bed private prison housing these workers.

For more information contact:

Prison & Jail Project P.O. Box 6749Americus, GA 31709229.928.2080fax 229.924.7080e-mail pjp@sowega.net.

HospitalityAugust 2007 page 11

Grace and Peaces of MailThere may be timeswhen we are powerlessto prevent injustice and the destruction of life,but there must never be a timewhen we fail to protest.

(based on Elie Wiesel)

Dear friends,In November 2004, together with hundreds of

people, I took part in a demonstration against the transport of nuclear waste to Gorleben. For our non-violent protest against this live destructive load, we went to court and got a fi ne. During our trial, the lawyer said that it wouldn’t matter if the cargo was candy or nuclear waste — the transport would have to take place.

I don’t agree at all! This nuclear waste will be radioactive for several hundred thousand years — the container seemed to be “safe” for about 40 years!

Like others, I decided not to pay the fi ne. Now I’ve got to go to jail for two days. I’ll serve this sentence from the 30th of May to the 1st of June 2007 in a jail for women in Gelsenkirchen. I dedicate this time to those who suffered and suffer most under the use of atomic energy:

- those who live next to the production areas of uranium and nuclear power plants,- the victims of the catastrophes of Harrisburg and Chernobyl and all the other big and small accidents,- the men, women, and children who suffer from radiation poisoning because of the wars of the last years through the use of radioactive ammunition from uranium — a waste product of atomic energy plants — above all in Kosovo and Iraq,- the victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all those who were exposed to harmful radiation or lost their homes because of the testing of atomic weapons.

I’d like to invite you to take some time to consider supporting the abandoning of nuclear energy — e.g., by choosing an alternative energy contractor and joining the local and worldwide movement against the use of atomic energy! In order to shut down all atomic power plants we really need everybody’s support.

Please pray for all the activists who are fi ghting non-violently against the use of atomic energy! And for a powerful but peaceful protest, especially also during the G-8 meeting in Heiligendamm.

With these thoughts in mind, warm resistance greetings to all of you from

Viola EngelsBielefeld, Germany

I was fascinated by a recent article about the Pope and his effort to silence some of the outstanding Liberation theologians. First of all, I don’t think the hierarchy would be worried about this movement if they really thought that liberation theology was dying.

The Pope says we need a theology of martyrdom instead of a theology of liberation. But the fact is, at least in Guatemala, that the priests, nuns and catechists ministering from a theology of liberation have been the martyrs. They are the ones helping people know their rights and how to strive for them.

To me, this attitude is another example of the church — be it Catholic, Protestant, or whatever — standing up for the status quo instead of for God’s people. How can anyone say that struggling for the liberation of the masses from their poverty and exploitation “subverts the gospel of liberation”? It makes me want to scream. Regardless of the nay-sayers, there are numbers of priests and nuns quietly doing their work, not labeling it liberation theology but practicing it. Once people have a taste of that kind of ministry, there is no rolling back the tide. It may be slow, but it is real. Hallelujah!

Anne Sayre Decatur, Georgia Anne Sayre is a retired Presbyterian minister who lived and worked in Guatemala for much of her ministry. She is a regular volunteer at the Open Door and a member of our Advisory Board.

Wishing you and all who come to you peace in the heart, food in the belly, clothes on the back and kind eyes for one another. Susan North Tucson, AZ

Dear Murphy, Thank you for remembering my fi rst visit on a rainy evening at your house on Ponce de Leon in Hospitality (November-December 2006). My memory is also very much alive. I fell in love with your and Ed’s work. I always read your paper from cover to cover as soon as it arrives. Hospitality is the only American newspaper that I regularly read. I have had some serious health problems in my 80th year, but I am alive and active again. When I get another invitation to Atlanta, I shall come and see you. Continue in the Joy of God and be guarded by God’s Peace. You are always present in my prayer. Love, Jurgen Moltmann Tubingen, Germany

Keep up the good work. Nothing is more needed than the very thing you are doing. Thomas Dews Covington, Georgia

Thank you for your faithfulness in doing God’s work and also for sending me Hospitality. I never fail to be inspired and encouraged when I read it. Yours in Christ, Betsy Hendrix McLean, Virginia

Dear Eduard, [In response to] your article “Hunger & Eating: A Conversation, Part I” (Hospitality, February 2007). I simply wish to encourage you to continue your advocacy for those who have little voice or no voice in the present system. There are very few of us that wish to stand in “their” shoes. Thank you. In your work and your writing, you are loyal to the One who came to light the way and build bridges to the Father, and who has told us, many times and many ways, this old world is not the answer, that only a new world will do and, in the meantime, we are to serve others in a way that brings glory to God. May God’s Spirit continue to lead us, all of us, daily, in love. A friend in Orlando, Bill Thomas Goldenrod, Florida

Dear Friends, I remember fondly the days with you at Warren Wilson College. Over these years I continue to admire your courage, your dedication, your persistence on so many levels — physical, spiritual, intellectual — and that level that can be known only as faith. Peace and love to you, Eunice Wagner Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Ed, It was great to hear from you and to receive a copy of “Sharing the Bread of Life.” Many thanks. I always read Hospitality with great interest and continue to be impressed with your powerful witness. I am pleased that Calvin and Nelia are now part of your community. They have so much to offer. I hope to get to see them at the Tennessee Conference in early June. My best to you and Murphy. Sincerely, Frank Gulley Nashville, Tennessee

Dr. Frank Gulley, Emeritus Professor of Church History and retired Director of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, has been an important friend and infl uence in the life of Eduard Loring, as well as a long-time supporter of the Open Door Community. He is also a friend of Nelia and Calvin Kimbrough, who are members of the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church with Frank. While a grad student at Vanderbilt, Eduard-the-Agitator worked in the Divinity Library. Frank and Eduard became good friends while Eduard was paid for his work in the library, and in the classroom where Eduard paid for the teaching. We are grateful to Frank and his wife Anne for their years of friendship and support.

Dear Ed, Murphy, and team, We welcome your monthly Hospitality and pass it around. Your commitment to the poor is inspiring and helps keep us encouraged. Our newsletter layout editor, Barbara, is a former army brat from Atlanta, so we feel a personal connection with the city. In addition, two of our members, John and Leony Miller, visited with you back in 1988 — and lived to tell the story! With best wishes and wishing God’s blessing be showered upon you all, Jim Consedine, on behalf of the Christchurch Catholic Worker Christchurch, New Zealand

Thank you for all the labor you do to bring about justice. Jim (Mauldin) and I keep in touch with your ministry through Hospitality and prayer. Thank you for all that you do, especially the newspaper. Linda Blessing Mt. Airy, North Carolina

B.M. Kavanagh

Hospitality August 2007page 12

From 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, our attention is focused on serving the soup kitchen and household lunch. As much as we appreciate your coming, this is a diffi cult time for us to receive donations. When you can come before 11 a.m. or after 2 p.m., it would be helpful. THANK YOU!

Open Door Community Ministries

Needs of the Community

Join Us for Worship! Clarifi cation Meetings at the Open Door

We meet for clarifi cation on selected Tuesday evenings

from 7:30 - 9 p.m.

Plan to join us for discussion and refl ection!

Medicine Needs List

ibuprofen lubriderm lotion

cough drops non-drowsy allergy tablets

cough medicine (alcohol free)

epsom saltanti-bacterial soap

shoe insertscorn removal pads

exfoliation cream (e.g., apricot scrub)pumice stones

foot spacuticle clippers

latex gloves nail fi les (large)

toenail clippers (large)medicated foot powder

antifungal cream (Tolfanate) We are also looking for

volunteers to help staff our Foot Care Clinic

on Thursday evenings!

For the latest information and scheduled topics, please call

404.874.9652 or visit

www.opendoorcommunity.org.

We gather for worship and Eucharist at 5 p.m. each Sunday, followed by supper together. Our worship space is limited, so if you are considering bringing a group

please contact us at 770.246.7628. Please visit www.opendoorcommunity.org or call us for the most up-to-date worship schedule.

Our Hospitality Ministries also include visitation and letter writ-ing to prisoners in Georgia, anti-death penalty advocacy, advo-cacy for the homeless, daily worship and weekly Eucharist.

Breakfast & Sorting Room: Monday and Tuesday, 6:45 – 8 a.m.Showers & Sorting Room: Wednesday and Thursday, 8 a.m.Soup Kitchen: Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. – 12 noon.Use of Phone: Monday and Tuesday, 6:45 a.m. – 8:15 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. – 12 noon.Harriet Tubman Medical and Foot Care Clinic: Thursday, 6:45 - 9 p.m.Clarifi cation Meetings: some Tuesdays, 7:30 – 9 p.m.Weekend Retreats: Four times each year for our household, volunteers and supporters.Prison Ministry: Monthly trip to prisons in Hardwick, Georgia, in partnership with First Presbyterian Church of Milledgeville;

The Jackson (Death Row) Trip; Pastoral visits in various jails and prisons.

Foot Care Clinic

Living Needs❏ jeans❏ men’s work shirts❏ men’s belts (34” & up)❏ men’s underwear❏ socks❏ reading glasses❏ walking shoes (especially 9 ½ and up)❏ T-shirts (L, XL, XXL, XXXL)❏ baseball caps❏ MARTA cards❏ postage stamps❏ trash bags (30 gallon, .85 mil)

Personal Needs❏ shampoo (full size)❏ shampoo (travel size)❏ lotion (travel size)❏ toothpaste (travel size)❏ combs & pics❏ hair brushes❏ lip balm❏ soap❏ multi-vitamins❏ disposable razors❏ deodorant❏ vaseline❏ shower powder❏ Q-tips

Daniel Nichols

Harriet Tubman Medical Clinic

We are open…Sunday: We invite you to worship with us at 5 p.m., and join us following worship for a delicious supper. We are open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. for donations.Monday through Thursday: We answer telephones from 9 a.m. until 12 noon and from 2 until 6 p.m. We gratefully accept donations from 9 until 11 a.m. and 2 until 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday: We are closed. We are not able to offer hospitality or accept donations on these days.

Food Needs❏ turkeys❏ hams❏ sandwiches❏ quick grits

Special Needs❏ backpacks❏ single bed mattresses❏ double or Queen bed ❏ bed pillows❏ bug spray

August 5 Worship at 910 Anthony Granberry preachingAugust 12 Worship at 910 Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembrance Dick Rustay preachingAugust 19 Worship at 910 Release to the Captives Mike Vosburg-Casey speaking

we need sandwichesmeat & cheese

on wheat

August 26 No Worship at 910 planning retreat at Dayspring FarmSeptember 2 Worship at 910 Eucharist Service and Songs from the Labor MovementSeptember 9 Worship at 910 Eucharist Service

We all enjoyed singing when Elise Witt

brought her songs

to worship.Calvin Kimbrough