One night last week while washing dishes, out of the corner of my ear I heard a man on public TV say “When one cries, we all cry.” He was part Cherokee and he was discussing a problem of tribal membership blocked for those who also were part Negro. Although some members of the tribe disagreed, to this man one drop of Cherokee blood was not negated by one drop of Black blood. For him, one drop of Cherokee blood is enough to qualify anyone for membership in the tribe of Us.
“When one cries, we all cry.” When I heard those words, I wanted to cry
myself. I admired, even envied the
understanding of community that says to its individuals “You are not alone, no
matter what.” Then later that week, in
the PBS program on African history, I learned that Africa is the cradle not
just of civilization but of humanity itself.
The first human beings evolved in Africa and then migrated to other parts
of the globe, sometimes in response to drastic climate change and war. What anthropologists, the scientists of
humanity, now believe is that all of us have a drop of Black blood in us. So, when one of us cries.…
Community was called on this week in
Lindsay. At Tuesday night’s city council
meeting, the minister from New Life Church, Pastor Roger Wright, asked the
council to consider hosting some kind of seminar that would clarify the city’s
role in managing the immigration questions before the country right now. “In my small congregation of about 80 people I
have four families who are undocumented.
These are really good people,” he said, then repeated “really good
people.” He let the meaning and the
truth of that evaluation sink in.
His appeal was not political, but a
call to compassion because “There’s a lot of fear out there.” Noting that some of the fear has been
triggered by misinformation, he felt that fear could be relieved by something
that would educate the people about their real standing in the community. It’s relief that only our city’s government
can provide.
Pastor Wright’s plea was seconded by
an organizer for Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights, who noted that people
all over our region are frightened. He
said that those who have no criminal record need to know that they can call the
police if they are victims of crime without being deported themselves. He was followed by a Lindsay resident who
summed it up this way: “They (the
undocumented) need to know that Lindsay will protect its own.” What all three men were saying is that these
people need to know they are ours, that when one of them cries…
Then, at the Wednesday evening
Cultural Arts Forum, the audience heard about homeless people in Tulare County
and within the Lindsay Unified School District.
Jason Britt and Angel Galvez from Tulare County Health and Human
Services were joined by Linda Ledesma from Lindsay’s Healthy Start Family
Resource Center. Together they painted a
portrait of our homeless population in terms of numbers, causes, and possible
solutions, giving the problem a set of human faces I could recognize in my
mind. However, when one of the speakers
mentioned that there are no shelters in Lindsay for homeless people, a voice
rose from the audience asking “why?”
Mr. Britt explained that most
shelters are developed and maintained by non-profit organizations, including
church groups, and that the county does not provide this service. But when the woman repeated her question “Why
are there no shelters in Lindsay?” he simply said “I don’t know.” Then she said “I’m homeless,” and stood up to
address the audience herself.
She spoke about where she sleeps
each night, how she maintains herself, where her money comes from. She told us why most shelters are not an
option for her because she has two small dogs who form her entire family, and
most shelters don’t admit people with pets.
She turned what had been an incredibly informing presentation into an
incredibly moving experience, her personal story reinforcing what we’d heard
from the experts.
The truth is, this brave woman made
it easier to see that the people who bear the nametag “homeless” are also
ours. The potential solutions to
homelessness, as well as those of undocumented immigrants, are many and will
take multiple initiatives. But perhaps
where we start is with this basic principle of community: when one cries, we all cry.
_______________________________________________________________
Trudy
Wischemann is a native of the Pacific Northwest who migrated south to
Lindsay. You can send her your thoughts
on rights to a roof and land c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a
comment below.
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