Gloria Ferris

Each Saturday Tim and I slow down the pace a bit and attend Mass at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.  We usually ride the bus and have a quiet supper at one of the stops on the way home, but before that happens we have a long wait at our bus stop on Public Square.  Recently, the silence has been serene there.  People stroll through the colorfully lit quadrants on their way to dinner after shopping at Tower City.  Families with children laughing are at the square.  The sense of peace is very comforting. The people waiting for their buses are quietly talking or silently winding down from a day of work.

But then, I realize that there are characters missing from the scene.  The young man who waves his arms wildly talking to unseen people who refuse to let him alone is nowhere to be found.  The young couple waiting with us this week is not accosted by the countless drug dealers  who weave in and out of the bus stops asking the younger ones in our midst if they need anything.  Believe me, these youngsters have learned how to say “no”. The scratching sound of skateboard wheels no longer assault the senses and the lumpy piles of blankets and sleeping bags with “the least of us” inside have been shuffled to other sites.  

And then, the converation in my head begins.  Where are the homeless? Is it so wrong that when a young man comes up to ask me for “23 cents” so that he can buy a 99-cent chicken sandwich at KFC I give it to him?  (This incident was over on Carnegie but still proves my point)  Or, the older lady who asks us for the rest of her bus fare so that she can go to her sister’s to spend the night because she has nowhere to stay?  Or that someone outside Starbucks asks for a cup of coffee and I buy it for him.  Why can’t I give my dollars and cents directly.  But then, I realize that because they are not on the square it is SO peaceful and that people who have worked long days and young people who use the bus for transportation are no longer agitated as in the past and neither am I. And most of all, there are new faces among us.

But then, I am concerned that “the problem”  has just been shifted off site.  That when “they” are no longer seen, we can pretend for a few moments at least that “those people” don’t exist, but they do exist.  Some say that the homeless were shuffled over to the mall by the County Administration Building.  I can’t imagine this being much more than a  ”temporary fix”  and it will probably work until after the holidays because so many downtown workers save vacation days for the end of the year.  I did it when I worked downtown. It just made sense.  But where will they be shuffled to in 2008?

Too often, we give money to agencies that “deal with charitable concerns” and then, we can say ”there ,we have done our part”.  But, have we? When we are given absolution by an advertising campaign that tells us “It’s all right to say ‘no’” is that enough?  I have never had a problem with saying “no” to someone panhandling if  I didn’t want to give to him or her.  I don’t think anyone does.  Now, in essence, we have been told by others  that we have moved them from your sight, and that’s okay, don’t feel a sense of duty to these people who are “the least of us.”  Giving to others makes us feel good, and maybe the few dollars that we were giving to the homeless made us feel better more than those who received  did. I still feel that the five dollars or so I give periodically directly did more good than giving it to an agency.

Again, I am left with how beautiful Public Square is now, and I again felt a twinge of guilt.  Then, my  friend Dick Clough sent us an invitation to his “birthday party”.  Dick’s reason for his birthday bash was not for himself, but to stoke the coffers for the yearly “Tour of Good Cheer”.  Dick and a group of friends started demonstrating the true spirit of the holidays in 1984.  For twenty-three years, they have rented a bus and/or vans to deliver the presents to needy kids, seriously ill chilldren and adults, and the homeless.  Our part in all of this was to bring slightly used sweaters, coats,hats,gloves, cash and/or checks.  Right now, the Tour of Good Cheer partners with eight different shelters.

The finishing touch is Christmas Eve when Dick and his friends visit each shelter dropping off the gifts and sharing a bit of Christmas Cheer in the form of cookies and punch with those who receive the gifts.  Dick invited all who attended his birthday party to join him when the gifts are distributed.  Unless we sit down and have conversations with people who need someone to listen how do we know if the money we give to a charitable agency actually is doing the good that we think is happening.  Dick and his friends have made giving a bit more personal and that is a good thing.

How appropriate that when Dick thanked us all for coming and giving that he mentioned ‘It’s a Wonderful LIfe’  He said that many would think that he is not a rich man but looking out at the group of people who had come to his party and had given made him probably one of the richest men alive.  I would have to agree with Dick that he, indeed, is wealthy because he certainly has a large circle of friends who honored him by delivering when he asked.

And I decided that this type of giving- a bit more up front and personal-is how I want to continue to give my dollars so I am going to talk to my circle of friends and see how we can achieve this type of giving on a smaller scale. So for now, I am a bit more focused in how I intend to move forward.  These words first uttered by Hubert Humphrey are swirling around in my head and I believe are appropriate to close this post:

 It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

And since, we are a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’, isn’t this a moral test of us? 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Cleveland, developing community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.