Monday, January 16, 2012
Downtown LR / Little Rock Government Another voice for veterans and other homeless
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 9:26 AM
I'm happy to share thoughts from another downtown resident, former state Rep. Robert Johnston, on homeless people downtown. He feeds them breakfast five days a week at the Salvation Army center on West Markham and invites support from others for the Feed the Hungry program. His experience with homeless veterans is somewhat different than the drunken psychopath image being peddled by Mayor Mark Stodola and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin.
BY ROBERT JOHNSTON
Kathy Wells of DNA invited me to tell us status of your Feed the Hungry program.
First, while I have more of your interest than perhaps later, a little background. I have lived for 40 years within 10 blocks of the Gov. Mansion. The Mansion was not the attraction as much as Community Bakery. But the real attraction and the real reason is that I was taken by a historic house at 22nd and Broadway in 1971 and liked the neighborhood despite its negatives, which were much greater in 1971 than in 2012. I have lived at 10th and Scott, 14th and Scott, 16th and Cumberland, 17th and Arch, all in National Register Historic Structures.
I was part of a group of then Yuppies who banded together in Neighborhood Preservation, including creating the Broadway Neighborhood Association, which evolved into the DNA. We also put our meager money where our passions were — both in residential and business investments. Many of us put $50,000 and $90,000 into rehabs, which would be 10 times that today.
21 of us created a Downtown Development Corp., which bought two run-down residences, rehabbed them and resold them…at what we had in them. We each anted $1000, which would be about $10,000 today. We got our investment back, but no profits, except in seeing benefits from contributing our dollars and sweat equity there and elsewhere.
I was also a Quapaw Quarter Association Board Member for 6 years, Chair of the 1st Candlelight Tour, and Chair of the Board for 2 years.
All that as background to Feed the Hungry: Feed the Hungry feeds breakfast 5 mornings a week / 52 weeks a year/ holidays included/ to 100-120 homeless. We have been doing this for about 7 years. This arose out of my serving lunch at Stew Pot/ 1st Presbyterian/ which has been serving the needy for about 30 years. I discovered that was the only meal for many of the clients.
Matilda Buchanan and I started Feed the Hungry. For 100+ days the two of us cooked and served breakfasts in a building near the Salvation Army. Over time we recruited others to help. As the City of Little Rock promise to provide a building for this helping the needy evaporated, we served breakfast Under the Broadway Bridge, in the rotunda at City Hall, in the east entrance porch of City Hall, in the City Hall Garage, at 2nd Baptist Café, at Stew Pot, in a FEMA Trailer under the Broadway Bridge and now at Salv. Army, between Doe’s and the Train Station. A number of neighbors in the SOMA/Gov. Mansion area help .
If you would like to help — with boiled eggs or juice, time or money, email robertj1940@hotmail.com.
The above is perhaps helpful background to what I describe next. I and dozens of our team members have had literally thousands of face-to-face contacts with the homeless, including veterans. 99.9% of those contacts have been pleasant, rewarding, delightful, rewarding to us.
The vast, VAST majority of homeless are well-behaved, appreciative, delightful citizens of Little Rock, with the wide variety of congenial behaviors you encounter in your dealings with other non-homeless citizens. The teeny, tiny minority who are anti-social are reflective and similar to the dysfunctional citizens I encountered teaching classes at UALR, walking down Main as crowds gathered or left Juanita’s at 13th and Main or anywhere in the River Market, or the drivers speeding down Broadway talking on their cellphones, etc.
Demonizing the homeless saddens me. It is not how I see this wonderful neighborhood. I think of what is on the Statue of Liberty, "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free."
That is more what I would like to see on the banners leading into the Quapaw Quarter.
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Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
Bravo, Robert Johnston! It's a shameful embarrassment how many of our homeless are veterans. We treat them as another commodity - use them up and throw them away - to a place where they can be conveniently forgotten.
Not only should we use the Main Street location, I think it would be appropriate for us to build a significant building for this use, something along the lines of the new Federal Justice Building. Let's truly thank these guys for their service and get them what they need to deal with the effects of what their service has done to them.
Surely our veterans are as valuable to us as a bridge....
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"Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans." From the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans website
That's shameful! Veterans are 2 1/2 times as likely to be homeless in America than the general population. Frankly, the fact we have any homeless Americans is a black mark on our society.
People like Robert Johnston, Matilda Buchanan, and Kathy Wells are doing all within their power to ensure our veterans are treated with the respect they have earned through their service. Evil-doers like Mark Stodola and Tim Griffin are our anti-heroes in this regard.
As a veteran I'm one of that 8% who have been in the military, but not one of the 1% who think of themselves as American royalty.
Thanks to Rethuglicons America has gone aground just like the Costa Concordia ocean liner.
Sadly, I heard a statistic on the radio last week that 1 in 5 out of all suicides, not out of all vets vets but out of ALL the suicides in the USA, are younger vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Suspect causes are untreated PTSD, reactions to prescribed meds, and homelessness.
After living downtown for a few years I have had a roller coaster of opinions about the homeless. Although I still get really miffed at the aggressive panhandlers (who mostly aren't even homeless, they prey on the homeless), I have become more accepting.
This letter from Robert is inspiring and I hope downtown can become an example of true acceptance and compassion while still growing and developing into a thriving center.
Instead of getting mad at the people who choose to live in a bubble that has no racial, financial, or cultural diversity, who call themselves religious yet refuse to set foot in downtown among the very poor and hungry Jesus says to help, I will quit my bitchin and focus that frustration towards a better cause.
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?'
And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"
(Matthew 25.35-40)
The supposed Christians in the DNA don't even follow one of the most benevolent passages in the Bible.
That's not as much a benevolence passage as it is a judgment passage.
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