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The Theology of Hospitality ˜ 325
did in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, seeing that as the simplest solution to the
world’s problems with Iraq Our fear leads us to see no way out, and it causes us
to trust in the destructive power of tanks, guns, and missiles.
But we don’t have to look so far to find fear controlling people’s lives. I believe
that fear dictates Atlanta’s policy toward homeless people. We all admit that
homelessness in Atlanta long ago reached crisis proportions, similar to the Middle
East, and that definite action is required. Similar to our response in the Middle
East, one course of action is a show of strength: we can allay our fears by
stomping homeless people out of existence. So the city enforces the vagrant-free
zone, and at lunchtime in Woodruff Park you see the police in full force. No
homeless person will stretch out on a bench while ten officers are around, apparently
instructed to threaten anyone who doesn’t look part of the lunch-break
business crowd. That policy, which can only instill fear about homeless people,
causes neighborhood people to act in similar fashion. That is the only way I can
explain a letter that the Open Door recently received. It reads, in part:
Earlier this year, some winos moved into a vacant area behind
my house. At first, I didn’t worry about it, since they
never bothered us, and I felt pretty safe with my three dogs in
the backyard. However, as the months went by, I began to notice
the amount of trash that was piling up in the area, not to
mention the amount of human excrement out in the open. I
began to worry, but did not know what to do. I called the police
a couple of times, but was told that since they were on
state property, there was nothing they could do. (I didn’t want
the people arrested, I simply wanted them to go elsewhere.)
Finally, after becoming more and more frustrated, my
next-door neighbor and I cut down a lot of the brush that they
were using as cover, and took away the cushions and plastic
that they were using as their bed. I have to admit, I felt sad
when I saw the first man come back to his home to find it ransacked.
Again, the fear that we are taught to feel toward homeless people leaves us
without any options except to push them away. I wonder, for instance, if the
writer ever thought to talk with the homeless people who were trashing the area.
In a personal encounter she could have suggested and requested that they clean
up the space. Perhaps that would have brought a resolution with less sadness.
We all have fears, so we needn’t feel superior to President Bush, to the city
government, or to our neighbor. We also find ourselves in good company. It was