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74 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
men warming their hands over a primitive fire in a modern garbage can. The
envy is quickly concealed by anger and, with certainty, you know that these
homeless men choose to be homeless. They like it like that. In fact, they are all
that is left of Adam and Eve, Tarzan and Jane. Then the car behind you blows
its horn, waking you from your reverie; you move down the road with your
mind still on the savings-and-loan scandal. Perhaps this fantasy is a creative way
to deal with the boredom of our transportation system, but it is a dangerous
source for social analysis and political policy.
Notwithstanding our dreams and myths of childlikeness and innocence,
without housing a human being cannot live. Shelter is a matter of life and death,
a physical necessity. Without shelter from the storm, disease, freezing weather,
or the blasting sun will kill you. Houselessness inevitably leads to death.
Houselessness is murderous.
The causes of houselessness are murder.
The causers of houselessness are
murderers.
Why do people live in houses Housing is a basic necessity of physical survival;
we want to live. What about the homeless
Labor Pools: Holy Places
in the Belly of the Beast, by Ed Loring
A p r i l 1 9 9 5
A Labor Pool is a holy place. If you are, like me, well-fed, housed, and employed,
you may never have visited a Labor Pool, much less turned to one for a
day’s work. Labor Pools are foreign territory to most of us, and Labor Pool workers
are foreigners and fugitives in this land.
A most important step on our journey in faith is to reduce the distance between
ourselves and the poor. Herein lies the hope for our personal and societal
transformation toward love and justice, toward what Martin Luther King Jr.
called “The Beloved Community.” To reduce the distance requires us to journey
into the Land of Nod, the turf of the poor and dispossessed, rather than to invite
them to our table. Videos, the Internet, books, computer software, photos,
or speakers won’t reduce the distance, although they can certainly build tools
and provide bread for the trip. We must go in the flesh, just as Yahweh decided