Larry James' Urban Daily

Youth Voices to be heard--from CitySquare!!!

2021-11-16T14:42:00.003-06:00

Our big chance. . . .today!

2021-11-02T22:30:00.001-05:00

Any way you cut it, as a nation, we now face a huge opportunity to strengthen our country, to include more neighbors, to prepare our grandchildren for what lies ahead. President Biden's plan presents a very practical response to national issues. His vision seeks to make America better and more prepared for competition in our shrinking world.

The first half of the current opportunity has to do with physical infrastructure improvement and literal rebuilding--bridges, highways, lead-lined water pipes, climate change curtailment, railways, internet accessibility, etc.

To build our national, social infrastructure by really investing in our people, consider these real, tangible, very doable strategies to share the opportunity of America to a wider segment of our people:

Lower child care costs to no more than 7% of a household's income
Expand parental leave benefits
Two years of post high school community college costs
Fully fund early childhood education
Increase maximum allowed for Pell Grants
Lower prescription costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate costs with big pharma
Add vouchers for Medicare participants that cover vision, hearing and dental costs
Expand Medicaid for the extremly impoverished
Use tax credits and government financing to bolster affordable and resilient housing, supporting the construction or rehabilitation of more than two million homes
Extend the Child Tax Credit expansion in the American Rescue Plan, providing 39 million households and nearly 90 percent of American children a major tax cut and cutting child poverty nearly in half
Increase the Earned-Income Tax Credit from $543 to $1,502. This will benefit roughly 17 million low-wage workers, including cashiers, cooks, delivery drivers, food preparation workers, and child care providers
Aggressive jobs training program, including green jobs and education careers
Invest in nutrition improvement by expanding SNAP benefits
Pay for it all with equitable tax reform that asks the very rich and U. S. corporations pay their fair share.

An often overlooked fact of public investment in our people is that every dollar spent on our people moves quickly and completely back into the economy. Nothing is lost, nor wasted as relates to economic stimulation and continuing growth.

If adopted, this plan will assure the promise of America for generations. It will cut poverty significantly. This plan will unite us as the benefits become obvious. We can do better. We can change for the better.

Since 1970, I've been working on a daily basis with men, women and children caught up in the cruel reality of poverty and economic disadvantage. Poor folks have been my very best teachers.

One conclusion seems undeniable: progress in our work to overcome the cruel, negative impact of poverty on our neighbors will depend on a comprehensive, public, community strategy that bundles numerous assets and transfers them to the people closest to the problem, "the poor."

It is time to act and act boldly.

Together We Rise!

2021-10-26T16:35:00.003-05:00

Spoken word, crafted on the spot at our annual retreat by Michael Guinn, from CitySquare staff's single word descriptions of the CitySquare experience over the past 18 months! "Amazing" was my word. Look for it below!

Together We Rise by Michael Guinn

Its been 1 year, 5 months, 20 days since we’ve had to pivot.

But there is no stopwatch that can clock the hours of unwavering dedication to our neighbors and to each other.

During this time. We’ve been the epitome of social philanthropy. Proud curators of collaboration through chaos. Undaunted and fearless warriors on the front lines whose endurance and determination has provided an indestructible display of teamwork.

Together we have risen, relentlessly reliable and persistently resilient. Brilliant in our chase to provide supportive services so that our families gratefully receive intense case management and resources no matter the circumstance.

We didn’t let stress get the best of us. Instead in one another we learned to share and trust.

We became tenacious in the face of this pandemic via powerful partnerships and a diligent delivery of services that even covid couldn’t mask.

So here’s to you CitySquarians. Because of you.. hope becomes the music of the moment for our homeless who hunger less. Because of your strength and creativity in serving the community, we’ve been able to push forward this narrative of normalcy no matter how tired we be. See its been exhausting. And You’ve had to socially self-care, privately self-love while selflessly going beyond and above.

But because of your flexibility and humility, and your heartfelt steadfast impressive one of a kind abilities. Our neighbors continue to see equity in their proximity.

Because of you, Poverty’s notoriety in our society gives way to a social sobriety that drives us to a new high.. ya see..

You are amazing. We Salute you. Its been 1 year, 5 months, 20 days since we’ve had to pivot. But your hearts are the reason why… Together We Rise…

Practical, Healthy Outcomes for Our Neighbors. . .

2021-10-08T12:13:00.004-05:00

The following post comes from one of our Case Managers at the Cottages (CitySquare's "tiny homes" community):

There is a neighbor at The Cottages who for the last several months, if not years, has been struggling with medication and mental health management. One day, I was trying to brainstorm ways to assist her with taking her medications so that she could get back to baseline, when I noticed that the majority of her psych medications had instructions on the bottle to “take at night.”

Because there are no staff on property at night, it made it difficult to help this neighbor with taking her medications at night.

During one of this neighbor’s phone visits with her psychiatrist, I asked her permission to sit on the phone call and speak with her doctor. She granted me permission and I asked the psychiatrist if this neighbor absolutely had to take certain medications at night or if there was a possibility she could take them in the morning. As it turns out, she can actually take all but one of the medications in the morning.

After this conversation, I was connected with the neighbor’s Metrocare case manager who was able to provide me with a med minder. With the neighbor’s permission, we can assist her with organizing and managing her medications and can bring her the medications in the morning. And, if we are not able to, her home health aide can assist her in reminding her to take her medications.

After a month and a half of this, the neighbor has now ceased to sporadically cry; she has less and less episodes of anger and she is able to have a competent conversation about her own wellbeing.

We really are better together. We cannot do things alone. When we work together, we elevate the situations of our neighbors and even ourselves sometimes. Together, we rise!

Troubled by. . .

2021-06-03T17:00:00.001-05:00

1. Gun deregulation to the extreme places more weapons on the streets of cities and in the hands of extremists. People die.

2. Evictions allowed in Texas ahead of national/federal guidelines. People move into homelessness.

3. Politicizing vaccines and their delivery. People get sick and paranoid.

4. Needlessly, and dishonestly disputed,national election results. People lose trust in democracy.

5. The "Big Lie" that Joe Biden "stole" the eleection. People doubt our system.

6. Vote recounts ad nausem. Wasted funds. More doubt and division.

7. Voter suppression legislation passes in many states. People ask why worry?

8. Texas Legislature does NOTHING to promote, discuss or consider racial equity strategies. People feel abandoned.

9. Bizarroo conspiraccy theories disseminated by the so-called "Q anon" crowd. People are duped.

10. The more than 100 U. S. House members who voted against election results and refused to seat their electors. . . .on January 6! Faith in our union lost.

11. January 6, 2021. New precident for rebellion.

12. Violence rooted in racism perpitrated against people of color. Fear spreads.

Troubled by all of these things and more for my own sake and that of my family, not to mention the vulnerable impoverished.

Strange times, right? Possibly not. Thus, I remain troubled.

Offended by Jesus?

2021-04-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

The notion of being "offended" by Jesus interests me. Jesus' words in Luke 7:23 pull me up short: "And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” The word here is related to the idea of scandal or being scandalized. It means to "stumble."

This incident arises because John finds himself rotting in Herod's prison. He wonders if he's on the right track or not. Glad to pay the price of disruptive, civil disobedience, so long as the cause is right and the leader for real.

Here's how Luke records it:

Luke 7:18b So John summoned two of his disciples 19 and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 20 When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21 Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them."

Reading this story makes clear the major focus of Jesus' mission. He intervenes to interrupt human suffering.

He cares about sick people and their suffering.

He cares about behavioral health and mental illness.

He cares about people who can't see.

He cares about those who can't walk.

He cares about the incurable and the stigmatized.

He cares about those who can't hear.

He cares about bringing the dead back to life.

And on that long list of radical interventions into very difficult life situations he ends by reminding these investigators that "the poor have good news brought to them."

Given who Jesus claimed to be, his lifestyle often offended people, often religious people who were in power and often addicted to power.

We find the same dynamic at work today.

I'm not sure exactly when the current fragmentation of the faith began. ActualIy, it has been with us since the earliest days of the Church. I remember how in the early 1970s, the so-called Christian Right known then as "the Moral Majority" stepped forward to articulate an extremely mean-spiritied theology of exclusion and judgment. Before that the Civil Rights Movement, grounded in the teachings of Jesus, faced stiff opposition from, of all groups, Southern, church-going Christians. Before that transformative era, lynchings were justified by Christian racists.

No doubt, these groups, and many others, found Jesus extremely offensive. Surprisingly, they found ways to step away from this offensive Jeusus while remaining people of religion and ritual. Some chose to remake Jesus in their own image, much like Bruce Barton did aboout a century ago in The Man Nobody Knows.1925. Barton made him into the ultimate businessman or salesman and avoided the offensive, socially engaged version of Jesus.

If you keep your eyes on the Jesus of scripture, at some point you'll want to know if it is true that he really put the pain and suffering of others above the rules of religion and the socially accepted
staus quo of the day. Given the limits of our compassion and our continuing refusal to fully embrace the commitment to justice our leader modeled, being offended makes a lot of sense.

Some of what he did and said trips me up in the worst way. But, I know he is right. God help me to follow no matter how offensive he may seem.

Purpose in the Maze-like Homestretch

2021-04-26T17:01:00.011-05:00

So, I've faced it: I've been working on this job for a long time! And, it's time to shift gears and think carefully about the time and space I have left.

Thanks to CitySquare's leadership (Executive team and board), I now have the great privildge to serve in a new space. My new business cards will declare me "CEO Emeritus."

What does that mean?

I can see that my new role could easily jettison real meaning and legitimate purpose and leave me vulnerable to being tossed in the rat maze searching for meaning.

So, I've been fairly deliberate about my next steps.

Here's my assignment.

Function as Ambassador for CitySquare. In other words, I'll represent our efforts and our interests across the city, much like I have done for over 25 years.

Be an Adviser to the CitySquare team. I'm eager to work with our executive team and other team members to process new ideas, provide access to available counsel on a wife variety of issues and opportunities. I'll continue to be working with Dr. John Siburt as a supporter and colaborator.

Stand as an Advocate for justice and equity issues in our city. This has been my life passion for over 50 years in Arkansas, Memphis, Shreveport, New Orleans, Richardson and Dallas. The issues will arise as always in the course of our work but now I'll have time to work on them. And, I think I have at least one more book in my soul somewhere!

One more thing. I will now have more time to connect with neighbors. The prospect of going deeper with my friends in the community really excites me.

It helps me to document this. Written words indicate reality, commitment and prospects for purpose. We'll see how it goes.

A Rotary Speech

2021-04-20T13:40:00.000-05:00

Notes for speech to Dallas Rotary Club

February 3, 2021

· Thank you for having me today. It’s an honor to be with you!

· I’m a former member of this club from back in the mid-90s

· For over 40 years, I’ve been working on the issues associated with poverty here in Dallas; before that we worked in Shreveport and then, New Orleans.

· I’ve concluded based on my experience that we won’t defeat poverty by charity alone—it plays its role, but it is not up to the task of systemic impact, nor is it scalable.

The Hard Data/Truth: We have a major poverty problem in the USA

You likely know the data well enough without my needing to repeat it all. Everyone has witnessed the growing divide between a shrinking minority at the top and a growing underclass at the bottom. Even during this pandemic, the rich have grown wealthier at the expense of the poor, who are disproportionately people of color.

Here’s a sad truth: your longevity is linked directly to your ZIP Code! Go on line to find how your zip code area compares to others in Dallas—up to as much as 16 years difference in life expectancy! Economist, Raj Chetty developed the Opportunity Atlas to plot these differences—for example, residents of a Preston Hollow neighborhood can expect to live 15 years longer than a person living in 75215.

Consider the scale of problem in Dallas and in our area: In DISD all students receive free and reduced lunches; in Dallas County ISDs it’s between 70-75% qualify to receive these meals.

During the year, 25-30% of our children experience hunger; thousands are homeless.

As of 2020, black families have a median household income of just over $41,000, whereas white families have a median household income of more than $70,000. Blacks earn less than whites for same job.

Racism and implicit bias remain as huge problems.

So, how do we begin to mount a “Marshall Plan”-type response?

We are the people who rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII!

We are the people who, via the GI Bill, educated an entire nation! (though too white)

We are the people who through the FHA created housing stock for an exploding middle class! (again, too white)

We are the people who dealt with a marginal tax rate of 91% the year I was born to invest in a new nation!

I’ve been thinking about the weapons at our disposal today to engage in the fight against poverty.

What can we do just for starters?

· Raise the national minimum wage to $17 an hour (need to earn $16.81 an hour to rent a one-bedroom apt in Dallas!)

· Expand the EITC program and bury in IRS filing process automatically in the tax reporting process by employers where possible

· Expand WIC, SNAP and the federal child care tax credit—make recertification on line possible and easy

· Criminal justice reform—get serious

· Fully fund public education, including early childhood education

· Support comprehensive immigration reform that is sane and allows hard working people to come out of the shadows and move into citizenship—this used to be a bi-partisan point of agreement!

· Housing incentives to developers and buyers that reverse consequences of generations of redlining

· Expand LIHTC tax credit program

· Reward mixed income housing development and developers

· Track impact of public investments on private profits to remind ourselves that this partnership will be key to much progress

· Make public transportation more useful to mobilize the poor in our workforce

· Mobilize and reorient AmeriCorps to a single- purpose effort: poverty elimination

· Expand health care for all, and in Texas, do it in this legislative session

One last fact: every one of the public weapons at our disposal benefit our economy directly and immediately.

· For example, where do SNAP and WIC benefits go? Right back into the economy through Tom Thumb, Target and Walmart to create jobs and profits!

· But Texas does such a poor job of enrolling SNAP recipients—less than ½ eligible and Texas loses $1B a year to the grocery industry as a result. And, that number has been locked in there for over 20 years!

TThere is no doubt we can turn this nation around if we have the will. We’ve done it before We can do better and we can do it again.

If you are interested in continuing this conversation, email me at ljames@CitySquare.org.

Days of Our Present Horror

2021-04-19T15:27:00.003-05:00

It has become so commonplace that we awake to the same news virtually every day.

We expect it.

Black people have good reason to be afraid.

My God! Last week a baby lost his life at the hands of police. He was 13-years-old.

An officer in the U. S. Army filed a law suite against the state of Virginia. He brought video. The policeman who stopped him back in December sounded and appeared out of control. The soldier had the good sense to stay in his car with hands visible. Still, he was pepper sprayed in the face.

How does this go on hapening again and again?

A significant part of any answer must recognize that something baked into law enforcement today acts as a delivery system of horror The fear arises every time a traffic stop occurs or a young black kid walks out in public after dark wearing a hoodie. The atmosphere is super-charged by blackness and a standard set of false assumptions that have become all but universally and automatically applied by the police to black people to one degree or another.

Whlle a member of a predominately Black church here in Dallas, we offered a Sunday School class series that taught our youth how to interact with police when encounters occurred. We regarded the class as life saving necessity.

That's sick.

It is as if we inhale racism as a nation.

Our current situaiton goes beyond systemic to metastatic even for those of us who fancy that we've made progress, that we've moved beyond. But, then the horror returns.

Can it be that we need racism to persist?

The late James H. Cone argued in his classic book, God of the Oppressed that "Jesus is black." Think about that for a while. Allow the implications to settle in. Finding God today seems a real challenge. Cone's road map contains possibilities that few of us have considered. The theological construct woven in this comparision contians the therapy we need, especially in faith communities. The faith we so eagerly share must contian fierce commitment to anti-racist lives, organizations and actions. Leaders need to present a radical message to congregants that equip them for encounters that lead far too often back to the horror we dread but find completely unsurprising.

At one level it is not that complicated.

Stop killing black people!

What I know for sure. . .

2020-11-04T15:52:00.000-06:00

Certainty turns out to be largely elusive in these times.

But, not completely. Values--bedrock, non-negotiable, pre-selected--values offer us reasonable certainty on how life ought to be lived.

So, here is what I know for sure near the conclusion of our recent political convulsions:

People must be honored, loved, valued--all people.
Children must be cared for, loved and supported in families.
Parents must be supported in their responsibilities to their little ones.
Children must never be separated from their parents.
A nation as wealthy as this one must take seriously its responsibilities to its citizens and those who seek to be citizens.
A nation without fair, just, clear policies regarding immigrants and their desire to become a part of the nation lacks integrity, and is not living up to the values that created and sustain this nation of immigrants.
Black lives matter.
Due process trumps police brutality.
Protest provokes progress.
Prolife is a much broader life philosophy than pro-birth.
No one should know hunger.
Food scarcity and food deserts should be banned outright.
Economic opportunity should never be denied or segregated..
Health care is a human right. This nation should see that every man, woman and child receives such care.
Public health is more than an idea, it is a practice.
Pandemic infections call for public leadership, honesty and sacrifice.
Adequate, decent, affordable housing is a basic human right.
Work is sacred. Everyone who works should be paid a living wage. No one who works full-time should fall into poverty because of inadequate pay.
Education is a human right and should be afforded to everyone at public scale.
The earth is our home. We should care for it, preserve it and engage it.
Climate change is real.
As a value proposition, progressive tax policy is a plus.
Charity is good. Equitable investment better still.
Religion is not the point. Most divisive policies find root in it. Radical love, generosity of spirit and soul is everything.

Mural on community chalkboard at The Forest. . .much more than a theater!

2020-08-27T15:12:00.000-05:00

Community Pandemic, What's Ahead

2020-08-18T12:33:00.001-05:00

This just in from our friends at the DFW Hospital Council:

The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council wants to remind you of public health considerations as we approach the fall and have three viruses ( COVID-19, West Nile and Influenza ) in North Texas.

Please pass this information to your friends, family and business associates, especially on social media. These three diseases display many of the same symptoms, so prevention is key in reducing the spread.

Wear a mask

Wash your hands

Watch Your distance

Get your flu shot early

Remove standing water on your property

Wear long sleeve shirts

Utilize insect repellent

We need to be prepared for the triple threat and we can help tap down the community spread of these viruses if we all work together to protect each other.

Thanks for your cooperation and support.

W. Stephen Love

President/CEO

Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council

300 Decker Drive, Suite 300

Fairway Centre Building

Irving, Texas 75062

Telephone ( 972 ) 719 4900

www.dfwhc.org

Post Office

2020-08-16T17:17:00.002-05:00

Reliable postal service in urban neighborhoods anchors vital communications, business enterprise and community organizing. Of course, the same remains true for suburban and rural settings. The local post office serves as an essential gathering place, a crossroads of sorts for residents and business owners and operators.

Economically and historically, the postal service has opened a pathway into the middle class for millions of workers of color. The postal service must not be regarded as just another business. In fact, it is much, much more. The ongoing subsidy required to keep the mail moving is a vital investment in the nation's life and well-being.

But now we notice a marked change in postal service quality. At least we do here in inner-city East Dallas.

Our experience with the postal service over the past 3 years or so presents a marked change in quality, reliability and scheduling. Our bills must be mailed much earlier to assure they make the payment deadline in many cases, both for local delivery and for out of city and state obligations.

We've noted that much more often than ever before days with no mail delivered to our home.

It reached the point for us that we asked one of our letter carriers what was up. She described exactly what recent news reports indicate. The Trump administration's management combines the removal of automated sorting machines with a new policy of no overtime pay for postal workers. Our carrier reported to us that, thanks to this policy, mail backing up for several days is not uncommon.

Frankly, this erosion of service and reliability aggravates me. It is downright annoying.

It also concerns me more and at a deeper level as we consider the potential impact of this new policy on mail in ballots for the coming general election in November 2020.

It may be past time to get on the phone, fire off an email or, yes, write letters. If you decide on a letter, just factor in a couple of weeks for delayed delivery!

"I just want to live like you!"

2020-08-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

So simple. Yet, so obvious.

Problem is, I seldom think correctly about the urban "poor."

I don't see clearly.

I rush to "help," to "fix," to "solve."

I don't hear clearly.

I've known for years that I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. However, I've also noticed over the last 50 years that when I get to know a person, really know them behind authentic effort, and hard work on my part, I begin to get the picture--often a very different picture.

Usually, growth in understanding follows time spent together. In the connection of simple, but genuine friendship, I come to realize important lessons.

Recently, a friend who is homeless, brought me to parade rest with this comment:

"Larry, I just want to live like you. You know, a house, a job, options, family, friends, good health, safety. I don't want to be out here asking people for money every day. I just want my life to be like yours."

Of course.

It's not rocket science.

Everyone wants a life like mine and most of my friends.

He doesn't want my service.

He wants my understanding. He'd like to help me re-channel my power for gains on normalcy in his daily life.

His understanding, and willingness to tell me, ought to cause me to think very differently about extreme poverty in my community.

People

2019-08-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

Incidents over the last week. . .

Walking out of a downtown building, I noticed an elderly woman seated on a comfortable bench waiting for her ride to pick her up. "Good morning, mam," I said to her. "Have a nice day!" Her eyes twinkled, as she replied , "Oh, angel, you're just too kind! You have a good day too."
Got into a conversation with an employee about his weekend. "Have a good weekend," I asked him in passing. "I did, but about all I did was work," he explained. "Right now I have three jobs--this one and two more!" "You better watch that burning the candle at both ends," I quipped."Yeah, I know, but I have two kids in college," he explained. "Someday, they will rise up and call you blessed," I offered.
A wisp of a man whom I've known for a long time, looked at the impossibly long line of people come to get food, and remarked simply, "I'm starving. Don't you see, I'm starving. I can't stand in that line."
A volunteer, a young man, approached me as I double parked on an extremely busy day in our food center. "You dropping off something, sir?" he asked. "No, I'm trying park. I work here," I tried to explain, a bit defensively, thinking, "This this guy doesn't know me from Adam All-Fox!. "Well, we don't let people park here," he kindly informed me. As I was thinking what to say by way of explanation--as in "I need to get inside, I work here!" He appeared again and told me, "Park over here," as he pointed toward a cone-bordered space he had "made" for me. Before I could thank him, he told me, "I didn't want your car to get hit." What's to say but thanks?

Needless Suffering

2019-07-02T17:13:00.001-05:00

One brutal reality of deep poverty can be observed daily in the inner-city of Dallas: needless, preventable suffering.

Equally difficult, and linked in a causal manner to the suffering I envision, is simple, but maddening delay.

When you live in poverty, everything seems to slow down in the face of complicating distractions.

Take my friend "John."

I met John over a year ago at our Opportunity Center. He came seeking medical attention for his gigantic, abdominal hernia that protruded from his tight t-shirt. After we visited for a while, I referred him to CitySquare's health clinic. He ended up in the ER at a local hospital after which he made his way to Parkland, our public hospital in Dallas County.

Several weeks later, John shows up at my office looking as if he had lost 50 pounds, a step his physician recommended as a pre-surgery precaution. He had a ways to go on his diet plan. Again, a goal made more difficult to he extreme because he lived on the streets.

He signed up for housing and languished for weeks on our jammed packed waiting list (just here read "more delays").

Then, he reappears two days ago.

He had gained back the weight that he had shed, and then some. He explained that he just gotten of jail behind warrants for tickets that actually were not his.

As we discussed his dilemma, many more defeating, delaying details surfaced. Of course, not the least of these worries included his hernia, now larger than before. He also informed me that he battled severe diabetes, a fight made almost impossible by his homelessness.

He looked sick and felt worse.

I took him to see our community health expert, J. R. Newton, RN, MDiv. Next thing I know I have a text from J. R. telling me that she has John at the Parkland ER. Today she updated me, saying that John was admitted to the hospital where he was receiving treatment for his diabetes.

When admitted to the hospital he was "very, very sick." His blood sugar on admission read 723 (normal is 95-110). He was lucky to be alive.

I feel compelled to record his story. Not to make anyone feel bad, but to describe what people trapped in poverty face on a daily and often prolonged basis.

Pray for John, please.

Think of him as you think of our city and our collective response to deep, extreme poverty. Think of how we might effective ways to at least decouple "needless" from "suffering."

Fundamental Quiet

2019-06-18T14:40:00.000-05:00

Poor people move in quiet ways that spotlights need, edgy hopelessness and resignation.

I've noticed it again and again. The struggle to overcome the moment robs folks of voice, agency and hope. Poverty poses an existential threat to those forced to battle it.

Few choices emerge beyond daily struggle. The struggle can seem crushing, sapping energy as well as voice from life after life.

But poor folks walk on with rare exceptions in the quiet. Loud voices represent a minority report. Those determined to overcome, to persevere, save their energy by retreating into almost silent places. The few boisterous voices signal at least the edges of mental illness and its extreme despair.

Our large courtyard at the Opportunity Center serves as a laboratory for the study of quiet. People sit and rest. Or, they walk about without a sound. Poverty produces voiceless life.

Yet, I've noted many times that when a person feels respected, the desire for conversation returns. Usually the words are found to tell a personal story, as if even the appearance of appreciation unlocks a room for evaluating options and life once more.

Still, the volume tends toward the lower settings, but voice can be rediscovered if others seek to hear and to learn out of basic respect for a fellow traveler.

The silence can lead to deeper depression, unless someone comes seeking to hear the voices of others, extremely important voices.

When respect interrupts the silence, hope returns.

How do we take conversation to scale?

Building spaces for cultivating respect inevitably leads to breaking the hard silence.

The Magic of Coffee

2019-04-15T13:07:00.000-05:00

Over the past 25 years, and over and over, I've told the story of our "shiny coffee pot" in the Haskell Avenue Food Pantry. Here's how I told the story in my first book:

". . . I remember that, during my first week or so on the job, I made a trip to a local discount store where I purchased a large, industrial-sized coffee pot. The next morning as was setting up the new coffee pot in the interview room, a long-time volunteer approached me. She put her hand on my shoulder and asked me in a tone that mixed disgust with surprise, 'What are you doing, Larry?' I replied with great pride, 'Oh, I bought us a new coffee pot. I love coffee and the conversation it can start! New we can make coffee for our guests when they come into the food pantry.' She looked at me with incredulity and said, ' You can't do that! Don't you know that, if you serve coffee, these people will never leave?'" (The Wealth of the Poor: How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities, pages 54-55)

Needless to say, coffee has remained, from those early days, a staple at CitySquare. We serve it every morning at the Opportunity Center to our friends, many of whom are homeless. Our students brew it daily in the CitySquare Cafe on that same campus.

Actually, coffee has taken on a life of its own at CitySquare.

Our culinary arts and hospitality students learn how to make coffee, some even opt for barista training!

Last year our good friends at Highland Park United Methodist Church invited us to open and facilitate a coffee shop in their beautiful building. Our trainees and interns staff the food and coffee service every Sunday in two locations inside the church--the new Youth Center and more formal coffee shop setting that we've built out in Wesley Hall. CitySquare reaps the income while learning how to provide food and coffee service on Sunday mornings. And, the coffee shops always seem packed. Every table debunks the myths of poverty with "fact cards" revealing the brutal truth about poverty in Dallas and beyond.

More recently, Southern Methodist University graduate students took charge of a Union Coffee popup truck during a market analysis of how a coffee shop might be received in the South Dallas neighborhood around the historic, iconic Forest Theater. Students and community folks surrounded the truck on two consecutive mornings. Talk about a winner! Coffee and its prospects ignited real neighborhood excitement, and connection.

Several years ago a man told me and a group of United Way volunteers that the coffee pot in the Food Pantry "saved his life." Homeless at the time, the man recalled coming to the food pantry daily for a morning cup of coffee and some friendly conversation. 'That kept me going every day," he said. Today he is employed and doing well.

I tell you, you just can't escape the power of coffee! Come by anytime. The aroma feels magnetic!

THE FORCE

2019-04-04T13:19:00.000-05:00

There is a "force" out there in our Opportunity Center courtyard. And, I confess, it always draws me toward it.

Very, very poor people, most without a home, a pillow or a bed, populate this wonderful space most days. Every morning we roll out the sacred coffee pot and serve cups of red hot encouragement.

There can be no glamorizing the poverty resident in the lives of these precious people. Poverty never deserves such a narcissistic response.

It isn't the poverty that draws me.

What pulls me toward the people, one at a time and in their small groups, is the heroic courage lived out day after day as each wages a battle to move on and up and out. Poverty remains a hard go.
The experts fill our courtyard every morning. Want to know poverty? Come here and ask folks about it.

When the air is chilly, as it was this morning, the magnetism feels strongest.

So, as usual, I find that I cannot possibly go to my office before sharing a cup with some friends. Several conversations ensued, all pleasant and full of smiles, as well as curiosity about each other. Watching these friends, talking to them, hearing their stories forces tears into my eyes and down my cheeks. . .every time.

As I prepared to leave, I stepped into a serious, intense conversation among four or five men who invited me to join their conversation. The focus of their hilarious conversation: March Madness and the Final Four!

Next year, if things go right, I get these guys to help me fill out my bracket with one change: everybody has a permanent place to live. I'll bring breakfast, and I know "the force" will be present to draw me in.

BELONGINGS

2019-03-28T17:56:00.000-05:00

Possessions.

Properties.

Things.

Stuffs.

Effects.

Paraphernalia.

By about any name, people protect, accumulate, gather, pile, clutch, grasp, drop, trade, discard their "belongings."

We all do it in our own ways, subject to the norms and necessities of status, class, opportunities and options.

Rich people usually take great care to secure their stuff. Most all of their effects rest in safe surroundings. Banks, funds, accounts, cards, wallets and any number of other secure stations provide protection for my stuff, my belongings. With little thought of a concept like "privileged" or "entitled," the well off , like me, devise philosophies or ideologies to argue their right to protect what they have worked so hard to earn.

Belongings often define where it is that I belong.

Poor people often imitate the rich in their own ways. Only difference is the secure places often end up being on their persons in all sorts of creative ways. Like their better off brothers and sisters, the poor don't mind displaying their good fortune from time to time. They also turn out to be willing to share, even from their meager holdings, just like the wealthy often share freely when given the facts and some measure of security.

Belongings often define where it is the poor belong.

Just this morning I observed a dozen very poor people displaying, bragging, sharing, withholding, enjoying, organizing, stacking, dropping their belongings.

Belongings, as in "belongs to me." I've got something that I'm trying to manage. . . even though its not much. It is an important part of who I am. Body language and attitude declares that this collection of my effects belongs to me.

Later in the day we hosted volunteers from Texas Instruments, people with much more in the way of material belongings. They brought lots of stuff to share. Belongings changed hands. Lives connected. Stories exchanged, people connected.

All of us have belongings.

All of us seek to belong.

As different as we appear, we all remain the same, pursuing belonging and packing our belongings.

While I get all of this, more and more often these days I catch myself wishing for more courage to surrender my stuff, my belongings for the sake of a total redefinition of where people actually find belonging.

There has to be more.

I suspect I'll find this "more" in belonging with my friends who know poverty like a well-worn blanket carried about from place to place in search of what I need to learn to give up.

Larry James' Urban Daily: Life under a bedspread

2019-02-18T17:14:00.002-06:00

Larry James' Urban Daily: Life under a bedspread: He barely looked up from under the king sized bedspread that covered and contained his life. I approached him in our service center to ex...

Life under a bedspread

2019-02-18T17:14:00.000-06:00

He barely looked up from under the king sized bedspread that covered and contained his life.

I approached him in our service center to extend my hand in welcome and concern.

He didn't move.

He didn't want my hand.

He was not angry.

He was rightfully bewildered by my foolish question, "How are you doing?"

Seriously?

"How are you doing?" Any fool could see how he was "doing."

It took every bit of what little he had left to reply to my nonsensical inquiry, "Man, I'm doing the best I can."

His answer yanked me back to my childhood. His retort reminded me of my dad's words whenever I faced a challenge, "Son, just do your best."

At times, my father's open ended advice didn't help. I mean, what was "my best?" Kind of a moving target often and actually!

But my best or my effort at my best proved satisfactory at the end of the day, often because of my dad's support and cheering from the sidelines. My best was enough, many times more than enough with him.

My exhausted friend hiding under the bedspread should have known my father. His best would have been enough for my dad on that day, at that time.

That evaluation should guide us in our response to him and thousands like him. Far too often it does not.

Face-to-face with this man, I saw mostly sadness, deep sadness in the life of a man who had given up on life, even as he did his best.

Hate in My Family

2019-02-11T17:36:00.002-06:00

My great-grand father, Jackson “Jack” James, murdered an African American freedman in broad daylight in the center of Florence, Texas sometime between the end of the Civil War and 1893.

My grandfather, John James, told me the story on Thanksgiving 1972 as I tape recorded a part of my family’s oral history.

Jack James, a Confederate infantryman, believed that the ex-slave insulted his mother, my great-great-grandmother. Apprehending the man, he marched him into the town and shot him, execution style. My grandfather, John reported that his father characterized the target of his hatred as “a mean n_____.”

Jack James went to trial and was promptly acquitted by an all-white jury. In those days Texas juries never convicted white men of crimes against black folks. Sadly, such verdicts still remain very rare today.

Jack James died in 1893, just eight years after my grandfather was born.

The Confederate memorial, now located in Dallas’ Pioneer Park, came to our city just three years after the elder James died.

I’m in favor of the removal of the CSA memorial statues not only because of what they represent and present today, but also and mainly because of the atmosphere, the ambiance they honored, celebrated and perpetuated during the era of their creation--the horrid era of Jim Crow.

The intentions of preservationists might be noble in some cases today. Those who erected the monuments just 30 years after the Civil War, and about the time of Jack James' crime, had no such noble motivation.

No, this tribute to the South's Lost Cause sought to embed in our value system the hatred, bias and oppression that sustained slavery and the so-called “Southern Way of Life."

My grandfather was a hero of mine.

But he experienced the curse of racism, planted by his father in his soul, ensuring that it captured his entire worldview.

Indeed, the sins of the fathers are visited upon their children. Still, the cycle of hate and ignorance can be broken. In any case, these monuments to hatred and white supremacy in the era of Jim Crow serve no good purpose except to offer us all the opportunity to do what is right, faithful and true by everyone in our city.

My Beautiful Day at the DMV!

2019-01-09T16:38:00.000-06:00

So, yesterday, I spent almost five hours waiting for a new driver's license at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Horrible, you say?

Not so fast!

After all, the State of Texas invited to return in person to renew my permit because I had lived so long since I last renewed on line!

Beats the obvious alternative, right?

But, I have to be honest. The first 90 minutes in that space drove me crazy. Waiting on a terribly uncomfortable chair as a recorded voice barked out numbers in the queue. As the announced numbers droned on, I could calculate my wait time, and my reality was not pretty!

Then, something snapped for me.

The people.

The way beyond beauty of that crowded room slapped me in the face.

Old.

Young.

Grandparents and children.

Eager teens.

Working people.

Unemployed.

Professionals.

White.

Black.

Brown.

Every human hue.

Every ethnicity.

So many nationalities, I felt like I was in the middle of Pentecost! That's right! If you want to experience modern day Pentecost, go spend a day in the DMV! You'll have it right there in your face!

I watched as community formed before my eyes as we shared our common plight. People actually started talking to one another. Sharing. Encouraging. Even, laughing!

People helped each other. People began to identify with the place, and their presence and position in it.

I saw the hope of the nation displayed in the lives assembled at random in that room.

The USA's power is found in its diversity. Who would choose uniformity over the richness of our national mixture?

Its hope discovered in how we take care of one another.

Our peace will be unearthed together, never apart.

I say go to the DMV.

You'll find your people waiting for you there!

And who knows. Pentecost might just break out!

Merry Christmas from my hometown!

2018-12-20T09:44:00.001-06:00

Love this photo of Downtown Dallas, published in the latest issue of American Infrastructure Magazine, largely due to the fact that CitySquare's building at 511 N. Akard Street can be seen nestled in the middle of the scene just to the left of the Bank of America tower (orangeish/pinkish building!)

Merry Christmas!!!