A Tremendous Tuesday in the Capital City: Nixing the Stereotypes

Wow! What a long and exhaustingly educational day the Micah Corps had. We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to take D.C. by the horns. That is, until we walked outside at 8am and realized there was already a heat index of about 90 degrees. Nevertheless, we utilized our multiple forms of public transportation to arrive at the (drumroll please!) United Methodist General Conference Building. You can imagine how high our heads were as we walked toward the building located on Capitol Hill amongst Congressmen and other "head honchos". What an envigorating experience...and it was only 8:30am! Throughout the morning at the General Conference building, we met some phenominal people who work for our United Methodist Church and will be leading our Nebraska group through our seminar this week.

The Micah Corps hams up with a colorful panda
in the Shaw neighborhood!

Our first portion of the seminar included discussing charity versus justice, and participating in an activity by which misused and unjust power and control was illustrated to us. We explored the fact that the poor and homeless often do not have equal resources that the more privileged have. Here's a rather small-scale example: a student from a privileged family or school might have extensive tutoring or training on how to take the ACT, however a student with less money would not likely have those resources. The outcome of this would likely be that the more privileged student would get a higher test score, therefore getting more scholarship funding, continuing to have more advantages and resources than the student who did not have those resources to the testing study materials in the first place.

Three individuals who had experienced, or were currently experiencing, homelessness came to speak to us next. All three individuals had never anticipated being homeless and ending up on the street. The circumstances of life simply put them in a position they could not have foreseen. One woman told her story:

She had grown up in a middle-class, well-off family near Washington, D.C. She then went on to college to study nursing. After finding her way into a steady job, getting happily married, and giving birth to a beautiful son, she started to get very sick. Being a strong-willed woman, she moved around with her military husband and her child for years to different countries and states, all the while having a terrible illness that would cause her to lose her breath, grow weary quickly, and even lose consciousness. After countless tests, and some of her own personal research, she was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, and depression. This illness made it extremely difficult for her to work, however, she trekked on with her husband and child by her side. Suddenly, her husband left her. She stated that even in retrospect there was no indication he was going to leave. He left to travel, and left her and her son alone. She and her son had to move because without her husband's income they could not afford their home. Eventually, due to her illness and inability to work enough hours to support herself, let alone herself and her child, she sent her son to live with his father. She moved to a homeless shelter, with the thought that she would be out in a couple of months after she made a little more money. Months turned into years, and years into nearly a decade. She had worked so hard, but her medical bills were incredibly steep even with government support, and she simply couldn't get back up on her feet again. Finally, by God's grace, she happened to come across a program that provided homes to the homeless to help them get back up on their feet. She said having her own home to call her property made all the difference. She is now steadily getting back on her feet again and has been able to bring her son home to her once more.

What do you think of when the word "homeless" is heard?
 Lazy? Alcoholic? Drug-addict? Mentally unstable? Dirty?

These stereotypes were nixed after the three speakers told their stories. All three are hard-working people who simply lost their jobs and/or outside forces caused them to lose their homes. Did you know that a high percentage of homeless have a college degree, or even multiple degrees? So the next time we see a homeless person on the street, let's not avert our eyes and pretend he or she is too scummy to even acknowledge. Let's give that person a smile and treat them like any other human being. A smile has incredible worth to anyone, especially someone who is feeling isolated, stressed, and likely hungry for food and company.


The second part of the day was spent in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Does this place sound familiar? For the music masterminds, this neighborhood was the birthplace of the jazz musician Duke Ellington. More of a history buff? This is also the neighborhood where, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., riots broke loose and the neighborhood reputation as the "Black Broadway" was tainted. For several years this neighborhood and its formerly booming businesses took a major downturn. Only three businesses in the entire neighborhood stayed open through these years of violence, crime, and drug-use in the streets. One of these businesses the Micah Corps got the privilege of dining at--Ben's Chili Bowl. However, businesses are now booming again and the culture and liveliness of the neighborhood has a new kind of vibrance.

The Micah Corps, Micole, and David Reed enjoy
 the food and atmosphere at Ben's Chili Bowl.

As previously mentioned, today was a very lengthy day, full of new and wonderful educational experiences. The Micah Corps finished off the day by touring a little bit more of the National Mall. After waiting until sundown, we took off to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. While at the Lincoln Memorial, a great reminder was right in front of our faces. Social justice and this idea of nixing the stereotypes we have of other people is not a new phenomenon. President Lincoln, in fact, addresses the same idea of a struggle for justice and equality for all in his famous Gettysburg Address:

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

        "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
       Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
         But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."