This is worth sharing Zack Issacs gives us something to consider about those three Mary Mitchell columns about Chatham from earlier this week:Chatham is not a perfect neighborhood, but it still has potential. One of the things plaguing the neighborhood is the lack of unity. The neighbors don't speak to each other because they don't understand one another. Understanding is based on interpretation, so if you judge people incorrectly that will lead to unfair assumptions.His main point is to talk to our neighbors. We have to live together somehow either way.
You know I could relate this to what JP quoted a neighbor as saying to him when he first moved to Chatham:
I'm a relatively new person on the block. The first thing one of my neighbors said, when we introduced ourselves and i mentioned working with urban youth ministries, was "we don't tolerate any riff raff here." Not exactly a great way to welcome people. (And she had only owned her home 2 years herself).Let's hope that we don't hear any further stories like that about Chatham in the near future.
You should read Zack's piece!
As I said in another post, let's not get excited about the article because it wasn't going to be what most wanted to hear. I applaud Zack on his article, he brings out some good and accurate points but I disagree with some.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a secret about this community and DCFS is that this community was asked to open its doors to the foster care program in the 60's and a number of families especially single women took in children that were not their own and while the children have moved on these individuals still live on those blocks and are the ones who continue to push for the annual block party which was designed for kids.
The Section 8 issue is complicated because bureaucratic individuals and participants have abused the program. Yes, there are some long term residents who have lived in the community as a participant to no ones knowledge and others depend on the program because they have stepped up to become the primary caregiver to their extended families but we also have greedy property owners who discriminate against working class renters because they do not have section 8 and others who move in live in boyfriend, girlfriends, extended famiy members and others all illegal under their lease with CHA.
In JP's example the operative word is "introduced". Now, families move in such as the lady who's quoted in the article and say nothing to no one. While you do not like her response she was being brutally honest and some can't accept that a number of older residents are just that way.
This community has been asked to step up on a number of issues and has welcome people when no one else would and now the community is stepping back and asking others to step up.