February 2000 - Epiphanytide.

As we begin the new millennium, the newspapers are full of stories of cutbacks in services at San Francisco General Hospital, of a detox center which charges indigent clients $10 just to walk in the door, of suits against small businesses by neighborhood residents for "not cleaning up the homeless in front of their establishments", and of police continuing to harass homeless people by citing them for simply sitting on the sidewalk. As we noted in a previous issue of Peniel, there is also an initiative on the March ballot that would mandate giving San Francisco General Assistance recipients vouchers instead of cash grants. We have seen much fear and stress among those we serve. One young man, Jason, whom we have known for four years, recently penned the following piece which reflects that fear and stress as they are experienced by our brothers and sisters on the streets. His language and imagery are strong, extreme even, but they capture the raw truth of the feelings of many men, women and young people living out their lives on the streets of this and other American cities today. May these words summon us to become the incarnational expression of Christ's love through the ballot box, through letters to our political leaders, and through our actions toward our brothers and sisters on the streets.

"Lately, my nights have been filled with dreams of another holocaust like the one that happened in Nazi Germany and other Nazi-occupied territories. Only this time, the targets are the homeless. Nowadays, people's status is based on how much money they have. If you're homeless and broke, you really don't exist...you're not even viewed as a human being by many people. You're just a "problem," a "nuisance," a walking, breathing form of urban pollution.

"The bigotry and contempt that current society shows towards homeless people are not only accepted, they are actively encouraged by those in power. There are activist groups defending so many other oppressed sectors of society, but very few people or groups step forward to speak out on behalf of the homeless, the group that is being persecuted and oppressed the most. Meanwhile we homeless continue to be robbed of everything, even our basic humanity in the eyes of society."

"In my dreams of the new holocaust, I see random police sweeps of homeless people, of our being stuffed into trucks like garbage and carted off to slave labor camps, concentration camps, even death camps. I dream of huge rooms with rows of electric chairs, rows of nooses...warehouse sized rooms that are gas chambers. Then I see piles of bodies being burned and buried. I have awakened in the middle of the night from these dreams, crying."

"The road to this second holocaust that haunts my dreams is already being paved by authorities who look the other way when unprovoked violent crimes are committed against the homeless, who refuse to investigate when street kids are beaten just because they are homeless, who will not recognize that these attacks are truly hate crimes. People have said many times, 'Never Again,' to the holocaust. But the indifference and outright hatred toward other human beings who are somehow 'different', who are weak and vulnerable, the attitudes that allowed that holocaust to take place...all these are alive and well today. The targets may be different, the 'final solution' still down the road, but history is repeating itself on the streets of our cities. And, night after night, I dream and wake up in tears."

Jason Kitching, A Homeless Person

GOOD FRIDAY STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Temenos will be organizing a public Stations of the Cross for Good Friday this year in San Francisco. With other religious and justice groups, we will walk the Golgotha of dehumanization in our city - the places where Christ is crucified daily in our homeless. If you are interested in participating, please call or e-mail Fr. River.

ST. ANTHONY 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FEATURES NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT MAIREAD COORIGAN MAGUIRE.

St. Anthony Foundation is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with a special education forum on Saturday, March llth, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary), San Francisco. The keynote address will be given by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Coorigan Maguire of Northern Ireland. For further information contact St. Anthony's (415/241-2600).

IT DIDN'T END WITH DOROTHY DAY

Contrary to the impression one sometimes gets from the media, the Catholic Worker Movement did not end with the death of Dorothy Day. Voices from the Catholic Worker, an oral history compiled and edited by Rosalie Riegle Troester and published by Temple Press in 1993, documents the lively, cantankerous, frustrating, touching, hopeful and sometimes hilarious experiences of a number of Catholic Worker communities around the country, in the Workers' own words.

Through the generosity of the author, we are able to offer a limited number of copies of this excellent book as a fundraiser for Temeno. To purchase a copy, please send $12 (which includes $2 for mailing) to Fr. River.

COMPUTER TUTOR SOUGHT

Are you a computer whiz? And a patient teacher? Fr. River is looking for someone to help him develop his computer skills for use in various programs and development of a Temenos web site. If you're this person, contact Fr. River.

WE ARE BEGGARS

Temenos takes no government money. We rely on the generosity of others, living in precarity from month to month. We thank those who have been generous in their support in the past month: HIV Prevention Point, San Francisco Food Bank, Roy and Linda Moss, Martin de Porres House of Hospitality, Society for Christian Work, Chris Seltzer, Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Schwab, The Rev. Father Stephen Bartlett-Ré, John Kahnert, The Rev. Robert Matthews, Br. Ronald Crepeau-Cross, Daniel Johnson, Fr. Thomas Jackson, "a friend in high places," Nate Bacon, Jacqueline Robarge, Bruce Chatfield, Cynthia Crenshaw, Mary O'Neill, Matthew Dirkes, John Walsh, David Briggs, Edward LeBlanc, Stephen Smith, Doug Cassell and Two by Two. And a very special thanks to our intern Terry Sullivan for his extra effort during Fr. River's surgery and recovery.