Interfaith demonstration challenges Newsom to remember homelessBy Marianne Moore
At the foot of the rotunda stairs in City Hall, a young bride in a short white dress shifts her weight from side to side, holding a bouquet of bright yellow lilies. Maybe she’s watching intently as the solemn procession of roughly 120 clergy and activists winds slowly up the steps and towards the bronze bust of Harvey Melk. Or maybe she’s just annoyed at being made to wait.
The demonstration, which began in the South Light Court at 10:30 on Thursday, June 5, was organized by Religious Witness for Homeless People, an interfaith organization that pushes for policy change on behalf of San Francisco’s homeless. Though Religious Witness has been responsible for hundreds of actions during its 15-year existence, including a much-publicized 1996 campaign to preserve the Presidio’s Wherry housing for low-income tenants, today’s protest was specifically directed at the ongoing budget process. The city is facing a $338 million dollar deficit, and Mayor Newsom is expected to balance the budget by cutting city funding to key service organizations. “The proposed budget is a disaster for San Francisco’s homeless,” said Sister Bernie Galvin, the founder of Religious Witness and a Catholic nun. She cited the 137 documented homeless deaths in San Francisco in 2007, suggesting that if the mayor and the board of supervisors cut crucial services, homeless deaths could rise this year.
The demonstrators processed through the corridors of city hall, singing softly, past signs reading “Silence: meeting in progress.” The procession halted outside the office doors of each of the city’s 12 supervisors, and each time Sister Bernie rapped loudly on the glass. As the door opened, retired Catholic priest John “Fitz” Fitzgerald spoke each supervisor’s name loudly, and the crowd responded in unison: “we call on you to remember that our moral compass always points in the direction of compassion.” Sister Bernie presented the supervisor with a plaque (usually accepted with an embarrassed smile by an aide) and the slow marching and singing resumed, punctuated by the sound of the heavy wooden doors slamming shut. When the demonstration reached the office of Gerardo Sandoval, the 11th district supervisor, a grinning Sandoval joined the procession, chatting with the clergy, shaking hands and clapping backs. “I’m with you one hundred percent,” he said, addressing the crowd.
Though the tone of the event was generally solemn, there were some light moments, like outside Supervisor McGoldrick’s office, when Galvin handed the plaque to the supervisor’s aide, saying “tell him to put it under his pillow.”
After just a few minutes, the train stopped outside Mayor Newsom’s office. Sister Bernie knocked, the crowd repeated its chanted mandate, and Galvin handed the plaque to the mayor’s Director of Government Affairs, Nancy Rodriguez. Rodriguez, holding the plaque, posed for photographs and made a brief statement, saying “Thank you for all that you do, and I hope we can speak regularly during this process.” The tension in the room seemed to break and people separated into little clumps, laughing and talking excitedly.
A previous Religious Witness demonstration
Rabbi Pamela Baugh, Administrative Director of the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and a “staunch supporter” of Sister Bernie’s work, pointed out that many of the demonstrators present were congregants of the assembled clergy, and asserted that religious leaders have a special mandate to do social justice work: “it is incumbent upon us to level the playing field; to take care of the widow, the orphan, the stranger.”
John “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a member of Religious Witness’ steering committee, stood gabbing with supporters about Barack Obama. He said that the goal of the demonstration was to “make our voice heard, specifically about what affects the poorest of the poor.” Fitzgerald also works at the St. Anthony foundation, a service organization that provides 2,600 free meals a day to San Francisco’s poor and homeless. He said that, though St. Anthony’s does not receive funding from the city government, the budget cuts will be felt in the form of overflow from other organizations which will no longer be able to accommodate as many people. Fitzgerald expressed hope that the demonstration would remind the mayor and the city supervisors to act with compassion when drafting the budget.
“There’s a total lack of compassion in the budget process,” added Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval. “It’s generally looked at as a numbers game; obviously a lot of politics goes into it, and after a while you stop seeing the faces of the poor.” Sandoval spoke passionately about the power and influence of faith-based organizations, saying, “religious and labor organizations are among the last forces opposing a climate of materialism and corporatism and rampant free market economics.”
Sister Bernie called on the mayor and supervisors to “solve the budget crisis, but don’t do it on the backs of the poor. You’ve got to be smart enough, and politically courageous enough, to solve the problem.”
Religious Witness with Homeless People can be found at:
www.religiouswitnesshome.org
(415) 929 0781
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Comments (5)
Right, why not remember the murdered children still tied to their umbilical cord?
Why not remember Christ's law against divorce? or, against homosexuality? or, against remarriage after divorce? or, against heathen religions? or, against following heathen ideology using the TV/film as teaching vehicles?
Disgusting hypocrites, your spiritual blood is on your own hands. Your own words convict.
Posted by scout | June 8, 2008 05:26 PM
Dear Scout, San Francisco residents are proud that we make Sodom and Gomorrah look like Vatican City. When we get to Hell we'll make sure to mail you a postcard.
Posted by Homosexual Heathen | June 8, 2008 08:28 PM
I find that a little Palmolive always gets that pesky spiritual blood off my hands -- and my dishes squeaky clean.
Posted by Marke B. | June 8, 2008 08:48 PM
Jesus loves the little children.
All the little children of the world.
If they're Christian, straight and white
They are equal in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Seriously, whatever it takes for me to not be condemned to an eternity in an afterlife with saved fundamentalist Christians.
-marc
Posted by marc salomon | June 9, 2008 08:40 AM
Granted.
Posted by Kelly | June 18, 2008 12:54 AM