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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Most just wanted to sit and talk with someone who wasn’t trying to save them, didn’t scold them, and didn’t judge them.
It is about being physically strong when everyone now values being smart. It is about caring about place and family when everyone now values caring more about career. It is about caring about faith when everyone now values science or liking McDonald’s when everyone says it is bad. It can be everything and anything, and the sum of it all can be overwhelming.
exceptionalism of being ostracized
There are dirty Bibles in crack houses, Korans in abandoned buildings. There is a picture of the Last Supper that moves with a couple living on the streets. It is the only real possession they own, beyond the Bible. It has hung in an abandoned building held in place by a syringe stuck in the wall. It has hung in a sewage-filled basement, and it has leaned against a pole under an expressway.
religion
All that the front row offers to those living shattered lives in broken buildings is sterile institutions that chew them up and then spit them right back out. In the view of many on the streets, the Bronx Criminal Court, the NYPD’s 41st Precinct, Rikers, the welfare office, Lincoln Memorial Hospital, rehab clinics and detox centers, law offices, and the nonprofits have no soul. They are just big buildings that give them nothing but heartache and problems.
the relief bureaucracy
We used to be self-sufficient here. People wouldn’t take gifts. We had pride. Self-respect. Then we were flooded with gifts from the government; it took people’s pride and self-respect away. The government and internet hurt our churches, and Walmart coming to town closed every mom-and-pop business. Now people only take pride in drugs. Used to be proud of our community.”
Youngstown OH:
