Month: February 2018

My kid’s therapist (yes, my 13 year old has already been to therapy) once challenged him to walk the four doors down the road to the Circle K at the corner of our street, by himself.
To a person who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s that seems strange.
But how many of us middle class parents are afraid to let our kids out of our sight?
Today it’s all play dates where we shuttle our kids in cars from one house to another. Drop them off at 1:00pm. Pick them up promptly at 3:30pm.
Other than that the kids of today spend countless hours and countless days indoors. It’s safer that way.
After all, that’s what us parents, the “brave” kids of the 70’s and 80’s do.
We lopped the porches off our houses. We don’t care if there are sidewalks in front of our houses.
We too sit indoors, preferring to avoid eye contact with our neighbors.
From this study, loneliness and isolation:

• increases the risk of suicide for young and old alike.
• creates higher levels of perceived stress even when exposed to the same stressors as non-lonely people.
• raises levels of circulating stress hormones and levels of blood pressure.
• destroys the quality and efficiency of sleep, so that it is less restorative, both physically and psychologically. They wake up more at night and spend less time in bed actually sleeping than do the nonlonely.

Being with people is our natural habitat. Even introverts find happiness and joy being with people.
But, sadly, the communities of our society are eroding. We spend more time isolated and alone.
Church has often been the gateway to community for many people.
“Only 2 in 10 Americans under 30 believe attending a church is important or worthwhile.”
Like so many constructs of society, young people don’t feel like they belong in these groups.
And it’s not just young people. Many of my friends don’t participate in church or any other groups. Work has become our main source of community.
But I would imagine you can remember a time in your life when you were part of a community. Do you remember how it made you feel being with people like you? Being with people that shared a similar interest?
We are finding that people are experiencing that sense of community at Second Chance Village.
Yes, the people that live here are getting the benefits of our community. But so are the housed people who participate in our community.
We have people that:

• Bring food to share.
• Help organize our clothes closet.
• Help drive people to doctors appointments.
• Help work on renovating our space.
• Help work on our raised bed gardens.

But now we’re starting to be more than just a place where people can donate time. Now we’re starting to have events that people can participate in.
We’re having recovery meetings, church services and other really interesting group gatherings.
We run our main calendar through Meetup. You can CLICK HERE to see our upcoming events. We’ll also have a link to our events calendar on the top navigation of our site. You’ll want to check back often because we’ll be adding new events all the time. (I’m thinking a movie night would be cool, as an example.)
I know that it can be risky and uncomfortable coming into a new community the first time. But usually, the first time is the most difficult. From there on out it’s all fun!
A key part of our mission here at Second Chance Village is bringing the homeless together with the homed. This is the quickest way to solve the greatest tragedy in America today. No one deserves to be left forgotten on the street to fend for themselves.
See you at our next event!

We’ve got a cool online charity auction going on right now.
You can check it out and bid online here.
We’ve got a lot of really cool items. And EVERYTHING starts at $1.
And best of all, all the money goes to support our charity.
 

I hope you’ve had the chance to watch the speech Emma Gonzalez gave as a survivor of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Speeches like this transcend human constraints like age.  Don’t we wonder how such a young person to be so articulate, clear and inspirational?
They also transcend politics and dividing ideologies.
Politicians and the powerful will quickly try to divide us on which side of the debate we stand. Do we stand for or against Emma Gonzalez?
“It’s not about guns. It’s about mental health.”
That simple two sentence response to Emma Gonzalez is a propaganda grenade that explodes in the minds of all Americans.
Now we’ve instantly forgotten every word Emma Gonzalez has said. We retreat to Facebook and have endless, irrational debates about whether or not guns kill.
This is how THEY all play us.
Look at this Gallup Poll of the percentage of people that primarily lean one party or another:

It is absolutely critical in understanding how America works by understanding those numbers.
Every election year between 85% to 92% of votes are already accounted for.
It’s the 8% to 15% politicians fight like hell for.
Ask any Texan or Californian how many times a presidential candidate makes a stop in their state. It’s almost none. They already know how those states are going to vote.
That fact should infuriate you.
You are just a reliable statistic to these people. I mean, doesn’t it seem odd to you that presidential candidates don’t spend much of any time in two of the most populous states in the country? That only means one thing. They don’t actually care about you. They only care about your vote.
So we get these brilliant, catchy, dividing propaganda statements like: “It’s not about guns. It’s about mental health.”
And let me be clear: that statement is just as helpful for Democrats as it is for Republicans.
Democrats LOVE the NRA just like Republicans LOVE abortion.
These wedge issues make their lives so much easier.
An issue they both hate is: How do we make kids safer?
That’s not catchy at all.
That’s messy. That’s complicated.
Sure. Democrats rally around those kinds of phrases. But they don’t truly want to fix the problem. They are just using that position to excite their base.
Bernie Sanders is the knight in shining armor for “Progressives” in America. Here is his stance on guns:

That is the PROGRESSIVE stance on guns in America.
If our politicians really, truly cared about kids getting killed in mass shootings they would be figuring out how to get guns out of the hands of Americans.
Australia bought and destroyed more than 600,000 automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.
Over the next few years, gun-death totals were cut nearly in half. Firearm suicides dropped to 0.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 2.2 in 1995, while firearm homicides dropped to 0.15 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 0.37 in 1995.
Why don’t we do that?
It’s a rhetorical question. You know why, right? BECAUSE IT WON’T GET THEM ELECTED!
They only care about getting into power and holding onto power.
They will tell you this is because they can then get inside and make important change. But the important change never comes. They just get more and more addicted to their power.
Republicans increase deficits. Democrats give healthcare to private companies.
But ultimately, I believe this is our fault. We the people are making this happen.
As long as the polls show that we are all correctly aligning to hot button issues then there is no reason to change.
There is a passive, look-the-other-way and blame-others mentality in America. And politicians love it. They can count on it.
But people like Emma Gonzalez muddy the waters. They make things complicated.
The FBI and mafia killed Martin Luther King Jr. for this very reason.
Change agents don’t make the powerful happy.
When change happens very often the first people to go are the existing powerful elites.
Could Emma Gonzalez take down the NRA? Hell yeah she could. Or, quite frankly, she could end up dead.
The NRA will not go quietly.
But change like this must happen.

• Kids shouldn’t get shot down at school.
• People shouldn’t be slaves.
• People shouldn’t live in frozen ditches across America.
• Kids shouldn’t die because they can’t afford healthcare.
• People shouldn’t have to go days without eating.

The list goes on and on. There is still much to do in the world and in America.
But know this: It is NEVER EVER the people in power that will make these changes.
It is people like Emma Gonzalez that make these changes.
It is people like YOU that make these changes.
 

If you aren’t a Catholic you probably have a belief about Catholics and, chances are, it’s not good.

• Withholding abortions to women that die because they were forced to give birth.
• Not giving out condoms in HIV ravaged Africa.
• Vehemently denouncing gay rights.
• And of course… child molestation.

Granted, these are self-inflicted wounds. Some are old beliefs that haven’t kept up with the times. Others are just straight up tragedies.
But there is a quiet power of Catholics that I had never known before working with the homeless.
Catholics are profoundly giving.
Catholic groups are among the biggest providers of social-service charity in the United States.
“Catholic charity seems to account for 17 percent to 34 percent of all nonprofit social-service charity”
Catholic Charities USA, has more than 2,500 local agencies that serve 10 million people annually.
This is as clear as the big nose on my face at Second Chance Village.
Catholics pour into our facility to help the homeless.
Hoban and Walsh high school students come every single week to bring us food.
Within our first year St. Vincent De Paul has given our group $3000 to spend on tents, sleeping bags, thermal underwear and tarps. They give similar amounts to several other local groups in Akron for the same things.
Wealthy Catholic individuals bring the power of their corporations to help build out our facility.
Peter Maurin Center, a Catholic Workers organization, was one of our first supporters. They pay for porta potties and trash service. They are critical to our operation.
And here’s the thing: They slip in and they slip out.
There is no prayer circle. There is no picture taking. There is no obligation put upon the homeless.
You would think it strange that people require things of those in need. But I see it happen all the time.
Shelters very often require a mandatory church service before you can go to bed and a mandatory prayer before every meal.
I always find this very odd.
How could you think forcing people to pray and go to church services helps your cause?
Time and time again people tell me they would rather live in the woods or their car or go to jail than be forced to pray for shelter and food. It’s condescending, dehumanizing and garishly egotistical and selfish.
How low does a person have to get before they get help with no strings attached?
Catholics let their actions speak for themselves.
It is an elegantly powerful strategy.
The students from Hoban and Walsh need no introduction. They are just our friends. And we all have so much love for them.
The people that stand in the middle of our day center yelling out prayers just have a different aura about them. It is very clear they want something in return for their generosity.
All of us are controlled by both good and bad forces. We all have two masters. None of us are purely good or purely bad.
As a community we help each other move one direction or the other. When we focus on the bad of others it becomes more likely they will become bad.
But when we focus on the good of others it is more likely they will become good.
The Pope, considered the infallible leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics, refused to sit in judgement of gay priests.
He said:
“Who am I to judge?”
That is the lesson we all need to learn. Who am I to judge? If the Pope can publicly utter those words how is it that lack of judgement is so difficult for the rest of us?
The only path to salvation is love, understanding, forgiveness and compassion. This is the message Catholics bring to our facility. Their presence makes me stronger. They remind me that this work is work that needs to be done and is the work God wants us to do.
This is the message we all need to bring to each other. Our judgement of others does nothing other than make society worse.
You are not the police. You are not the judge. You are not God.
Forgiveness and love lifts society up.
Focus on the good in all of us. Because we all have goodness within us.
Let the rest go.
 
 
 

If you have been homeless for long on the east side of Akron you either likely know of Buddy’s, or you’ve stayed at Buddy’s.
Buddy’s house is one of those rundown houses in an area called Laird Land. It’s an entire rundown area. Houses sell for under $20k.
Buddy is a chronic drinker that can’t quit. Now the word is that quitting might actually be too hard on his health at this point. He might not survive another detox episode.
But Buddy is a giver.
If you are out on the street it’s possible Buddy will let you stay at his house for free. He has almost no requirements. He’s the ultimate in low barrier homeless sheltering. Drinkers, crack smokers, meth addicts and opiate users all can come to Buddy’s.
Walking into Buddy’s living room is like walking into a tiny dive bar from the ’80s. The smoke is so thick it creates a haze throughout the entire building. Stale beer smell is everywhere. And people. People are packed in there. They are on all floors of the house.
He rents a couple rooms upstairs and his garage, if you have income. Otherwise, you can just stay there.
Chances are, you’ll get sick of staying at Buddy’s before Buddy gets sick of staying with you. Though people do move out, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Buddy kicking anyone out.
Though you can use drugs and alcohol at Buddy’s, he is not a known drug house. “Don’t shit where you sleep” is a pretty common sentiment in the low/no income world.
No one likes Buddy when he’s trying to quit drinking. He’s mean, angry and short tempered. Drinking makes Buddy much more friendly. It’s unlikely that he will stop drinking ever again at this point. He just can’t handle it physically.
Buddy’s is not anything a reputable non-profit would ever create. It’s chaos. But yet it is fundamentally important to the homeless community. Truly, Buddy’s should have a place of record as a homeless shelter in Akron.
The number of people Buddy has taken in and taken care of is uncountable. Buddy’s is a godsend for so many.
I tell you about Buddy’s simply because his house is just one of many.
The dirty secret of poverty in Akron and all across America is that the poor have no voice. They have no one telling their stories. And so cities can simply allow the rot and disease of extreme poverty to easily carry on without anyone knowing.
Cities don’t have the investigative reporting power like the national news does for national politicians. It is so easy for local politicians to get away with all kinds of atrocities. What does your mayor do on the weekends? How hard does your mayor work? You likely have no idea. But we know every detail of the life of a US President.
Cities will gladly ignore the festering poverty under their control as long as no one says anything about it.
The poverty in Akron is disgusting and embarrassing and a tragedy. People like Buddy pick up the significant slack that the system fails to recognize. There would be many more people living outside if it were not for people like Buddy.
Our food pantry is now open Monday through Friday 9-11am. I, Sage, run it. If I’m there (as I often am) other times, I will gladly let you come and shop. There is no limit to the amount of times you can come shop with us. Everything is free. Just come down the right side of the building at 15 Broad St in Akron.
This food pantry is allowing me to see a glimpse at the true grotesque, severe poverty in Akron.
There is a house near us that has 13 people in it. Men, women and children of all ages. There are 2 beds. No furniture. No blankets. No dishes. Nothing. They have nothing.
The largest number of people I’ve heard about in one house is 26.
A blind man came last week. He had no cane. He’s just blind.
The younger people come for food and supplies for the old people that can’t get out of the house.
The local scrap yards will sometimes give these people an old rusted shopping cart that someone dropped off. That is their transportation.
A 10 year old boy has been coming. He’s much more mature than his age. He asked me if we had any TVs. He said his dad would love to watch TV. I have a 13 inch black and white TV I can give him.
I’m finding it more and more difficult to contain my anger and rage at the churches who try to push out the poor people so the suburban, wealthy parishioners who come into the city for services once a week feel more comfortable.
I’m finding it more and more difficult to contain my anger and rage at the city who only talks about trying to figure out a way to get suburban people to move back into the city.
I’m finding it more and more difficult to contain my anger and rage at the people who tell me the answer is for these people to “put down the needle and get a job.”
The blind ignorance and selfish arrogance of those who profess in their words to Praise Jesus yet in their actions Praise Money wear down my veneer of politeness and political correctness.
But it is you, the people, that bring me great comfort and help me find peace and remind me that love is everywhere and will conquer all.
Yesterday I took six loads of blankets to the laundromat that needed dried. Tents leak and blankets get wet.
I was met by two different supporters of Second Chance Village. Their words were so kind and so loving. They talked endlessly about how impressed they are about the people who live at Second Chance Village. They were filled love and kindness.
On top of that, they paid for all the laundry.
I am so often overwhelmed by your love and kindness and incredible giving.
You are the ones saving the homeless and incredibly poor from an existence of total torture and grotesque hell on earth.
All I have done is given the homeless a basement and dirt to take care of themselves and have given you a platform to offer your generosity.
Every day you bring food (amazing food) for the villagers to eat.
Every day you bring hand warmers, blankets and coats to keep these people safe and warm.
Every day you bring your skills and help to make our facility a wonderful place for the villagers to work and live.
You are the best of humanity. And you are everywhere. There are way more good people than bad.
The bad people are mostly the leaders and the fearful. They obsess about loss and losing control.
You are not afraid. You only care about doing what is right. You cross both political parties. You are men and women. You are children. You are the aged. You are all ages. You are the poor and you are the wealthy.
We cannot expect change to come from our ministers, our priests, our mayors, our governors or our presidents. They are the ones who are afraid and clinging to their positions of power. The power corrupts their character. They become selfish and callous.
The powerful are often the opposite of love. They are fear.
You are the walking embodiment of love. You are the hand of God.
You. Are. Buddy.