Columbia MISSOURIAN David Webber Jul 28, 2017
Guest Commentary: Death of a homeless man focuses assessment of local effort.
Last weekend a homeless man collapsed and died two days later. His name was Michael; he was 46 years old and an alcoholic. Continue reading
I changed the background of this blog from a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol to George Caleb Bingham’s County Election painted in 1852. Bingham (1811-1879) is well-known in Missouri for his depictions of ordinary life in the mid-1800. He served in the Missouri House of Representatives in 1848. It is an era piece for it shows only white males participating in elections. If all citizens had been paying attention to their responsibilities the past couple decades maybe we would not be in today’s chaos.
Looking for Faith and Fellowship at Chautauqua 2017
I spent July 8-15, 2017 at the Chautauqua Institution listening to first-class lectures and discussions examining “Is there a Crisis in Faith?” Chautauqua is a beautiful 740 acres on a lake in western New York, isolated from social reality, opened for nine weeks a year with a different theme each week. It was founded in 1874 to train Methodist Sunday school teachers and has been non-denominational since 1890. It was nationally known before World War II and has hosted several presidential speeches. President Theodore Roosevelt supposedly said that Chautauqua “is the most American thing in America.” One speaker this week said “it is a little slice of heaven” to which someone replied “Heaven will certainly be more diverse.” Alas, the more than 5,000 participants were Christian or Jewish, highly educated, mostly over 50, and . . . white. The speakers were much more diverse. Take a look here: Chq.org or www.ciweb.org Continue reading
Carl Update: I found Carl after three months
After three months of casual looking, I finally happened upon a homeless guy I call Carl. I was happy to see him. A week ago, his daughter had told me where to look.
I first met Carl last February 1 when he was dropped off by a taxi from the hospital at closing time at a soup kitchen where I volunteer once a week. I did not know what to do that cold night and dropped him off at the bus station that was due to close in 30 minutes. I was disappointed in myself, the hospital, and almost everyone who I spoke with about what I should do. I described this in a March 10, 2017 op ed essay in the Columbia TRIBUNE
http://www.columbiatribune.com/38458284-059c-11e7-a5a7-10604b9f6eda.html
Webber Rough and Polished 