ST. FRANCIS OPPOSES THE WAR ON THE POOR OF SAN FRANCISCO

by TJ Johnston/PNN

So a nun, some friars and a 20-foot St. Francis of Assisi walk onto the Civic Center Plaza…

Seriously, they all did on a sunny and windy Sunday afternoon as part of a rally organized by Religious Witness with Homeless People to oppose Proposition N.

Resistance against the measure, also known as Care Not Cash, attained religious significance by invoking San Francisco's namesake, St Francis, the patron of the poor and homeless. Before proceeding towards the gilded City Hall, I noticed a couple of wee ones shaking hands of giant St. Francis puppet.

Sister Bernie Galvin, the architect of this event, announced she would debate Supervisor Gavin Newsom, Prop N's author, at the Commonwealth Club on October 30, six days before the general election. I immediately envisioned the sister, out of habit and clad in a baby blue suit, running rhetorical rings around Newsom.

Dual purposes ran throughout this event. The rally doubled as a prayer service. Also, the peril of San Francisco's poor was connected to that of Iraq, whose infrastructure has been attacked by sanctions and the looming threat of US military assault.

The ceremony literally began on a solemn note, namely the beat of a drum. Each beat symbolized the heartbeat of a young woman in San Francisco's sister city of Assisi, of a homeless man in the Tenderloin, and of an American mother dreading her son's conscription to attack the child of an Iraqi mother. In addition, a bell was repeatedly sounded in a Buddhist rite, tolling for casualties in the war on poor people. I was reminded of the dual wars when Rev. Skyler Rhodes later exhorted, "Not in our name! The Gavin Newsoms of the world need to know their day is done."

Like the other interfaith congregants, I draped myself with a white peace ribbon as a gesture of support. I was reminded that I hadn't attended catechism since Confirmation and eschewed all religious instruction thereafter. When St. Boniface's pastor Louis Vitale began to entertain us with a history of St. Francis, it came as a surprise. It seems St. Francis was a trust-fund baby who loved to party. Without a thought, he spread money around while his father amassed wealth as a war profiteer. Then Francis himself went to war.

The resumption of his playboy lifestyle left Francis unfulfilled as a result of his post-traumatic stress. That heralded his spiritual conversion and Francis of Assisi was forever associated with birds and poor folk.

According to Father Vitale, the solution to homelessness couldn't be more obvious: "Give them housing!" Moreover, he stated that the $1 billion allotted daily to the US military machine could easily eliminate poverty.

After the history lesson, community members testified for a greater display of compassion. Among them was Lucky Jones, who worked on a DPW crew for his GA check while his colleagues earned $18 per hour for the same duties. Jones saw this as a sign. "We're still discriminated because of the dollar sign," Jones emphasized. "We're also human beings. The only difference is we care."

Other speakers illustrated the deleterious effects of slashing their welfare: scarcity of housing options, poverty pimping nonprofits siphoning survival money, economic profiling, perpetuation of double standards between individual and corporate welfare, as well as deterioration of one's mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Each speech was interspersed with prayer responses. The litanies from Religious Witness's Cornerstone Document affirmed our commitment to recognizing and advocating the rights and dignity of all poor people.

Guitarist Robert Grant concluded the service by leading a sing-along of "Prayer for St. Francis." At the close of the rally, I noticed feeling something that was absent when I previously fulfilled Holy Days of Obligation. It was one of hope. Hope that truth will actually speak to power at City Hall and the White House. If Francis of Assisi were here, he would be encouraged the by the same hope.