Paula B. Mays is an OffTheBus grassroots correspondent. Each week she contributes a campaign journal documenting her life out on the trail.
This week my election work was... let´s say... biblically based. My other volunteer job, besides citizen reporting, is being a Lay Reader, or what is termed LEM, Lay Eucharistic Minister at the Washington National Cathedral. Being a LEM is a fascinating volunteer job/ministry. The Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal Church open to all, has become renowned for hosting important National events such a funerals for Presidents and dignitaries and the National 9/11 service for the nation, as well as a service in commemoration of Princess Diana upon her death. So naturally it is an honor to be a part of this historic place.
My duties there involve appearing on the appointed Sundays and reading the lessons and giving Communion to the thousands of visitors and dignitaries from around the world and the regular Cathedral Worshipers. This Sunday I was scheduled for the early shift. 7:45 am. This meant an early rising on Sunday morning in order to get to the Cathedral in time to make sure of the availability of appointed scheduled and readings and to generally prepare. This morning was even more harrowing as the annual Marine Corps Marathon, held in Washington, D.C. every October, threatened to close all of the roads on the routes I needed by 7:30 am, but by will and force, a bit of speed, and some would say grace, I beat the road closings and made it in a timely manner.
And an interesting morning it was. The appointed Gospel, (that is for reader of non-Christian denomination, the reading, of the words of Jesus, read to all by the celebrating Priest), this morning involved the meaning of what is deemed as the Greatest of God´s Commandments: ¨Love thy neighbor as thyself." The Reverend Canon Reverend John L. Peterson, Canon for Global Justice and Reconciliation and a Cathedral celebrating Priest, then gave his sermon based on this Gospel reading. Peterson challenged us to examine what it means to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." He went on to opine that this involves caring about people who are suffering such as those in war torn areas. He spoke of his own experiences in seeing people dying in the Rwandan genocide. Thy neighbor he said, are all those suffering people.
All of this segued into the Sunday Morning Forum. A forum following this early service where the Dean of the National Cathedral, The Very Reverend Samuel T. Lloyd, III, has nearly an hour long discussion with an important world leader, free to all who care to attend.
This week it was Phillip Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, who spoke of his new approach to ending the pernicious problem of homelessness by purchasing homes and assistance for those in need, rather than the traditional shelter and on the street help approach. Mr. Mangano, who was named one of Time Magazines most 100 Most Influential People, spoke of how approaching homelessness in this way is a good investment practice. He advocates purchasing homes for the homeless actually cost less than trying to care for the homeless on the street who make frequent hospital trips and require great public resources. He explained his investment approach involves partnerships between the public and private sectors. Mangano claims this method has been highly successful and that the District of Columbia has made great strides in ending homelessness.
After the talk, I asked Mr. Mangano what he thought about the election in relation to his homelessness advocacy work. He indicated to me that he was energized by this election and that he hoped whichever candidate won the election, would continue their support of his program.
But known by some as Bush´s Homeless Czar, not everyone is sure about Mangano´s approach to ending homelessness, or at least have questions about it; and as a part of the forum participants are permitted to ask questions. One such questioner was Skip Watkins, past head of the Community for Creative Non-Violence and now with the Coalition for Homeless Housing Organizations.
Skip has a more of a traditional grassroots solution to homelessness and he seemed a bit skeptical of the Mangano approach. This election he has been working to empower the homeless. I spoke to Skip Watkins about the election and what he had been doing this election season. Skip told me that he had been busy registering homeless persons to vote. I asked Skip how he was faring and if he was tired from his election work. Skip told me "I´m tired of the sensationalism of things that are unimportant," but he said he is "energized by the work of registering homeless voters. Skip said all his "kids are grown now," so he has plenty of time to devote to the cause.
So I asked Skip if he had problems registering some of the people. Are there some who may be felons, I queried who may not be able to vote? Skip said, that was the problem--- a lot of the homeless people think that they cannot vote but they can, and that that the laws have changed with regard to felons having the right to vote.
Then Skip told me he had been working with students from the Georgetown law Center who are serving as volunteers to educate the homeless as to their voting rights, and to help them to register to vote. Turns out these students were also a part of a national week long project to register the homeless to vote. The Georgetown students offer assistance as to determining where to vote, as well as encouraging homeless shelters to accept mail to satisfy the requirement that potential voters have a mailing address.
Skip said that because of this many homeless people have been registered and will likely vote in this election. But, Watkins, an African American, claimed no allegiance to a particular candidate, "Well" he said to that question, "I don´t like to say, these things are supposed to be secret." His concerned seemed focused more on empowering the homeless in the election.
Interestingly, both these men, Mangano and Watkins, whose passion is ending the blight of homelessness, admitted no allegiance to a candidate, but instead allegiance to the cause. Though they both take completely different approaches to the problem, one arguably a more conservative thinking approach--ending homelessness as an investment, venture capital solution, and the other, preferring a more traditionally liberal, grass roots approach, Though they are different in their approaches, I sensed that this election was still crucial and mattered to the missions of both of these advocates.
So who is our neighbor, Canon John Peterson asked? For these two tireless evangelists for the homeless, "our neighbors are the homeless, who need to be empowered and whose voices need to be heard, and cause represented. "How do we love our neighbor," Peterson also posited? I surmise Mangano and Watkins would say by being their advocates and bringing their cause to the forefront during this election.
Want to become a grassroots correspondent for HuffPost's OffTheBus? Sign up here to journal your experiences once a week as a McCain or Obama Volunteer.