Serving Up Spirit & Sugar

Detroit is today more conundrum than solution. The City of Cars stands as neither 'damnation incarnate' nor 'salvation-in-the-making,' but as sign to be read.
Jim Perkinson, Messianism Against Christology (2013)

On Monday morning at 9am, I found myself at a press conference staged at The Spirit of Detroit, a large 1950s era bronze sculpture of a white male with the symbol of God in his left hand and a small family in his right. Beyond him is etched the ancient words from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians:

NOW THE LORD IS THAT SPIRIT
AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE
LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY.

The nine men and women hosting the presser were part of The People’s Water Board, an ongoing experiment in grassroots activism in Detroit, a cohort of 22 different peace & justice organizations. These leaders, from the seminary trained to single mothers, spend their free time and resources advocating for the city’s most vulnerable, many of whom have recently had their water shut-off because they are 2 months or $150 behind on their payments.

While they made their case for a water affordability plan, hordes of middle-aged businessmen in suits pretended to be oblivious as they strode past, on their way into the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, named after the first black mayor of Detroit. A security guard and police officer were walking around casually cautious: perhaps just in case one of the single mothers got out of hand.

The struggle continues...

A highlight from Tuesday morning at the Manna Meal soup kitchen:

Me: What can I get you?
Her: I'll take a large coffee with sugar, young man?
Me: Coming right up. Thanks for calling me a young man.
Her: You age pretty good for a white man.
Me: Thanks.
Her: You look not a day older than 51 or 52. [She wasn't kidding]

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Some bonus photos of our final day at a farm about 50 km north of Saskatoon last week: