Summer 2017

How Christian/Anarchists Celebrate Memorial Day in Missouri

By Steve Jacobs

A surreal series of events made for a memorable Memorial Day 2017 at St. Francis House. The fact that our hospitality house
for homeless men sits directly across the street from a small liberal arts college (Columbia College) sometimes makes us subject to
forces beyond our control. By the time the Columbia city Memorial Day Parade ended at the college soccer field, the "BVM" ( Blessed
Virgin Mary) statue in our yard had joined our demonstration for peace and I was cited for "peace disturbance" for playing anti-war
songs. I will going to city court June 28 to plead my case.
When we began buying St. Francis House in 1984 it was was a block away from Columbia College and we were on the
corner of a low income neighborhood, which over the course of 33 years, was bought up and torn down by the College. Directly south
of us, where the athletic fields are today, were two rows of houses separated by a city street. The city ceded the street that used to be
there to the college, so today, St. Francis House is surrounded by land
owned by Columbia College. They want our house too but we declined
to accept their offer to trade our hundred plus year old house for
properties they own on the north side of the campus.
We don't really resent this but it makes us involuntary
spectators for athletic events from their soccer practices, games and
children's summer camps. Truth be told, I enjoy watching the athletes
and kids playing out the many south side windows of our building. I don't
particularly enjoy it when they crank up their stadium sound system and
blast music during warm ups an hour before the games begin and
sometimes an hour afterwards but that's probably because I have no
emotional attachment to those songs they play.
But it is loud and permeates the entire neighborhood for
several blocks. But we quietly tolerate it and have never made a
complaint about it. The other thing that sometimes happens is that they
forget to turn off the field lights and the trees in the empty lots to the west
of us are lit up in a way that accents them from below instead of from
above by sun or moon. And they often leave the lights on all night which
disturbs the sleep of homeless men and CW's as it floods through our
(continued on p 4).

The BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) joined our demo for Peace on Memorial Day 2017

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 Rediscovering our common denominators:
a recipe for living better together
By Jeff Krall
If we are willing to shift our focus from our differences
to our similarities
our common emotional needs: to be
recognized, to be loved, to be accepted, to belong;
our common physical needs: to be free of
pain, to be safe from harm, to have enough food,
clothing, and shelter
then these similarities can draw us into open-minded
discussions about our concerns, our beliefs, our desires, and
our hopes.
These discussions can lead to better understanding of
each other as we speak of our life experiences and
circumstances, our knowledge, our abilities, and our limitations.
This improved understanding of each other can foster
an environment in which we work together to generate creative
ideas: ways in which we can focus our societies on satisfying
each persons needs without exclusion; to make it easier to live
peacefully together; and to draw us into closer relationships.
These ideas can then be realized through positive
actions that change our world for the better.
But this hopeful vision of possibility often collides with
reality. We frequently place obstacles between us. Having been
hurt by others, it is natural to raise barriers in self-defense. We
may hold on to our beliefs and ideologies so tightly that we
leave no space to enter into dialogue with others. Our
conversations become all about defending our own viewpoint,
and we are unable to hear what others are saying.
It takes great courage to instead lower our mental
shields and set aside our verbal weapons in order to be open to
embracing and supporting each other. To help overcome the
barriers that we face in our relationships, in every interaction we
have with others, we can ask ourselves: What do we have in
common? What shared understanding might we achieve today?
What barriers stand in the way of a fuller relationship? How can
we overcome those barriers?
What we focus on, we get more of. If we develop a
habit of seeing what we have in common, and if we are open to
overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of our
communication, then we are on the path to understanding each
other. On this path of mutual understanding, we are able to
journey together toward a more just society in which we are
better able to live together.
HOUSE NEEDS
At St. Francis and Lois Bryant Houses we persist on the
kindness of our friends, faith communities and others for both
cash and in kind donations. We are always in need of the
following items, if you have them available: coffee, sugar, fruit,
peanut butter, jelly, fresh veggies, paper towels/napkins, dish
soap, and socks. As always we are grateful for your prayers.
The Socks that Remain
By Elizabeth Modde
William is sitting on his bunk, mumbling and pointing to
his shoes below his bed. Theyre wet? Im never quite sure I am
hearing him right. He sits up straight, points to the dresser on
the far side of the room, and asks for socks. Fearing what may
dwell inside, I dont budge. He points. I stand and hold his stare.
I encourage William to go get what he wants. He walks
over to the dresser, lifting up the socks on top that he had
indicated. They are not a match and feature holes in the heels. I
point this out. Handing the mismatch to me, he opens the top
drawer of the dresser. One at a time he pulls out socks, holding
up and examining at least ten lone socks. As he hands each
one to me, I line the socks up along on the stripped mattress of
the spare bed next to this dresser. After a while, I stop the
charade, pulling out a folded black pair and handing them to
William. It is as if he was waiting for me to this, the lone socks
being a placeholder to fill the time until I gave in and completed
Williams original demand.
As William makes his way back to his bed, I look down
at what Steve has deemed the sock orphanage. Why does
William keep all of these? Mind you, he has a whole drawer of
matched, clean pairs of socks in the dresser by his bed. I put
the single, worn socks back in the drawer and tuck Will in,
giving great care to cover his bare feet under the layers of
blankets. Tomorrows shoes peek out from his bunk, prepared
for the morning with a pair of clean socks.
As always, I am trying to figure William out. What does
it take to let go? Why do I keep my own lone socks?

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 Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen Trivia Night decorated/dressed table of players. We want to thank our
Makes Bank Balance Relevant Again generous donors in the community for the gift cards and other
items donated, as well as the generous sponsors of the event.
On April 22, 17 tables of people with random bits of Special thanks to our friend, Fr. Fran Doyle for allowing us to
knowledge floating through their brains joined forces in the use the space at Sacred Heart. And a heartfelt thanks to all
Sacred Heart Catholic Churchs Activity Center for a night of who decided to spend their Saturday night playing for our
timely and timelesstrivia, for the benefit of our venerable cause.
Loaves & Fishes Soup kitchen. Thanks to all the work and play, we were able to raise
Loaves & Fishes serves an evening meal 7 nights a approximately $3,000.00 to help pay our soup kitchen
week, 52 weeks a year, with the assistance of over 22 expenses. We look forward to playing trivia with our friends
community partners, mostly local faith communities. While these again soon, maybe even next year.
volunteer groups donate most of the food that is served, and
while we have no paid staff, we incur a number of expenses,
including paying a stipend to our hosts and community partner,
Wilkes Blvd United Methodist Church and supplying food
staples and other items, like trash bags, mops, dish soap and
paper towels, that are needed to run the place. After 35 years in
operation, we are still able to operate Loaves & Fishes for less
than $9,000.00 per year. Unfortunately, the last couple years,
the donation we receive for the soup kitchen have not kept pace
with the increasing costs of food staples, cleaning supplies, etc.
In an endeavor headed by community member Elly
Lang, and emceed by extended community member Britt
Hultgren, we invited our paying guests to answer questions
about music, social justice, the shapes of playing surfaces for
sports and even popular Google searches, among other fun
categories.

In addition to playing 10 rounds of trivia, participants were

given the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets and try their luck
at winning 13 different baskets of fun prizes. Thanks to the Lang
family for their help in all aspects of pulling off this feat. Elly,
Ruth and Cal worked on the questions, Elizabeth, Cal and Ruth
served as judges, and everyone did their part, whether by
getting a team together, setting up or cleaning up the space,
obtaining raffle donations from local businesses, or providing
logistical support back at the houses.
In addition to the raffle baskets, we were able to In Memoriam: We remember those guests, friends, and
present prizes for the 1st place team and the best supporters who have died, including: Tall Paul Robertson.

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Memorial Day (cont. from p. 1) windows.But we've never
complained about it; not because we are such amenable and
delightful neighbors - but rather, because we are too lazy to
look up a college officials phone number and ask them to turn
off the lights. We just close our cheap vinyl blinds when they
haven't deteriorated with age or fallen away from the plastic
fasteners holding them in the windows and go to bed.
But things started to get weird when the college
recruited the Army Golden Knights Parachute team to jump out
of planes over our house and glide their way onto the soccer
field during Memorial Day ceremonies. Now don't get me
wrong. I like the idea of jumping out of planes thousands of
feet high and parachuting to a safe landing on terra firma. It's
on my bucket list of things to do before I cease to be. Except
I'd like to jump from a much greater height and waft my way to
the ground like a tuft of milkweed floating on the breeze hoping
for a safe landing spot where neither the lander nor the place
landed upon is damaged in the process. You may say I'm a
dreamer but when you direct your thoughts upon the real
intentions of the Army and their promoters at the college one
must abandon ones sense of delight at the thought of a benign
outcome. Because their real intention is to entice young people
to join an organization that uses violence to try and solve the
world's problems and to do that you have to kill somebody.
Although their public demos are with unarmed troopers, in real
paratrooper training and in war they are heavily armed and
ready to kill someone once they land. This is a classic bait and
switch tactic in their recruiting. Make something that looks like
a fun adventure or sport into a lethal tactic of war. "Their
intention is to entice well-meaning young people to kill
someone they've never met before---someone who's never
done anything personally to them". For Christians to whom
Jesus taught to "love your enemies", this is a problem and
thus; it became our problem when they decided to do this
across the street from our house.
Another aspect of Memorial Day is that it's been
taken over by those justifying military violence and its main
tactic is to promote a false narrative that our rights and
privileges are only possible because the warrior class has in
the past and stands ready again to use violence to protect us
all; thus, promoting a false narrative. It creates a pervasive
culture of hero worship of the warrior class and denigrates
those who do not accept violence as a way to solve problems.
In these public ceremonies there are never any discussion of
how the violence used to protect us all has a corrosive and
destructive influence on those who utilize it against other
human beings and tears soldiers away from the lifelong
teaching of the Golden Rule which they learn in churches and
temples, which is "to treat others the way you wish to be
treated". This military ethic fails provide the answer to the
question Christians should but rarely ever ask themselves -
"How can you love your enemy, as Jesus taught, and kill them
too?" This deeply rooted golden rule cannot be so easily
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dismissed - especially by soldiers who have actually killed or
helped kill others because it is a rule in direct opposition to
violence. That's why as many 22 soldiers/veterans kill
themselves every day on average. But none of this is ever
mentioned because telling this truth about violence's
unintended consequences disrupts the recruitment of new
warriors to keep the process going. I came across a quote a
couple years ago that speaks to this phenomenon and I don't
know who came up with it -
"When we remember soldiers but not their victims
When we glorify the pointless deaths of millions,
When we portray slaughter as noble,
When we aggrandize patriotism
When we celebrate militarism
We are not honoring the dead of war
We are enticing the living to join them."
It was not lost on me that 2017 was the 100th
anniversary of the US joining the industrial scale slaughter of
WWI which was sold to US families as the "War To End All
War" so that mothers and fathers would offer their sons up to
the gods of war. When it was done - an entire generation of
Europeans were butchered and damned; not only from war,
but from disease and famine that ensued - 20 million in all. It
was all for nothing because WWII would begin 21 years later
and dwarf that war in scale of slaughter and destruction when
another 50 million would die.
I'd read in the paper that Columbia's Memorial Day
parade would end at 10:45 a.m. at Columbia College's field
and after patriotic ceremonies the Army parachute team would
once again land on the soccer field. And once again a crowd
would flood our neighborhood and surround our house to
watch. Last year about 30 spectators stood in our yard to give
allegiance to the hero-worship of the military.
As Catholic Workers with a strong tradition of Christian non- drove past our yard. It was delightful to hear "Who Would
violence and resistance to war we felt obligated to present an Jesus Bomb", "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Your Flag Decal
alternative narrative based on the example of the non-violent Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" and Jimi Hendrix's
Jesus who lived under military occupation and was executed version of "The Star Spangled Banner" complete with bombs
by soldiers who were just following orders. and machine guns generated by his electric guitar provided a
So I put together an 80 minute CD of anti-war tunes. more nuanced sense of nationalism than one typically gets at a
It just so happens that I have a sound system that my band Memorial Day parade. I remember saying to Roni, "I can't
Mere Mortals uses. It's quite powerful and I set up the believe we're getting away with this". After the CD stopped, I
speakers and PA system in William Blackwell's room and went upstairs and started it over.
pointed the speakers out the windows toward the soccer field.
I'd never cranked it up all the way before but when I put the
music on at 9 AM I was impressed with how the sound traveled
across the field and echoed off the tall buildings back to us
standing down in our yard. Then we took our places with
placards and signs and large laminated pictures of prisoners
being tortured at Abu Graib prison by US soldiers. We held
signs that said "We Love You But Hate the War - Stop the
Killing" and "Save a Soldier's Life - Bring Them All Home". We
enlisted our statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary which faces the
college to hold signs that said "Christians cannot love their
enemies and kill them too" and another that asked "Who
Would Jesus Bomb".
I fully expected the police to show up and before I
started the music I told my housemates I'd stop the tunes at
10:45 so they'd have the silence to fill as they wished because
we didn't want to get into a pissing contest with the college -
but in the meantime, we'd provide a public service to the city to
more fully represent the broad political spectrum of opinions
held by its citizens. So for 30 minutes we listened to "One
More Parade" by Phil Ochs, "Lives In The Balance" by Jackson
Browne, Dylan's "Masters of War" and my own song "Dead
Toy Soldiers" among others. As Pink Floyd's "Dogs Of War" Officer Bell appeared again and said he was sent
played the police arrived. over to ask if we could turn it down and I pointed over to the
where the parade was starting to march onto Columbia
Officer Bell told me "We've had a complaint from
College and again promised to turn our music off when they
someone at Columbia College so I'm kind of caught in the
started. He said his supervisor wanted to come talk to us if we
middle here and so I'm hoping you can turn down the music". I
didn't turn it down. I replied, "OK, I'd be glad to explain the
said,
"Well I appreciate your awkward position. It's kind of same thing to him". So, our music blasted out across the field
a 1st amendment issue here isn't it?" He acknowledged that it and throughout the college airspace. We looked over and saw
one of the young military people in uniform dancing to our
was. I went on to explain that the last few years the college
music and we all laughed. Then I noticed the brass band
has blasted the whole neighborhood with music from their
starting to tune up like bands do before the performance
ceremonies which we were not fond of and I told Officer Bell
that I knew that this type of patriotism was a religion to some begins and I told Roni I was going upstairs to shut off the
people but that our pacifist anti-war expression was part of our music.
Just then Officer Bell sheepishly said, "My supervisor
religious beliefs. He mentioned that his supervisor told him to
wants me to issue a citation for peace disturbance. I said OK.
"go take care of it". He smiled and said "Go take care of what?
He asked if I had my ID on me as this would make it easier to
There's no violation here".
I said, "Well just tell your supervisor and folks at fill out the ticket for him and I invited both he and his supervisor
Columbia College we're turning off our music at 10:45 because in and went upstairs got my ID and turned off the music. He
said there was an evening court and asked if I preferred that to
that's when the paper said their ceremonies would begin. I
a regular court appearance and offered several days to make it
promise we'll turn it off then". Officer Bell said "OK". Anti-war
less onerous on my schedule. So I'll be appearing June 28th at
songs and poems by Utah Phillips were heartily enjoyed by us
and our neighbors who smiled and waved as they walked or 5:30 pm at the Boone County courthouse. (cont. on page 8)
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 St. Francis: A Medical Student Connects to Community
By: Elizabeth Modde, University of Missouri- M1
We pursue medicine out of our desire to heal people.
As a first-year medical student, Ive plunged into the abyss of
medical information, osmotically sucking up factoids and trying
desperately to categorize them into some retrievable box in my
brain. However, Ive learned a lot about healing outside of
books and clinical settings this year.
I live in a house of hospitality just north of school
called St. Francis House. We offer free meals, laundry, and
lodging for people in our local community, most of whom are
homeless. Many would call us a homeless shelter, but I think
such a term misses the point.
The place I live aims to recognize the human dignity
of each person who walks through its doors and offers the
tools necessary to get people on their feet again-- a mission
not so different from that of a hospital. Some of our service
directly involves physical health. We store and appropriately
give out the medications our residents have been prescribed. I
drain Williams catheter bag into a urinal when it gets full. I find
myself doing these simple things with gratitude.
I find joy in offering a heart healthy salad or a desert without
added sugar: a rare option for the diabetic or the guest trying
to manage excess weight. So often our homeless population
does not get to choose the diet that their providers might
recommend.
I find peace in knowing that people have a warm
place to be when temperatures drop below freezing. I know its
not enough, as I recall those who we turn away when we do
not have space. I am grateful my feet do not know frostbite,
like some do.
I feel more secure knowing my home is a safe space
for vulnerable members of the homeless population to come
to. My understanding of mental health deepens as my
relationship with some of our regular guests deepens. In quiet
observation, I start to sense a way of experiencing the world
that differs from my own.
There are always emotional, spiritual, and social
elements that must be tended to for a person to achieve self-
actualization and to have a shot at sustaining physical health.
At St. Francis House, the most challenging and the most
profound healing goes beyond physical needs. A crucial
component of this healing lies in community. Dorothy Day, co-
founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and its houses of
hospitality, recognized that the hardest part of any experience
of being rejected from society (such as in homelessness) was
the feeling of invisibility and isolation it evokedthe long
loneliness. We have all known the long loneliness and we
have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes
with community.
In my experience, support from a community has
helped me see my own worthiness for healing. Community
brings me closer to fulfillment and reminds me of what is
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important. Where I live, I find that all of us are needy and all of
us can become each others healers.
People are shocked that I live and serve at St.
Francis House while balancing the challenges of medical
school. Yet its here, at our house of hospitality, where life and
our struggles against the many forms of death become real. I
cant think of a better place to augment my learning about
healing.
For Columbia: Working Together as We Meet
Each Other on the Way
By Ruth ONeill
In life, as at the Catholic Worker, things seldom go
exactly according to plan. Flexibility and resilience are
important attributes to cultivate when attempting to live life in
community, especially a community as unique as our St.
Francis/Lois Bryant CW family here in Columbia, MO.
On April 29, we welcomed groups of volunteers who
were part of a community-wide day of service called For
Columbia. This day of service was organized by the city which
recruited volunteers from faith and other community groups to
get their hands dirty in the name of service to our neighbors
in need. On that day, we were blessed with several volunteer
groups ready to get involved at St. Francis House, Lois Bryant
House and Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen.
The original game plan involved a number of projects
including general deep cleaning in the houses and the soup
kitchen, yard work, painting and installing a new floor in the
Lois Bryant kitchen. In addition a crew was scheduled to install
a new fence over at Wilkes Blvd church, where Loaves and
Fishes operated. However, it wouldnt be us if there wasnt
some sort of twist. We actually ended up with a couple twists
in the story.
First, when prepping the kitchen floor, we discovered
several more layers of old flooring than we thought was there,
which raised the specter of asbestos. Although we
determined that the odds there was asbestos in the flooring
was remote, we were reluctant to invite volunteers in until we
knew it was safe, so we scratched that project until we could
get the test results back (Fast forward: WE DO NOT HAVE
ASBESTOS AND NOW HAVE A NEW FLOOR!)
The second challenge was created and came from
Mother Nature herself, in the form of RAIN. Not a drizzle but a
constant, penetrating rain that promptly put a halt to the plans
for the fence and most of the yard clean up, although we did
get a couple truckloads of junk hauled away.
The soup kitchen managed to get a deep cleaning,
and the hallway between the kitchen and the dining hall got a
fresh coat of paint. The place really brightened up with a two
tone paint design: bright white on top and bright blue below.
Back at St. Francis House, we were able to put quite
a few folks to work, thanks to Roni, Steve, Q and Linc. They
supervised workers giving our kitchen and pantry a deep
clean, and also cleaning up our storage room in the basement.
But the most lasting visible part of their work was painting the
living room at St. Francis House. The walls are a soft taupe
and the woodwork has been painted a refreshing ivory color.
The place looks bright and inviting.
We would like to thank all the wonderful volunteers
who came on that Saturday to help us clean up, dust off and
make our spaces more welcoming.
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Sometimes, when we see people enter our hospitality
spaces for the first time, they seem a bit disoriented. We are
probably not what they expected. We are not institutional and
we do our best not to seem depressing. I often find myself
hoping that this first visit will not be their last, that they will
come back when the guests are here, and get a chance to
witness our hospitality in a more concrete way. Some of them
do. I recognized friends from soup kitchen crews and from
prior work days at the houses that day, along with a lot of new
faces.
I was excited to
see families bring
their children. I
wonder what they
will tell them,
afterwards, about
the people whose
lives are eased a
bit in the places
that they helped to
clean that day. I
hope that we were
able to bring a
human face, in
some fashion, to
the amorphous
concept of homelessness now that they have seen our dining
room table and our couches and our stoves. Maybe
encountering one another on an occasional day of service
will cause some of the volunteers to ask themselves those vital
questions why do people need St. Francis House or Loaves
and Fishes? or how do my choices affect others in my
community? or what do we need to change about our culture
so that it is easier for all people to have enough? I dont know
if anyone got any answers to those questions while painting
the living room or cleaning the oven at the soup kitchen, but if
someone discovers any deep meaning, Id love to talk to you.
Memorial Day (cont. from p. 5) As the ceremonies drew to a close, the vets in cars at the end of the parade started to drive past our
picket line and we waved and said hello to everyone making sure they saw our sign that said, "We Love You But We Hate The War -
Stop the Killing". One elderly veteran in a chauffeured convertible looked over at us and bellowed, "I love war". I asked, "You love war?
But General Sherman said 'War is hell', so you love hell?" He snorted his
disgust at us and repeated, "I love war".

While some of our neighbors were scandalized at the way we inserted

ourselves into the public square before the end of the Memorial Day events
we take comfort in Pope Francis' recent message on Peace which stands
in direct contradiction of the pro-military message which dominates our
national and local media and political discourse, when he called on all
Christians to embrace Jesus' teachings on non-violence noting "violence is
not the cure for our broken world".
Pope Francis reminded us that while Jesus lived in violent times,
he "unfailingly preached God's unconditional love which welcomes and
forgives." Noting that at his own arrest before his crucifixion, Jesus told
Peter to put away his sword, Francis states: "Jesus marked out the path of
non-violence. . . He walked that path to the very end, to the cross, whereby
he became our peace and put an end to hostility. To be a follower of Jesus
today also includes embracing his teaching about non-violence."

Steve Jacobs and Off. Bell discuss the nebulous area between what is
legal and what is right .

St. Francis Catholic Worker

1001 Rangeline
Columbia, MO 65201