Grateful to Les for letting me know about the potatoes that were available at the food pantry. One of our sometime Latino family neighbors in Benton Harbor was not able to find transportation to Monday's food pantry. I took to their house a couple bags of food yesterday for their family. My reward was a fist bump with their youngest, a pre-schooler.
I should have a request for reimbursement for rent or utilities from immigration assistance funds at the upcoming Vestry meeting.
I first met J several years. His wife and kids were homeless doubling up in a sympathetic person's basement. Originally, immigrant funds helped them rent a motel, one you would not want to be in, in Benton Township. They eventually found an upper rental in the country and the funds allowed them a first month's rent to move to more stable housing.
Unfortunately, the couple was in a serious auto accident. J had a broken hand and his wife cracked ribs and other ailments. She could no longer manage the steps to the upper rental. Thus, they found another rental in mid-county.
This past year or so, many immigrant families here from what Trump called "shit hole" countries are struggling with fear of ICE and deportation. I do not know why they felt the need to leave their Latin American home country. Poverty, violence, fear of J being drafted into a corrupt military or something else.
J's family needed help with rent this month after I had not seen him in a while. The good news is that his and his wife's casts from their accident have been removed and they appear to be in good physical health again.
On my way home from handing them a personal check for rent, I turned on my truck radio and heard one of my favorite songs:
Said the fight to make ends meet
Keeps a man upon his feet
Holding down his job
Trying to show he can't be bought
It takes every kinda people
To make what life's about, yeah
Every kinda people
To make the world go 'round
Keeps a man upon his feet
Holding down his job
Trying to show he can't be bought
It takes every kinda people
To make what life's about, yeah
Every kinda people
To make the world go 'round
- Robert Palmer
Rob Burgess
P.S. Do you think our musicians could play those seemingly simple organ chords?
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