This is a difficult season of suffering: we have the anniversary of October 7th, the ongoing wars in Gaza, Lebanon, the Ukraine, the political end-game filled with racism, and the daily stress of fear, craziness, and foreboding. Last week I attended the anniversary of the October 7th massacre of Israelis at Adath Israel along with a 1000 other people. The ceremony started with a warning from the chief of police of Amberly Village to not disrupt the proceedings. It went downhill with grief from there. News of the deaths of Arab women and children were omitted from the sharing of stories but the shadow of their experience was evident. Beautiful messages from Holocaust survivors and Israeli children were shared.
I also visited with the leaders of Project Connect, a Cincinnati Public School program aimed at helping the over 4000 children living in cars while they attend the schools. Reading the stories about these children and their families seem to border on the surreal: can this be true in this part of the 21st century in Cincinnati? It became real as the directors of the program, Rebeka Beach and Rhonda Lewis, spelled out the details of the reality facing these children in every school in CPS. Resource Coordinators in every school are in touch with the children and their teachers to see what barriers to their education can be reduced or eliminated. A small number of families are able to get some relief from the weather by going to a motel for 4 days a week, thanks to limited grant money obtained by Beach. A small staff makes up the program and it is stretched thin by the needs. “How wonderful,” I thought, “that there is an attempt at a program to support these children and their families in such desperate conditions.” But 4000 families in cars and tents…?
And I attended the health fair sponsored by the University of Cincinnati’s Cancer Center at the Urban League. A group of organizations braved the cold to set up tables filled with information about preventing and treating cancer, food for visitors, and even some tests for blood pressure. It was a marvelous turnout of agencies dedicated to making a difference in the health of minorities. And the people came and slowly walked from table to table. Many people stopped to ask about the Cancer Justice Network and were excited to hear about our efforts to navigate people to and from health meetings as a free service. Despite the bitter cold, the strong gusts of winds, a feeling of genuine gratitude was shared as we spoke to and listened to cancer survivors and those people who wondered if they had cancer or some other disease. The feelings of good will was stronger than the weather but the question had to be asked: “What are we doing providing health care information outside in a parking lot with the weather so difficult? Is this how major hospitals think about giving healthcare in the poorest neighborhoods?"
On so many levels, it is clear that suffering is happening and that attempts at reducing or eliminating the sources of the pain are only temporary. Suffering arises from the dismissing of the human condition of the “enemy,” the “Jew or Palestinian,” the homeless child, the poor, and the minority. Falling back into stereotypes of behavior and blame, allows for the continuation of the suffering conditions. Somehow, we are involved in unlearning the lessons of COVID: people died from ignorance of the vaccines and/or misinformation about the science related to the vaccines. 250,000 people chose to avoid the vaccinations and unnecessarily died, according to Francis Collins, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Over a million American people died from COVID and the grief from these deaths continues to haunt the survivors. Awash in pain and suffering, too many seek to blame someone or something for the fatalities. Providing free services to people seeking healthcare, like providing support to homeless children, or war victims, makes for a powerful and temporary replacement of suffering. Listening to humanity on the individual level requesting some kind of support, and then eagerly providing that help, provides the action to make a difference. Navigating people through the maze of helping institutions like hospitals reduces suffering and reminds us of the value of individual and social caring, even at 42 degrees in a parking lot buffeted by persistent winds. May the new year be one of peace and well-being for all, including war victims, homeless children, and those seeking health justice.
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