"VISION AND HOPE"

 “VISION AND HOPE”

The Democratic Convention begins today in Chicago, and as I wrote last week, it calls me back to the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.  That convention was a total mess, as Mayor Richard Daley took over the convention inside and sent his police power outside to beat up and push back the 10,000 demonstrators against the Vietnam War.  I was at my home in Helena, Arkansas, after my college graduation, waiting to go to Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville.  I watched that convention with my mother and her brother Bud, who was visiting from Chicago on vacation.  Bud was a conservative, “boot-strap” guy, but he was always loving to Mother and me.  During that 1968 convention,  we had tremendous clashes because he felt that Mayor Daley was great, and I felt that Daley was a repressive tyrant.  We held it down because Mother felt caught in the middle. 

I looked back at my journals and found many phrases about that 1968 convention – here is one that catches my thoughts on it: from Tuesday, August 27: “I just saw a sickening and disgusting display at the convention.  A motion to adjourn was made by Donald Peterson from Wisconsin, but he was ruled down. Then the god of the old politics, the mayor of Chicago, said that the gallery should be quiet or that it would be cleared.  However, the delegates were tired of being pushed around by Daley and the other machines.  If that is Humphrey’s way, then **** it.  The police have clobbered about 20 reporters and no telling how many protesters.”   

The convention careened along until Hubert Humphrey received the nomination to run against Richard Nixon.  One highlight of a lowlight convention – Julian Bond, a delegate from Georgia was nominated from the floor to be Vice-President by a Wisconsin delegate.  Since he was only 28, he was ineligible, but he was the first Black person to be nominated on the presidential ticket of either major party.  And, speaking of that,  here’s a little trivia quiz – who were the vice-presidential nominees for the two major political parties in 1968?  (Answer at the end).

All of that intro is to say that I hope that this year’s Democratic convention does not follow the pattern of the 1968 one.  It should not, though there are plenty of anti-war demonstrators coming to protest the Israeli war in Gaza.  A ceasefire seems close, so maybe that will help.  And, the positive energy released by President Biden’s decision not to seek re-election should give the delegates a wave to ride.  Though she was not my first choice (Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan was my first choice),  Vice-President Kamala Harris has so far demonstrated maturity, vision, and energy in her road to the nomination.  If she can stay near this level, she has an opportunity to defeat the Trumpster.  She seems to have genuinely flummoxed Trump, and has him so off balance that he has returned to his hyperbolic ways and personal attacks.  May that continue throughout the campaign.

So, here’s hoping for a substantial and unifying Democratic convention.  The world has changed a lot since 1968, but as I have noted before, the historical parallels are striking.  Here’s hoping also that the parallel ends on November 5 – Harris needs to be president rather than Trump.  It would be so great to send Trump back to TrumpWorld as a loser once again, and it would be so great to change the conversation from grievance and grumpiness to vision and tolerance and hope.  The main issue, of course, is on us – getting the vote out.  Register to vote and ask everyone you meet if they are registered to vote – it they are not, get them motivated to do it.  Because of the Chicago fiasco in 1968, I chose not to vote in the presidential election that November - I joined thousands of other anti-war protestors who sat out the 1968 election.  And, as a result, we got Richard Nixon.  I won't make that mistake again - and please don't you do it either this year.

{The vice-presidential candidates were Edmund Muskie of Maine for the Democrats and Spiro Agnew for the Republicans.  Both Nixon and Agnew would resign from their offices after being elected – Agnew in 1973, and Nixon in 1974.}

"A TUMULTUOUS TIME"

 “A TUMULTOUS TIME”

August is always a hot month in the South, and so it is this summer.  We are also in a hot and tumultuous time politically, with a close Presidential race and Congressional races.  The Democratic convention will start next week in Chicago, and that is a call back to the chaotic Democratic convention of 1968 in Chicago.  I’ll write more on that next week, but this week, I want to remember the tumultuous summer of 1964, especially the month of August, 1964. Sixty years ago, the country was in more turmoil than it is now, if that is even possible.  Lyndon Johnson had become President in November, 1963, after the assassination of President John Kennedy, an event that shocked the nation, whether you supported Kennedy or not.  It was as if the 1960’s was saying to the mundane 1950’s – “your time is up, there are sweeping changes coming.”  

        Indeed, today’s tuumultous times are in many ways an echo of those struggles – do we want to return to a time when everyone agreed that white men should be in control, or do we want to be in conversation about a multiracial democracy with shared power and influence?  The idea behind “Make America Great Again” is to seek to return to that time of the 1940’s and 1950’s when everyone acknowledged that those classified as “white” males should be in control.  The 1960’s are a central part of that conversation, and especially 60 years ago in 1964.

The summer of 1964 began with the Mississippi Summer Project (later to be renamed Mississippi Freedom Summer) being instituted by SNCC and CORE.  Its creative director was the great visionary and organizer Bob Moses of SNCC, with assistance from Dave Dennis of CORE.  The idea was to bring white volunteers from the North to work in Mississippi in the summer of 1964, hoping to get as many Black people registered to vote as possible.  This was before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so registering to vote in Mississippi was an act that could cost a Black person their lives in 1964.  The idea was that bringing white students down to Mississippi would lessen the violence, and what violence that did occur would be magnified to the nation because there would also likely be white victims, rather than just the Black victims, who were often ignored by the national media.  Reverend James Lawson was a leader of non-violent training for the many white volunteers, who soon came to Mississippi.

The summer began in high hopes.  Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 on July 2, the most significant civil rights bill passed by Congress since 1875, almost 90 years.  The bill outlawed discrimination and segregation in the USA on the basis of race, religion, sex, or creed.  It also emphasized the need for integration in public schools and made it illegal to discriminate in employment practices.  It was the beginning of the end of the neo-slavery that had plagued the South and the country since the end of Reconstruction.  It was a difficult political achievement, but President Lyndon Johnson used his considerable political skills to get it done.  Indeed, when he signed the Civil Rights Bill, he noted that Democrats would lose the South for at least a generation, which has proved to be prescient, with the shift from Democrats to Republicans lasting longer than a generation.

The white, Southern resistance had already begun, however.  On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers – James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman – were kidnapped by the KKK.  A massive search for them began and continued through most of the summer.  I had just graduated from high school in May of that year, and although I was still firmly in the grip of the power of racism, I had begun to wonder about its accuracy and power.  

        Sitting in front of me as I write this today is the Memphis Press-Scimitar of August 5, 1964, a paper that I have saved for these 60 years.  It was the afternoon paper at that time, and we received it at my home in Helena, Arkansas, with its being the “Mid-South Edition.”  I saved it because it has two glaring headlines: one is a smaller headline “Bodies of Civil Rights Trio Identified.” The article supporting it indicates that the bodies of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman had been found in shallow graves at a farm pond site near Philadelphia, Mississippi.  They had all been beaten severely and shot to death.  And, yes, that Philadelphia is also the place where Ronald Reagan kicked off his presidential campaign of 1980, as if to make certain that everyone understood what his platform would be.   It took a long time to find some of the murderers, and some were convicted in 1970. But it would be over 40 years before the main leader Edgar Ray Killen would be convicted.  He died in prison in 2018.

The main headline in that Memphis Press-Scimitar, however, was not the discovery of the bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.  The main headline was in dark black one inch type:  “NAVY PLANES DESTROY 25 PT’S, HIT FIVE NORTH VIET NAM BASES.”  The article under it indicated that the US Navy had responded to attacks by the North Vietnamese on U.S. destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy.  President Johnson had addressed the nation on Tuesday, August 4, and had indicated that these military attacks had taken place.  He also indicated that he would seek Congressional support for protecting American troops in the area.  Two days later on August 7, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving LBJ the power to prosecute this campaign as necessary.  The House of Representatives passed the Resolution unanimously, and the Senate voted 88-2 to support (dissenting were Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska).  It was the beginning of the disastrous Vietnam War, in which over 50,000 American troops were killed and millions of Vietnamese killed. The huge protest over this war drove Johnson not to seek re-election in 1968 and led to the election of Richard Nixon as president.

So, this one day headline in the Memphis Press-Scimitar points to the turbulence of the 1960’s and points us to the turbulence of our own time.  In many ways, this election of 2024 is eerily similar to that of 1968, with a defeated presidential candidate running again for the Republicans, and the sitting Vice-President (Hubert Humphrey)stepping in for the President who had declined to seek re-election.  I hope that the similarity ends there, because the once-defeated candidate, Richard Nixon,  won in 1968.  If Trump wins in 2024, we will look back at the election of 1876, where the gains of Reconstruction were wiped out, just as Trump has promised to take us back to the 1950’s if he wins. The power to prevent that retrenchment lies in our hands and hearts, so let us take care of business in this tumultuous time. 

"KAMALA HARRIS!"

 “KAMALA HARRIS!”

I supported Kamala Harris for President in 2019 and 2020, before she suspended her campaign.  Now, she becomes the Democratic nominee for President, a dramatic turn of events that no one expected on the morning of July 21.  I had called for Joe Biden to step down several times this year, but as July came to a close, it seemed as if he would stay on.  Then came his announcement on July 21 that he would not seek re-election, and that stunned so many people.  He endorsed Kamala Harris, and so much Democratic energy and money flowed her way – people had hope again that Donald Trump could be defeated.  

I supported Harris in 2019 for many reasons, the chief of which was how she handled herself in the US Senate, especially when she questioned white men.  I remember that Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that Senator Harris made him nervous because she came at him from her prosecutor’s background.  She seemed ready to take the next step, and although it was delayed 5 years, she now has taken that step.  I hope that there are some white men who will not be intimidated by her, because she will need some of our votes.

Harris has hit the ground running, and so far she has shown remarkable dexterity, insight, and presence in front of a crowd.  Though I am loathe to say it, Trump does have presence in front of a crowd, but I am glad to say that Kamala Harris demonstrates some of that same presence, if not more so.  She will definitely need it, because in order for her to win the Presidential election, she will need to sway some white men in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina.  She does bring a maturity that she has seemed to lack in the past, but even on her worst days, she has already shown more maturity than Trump has ever shown.

Despite Trump’s glaring flaws, many people classified as “white” (especially white men) still support him and will vote for him.  I don’t understand this, but I am gaining some clues from the knowledge that by 2040 at the latest, there will no longer be a majority racial classification in the USA.  Those of us who identify as “white” feel the presence and the power of “the other” in the American system of racial classification in a way that we rarely have known in American history.   And, for many of us, it is not a good feeling.  We hope to stave it off as long as possible, and for us, Trump seems to be the ticket to purchase our whiteness to remain in power, long past the day when we cease to be the majority in the country.  

Yesterday I preached at Smyrna Presbyterian Church in Conyers, GA, and the epistle lesson was Ephesians 4:1-16.  It is called “Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians,” though many scholars don’t think that Paul wrote the letter.  Whoever wrote it, in this passage, Paul urges the “newbies” in the faith (the Gentiles) to live a life worthy of the calling into which they have been called.  He lists the traits that comprise this higher life:  humility, gentleness, patience, bearing one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  In case anyone thinks that Paul means people who are passive and hesitant, he has already noted that he himself is in prison because he disturbed the peace.  He urges the newbies in the faith to stand fast and to mature in the faith, so that they are not like immature people who are “tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.”

I noted in my sermon that Trump seems to be one of those deceitful people who are highly creative in their desire to win people over by their trickery.  Trump, of course, is stirring and riding the wave of  the powerful stream of white supremacy and now white grievance, and many white people seem to have drunk the kool-aid.  I am hoping some of them will see Kamala Harris as a breath of fresh air, as someone who has some integrity and who is not trying to win people over by deceitful scheming.  Harris has already re-set the Democratic ticket – maybe she can also reset the American scene, polluted as it has become with the Trump and white grievance vitriol.  Trump has been nominated for President three times in a row by the Republicans, so we are in a dangerous time.  Let’s pray that Harris is able to defeat Trump (and let’s practice what we pray), because if she is not able to defeat Trump, we face an apocalypse similar to the Civil War in our life as a nation.

  

"SHE MADE A WAY - PART 3"

 “SHE MADE A WAY” – PART 3

“She Made A Way” is now out and about for reading, review and discussion – get your copy now!  I’d love to come to your church group, community group, or book club to talk about the book.  Central Presbyterian in Atlanta and North Decatur Presbyterian have already scheduled times, and I’ll be glad to schedule one for you.  One of my friends will be hosting a “salon” at her house, inviting friends and family to meet and talk with me about the book. I’ll be glad to do that with you too!  Here’s my friend and colleague Dr. Susan Hylen’s endorsement.  She is Professor of New Testament at Emory University:

“This is a memoir of a man and his mother, but it is also the story of a journey away from the racism that still dominates our country.  Although we often imagine people as either good or bad, racist or ‘woke,’ Nibs Stroupe understands racism to be deeply entrenched in caring people, even those who start to move away from their prejudice.  This rich and honest account moves beyond the simplistic binaries to help us understand the American South – and ourselves – in new ways.”

This book is written in honor of my mother, Mary Armour Stroupe, but also as an answer to a question with which I have long wrestled in my adult life:  How did I – and how do any of us – get caught in the web of racism and sexism and materialism?  How do we get so captured by demonic powers like this?  It is a captivity so deep that it changes the way that we perceive ourselves and perceive the world around us.  It is a captivity that is so subtle that it takes over our hearts long before we know anything about it.  We are taken so deeply into such a captivity because it is given to us by those we love and whom we love.  That is the stark and difficult answer, and this is why so many people who are classified as “white” are in such deep denial about our captivity.  To acknowledge our captivity would be to put ourselves in conflict with those we love, and it is a great price to pay.

This book does not leave us in despair, however.  It offers us hope for beginning to find some liberation from our captivity.  While my mother helped to bind me into this captivity, she also offered me ways to find a different path.  Her love, her compassion, her tenacity, her decency, her sense of fairness – all these factored into the tentative steps that I began to take to find some liberation from my captivity, steps that brought me into tension with her.  

So, go get the book!  You can find it at bookshop.org (the link is https://bookshop.org/p/books/she-made-a-way-mother-and-me-in-a-deep-south-world-nibs-stroupe/21530365?ean=9798385208548), your local bookstore, Amazon, or me.  I’ll be glad to get your comments on it.  And, of course, I’ll be glad to come to any of your groups to do a book talk/signing.  Thanks to our daughter Susan, I now have an author page on Facebook, and here’s the link for that: https://www.facebook.com/nibsstroupeauthor/

"THE DECISIVE WEEKEND"

 “THE DECISIVE WEEKEND”

For over a year, I have been arguing that Joe Biden should not run for re-election because he is simply too old.  The same can be said of Donald Trump, but I have other reasons for not wanting him to run.  How I wish that Nikki Haley had beaten Trump in the primaries. How I wish that President Biden had decided over the Christmas holidays of 2022 that he had saved the country by beating Trump in 2020, and that now it was time to turn over the reins to a younger leader.  I remember a conversation with my friend Ted Smith in late 2022 concerning the 2024 Presidential election.  Trump had already announced that he was running, and given the many opponents, we felt that he was likely to win the primaries and sweep into the nomination.  We so hoped that President Biden would see that the aging monkey was coming for him, but we both felt that his ego was too big to allow it, that he would seek the nomination again.

And now, over the weekend, President Biden has fooled me (and others) by wisely choosing not to stand for re-election.  I am grateful to him for his fine presidency and for his many decades of service to the nation.  It shows the stark contrast between Biden and Trump – Biden put the country’s interest ahead of his own, while Trump continues to put his own interest ahead of the country’s. I am also grateful to President Biden for stepping down, though I wish that he had done so earlier.  I am grateful that he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, and I think that she would be the logical choice.  I don’t think that she is the strongest Democratic candidate, but that is not her fault – she will face deep racism and sexism.  My choice has been Gretchen Whitmer, but that is precluded now by the narrow window of opportunity.

    Assuming that the Democratic party does not continue to shoot itself in the foot, I expect V-P Harris to be the nominee.  Though she does bring liablities, she does generate excitement and hope for defeating Donald Trump.  Harris should choose Josh Shapiro or Andy Beshear or Roy Cooper or Mark Kelly as the VP (again, I prefer Whitmer, but if Harris gets the top spot, there will need to be a white man in the VP slot.)  I’m hoping that the bickering and arguing will now stop, so that the Democratic party can try to build itself up enough to take on the MAGA Donald Trump.  .

As many have said, this is a Presidential election with existential consequences for the future of America. It is hard to believe that so many Republicans have coalesced behind Donald Trump, a grifter superb and now a convicted felon.  That they have done so reminds me of my days growing up in the neo-slavery South.  Demagogues like Orval Faubus, George Wallace, Ross Barnett, Gene Talmadge and others were given so many passes by the white populations of the South, because they held the line on keeping the “black menace” in check.  Well-meaning and good people like my mother kept them in power because they promised to keep the social order of neo-slavery in place.  Trump is making the same appeal, seeking out like a laser our white grievance and deepening it and solidifying it.

I have been comparing this election in 2024 with the 1968 election, in which a sitting President decided not to run for re-election (President Johnson’s decision came late, at the end of March, 1968).  Like this year, political violence rang out, with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy.  The parallels are striking – a once defeated presidential candidate, Richard Nixon, running for President again, the Democratic convention once again in Chicago, and Robert Kennedy’s son now running on a third party ticket. 

Despite those parallels, though, this 2024 election is now seemingly more similar to the presidential election of 1876, which marked a fundamental turning point in American history and which marked a decisive step away from the civil rights won for Black people in the Civil War.  Because of all the MAGA shenanigans, I am anticipating that the results of the 2024 Presidential election might be given to the House of Representatives to determine the winner, as happened in 1876 because neither Rutherford Hayes nor Samuel Tilden got enough electoral votes to win.  Hayes made a deal with the Special Committee of Congress to pull federal troops out of the South in exchange for their support.  That deal was made, and neo-slavery became a reality in the country, and especially in the South for the next 89 years – and of course, Hayes became President.

So, buckle up – whoever is at the top of the Democratic ticket is in for a rough ride.  And, if Trump wins, we face sea changes comparable to those made in 1876.  The turnout will be key, not only in voting for President but in voting for House members, because they will ultimately determine in a ceremonial (or in a real) way who will be the next President of the United States.  

'SHE MADE A WAY - PART TWO"

 “SHE MADE A WAY – PART TWO

I’m waiting to receive my order of my newest book “She Made A Way:  Mother and Me in a Deep South World.”  It is part memoir, part story of my mother’s courage and tenacity, part study of our captivity to the destructive powers, and part reflection on seeking liberation from those powers.  For a long time, I have wanted to write the story of my single mother and me, seeking to live out of love in a world of racism, sexism, and materialism.  I’ve also wanted to work through the story of my mother raising me as a single, working mom in a patriarchal society, seeking to keep me from harm, while offering me some possible paths to liberation.

Here is what Dr. Chris Boesel wrote in his endorsement of “She Made A Way”:  

“This startlingly honest memoir is essential reading for white folk in the USA, and for anyone struggling to understand the intractable power of racism and white supremacy in our personal and social lives.  At the heart of this story is the mystery of how the destructive forces of racism – and sexism and homophobia – can reign in the hearts and lives that are also full of genuine, life-giving familial love and loyalty.  The book’s stark promise: transformative change is possible, but only as a lifelong journey accompanied by heartbreaking division and conflict.  Nibs Stroupe’s gospel is one of truly redemptive power – that also divides like a sword.”  

So, this book is written in honor of my mother, Mary Armour Stroupe, but also as an answer to a question with which I have long wrestled in my adult life:  How did I – and how do any of us – get caught in the web of racism and sexism and materialism?  How do we get so captured by demonic powers like this?  It is a captivity so deep that it changes the way that we perceive ourselves and perceive the world around us.  It is a captivity that is so subtle that it takes our hearts long before we know anything about it.  We are taken so deeply into such a captivity because it is given to us by those we love and who we love.  That is the stark and difficult answer, and this is why so many people who are classified as “white” are in such deep denial about our captivity.  To acknowledge our captivity would be to put ourselves in conflict with those we love, and it is a great price to pay.

This book does not leave us in despair, however.  It offers us hope for beginning to find some liberation from our captivity.  While my mother helped to bind me into this captivity, she also offered me ways to find a different path.  Her love, her compassion, her tenacity, her decency, her sense of fairness – all these factored into the tentative steps that I began to take to find some liberation from my captivity, steps that brought me into tension with her.  

So, go get the book!  You can find it at bookshop.org (the link is https://bookshop.org/p/books/she-made-a-way-mother-and-me-in-a-deep-south-world-nibs-stroupe/21530365?ean=9798385208548), your local bookstore, Amazon, or me.  I’ll be glad to get your comments on it.  And, of course, I’ll be glad to come to any of your groups to do a book talk/signing.  Thanks to our daughter Susan, I now have an author page on Facebook, and here’s the link for that: https://www.facebook.com/nibsstroupeauthor/

"THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR"

 “THE 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR”

Caroline and I are coming to the end of our 50th Anniversary Tour, and it has been a great trip!  It began on June 16 with the arrival of Susan from Baltimore, followed by David, Erin and Zoe from Salt Lake City on June 18 and Emma from Houston on June 20. We all planned and worked for the 50th celebration at the Hawkins Dining Hall at Legacy Park in Decatur on June 22.  Susan and David had organized it, and they were the emcees for it.  We had hoped for 80 or so people to attend, but we had 135 instead – yay!  The celebration began with a combo of a slide show and sound track via techno wizard Nick Downey, backed by wonderful food from Inez Giles and crew.  We had set out tables with photo albums from our wedding in 1974, as well as copies of the six books that we have written, including the latest from Nibs (“She Made A Way: Mother and Me in a Deep South World.”) People had time to visit and catch up. 

    About 3 PM, David and Susan stepped forward to get the formal program going.  It began with a video by Rev. Sandy Winter, a longtime mentor of Caroline’s and one of the officiants at our wedding in 1974.  Other videos came from Rev. Ed Loring (the other officiant at our wedding, in whose back yard we got married), Rev. Reggie Avant in Seattle, Rev. Dr. David Billings and spouse Margery Freeman, Dr. Leah Gose, and Dr. Collin and Vienna Cornell.  Speakers included a “dialogue sermon” from John and Dee Cole Vodicka, and then Christine Callier, Inez Giles, and Nick Downey.  Trivia questions were added by David and Susan, and we had fun seeing who could answer them.  One such question was “Which card game did Nibs Stroupe not invent to entertain the kids in the last hour of a 9 hour drive to Arkansas?” (Possible answers were a. Toe poker, b. Oddy Roddy, c. Blankjack, and d. Even Steven – let us know your guess!).  Then we were treated to a toast from 3 of the young women whom we had helped to raise: Bemene Baadom-Piaro, Keisha Scales Gabriel, and Patrece Giles Cunningham.  Then, of course, we scooted the tables back and had dancing – here’s the link to one of the videos of the dancing: https://www.facebook.com/whitworthg/videos/1197183134971674

    A couple of days later, Caroline, Susan and I headed out for sites related to our 50th anniversary, stopping first at Edisto Beach, South Carolina, for some fun beach time and to visit with Pat Hiott-Mason in Charleston.  I had met Caroline at Robin and Linda Williams’ wedding in Nashville in the early summer of 1973.  She lived in Atlanta, where Pat lived, and when I let Pat know that I was interested in Caroline, she became matchmaker for us (it did not take a lot of work!).  We paid homage to her and enjoyed the beach, then we drove to Norfolk, Virginia, where we had our first church as the first clergy couple in the former PCUS – we were at St. Columba Presbyterian Church. 

     It was located in a 1500 unit, low-income apartment complex, and our calling was to develop the congregation and the community ministry.  We wrote a grant for the Presbyterian Women Birthday Offering in 1978, and we were blessed to receive that.  It was a grant of $220,000 (equivalent to $800,000+ today), and we started St. Columba Ministries as an outreach to those who were caught in the grips of poverty and racism.  In the middle of that, the city of Norfolk decided to tear down the 1500 apartment units and build an industrial park.  We had many protests, and we lost the City Council vote 5-4 (the 2 Presbyterians on the Council voted against us).  Though the church closed in 1983, St. Columba Ministries continued and grew under the leadership of Alice Taylor – it still exists today under the leadership of Alicia Matthews and long-time administrator Helmi Ortiz (Helmi was there when we were at St. Columba!). 

    While in Norfolk, we showed Susan the first house that we ever bought, and we tried to find the exact spot where the church used to be.  We had a fine meal one night with former SCM members: Linda Davenport, Jonathan Davenport, Toni Fields, Alice Taylor, Carol Bayma, Sue Shepard, and Wanda Shepard Goff.  We drove to Susan’s home in Baltimore for a birthday dinner for Caroline with Glenn Ricci and Ursula Marcum, and Trustina Fabah, colleagues from Susan’s Submersive Theater troupe. We also enjoyed a visit with Bemene Baadom-Piaro, who drove over for Caroline’s birthday.  On July 4, I visited with my longtime friend Ed Loring of the Open Door Community. 

     We made a day trip to Shrewsbury, PA, to meet our friends Dave and Joyce Hess, former stalwart members at Oakhurst, and we also had a day trip to see former Oakhurster Chelsea Friauf-Evans in Silver Springs.  So, wow, a great 50th anniversary tour!  Thanks to Susan especially who served as guide, friend and driver for us, and to all who helped us celebrate!