Just your friendly neighborhood sorority
On April 29, a warm Friday night, downtown Chapel Hill was crowded with UNC students celebrating the end of the academic year. Loud music could be heard from various fraternity houses and those old enough to drink (and let's face it, probably some who weren't) hit the bars on Franklin Street. And while all this was going on, after a dinner of barbecue served at the IFC's men's homeless shelter on Rosemary Street, many of the homeless walked the block over to University Baptist Church downtown for a movie night for the homeless sponsored by Phil Beta Chi, a Christian sorority at the University.

I sat down and talked with Allison Monroe, the Outreach Coordinator for the sorority. It turns out that, unlike a lot of organizations with formal public service requirements or the common perception among many people these days that "community service" is a form of punishment, Phi Beta Chi has no such formalities. They simply believe in helping others and live according to their values, because, as Ms. Monroe put it, "we're just a group of girls who love the Lord."

The list of the things these girls do is pretty impressive and a refreshing change from the me-centered attitude of a lot of people these days who merely pay lip service to giving back to the community because its considered politically correct. Its certainly a nice change from the "We don't want those worthless bums in our backyard" attitude of some local citizens I've dealt with in my work with IFC and the Community Initiative.

But you get the definite sense that the members of Phi Beta Chi don't care if people are impressed because that's not the point. So I'll show them the respect of not making too big of a deal of something that to them is merely a natural part of being a Christian and a member of the community. Some of the places they've visited have included senior centers, hospitals, and the Ronald McDonald house. They serve breakfast at the IFC shelter every other Friday. And sometimes they just hand out free blowpops and lemonade along with some kind words and wishes of good luck to UNC students around exam time.

The movie night was the idea of Katie Dawson, the former Outreach coordinator who kept the project alive even in spite of facing a lot of obstacles such as finding affordable space. Kudos to University Baptist for allowing Phi Beta Chi the use of their facilities for free. There was free popcorn, drinks, and lots of snacks (including homemade cookies) and a lot of fun and good conversation. I spent most of the evening chatting with Sarah from the sorority and an older guy also named Mike who lives at the shelter who was trying to recall the names of obscure actors from Dr. Who. I'm an avid sci-fi fan myself, but I personally preferred the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits from the old shows.

I promised I wouldn't make a huge deal of it so I won't. I'll just simply say that it was a refreshing evening and I wish there were more people in the world like these girls. Of course, there are quite a few amazing people in the world; I've had the good fortune to meet many of them through my involvement in activism and in working with IFC and the Community Initiative. And then I've also met my fair share of those who see IFC's clients as worthless bums. But when you actually get to know these people, you realize that once you get beyond economic circumstance, are anything but "worthless bums". They are, in fact, not all that different from anyone else, except for having to face circumstances that most of us could not begin to imagine. I believe that once people start to realize that, ending homelessness in ten years won't be such an impossible goal after all--which is why I keep writing.

It doesn't take much to change the world--just a little human kindness and compassion and putting aside trivial differences to get in touch with our humanity. So thank you to Allison and Katie and Sarah and all the rest for a lovely evening and for being such an example for people to live by. Instead of yelling about how much of a Christian nation we are, perhaps we'd all be better off if we simply started acting like one. And instead of fighting over where to place the Ten Commandments, perhaps we should simply start following them. I truly believe that ending homelessness--along with a great many of the rest of the world's problems--really is that easy--and also, that difficult. Its pretty amazing to stop and think, for just a moment, about what kind of a different world we could have if everyone would come together to rebuild our communities, our country, and our planet.

Oh and the movie they showed? Spiderman II--actually a very good and entertaining film once you get past the wildly implausible physics.
-# posted by Michael McGee @ 3:35 PM