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Something To Ask Santa For ...

Well, it’s coming: winter.

Most of us will pull the winter coats and gloves from dusty attic boxes and haul out corduroys, turtlenecks and sweaters.

Winter also brings the holidays … so much to anticipate!

Yet, for people who are homeless -- living in places without running water or heat (under bridges or in garbage dumpsters) -- there is nothing to pull out. The cold of the other night is merely a small taste of the Midwest winter to come.

They have dread.

Police officers are already asking me, as a police chaplain, “Where can people go?”

Nowhere.

Most of the people on the streets cannot stay at The Rescue Mission. They have untreated mental illness, or they are actively using substance. A gathering of Rockford professionals has been talking about a solution for three years.

As my mother would say, “Talk is cheap.”

Where is the will of our community leaders to end this blight and suffering?

In the winter of 2015, seven people died because of the cold.

Last night a woman with untreated mental illness, currently living rough in an unheated basement, asked me this question: “Lou, can I be your foster daughter? Nobody ever did love me.”

There it is then. Love,

Love and mercy will transform our hearts and strengthen our resolve to create a solution so Rockford will be the community where everyone has a place at the table and nobody is left behind.

That’s what I’m asking Santa for this Christmas.

I’m Lou Ness, and that’s my perspective.

 

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