Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My Name is not "Those People"



By poet, singer, prophet, social activist Julia Dinsmore

I posted about her book My Name is Child of God...Not Those People previously.

The title poem was written after Julia's encounter with a church committee. A group of people had gone to a rather large congregation, asking them to partner with some homeless people to buy a home. The congregation's group said "No," and one of the committee members said to them, "Those people don't need homes. We give them turkeys at Thanksgiving."

Julia's poem has become very well-known, and has been recited in many different venues, often without attribution or Julia receiving any remuneration. I'm glad she's finally getting some recognition for her work.

7 comments:

Fran said...

Oh Diane, what a way to start my day. Thank you! This is amazing.

Fran said...

I will be posting this too, with full credit!

Mike Farley said...

Thank you, Diane!

Terri said...

I don't understand how people (congregations) with comfortble resources can become so fearful over letting go of those resources. I find it here all the time. Thank you for reminding me of this.

ROBERTA said...

i've sat on church committees where similar sentiments were shared...we are called to live out of abundance and yet we let our fears take over and next thing ya know - we are talking about "those people" somehow taking advantage of us and leaving us with nothing - AS IF!

Lauralew said...

Powerful. Also, what Roberta said.

Barbara B. said...

Yes, thanks for posting this!