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For Wilshire Baptist Church

Working upstairs at my desk, I saw movement in my peripheral vision. I turned to look out the window and saw Carla walking down the middle of the street. Her mouth was moving as if in conversation, and she was shifting a small black purse from one shoulder to the other and flipping the top open and shut repeatedly. When she doesn’t have the purse, her hands are always moving like she’s recalling gestures from an old dance routine. She walks with purpose like she knows where she’s going, and yet I know she is lost in a certain way.

Continue reading “Homelessness Has a Name”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Working at the Dallas Chamber of Commerce in the 1980s, I witnessed the boom in downtown office tower construction. It was an exciting time with parties and celebrations as each new building topped out and opened, but by the end of the decade the boom was over and there were only two big construction projects under way: the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. I recall at the time being intrigued by the contrast of these very large, very different public works projects: performing arts on the one hand and criminal justice on the other.

Continue reading “The Sound of Justice”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

You just never know who you’re going to run into. After dinner with my mother on Friday, we dropped into her neighborhood Braum’s for ice cream. We were sitting in a booth when her eyes locked on someone across the room. A moment later, a man stepped up and then his wife followed and confirmed what she had thought: It was Khanh and Hop.

Continue reading “You Just Never Know”