Column: Walking with no place to go

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

I do not like Esther Viti. She is not a bad person. In fact, she is generous. That is part of why I dislike Esther. She is, to twist Mark Twain’s expression, “A good woman in the worst kind of way.”
In the upscale San Diego suburb of La Jolla, Esther is considered a hero, a woman who knows how to get things done. As the head of a community activist group, Viti oversaw the donation of public benches for the shopping district. Overfed and under-worked yuppies have a tendency to become exhausted after an hour of needless spending. They need a place to rest, before they resume the pillaging. The benches were very comfortable. In fact, they were so comfortable that the homeless began to sleep on them.
I only spent one night in the Jefferson Street Mission, a homeless shelter in Louisville Ky. One night was enough. After a compulsory shower, I collapsed on a bed in a room filled with 50 bunks, stacked, and packed. I did not sleep much; a naked man walked up and down the room all night ranting and raving about unforgivable sins and unforgettable wrongs.
At dawn, following a breakfast of cold coffee and stale doughnuts, the workers released us onto the slowly stirring streets. All that homeless people do is walk.
We walked to the produce market and scavenged the fruit that no one else would buy. We walked to a church that hosted a soup kitchen. We walked up to people for spare change. All that homeless people do is walk.
The only respite was the benches in the downtown mall. I remember how good it felt to lie down and just sleep. I did not sleep very long. A security guard, or a police officer, poked me and said, “Keep moving.” All that homeless people do is walk.
“Keep moving.” That is Esther Viti’s message to the homeless of La Jolla. The donors of the benches are offended that the “down and out” are sleeping where the “up and coming” should be sitting. Viti is organizing a group of like-minded volunteers to sit on the public benches for three-hour shifts, “And no bathroom breaks!” Her focus is to keep transients on their feet and on the move. All that homeless people do is walk. All they want is a place to rest.
Despite my dislike for Esther Viti, I understand her and her concerns. She is, after all, a good person. Sleeping bums are bad for business. The smell, the sight, it all reminds customers that not everyone who carries a bag is a shopper. It is a problem.
I would not hurt nor be unkind to Esther Viti. However, any kindness or sympathy I might show her would not be because I like her, but because of him who said, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.” He knew what it was like for good people to hound and harass him until there was no rest for him, not even in Gethsemane. Strangely, he also understands people like Esther Viti vainly trying to hide the ugly from the beautiful.
I may be all wrong in my dislike of Esther. Maybe I should feel sympathy for her and her squad of squatters. Really, who is the worst, the homeless person who walks all day with no place to go? Or, is it the person that could go anywhere in the world, but instead guards a park bench, with “No bathroom breaks?”

Dr. Mark Ross is pastor of Marion Baptist Church.