Nashville Flooding

FSU graduate student Andrew Smyth is from Tennessee, and he had been talking about the bad flooding in the central part of the state. However, I had no idea how bad things were until I viewed this video (scroll down just a bit in the introductory story).

Some Good News for the New Year in Gadsden County

I bought a copy of the Havana Herald this week to read some more of the details of the new biomass electric generation plant announced for Gretna. In addition to the many construction jobs, there apparently will be at least a few dozen permanent employees in one of Florida's most economically hard-pressed counties. What struck me was that political leaders from Gretna, Gadsden County, and local representatives in the state legislature were present with the corporation's executives at the announcement. So, at least so far, this facility has not faced the NIMBY (Not in My BackYard) opposition that the failed Tallahassee biomass plant suffered. If that remains true through to completion of the facility, that will be the basis for a nice case study.

Confidentiality and Justice in Havana

Havana, Florida was once a thriving agricultural area that caught its namesake from the thriving cigar trade in Havana, Cuba. This little area in Gadsden County maintained particular expertise in quality shade grown tobacco which was used for the cigar wrappers (which is where most of the flavor in a cigar comes from). Some of the old barns used in the shade grown process still stand, but, that industry has passed Havana by. Also, Havana has recently shut down a mushroom farm that only a short time ago employed around 300 people. In addition, the many antique businesses that were once frequented by folks coming from Tallahassee on the weekends now receive less business in an uncertain economy. People buy less luxury items when they have fallen on hard times.

In many ways, Havana, FL is not unlike a rural area in a developing country. Positioned in Gadsden Country (one of the poorest counties in Florida), they are a sizable drive away from the nearest population center: Tallahassee and very much in need of jobs that will provide stable income for their family. In developing countries what has tended to happen is that people migrate away from rural areas to seek employment in the high population areas where there is enough of a market to support a business.

***Unfortunately, I do not have the data on the migration patterns into and away from Havana. Additionally, my time in the field has been limited, but, I will say that when I made this suggestion at a presentation in Havana, many people were nodding their heads in agreement that there were not many jobs to be had in this rural area.***

This information is an important part of our conversation about decentralized justice. The context of the people we are trying to help should give us a clue about what types of activities we should pursue, but, we still need more information. What are the needs of people? Food assistance? Transportation? Learn more marketable skills? Childcare? In order to improve the quality of the lives of the poor and meet their needs, we must know what their needs are first. How will we find out? And, that may be different too for different population groups. A good friend of mine who also has a blog The Thin Veil posted recently about Social Justice projects he hopes to get underway in Orlando. They will be using the internet to coordinate activity. Unfortunately, many in Havana do not have the internet so we will need some other way to coordinate activity and match needs with ability.

In order to match those needs with abilities and resources means that at some point someone must share private information with someone else so that the resources can flow to the person in need. But, so many needs are very private and people feel ashamed to talk about them –in fact, we prefer they are kept confidential. But, as the Pastor at First Presbyterian Havana, Bill Bess, pointed out, “Jesus did not seem too concerned with confidentiality. In fact, he searched out the woman who touched his cloak and didn’t let her get off the hook.” We are not called to be a confidential people but we are called to share each other’s burdens. We are called to confess to each other so that others may pray for us, healing may happen, and perhaps material resources given.

Most astonishing from this exchange was the uneconomic conclusions gleaned from it. We don’t share our burdens with others because we fear we will be gossiped about. We do not share our burdens with others because we fear they will judge us. We fear they will judge us because they are not humble people with wisdom. And so on. It seemed that so much of the justice that could happen is stifled by our lack of belief in each other. If I can go out on a limb, it may even be true that by not putting on the clothing of God we are indeed stumbling blocks to the more wonderful outcomes that could happen if we possessed more humility, wisdom, and love.

I’m still learning a lot more about the community and this is only one facet of the conversation, but, I will post more on this conversation at First Presbyterian Havana in the future. Also, if you have any thoughts please comment.