17 JAN 05: KING ME

The weekend church service never brought it up, but that didn't surprise me at all. I knew I'd be considered bold and a bit controversial simply by mentioning it - so I said farewell to my Pastor Saturday evening by daring to utter the words: "Happy Martin Luther King Day."

Someone said to me recently, "You attend a redneck church, don't you?" Considering what I've written about it here, I can see why he reached that conclusion. We certainly don't do anything to mark M.L.K. Day - but we justify that by saying we don't do anything to mark Jesus's birthday, either.

(Yet let the record show a couple of African-American families DO attend my congregation - which I think makes us more diverse than almost all the churches with Sunday evening services on TV-16.)

I wish my congregation would do something to address Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - but 37 years after his death, I'm afraid he's still a controversial figure with some members. Yet no one's objecting to the Italian dinner we're having next weekend, and Italy gave us fascism and the Roman Catholics.

After 19 years of a national holiday, other people still may be trying to sort out what to do with "King Day." The Columbus Symphony Orchestra used to have a special weekend program. Instead, Saturday night's concert had works by Piazolla, Korngold and Dvorak. Maybe Bobby McFerrin's Wednesday show at the RiverCenter gives the symphony immunity.

So what did my pastor say in the parking lot, after I wished him a happy King Day? "Oh, that's right! It's a three-day weekend." There was no happy King Day in response -- but I think I heard his wife mentioning something about the Jesse Jackson march.

When my schedule has permitted, I've attended the M.L.K. Day noon-hour worship service. This year I won't be able to go - but at least I'll put out a flag for the holiday. No one else in my apartment complex even bothers doing that for Independence Day.

CLASSIC BLOG: We continue our holiday weekend reflections on "Driving Ms. Lola," my late next-door neighbor:

21 JAN 04: "I hope I find the right door. I don't want to get shot." So said one of my neighbors Tuesday morning - and no, she was NOT standing outside the Muscogee County Sheriff's office....

I'd brought my older, fixed-income neighbor to a food pantry, which provided her with free groceries for a week. It's located in an unlikely part of town - St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Hilton Avenue, in a neighborhood with big lawns and expensive-looking homes. The only "shots" people fire around here are at the Country Club of Columbus.

You may not realize St. Thomas Episcopal Church has a "food closet" for low-income people like my neighbor. Apparently you need to have SOME sort of income - because I don't think METRA buses run down Hilton Avenue.

The door to the food closet is located in a back corner of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. I suppose this provides a measure of privacy - so customers can't hear well-off neighbors complain about how the area is going to pot.

You'll be pleased to learn after trying three doors, my neighbor was NOT shot at the church. In fact, she came out with a grocery cart full of items - but I'm not sure who picked some of the items at the basket. It's hard to imagine a woman in her seventies eating "Mud and Bugs" breakfast cereal. [True!]

My neighbor was thankful for the help St. Thomas Episcopal Church provided. "When you're poor, you've got to do what you've got to do," she told me. "I don't want to rob or steal from anybody." That's good to know - but I'm still keeping score of how much money she owes me for rides around town.

30 JAN 04: "God is good all the time!" my fixed-income neighbor said Thursday as she got in my car after loading the trunk with groceries. But then she added, "White folks will help you. Coloreds won't - black people." This African-American woman slowly is becoming the latest person to believe "one Columbus" really CAN happen.

I drove my neighbor to St. Anne's Outreach, a food pantry located in a house down the hill from St. Anne's Catholic School and Pacelli High. Somehow I doubt any students come here to eat - since if you can afford to send children to private schools, they don't need subsidized lunches.

Before the stop at St. Anne's Outreach, my neighbor and I stopped at the Health and Human Services Center on Comer Avenue. I'd never been here before - and it may be the first city government building I've ever seen with a labeled "Food Court." [True!]

Big signs are present around the Health and Human Services Center promoting employment. One of them said, "Think work, not welfare." So why aren't these signs posted in the management offices of area mills?

7 MAY 04: True confession: my next-door neighbor is becoming my number-one frustration point. She was at my door again late Thursday, asking for a ride today to the landlord's office to pay the rent. I've given her two rides this week - and I'd planned to spend time today buying my own groceries for a change.

I told the neighbor I had to work half-a-day, then buy groceries. She said she didn't know I had to work. So next time I see her, I'll present her with my weekly work schedule - and we'll see if she's organized enough to give me a weekly schedule for chauffeuring duty.

The next-door neighbor says other people who have given her rides in the past all have broken-down cars. Are THAT many people waiting for gas prices to come down?

I try not to express my upset feelings to my neighbor's face. Instead I "talk it out" with myself in my own apartment. But lately the chats are becoming like labor pains -- first 20 minutes apart, then 15 and 10....

This whole situation is conjuring up old, bad memories for me. In 1989 I took in two single men who attended church with me - both saying they needed places to stay for a few weeks. They wound up staying a combined 30 months or so, had no working cars, and ran up bills totalling more than $1,000. In other words, they could be members of Congress.

COMING THIS WEEK: Help tsunami survivors? This church pastor says you should NOT....

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