6 OCT 08: LOVE CAN BUILD A BRIDGE
(BLOGGER'S NOTE: Our Angelfire pages refused to load properly Sunday evening, including our blog multimedia page. We think the problem is on Angelfire's end, and we've reported it to them.)
The 14th Street Bridge across the Chattahoochee River has almost 100 years of history. But it's probably never been used in the way it was Sunday -- as the area's biggest buffet restaurant. I mean, the line for food was longer than the line to get funnel cakes at the Greater Columbus Fair....
BLOG EXCLUSIVE: Several area churches joined forces Sunday to hold the "Banquet on the Bridge" - a luncheon for homeless people, staged on the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge. There was plenty of food to enjoy. But I'm pleased to report the crowd was scattered sufficiently so that the bridge did NOT collapse.
The Banquet on the Bridge took several weeks of planning. I heard one pastor predict to his congregation a weekend in advance it would be "giant." Well, I wouldn't go quite that far -- but setting up dining tables halfway across the bridge qualifies as large-sized.
In the spirit of Hands On Georgia Week, we agreed to provide some support for the Banquet on the Bridge. That led to a scary moment, when our phone rang Thursday night. It was an automated call from one of the organizers - but we didn't realize that, and tried in vain to shut him up while our kitchen sink was filling with dish water two rooms away.
We committed some drinks to Sunday's banquet, as well as help with the set-up crew. The heavy lifting began around 9:00 a.m., and thankfully plenty of young people were available to help. Several stunned me by wearing Auburn University T-shirts - as if they went to bed so early, they didn't know about the loss to Vanderbilt.
A storefront church in the Phenix Plaza shopping center served as a storage center for the banquet. One classroom was stacked to the ceiling with hundreds of folding chairs. But I was curious about an adjacent room marked as "WAR ROOM." Is this where soldiers have Bible studies - or lawsuits are planned involving the Ten Commandments?
Thanks to some trucks and plenty of workers, the folding chairs were moved to the 14th Street Bridge in about an hour. So were a tall stack of bread trays. The banquet tables were set up not merely with slices of bread - but several unopened loaves per table. So if food pantries wonder why donations have been down for the last week, this could explain it....
We went home after the set-up was finished, and returned to the start of the banquet around 12:45 p.m. A long line of people was waiting to eat, on the north side of a bridge where a homicide occurred in January. Only this time, homeless people seemed to be outnumbered by church people by at least five to one.
The homeless and needy people seemed fairly easy to spot in this crowd. I think one of them walked by holding a 12-foot-long stick in one hand, and a plastic cat litter tub in the other. If his job was to provide fish for the banquet, I didn't see any at the serving tables.
Some people made sure the Christian theme of the Banquet on the Bridge was not overlooked. One man handed tracts to homeless people, explaining they would tell how "Jesus is the answer." But if these people are chronically unemployed, are that many churches and ministries hiring these days?
I noted to a man behind me a sign at the west end of the 14th Street Bridge, marking the Phenix City limits. It clearly looked like it was painted over, with the exact same words as before. I wondered why it was done - to which the man answered: "It's Alabama. They're liable to do anything."
As I walked toward one of the two long lines of dining tables on the bridge with my lunch, a young man explained on a loudspeaker what the Banquet on the Bridge was about. "In the first century, the church had what's called a love feast or 'agape feast.' We're trying to reincarnate that." Reincarnate?! This was being put on by Christians, not Buddhists.
Pieces of paper taped to the Phenix City Riverwalk marker also explained the Banquet on the Bridge was about tearing down community barriers. I was prepared to help with that - but when I sat down, no homeless people came around me. Instead, two young church women decided to ask me all the questions. Were they ever stunned when I talked about driving with no cruise control....
Here's hoping the Banquet on the Bridge accomplished its goal, and helped homeless people feel appreciated for at least one day. Someone even swept away a cracked glass bottle at one end of the bridge, which I'd spotted while jogging there more than a week ago. The only thing which might have been left behind were chalk messages on the sidewalk.
All in all, the event called a "Feast" for short was a very nice day. But if didn't live near the 14th Street Bridge or attend one of the churches involved, would you have known about it? I probably would never have known -- and it appears others didn't, either. The only pseudo-politician I noticed there was a Peggy Martin look-alike.
Hoping your Sunday was very nice as well, let's see what else was going on....
+ Which woman walked into a convenience store, claimed she had just received her "allowance" from Florida, and proceeded to buy at least 40 dollars in scratch-off lottery tickets? This is what happens when the stock market becomes too unstable....
+ Columbus Police disclosed someone robbed a Taco Bell on Macon Road. The Ledger-Enquirer's web site reports the criminal ordered food first - so those 79-cent items on the value menu must not give him enough change.
+ Two companies returned to Fort Benning from a mission in Iraq. A vote for U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin could mean ALL companies come home from Iraq - including the most controversial one, Halliburton.
+ The Greater Columbus Fair ended for another year. I found a woman selling funnel cakes outside the fairgrounds - on the other side of Victory Drive, outside the Villa Nova package store on Second Avenue. No, I didn't ask her if she was caught using tainted milk from China.
+ The Atlanta Falcons grounded Green Bay 27-24. It was quarterback Matt Ryan's first win on the road - and now I fear the Falcons will consider offers to trade him to Green Bay, so it becomes his last.
+ Tony Stewart won the NASCAR race in Talladega, amid some controversy. Regan Smith's car actually crossed the finish line first, and Smith's team argued Stewart forced Smith's car below the infield boundary line. But it appears a pinch is still allowed in NASCAR - simply not as a tobacco sponsor for your car.
(Regan Smith's team also argued in pre-race meetings, NASCAR officials say "anything goes" on the last lap. If that's true, Tony Stewart's crew should have given him a cup of nails to blow up the other racers' tires.)
+ Instant Message to everyone complaining about campaign yard signs: Look on the bright side. It's almost impossible to fit a negative "attack ad" on them.
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