They said to be there at 6am. The cops were going to be there at the brink of dawn to remove people from their home and community. I was on donut and snack duty to ensure that people had something comforting to ease the trauma of another spring, another displacement. We rose early to hand out snacks and basic needs. We were there to stop state repression and its tools: dump trucks, patrol cars, bulldozers, and government officials who pretend to house humans displaced by the violence of eviction.
Saint Louis city tries to evict the Riverfront Community every spring. When it was zero degrees this Christmas, the city left the camp alone. Mutual aid workers brought propane and warm layers around the clock. Yet, it never fails that when the leaves bud and the sun returns, so do camp evictions and the closure of shelters. This year when April arrived, three city funded shelters closed (Hope House, St. James, and Asbury). Because homelessness is only a winter problem. But homelessness wasn’t even a winter problem in 2017 when our city closed St. Louis’s biggest homeless shelter on Christmas eve eve, displacing nearly 300 people. Meanwhile, our city sits on thousands of dollars of funding specific to homelessness. To this day no new shelter has been created to address this need. People frequently call 211 searching for somewhere to lay their head and the answer is the shelters are full. There is nowhere.The city claims that it housed 19 people amidst the Riverfront eviction; yet within two weeks many have returned to the camp. The patrols have continued along with bulldozers. The 6am early morning wake up continues: “who can watch cops this morning?” By 10am: “We need more people - they have bulldozers.”
I had another early wake up call recently at the Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat. We arrived at Truax airbase in Madison, Wisconsin at 5am. St. Louis Catholic Workers joined the Midwest Catholic Workers to disrupt the morning shift change. Truax air base will soon house F35s: a hybrid fighter jet and nuclear war plane. F-35s will be capable of carrying two B61-12 variable capacity nuclear warheads, up to four times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The environmental impact will be terrible as these jets emit 7 tons of CO2 every hour. Their presence will add Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) into Madison’s water supply. These chemicals cause serious health impacts like cancer and contaminate water. Nearly 300 people live in the contour zone where housing is “incompatible” for nuclear war practice. Several schools are in this area ensuring that children will play alongside the war planes.
Yet, the city and state have gone along with this project because military manufacturers have bought out Wisconsin politicians by investing in their campaigns. So who cares if our water is damaged, our children can’t hear, and we disrupt and displace a neighborhood with folks of color? At least the rich and the politicians keep their pockets heavy. By the end of this project, our government will have spent $1.7 trillion of taxpayer dollars on these nuclear war planes for our “protection.” Meanwhile, our unhoused neighbors get frostbite in the winter, get their homes bulldozed come spring, and our military prepares to annihilate life as we know it.
I recently heard a saying about how the backpacks that unhoused folks carry are the burden of a society built on the economy of war. Our most human need for rest becomes absurd in our capitalistic state. Economic gain is priority, rather than human beings having a place to lay their heads. Weapons manufacturers make billions for our country to fight wars that perpetuate greed, colonialism, and white supremacy. Our early rising becomes a prayer to wake the public up from their slumber. To say destruction of people’s homes is not humane. To say money does not matter more than human life. To say that weapons of war kill us; they ensure our climate fails, people die, and our most basic needs aren't met. Bulldozers and the F35s have the same purpose: to protect the capital of the rich, while human beings are beaten and left by the waste side – the river side.
Lindsey Myers is a part of the St. Louis CW. She lived at the Phoenix Catholic Worker from 2016-2018 and currently works at Assisi House where she helps support and house formerly unhoused and marginalized folks. She resides at the Sophia House community and enjoys sunshine and a good cup of joe.
Saint Louis city tries to evict the Riverfront Community every spring. When it was zero degrees this Christmas, the city left the camp alone. Mutual aid workers brought propane and warm layers around the clock. Yet, it never fails that when the leaves bud and the sun returns, so do camp evictions and the closure of shelters. This year when April arrived, three city funded shelters closed (Hope House, St. James, and Asbury). Because homelessness is only a winter problem. But homelessness wasn’t even a winter problem in 2017 when our city closed St. Louis’s biggest homeless shelter on Christmas eve eve, displacing nearly 300 people. Meanwhile, our city sits on thousands of dollars of funding specific to homelessness. To this day no new shelter has been created to address this need. People frequently call 211 searching for somewhere to lay their head and the answer is the shelters are full. There is nowhere.The city claims that it housed 19 people amidst the Riverfront eviction; yet within two weeks many have returned to the camp. The patrols have continued along with bulldozers. The 6am early morning wake up continues: “who can watch cops this morning?” By 10am: “We need more people - they have bulldozers.”
I had another early wake up call recently at the Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat. We arrived at Truax airbase in Madison, Wisconsin at 5am. St. Louis Catholic Workers joined the Midwest Catholic Workers to disrupt the morning shift change. Truax air base will soon house F35s: a hybrid fighter jet and nuclear war plane. F-35s will be capable of carrying two B61-12 variable capacity nuclear warheads, up to four times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The environmental impact will be terrible as these jets emit 7 tons of CO2 every hour. Their presence will add Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) into Madison’s water supply. These chemicals cause serious health impacts like cancer and contaminate water. Nearly 300 people live in the contour zone where housing is “incompatible” for nuclear war practice. Several schools are in this area ensuring that children will play alongside the war planes.
Yet, the city and state have gone along with this project because military manufacturers have bought out Wisconsin politicians by investing in their campaigns. So who cares if our water is damaged, our children can’t hear, and we disrupt and displace a neighborhood with folks of color? At least the rich and the politicians keep their pockets heavy. By the end of this project, our government will have spent $1.7 trillion of taxpayer dollars on these nuclear war planes for our “protection.” Meanwhile, our unhoused neighbors get frostbite in the winter, get their homes bulldozed come spring, and our military prepares to annihilate life as we know it.
I recently heard a saying about how the backpacks that unhoused folks carry are the burden of a society built on the economy of war. Our most human need for rest becomes absurd in our capitalistic state. Economic gain is priority, rather than human beings having a place to lay their heads. Weapons manufacturers make billions for our country to fight wars that perpetuate greed, colonialism, and white supremacy. Our early rising becomes a prayer to wake the public up from their slumber. To say destruction of people’s homes is not humane. To say money does not matter more than human life. To say that weapons of war kill us; they ensure our climate fails, people die, and our most basic needs aren't met. Bulldozers and the F35s have the same purpose: to protect the capital of the rich, while human beings are beaten and left by the waste side – the river side.
Lindsey Myers is a part of the St. Louis CW. She lived at the Phoenix Catholic Worker from 2016-2018 and currently works at Assisi House where she helps support and house formerly unhoused and marginalized folks. She resides at the Sophia House community and enjoys sunshine and a good cup of joe.