RRN Online Volume 259

May 19 '01

Volume 259

New Work Interfaith & Habitat

Barbara Carter, wife of this Parterning With People In Need writer, has returned to Pontotoc following a decade of work in the Mississippi Delta with South Delta Planning And Development District in Greenville, MS. She has undertaken two part-time jobs, while contracting with South Delta of Greenville to complete a few projects for which she had been responsible. Her new work began on May 01, 2001.

Apart from her contract work, she will serve as Director of The Pontotoc County Interfaith Storm Relief Alliance (PCISRA, if you're into acronyms) and Director of the Pontotoc Habitat Affiliate. Her office is located at 24 South Liberty St., Pontotoc, MS.

Seeking a better understanding of all that has transpired with Mrs. Carter in recent weeks, this writer interviewed her. The following are excerpts from that interview.

RRN: What prompted you to move back to Pontotoc?"

Carter: I'm not sure that any one thing prompted me to move back, but I started thinking about moving back to Pontotoc when Mother was still living here at home, and I felt like I needed to be here to look after her, but it [the pressure] eased up after we got her in the nursing home. The physical wear and tear on our bodies was a good reason, but I enjoyed my work in the Delta¾I don't really know, it was just kind of a desire to get back to Pontotoc to take care of a new house and to work with and be around the people that I know.

RRN: What exactly is involved in your work here?

Carter: Interfaith is a board made up primarily of the area churches and pastors, but there are some lay persons on the board. Their mission is to meet needs of those people in Pontotoc County that suffered emotional, physical, and financial loss in the tornado we had on February 24^th.

We are trying to fill a gap to help these people to get back into their houses and get their emotional, spiritual, and financial lives back to a workable position. We're trying to put them in touch with people that they need to be in touch with or to help them financially if that's what they need.

There have been a lot of donations made to Pontotoc County for the storm relief victims. A lot of the money received was designated to aid storm victims, directly, so we're limited on administrative funds. The administrative budget is being built separately. Those monies are coming from several different sources¾Catholic charities, some of it from Methodists, some from Lutherans, some from Episcopals…Southern Baptists…hmmm…need to work on them.

My job is to take the load off the board of directors in the day to day administration/ coordination of relief efforts…because they all have their jobs to do. I am supposed to coordinate all the activities and to bring recommendations to the executive board or the full board as is necessary.

RRN: This particular work then is to help the tornado victims; is that all the people that are targeted for help?"

Carter: Right now, yes. I don't know the long-range plans, but FEMA has estimated it will take eighteen months to get all the victims back in suitable housing.

I am hoping to see the work of the organization continue because it has been a good relationship-building activity with all the churches coming together and particularly the Catholics who see this as an opportunity to be accepted into the religious community. Because of the small size of the Catholic congregations, they've never really felt and probably never have been accepted as a part of the larger religious community. It has also been helpful for the Black churches and White churches in developing a bond in their relationships. The joint worship service was good for the entire community and was attended by approximately 2500 people.

There are long-range possibilities for the organization to continue because there are always going to be needs in the community which require addressing.

RRN: What will you be doing with Habitat For Humanity?

Carter: My job description there is going to be basically about the same as with Interfaith. It involves fiscal management and guiding and coordinating individual committees with Habitat. Some of the applicants for Interfaith whom we are assisting in trying to get them back into housing, may qualify for the Habitat program, but some of them may need to go through other volunteer organizations…the Apostolics have a disaster team, as do the Mennonites. They will bring in construction workers who donate their labor, and the individual provides the materials.

This is pretty much what Habitat does, providing volunteer laborers and the homeowner provides materials and some "sweat equity" in the construction of the home. There are different qualifications for Habitat [than those for Interfaith] so some of my work will involve reviewing applications to determine how the individual may best be assisted.

I will also be involved in fund-raising, not necessarily doing the fund-raising, but finding sources of funds and also grants and foundations to support the work of Habitat. There are some training meetings I need to attend to learn more about the workings of Habitat.

RRN: Do you have any help or are there other staff members?

Carter: Yes, Joe Steen is our coordinator of the volunteer teams for the construction projects. He works out in the field, mostly. He works for Habitat also. He was in the office last week and we discussed his communicating a schedule to me so he could be reached if we needed to contact him.

Christi Cruse was a volunteer for Interfaith from the day after the tornado. She helped set up the office and worked taking the initial applications which has been the bulk of the applications. If she hadn't been there it would have been chaos with me coming in a month later. She is now a paid part-time employee.

RRN: When you worked in Greenville, you dealt with housing. How is your work here different?

Carter: The major difference in working for South Delta was (laugh) working with government, government entities and elected officials, while I'm working with religious organizations here. It's a different mindset.

RRN: Have you observed a difference in working with the poor of Pontotoc County versus the poor in the Delta.

Carter: There is a difference, and it could be the situation or circumstances in the Delta has been a result of long-term poverty, as too are the needs that need to be addressed there, whereas in Pontotoc, while the poverty may have been there for a long time, this immediate need that they are all experiencing was something that was thrust upon them suddenly, unexpectedly, and totally out of their control. It's as though the individuals have been in a state of shock and they're just now coming out of it, realizing they've got to do something to get their lives back together and move forward. I guess they are in a humbled position right now. They're at everybody's mercy.

RRN: Have you experienced any problems, frustrations, and/or rewarding experiences with your new job.

Carter: People are coming to us asking if there is any way we can help with certain expenses, stating what they've already done, which is good in that they're taking the initiative. One thing we've noticed is many are choosing mobile homes to go back into. Some were in one originally, and others who were in conventional housing are thinking that a mobile home is an immediate solution to their need.

At first, I thought they shouldn't do that, but I realized we couldn't take that position because they've got to make the decisions for their own lives. What I asked the board to allow me to do was require persons needing home buying assistance for mobile homes to attend Homebuyer Education classes.

I held an abbreviated class for some last Friday night just to let them know that that doesn't have to be the final solution to this problem, that there is something better and they can use this measure as a stepping stone. As they get things under control they can put some money aside and later sell the mobile home and use the money as a down payment toward a conventional house. There are programs available to help them.

I don't want us to be just in the financial assistance business, while ignoring other ways to help them. In the class last week the people were very receptive and thanked me for the information I gave them."

Conclusion: This writer thanks his wife for the preceding interview. Hopefully, he and others now have a better understanding of the scope of her new work.

Mississippi Proud Paul Harvey Extols Virtues

I don't get the opportunity to hear Paul Harvey's weekday commentaries with the frequency I once enjoyed, and I miss hearing him say, "Stand by…for news!"

In my assessment, Paul Harvey is to radio what Walter Cronkite was once to TV, believable and trustworthy. In the years that I have listened to Paul Harvey, I have found his work both informative and entertaining. It could be I enjoy his commentary because I find myself agreeing with most of what he has to say on most any given subject. I don't know how others feel, but it's hard for me to dislike anyone who sees the world as I see it.

Several years ago, I discovered that Paul Harvey had a soft spot in his heart for Mississippi. I know he has a personal friend or two who live in our fair state, and these may have influenced his opinion. Most "media" people prefer to dwell on Mississippi's past or portray our folks as underprivileged, under-educated, and any other "under" characterizing the dregs of society. It is not so with Paul, whom I've never known to throw a stone our way. Instead, the Paul Harvey I've heard seems to go out of his way to heap praise upon our state.

Larry Young, kindly passed the following article along to me, which presents Mississippi in a far more favorable light than one is apt to find elsewhere in today's hypocritical media. The article is attributed to Paul Harvey. I found myself in total agreement with Mr. Harvey's findings and thank him for sharing his thoughts with listeners across this nation.

MISSISSIPPI STILL BURNING

- Paul Harvey -

Mississippi is still burning. Times have changed, but the incendiaries won't quit. Mississippi, statistically, could shame most of our states with its minimal per-capita crime, its cultural maturity and its distinguished alumni. But Mississippi has enough residual gentility of the Old South not to rub our noses in our own comparative inadequacy.

The pack-media could not wait to remake the movie MISSISSIPPI BURNING into a TV version called MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI. Thus yet another generation of Americans is being indoctrinated with indelible snapshots which are half a century out of date.

The very idea that anybody from New York, D. C., Chicago, or L. A. could launch stones from those shabby glass houses toward anybody else is patently absurd. Lilliputians have a psychological need to make everybody else appear small and Mississippi, too nice to fight back, is such an easy target.

The International Ballet Competition regularly rotates among only four citadels where there is a sufficiency of sophisticated art appreciation: Varna, Bulgaria; Helsinki, Finland; Moscow, USSR; and Jackson, Mississippi.

Only Mississippi has a satellite art program in which the state Museum of Art sends exhibits around the state for the enjoyment of smaller communities.

No state can point to a richer per capita contribution to arts and letters. William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker Alexander, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs) and John Grisham are Mississippians. As are Leontyne Price, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, B.B. King, Jimmy Rogers, Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Buffett.

Scenery? The Natchez Trace is the second most traveled parkway in our nation. With magnolia and dogwood, stately pines and moss-draped oaks, Mississippi is in bloom all year 'round. And the state stays busy...manufacturing more upholstered furniture than any state...testing space shuttle engines for NASA, and building rocket motors.

Much of our nation's most monumental medical progress has roots in Mississippi. The first heart transplant in 1964. The first lung transplant in 1963. The most widely used medical textbook in the world, THE TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, reprinted in ten languages, was authored by Dr. Arthur Guyton of the University of Mississippi.

The Case Method of practicing law, the basis of the United States legal system, was developed at the University of Mississippi.

Nationally, educators are chewing their fingernails up past the second knuckle anxious about the disgraceful rate of dropouts and illiterate graduates... In Mississippi, the state government and two philanthropic organizations have teamed up to put a computer-based literacy program in every elementary school in the state.

Maybe Mississippi is right to downplay its opportunities, advantages and refinement. The ill-mannered rest of us, converging, would surely mess it up.

Bodock Beau Well, Isn't That Nice

Southern charm and Southern Belles are not only found in Mississippi, but in Alabama and Georgia, too. Beverly Carlyle passed this delightful story our way.

Two delicate flowers of Southern womanhood, one from Georgia, the other from Alabama, were conversing on the porch swing of a large white pillared mansion. The Georgia peach said, "When I had my firstborn my husband built this beautiful mansion for me."

The lady from Alabama commented, "Well, isn’t that nice?"

The first woman continued, "When my second child was born, my husband bought me that fine Cadillac you see parked in the drive.

Again, the bell from Alabama commented, "Well, isn’t that nice?"

The first woman boasted, "Then, when my third child was born, my husband gave me this exquisite diamond bracelet."

Yet, again the second of the ladies commented, "Well, isn’t that nice?"

The first woman asked her companion, "What did your husband buy for you when you had your first child?"

"My husband sent me to charm school," declared the ‘Bama belle.

"Charm school!" the first woman cried, "Land sakes, child, what on earth for?"

The Alabamian responded, "So that instead of saying ‘Who gives a damn’…I’d learn to say, ‘Well, isn’t that nice?’"

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Durwood Young remembers a young lad once accompanied his dad to the Post Office, and upon seeing the posters of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, the lad asked why the pictures were in the Post Office.

"Those are criminals, and the FBI wants to catch them," the father declared.

After a brief period of reflection and spoken with the wisdom found only in children, the youngster replied, "Why didn't they just hang on to them when they made their picture?"

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