On Monday evening hundreds of people gathered at the Detroit Gesu Catholic Church for a Town Hall with the Nuns on the Bus and Friends – a cross-country bus tour on the theme “Vote Our Future.”   They were asked to name out issues most important to them in the upcoming election.  One woman, her voice choked with emotion, said she feared that this could be our last election if people did not vote to preserve democracy.  It was a sobering moment. 

I’m one of the Friends riding the bus – not a nun, but honored to be invited because of the close cooperation of the Coalition on Human Needs, which I direct, and NETWORK Advocates for Catholic Social Justice, the sponsor of the bus tour and a member of CHN.   

The events so far in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Gary, and Milwaukee have brought out hundreds of people, and emotions ran high because of a shared sense of the seriousness of the moment. But there was joyous determination too, a commitment to defend and advance the freedoms that the bus riders were speaking about.  Most inspiring to me were the repeated examples of leaders working in communities to realize these freedoms in the daily lives of the people they served. 

We bus riders spoke of the freedoms to be healthy and keep the planet healthy, to care for our families and build their ability to thrive, to be a welcoming country that values dignity and human rights and that keeps people from harm, including gun violence.   We heard from community leaders who were making real progress in all these areas – more affordable housing, more help to connect people with services, more work to rid their communities of lead in pipes or painted walls, more efforts to connect people to services they need, or to provide food to those going without. 

We heard from Rev. Barry Randolph of the Church of the Messiah in Detroit, whose church developed over 200 affordable housing units, created an internet service because there was no other access in their community, launched job training and business incubator programs, created a mental health clinic, and even formed an 84 member drumline/marching band so that young people could take part in an activity that would help get them into college.  They saw needs and met them. 

We heard from Angela Paul and other dedicated staff at Sojourner Truth House in Gary, Indiana, who find out what people need and help them meet those needs – securing help from many community resources not only to find housing but to provide furniture and other household items, offering a loving child enrichment room for their children while parents attend classes, stocking a food pantry and clothing boutique to help families.  They made it clear that it was their mission to value every person they served and provide individualized help. 

These were just two of many examples of local institutions pulling together government and community resources to help their people.  All who we heard could not be more clear:  they call on government to do more – more affordable housing, more access to health care, protecting the SNAP nutrition program, higher incomes for families, more progress in cleaning up lead and other contamination.   

And they told us passionately that getting government to do the right thing depended on people getting out and voting. 

When we gave our talks at well-attended Town Hall meetings, some of the biggest applause lines were over the demand that the ultra-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, so that we can invest in all the programs needed in their communities.  They knew they needed to get out the vote for members of Congress and a president who would represent their communities’ needs, not those of the wealthy.   

At the end of each event, community members enthusiastically signed the bus, so we could take them with us to our next stops.  It was just another way for them to show how committed they were to working together.   

Does this enthusiasm and commitment from hundreds at each of our stops translate to the work needed to get out the vote?  Hard to know. 

“When the mission is right, the odds don’t matter.”  Rev. Barry Randolph of Detroit reminded us of these words by Muhammed Ali.  It was a good reminder.