Okay, a couple of days ago my Americorps team got a call – it turns out that one of the houses we’d been working on in partnership with Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity had been broken into. The fence surrounding the property had been cut open, and a huge pile of pressure-treated wood stolen. We were sent over to patch up the fence and salvage up what few pieces remained.
What kind of invertebrate steals from Habitat for Humanity? What sort of pure assholishness would pocess someone to steal from a non-profit? Don’t get me wrong, I’m hardly naive in the ways of the world, but every so often I can still be completely baffled and pissed off by the behavior of other human beings. “Humanity” indeed.
I wish I could find these thieves and show them my hands. I used to be so proud of my hands. I kept my nails trimmed and painted just so, the cuticles clipped and maintained. I rubbed them down with moisturizer and never went anywhere without my trusty nail kit. Now my hands are dirty, calloused and covered in cuts. My nails are filthy and ragged from the work I do all day, from 8am to 4pm, five days a week – sheet-rocking, nailing, building windows and walls, shingling, digging ditches, drilling, dry-walling. I’ve let my hands go to hell because I cared more about helping people than I cared about my vanity. I’ve been out there, rain or shine, working side-by-side with the future homeowners. These people are dedicated, hardworking folks who just need a little help achieving their dreams.
I wish I could show these theives my hands and say, “See these? I worked for these. Every line, every scrape, every callous. I did it for people I barely know, some I’ve never met, not for material gain but because it’s my duty as a human being. Not because I’m a good person, but because I want to live up to the name, to be humane. And all this shit I’m going through, I don’t do for me. But what you did was all about you. You took and gave nothing in return.”
What’s the opposite of humane? I need to know so I can fashion a new term for people who need to be kicked out of the human race.
Maybe because the people involved with the charity are expending a bit of time, effort, and money to make someone else’s life better at the expense of their own lives while the people stealing from charity are taking that time, effort and money to make their own lives better at the expense of someone else’s life.
OttoDaFe, I like the term “ahuman”. On the other hand, I suspect “primordial ooze” might be to complimentary to the alleged human beings who did this.
We had kids take a chunk of concrete and break every window in one of our Habitat homes. My boss didn’t want me to notify the media because she didn’t want bad publicity for Habitat. Finally she relented. The next morning the first phone call I got was from a man in tears who had just read the article and he asked me how much all the windows cost. He sent a check for the entire amount. The next call was from a radio station offering to do a remote on the site when we repaired the damage. People drove to the site and donated money and a plumber offered to plumb one of our homes for free. Something awful turned into something positive for us. To this day we have a great relationship with the gospel radio station and they promote us monthly.
People take studs to finish up do-it-yourself projects and since the price of OSB has now more than doubled, we’re starting to see sheets of that disappear.
The most heart-breaking thing I’ve witnessed was in our first Women Build house. Some sludge in the disguise of a person went into the house and spray painted the walls with “Nigger go home” and other neighborly sentiments. The homeowner saw it before we could get construction over there to paint over it. She said, “You’re more upset about this than I am. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it and it won’t be the last.” Broke my heart, but now eveything seems to be going well for her in the neighborhood.