Salvation Army...Fighting for who?

A new Rec Center in the works

I use to work at the Salvation Army on Lawrence Street in 1998.  I was the only African-American who worked there.  On the day I was fired, a new Black woman, Carmen, was hired.  We were standing in the middle of the sales floor, when a man walked up to us and said, "This is unusual.  I've been coming here for 15 years, and I've never seen two of ya'll working here at the same time."  Later that afternoon, I was let go.  I wasn't very popular at the store.  Due to my prior Supervisory role at other jobs, I was given a dollar more than everyone else and made a manager in training.  The new Captain and his wife, Wolfe, thought my pleasant enough to take the position.  My manager, whom name escape my now wasn't so pleased with the news.  She and the other two women who worked there, whose names also escapes me found me threatening.  There were rumors that the managers father-in-law had a second hand shop up North.  In Sears fashion, she was allegedly stealing from the store with her two cohorts and the deformed guy who worked in the back.  His name also escapes me, but all the the regulars there know of whom I speak.

At first, they eased me into the game, by having nice clothes and things come through in my size.  Then they had one of the Black men who lived in the rehab center, to stand and talk to me about all of the stealing going on.  Then I would work with a woman named Dolly.  She wasn't in on the things going on up North, but she was stealing money from the cash register, and anything else she wanted.  I pissed her off the day she told me to stick a bottle of perfume down my pants and steal it.  I refused, by turning up my nose and making a funny face.  After she gave the report, everyone distanced themselves from me.  So, in order to keep my job, I worked on the dock with a man named Dennis, all day.  I left all of them to the thrift store to take whatever they wanted.  I think I stayed there as long as I did, because of that.  Then Captain Wolfe invited me to Sunday morning service at the church downtown.  I had told him that I could sing, and he invited me to the service he held above the thrift store.  I obliged him, and got the shock of my life.  The men who lived up there were if greater number than I thought, and they were all White.  It was about 20 in number, and they stared me down with disgust as I began to sing.  I knew that I surely was not welcome there.

I remembered the Black me who lived there telling stories of uncomfortable nights, sleep deprivation and unfair treatment.  Many of them had hard jobs in the store, cleaning and moving heavy furniture.  Dennis was Spanish and quickly moved up from store maintenance to Dock Supervisor.  He pretty much was their token, and none of the other men who lived there liked to work with him for long periods of time.  So he was left to unload the trucks alone.  I didn't want anything out the store, and found it a slight to my integrity to take home anything that I hadn't purchased.  Who would steal from the Salvation Army.  Well, it was big business that included the man who was suppose to be selling cars for profit in funding the Rehab Center upstairs.  I think there was a lot of "funny business" going n with those men up there, too.  If you catch my drift.  Most of those men were ex-cons, and I told you what goes on in jail.

Whenever I complained about how I was being treated, Peggy, that's her name.  Peggy would remind me that I made more than anybody in the store.  She gave her best little thief Dorothy a job in the Boutique.  This gave her a sense of superiority over me.  This also gave her a safe place to steal comfortably out of my sight.  She would come in and after we finished putting the clothes and stuff up off the truck, and say, "I have to go and open the Boutique."  One time I told her that all that stuff looked life old junk my Grandma had in her basement.  That really made them mad.  I didn't care, because these women were old school racist, who didn't care how smart you were Black was Black, and I could never be better than them.  Even if I was smarter and had a position better than there's and a position right under the "boss"; Peggy.  So one day, she just wrote a whole bunch of one sentence write-ups, the extent of her grammatical ability, and Captain Wolfe had no choice and fired me.  Sadly, I had seen enough of the Salvation Army by then.  It was a very racist organization that was set-up to help aid the incomes and livelihood of dirt poor White people.  Those who could half read, write or function in the evolving society.

When I heard that they had closed the center on Lawrence, I thought to myself, "Those old White men they had been housing for all those years up there must have all died".  The could have become sick or discovered they had family or something else, but there was no need to keep it open.  All of the Black men who lived up there on Court Ordered Rehabilitation often violated from their poor treatment.  It was set-up that first they were harassed, then sleep deprived and ultimately given a 48 hour pass.  Due to the fact that they were all drug addicts, stuff like that made them want to use real bad.  If they were able to live through all of the noise and ill treatment, a pass would surely get rid of them.  Sadly, I saw numerous men not make it because of this treatment.  Those old White men with the powerful stares and disgust had single, double or three men rooms.  All the others had rooms that resembled the open bays of Fort Sam Huston.  They just put some beds in a room, with some lockers and it was every man for himself.  There was free clothing, free food and all the money Peggy and the other women could get there hands on.  It was a racket, and when I head they wanted to start a recreation program at the old Holland Center, I was shocked.

I'm thinking, either there is a whole bunch of money to be stolen, like Doctor's Hospital, or they have changed their tune about Black folk at the Salvation Army.  I love God and all, but I do not subscribe to their kind of religion.  They have never catered to anyone, but men in their facilities in our area.  This whole kids thing is something new to me.  I hope they would have positive African-American aids and coaches and stuff.  In the past we haven't had much success with regular position with the Salvation Army.  I hope in these troubling times they can salvage some Black folks some jobs.  Instead of doing what they have in the past and creating a place for White folk refuge in the middle of an urban fiasco.  I won't appreciate it, because they fought really hard to build this new center, and I'm wondering what the real deal is.  I know there has to be another angle, simply from my dealings with the Army.  Mainly because they no longer have a Rehab Center in Pontiac.  They are adding a lot of extra space to that building, and I'm wondering what for.  Their Updyke store is also being ran by one of the biggest thieves I've had the pleasure of meeting in my life in retail.  She is a master at it, which let's me know that it is still business as usual at the Army.  So what's up with the Recreation Center?  You know I will make it my business to find out.

In the steed of Girl Scouts and Reverend Gunn's , Power Company, minority children are big business when it comes to grants and philanthropist.  They are at the top of both list when it comes to giving money away, and receive a very small portion of the money earmarked for their good.  Most of it is spent by those running the company.  They'll have a huge event and those goods stolen from the local stores and such.  This giving the public the impression they are spending the money allowed from grants and contributions.  Gunn is a regular at Sears and has been since I worked there last.  I recently saw him there when I was buying an umbrella.  I bet a lot of the good he does has Sears price tags on them.  Along with a lot of other "hook ups" he gets in the surrounding area.  He also has acquired a taste for little Black girls who believe his blue eyes are pretty.

I'm going to wait and see what a racist organization like Salvation Army wants with our children, before I pass judgement, but it surely ain't good.  Many pedophiles and child molesters frequent these types of places and I want to know what's really going on.  Will they have a bus to carry our children around for what may seem convience, but really a means to keep their numbers up to qualify for grants.  Will they hire our local residents?  I know they are doing wonders with the building, but is it a means to get back the money they put in and more through subsidies and stuff???  We don't know yet, so stay tuned...