Everybody Has to Live Someplace--Just Not in Williamson County!
Views on moderately priced housing were
appalling! To the Tennessean Editor:
I was surprised and appalled to read recent
letters to "Your Voices" concerning moderately
priced homes in Williamson County.
Respondents seemed united in their opinion
that housing was a market-driven matter and
not a moral concern "except for a few do-
gooders" who want to get involved in politics.
The fact that the people who clean our houses,
manicure our lawns, do our laundry and cook
our meals cannot afford to live nearby is of no
concern to those who have found their little bit
of heaven on Earth. I beg to disagree.
In the first place, history stands on the side of
multiple-value housing. While I am certainly
not advocating a return to slavery, at the least
the slave owners, who lived here before us, pro-
vided a place for their slaves to live nearby.
When this land was farmland, tenant houses
dotted the landscape as surely as homesteads.
Now that executives, entertainers and entre-
preneurs have seized the space, working-class
people are being forced to live elsewhere.
Does that make us a better community?
I don't think so.
To assume, as your letters indicate, that
inhabitants of moderately priced homes are
all "drug dealing pimps" is a prejudiced
statement to say the least. Obviously, some
drug dealers already live among us in quite
expensive housing as reported in the news
from time to time.
Concluding that housing has no moral
implications can only come from persons
who conveniently compartmentalize and
privatize their religious beliefs. Perhaps
persons of faith who reach such conclu-
sions would benefit from reading all parts
of the Bible. Certainly believers are promised
a place in heaven.
But the same Jesus who assured his disciples
that he would "prepare a place for them" also
told disturbing parables. One was about the
foolish farmer who could never quite get enough,
until he eventually kills himself in his pursuit
of "more." The other is about the rich man who
is called to accountability in heaven for ignoring
the poor man named Lazarus in this life.
Religious faith always has social implications.
Perhaps it's time for churches, governments,
business leaders and concerned citizens to
address the moral concerns related to housing
in Williamson County.
Brentwood United Methodist Church has built
more Habitat houses in Williamson County
than any other agency. We have just made a
commitment to build four more Habitat houses.
Finding places to build these houses in
Williamson County remains a major obstacle.
I believe we can work together to solve this
problem. The result will be an even better
Williamson County.
J. Howard Olds, Senior Pastor, Brentwood
United Methodist Church
Brentwood 37027
appalling! To the Tennessean Editor:
I was surprised and appalled to read recent
letters to "Your Voices" concerning moderately
priced homes in Williamson County.
Respondents seemed united in their opinion
that housing was a market-driven matter and
not a moral concern "except for a few do-
gooders" who want to get involved in politics.
The fact that the people who clean our houses,
manicure our lawns, do our laundry and cook
our meals cannot afford to live nearby is of no
concern to those who have found their little bit
of heaven on Earth. I beg to disagree.
In the first place, history stands on the side of
multiple-value housing. While I am certainly
not advocating a return to slavery, at the least
the slave owners, who lived here before us, pro-
vided a place for their slaves to live nearby.
When this land was farmland, tenant houses
dotted the landscape as surely as homesteads.
Now that executives, entertainers and entre-
preneurs have seized the space, working-class
people are being forced to live elsewhere.
Does that make us a better community?
I don't think so.
To assume, as your letters indicate, that
inhabitants of moderately priced homes are
all "drug dealing pimps" is a prejudiced
statement to say the least. Obviously, some
drug dealers already live among us in quite
expensive housing as reported in the news
from time to time.
Concluding that housing has no moral
implications can only come from persons
who conveniently compartmentalize and
privatize their religious beliefs. Perhaps
persons of faith who reach such conclu-
sions would benefit from reading all parts
of the Bible. Certainly believers are promised
a place in heaven.
But the same Jesus who assured his disciples
that he would "prepare a place for them" also
told disturbing parables. One was about the
foolish farmer who could never quite get enough,
until he eventually kills himself in his pursuit
of "more." The other is about the rich man who
is called to accountability in heaven for ignoring
the poor man named Lazarus in this life.
Religious faith always has social implications.
Perhaps it's time for churches, governments,
business leaders and concerned citizens to
address the moral concerns related to housing
in Williamson County.
Brentwood United Methodist Church has built
more Habitat houses in Williamson County
than any other agency. We have just made a
commitment to build four more Habitat houses.
Finding places to build these houses in
Williamson County remains a major obstacle.
I believe we can work together to solve this
problem. The result will be an even better
Williamson County.
J. Howard Olds, Senior Pastor, Brentwood
United Methodist Church
Brentwood 37027
posted by Guest Writer at 10:25 PM
2 Comments:
Excellent post and a good reminder for us all. Living in this wonderful County all these years is a blessing but will keep you out of touch, isolate and create insensitivity.
As a child I enjoyed friendships and visits with children living in public housing.
I will never forget the confused reaction of my parents when I asked if we could live there too.
Rubbish! Fair market should determine housing prices. No one has a 'right' to live where they want, for what price they can pay. It's CERTAINLY not the job of governments to cap pricing so a lower class can live in an area.
I want to live in the Governors Club, but don't have the millions. I think Brentwood should cap housing pricing there so I can live next to Vince. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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