I-opener

[This is a sneak-peek at an essay that will be in CVV's fall newsletter, due to come out at the end of September. Let me know if you want added to the mailing list! It's free =) ]

For me, coming to Denver as a Vincentian Volunteer was a pivotal life change; for my parents, it was a chance for a family vacation. In mid-July, we saddled up our big blue van and headed west from PA. Two weeks and seven states later, we merged onto I-70, which escorted us through Kansas’ amber waves of grain and into Denver. As night fell, the downtown skyscrapers rose to meet us, framed against the blue peaks of the Rockies. My heart raced at finally arriving in the city that was to be my home for the next year. What will I learn here? I wondered. How will I be changed?

To my surprise, answers have unfolded beneath the very road we drove to Denver; I-70 rumbles non-stop through the three neighborhoods in north Denver served by my agency, Cross Community Coalition. All three struggle with common scourges of the urban poor: lack of quality educational facilities, lack of green space, and heavy concentrations of large industries. Our neighborhoods’ zip code, 80216, is the most polluted in Denver, and the only nearby high school reopened this fall after having been shut down by the city for its failing performance.

Clearly, north Denver residents have greater concerns than I-70’s proximity. Still, the highway drones ceaseless noise and complicates inter-neighborhood travel. It has even forced the local elementary school to reduce its playground size so children wouldn’t be hurt by debris careening off speeding trucks.

Of course, I realized none of this while zooming wide-eyed into Denver. To me, I-70 was a means of transit, nothing more or less. But after weeks of listening to residents and observing neighborhood life, I can no longer view I-70 as neutral. Instead, I suspect that it is a classic case of NIMBY: bring on the highways, but Not In My Back Yard! (And how does a city decide in whose back yard to build a highway?)

On a recent trip to Austria, Pope Benedict said, “Jesus Christ does not teach us a spirituality ‘of closed eyes,’ but one of ‘alertness,’ one which entails an absolute duty to take notice of the needs of others and of situations involving those whom the Gospel tells us are our neighbors.” As a Vincentian Volunteer, I am indeed learning to notice with wide open eyes the present realities of our society, including seemingly benign chunks of concrete, in order to work more effectively for a blossoming of abundant life for all persons.