CHAPTER 12 – TO ARGUE WITH FANATICS…
20:45 (New York Time)
Sunday, August 31, 1997 ‘C’
International Arrivals Hall, New York International Airport
Borough of Queens, New York City, U.S.A.
A big grin appeared on Lucy’s face when she saw a line on the flight arrival information electronic board change.
‘’GIRLS, NANCY’S FLIGHT HAS JUST LANDED!’’
The three other band members, who had been waiting with Lucy at the exit doors of the customs check counters, cheered at that piece of news and renewed their expectations while watching the exit doors, along with a small crowd of other persons also waiting for relatives or friends. However, the noise of a rather boisterous crowd approaching made them look down the concourse leading to the taxi lanes and bus stops. What they saw made Lucy frown.
‘’Who the hell are these guys?’’
‘’Can’t you read their signs, Lucy?’’ asked in a sarcastic tone Erika Lang. ‘’They are Christian evangelists and I could bet about why they came here.’’
Lucy’s frown changed to a dark look as she eyed the various signs and posters carried by a number of people in the approaching crowd, which was chanting some religious hymn and shouting Christian slogans. Already, a couple of airport police officers posted in the vicinity were hurrying towards the group, probably to make sure that they didn’t cause some kind of trouble.
‘’Nancy certainly doesn’t need this after her long flight from London. Hopefully, the airport police will disperse or chase away those idiots before they could annoy Nancy.’’
Unfortunately, her pious wish didn’t come true. While more airport police officers ended showing up near the customs exit doors, they then simply stood watch as the crowd of believers formed a thick line behind and on both sides of the four band members. While that infuriated the four young women, there was nothing they could realistically do about that, so they did their best to ignore those religious fanatics while waiting for Nancy to pass the customs doors. Some twenty minutes later, a growing stream of passengers started coming out, making the band members redouble their attention. Finally, they saw Nancy come out of the customs area, pushing a luggage cart carrying her two suitcases and one travel bag. Lucy started waving her hand at once to attract Nancy’s attention.
‘’HERE, NANCY! WE ARE HERE!’’
Nancy did see her and flashed a happy smile then, but her smile disappeared nearly at once as a man in the Christian crowd then shouted at his companions.
‘’THERE IS THE SPAWN OF SATAN WHO PRETENDS TO BE AN ANGEL!’’
The crowd at once lifted high their signs and posters and started shouting a mix of slogans and accusations.
‘’BLASPHEMER! WITCH! STOP DENYING GOD!’’
It took all her restraint for Lucy not to simply rip away the nearest religious sign just then. What happened next however took her and her three friends by surprise. The man who had shouted first at Nancy’s appearance then made a few quick steps towards Nancy while holding some kind of bottle or thermos container. Once only three paces from her, the man did a throwing motion with the arm holding the bottle, making a red liquid splash out of it. However, that red liquid, obviously intended to hit Nancy, never got to her and instead reversed course once about one meter from her, as if pushed back by a strong gust of wind. The red liquid then ended up hitting the thrower, who got splattered by it. The man, now covered with red paint, froze with stupor as Nancy calmly walked past him while pushing her luggage cart towards Lucy and her band members. Erika then reacted by shouting at her friends.
‘’QUICK, FORM A SCREEN AROUND NANCY! MAKE A WAY FOR HER THROUGH THESE IDIOTS.’’
The airport policemen were next to react. While two of them went to the paint thrower to arrest and cuff him, four more policemen, their batons held high, pushed their way through the screaming and chanting crowd, helping Lucy, Sarah, Erika and Carmen to open a passage for Nancy. More policemen then came at a run to help keep the crowd of believers in check. The whole scene was captured by the dozen or so reporters, photographers and cameramen who had also been waiting for Nancy’s arrival. As soon as Nancy and her band members managed to break through the agitated crowd, a reporter and a cameraman bearing the logo of CNN ran to Nancy, with the reporter then asking her a question.
‘’Miss Dows, were you expecting this crowd to be waiting for you at the airport?’’
‘’Not really, mister, but their presence here does not surprise me one bit.’’
‘’Are you aware that many well-known Church officials and preachers here and around the States are calling you a blasphemer and a witch?’’
In response, Nancy threw a dubious look at the reporter.’’
‘’What else did you expect them to say? Their ignorance and intolerance have been enduring for centuries, causing the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of innocents through history. Too many of them have been making money and gaining power by lying to those gullible enough to believe them. I am what I claim to be: a semi-Human, semi-Celestial being bent on doing good around me. What these zombie-like idiots think of me is of no import to me.’’
‘’But they have vowed to unmask you as a supposed impostor and witch, miss.’’
‘’Good luck to them on that, mister. They will end up with eggs on their faces, not me. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to return to my apartment in Manhattan and prepare for the start of the new school session.’’
Nancy, still tightly escorted by her band members, then accelerated her pace, leaving the reporter and cameraman behind while heading towards the short-term parking lot of the airport, where Erika had parked her minivan. Once out of the terminal and inside the parking lot, Nancy gave a questioning look to her sister Lucy.
‘’How did they know that I would arrive in New York at this hour, Lucy?’’
‘’Easy: reporters filmed your departure from London, so about everyone in town knew which flight you were on. By the way, that reporter was not exaggerating: about every religious or cult leader in the country is damning you as an envoy of Satan, for denying publicly the existence of God during your interview with the BBC and during the following discussion panel in London.’’
Nancy couldn’t help let out a sigh of discouragement then.
‘’Hypocrisy and intolerance, as always. When will those people open their minds to something else than their rigid doctrines?’’
‘’Don’t hold your breath on that, Sis!’’
Piling up in Erika’s minivan, the group soon started rolling towards Manhattan and their apartment building in the Hell’s Kitchen District. Trying to make Nancy forget about her tumultuous welcome at the airport, Lucy asked her a few questions about her trip to England, quickly imitated by the three other band members. That actually worked, with Nancy being too happy to tell them about her trip. She was much more relaxed when their minivan entered their private garage and parked inside their apartment building on West 51st Street, near the corner with 11th Avenue. With both Erika and Carmen insisting on helping Nancy to carry her bags, the group went up to her apartment, which she shared with Lucy and Erika, where Nancy let out a sigh of relief once inside.
‘’Home, at last! If you don’t mind, girls, I will go take a relaxing shower.’’
‘’How relaxing do you want it to be, Nancy?’’ sneakily asked Erika, making Nancy smile and shake her head.
‘’Thanks for the offer, Erika, but I need to shower by myself, so that I could reflect on how I will deal with all those intolerant idiots.’’
‘’Couldn’t you just vaporize them?’’ asked in zest Sarah, making Nancy shake an index at her.
‘’Sarah, I am an angel, not a demon, remember?’’
‘’Too bad!’’ replied the piano virtuoso, making her friends and Nancy giggle.
As Nancy disappeared inside the apartment’s bathroom, the four girls went to sit in front of the television set of the living room, switching it to CNN. Not surprisingly, the kerfuffle at the airport was one of the top news items. Then, a CNN discussion panel exchanged comments and opinions about the incident. Even on that quite liberal-thinking news channel, it was evident that Nancy was now the subject of what promised to be a controversial and confrontational clash of beliefs, something that made Lucy blow air out in discouragement.
‘’Poor Nancy! She is doing her best to do good and help the people around her, yet she ends up being vilified. How is she going to be able to concentrate properly on her studies now?’’
‘’By acting as if those morons didn’t exist!’’ was Sarah’s categoric reply, making the other girls nod in agreement.
10:09 (New York Time)
Tuesday, September 2, 1997 ‘C’
South-west corner of West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue
Manhattan, New York City
‘’You got a good pan shot of the building, Jack?’’
‘’Yes, Christiane!’’
‘’Then, let’s go in!’’
Followed by her cameraman and her photographer, Christiane Amanpour crossed the street and walked to the main entrance of the eight-story brown brick building, which occupied the South-west corner of West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue. She knew that the building was an old one, having being built in 1881, and had fallen into disrepair and neglect over the years but recent renovation and repair work was evident on its façade. The main entrance in particular had been completely redone and was now sporting a modern-style glass and steel look. Pulling open one of the two glass doors, Christiane entered a small lobby which lodged a waiting lounge with leather-upholstered sofas and a reception counter, then went to the reception counter, behind which sat a young woman who had to be a receptionist. Behind her stood a big black man wearing a private security guard uniform. The guard was actually armed, wearing a pistol, a riot baton and a can of pepper spray at his belt. Stopping one pace from the counter, which sported a thick transparent protective pane, Christiane smiled to the young receptionist.
‘’Good morning, miss! I am Christiane Amanpour, from CNN, and I would like to visit your community home project.’’
‘’Are you expected by our manager, Miss Amanpour?’’
‘’Er, no! We decided to come after the events of Sunday at the airport, when Miss Nancy Dows arrived from England.’’
‘’Then, let me call our manager to tell her that you are here, miss.’’
Christiane patiently waited while the receptionist grabbed her telephone receiver and spoke with someone. That call was a short one and the receptionist smiled to Christiane while putting back down her receiver.
‘’The project manager, Misses Barbara Fenwick, will be happy to receive you, Miss Amanpour. She should be here in a minute.’’
‘’Thank you, miss!’’
While waiting for the manager’s arrival, Christiane noticed that the security guard had a number of military medal ribbons pinned to his shirt, something that awakened her curiosity and made her smile to the guard.
‘’You are a military veteran, mister?’’
‘’Yes, ma’am!’’ replied the black man, who stood a good 185 centimeters and appeared quite strong and muscular. ‘’I served 23 years in the Marines before retiring from the Corps.’’
‘’And how long have you been working here as a security guard, mister?’’
‘’For a bit more than a year now, miss. Miss Dows personally hired me after she helped me out of Skid Row. You see, after I left the Corps, I fell on hard times and ended up living on the streets. Then, Miss Dows met me, gave me shelter here and healed me from my post-traumatic stress disorder, which had caused me to become homeless.’’
Christiane was left speechless for a couple of seconds by that before she could ask another question to the guard.
‘’That is quite a story. Would you mind telling me your name, sir?’’
‘’Not at all, miss! My name is Joshua Abercromby and I retired from the Marines with the rank of staff sergeant. When I became homeless, I became unable to collect my military pension cheques but, by becoming resident at the Windermere Community Home Project, I gained a fixed address and a mailbox and was able to collect again my pension. Many other ex-homeless people who now reside here also gained a fixed address and a mailbox, something that helped them a lot. Getting any government benefit when you don’t have a fixed address is downright impossible, something that is the main reason why they can’t get any government help. By offering a fixed place of residence to the homeless, Miss Dows solved one of their biggest problems stopping them from getting a new life.’’
‘’That is truly admirable on the part of Miss Dows, Mister Abercromby.’’
Christiane was going to ask more questions to the guard when a mature woman showed up at the reception lounge and opened the armored glass door giving access to the interior of the building.
‘’Miss Amanpour, please come in! I am Barbara Fenwick, the day manager of the Windermere Community Home Project.’’
Christiane, followed by her cameraman and photographer, passed the opened armored glass door before shaking hands with Fenwick.
‘’Thank you for accepting to meet with us, Misses Fenwick. You said that you are the day manager of the building. Does that mean that there is a manager for the night shift?’’
‘’Yes, it does! Due to the nature of our community project, we often receive new applicants for residency past normal work hours. Also, most troubles we face from time to time happen in the evening or at night, so we need a person in charge at night to take care of things.’’
‘’And such troubles…are they frequent?’’
‘’More than we would care for, Miss Amanpour. We had to deny entry to suspected drug dealers and street gang members many times in the past. We also had to urgently help individuals and even families which had just been evicted from their homes for various reasons and were stuck on the streets. If things get really serious or when someone is in need of urgent medical help, then we call Miss Dows, who shows up and does her magic, be it by healing the sick or by calming hot heads. Miss Dows created this project and cares a lot about it and about the people who now live in the building. She is always ready to come at any time of the night when needed, except of course when she is away from New York, like when she was in England for the funerals of Queen Margaret.’’
‘’I see! In fact, the recent events in England, when she performed a number of mass healings, prompted this visit of mine to your project. Miss Dows is now front and center in the news and CNN wants to better document her goals, deeds and intentions, so that the American public gets to know her better.’’
‘’A laudable goal and one which I will be happy to contribute to by offering you a guided tour of our project. First, I will show you our communal dining hall, one of the main components of our project. If you will please follow me.’’
Following closely the manager, Christiane and her cameramen entered a large room situated close to the reception lounge. There, she saw long rows of tables with chairs and a kitchen service counter, behind which she could see one female employee serving a late breakfast to a man wearing dirty, tired clothes. If not for the homeless man, Christiane would have thought that she was in some school cafeteria. Barbara Fenwick swept the room with one arm while speaking.
‘’This was originally a rented commercial space, which accounts for its size and high ceiling. Other ex-store spaces on the ground floor level have been renovated and reconfigured in order to serve as communal facilities for our residents and visitors. But before continuing, I believe that a bit of history is needed here. This building was built in 1881 and was then considered the summum of apartment buildings in New York. It was also one of the rare ones at the time to accept tenants who were considered socially undesirable by the society of the late 19th Century, like single mothers. After World War 2, it gradually fell into disrepair and neglect and lodged mostly low-income people. Many struggling young actors and artists lived here at the times, one of them being Steve McQueen, the famous action movie actor. The then owner, on top of neglecting the maintenance of the building, also started harassing and abusing his tenants in order to make them leave, so that he could resell the building at a good profit. The city eventually prosecuted that owner for harassment and vandalism and seized control of the building, with the intent of demolishing it. However, since it was such a historical landmark, opposition to its demolition was swift and widespread and the building found itself in limbo for many years, until Miss Dows spotted it in 1995 and acquired it, using much of the money gained by her discovery of the famous treasure of Sir Francis Drake in Panama. She also received charitable donations and support, which has allowed her to start serious renovations to the building. Those renovations are still ongoing on the top floors of the building, which are still empty of occupants, but we are hoping to complete those renovations in a year or two, something that will then allow us to accept more residents.’’
‘’That is a fascinating story indeed, Misses Fenwick, and also a heart-warming one. It certainly doesn’t jive with the portrait some are now trying to paint of Nancy Dows.’’
Barbara Fenwick threw a sober look at Christiane at those words.
‘’Those people in question are no more than hypocrites and bigots full of intolerance and prejudices, Miss Amanpour. Just this morning, the local Catholic diocese called me to say that it was terminating its donations to the Windermere Project because, quote, Miss Dows uttered blasphemies and denied the existence of God, unquote.’’
‘’Wait! You are telling me that the Catholic Church was contributing to this charitable project but decided to cut its aid because of Miss Dows’ declarations?’’
‘’Exactly! So, now this project will have to find other contributors to compensate for that cut in our budgets, thanks to the intolerance of the Catholic Church.’’
‘’That’s not going to help the image of the Church in New York, I guess.’’
‘’Not one bit, miss. Now, to go back to this cafeteria. It serves day and night good quality meals to the registered residents of the building, composed of ex-homeless people and poor families and individuals, and this for free. The cost of the food is kept to a minimum by collecting surplus products from big supermarkets, which otherwise would end up in the garbage. Miss Dows has negotiated deals with many such supermarkets and groceries stores to collect products which were otherwise going to be thrown away because of expired or near-expired consumption dates. Contrary to most thinking, such food expiry dates don’t mean that the food is unsafe, far from it. These so-called expired food items are often still perfectly edible for days and weeks, but are often disregarded by store customers in favor of products with more recent production dates. The amount of wasted food this produces is staggering and results in our city refuse dumps being filled with tons of still edible foodstuff, which then decomposes and produces methane, a gas harmful to the planet’s environment. The foodstuff we collect that way thus feeds our residents at very little cost. When we are left with surplus to our local needs, which happens often, then we have a mobile canteen truck that goes around the city and serves hot meals to the homeless people which we are still unable to lodge here.’’
‘’And how many such ex-homeless people are now living here, Miss Fenwick?’’
‘’We presently provide shelter to 269 ex-homeless people, plus provide no-cost or very-low-cost apartment spaces for struggling, poor individuals and families, for another 96 residents.’’
‘’Would it be possible for me to visit one of those apartments after this, miss?’’
‘’I will be happy to give you a tour of them, Miss Amanpour. First, though, let’s visit our kitchen, so that you can see for yourself the level of food quality we serve.’’
Using a double-door separating the dining hall and the kitchen, Christiane followed the manager to the line of steam plates and hot plates situated behind the service counter. While most of these plates were still empty due to the time of the day, she was shown a few on which stainless steel containers lay.
‘’Right now, we have at the counter a few items for those who would like to eat brunch, like bacon, sausages, ham, scrambled eggs, pancakes and French toasts. We also have ready at a self-serve counter fresh fruits, cereals, milk and fruit juices, while our cook can prepare fresh eggs on demand. If you would like to test the quality of our ingredients, then you are welcome to grab a plate and taste them.’’
Christiane smiled at that and looked at her photographer.
‘’Well, I will certainly eat a bit now but my photographer is a man who is a good eater. Two opinions will be better than one, I believe.’’
‘’Indeed, miss!’’
Grabbing an empty plate and a set of utensils, Christiane then put on it one slice of bacon, one sausage and a small portion of scrambled eggs. Her photographer however served himself a much more substantial portion, all the while filmed closely by the team’s cameraman. Sitting at a small table set in one corner of the kitchen, Christiane and her photographer started eating their food, taking their time to properly taste and judge their quality. Christiane soon was nodding her head in approval, while her photographer went in near-barfing mode.
‘’This is actually about as good as what I would eat at our CNN studio’s cafeteria. I am impressed, Miss Fenwick. Just by curiosity, what did you plan to serve for the coming lunch?’’
‘’For lunch, we are going to serve three main choices: hamburgers; BBQ chicken and beef stew. For supper, we will serve pork chops and fish fillets. Would you like to see our freezer and cold storage room now, so that you can see that our reserves of foodstuff are of good quality?’’
‘’Certainly! Up to now, I must say that I am quite impressed.’’
‘’Thank you!’’
Again followed by her two assistants, Christiane went to visit the walk-in freezer and cold room storage of the kitchen, where she was able to look at and smell the various items stored inside them while pictures and videos were taken. Everything seemed well to her and she soon walked back into the kitchen proper, where they filmed a cook busy cutting vegetables and cubes of beef for the coming lunch menu. Again, the items seemed plenty edible to her, making her remark on it.
‘’I can’t believe that such quantities of still perfectly edible foodstuff could be thrown away in bulk by supermarkets and groceries stores.’’
‘’That’s the American society for you, Miss Amanpour: wasteful and finicky. Millions of people around the World would be most happy to eat what we throw away every day. By the way, a city food and hygiene inspector visits our kitchen regularly to certify that it complies with municipal and state standards.’’
‘’There is certainly a serious lesson to be learned here, miss. What next?’’
‘’We will pay a visit to our health and social services department, which is next door to the cafeteria and reception lounge.’’
Leaving the kitchen and returning into the main entrance hallway, Barbara Fenwick pushed open a door with a plaque saying ‘Health and Social Services Department’ and entered a waiting lounge furnished with chairs and with a reception counter. The room was ringed with seven doors, each bearing an engraved brass plate. Fenwick then proceeded in touring the doors, so that Christiane could read what was written on the plates.
‘’As you may well understand, Miss Amanpour, providing shelter and food are only part of the help homeless people need to rebuild their lives. This department thus provides extra services to help them. We presently have in-house on a permanent basis a social worker, a community services nurse, a substance-abuse counselor and an employment counselor. As our population grows, along with our available budget, we plan to increase our permanent health and social staff and to offer more services to our residents, like an in-house pharmacist able to provide medications at no cost and an adult education counselor to arrange various education and professional training programs for the ex-homeless, so that they could become good contributing citizens again.’’
Christiane looked gravely around her for a moment before speaking in a subdued tone.
‘’This makes me ask why our government has not arranged itself such services to help our homeless population, especially when you consider the amount of public money wasted on questionable projects and programs.’’
‘’A pertinent question indeed, Miss Amanpour. One such wasteful and poorly administered program is our federal Veterans Affairs Department. It is supposed to care for and help our military veterans and should in theory be able to help people like Joshua Abercromby, the security guard you saw at the front reception. Unfortunately, the VA has become a bureaucratic monster, tangled in red tape and poorly administered by bureaucrats who are too often either incompetent or corrupt, or both. From our experience with this project, a large minority of the homeless people we found and helped have proven to be veterans, often suffering from PTSD, who fell through the numerous cracks in the VA system. Another sizeable portion of the American homeless population is made up of people with mental troubles or disabilities, which is a reason why we are planning to acquire the services of an in-house psychiatrist.’’
‘’But such professional specialists cost a lot to employ, Misses Fenwick. How are you able to pay the professional staff you already have here?’’
‘’Thankfully, we enjoy the financial support of many generous people, including that of a billionaire philanthropist who I will leave unnamed at his own request. Miss Dows also contributes what she can as she is still studying at the Juilliard School of Music, via her revenues gained by playing occasional gigs with her band and through the royalties earned from radio stations playing her tunes.’’
‘’Yet, a rich organization like the Catholic Church just decided to stop helping this project, just because of Miss Dows’ personal opinion about God.’’
‘’Exactly!’’ replied Fenwick in a sour tone. ‘’And the Church publicly proclaims that one of its goals is to help the poor and the downtrodden. Talk about hypocrisy! Now, I will make you visit one of our small apartments reserved for ex-homeless people, then will visit a no-cost family apartment.’’
Going out of the health and social services office suite, the manager led Christiane and her cameramen to a bank of elevators of modern construction.
‘’The original elevators installed in this building were among the first to be found in New York but were getting really old and decrepit, so a major cost in our renovation budget was to replace them with modern elevators. That cost us a pretty penny and was quite a complicated job.’’
‘’I can believe that, miss.’’
The group then entered a cabin and did a quick trip up two levels, to then step into a long hallway that had obviously been renovated recently.
‘’This floor was finished renovating mere weeks ago and a few of our ex-homeless lodging units are still empty, but not for very long. We will visit one of them now.’’ said Fenwick before walking down the hallway and stopping in front of a door marked with the number ‘326’ and the letters ‘A-B-C’, something that intrigued Christiane.
‘’Why the letters ‘A-B-C’ under the number ‘326’, Misses Fenwick?’’
‘’Because this apartment was originally a three-bedroom apartment. When we renovated it, we then split it into three separate singles rooms, plus a common lounge, kitchen and bathroom. This, while providing adequate living space for each of our ex-homeless people, allows us to house more of them. For those who could cause trouble with other residents because of mental illness or deficiencies, we lodge them in single rooms with a small bathroom and make them eat at our communal cafeteria.’’
Fenwick then unlocked the door, using a master key, and invited Christiane and her cameramen in. What the CNN crew saw inside was a fully furnished suite provided with second-hand furniture that was still in good condition. However, the kitchen’s original appliances had been pared down, leaving only a refrigerator, an electric hot plate, a toaster oven, a microwave oven and a coffee machine in place.