Pastor of church at Ground Zero invites community to celebrate the movement 

For decades, the Hunters Point Shipyard has been slowly poisoning its neighbors. Cancer and asthma among the residents and infant mortality have long been issues that Bayview families have had to deal with. But during the last few years, there has been a huge increase in unexplained sicknesses.

Children and adults alike have been experiencing flu-like symptoms, lung and sinus problems, rashes and headaches. Though to some, it's obvious that the "redevelopment" of this Superfund site is at least a contributing cause of the medical problems we're facing, the City of San Francisco, including its Redevelopment Agency and Public Health Department, the EPA and other "watchdog" agencies have allowed the Navy and Lennar to continue their work in what may be the most deadly of all of Redevelopment's plots to re-people Bayview Hunters Point.

About a year ago, Chris Carpenter, who, as an employee of a Lennar subcontractor, had complained to project managers that the release of hundreds of thousands of asbestos particulates into the air was poisoning the community, was summarily fired. He made his revelation to community leaders and sparked an incredible movement.

"This church is hallowed ground because it is the home of this community," Minister Christopher Muhammad said, standing before an audience of about 70 Bayview Hunters Point residents on Thursday.

At this weekly town hall meeting, held at 6:00 every Thursday in the Grace Tabernacle Community Church, 1121 Oakdale at Ingalls, I saw familiar faces and some that were brand new. There were activists, residents and out-of-towners, students, elders and families, even babies, including my own. And there were Muslims, Christians and some who don't identify with any religion. They were all there in support of one movement to discuss, expose and stop the intentional poisoning of the men, women and children in the Hunters Point community.

"Ground Zero" is what the community calls Grace Tabernacle, because, being only a stone's throw from the most contaminated part of the Shipyard, it's continually showered with toxic dust from Lennar's massive excavation work, it's across the street from Oakdale public housing where young people are demonized by San Francisco's first gang injunction and it's the church where people feel free to speak their minds. Gathering there has given people the courage to organize door to door and turn out by the hundreds to speak truth to power at hearing after hearing in a movement that reminds many of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Since the beginning of this "spiritual movement" last year, many local activists and their families have joined Grace Tabernacle as they've joined the push to take on the City in this literal fight for our lives. I spoke with the church's pastor, Bishop Ernest Jackson, about the movement and what his plans are for the future of Grace Tabernacle and Bayview Hunters Point.

Bishop Jackson recalls that he first learned the truth about Lennar's deadly, asbestos-laden dust at the end of 2005 from Lynne Brown, a veteran of the struggle for environmental justice and a deacon in the church. He wanted to learn more.

At the request of activist Francisco Da Costa, he started to attend meetings on community policing and to educate himself on all the issues facing the community. "It was during that time, in one of those meetings, that we found out from Chris Carpenter that people were being exposed to asbestos and there was a high level of exposure at Mohammad University," the Nation of Islam's school located adjacent to the Shipyard fence, Jackson told me.

The pastor, whose wife had for some time suffered from unexplained illnesses, decided to become involved in educating the community about the exposure and empowering them to fight environmental racism. Contributing his church as the meeting place of the movement didn't take a second thought.

"My wife started getting sick and I couldn't put it together until I got educated on the dust. I felt obligated because members of the congregation were affected. And people who I served were also affected," Bishop Jackson recalled. "Francisco said he needed the church. Having trust in him, I said ‘Sure.'"

The church, a staple in the community for 60 years, having first been located on Third Street, has been at ground zero for nearly half a century. It's right down the street from the Shipyard's Parcel A, where Lennar is preparing to build some 1,600 unaffordable condos, and from the 46-acre Parcel E landfill that's one of the most contaminated sites in the country, in a lot where Pastor Jackson played as a child.

It was Francisco's talent as a mediator that brought Minister Christopher and members of the Muhammad Mosque and other religious leaders - Black, Samoan, Latino and white - to the table for a collaboration of minds and spirituality that has proven to be perfect for this cause. There was no doubt in Jackson's mind that with unity, we could prevail over the environmental racism that is killing us. Unfortunately, many other holy men and women who were invited to lead the movement opted out. Francisco Da Costa, long an outspoken leader in the community, blames it on plain ignorance and greed.

"Our community has not been united and our leaders, most of them Black, have failed the community because most of them did what they did and failed to keep in place younger people to carry on the torch, (but) I brought as many partners as I could together," said Da Costa. "This spiritual movement's focus was on children. What I try to impress on all the parties is that our children are dying and we need to be united."

Jackson echoed those sentiments by expressing his wish that religious leaders in the community would educate themselves and their congregations so that all us could stand together and fight.

"Pastors not coming together to be the leaders that the people perceive us to be is very disheartening to me. ... They are divided on the issue. We all as men of God should be on a united front when it comes to the health and welfare of the people in the community," said Jackson, "They are not seeking the education and the proof that there are health risks, and they're listening to people like Dr. (Mitch) Katz (director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health), who is not being truthful, and Lennar, who has misled and given out misinformation on the project."

Lennar, whose stock has plummeted since its dirty laundry and business practices have been aired all over the country, has continued to claim that it is committed to the growth of this community. But its sparse employment handouts and health fairs don't begin to outweigh the sickness and death its development is causing this community.

"I appreciate them giving jobs to community members, but they have violated certain moral and legal principles and given a lot of money to people in the community to say that there is no problem. This has caused a chasm among the people. My heart bleeds because of the great division and the ignorance when it comes to the truth," Bishop Jackson testified.

"If Lennar had, at the very beginning, sat down and talked to us as a community, there could have been a win-win solution. The request was to temporarily stop the work and evaluate the core of people who had been exposed. It could have been a well negotiated outcome. But they instead decided to fight it. It has cost the community and the developer tremendously."

Each week, a committed, core group comes to the town hall meetings and each week new faces appear among the concerned citizens. Last meeting, there were people coming from Potrero Hill and students from City College in the pews. Jackson has also developed a partnership with Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill and with several Lutheran churches. Words of support are coming from the North Bay. People are watching very closely, literally across the nation.

Other supporters of the spiritual movement are Cindy Sheehan and Erin Brockovich. Both women have fought highly publicized battles for human rights. Because our government failed to disclose information that could have prevented the war in Iraq, Sheehan lost a son. Now she is running for Congress to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a big booster of Lennar and Redevelopment, as well as the war that killed Sheehan's son. With Brokovich's advocacy, her town was able to prove that PG&E was poisoning the residents. The circumstances of both cases are eerily similar to what we are facing in Hunters Point today.

"The city took on Lennar based on economics instead of sound moral judgment, saying, ‘Let's quietly put this development up,' and they negated that there are people out there who won't stand for environmental racism and injustice. The Navy gave the land to the City and the City was to do its due diligence to make sure that the land is remediated of all harmful toxins. They failed to do that and refuse to make amends," says Jackson.

There are many other people Jackson believes can help to bring a resolution to this situation. One key player, he says, would be former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
In 1997, Mayor Brown appointed Pastor Jackson to the Telecommunications Commission, where he served as a commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco until 2002. In 1999, he was elected president of the commission. His knowledge of Brown's business savvy has convinced him of the effectiveness his support could bring.

"Willie Brown has been a mediator in a lot of different areas. He was mayor when they (Lennar) came on board. He is still, quiet as it's kept, very influential in San Francisco. Lots of people still have high regard for him. If there was a meeting of the minds, Mayor Brown could be one of the ‘kingpins' in negotiating some type of positive outcome in this whole thing," says Jackson.

Whatever level of support we receive from outside, the fact still remains: The Hunters Point Shipyard is one of the 10 most toxic Superfund sites in this country - and it is right in our front yard, on our priceless waterfront. If Lennar continues to move forward with development, we will see ever increasing incidences of cancers and birth defects and infant mortality as a result. Do you want to get involved, or do you want to sit and wait until your child, your husband or your grandmother gets sick?

To learn how you can join the movement, attend the town hall meetings every Thursday at 6 p.m. at Grace Tabernacle Community Church, 1121 Oakdale Ave. at Ingalls in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. This Thursday, Nov. 15, however, the meeting is moving to embrace our brothers and sisters in the Fillmore and will be held at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, 1050 McAllister St., San Francisco.

Also, this weekend, Bishop Jackson and First Lady Doris Jackson warmly invite you and your family and neighbors to visit Grace Tabernacle to celebrate 10 glorious years of pastorship. Services begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, 6 p.m. on Saturday and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call the church at (415) 822-9566.

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