Pastor Paul Bains (00:00):
Well, what's the first three letters of the word "unity"?
Mary (00:05):
U-N-I.
Pastor Paul Bains (00:06):
U-N-I.
Mary (00:06):
Right.
Pastor Paul Bains (00:07):
And it's you and I that's going to make that difference. You and I can bring about a change. In the words of Margaret Mead, "Never think that a small group of people can't impact the world; it's the only group that ever has."
Mary (00:25):
2020 made me afraid. COVID, social injustice, so much grief. I was really afraid that we were gonna lose hope. And if we lose hope, we lose everything.
	So I went out and asked, "Why do you still hope?" To people I trust, the people of Zip Code Economies. And here is what I learned; and you are, like me, gonna be so encouraged, so appreciative, and so inspired. Please listen.
	You're listening to Zip Code Economies 1.5. A special edition brought to you in a time of need by your Zip Code family.
	When I was a kid, I got some tulips; the bulbs, actually; and I planted them. And then they bloomed, and then winter came. And I thought they were never coming back. And then they did. And then they did year after year. And so when 2020 hit us, I wondered if hope was like tulips. Or if it was like those other plants that depart after only one season.
	I went out to the people of Zip Code Economies, and I asked them that question. And they told me that hope is like tulips. It might get covered, it might get lost, it might not be easy to see. But every spring when you go out, it comes back up; just when you weren't expecting it.
	I'm sure everyone listening can remember where you were last year when George Floyd was killed. I know I do. But the poignant memory I have is walking around a lake by my house, Lake Merritt in Oakland, and thinking, "I have to call Pastor Bains."
	Pastor Bains runs a homeless shelter in East Palo Alto. And he was already struggling with the pandemic, with the joblessness that came with it, with the homelessness that's always there ... and now, this.
	How does this African-American man, already carrying the weight of the world, going to carry this? And is this the final thing that might have broken his hope? So I called him.
Pastor Paul Bains (02:55):
Hello, my name is Pastor Paul Bains and I am the co-founder of WeHOPE, which stands for We Help Other People Excel. We don't care about people's past, we care about their trajectory and wanna get them on last [inaudible 00:03:07] to self sufficiency. We work in the field of homelessness, and job creation.
	I am called to leave the world a better place than the way I found it. And if that's just shining the light on one person, on many people, then I want to that. I want to use all my abilities, resources, and influences to make a difference in that one person or persons' life. And that's what motivates and fires my rocket.
	Obviously, my faith is a part of my foundation from where I work from. I don't care about people's social/economic status. Or their challenges in life. My goal is just to be empathetic in helping them get where they're trying to go. That's why I do what I do.
Mary (03:54):
So how is your community and, and your work been affected by COVID?
Pastor Paul Bains (03:59):
Well, (laughs) you know, well, statistics will say this: But disproportionately, um, you know, the East Palo Alto community right now has the highest, uh, rate of COVID cases in the county of San Mateo.
	Um, but black and brown, as a person who [inaudible 00:04:18] is a black American, um, has just unfortunately been over-representative in the deaths and in the cases. And a lot of it has to deal with, you know, the systemic and structural racism that has plagued, uh, black and brown people in America for centuries.
	But in our community, we have the food desert, which can lead to poor health, uh, which then can lead to not having access to the adequate healthcare system. And just perpetuates the problem.
	That the bad thing that has happened with the black and brown community, but the good thing is now, more and more people are looking at this. And so that also gives us hope. Because it's not just one person or one ethnic group now, looking at these disparities in the various areas.
Mary (05:07):
So, w- I mean, COVID put a spotlight on all of this. It's one you wonder why we didn't see before? But that we're seeing it now, is a reason to be hopeful.
	So let me ask this question: We're in the midst of the pandemic. And then, the vivid death of George Floyd [inaudible 00:05:26] and right on the heels of others: Breonna Taylor, et cetera, over and over. I mean, you can count the names and you wouldn't have enough hands.
	So, what happened to your community after that? I know you feel the soul of your community. What happened?
Pastor Paul Bains (05:42):
As a person who is African American who has experienced racism and police brutality, this is nothing new for the black community at all. We have dealt with this; I've heard stories from my grandfather to my uncles to my siblings to myself that have experienced racism and police brutality. And so that's not new.
	Um, but what is new is that I've spoken to over 15,000 people at various marches. And what really brought tears to my eyes is going back and remembering when, like, reporting my car stolen and the police thought I was the one that stole the car. And put me in the middle of the street, handcuffed me, pointed guns at me and my cousin.
	And we kept telling them, "We own the car. You guys called us to come pick it up." They just treated us wrong. I told my cousin, [inaudible 00:06:33], "I know cops have itchy fingers." Even as a young kid.
	But what gave me hope is that when we had the protest marches, and there's ... they say about 4 or 5,000 people in that one particular audience; is that 60% of the people there were non-African American, non-black people.
	And what it said to me is that, "Okay, people now are recognizing the injustices that have plagued black and brown people; but particularly black people, in this case; for these centuries. And now they're standing up."
	And so we don't feel like we're alone in this march now for justice and equality. That brought a tear to my eyes, because I sat down off the steps after speaking to them. It re- infused a greater level of hope in myself as one who tries to always distill hope out to others.
Mary (07:25):
I was going to ask this question, and I think you partially answered it. But if I can ask more about it: So, two people came to my mind immediately when I witnessed what happened.
	And before I ever set out on my own protest is that one of my best friends is a black woman, and she has a black son. And she is in Saint Louis, Missouri, where there was Ferguson and other things. And, you know, how is she? And then, how are you? Are you, Pastor Bains?
	Because I thought of you so immediately, in part because you are the person who lifts others up. And so my question was, who lifts you up? And how do you lift up? And how did you feel? [inaudible 00:08:05], you've been a person fighting for these issues your whole life.
	And so, why now? Why now do you have hope? I mean, you've been fighting them forever. And other people look to you and say, "W- well, how do you s- keep it going?" So my question to you is, how are you doing personally? How do you keep it going?
Pastor Paul Bains (08:24):
In total transparency, even as a leader, as a pastor, I think sometimes leaders don't want to be transparent. But I have found that being very transparent with my own challenges and my ups and downs have helped a lot of people.
	Um, because as a man, you know, men have big egos. (laughs) So, they always, uh, been taught, never to cry and all that kind of stuff. But this has been a very challenging struggle.
	Even with speaking in front of other people or speaking in front of county supervisors around the racial issues that we're talking about. And it, you get re-traumatized sometimes, telling the story over and over again. Or, looking at blacks being killed in various fashions by the very people that were there to protect them.
	And so, there's something that's called vicarious trauma.
Mary (09:19):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Pastor Paul Bains (09:20):
And that's something that has impacted me. Because I can still visualize, you know, the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. I can still visualize, you know, the knee on the neck. "I can't breathe." Uh, those things still pop up in my mind.
	So it, it is challenging at times. Um, I'm a man of faith. And so I have to pray. I have to meditate. Um, those are the things that help me to cope with the traumatic events that I've either seen or I've experienced. Or I may be even helping other people through, without my faith and my prayer life.
	And then having a person that will hold me accountable, such as my best friend, who will ask me how I'm doing, and drill down and peel back the layers. You know, "How are you doing here, or how are you doing there?" Because we share with each other what we're challenged with.
	And I think you have to have accountability partner in life. Um, someone that's not gonna tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. And so that's how I kinda dealt with it, and that's how I felt through this process.
Mary (10:22):
So when you tell young people, or any people; but I think of young people often; when you tell them, "Hey, here's why I still hope." Do you ever have to say that as an aspiration? Or do you really have it at your core every moment?
Pastor Paul Bains (10:57):
Yeah. I have a lot of little -isms that they (laughs) say.
Mary (11:00):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (11:01):
Um, and then this is not to promote violence whatsoever. One of my sayings, when, you know, "When you get down, you get out, and you're feeling bad, you never retreat. We only reload." And we reload with more patience. We reload with more love. Um, more perseverance. Things of that nature.
	We can look at life as being half empty or half full. Well, obviously, half empty is the pessimistic look. But I like to look at it as the optimistic look. Not through rose-colored glasses, not dealing with the reality of, "Hey, this family needs to eat," or, "This family needs a roof over their heads," or, "This family just lost their job."
	But we deal with that, but we also look at, "Okay, things could also be worse." And they really can be worse. Even when you suffer a loss of a loved one because of COVID-19. Uh, while that is a sad in itself, and it's a traumatic event, and it's hurtful and y- you have a lot of pain; the things actually can still even be worse. You know, because you could've lost everybody. Or you could've been gone yourself.
	And so, we have to look at things that they are challenging. They are bad. But they could be worse; but thank goodness, they're not worse. Does that make sense?
Mary (12:15):
It completely makes sense. I do the same thing. Um, but here's something I struggle with; I wonder if you do.
	I can do that so much that I forget to grieve. Do you ever forget to grieve?
Pastor Paul Bains (12:26):
Oh, yes. Yes. I do grieve. I grieve, um, in prayer. I grieve just in crying out sometimes, when I could be alone and feel alone. Even though I'm around so many different people. And there's the out part of grief, and then there's the inner part of grief.
	And so we have to learn that it's okay to grieve. And particularly, men. I teach that, you know, even though my middle name is Jeremiah, which is the weeping prophet in the Bible- (laughs)
Mary (12:26):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (12:57):
... I'll cry in front of the church, you know, over something that has touched my heart. Because if you don't grieve, then you're not completely healing. And you have to have an opportunity and a season to grieve, no matter what you're going through. And it's okay.
Mary (13:13):
It's okay. You know, part of the healing. But it also [inaudible 00:13:16] says, only human, right?
	Someone once told me, "You can't choose which parts you cut off." So if you cut off your emotions, because you don't want to cry, a lot of other things go with it. And so I think it's really true. We can't fully heal, we can't fully be human.
	Do you cry in front of your parish? (laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (13:34):
Yes. Yes. I have. I've cried in front of them on either through the message or because of the loss of someone, or just a traumatic event that someone has experienced; whether it was me or someone I knew; outside the church or inside of the church.
	And even the Bible says in John 11:35; it's the shortest verse in the whole Bible; "Jesus wept." (laughs)
Mary (13:34):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (13:57):
And he wept over his cousin John being beheaded. And so it's okay. It's okay for us to grieve. It's a natural part of the healing process for the body. We were created to grieve, believe it or not.
Mary (14:13):
I believe it. So if you think about the ingredients we're gonna need to change. So, I was really touched by what you said; that when you looked at into the number of protesters, that 60% of them were non-black or -brown. And I think that is tremendous. It's a fantastic thing. I saw the same thing in the protests that I attended. It was just an outpouring.
	And then the next question then was: What do we do with that? Right? What's next? We're the ingredients for change. You know, you think about these types of things a lot. So what are some ingredients of change that you think are the most important?
Pastor Paul Bains (14:47):
I'm gonna probably misquote this; I think it was Ford: "Coming together is good." Okay? "Working together is even better. And staying together to make progress is what's really best." That's really what we want to do.
	And so I think we've created a level of awareness, which I think is good. Then there's also now been a level of education that has happened. But now, we need to turn it into action.
	Because the protests, being in marches, all of that's good, it's a good start. We know the protesting is the voices of the unheard. But, th- there's an old African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
	And so it's time for us as a group of people; black, white, Chinese, Latino, whatever; to go together to dismantle the structural racism that has plagued this great country of ours for centuries. We do that by having actionable steps. We continue the dialogue, but we need to design things that now, like, are actionable.
	Because if I look at the younger people; they don't want stuff done today. They want it done yesterday. Okay? When I say "young"-
Mary (14:47):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (16:06):
... young is 40 on down.
Mary (16:07):
Yeah. I agree.
Pastor Paul Bains (16:09):
They live in the microwave age. (laughs)
Mary (16:11):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (16:11):
They live in the text, but they get an instant answer. That's what they wanna see.
	So we have to go down (laughs) parallel tracks here. We're going down us old folks' tracks; we're-
Mary (16:20):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (16:20):
... more strategic and we gotta also go down the tactical tracks, which is what the young people want to see. Actionable, action items.
Mary (16:28):
I like that definition of younger, too. 40 is, uh, my cutoff as well.
	I have got three questions left. Let me ask you this one first. Do you think justice for all is possible in your lifetime? Assuming you live it out completely? Which I hope you do.
Pastor Paul Bains (16:45):
Do I think justice for all is possible in my lifetime?
Mary (16:49):
Yes. Are we gonna realize it?
Pastor Paul Bains (16:52):
I believe it's possible. My concern is that will people be able to put aside their differences? So many people want to do so much good work. And then you have a very few people that really are just the disrupters that want to dismantle any type of unity. Any type of synergy to address systemic issues.
	And so we cannot, or allow that s- group of disrupters to prevent us from still coming together. And so we must continually come together and say, "We will not be distracted by the actions of the naysayers; uh, those that would want to keep us in the bottle. And don't want to support a spirit of unity upon humankind. Not just mankind, but humankind."
	It is possible, as long as there, it's a will. Like they always say, "Where there is a will, there is a way."
Mary (17:47):
Well said. So what do you hope they'll write about in the history books that describe how we dealt with COVID and the racial injustice that's before us?
Pastor Paul Bains (18:00):
I would say that it was a tragedy. The pandemic that has affected no matter how rich you are, how poor you are, what ethnic group you are, (laughs) what language you speak. It has impacted everyone. It's an equal, unfortunate situation that has plagued us all.
	So I look at that as, "Yes, it's a been a negative impact. But then out of it, what Satan had meant for bad, now I believe God is turning it out for good. Because we would not have seen the exposure at this high level of the disparities that people of color have faced. And we have white, black, brown, all working together to now address these disparities.
	And so I do feel, and I am hopeful, that things are going to change. That systems change is going to play out of this. We have tech companies now, and various sectors in the workforce, that are looking at having an equity, inclusion and diversity program and staff, to help uplift the systemic racism that has plagued us. And that's dealing with health disparities, housing disparities, income disparities, food insecurity.
	And so I think that there's a lens on this right now that you haven't heard people talk about before at various levels. But they are now.
Mary (19:33):
So out of this comes some sort of unity. If we all row in the same direction, it's gonna be much better in the end. Absolutely.
Pastor Paul Bains (19:42):
Yeah. A- and Mary, when you say that, there's a passage that I've said, uh, Psalms 133: [inaudible 00:19:49] "How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity." Well, what's the first three letters of the word "unity"?
Mary (19:58):
U-N-I.
Pastor Paul Bains (20:00):
U-N-I.
Mary (20:00):
Yeah.
Pastor Paul Bains (20:00):
It's you and I that's gonna make that difference. You and I can bring about a change. In the words of Margaret Mead, "Never think that a small group of people can't impact the world; it's the only group that ever has."
Mary (20:14):
Mm. [inaudible 00:20:17] give you goosebumps, you know. Those things that stop you when you hear something that's true.
	So that brings me to my final question. And I have to ask you, because you're so practiced and ... adept at being hopeful. On your darkest day, why do you still have hope?
Pastor Paul Bains (20:38):
Well, I would say it's not easy. It's not easy. Because there are some times when you see the injustices that you can see when we know someone can help someone, and they don't do it. That gets underneath my skin, in, in true transparency here.
	When I see people taking advantage of other people. Whether they're taking advantage of gender differences; it rips apart my heart. And it makes me angry. That's okay, because the Bible says, "Be angry and sin not." (laughs)
Mary (21:11):
(laughs)
Pastor Paul Bains (21:11):
That's a level of frustration that again, with [inaudible 00:21:17] of our faith. Because I have hope. I have hope in the One, that, uh, brought light into my life. And that I feel that hope He can bring into everyone's life.
	And so I don't have insurance. But I have a level of assurance that helps me get through that challenging day. So, that is what gives me hope in my darkest days.
Mary (21:44):
Thank you.
	So now I know why I love Pastor Bains so much. He is like my tulips. He never retreats. He only reloads. He might go beneath the ground. We might not be able to see him for a moment. But that's only because he's collecting himself, allowing himself to feel sad. And discouraged. And frustrated and confused. And yet, all the time he's doing that, he's retooling. He's refueling. He's rebuilding.
	And ultimately, why does he still hope? Out of responsibility, out of a sense that that's the legacy we leave. Out of a sense of urgency. I heard so many things.
	But what I really heard, more than anything, is that if he can do it, I can do it. We can do it. And together, if we all hope, if we all come out, each and every time, each and every spring, past each and every challenge; we'll be okay. And we will be able to pass the next generation a better future. A more hopeful future than the one we inherited. That's why I love Pastor Bains.
	Please join me next time when we talk to Will 'Unga from Salt Lake City. I look forward to it.