Mennonite Central Committee News Service
September 3, 1971
VSer GETS PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN SOCIAL STUDIES
by Lois Dyck, VS, Atlanta
An elderly woman entered his office,
income tax papers clutched in her hand. As happens in other matriarchal
families, she is supporting her two granddaughters. But when
she had claimed them as dependents on her tax form, her claim
was rejected. Could Mr. Maynard help her?
An anxious woman whose husband had
been jailed over the weekend for a misdemeanor wanted to know
the procedure for posting bail. Where could Mr. Maynard find
a free lawyer for her husband?
The Poor People's Newspaper, with
its mailing list of 7,000, needs more duplicated addresses typed
before the next issue. Ray has to do this himself.
Ray Maynard, Northbrook, Ill., a liberated
male. VSer in Mennonite Central Committee's program in Atlanta,
Ga., is his own secretary, receptionist,
amateur lawyer, and computerized source of information--a masculine
Ann Landers.
The Poverty Rights Office where he
works is an extension of Emmaus House. Four years ago, Father
Austin Ford left his suburban Episcopalian church because of
a concern for black victims of poverty. He established Emmaus
House in the Summerhill-Mechanicsville area of Atlanta, providing
a place where blacks, after becoming familiarized with their
rights, can organize their own fights for justice.
Here, in Ray's office, legal procedures
and explanations are greatly simplified for poor people who need
information about housing authority, prisoner's rights, medicaid,
draft counseling, social security, applications for free lunches,
surplus food pick-ups,and welfare.
In addition to his responsibilities
at the Poverty Rights Office, Ray assists in the draft counseling
program at Quaker House in the evenings.
As a graduate of sociology, Ray is
experiencing his first year in practical work. Survival of the
unfittest is a sobering achievement as Ray witnesses the struggle
for self-respect and meaning in the lives of the poor people.
Ray is a member of the Northbrook Methodist
Church, Illinois. He and his wife, Mary, Calvary Mennonite Church,
Washington, Illinois, are both in VS in Atlanta.
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