Pep Talk: "We Gotta Wake Up The Neighborhood"

“Come on everybody, let’s wake up the neighborhood!”

That’s often the battle cry from A Stronger Cord’s head trainer Drew Peterson as he exhorts those gathered for the free workout. The Colorado native implores others to “Push yourself, don’t hurt yourself” during a 30-minute sweat-inducing session heavy on calisthenics. ASC’s Knuckleheads focus on endorphin-producing sweat, friendship-building conversations and a harmony-building spirit encouraging better fitness, relationships and communities.

The excellent trainer wants participants to “Raise the roof” of the gym. Get into it. No daffy ducking. 

Anyway, the devoted husband and father of two darling daughters is great at inspiring those sweating away to bark out the counts with gusto. At least for me, that’s very cool. The spirit in the gym oozes with unity. One Heart Beat. Elevated for our physical and mental well being.

“Come on everybody, let’s wake up the neighborhood.” While it’s a great rallying cry for a movement designed to reduce the damage homelessness brings to Denver, it’s also an alarming truth to life in America today.

We gotta wake up.

At the usual Friday morning Platoon meeting your scribe attends with a bunch of knuckleheads trying to grow stronger in faith, a man asked for prayers for his son’s high school. “We’ve had several suicides this year. My son knew a young man who recently took his life.” Tragic. Kids are too stressed these days.

We gotta wake up the neighborhood.

Over coffee a few days ago, a leader in the fight against Denver’s homeless challenge shared that, in recent years, the cost of taking someone from homeless to housing has increased four-fold. A big part of the alarming increase? The Mile High City’s runaway costs to rent a home or apartment.

Reporting from the front lines, most on the comeback trail from homelessness start in jobs that don’t pay much. Low pay and high rent. Rock and a hard place. We gotta figure out ways to get homeless folks into housing with a decent job and a good support network. It’s what A Stronger Cord is trying to do. We just happen to start with a workout. 

A respected man employed at a major non profit player in this area is sounding the alarm that costs are onerous. The program’s future is in doubt. An already dire situation possibly made worse if an excellent provider of such services backs away because of the costs?

We gotta wake up the neighborhood.

A random passerby flips open his mobile device and records a South Carolina policeman shooting a man eight times in the back. Cop is white, man running from the law is black and it appears, from the videos, the officer was never threatened. Unconscionable.

Hey folks, we gotta wake up the neighborhood, come together and figure this out. Too many teen suicides, too many homeless people and too little respect for one another.

A Stronger Cord’s trying to lead the comeback. We could use your voice at the workouts.