In 2001 Street Sense vendor David Ger was in Maryland at community college pursuing a pre-med course of study. He had originally left his home in Kenya to study accounting and information systems in California, but made the move to the East Coast after suffering from pneumonia during his first year in school.
On Sept. 11,2001 the twin towers of the World Trade Center were toppled killing many and pushing homeland security to the forefront of the national agenda. David said he felt conspicuous after the attack. People seemed more suspicious of him and his reasons for coming to America. His immigration status came into question, and he began to see doors closing around him.
According to David, it wasn’t exactly the events of Sept. 11 that led to his homelessness, but rather the fervent sense of American nationalism and the heightened security measures. “After September 11 security was taken out of context, and freedoms were taken away,” he said. Quoting Benjamin Franklin, scientist and philosopher, David added, “Security compromised my freedom.”
David feels it is important to struggle against security that hinders choice. “Anyone who is denied the fundamentals [food, shelter, water, and clothes) has the right to fight for them.” Thinking further he joked, “Come on, no one deserves to eat baloney sandwiches on Christmas Day!”
David sees Street Sense as a way to secure those fundamentals and therefore his freedom. He feels that the program gives him an elevated purpose and takes him out of the conflicts often associated with life on the street like fighting for food and shelter.
Drawing from his experiences on the street and on the history of his native country, David is working on a new book called “Gods of War.” David’s goal with the book is to vindicate war through the story of two Kenyan tribes: the Luo and the Kikuyu. According to David, war is part of Kenya’s tradition and it was through war that the nation was built. David sees war as an important exercise in self-reflection. “Through war we define ourselves; through war we learn what security really means,” he explained.
Toward the end of our meeting David pulled out a small notebook containing the beginnings of his book project printed out in small, neat handwriting. Below is a sample from the book’s introduction.
Gods of War
“The nature of war is derived from the 18th century timeline and Napoleonic model. There are two types of War. One: All-out war. 2) Limited war. War is a continuation of policy by other means.
The war fought by the two tribes was a policy based on the protection of food, the Nile fish, at all costs against curses by the wizards of the Kikuyu tribe. It was an all-out war which only a higher power ‘Stone of Ger’ could resolve.”
