Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen Behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance

For more than thirty years, Tom Roddy presided over the Atlanta Resource Foundation. His major work was to encourage people who in many different ways were bringing hope to those living in Atlanta's most difficult neighborhoods. Tom wrote a “non-news” newsletter about what was going on in the city and also inside of himself—as he came up against the promises and demands of the gospel and the stark realities and disparities of urban life. Journeying in one city for many decades, he has seen that history repeats itself. The same personalities and the same issues keep popping back up. There are economic booms and busts, the ongoing displacement of the poor, rising rhetoric around immigrants, and the pull of a retaliatory response to terrorism. “When Atlanta won the 1996 Summer Olympics, we were involved in the redevelopment of neighborhoods adjacent to the new Olympic Stadium,” he writes. “We helped mobilize the faith community to welcome visitors to Atlanta. We created the Summerhill Neighborhood Redevelopment Association and launched Quest Atlanta. Through it all, we could never escape the plight of the poor, especially the homeless.”