I crawl out of my tent to an overcast sky and wet, trampled earth. The air is brisk but the wind has fallen quiet. A Teflon pot of hot water is already on the propane stove, billowing steam toward the sky. Young people in thick winter coats gather around, dancing to stay warm, as they wait to prepare some donated instant oatmeal. My neighbors greet me with smiles and waves which I return.

Instinctively, I feel the need to beautify our new campgrounds. I bend and pick up any trash I find on the empty lot; candy wrappers, broken glass, cigarette butts. As I carry items back and forth to the trash can, I gaze up the yellow brick wall of the adjacent building. Pastor Brooks' green tent can still be seen on the rooftop above us, resolute and serene. I wonder if he is awake yet.

Corey Brooks has been on the rooftop for over a week and intends to stay up there yet till the New Year. He is the Pastor of New Beginnings Church in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood, an area fraught with gang violence. Pastor Brooks had to perform 10 funerals at his church this past summer, all people under the age of 25. The youngest was a sixteen year old boy. At the boy's service, Pastor Brooks swore to the family that he would make sure to protect his community from further tragedy. Shortly after, people were seen shooting guns from the motel rooftop across the street from New Beginnings. Pastor Brooks knew he had to do something. He arranged a contract to buy the motel across the street. The motel had been shut down a while back to rid it of the gang members and drug dealers it harbored that contributed to neighborhood violence. However, the issue clearly was not resolved. Since the shooting incident, Pastor Brooks decided he wanted to acquire the motel and develop it into a community center that could provide jobs and resources for community improvement. The building costs about $450,000. Seeking a way to raise awareness and encourage people to donate to the cause, Pastor Brooks vowed that he would camp on the roof of the motel until enough money was raised for its purchase. He soon reached out to Occupy Chicago to stand with him in his fight.

I visited Pastor Brooks yesterday evening at his rooftop encampment. His tent was large and cozy, with two efficient space heaters running, a couple lamps providing light, a desk with a computer for blogging, and several fold-up chairs for visitors. He said he spends his days reading and writing and asked us Occupiers about our own stories. He was a patient listener and a kind soul; I could tell he was genuinely interested in getting to know us. He told us he had been fasting and drinking lots of green tea. I was taken aback by his courage and came down from the roof inspired by his humility. I spent the rest of the night under an Occupy Chicago tent roasting s'mores and singing along with acoustic guitar songs. Everyone was filled with laughter and joy, not just at the fact that we finally were able to hold a camp, but that a local community was taking a powerful stance against many of the issues we speak out against and that we were kindly invited to join.

I had a fairly privileged childhood and even now, after living in Chicago for nearly nine years, I feel rather naïve to the realities of violence. I asked a couple of the New Beginnings Church members how their experience was, living in Woodlawn for decades despite the frequent shootings. They said they just learned to cope with it and go about their day.

Occupy Chicago, and every Occupy chapter, has been standing up for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and has been seeking solutions and alternatives to political and economic power structures that capitalize on diminishing the quality of life of the majority. The lack of opportunity in our nation, for education, for empowerment, and for mere survival, has pooled into a vast array of issues. Some of those issues, such as the daily possibility of having bullets fired at one on the way to their peaceful place of community, are more immediate than others. While we, not just the Occupy movement but us as responsible citizens, must keep discussing and acting in long-term ways that address the roots of violence in our country, it is also imperative that we prevent it in the interim. The present consequences of violence, such as those forced on the residents of Woodlawn as well as neighborhoods across the nation, are too grave.

Pastor Brooks' movement to free our neighborhoods from violence will take more than just one community center. It will take the willingness of every individual in the community to open their hearts, lend a hand, and commit to a just future. However, this symbolic first step of transforming a space of depravity into a stronghold of peace is sure to inspire struggling communities everywhere to take that step with Woodlawn.