Vote for Joe

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported violent crime is up in the city this year, led by more homicides. And our section of Cleveland, recently, reflects some of this trend… About a week ago, there was a street corner gun fatality a couple miles from us. Then right up our street (also last week), there was an attempted rape of a 13-year-old girl in an alley. (It was thwarted when someone in a bus stop called police.) At the nearby Catholic Worker Storefront the other night, a drop-in place for the disadvantaged, they had to close because one “guest” threatened another. We were there that night volunteering, and the atmosphere could best be described as “on edge” even before the incident… Craig Tame, Cleveland’s chief of public health and safety was quoted in the Plain Dealer article on crime: “Economic conditions, drugs and demographics all affect the patterns of crime…” I am just working on an update for our position paper on crime, and I agree with Mr. Tame. That is, if we really want to curb crime, we have to impact poverty, drug addiction, racial tension… Law enforcement is just one part of it. Note: When asked about crime during an interview with the Worthington (MN) Globe News several years ago, I said I wanted to see: “less.” Is that insightful, or what?

Interviewed Ofosu Amponsah as part of my position paper research on the economy. Mr. Amponsah, who is from Ghana, West Africa, teaches economics at the Bryant-Stratton College in the Cleveland area. He said to establish true “competitive markets” based on sustainability (for everyone), we need to revert back to an older orientation where there were, say, five to 10 people in a local company that produced, primarily, for local people. And he said there needs to be a resurgence of small Mom & Pop stores, etc., as well. Mr. Amponsah said the neighborhoods in Cleveland are deteriorating because so many of these shops, and small companies, were now vacant. And what’s more, with people moving from neighborhood to neighborhood desperately searching for work (and/or moving because the neighborhood their family had lived in for generations was decaying), there is no “socio-cohesion” anymore, said Mr. Amponsah. He said to help correct this and breath life back into some of these neighborhoods, a package of significant tax breaks, and other incentives, need to go to small businesses, in tandem with help from local ‘business incubators,’ and so on. Note: Mr. Amponsah said the type of globalization the U.S. is spearheading, is creating “wage slavery” in the sweat shops of the Third World. Meanwhile, us American consumers go on buying the cheapest priced items possible, without a social justice thought.

Went to an excellent presentation on the book Moral Politics. The presentation was given by Cleveland’s Dick Weber, who is a social worker. Mr. Weber said the basic theme of the book is that there is a “conceptual link between politics and morality in our country.” What’s more, this dynamic is often shaped, to one degree or another, by a person’s upbringing. He said the book explains two basic family models that the author believes are on different ends of the continuum. Those are: “athoritarian male model vs nurturing mother model.” And how these get extrapolated into the nation, is people growing up in the authoritarian male dominated family lean toward a more structured society based on “conservative priorities” like: moral strength (enforced, for instance, by militarism); moral purity (social movements like feminism and environmentalism are often considered outside the lines of this, so to speak); moral order (male dominated society)… Meanwhile, the assertion is those who have grown up with the nurturing mother model, lean more toward such “liberal priorities” as: moral nurturance (a tendency toward more empathy and less structure); nurturance of social ties (making sacrifices — philisophically and otherwise — to keep community together); moral growth (open mindedness to alternatives to a solely male dominated society)… In the discussion afterward, my wife Liz said these explanations were quite helpful in seeing some of the underlying psycho-social dynamics in our nation. However, she was concerned that describing these models in — in polar ends of the continuum — may be: ‘polarizing.’ What’s more, she said seldom is this as black and white as the author seems to present. That is, in raising our eight-year-old boy, healthy parenting calls for a combination. That is, because he doesn’t have (as most eight-year-olds don’t) strong internal control, he needs a regular degree of authoritarian, parental guidance. Likewise, for healthy support in the developmental stages, he also needs regular, empathetic nurturance. Liz’s point is most families display some of each, to one degree or another. And extrapolated out into society, many peoples’ politics are a mix — from issue to issue. (The conundrum is being limited, basically, to a two party system that is often perceived as: “either/or” on many issues.) Liz’s last point that night was that we need to look for “common ground” in all this and to keep dialogue going — so the best of each orientation emerges and is blended into the best society we can have — all for the common good.

Met with Stephanie Taylor who is on a board for “Affordable Housing” on the near west side of Cleveland. Ms. Taylor said the area is going through a steady process of: “gentrification.” That is, developers are coming into the neighborhoods and rennovating. The problem here is, as the places are rennovated… the rents go up, etc. The lower-income people who have lived in the neighborhoods here for generations, then are basically forced to move, said Ms. Taylor. Note: As a result of some of the lobbying for affordable housing, recently four historic apartment buildings in this neighborhood have been rennovated — and offered as low income residences. An article in the Plain Press here explained the $8.6 million West Side Homes Project was a four-year collaborative effort between local development corporttions, housing groups, the city of Cleveland, the public housing agency, social service agencies and charities. Thirteen of the housing units target families with incomes less than $2,000 a year and rents in these units are $50 per month. Twenty five units are reserved for families with incomes form 30 to 50% of the area median income ($13,520 to $16,240). Rents on these units range from $204 to $304 per month. And so on…

Veterens Day. The front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer carried a story about a Marine Veteran who said he grew up watching war glorified on such shows as: Combat. After he got into the Service, he did tours of Vietnam and Iraq and said he saw the real reality of war… I’d recently interviewed Cleveland’s John Smith (not his real name), a Veteran who has also seen the reality of war. He was a medic who developed Post Traumatic Stress and has undergone an extensive amount of counseling through VA Hospital programs… Several years ago, I interviewed another former Army medic. He lived in the state of Washington. He was at “Hamburger Hill” in Vietnam, the second bloodiest battle in that war’s history. For three days, he said he was on the hill, amidst a constant firefight, attending to soldiers. When the battle ended, he said he (almost robotically, read: in a state of emotional disassociation) walked down the hill, found a tarp and curled up under it in a fetal position. He was airlifted out, and eventually was sent back to the States. Out of the Service, he got a small house boat on a slough of the Columbia River — and rarely left it. (A dimension of his PTSD was agoraphobia.) When he did infrequently leave, he’d take a small skiff and go down the slough to a railroad bridge that reminded him of one he knew in Vietnam. There, he’d camp for weeks at a time — away from everyone. Note: As a formal mental health counselor, I know about the various symptoms of PTSD. And I know how real (another ‘reality’ of war), and debilitating, they can be. It is my belief these Veterans should have every counseling avenue imaginable available to help them heal. And even at this, I don’t think people ever really heal entirely from war.