Vote for Joe

Met with Mark Pestak, who has lived on the near west side of Cleveland with his family for the past 15 years. For this man who has a Ph.D. in physics and is working on a NASA space station project, it was a conscious decision to live in this depressed area. He said the city needed his time and energy, much more than a suburb did. While here, Mark has been involved with the “Church in the City Project,” a Cleveland Diocese initiative to connect suburban parishes with city ones and get more resources to the urban poor. Conversely, parishioners in the city churches share their time and talent with the suburban parishes as well. Besides this volunteer work, Mark advocated for the poor by helping organize a successful effort to get a hazardous waste site removed from the area. He said it was tragically typical that such a plant would be located near the heart of a densely populated “poor” city area. (Something a more well off suburban area would almost never have to contend with.)

Our family volunteered at the Catholic Worker “Storefront” on Lorain Ave. in Cleveland today. It was a Saturday morning breakfast for the poor and homeless of the area. The Catholic Worker charism is one of hospitality to the poor. Some 50, both ‘down and out’ folks, as well as good number of “working poor,” came. My wife Liz cooked, our Sarah, 9, served up the sausage at the counter, and Joseph, 7, went from table to table bringing milk, fruit… There were 10 volunteers in all. I talked with “Angelo” who said while he had a job in the factory district, he still couldn’t make rent and was currently staying at a nearby homeless shelter. Paul, one of the Catholic Worker volunteers who has been helping here the past 11 years, said the people who come for the meal are a quite diverse mix between those with drug and alcohol problems, to those who might be considered “modern hobos,” to those with mental disorders… Paul also said he’s seeing an increasing number of families with children. And he said he finds that quite disturbing in the scheme of how more of society is spiralling down.

Met with Bill Merriman, who is a deacon at St. Patrick’s Church on the near west side of Cleveland. He has been a lynchpin in helping refugees transition into Cleveland. The most recent arrivals to the city’s near west side have been families from violence racked Liberia. The Migrant Refugee Office here, working in tandem with a number of non-profit agencies, helps connect the new arrivals with such social services as: Medicaid, food stamps, language classes… Bill also said he, and a number of other regular citizens, have rallied as well, helping the Liberians (Somalians, Rwandans…) with shelter, furniture, food, tutoring… although they’re having a hard time getting any of them to become Cleveland Indian fans. (No mystery there, given the team’s last couple seasons.) Bill said helping the refugees is the essence of what the Gospel calls for: “…to welcome strangers.” (There are 13 million refugees worldwide. For more on this subject, see: Refugees International.)

Our family joined a group of some 50 Catholic Workers (and others) today on a damp, cold, two and a half hour Good Friday “Way of the Cross” walk through downtown Clevleland. The Stations of the Cross were matched against modern day issues, using significant downtown buildings as back drops. For instance, in front of the Justice Building a one act play was staged showing Jesus not defending Himself against Pilate. This was then correlated to how the poor often have little defense in the legal system… Of the Station about ‘Jesus meeting the women’ on the road to His crucifixion, the speaker said there were millions of displaced women ( and children) in the country of Columbia. On a recent trip to Columbia, she said she learned Civil War there claims thousands of lives every year, wtih, for instance, husbands being killed, farm animals being slaughtered, and women and children being displaced “…because someone (with more power) wanted the land”… Another speaker noted the gospel does not intend for us to look the other way when it comes to this type of atrocity. Rather, the gospel is intended to unsettle us, to touch the “real sin of society.” That is, the grave sin of omission if we do choose to look the other way while violence racks Columbia (the Sudan, the Congo…) Then there is the “sin of selfishness,” as most Americans live quite comfortably, while many in the Third World live on one meager meal a day (or are starving to death altogether). What’s more, there is the “sin” of gluttony as our use of fossil fuels in America (excessive driving, heating, air-conditioning…) creates tremendous environmental devastation, read: acid rain, global warming, vanishing species… As an end to the walk today, in front of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument on Cleveland’s Public Square, pictures of Iraquis killed in the current war were placed on the steps in front of the statues of American soldiers and sailors. It was a “monument” to the countless others in this war — that we never hear about in the (American) media, said Chris Knestrick. These deaths were correlated to the Station about Jesus dying and being taken from the cross… I have to say this was, by far, the most moving (and relevant) “Way of the Cross” I’ve ever attended.

I learned of a rather fascinating building in downtown Cleveland today. The five-story office complex is being billed as a “green building” and is being used as a model. There are solar panels and raised bed gardens on the roof. Energy saving motion sensor lights are used in the hallways. Parking lot runoff, sometimes tainted with car oil an anti-freeze, is filtered through a green space as opposed to just emptying directly into a storm sewer. The interior walls are painted with a non-toxic, vegetable paint base — with just a faint smell of broccoli.