Cincinnati Light Rail Page 12
The Audacity of Focus Page 11
STREETVIBES
$1
F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 9 • I s s u e 1 5 1 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
This Thing Called ‘Race’ Exhibit shows how much, and how little, there is to it By Lew Moores Contributing Writer We’re not all that different. Are we? Walk through the new RACE: Are We So Different? exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center and you get a feel for the enormity of what they’re trying to do – a challenge to, as organizers of the exhibit hope, the way we talk, think and learn about race. Organized and developed by the American Anthropological Association and Science Museum of Minnesota, the exhibit opened at the Museum Center Jan. 17, just three days before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and will run through April 26. What becomes apparent with a visit to the exhibit, or with a visit to its Web site
construct ( w w w. u n based on derstandinoutward grace.org), is appearthat it’s not ances, just a blackusually white issue. skin color. The exhibit, The theme says Tonya is about Matthews, balancing the center’s the scivice presience, the dent of muh i s t o r y, seums, does the everya good job day expeof pointing rience. that out, and “ Yo u in pointing can pull out is that out all of race is more the DNA cultural and charts geographical you want, and hardly and that is based on not going genetics or to help biology. We you come are all homo to grips sapiens, with, say, sharing a Photo courtesy of American Anthropological Association and the civil common an- Science Museum of Minnesota. rights cestor. go through the exhibit, the less movement. Genetically speakSo what is race? you’ll be able to answer that ing, it’s virtually impossible to question, which is possibly a ‘Defining whiteness’ tell one person from another. good thing,” Matthew says. “I You would not be able to take think at the end of the day, I “You know, the more you out particular genes that are am going with race is a social
particularly associated with what we define as a race. So there’s no scientific construct. “That’s a little weird for people because clearly I can use my eyes and differentiate people of different races.” There is no directional guide to the exhibit, located in about 5,000 square feet of space in the center’s History Museum. Visitors can start wherever their eye leads them once they enter, explains Chad Mertz, the center’s director of public relations. Exhibit interpreters, such as Emily Culver of the museum staff, are there to help and to orient school groups coming through. The exhibit is filled with interactive displays, video kiosks, informational graphics; it is designed with no age in mind. “It’s completely open to what type of people we’re trying to reach, from a younger audience, where you want to keep their attention, to older audiences,” Mertz says. Although attendance numbers aren’t yet available for the first two weeks the exhibit has been See Race, P. 8
Cold Comfort Agencies, donors work together to open emergency cold shelter By Adam Clark Staff Writer December 25, 2008, was anything but a white Christmas. On the one day many people wish it would snow, it didn’t. It was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit most of the day, and the sun shown brightly, giving the illusion of even warmer weather. Then came January 13th. As Christmas thoughts had faded and the event on everyone’s mind was the inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama, it got cold. It got very cold. Homeless individuals did whatever they could to keep warm, as they often do throughout the hard winter months. In response to the extreme temperatures, the mayor’s office, Cincinnati
Health Department, Cincin- ation Center, 1715 Republic nati Recreation Commission, St., offered a place for people Cincinnati Police and the to get out of the severe cold Greater Cincinnati Red Cross and gave them pillows and collaborated to open the city’s blankets. The facility was open January 13-20. The shelter Cold Shelter. The organizations have opens when the temperature outside gets becollaborated for “Ten (degrees) low 10 degrees, over 10 years to is still cold, 20 with the wind fill the gap bechill taken into tween the numis cold, but we ber of shelter aren’t really set account. In years beds available up for that,” Heyl past, it opened in the Cincinnati only when the says. “It can be t e m p e r a t u r e area and the total pretty stressful dropped to zero number of homeon our staff.” less individuals degrees; but the in need of emercity revised the gency shelter policy last year. “This year the team felt that on extremely cold nights. An estimated 1,300 people are the old standard, zero degrees, homeless each night in Cin- was worth reviewing,” says cinnati. Rocky Merz, spokesman for The Cold Shelter, housed the health department. “After at the Over-the-Rhine Recre- a review of our factors and
some comparison to other cities, the decision was made to change the standard to 10 degrees.” Timothy Heyl of the recreation commission acknowledges that even the new policy doesn’t prevent homeless people from suffering. “Ten (degrees) is still cold, 20 is cold, but we aren’t really set up for that,” he says. “It can be pretty stressful on our staff.” The recreation center shouldered a lot of the burden, as its staff worked on the Cold Shelter while still keeping all of their programs and normal responsibilities in place. Heyl described the environment during the week as “stressful,” saying the new policy prompted the Cold Shelter to be open for the longest dura-
tion in quite some time. Two staff members from the recreation center and a police officer stay on duty during the 10 p.m.–8 a.m. hours that the Cold Shelter is open. About 100 people a night packed into a cramped space about the size a skating rink during the week that it was open. “I haven’t seen any children stay the night in here, just men and women mostly,” Heyl says. “We got a lot of media attention, and because of it we received an outpouring of donations of pillows and blankets.” Many people also donated food and snacks. The collaboration proved successful, as the Cold Shelter was able to accommodate everyone who showed up.
2 News Briefs Homeless Ministry Tends to Their Feet
Atlanta – The Rev. Bob Book and his wife, Holly, have established a spa for homeless people once a week, scrubbing their feet in imitation of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. The service helps prevent foot infections, which many homeless people suffer from. Each Monday about three dozen homeless men and women get a soak, pumice, nail trim, massage and a pair of socks. Book tells people with serious foot problems to return a volunteer doctor is available.
Homeless Agency Dumps First lady Chicago – The Chicago Christian Industrial League has fired Patti Blagojevich, first lady of Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune. Blagojevich was the organization’s chief fundraiser. Her husband, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is facing federal corruption charges, having allegedly tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama. Patti Blagojevich isn’t accused of wrongdoing.
Condos could shelter homeless people Amherst, Mass. – Three condominiums could become housing for homeless people if town officials use a $450,000 from a federal grant to buy them. The money comes from the Community Development Block Grant program. Under the proposal, the town would contract with an agency to operate the housing.
Recession Could Increase Homelessness Washington, D.C. – Growing unemployment could cause an additional 1.5 million people to become homeless in the next two years in the United States, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Advocates for homeless people have sought funding for 200,000 new vouchers for Section 8 subsidized housing, but the economic-stimulus bill pending in the U.S. House of Representatives so far doesn’t include the funds.
The Vibe
Streetwise By Gregory Flannery
Keep Obama Honest So Barack Obama is president. Are these amazing times or what? Some of his cabinet choices are disconcerting, keeping the same defense secretary who served the Bush regime, making Hillary Clinton secretary of state in spite of her support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But the first two weeks of the new administration have been a joyous rush of promises kept: ordering the closing of the torture chamber at Guantanamo Bay, ordering the military to begin planning withdrawal from Iraq, reversing the Bush regime’s blockage of California’s clean-air standards, restoring a commitment to the spirit of the federal Freedom of Information Act, ending the global gag order on funding for foreign contraceptive services that respect a woman’s right to choose. These are heady times for people who want their government to further the causes of peace, justice and liberty. It is therefore all the more important that we maintain the momentum that put Obama in the White House. This is best done by carefully scrutinizing his every move, demanding that he keep faith with the promise of progress that he dared us to believe is possible.
Auspicious New Year: Cranley Quits John Cranley has left the building. There is a sort of symmetry at play here. Appointed to Cincinnati City Council to fill a vacancy, he has left before his term ended. That is a good thing in and of itself, but all the more so because his successor is Greg Harris, a Democrat worthy of the name. Cranley is a complex political figure. He was an instrumental part of city council’s ongoing war against housing for poor people, sponsoring the spurious “impaction ordinance” that restricts the construction of new subsidized housing. In the wake of the uprising against police violence in Over-the-Rhine in 2001, he successfully proposed hiring more cops, before serious reforms of the police department had been undertaken – and that only with the force of a federal court order. In late 2002, when Bush was gearing up for the invasion of Iraq, Cranley attended a prowar rally on Fountain Square. (It is telling that he quibbles with that characterization, saying the rally was intended to “support the troops,” not to support the war. The distinction is absurd per se, but more to the point, what did Cranley ever do to support the anti-war effort?) Yet he helped found the Cincinnati chapter of the Innocence Project, which works to win the release of people wrongfully jailed for crimes they didn’t commit. He also sponsored the legislation that created Cincy Care, an innovative, though limited, initiative to help small employers provide minimal health care for workers. Cranley never succeeded in his bid for a seat in Congress, which left conservative neanderthal Steve Chabot in office; but that was, in the end, a good thing for all involved. The last thing Congress needed while Bush was in power was another Democrat willing to roll over as he extended American imperial ambitions, trampled on the human-rights protections afforded by the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions and whittled away at funding for programs to serve the poor. Cranley surely would have rolled over, along with Hillary Clinton and all the other Democrats who shamelessly cowered after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But Cranley’s defeats in the congressional elections were ultimately to his own long-term best interest, too: His unexpected rise to political office fueled an impressively swift and dishearteningly thorough arrogance, unseemly in a person of any age, but especially one so young. It can only be hoped that losing to Chabot tempered Cranley’s character, whatever it is. For now he has removed himself to private life, where it is to be hoped that he prospers and remains for a very long time.
Wanted: A Progressive Mayor This is the year Cincinnati elects a new mayor – or keeps Mark Mallory in office for a second term. Assuming Mallory doesn’t get a job in the Obama administration, we know who the Democratic candidate will be. Chabot might run for the Republicans. Roxanne Qualls could be the Charter Committee’s nominee. But who will run as the advocate for poor people, working people, environmental justice, public transportation and adequate funding for human services? If the three mainstream parties split the vote, can the Green Party play a significant role this year?
Working for Peace in the Middle East Hundreds of people turned out for a rally last month on Fountain Square, opposing opposition to the Israeli invasion of Gaza. This is, of course, encouraging; war everywhere and always ought be opposed. That conclusion is simple, but the underlying conflict itself is far more complex. To provide a deeper understanding, the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center will present another in its series known as “Day of Dialogue.” The program Feb. 22 is “A Palestinian, An Israeli and the Heart of the Middle East” The agenda includes an opening presentation, small-group discussions and refreshments from 1:30-5 p.m. Feb. 22 at First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton Ave., Avondale.
STREETVIBES February 2009 Streetvibes is a newspaper that provides relevant discussions of homelessness, poverty and other related social justice issues. It is published monthly by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@ yahoo.com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes. wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Contributing Writers Lew Moores, Adam Clark, Margo Pierce, Stephanie Dunlap, Georgine Getty, David Heitfield, Andrew Anderson, Paul Kopp, Mike Henson, Steve Sunderland, Dan La Botz Photography/Artwork Andrew Anderson, Andrew Freeze, Angela Pancella, Lynne Ausman, Paul Kopp, Anthony Williams Advisory Committee Joe Wessels, Steve Novotni, Andrew Freeze, Georgine Getty, Michael Henson, Stephanie Dunlap, Steve Gibbs The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Programs include Streetvibes, “Voice of the Homeless” Speaker’s Bureau, Cincinnati Urban Experience (CUE), Homeless Curriculum, and Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project. All donations support these programs and are taxdeductible to the full extent of the law.
We are members of:
STREETVIBES February 2009
Eight Minutes with an
‘Unconventional Hausfrau’ Serving up
toothpaste, underwar, dignity and hope By Margo Pierce Columnist
Mary Magdalene House isn’t a house but it offers some of the comforts of home – a shower, laundry service and use of a restroom that doesn’t boast a “patrons only” sign. Those without a roof over their heads are welcome -as are those who have a roof but little else -- to stop in and pick up a care package, just like mom used to make, with soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste and other toiletries. The head of this unconventional house isn’t the German housewife who might have lived in Over- the-Rhine in days gone day. Here Brother Giancarlo Bonutti keeps the peace. Referred to by all as “Brother Gian” (pronounced “John”), Bonutti sits behind a reception desk calling the names of those waiting for their cost-free shower. He offers powder, a razor and other personal care items along with a towel and was cloth. All the while people come and go from the reception area in order to use the phone – also
3
Community News
free of charge – pick up mail and get a splash of cologne or a shot of Fabreeze to freshen up a heavy winter coat. What the people standing in the reception area don’t see are the shelves around the corner from Brother Gian’s perch; they’re jam-packed with shirts, pants, belts, socks, underwear, long johns and other clothing items. Piled in front of that, in milk crates and other bins, are shampoo, cold tablets, lotion and many other personal care needs. “We believe that dignity is the beginning of hope,” Bonutti says. That dignity isn’t restricted to the homeless or poor; anyone can walk through the door with any need and the staff and volunteers will do everything they can to help. All it takes is signing in with Bonutti so he can put your information into the computer; it’s how staff and volunteer know items are given out. “We keep track of everything we give people,” Bonutti says. “We only have enough long underwear that we can only help people with one pair for the winter, and it’s up to you to figure out when you can get them washed.” Mary Magdalene House can toss them in with one of the 20–25 loads of wash they do every day, also free of charge. “Most people who shower here will also leave a set of clothes to be washed after they shower,” Bonutti says.
Volunteers at Mary Magdalene House sort clothing.
Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in Greater Cincinnati. “Eight Minutes” is an effort to learn who they are and what motivates them.
Brother Giancarlo Bonutti at Mary Magdalene House. Photos by Andrew Anderson.
“When people are finished with their shower, they bring their towel and washcloth up front. We ask people to please separate out their clothes -- if they have two t-shirts, to not leave one inside the other. If they leave things like that we say, ‘I’m sorry, your mother’s not here to pull them apart for you. You have to remember to do that for us if you want your clothes washed.’ ” Every effort is made to make sure everybody gets back her own clothes. An ingenuous system for keeping track of what belongs to whom has developed over the 20 years that Mary Magdalene House has been in operation. Dirty clothes go into a bag with the guest’s name on it. A list is made of the contents of each load. Colored diaper pins identify duplicate items. The system makes it possible for clothes to be washed, dried, folded and returned to the correct bag for pickup the next day. Clothes are ready within 24 hours.
Three washers and four dryers are more than a typical house would have, but then a typical house doesn’t have up to 100 people popping in everyday to use one of seven showers, either. “About every six weeks to eight weeks we’ll take the day and close up,” Bonutti says. “We go through the computer, find out who’s been here for a shower in the past two weeks. If their name is not on that list and their bag is on the shelf, we pull their bag off the shelf, take what we can reuse and put back in our stock. Things like toothbrushes and razors we pitch. If there’s something like ID, we’ll hold onto for a few months. People know we can’t keep their things here indefinitely.” One of the few things that can suspend a guest’s privileges at the house has to do with laundry. “They leave things in their pocket – they can leave anything from Kleenex to keys to ID card, tobacco, sometimes drug paraphernalia,” Bonutti says. “Sometimes … a few will have these glass crack pipes in their pockets; and when that comes out of the laundry, it’s really dangerous for the volunteers, and staff cut their hands. So if we find out who it is, they’re suspended for services for a period of time until they get some help or until we figure they’re going to be a little more respon-
sible.” The front desk has a list of rehab, mental health and other services, so a guest isn’t left to figure out how to deal with an issue alone. The system for receiving, sorting and distributing donated clothing is equally systematic; volunteers sort clothes into neat piles based on clothing types and size. Sometimes buying trips are necessary to make sure there are enough socks and underwear, including bras of all sizes, because people typically don’t donate those items. At a time when social service organizations, including churches, demand “personal responsibility” according to their arbitrary standards, Mary Magdalene House stands out as a nonjudgmental example of what it means to help people in need. Nobody is considered “unworthy” of assistance, and the only expectation is that the guests treat each other and the 25 volunteers and six staff members with the same level of respect they give. “If a person’s coming here, they get everything they need,” says Brother Gian, the most compassionate, fair-minded and generous “hausfrau” in Over-The-Rhine. Mary Magdalene House, 1221 Main St., is open from 8 a.m.–4 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays. To offer clothing, time or cash, call 513-721-4811.
Community News 4 Georgine Getty Moves On
STREETVIBES February 2009
Advocate, archer, agnostic to continue fighting homelessness By Stephanie Dunlap Contributing Writer
lenge, honestly, has been the in-fighting. It’s hard enough when a politician or someone It’s five degrees Fahrenheit, outside the system doesn’t not counting wind chill, when get it. We have such a strong Georgine Getty sits down to history of not being like that peppermint tea and a sandwich (arguing among agencies) in at Coffee Cincinnati, Emporium. so when it “Let’s end We meant does happen homelessness, and to meet elseit’s really then I will go neuter where but heartbreakcats or something.” this morning. ing her car SV: What - Georgine Getty wouldn’t was your start. biggest sin“Dead, dead, dead,” she gle crisis while at GCCH? says with a wry smile. GG: “It’s constantly coming Getty somehow remains in waves, ’cause crises come unusually good-natured for on so many different levels.” someone in the human serGetty says there’s the kind vices field, particularly some- of crisis that comes when the one who’s spent the past seven downtown outreach worker years working with the chron- calls and says he can’t find ically homeless: arguably the shelter for a woman with most desperate and marginal- a 6-month-old baby and a ized human population. 3-year-old child, as happened At the end of the month three days ago. Then there’s she’ll step down as executive the kind of crisis when fordirector of the Greater Cincin- mer Cincinnati Mayor Charnati Coalition for the Home- lie Luken decided Streetvibes less (GCCH), which publishes was “public enemy number Streetvibes. Getty leaves to one.” become executive director of “And there was the time we the Interfaith Hospitality Net- had to use insurance money to work. meet payroll. Luckily we got While she’s still a captive robbed so the insurance monsubject, Streetvibes wanted to ey came the same day.” sit Getty down to ask her some Getty smiles again: “The nosy exit questions. constant ongoing struggles of SV: What does Cincinnati running a small non-profit.” do right by way of homeless SV: So why are you leavservices? ing? GG: “The bottom line is GG: “I’m excited to work that very, very few homeless with homeless families again. people die from exposure to Mostly the folks I meet are the elements (in Cincinnati), homeless single individuand not a lot of cities can say als who have been homeless that.” for a long time. I love those SV: What’s the biggest on- guys, and I’m always going going challenge for GCCH? to have a place in my heart GG: “The biggest chal- for those guys. The focus of
Georgine Getty and Mark ‘Hustleman’ Shears at the Streetvibes Vendor Holiday Party 2008. Photo by Andy Freeze.
the coalition serving chronically homeless individuals is making sure they’re heard and their rights are protected. And the focus of where I’m going to right now is moving people and families out of homelessness, and I’m looking forward to seeing that firsthand.” SV: Do you have a golden parachute? GG: “I’m stealing my favorite pen.” SV: Why do you hate Cincinnati Councilman Chris Bortz? GG: “I don’t hate Chris Bortz. I’m sure he has many fine qualities.” Getty tries to remember how their ongoing feud began. She can’t pin it. “Chris Bortz just got it in his head that I’m someone I’m not and I was doing something I wasn’t. It’s really funny how some council members pass anti-homeless legislation but they hate it when you say they’re anti-homeless. It’s like public perception is more important than doing the right thing.” SV: How do you deal with all the public attacks? GG: “If I’m getting attacked by the right person, I take it as a sign that I’m doing my job, so that doesn’t bother me. If I get attacked by a homeless person or if I’ve hurt a homeless person’s feelings or if I get a call from an executive director (of a partner agency) and I’ve done something careless, then I feel really bad and I try to make amends. If I got along with council 100 percent of the time, the board should have fired me a long time ago.” SV: Who is the rudest elected official? GG: “I have been personally called on my cell phone and cussed out by four – five!” She stops to count them and, giving up, waves them away. “That’s the thing, they (elected officials) do things that disappoint me all the time. That’s the arrogance, the thing, they think they can call me and yell at me.” SV: Who is the kindest elected official, even when your views don’t align? GG: “(Hamilton County Commissioner) Todd Portune. He always seems legitimately happy to see you. Every time he has an encounter with a Streetvibes vendor he drops us a note.” She adds city councilmen David Crowley and Cecil Thomas and NAACP President Christopher Smitherman to that list.
Georgine Getty, 2002 staff picture. Photo by Jimmy Heath.
SV: How did you get to be ‘I’m going to be homeless when I grow up.’ They don’t executive director, anyway? see the systems that are workGG: “Dumb luck.” Getty says she called to ing against people. They see apply for an administrative laziness. “Homeless people are coordinator position and the person on the phone encour- not lazy. Staying warm, getaged her to apply for execu- ting food -- they’re the most persistent people I know. tive director. “I thought they were loud They’ve just been let down by and dirty and rowdy and systems. “Peothought, ple also I can do “We’re giving the dirtiest don’t that.” chair in the office to see the S V : interview candidates; and (homeDo you we know if they balk at it, l e s s ) still think t h e y ’ r e they’re not right for the job.” b a b i e s . T h e y loud and - Georgine Getty just asdirty and s u m e rowdy? GG: “Uh-huh. Not as loud they’re all adult men.” SV: What would have to as we should be. And by happen for homelessness to ‘dirty.’ I mean gritty.” Though there is an element end? GG: “Housing and jobs. of the elements. “We’re giving the dirtiest Clean, safe, accessible houschair in the office to interview ing they can afford and jobs candidates; and we know if that have health benefits and they balk at it, they’re not pay a living wage. Once you got that taken care of, there’d right for the job. “But rowdy, no – we’re be a very small percentage of more organized than we people who were still homeseem. We’re accountable to less and just a few tweakings our member agencies, to our with the mental health system, board and to homeless people. and you’d have it.” Or she can think of a secOnce we get consensus from all those people, it’s an or- ond way: “Give me $1 billion. I’ll end it tomorrow.” chestrated rowdiness.” SV: Has the panhandlerSV: What don’t people understand about the homeless? registration law, to which you GG: “So many things. They were opposed, turned out the don’t see themselves in home- way you’d expected? GG: “It was one of the few lessness. They see a complete and total Other. And nobody t i m e s See Getty, p. 5 who’s homeless ever said, w h e n
STREETVIBES February 2009
5
Community News
For as Long as It Takes Neither trench foot nor politicans will stop us By Georgine Getty Staff Writer
I’ve done that I’m proud of at the Coalition is rooted in this voice and guided by people When I was interviewing experiencing homelessness. for the job of executive direc- Everything I’m not so proud tor of the Greater Cincinnati of strayed from this voice and Coalition for the Homeless in happened when I just knew 2002, one person asked how that I knew best. As I look back on my career I was going to end homelesswith the Homeless Coalition, ness. I’m flooded with memories I had no idea. So I answered that I would – some good, some I wish I start with people experiencing could block out – but almost homelessness to find out what all of them make me smile, they wanted to do and then en- one way or the other. That’s one thing I love gage them in every step of the struggle. about the Homeless CoaliI didn’t know it at the time, tion. It’s one of the most sebut I had stumbled across the rious places you can work, most important thing that the but it always keeps a sense of Homeless Coalition does: humor about itself. In this job it gives a voice to homeless I’ve been colder than I’ve ever people. Well, no, it doesn’t. been (January street counts It just amplifies the voice that and December Homeless Mealready exists. Everything morial Days) and hotter than I’ve ever been (bridge sweeps in July 2003). I’ve been angrier than I thought possible, and humbled to the point of humiliation. I’ve been braver than I knew I could be, and sneakier than I should be. I’ve lain down and I’ve cried and sworn off the whole thing as a fool’s errand. But more than anything, I’ve laughed. I’ve laughed with my friends, my community. I’ve laughed at absurGeorgine Getty at Annual Dinner 2008. dity, at politicians, Photo by Andrew Anderson.
at shared jokes. I’ve laughed The number one question I’m asked is: Should I give at myself. I’ve laughed at the to a panhandler? Here is the definitive answer to that world. That belly laugh lives complicated moral dilemma, once and for all: It’s up to at the Homeless Coalition, you. Panhandling, once stripped of all the legal ramiand it keeps us all sane. fications, the power imbalance, the systemic poverty, I was also blessed, from the political and economic consequences is just this: start to finish, with incredible one person interacting with another person. How you co-workers. They often don’t choose the terms of that interaction is between you and stay long, but each leaves his the panhandler. If you feel like giving, and you can, give. or her footprint on the coaliIf you want to give, but you fear that the panhandler will tion. And when they leave, use the money for drugs or alcohol and that bothers you, don’t give, but send your support to a treatment they go on to do great things, center. If you don’t like panhandling, don’t give. But taking with them a piece of never forget that any threat to a panhandler’s freedom the coalition. of speech of is a threat to the freedom of speech of nonBut the Homeless Coalition panhandlers, too. - Georgine Getty is much bigger than the staff or people experiencing homeofficers, gadflies and every- ment. It means when it gets lessness. There are also the one else who has ever given a cold outside, really cold, I cry members, the people in the damn about homeless people. myself to sleep for fears of real trenches every day doing the Advocates, each in our own people with real names. But I work that restores lives. And way. This is where we gather. can also help give these folks the directors of the agencies, This is our home. a voice so that next year, next who fight as if they are fighting What has it meant for me month, next week, they go to for their own children when to be a homeless advocate? It bed warm and safe. It means I their clients are threatened. means that am never satisfied, never done, There are I know always at meetings, usually a “As I look back on the clergy what trench meal behind and running on and the lay my career with the foot smells pure adrenaline and caffeine. people who Homeless Coalition, I’m like. But But it also means my back is jump in to flooded with memories – I’ve also straight, my head is high and volunteer, listened to I can look anyone square in pray and some good, some I wish I could block out – but b e a u t i f u l the eye knowing that I am an write letharmonica agent for change. ters. There almost all of them make music in a You too, my brothers and are the cus- me smile, one way or the h o m e l e s s sisters, my fellow advocates. todians of other.” - Georgine Getty camp at We are all the Homeless our history s u n d o w n . Coalition, and no job shift can who keep It means change that. As long as there us on the right moral path that assorted politicians hate are people who care about and, when things get hard, me. But I’ve also watched homeless people, people who soothe by saying “You think friends transition out of addic- point out naked emperors, this is bad? I remember when tion and into sobriety. It means people who simultaneously …” There are the volunteers that I have held a 4-month-old laugh at the American dream who put together Standdown, baby in my arms who was and cling to its promise, there Streetvibes, the annual dinner, fourth-generation homeless. will be the Homeless Coalishantytowns and everything But I also helped put a poli- tion. For as long as it takes. else. There are donors, stucy in place that moved his And I am so grateful to be dents, reporters, Streetvibes grandmother out from under a a part of it. And it will always readers, politicians, police bridge and into her own apart- be a part of me.
Getty Moving to Interfaith Hospitality Network (continued from page 4) we actually won. I feel it was a great victory for homeless people. They passed the registration to try to stop people from panhandling. We were able to work with the police and the city and downtown businesses to put that outreach worker in place while getting rid of punitive registration. People from other cities call us to see how we did it.” SV: Aren’t you (as GCCH) benefiting from the homeless, and wouldn’t it threaten GCCH’s existence if homelessness were to disappear? GG: “We’re all working to put ourselves out of work, and I ain’t getting that much money anyway. Did I mention my car died today and I have no idea how I’m going to replace it? “That perception is definite-
ly out there. I don’t know how to counteract that argument except that you don’t do this work for the money. I do get mad when I see executive directors making huge amounts of money. “Let’s end homelessness, and then I will go neuter cats or something. I’d love to leave this field.”
Getty takes aim Getty, 34, is married to a man she met in high school in Iowa. Her undergraduate degree was in philosophy and religion, and she and her husband moved to Cincinnati so she could pursue her master’s degree in women’s studies at the University of Cincinnati. They have three cats, a guinea pig and a rescued rat named
Barnabus. Another curious thing no one in her right mind would guess: Getty is an archer. This Christmas she got a recurve bow. “Because I already had a compound bow but I wanted to get back to the basics,” she says. “I haven’t shot it since the day after Christmas. I haven’t had time to get back out to the taxidermy shop in Amelia.” She’s also part of a writing group, does Aikido, just started Tai-Chi and recently gave her sister a homemade quilt. Just mention your hobby and Getty’s ears perk. “I’m a total hobby vampire,” she says. “I’m good at nothing. I just like, you know, hanging out.”
SV: What is the role of faith in your life and work? GG: “I’m an agnostic. And the way I put it is that I believe all faiths are getting at some truth, and I believe that quest for truth is worthy in and of itself. I appreciate them searching, and I find beauty in each of the denominations. I guess I’m too lazy to pick one. “I really find the Bible to be inspiration for this kind of work, because every major faith system directs people toward this kind of work. Me, as an advocate? It’s about redirecting them (the faithful) to getting back to the roots of their faith. It’s not about building a new church annex; it’s about making sure your neighbors have food.”
SV: What are your last words? GG: “My big message that I’ve realized because I’ve been reflecting: The places where I felt the coalition did its best work was when it was connected to homeless people -- the homeless leadership. When we go wrong is when we think we know what’s best without talking to homeless people. That’s when we start to lose our souls a little bit. That’s what’s so cool about the coalition, is it’s so connected. It has to stay like that. Otherwise it can’t be the moral consciousness of the homeless community. That’s what has to be preserved. It’s just got such a cool history, and I’m glad I got to be the custodian of it for a little bit.”
6
Community News
The Heart of Over-the-Rhine
St. Francis Seraph Ministries is landmark with a mission By Paul Kopp Contributing Writer
for the Franciscans in Cincinnati. Friedman is a longtime Over-the-Rhine resident. St. Francis Seraph church “I find it a really neat place is positioned facing south on to live,” he says. “I think that the corner of Vine and Liberty the people who live here are streets in Over-the-Rhine. The great -- the neighbors, the landmark building has firmly street folks. It’s a wonderful stood in its location for the human mix.” past 150 years, from its beginThe church programs are ning as a small parish of Aus- wide-reaching and multi-laytrian friars to its present work ered to suit the needs of this as St. Francis Seraph Minis- community mix. Friedman tries, a multi-faceted commu- says that once the 1960s hit nity staple. and the neighborhood started A sign outside the building changing and becoming more calls it the heart of Over-the- poverty-stricken, the friars Rhine, and in many ways the were called to find new ways analogy seems fitting. The to serve. Branching out and services the church provides hitting the streets over the pumps life years, the and love into “The neighborhood church started the commua soup kitchstarted changing nity. en in 1980, The Rev. and becoming more followed in Greg Fried- poverty-stricken; the 1995 by an man is sitting outreach profriars were called at a round tato find new ways to gram called ble in a small the Sarah serve.” room located Center, in just off the which women entranceway of the friary. The are taught jewelry making and room is dark, with morning basic business skills. light trickling in through the There is also the elementary windows. school, which has been with “We like to try and create a the church since its beginpresence not only within the nings, acting as a foundation walls of the church but outside for the parish. the church as well,” Friedman “The school is one of the says. best things we do,” Friedman The church’s pastor for the says. “We try and let them (the past three years, he splits his students) know how special time between his responsibili- they are.” ties there with a career in comA relatively new piece of munications at St. Anthony the St. Francis community is Messenger Press and acting the Canticle Café, across Vine as director of communications Street from the church. It’s
been open three years now and serves coffee, donuts and bag lunches from 1-4 p.m. on select days of the week. At the café, large double doors lend themselves to the kind of entrance where you will no doubt be greeted by a sea of faces glancing up from their activities. Some look ahead, focusing on their meals, and others sit withdrawn in thought. The room is crowded on this strangely warm day in January. It’s on the smaller side, and every table is packed as volunteers dole out refreshments to a steady line. In the corner sits Brother Michael Murphy. The café is Brother Mike Murphy at St. Francis Seraph Ministries. Photo by his responsibility. He’s talking Paul Kopp. to a young man whose facial expression is deeply carved, coming through the house, and when I present my case, it marked by confusion and and I got caught up in some usually goes very well.” stress. He looks concerned but stuff. I came to see Brother Mary is a case in point, deisn’t talking, intently listening Mike because I knew he was scribing her first attorney’s atto Murphy and occasionally someone I could talk to. He titude. nodding his head and smiling went to court with me.” “He didn’t want him (Murafter the brother pats him on Murphy knows the judi- phy) with me,” she says. “I the shoulder. cial system and the ways that felt like (the attorney) wanted Murphy has been at the café judges and public defenders to humiliate me.” for two years, coming to Cin- can mistreat the homeless “The judge was gonna put cinnati after 15 years of ser- and African -Americans who her in jail for three years, in vice to street children in India. come through its doors, some- addition to a big fine and court A Marianist brother, he chose times on bogus charges. costs,” Murphy says. to come to Over-the-Rhine “The assumption is they’re Luckily, Mary missed her and St. Francis upon his return guilty, and generally the attor- original court date and was asto the country. neys want to get it over with,” signed a new public defender, “Brother Mike -- he’s a nice he says. “It’s almost like they who listened to Murphy tell person,” says Mary, a café pa- say, ‘We’ll offer you a deal,’ Mary’s story. Mary received tron. “I call him my guardian and the deal is just horrible -- just six months’ probation. angel. I had been running on especially if they’re not guilty Murphy says the people of habeas for five years on one or shouldn’t be getting what this neighborhood are his good charge and two years on an- they are gonna get. Ninety friends, and he gives them evother. I had been staying with percent of the time when I go, erything without hesitation. a man who had drug people the judge will listen to me, The Findlay Neighborhood Center is open 4-7 p.m. Tuesdays. To volunteer, call 513-265-0620. In the middle of this warm and her husband owned a farm 30 percent. But there is more to the cenriot of color and texture sit in Clermont County at which the women at the table. Gloria they taught and demonstrated ter than sewing. A long room has completed a fabric doll, organic and self-sustaining decorated in murals of lively colors, created by neighbors, hand-sewn with machine-like farming methods. symmetry, and is working on When her husband became is being fashioned into a chilthe doll’s dress, a pink ging- terminally ill, it was necessary dren’s playroom where kids ham pinafore, complete with a to sell the farm. Crane knew can gather while their caregivheaddress to match. Arianne is she’d need to fill the void left ers or parents work on crafts. Beyond the playroom is crocheting, and Tootie has just by her husband’s death and Parkside Stage -- the newest decorated the center’s win- the loss of the farm. She began looking at real es- addition to the center. To the dows with large, red hearts. While the women discuss tate near Findlay Market. The left is a large stage, still decotheir projects and neighbor- property she was first shown rated for recent Christmas achood events, two women, did nothing to inspire her. But tivities. Opposite the stage is both new to the center, drop the property next door gave a wall-sized garage door that, when opened, overlooks Findin to ask about its hours. Their her a sudden and clear idea. Findlay Neighborhood lay Park. Opening the door interest is apparent in their questions and in the excite- Center, 1830 Race St., formed makes the room into a sort of ment that lights up their eyes. as a non-profit corporation in open-air amphitheatre. Crane’s intent is that the Asked about her vision for 2003, is most known for its Findlay Neighborhood Cen- sewing center. This is a place neighborhood turn its own ter, Lynda Crane, the founder, where anyone can come and ideas into skits, musical revues gives a response that is simple make whatever they wish – and anything else that captures and to the point: “Whatever for themselves, their family their interest. Two guests exand friends, or to sell. plain that one upcoming event they wish it to be.” For work that is sold, 70 in the planning is a commuCrane is no newcomer to outreach programs. In the late percent of the profits go to the nity Easter Parade. 1990s to the early 2000s, she creator, and the center receives
The Fabric of a Neighborhood Findlay Center knits a sense of community By Marilyn K. Schirmer Contributing Writer On a very cold January day, a circle of women seated around a large table in the Findlay Neighborhood Cen-
Photo by Andrew Anderson.
ter are talking and diligently working on various needlework projects. Emanating the welcoming aroma of fresh-brewed coffee, the front rooms, used as a sewing center, are cheerily laden with colorful bolts of fabrics on shelves, with baskets of threads and lace and sewing machines stationed throughout. A large area for cutting patterns is in a back corner.
STREETVIBES February 2009
STREETVIBES February 2009
Movie Review
No Business Like Shoah Business
7
‘Defiance’ says more about male mythos than about mass murder By David Heitfield Contributing Writer
have guns for all of the men.” ly, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour “How can a woman protect “true story” about homeless herself?” “The women have people living in the woods. She lusted after her lovers, the men to protect them.” Yes, there are Nazis, and it whose genitals were like those Intellectuals are as useless never, ever grows tiresome to of donkeys and as the physically see Nazis killed, be it in movwhose semen It’s a two-and- crippled, priests ies or video games. Much of was like that of deal with fairy the visceral pleasure in watcha-half-hour horses. (Ezekiel tales, and the life ing the movie comes courtesy “true story” 23:20) of the mind is a of dead Nazis. And in case you Woe the Al- about homeless waste of time, are too young to appreciate pha Male. In a people living in preventing ac- just how evil the Nazis were, culture in which tion when action there is a classic 21st century the woods. Cadillacs are unis needed. When tell: Those swastika-laden abashedly sold prompted to dis- bastards are all smoking cigato females as a sexual object, cuss the ideas of Descartes, rettes at the beginning of the everyone is a hero and the Zus responds, “You annoy movie! And laughing as they economy is more important me, therefore I am.” rape the atmosphere with their to people than fear of liberals, And so the story unfolds: carbon dioxide and secondit’s fitting that our version of A community grows in the hand smoke. Just heartless. Batman is depressed, just as woods with the infirm, womIt’s an interesting conceit: Fight Club predicted was in- en and children, intellectuals Use the Holocaust as a back evitable. and other forms of useless life story to celebrate the necesDirector Edward Zwick that do something other than sity of the Alpha Male. Does it answers in Defiance with a hunt and gather and kill. As work? Sorta. Much is cheesy, rousing tale of Jewish Alpha Tuvia grows more sensitive but much was cheesy about Males fleeing and fighting Na- to protecting the needful, Zus other Swick attempts to recast zis in Belorussia in 1941. The becomes more obsessed with the Alpha Male, such as in The director has said the movie revenge, L a s t should be viewed as a cor- and there SamuPeople could listen to the rective to the misconception is an inrai or synthetic stylings and that all Jews were passive and evitable overwrought orchestrations G l o r y , meek during the Holocaust. s p l i t , and yet of the Reagan era, while Apparently - and of this I was so Zus t h e y contemplating why we not aware - some people look can go w e r e at Israel and see a nation of kill stuff enjoyhave a highway named pussies. while able to after the president who Enter the Bielski broth- T u v i a practically invented modern watch. ers, the two eldest played by tries to Movhomelessness. Daniel Craig (Tuvia) and Liev deal with ies are Schreiber (Zus). Tuvia is the m a n a g our best more complex brother, more ing a community (until it is teachers of cultural and moral of the 21st century Alpha – his time to go kill stuff). Thus, relativism. For instance, any instincts are clouded in ways you have the 20th century movie made in the 1980s is he cannot fully understand. Alpha and the 21st century unwatchable today because it Zus, on the other hand, is a Alpha splitting apart and, of will contain music that makes morally clear Alpha, and as course, coming together at the one feel ashamed to be part such he seems anachronistic end, although you can guess of the species that created it. in a movie released in 2009: which Alpha saves the other If Six Sigma were applied to “Why don’t the women have one’s ass in the end. music, you’d get the 1980s. guns?” “Because we do not And that’s about it. Broad(In these tough economic
times, the county should pipe in ‘80s movie soundtracks all along the Ronald Reagan Highway and charge a toll to travel on it. People could listen to the synthetic stylings and overwrought orchestrations of the Reagan era, while contemplating why we have a highway named after the president who practically invented modern homelessness. Because, in reality, Alpha Males are not out to save the homeless. You don’t need Dick Cheney to shoot you in the face while hunting for caged birds to understand that.) It will be interesting to
watch Defiance in 25 years and see what it has to teach us about 2009. Methinks it will say little about the Holocaust – there have been so many movies with a Holocaust theme lately that some are calling for a moratorium on what the bloggers call “shoah business.” Where it will speak is to the place for the Alpha Male in society. And it will say that in 2009, we knew that something important was slipping away – sorta like the automobile industry – but we weren’t sure what we should do about it.
Boy Soldier, Wise Man Ishmael Beah’s journey from horror to helping others “The sun showed flashes of the tips of guns and bullets traveling toward us. Bodies had begun to pile on top of each other near a short palm tree, where fronds dripped blood. I searched for Josiah. An RPG had tossed his tiny body off the ground and he had landed on a tree stump. He wiggled his legs as his cry gradually came to an end. There was blood everywhere. It seemed as if bullets were falling into the forest from all angles. I crawled to Josiah and looked into his eyes. There were tears in them and his lips were shaking, but he could not speak. As I watched him, the water in his eyes was replaced with blood that quickly turned his brown eyes into red. He reached for my shoulder as if he wanted to hold it and pull himself up. But midway, he stopped moving. The gunshots faded in my head, and it was as if my heart had stopped and the whole world had come to a standstill. I covered his eyes with my fingers and pulled him from the tree stump. His backbone had been shattered. I placed him flat on the ground and picked up my gun.” Excerpt from A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
By Andrew Anderson Contributing Writer It would be impossible for most of us to think of taking children, giving them cocaine or heroin and an AK-47 machine gun and forcing them to kill men, women and other children in a war that had no purpose, where violence was a self-perpetuating way of life. Yet, in the more than 50 conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated there are some 300,000 child soldiers fighting, killing and dying. Children are the soldiers of choice; readily available, easily recruited, expendable. Ishmael Beah was one such child. A Long Way Gone is
his personal account of living through such a hell. Beah was a typical child in Sierra Leone. He went to school, loved listening to American hip-hop, had a loving family, enjoyed swimming and did all the simple things in life a child does. At age 12 he left home with a friend and his older brother to participate in a talent show in a neighboring town. He was never to see his home, his mother or his father again. Rebels attacked and created a landscape of death and chaos. Beah fled from the attack and wandered the countryside. At age 13 he was picked up by
See Soldier, Page 8
Local News 8 Race (continued from Page 1) open, Mertz estimates several to the rest of the world to the hundred. One of the problems politics of race today. In this with keeping count is that an country, from the American admission to the History Mu- Revolution and slavery to reseum includes admission to sisting slavery; from the Civil this exhibit. War and Reconstruction to the There is a display on sports control of Native Americans; team mascots and videos of from European immigration Native Americans, among and “defining whiteness” to others, who explain who they the post-World War II boom are, ending with, “And I’m and racial discrimination in not a mascot.” There is a me- housing; from the anti-immidia kiosk where visitors can gration movement and racial do a video recording of a few profiling in the last two deminutes explaining what race cades to NAFTA and the new means to them. There are areas immigration backlash. where visitors can fill out note ‘Sheer fascination’ cards on race, drop them in a box and have them displayed One of the interactive disin a loose-leaf binder. Writes an apparently young Matthew plays invites visitors to vote – judging by his penmanship on how the U.S. Census should be conducted. Should – “I am human. One love.” There are historic artifacts: race be included among the questions? a pair H o w of slave A lot of folks are s h a c k - interested in the topic, but many speles from they aren’t always willing cific races? VisiSouth Carto have a conversation. tors can olina, datvote on ing back to the 1830s-1840s. There is whether to keep it as it is, sima display where you can place plify the categories to having your hand under a camera and no questions at all about race. While it is tempting to vote compare your skin color with various swatches of hand skin no question at all – that race shouldn’t matter – there is a color displayed on the board. In both the exhibit and reason for such questions. “The census is one of the on its Web site, while not in depth, the entire history of hu- only ways we have of seeing mankind is explored, from mi- where people live and how gration patterns from Africa people live,” Matthews says.
“So if you are still looking at neighborhoods that are still segregated or have differences in socio-economic status, if you don’t have a way of recording that information, you can’t track it, can’t look it up. My background is to ask, ‘What are the numbers?’ ” M a t t h e w s Family Participation: Photo courtesy of American Anthropological Associasaid she spent tion and Science Museum of Minnesota. time at the ex“People of all different right time.” hibit’s opening What does the Museum backgrounds gathered here for Jan. 17. Reactions? “One was sheer fascina- an historic celebration at an Center hope visitors take from tion,” Matthew says. “It’s historic special place in Cin- this exhibit? “We hope people take away (race) something we talk cinnati,” he says. “So we feel about all the time. There’s a so lucky to have this exhibit. a fact or two, gain something lot of things people can put But we also feel a responsibil- you didn’t know,” she says. their hands on. Cool things ity to take advantage of the “A second thing is a higher like being able to vote (as on national interest to get a local comfort level at having the discussion. A lot of folks are census questions). You have conversation going.” Matthews also hopes the ex- interested in the topic, but they the ability to record your own story at a video kiosk inside hibit will further the dialogue, aren’t always willing to have a the exhibit. Read other peo- even beyond the question of conversation. I think what the whether Obama’s election election of Barack Obama has ples’ stories.” The Museum Center’s staff means an era of post-racial done is give this country permission to have this conversais taken with the fortuitous- politics. tion in a very open and very “To have it here at this time, ness of the Obama election and the opening. Mertz says we couldn’t have anticipated public way. I hope this exhibit more than 2,000 came to the that,” Matthews says. “I think is the next step in helping that center January 20 to watch the it’s our reward for stepping conversation.” up to do the right thing at the inauguration.
Soldier, continued from page 7
the government army. An innocent child, he was given drugs and a machine gun and taught to kill. At age 16 he was removed from the fighting by UNICEF and sent to a rehabilitation center where he started the long process of regaining his humanity. This book should be read. Though his story might seem
impossible to fully imagine, there is much we can learn from him: Disaster can strike any of us. It does not matter if you live a good life, if you come from a good family, if you live in a good neighborhood, if you have a good job. Disaster takes on many forms and hits you when you least expect it. Forces we cannot control will change our life. Maybe someone close to us will die in an accident, maybe our jobs will end and we will not be able to find another, maybe we will have health problems and incur huge medical bills, maybe these will all happen at once and we will find ourselves homeless. We can all become monsters. Whether we are physically forced by others or by circumstance, we are all capable of doing unthinkable things. We
STREETVIBES February 2009
learn to will kill, steal or do anything else necessary to survive. If walk on our own again. The you find that hard to believe, good news is that, with time you should reflect again upon and love, we can recover. Significant emotional the fact that 300,000 children are soldiers in our world. Do- events change us. How they ing the unthinkable in order to change us is up to us. Disaster will change you. You can get survive is not a rare event. We need help to get back up. past the disaster and be forevOnce we have been knocked er weakened, or you can take down by disaster and fallen the lessons learned to become into the pits of despair, we stronger and better. The huusually need help to get back man spirit is capable of recovup. We lose our way. We not ering from anything if given only lack the strength to func- enough love and support. B e a h tion normally, we was one also forget what The human spirit of the normal looks like. is capable of lucky few Recovery is a recovering from who were long process repulled anything if given quiring caring, from the dedicated people. enough love and chaos by Recovering from support. caring and disaster is neither loving simple nor quick. We have to feel secure and people who were dedicated learn to trust again, to forgive and selfless and who gave him ourselves and to love our- love. Beah felt guilt for what selves. Money and a change of he had done. He felt guilt for clothes will not solve the prob- having lived when so many lem. We need the love and sup- died. He decided that the only port of good and caring people way he really could justify who will pick us up, dust us having survived is if he took off and hold our hand until we advantage of the opportunity
Missed an Issue? Check out the Streetvibes archive at www.cincihomeless.org/content/streetvibes
to try and end the use of children as soldiers. He went on to graduate from Oberlin College here in Ohio, to write his memoir in hopes of telling the world the horrors of the situation and to work with politicians and organizations to bring an end to the use of child soldiers. Today Beah is only 26 years old. He has been through more than most of us ever will. I also suspect he will do more than most of us to make this world better. A few days ago I met Beah and marveled at his maturity, his joy of life and his dedication to ending this most insidious form of child abuse. I realized how small and petty my grievances with life were. If he could survive what he did and still smile, surely I could deal with my issues. I encourage you to read this book. I think Carolyn See of The Washington Post said it best, “Everyone in the world should read this book. … We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.”
STREETVIBES February 2009
9
Poetry/Artwork
Violence
Happy Valentine’s Day By Anthony Williams
By Jamar Malcolm King There is so much violence in our city streets The police act like their afraid to walk their beats. People get killed every single day. Its seems like all humans have lost their way. I wish they would stop making guns. I’m fed up with every dude saying he’s a thug. What he needs to do is sit and read book And get something on his mind instead of being a crook. Human life is so precious. It is worth more than a Lexus. To take a human life is very wrong. So why brag about murder in a song?
Then The Storm Hit By Holly Parker As it picked me up Slammed me back down breaking my ribs I cried Struggling to regain my feet For there sat my son crying and watching I gathered my wits while there was quiet Soothed my little one in my arms Letting him know I was ok
Innocence Lost By Heather Harley
Thinking now days had went past All was well Ribs sore but I had my life and my sons
Today is not my day to shine, for it can’t be, I’m only 9,
Then the storm hit
Today is not my day to hate for it can’t be, I’m only 8.
Crashing in the front door Grabbing my neck Not know what was in store As against the wall he slammed me Time after time Ripping my clothes off To take what was his he said While my daughters slept there He loved me he said Just had a bad day It won’t happen again Please he begged don’t go away Then the storm hit My daughter’s leg he grabbed To get to me Table over turned on the neighbors baby Just to prove who was the boss Neighbors turned deaf ears Friends didn’t want to know Church said your job is to love him I wore the burned face Scars on my legs Scars in my mind Scars in my heart Now Scars on the ground where a mound is his grave Then the storm hit
Today is not may to die and go to heaven, for it can’t be, I’m only 7. Today is not by day to turn tricks, for it can’t be, I’m only 6. Today is not my day to thrive, for it can’t be, I’m only 5. Today is not my day to score, for it can’t be, I’m only 4. Today is not your day, 3, 2 and 1, for your life has only just begun. Today by the way is my day to shine, because finally we’re all just fine, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. No thanks to our parents. They couldn’t tell because a long time ago we told them all to go to hell.
Column 10 In Memoriam: Leroy Birch Sponsored recovering addicts, mentored their helpers Among the speakers at the funeral of Leroy Birch on Jan. 22 was Dennis C, a chemicaldependency counselor and a recovering member of Narcotics Anonymous. Midway through his speech, he asked that everyone who had been sponsored by Leroy to please stand up. At least 20 men stood. Then he asked that all the people sponsored by someone Leroy sponsored to please stand. Dozens more stood. Then he asked for all the people present who were sponsored by those people to stand. There must have been 100 people standing. Among the others in St. Mark’s Church in Evanston that Thursday morning were friends, co-workers, family. St. Mark’s is a fairly large church, and it was packed. You were lucky if you got a bulletin; they ran out early. There were tears, there was grief. But this was also a celebration of the impact of a dedicated man.
***** Leroy Birch was just 60 when he died after a long battle with cancer. He was one of those in the chemical-dependency field who came up the old way. First, recovery, then entry-level job, then the education and the credential. (This, by the way, has been the path for many low-income and minority professionals in the chemical-dependency field and it is a path that is closing, to the detriment of the profession and ultimately to the addict in need of help.)
*****
Leroy Birch had a drive and an energy that I admired; it stayed with him to the end. He also had a wicked sense of humor and a crooked smile to go with it. He had a hard head and a compassionate heart. He was a builder and a dreamer and he was part of the movement that built a strong Narcotics Anonymous network in Cincinnati. He also established the Young Fathers Pro-
recovery process and being a productive member of society.” McQueen is today a case manager with Talbert House, working in a halfway house for men recently released from prison. “I will remember Leroy as a mentor and a teacher and a person who overcame his obstacles and taught other people like myself how to overcome obstacles,” McQueen says. Birch knew the obstacles were real. He had lived By Michael Henson them and overcome them. And he knew that the gram out of Saint John’s Social path to continuing progress Services. He served for many was to help others overcome years as the after-care spe- theirs. cialist for the Hillcrest TrainBirch was particularly deding School. In addition to the icated to the addict brought people he sponsored, there are down to poverty. And if the any number of working chem- columns I write for this paper ical-dependency professionals have any single inspiration, it -- particularly recovering, Af- is Leroy Birch. If these essays rican-American professionals have any weight in the world, -- whom he mentored. it will be because of my friend, Ira McQueen is one. Mc- Leroy Birch. Queen told me, “When I got ***** out of prison, I had some goals. I had just started school. He I first met Birch when we was a professional, but he had a past. I didn’t think I could were both new in recovery.
ammered H
Birch knew the obstacles were real. He had lived them and overcome them. And he knew that the path to continuing progress was to help others overcome theirs. do what I dreamed of because of my past. And he told me I could do it. I just had to put some other stuff in between me and my past. He gave me the blueprint. He was a guide. I could call him and talk to him about different phases of the process, along with the
Eventually, we found ourselves working together at Talbert House. And somewhere in that time, we conceived the notion of doing trainings on poverty and chemical dependency. We were frustrated by training and supervision that taught us everything about alcoholism and
STREETVIBES February 2009 Michael Henson is author of Ransack, A Small Room with Trouble on My Mind, The Tao of Longing and Crow Call. This column is part of a monthly series on poverty and addiction.
addiction except what made me sitting at a table in the this condition so difficult for kitchen of Alcoholics Anonythe poor. We rejected the idea mous co-founder Dr. Bob that the Smith in l o w - We rejected the idea that the A k r o n , income low-income addict was like Ohio. addict W e everybody else, because w a s had been we knew better. We knew l i k e invited that any addict or alcoholic everyto carry faces challenges, but that body the workthe addict or alcoholic in else, shop to b e - poverty faces difficulties and a treatc a u s e obstacles that the better-off m e n t w e center on do not have. knew the south b e t side of ter. We knew that any addict the city. When it was over, we or alcoholic faces challenges, asked if someone could direct but that the addict or alcoholic us to Dr. Bob’s house. It was in poverty faces difficulties after hours, but we figured we and obstacles that the better- could at least drive by it. As it off do not have. We also knew turned out, one of the trainees that the addict or alcoholic was a trustee of the site and in poverty faces more severe had the key. So we got our own consequences than those who private tour. He had a thick are better off. We knew that Scots brogue, so we could the addict or alcoholic in pov- understand only about half erty faces a more complicated of what he said, but he took recovery than those who are us around the city to all the better off. key sites in the AA founding And we knew that, for pro- story. Then he took us to Dr. fessionals to successfully ad- Bob’s house, set us up at that dress the needs of the addict table, pulled out the Polaroid or alcoholic in poverty, they and took our picture. Then he need special tools. said what is said to each perSo we set out to help pro- son who comes through those vide those tools through a se- doors, “Welcome home.” ries of trainings. Talbert House Leroy Birch left his active gave us the go-ahead, and we addiction behind long ago. designed a two-day workshop But he did not leave behind that was grueling for the train- the addict. He was a dedicated ees and trainers both. (We professional and a dedicated were committed to putting the member of the recovering work in workshop.) But we community, a trusted servant felt satisfied that, at the end to the cause of the seemingly of each, we had opened some hopeless addict and alcoholic. minds and offered some anEach time we performed swers. our training, Leroy asked for a moment of silence in order to ***** call up the spirits of our ancestors to support the work about Somewhere, stored among to be done. He has now joined other papers and photos I have his ancestors. collected over the years, I have I would like to think he has a Polaroid of Leroy Birch and been welcomed home.
Only purchase Streetvibes from BADGED vendors. Vendors wear their WHITE badges while they sell the paper.
STREETVIBES February 2009
11
Column
The Audacity of Focus Obama continues the journey from Selma Barack Hussein Obama’s not let the success of this moinauguration as president is ment “distract” us from the a breathtaking event. We are tremendous cost it has taken only 145 years since Lincoln to reach this point or the imsigned the Emancipation Proc- portant work that remains in lamation. We are only 55 years since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided on integrated schools as the law of the land. We are only 45 years since Presi- front of us. Indeed, both King dent Lyndon Johnson signed and Obama refused to be “disthe Voting Rights Act. How tracted” by either the violence wondrous are these dates in of actions or angry words our American history of free- from the major task of builddom. But we cannot let these ing a beloved community of achievements distract us. unity. Next to these dates must be Let’s turn to the seeds of the day when Rosa Parks re- Obama’s victory in actions fused to rise from her seat on a that happened in 1964 in a bus in Montgomery, Alabama; little town in Alabama. We the date when Rev. Martin might not have known about Luther King Jr. agreed to lead Selma were it not for the three the first nonviolent bus boy- marches that happened there to cott; the dates protest the kill“Selma became a ing of a young when King organized the testing ground for black man, Jimthe Civil Rights marches in mie Lee JackSelma, Alason, who sought Movement and bama, gave for the organizing to register Alahis speeches bamians to vote; philosophy of and wrote his or the killing of [Martin Luther letters and a young white King Jr.]” books; and minister, Rev. the dates of James Reeb, the murders who came to of King, Kennedy and Mal- protest that murder and intimcolm X. And we cannot let idation. And we, as citizens these groundbreaking experi- who were not residents, would ences distract us either. not know Selma were it not the We come to Jan. 20 with place that tens of thousands of a joyous and a heavy heart. people from every corner of We celebrate that so much the nation, who answered the has been accomplished by the call to march with King in the work of so many young and largest nonviolent march for old people, disabled and able voter rights in American hispeople, middle class, rich and tory. Without the success of poor, many college students, the Selma marches, we would and people from every creed, have not changed the voting color and region. We must process and laws for black and
poor people in this country, and it’s doubtful that Obama would have been nominated --let alone elected. Selma stood as a symbol of hatred of black people as citizens of America. The message of the 1960s was simple and foreboding: “Black people should not dream about voting, holding office or getting justice from the courts. Black people who don’t go along will be lynched or murdered.” It was that blunt. We cannot imagine now the feelings that civil rights workers, black Southern citizens and white people of good conscience felt at that time. We were trapped in a system in which hatred was expected on the part of whites toward blacks and/or anyone who wanted to change the system. Few of us had any organizing experience that told us how to change hatred. We knew that we could not turn to violence because we were outnumbered by the police, and we were unpersuaded that violence would win the fundamental change we desired. And we knew that individuals in Southern communities were risking a lot by joining in protests. Selma became a testing ground for the Civil Rights Movement and for the organizing philosophy of King, who used the insights of Gandhi, a nonviolent revolutionary from India, to shape his thinking and actions. What happened at Selma that we should know about and how does it connect with Obama? One of the Selma or-
Michelle and Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of barackobama.com.
Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of barackobama.com.
ganizers, Rev. James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference remembers: “When Jimmy Lee Jackson from Marlon, Alabama, was killed, I believe that really prompted the march. We realized that the killing would go on, based on people just demonstrating for their right to vote. Somehow we had to make the price of human life go up. People were being shot and killed, and the killers were getting off pretty cheap. We felt we had to create what we call ‘mass dislocation.’ That’s a nonviolent technique where you make it uncomfortable for people by expressing your grievances in a nonviolent fashion.” Henry Hampton continues the story: “They came marching across, black and four abreast like pilgrims to a shrine. ... It was here just past the bridge that they were stopped. ... The rasp/of a police command -- ‘Troopers, advance!’ -- rang out ... and they knew at the first dull thud upon the skull of John Lewis. The women fell first ... And with the thud of billy clubs, they fell, legs askew, black thighs and legs shining in the sweat of tears. They lay upon the hot pavement and awaited the jolts from 14 ounces of oak.” (From G. and C. Carawan, Sing for freedom: The story of the Civil Rights Movement through its songs.) But the march was to continue, with between 40,000 and 50,000 people gathered in Selma to express their indignation at the murders and injustice.
The fundamental connection between the election of Obama and the march in Selma can be found in the words “non-violent revolution.” Obama takes office after a campaign of promoting change through legal means, voting and the organization of millions of people to combine in a campaign of hope. Obama’s victory is the next and not the final step. The shadow of Selma teaches us that the key lessons of nonviolent change have not been victorious. Obama enters the presidency at the head of a government that uses the most extreme violence to make its voice heard. Throughout the world, the hopes raised by Selma, by King, by Malcolm X and by Tutu and Mandela for a “beloved” world are ignored. On the same historic day that Obama was elected, several states voted to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. The hatred of so many continues, sometimes without a voice of recognition and compassion. Who speaks for the slaves of today, both in and outside our country? Who speaks for our broken adoption system? Who speaks for the children of Darfur? Who speaks for the hungry, homeless and disabled? We cannot have a world of peace unless they, too, are brought inside the circle of love. Steve Sunderland is a professor of peace and educational studies at the University of Cincinnati and director of Peace Village.
Local News 12 Let’s Build Our Light Rail System
STREETVIBES February 2009
A new public transportation system could help create a new Cincinnati By Dan La Botz Contributing Writer Since Cincinnati City Council passed a proposal to build a streetcar line from Over-the-Rhine to the University of Cincinnati and the hospital complex there has been a great deal of controversy. The local NAACP chapter is circulating a petition saying that any plan to develop public transportation must win public approval in a referendum. The Cincinnati Beacon has raised the alternative of a grease-powered, rubberwheeled trolley system. Most recently there has been talk of getting the new Barack Obama administration to provide federal money to support a streetcar system. All those concerned about the issue of public transportation — city council, the Sierra Club, the NAACP, the Labor A light rail car in Chicago. Council and, for that matter, all the rest of us — should rail system connects with the stop and rethink the issues. local bus lines to provide puWe need to avoid another bic transportation to hundreds deadlock that paralyzes public of thousands — and that in a transportation, neighborhood state famous for its worship of development and social jus- the automobile and the freetice. What we really need is a way. The construction of the San Diego system was part light rail line of a revitalthat forms “A light rail system ization prothe backlinked to a system gram — not bone of a of buses using clean without its new public fuels would begin to p r o b l e m s transportaimprove Cincinnati’s and abustion system. notoriously poor air es—of the Where I quality.” downtown grew up in area of the the San Dicity. Could we do something ego area of southern California, what began in 1980 as a like that here? downtown boutique light rail Municipal ownership system has since developed into a four-line, 51-mile, 53The federal government’s stop system that runs south current commitments to build to the U.S.-Mexico border infrastructure, improve the and northeast to the far-flung suburb of Santee, serving environment and provide jobs 118,000 daily users. The light during the recession provide
Cincinnati City Council with the opportunity to present the public a plan for a light rail system that could revitalize the city as the center of regional development. Cincinnati should seek funds from the federal government with contributions from the city, Hamilton County and the surrounding counties, to build a light rail system as the center of an improved public transportation system throughout our region. First — and this is the most important point — federal money and regional money raised by taxing business should be used to build a municipally owned transportation system. Municipal ownership means the light railway, streetcars, bus lines and other additions to the system (vans to serve the handicapped and the elderly, for example)
Interested in volunteering with Streetvibes? Contact Greg Flannery at 513-421-7803 x 12 or by e-mail at streetvibes2@ yahoo.com
would be owned and run by the city, not by any private corporation. Eliminating the profit motive means that the city transportation system would serve the citizens, not stockholders. This could be an important step in reversing the trend toward privatization and taking this city back from the privately owned corporate consortiums that now run it.
Public management Municipal ownership, however, is not enough. We need to make this a municipally owned but genuinely publicly run transportations system — that is, a system run by a public board made up of consumers, representing those who use public transportation; of labor unions, representing those who work on public transportation; and citizens, representing
those who, through their local governments, bought and own the system. We would want to see an advisory panel of environmental experts so that this system would not only be clean, but would also be an environmentally just system operating with an eye to the public welfare. The rider-worker-citizen board would, of course, hire those with the administrative and financial expertise to carry out their directives, but it would be owned and run by us, the people. The idea of consumers, workers and citizens, with the assistance of environmental organizations, owning and managing a public corporation at the heart of the city would not only be a model of democracy, it would also be an important, though still relatively small, counterweight to the power of the banks and corporations that have run this city in their own interest.
Union representation and living wages With the election of Barack Obama, we may be entering an era of less hostility and possibly more tolerance and support for labor unions. Obama’s labor-union backers are calling for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to join labor unions. We would want to see our new light rail system and its workers — drivers, maintenance workers, cleaners — represented by unions. Union workers receive higher wages and better benefits than other workers, and they have mechanisms that protect their
See Rail, Page 15
Cleo’s Joke Corner There was a guy in the army doing basic training. The sergeant said to him that he had 1,200 pounds of small rocks and that he wanted him to pick them up one at a time and move them into another spot. The private kept picking up every rock and looked underneath each one. He kept saying, “That’s not it. That’s not it. That’s not it.” He did this for every rock. A psychiatrist looked out at him and told him to come into the office. On top of the psychiatrist’s desk was a fivepound rock. He picked up the rock, looked underneath it and said, “That’s still not it.” So the psychiatrist wrote him an honorable discharge. The private said, in a loud voice, “That’s it! That’s it! That’s it!”
STREETVIBES February 2009
13
Interview
Take a Cue from Joyce Social worker helps homeless people identify themselves By Angela Pancella Contributing Writer Joyce Cue, the social worker at Our Daily Bread, offers assistance in a variety of areas for our guests. Guests often ask her to help them get a copy of their birth certificates — a necessary step, in Ohio, for getting the proof of identity necessary when applying for assistance of any sort. “You’re lucky, you’re blessed, if you’re born in the city,” she says. “So you can just walk across the street and pick up your birth certificate at Elm Street Clinic — on Elm close to Liberty.” It’s trickier for those born out of state. “Most agencies now are saying they will not send for birth certificates from out of state,” Cue says. “So that makes it very difficult, because in order to get an ID, you must have your birth certificate.” The guests who need an ID might have had theirs stolen if they’ve been living on the streets carrying all of their possessions in a bag. In addition, Cue says, “Many of our folks come out of jail. They go
in with an ID but when they come out, they give them the prisoner’s ID. But of course that’s not accepted anywhere. It makes it difficult for them — they can’t get housing, they can’t get food stamps, they can’t apply for anything.” So why are agencies reluctant to help find out-of-state birth certificates? “My understanding is that, since 9-11, for security reasons, some states say, ‘We’re a closed state, we can’t send it,’ Cue says.”I call and say, ‘Now, look. Here (in Ohio) we cannot get an ID without a birth certificate.’ “(They’ll answer,) ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry. We can’t send you a birth certificate without an updated ID.’ “ Often the realities of life in poverty add their own frustrations to the hunt for official information. Cue tells the story of a young man who recently came to her for help tracking down his birth certificate. “He came in and said, ‘Miss Joyce, I don’t know what to do.’ His mother died in childbirth,” Cue says. “He said he was kind of passed around to different people. He knows that he was born in Tennessee,
but he does not know what county, what hospital.” She called the records office in Tennessee, only to be told, “No, ma’am, we have to know what county he was born in.” “But he can’t remember it,” Cue says. “He doesn’t know. He was born in Tennessee, and then he went to Cleveland, and he and his sisters have lost contact with each other. He had one brother that he knew that just recently passed.” There was no one left to help. A possible solution has occurred to Cue. “I was looking over some papers and said, ‘Wait a minute. You get food stamps?’ He said yes. I said, ‘That might be a place to start, because you have to prove identity to get assistance from (Job and Family Services.)’ “ If the young man used his birth certificate to get food stamps, Cue might be able to track down enough information to obtain a new copy of the birth certificate herself. “That’s what’s in process right now,” she says. “Somebody — social security or someone — one of those
agencies had to have established identity.” Cue shakes her head in disbelief when she recounts stories like this. “That’s the type of maze that these folks have to go through, and without any money, without housing, without a place where they can find any comfort where they can clear their mind and think,” she says. When she tries to imagine herself in their shoes, Joyce Cue, social worker at Our Daily wondering how Bread. Photo courtesy of Our Daily Bread. her clients deal Our Daily Bread is a food with all of these and hospitality ministry at frustrations, she says, “I just 1730 Race St., Over-thego back to (saying), ‘They’re Rhine, that offers a mid-day stronger than I am.’ Can you imagine what you or I would meal, serving more than 500 be doing? We’re not made of meals every weekday. To volunteer or contribute, call Joan that material.” or Kathy at 513-621-6364.
A Letter to Andrea Religious feelings and ignoring the homeless
tie for her son. I guess since I’m a guy, I’m supposed to know a good-looking tie when I see one. It was a rather warm December afternoon and I was standing outside Macy’s waiting for Andrea. I was smoking a cigarette. A homeless man, By Larry Gross holding a small cardboard Contributing Writer sign requesting money, was Andrea isn’t her real name also standing there. I reached into my back but she’s a real person. I’ve pocket, pulled out my wallet written about her before in and gave the man a buck. He CityBeat. Now Streetvibes is wanted to know if I had an exgonna get a taste of her. Why we’re friends I don’t tra cigarette. I did. W e r e a l l y stood “As I looked to my right, know. It there I could see Andrea might have something approaching. She slowed for a while to do with down her pace when she – talkthe fact saw me talking to the ing and that we homeless person.” smokworked ing. We together at talked about the weather, our a machine-tool company here horrible professional football in town over 20 years ago. We have nothing in common. team and the “commercial” holiday season. Maybe opposites attract. As I looked to my right, I She wanted to meet me could see Andrea approachdowntown last month at Macy’s. Andrea was doing some ing. She slowed down her Christmas shopping and want- pace when she saw me talking ed me to help pick out a neck- to the homeless person.
“You shouldn’t be giving When she finally reached me, I said hello, put out my your money away,” she said. cigarette and said goodbye to “Let him get a job like the rest the gentleman with the card- of us have to.” With that said, I shut up. We board sign. Andrea was staring at me the whole time almost went to the men’s department at Mab u g “I reached into my back eyed. cy’s, pocket, pulled out my wallet found Ent e r i n g and gave the man a buck. He the ties a n d M a wanted to know if I had an Andrea cy’s, it extra cigarette. I did.” didn’t picked out a t a k e silk red one. She didn’t need her long to get started. “Who was that?” Andrea my help at all. Now Andrea will never wanted to know. “Don’t know,” I replied. spend a buck to pick up a “Didn’t think to ask him his copy of Streetvibes, but maybe someone can give her one. name.” I’ve composed a letter to her. “You give him money?” Dear Andrea, “A buck,” I replied. It was a pleasure going Andrea shook her head. “You’re funny,” she said. shopping with you. I hope you “He’s probably not even had a wonderful Christmas, homeless, probably a con art- celebrating the birth of Jesus ist.” Christ. I know how religious “You don’t know that, An- you are. I know you’re religious bedrea,” I said. “Oh I know plenty,” she cause in the past you’ve stated said, “know that with that you’re concerned for my soul. money you gave him, he’s A few times you have even probably on his way to a bar asked me if I’ve accepted Jeright now.” sus Christ as my savior. Each “Whatever, Andrea.” time I have dodged the ques-
tion. Let me try and set the record straight here. If treating other people the way I want to be treated gets me somewhere – namely heaven – great. If it doesn’t, then at least people might remember me as a nice, caring person. Being caring, in part, means caring for those less fortunate, and that includes homeless people. I talk to them, and they talk back. They’re human beings down on their luck. Your Jesus talked to the poor – how come you don’t? I oftentimes give them money and/or cigarettes. I try to help them. Your Jesus helped the poor – why don’t you? Throughout my entire life I’ve heard religious people say, “There but for the grace of God go I”. How come I’ve never heard you say it? Sorry for being direct, Andrea, but you know how I am. I hope your son enjoyed his tie. Your Friend, Larry God bless Andrea. It felt good writing her this letter. Hell, I didn’t even have to go buy a stamp.
Read the Streetvibes blog for stories between issues at streetvibes.wordpress.com
14
STREETVIBES February 2009
Short Story
Hidden Homeless of the Ivory Tower Higher education and lowered expectations (Continued from January 2009) By Sibongile Sithe Contributing Writer They say New York is the city that never sleeps, but it turns out Chicago is an insomniac, too. For Marks, at least, that turned out to be a godsend. Both Kansas Fried Chicken and Carlo’s Pizza were 24hour restaurants that doubled as Marks’ — and many others’ — sleeping quarters. There, he finished the homework he didn’t get done at school and got paid back in pizza slices for making deliveries. “I missed my grandmother’s cooking first off,” he says. He looks down at the table. “I just missed a sense of security, where you don’t have to worry what you have to do to make it to the next day,” Marks says.
dorm room are a couple novels and quite a few textbooks, with the volumes totaling somewhere in the twenties. It’s his entire collection. Almost everything he owns is in this room. Yet as he looks around, he says, “Everything here is replaceable.” There are no art pieces he can’t recreate, and nothing he can’t buy again — even items of sentimental value. “I could walk out of here right now and not look back,” he says. “I can always take another picture of my brother.” Yale Visitor’s Center. Students and fans do not always realize that some of their classmates are homeless.
***
“As far as brushing my teeth, sometimes I didn’t. I chewed a lot of gum, Tic Tacs, stuff you can get from your friends,” Marks laughs. “I’m lucky I still have my teeth.” Marks says keeping up appearances *** “Marks was also a varsity was particularly athlete, so he took his Some problemshowers at school. He atic at his of Ye’s had three dress shirts, friends exclusive prep find his two pairs of slacks gift-giving school. and one tie to get him p e c u l i a r. Like Luthrough the week, and cas, Marks He gave then washed them on away shirts was also the weekends at a local a varsity and pens, l a u n d r y laundromat. Marks didn’t athlete, so detergent he took his go to many dances or and photo- other school events that s h o w e r s at school. graphs. required cash.” It’s more He had practical three dress than anything, he says. For shirts, two pairs of slacks and Ye, moving is difficult: first one tie to get him through the because he doesn’t drive and week, and then washed them relies on others to help him on the weekends at a local get his stuff around; and sec- laundromat. Marks didn’t go ond, because there’s no single to many dances or other school place to put it all. events that required cash. Giving things away is a “Twenty dollars is a lot of means of ensuring preserva- money,” he says. tion of Ye’s possessions, espeMarks now recognizes he cially his art pieces. His recip- probably should have exients serve as micro museums plained his situation to his for his work: “They can take parents. care of things in a way that I “But I was 15 going on 16,” can’t,” he says. he says. “I was like, ‘I can do On the bookshelf in his this, I can do this.’ ”
Marks told no one about his situation, except his two best friends and his headmaster. “I’ll always love Dr. Rutherford,” he says. “When I explained to him my situation, he was like, you know, ‘Don’t worry about (the tuition. Everything’s taken care of.’ ” When asked if his headmaster had an obligation to report him to the authorities, Marks looks as though he’d never considered the possibility. “I don’t know,” he says. “I think he knew that I’d be in a worse situation if he took his legal obligation seriously”.
*** Lucas didn’t like to be idle; he says it left him too much time to think about his situation. And when he lists his extracurricular activities, it’s hard to imagine how he’d have time to schedule a spare minute. To pay for food, bills and his car, Lucas held down three jobs. He refereed basketball, worked construction, washed dishes and did all varieties of odd jobs. He never stopped doing community service, either. He coached youth sports teams, organized Special Olympics events, tutored and mentored younger students and volunteered at a local soup kitchen.
1128 Walnut St Pizza by the Slice
Tues and Thurs Buffet($7.00)-11AM-2PM Wed-Thur-Fri-Sat 9PM-3AM
“Those were the kind of things that kept me sane,” he says. “When you’re homeless, you’re losing your fucking mind.”
***
come me without question, I know it’s difficult for them to have me there. Sometimes there’s tension, like when I eat all of their white fish salad,” which he did over this past break. But, he says, “The selfawareness of the strain you put on others is a part of growing up.”
Ye had a string of jobs when he was in high school. He worked for a title insurance company, interned for an Internet company and even tried *** his hand at selling airplane Lucas was surprised how hangars — a “total fiasco,” he says. many people offered him supAfter he moved out of his port. father’s apartment, Ye went “There weren’t many to live with his Andrew from people who didn’t open up the Big Brothers, Big Sisters their doors (or pocketbooks) program. Andrew and his wife to me,” he says, citing highboth work from home and school alumni, old middlehave four children, so when school teachers and casual he’s there, Ye does his best friends. He says several famito help out around the house. lies treated him like one of He sweeps algae scum off the their own children. pool floor, helps Andrew with “I was like, ‘Damn! Like his projects and for real?’ I’d watches the kids They try to make been skeptical of on occasion. me feel like I’m a rich people my But Ye acfamily member, whole life, but a knowledges that lot of rich people but it’s very clear were really, reallife is not perfect. Like Lucas, to me that I’m not ly good to me.” he finds breaks a family member. But, like Ye, from Yale stressLucas was aware ful: “There’s of the burden never a guarantee that I’m go- he laid on the families, so he ing to have someplace to go.” never stayed in any one place Even Ye’s mother recogniz- for longer than three or four weeks. es the situation is not ideal. When Lucas, a recruited “I know he would like to have a place to call home, and athlete, came to Yale, he we cannot provide that for brought a lot of his insecurities him,” she says. “It is clearly with him: “When somebody a loss. He experiences it a looked at me a certain way or loss, and therefore I do too.” disrespected me and I would But, she says, “This cannot be say, ‘Is this because you don’t think I’m good enough? Like, helped right now.” And so Ye is incredibly ap- I’m not supposed to be here? preciative of Andrew and his You don’t do that to people where I’m from. Now let me family. “They try to make me feel show you what that means.’ ” He says getting over his like I’m a family member, but it’s very clear to me that I’m preconceived stereotypes has not a family member,” he says. “Even though they’re sweet See Yale, p. 15 and wonderful and would wel-
STREETVIBES February 2009
15
Short Story
Yale, continued from page 14 been a large part of his maturation and is still an issue for him, but he attributes a lot of his growth to the presence of cultural groups on campus. Today, he says, his fighting is reduced to instances of personal attacks. “I can’t be that way,” says as he shakes his head. “The one thing different about here is I’ve got a lot more to lose.”
*** It takes nine e-mails, 11 text messages and over a week to get Ye, Lucas and Marks in the same room at the same time. The three get on the subject of service, to which all are deeply committed. “It really makes sense to us,” says Ye, who does longdistance mentoring and is working at a camp for at-risk teens this summer. Lucas, who, oddly enough, was looking into that same organization, also mentors and has long-term plans for teaching, enrolling in law school
and going back to Detroit to a home to go back to” — or start his own non-profit agen- the Lucas who struggles to balance life as a full-time stucy. “Nobody’s getting out,” he dent and athlete while worksays of his neighborhood — ing 25 hours a week to help and he’s ready to change that. pay his brother’s tuition. “I have (him) as an inspira“If I’m not helping anybody tion,” Mithrough my “There’s never chael says. struggles a guarantee that Right then I’m just I’m going to have now Marks being selfis focused ish.” someplace to go.” on getting Michael, himself into one of Lucas’ closest friends on campus law school and economically and the only one who knows settled so he can offer more of about his past, says Lucas is the internship and funding opportunities to underprivileged nothing short of driven. “He definitely deals with youth, for which he himself adversity by trying to make has been incredibly grateful. And for the time being, Luthings better for other people in his situation,” Michael cas, Marks and Ye all seem to be in good places. says. But Michael sees that the past is still salient for Lucas: *** It’s “a past that he’s not moving on from because it’s still During his junior year of happening.” But, Michael high school, Marks’ parents says, you won’t see it change bought a house and brought Lucas’ outward demeanor. him and his sister back to live “(Most people) don’t see the with them. The transition was Lucas that goes home,” Mi- rough, he says. chael says, “and doesn’t have “I stayed out a lot, because
I had gotten used to a lot of independence,” he says. He remained angry with them for sending him away when, in his eyes, they could still take care of him. He later learned that his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown and that his parents needed time to sort things out. Marks has been back with his nuclear family for three years now. “They’re great. I love them. They love me,” he laughs, “I hope.” Lucas’ family is back together and his parents are doing well, but he’s not ready to forgive them just yet. “Until I can get over all of this myself,” he says, “I don’t owe them anything.” Despite the challenges, Ye says his nomadic life style “doesn’t suck. It’s actually, like, really nice.” He enjoys the freedom of traveling and says his decision not to live with his parents has more to do with personal preferences than anything else. Ye’s father has personal preferences. too, but, he says,
“I don’t love him any less. I’d be the first to protect (him) in any way I could.” And although his father now welcomes Ye into his home, Ye says his father’s actions are “too little, too late, and I am not having it.” The situation with his mother “has evolved from a probably-shouldn’t-becauseit’s-risky to an absolutelycannot.” “He does (his] best,” Ye’s mother says.” He keeps himself surrounded by dear people. The alternative is not so bad. He has responded pretty well.” Ye has been lucky. “There hasn’t been a time in my life where I haven’t had a place that’s comfortable and safe to go,” he says. “I’ve just had to do a little bit of shuffling around to find (it).” As far as comfortable living goes, Yale is treating all of us pretty nicely. Lucas looks up at the ceiling. “I mean,” he says, “there’s a fucking chandelier here.”
Rail, continued from page 12 rights on the job. Well-paid jobs mean citizens have the wherewithal to support their families — and that income circulates through local businesses. We have a living-wage ordinance in Cincinnati, but city council has failed to enforce it
and to extend it. We should use the building of a light rail and extended transportation system to reinforce living-wage legislation, insisting that the publicly run system will deal with no suppliers or contractors who do not pay a living wage to all of their employees.
A modern light rail car in Houston.
A strong public transportation system, eventually providing access to all neighborhoods in the city, accompanied by jobs that pay well, would be a strong inducement to our former residents to return to the city.
Transportation and development We could use our publicly owned transportation system not only to strengthen the downtown area, but more important to revitalize our neighborhoods. The light rail train would strengthen every neighborhood that it passed through; every place there was a stop, and every place that the system connected with the bus lines. If you go to Boston, Chicago or New York, you find at many of the L-train or subway stops a newsstand, a thriving local diner or a neighborhood shopping district. Workers earning union wages would mean more money in our neighborhoods spent in those shopping centers.
Too often in the past, devel- begin to improve Cincinnati’s opment has taken place in the notoriously poor air quality. At neighboring counties while the the same time, as the system city has languished, leaving expands, we would be careful inner-city residents without to avoid the abuses of the past, jobs and the ways opportuniin which “Eliminating the profit ties. A light industry motive means that the rail system city transportation system so often could help would serve the citizens, polluted to reverse worknot stockholders.” this situi n g ation. We class and could use the light rail system poor peoples’ neighborhoods. to make Cincinnati the hub of Organizations such as the regional development. Even- faith-based Amos Coalition, tually the light rail system the Blue-Green Alliance of would connect the city to the the Sierra Club and the United airport in Kentucky and to the Steel Workers of America, the industrial areas of Florence NAACP and the Labor Counand in Butler County. Such a cil could overcome their difsystem would also bring out- ferences by joining together to lying neighborhoods and sub- fight for a system that would urbanites back into the center serve the interests of all. Not of the city, now a city filled the streetcar that’s been talked with vibrant neighborhoods. about for downtown, but rather a light rail system that not Environmental only provides transportation commitments and improves the environment but is also the first step in turnWe can also use the light rail ing Cincinnati into a different system to improve our envi- sort of town, one where the ronment and to make amends public owns and manages and for the environmental injus- benefits from the use of taxtices of the past. We should tie payer money. the building of the light railway to the passage of the environmental justice resolution Dan La Botz (DanLaBotz. held up in council. A light rail wikidot.com) is a Cincinnatisystem linked to a system of based teacher, writer and acbuses using clean fuels would tivist.
16
Vendors
Resource Guide
STREETVIBES February 2009
Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 25 cents and sell the paper for $1, keeping the money they have earned. The vendors can be identified with a white badge and can be found selling the paper in downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northern Kentucky and area churches. The money they earn helps them meet basic housing, food and health care needs. Not all vendors pictured.
Josephine Baskerville
Doris Binion
Terry Ranson
Anthony Williams
Nell Williams
Grady Cook
Cleo Wombles
James Davis
Jon Darby
Dede Stoops
Julie Walker
Kenneth Stonitsch
Antonio Hodge
Leonard Jackson
Samuel Jackson
Riccardo Taylor
Berta Lambert
Mary Mueller
Brandon Nelson
Mark Shears
Charles Cole
Alfred Woolfolk
Terrence Williams
Raynard Jones
Richard Tyree
Michael Holley
Need Help or Want to Help? Shelter: Women and Children
Central Access Point...381-SAFE Cincinnati Union Bethel...768-6907 Bethany House...557-2873 Grace Place Catholic Worker House...681-2365 Salvation Army...762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter...872-9259
Talbert House...684-7965
PATH Outreach...977-4489
Treatment: Women
Resources
First Step Home ...961-4663
Treatment: Both
City Gospel Mission...241-5525 Justice Watch...241-0490 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Worker House...381-4941 Mt. Airy Shelter...661-4620
AA Hotline...351-0422 CCAT ...381-6672 Joseph House ...241-2965 Hamilton County ADAS Board ...946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center ...281-7422 Sober Living ...681-0324 Talbert House...641-4300
Shelter: Both
Advocacy
Shelter: Men
Anthony House (Youth)...961-4080 Caracole (HIV/AIDS)...761-1480 Drop Inn Center...721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network...471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center...221-3350 St. John’s Housing...651-6446
Housing:
CMHA...721-4580 Excel Development...632-7149 OTR Community Housing...381-1171 Tender Mercies...721-8666 Tom Geiger House...961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services Inc. ...751-0643 Volunteers of America...381-1954
Food
Lord’s Pantry...621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Soup Kitchen & Pantry..961-1983 Our Daily Bread...621-6364 St. Francis Soup Kitchen...535-2719
Treatment: Men
Charlie’s 3/4 House...784-1853 DIC Live In Program...721-0643 Prospect House...921-1613 Starting Over...961-2256
Appalachian Identity Center ...621-5991 Catholic Social Action ...421-3131 Community Action Agency ...569-1840 Contact Center...381-4242 Franciscan JPIC ...721-4700 Greater Cinci Coalition for the Homeless..421-7803 Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center...5798547 Legal Aid Society ...241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center ...421-1108 Peaslee Neighborhood Center ...621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids ...363-3300 Stop AIDS...421-2437
Health
Center for Respite Care ...621-1868 Cincinnati Health Network ...961-0600 Crossroad Health Center ...381-2247 Hamilton county Mental Health Board...946-8600 Hamilton County TB Control ...946-7628 Health Resource Center ...357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van...352-2902 McMicken Dental Clinic...352-6363 Mental Health Access Point...558-8888 Mercy Franciscan at St. John...981-5800 NAMI of Hamilton County..458-6670 Oral Health Council...621-0248
Catholic Social Services...241-7745 Center for Independent Living Options...241-2600 Churches Active in Northside...591-2246 Emmanuel Community Center...241-2563 FreeStore/FoodBank...241-1064 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart...381-0111 Goodwill industries...771-4800 Healing Connections...751-0600 Madisonville Education & Assistance Center...2715501 Mary Magdalen House...721-4811 People Working Cooperatively...351-7921 St. Vincent de Paul...562-8841 The Caring Place...631-1114 United Way...721-7900 Women Helping Women...977-5541
Northern Kentucky
Brighton Center...859-491-8303 ECHO/Hosea House...859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission...859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth...859-581-1111 Mathews House...859-261-8009 NKY Homeless & Housing Coalition...859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen...859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic...859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc...859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY...859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center...859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary...859-559-5011 VA Homeless...859-572-6226
Hamilton/Middletown
St. Raephaels...863-3184 Salvation Army...863-1445 Serenity House Day Center...422-8555 Open Door Pantry...868-3276