just enough for the city: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Open Space

6/28

Jason makes a point

So Jason has his meeting. He has drawn a diverse group. And as I asked him, everyone who has come has a constituency, people who will follow them. There’s a black pastor from Harlem, Alinski trained and familiar with what organizing means. A Latino organizer from the Bronx who organizes sports clubs and youth peace marches. A young Muslim couple who are fed up with living in a police state. A young Jewish human rights activist from the Bronx. Steve from Occupy. A man from New Haven who rode the train almost 2 hours to get here. A young Occupy activist who’s upset that other purists criticize his interest in electoral politics.

Micah from Berlin. And Kelly, long time AIDS activist and Open Space facilitator.

Everyone is here because Jason asked them to be. And because they all sense a deeper connection between what they are doing and what others are doing. And no sense of how to make that connection. These are the serious seeds sown by OWS, seeking their way to blossom into full scale...full scale...well, full scale.

Stop and frisk seems to be a magnet that draws energy. The city policy that presents itself has having lowered the crime rate when in fact the rate had dropped drastically before stop and...went into effect.

And this too, begins to spin. Jason has been meeting with threatened health care workers. He sees how it all fits together. Too much so. The more it expands, the harder it is to get hold of.

And the issue itself...how does this work link up with what the black grassroots clergy have been doing? And Metro IAF who highlighted this issue this in their assembly. There’s this whole ego/ownership thing.

Somehow the discussion morphs into how the last time around the shootings at Kent State pretty much tore the heart out of the progressive student movement in the US. When the other side gets the guns out, all of a sudden the equation changes. To look up at a rooftop, see the guns pointed at you, well, thats different. Peace and love will not necessarily change the world.

The black pastor shakes his head. For us, we take our lives in our hands just going to the bodega to get some skittles. You hear me?

And of course I do.

Long term. Patience. Step by step. Relationships. There is something real here. Jason is doing it. I will come to the next meeting.

Micah feels it too. Something happening. Sometimes he feels like coming back to the states. To be part of it. I think of the road from the day Occupy moved in to today. The road from Kent State and Ohio to New York City. To today.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

How will we get through the next two months?

6/26

Back from court. Strange how exhausting it is to sit through a whole day of court even when nothing happens. Case adjourned until late September. This all began almost five years ago....Sometimes the game is well why not pay a few thousand dollars just to make it go away? Not going to do that.

Eddie Anderson

Marty is sitting in front of Dunkin Donuts, writing himself notes. I ask how he is, he asks how I am. Asks if I’m out for a stroll. I think, sure, I say. Somehow we wind up talking about the Jack Benny Show. His valet, Rochester..But his real name was Eddie Anderson, not a lot of people know that, says Marty. First black man in afeatured role on TV. He mentions Dennis Day and Phi Harris, the band leader known for his drinking. He used to hiccough, says Marty, right on TV. I realize we’re talking about Jack Benny and I should go. I look at his papers, the numbers, the diagrams, the arrows, tiny print...

What’re you working on, Marty?

Just figurin things out, figurin things out....got to keep busy...

The idle brain is the devil’s playground, I say..

Never heard that before, says Marty.

The pool of dried blood is still there.

6/27

Teddy setting up a table for this afternoon’s Center meeting.

A young Asian woman asks about our history of edgy productions. She was aware of the Unsound Festival. I tell her about the Tenant, a Winged Victory for the Sullen, the Movement Research Festival...She has a company called the Opal Nest...

RL and David come in bringing the tools to complete the grate project. And help prepare a rehearsal space for RL. While we’re talking Ludovica comes in. Thankful the air conditioner issue has been resolved. Back at work rehearsing. Introduce her to RL who was in the middle of a discussion of various pranks that could be done with a magnifying glass and heat and sunlight and the Dalai Lama and flies.

I see them out, walk down the street with RL hearing the cheers from the Portugal-Spain game at the blue pub.

Time for the Center meeting. Our partner deal hasn’t closed yet. We are still holding out for what we truly want, the vision. But how will we get through the next two months? It’s not clear.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Later that same day

6/25

Later that same day....

There's a drying pool of blood in front of the steps.

Teddy is outside talking with his friend from the 24, Trevor and his partner, James. Trevor is caring and direct. Everything’s going to be ok.

Hope has arrived for our cross town trip to see the attorney. I introduce her to Trevor and James. And in the cab, tell her the story.

When I get back, a photographer from across the street who once gave us a good picture of the church has brought Danielle a mystery. (Although at the moment he is giving an impassioned critque of the Bloomberg Administration.) He’s got photos of a religious procession. What could it be? OK, the vestments could be Greek. Or Catholic. No. There’s a woman priest. Has to be Anglican. There’s a censer. High liturgical. At least a 50/50 chance it has to be St. Ignatius. The photographer admires my deductive process.

I’m not showing that I’m back in legal panic, once again trying to locate an attorney at the last minute. Jane’s nearly ready for a meeting. How can I focus?

Try all my contacts. Some interest. Some willing to go the extra mile. Heartfelt. But the time is so short....the work day’s over. Hearing scheduled for 2:15 tomorrow. Forty pounds of files to sort through. If this were the Euro Cup, we’re already into stoppage time. Finally my friend and neighbor Ric agrees to help. I can sleep.

Marsha, Hope and I meet with Jane and Karen. Trying to get clarity on the future. So many resources still unexplored. We are trying to pave the way for a real partnership. And we want them part of the Center. Can we find a win-win?

Sekou can’t come to Bible Study toight. Or for a few. At least on Monday’s. He’s got a birthing class to attend in Boston for a few Mondays. BUT, sons Dan and Micah are here. And I'm glad to see Junia back tonight, too.

Back into Mark 3. Jesus calling of the 12. With the names he gives. Noms de guerre. Noms d'occupy...Twelve. Just like the twelve tribes. He’s forming a confederacy. A provisonal government in exile. And he’s included a tax collector and at least one assassin.

Then there’s one on Mark’s literary sandwiches where he introduces a subject, brings in another story then returns to his original idea. Here, he starts with a conflict with his family, who want to seize him and have him put away because his behavior is endangering not only him but them as well. He is beside himself...

Then confrontation with the scribes who say he is possessed. That old witchcraft argument to discredit. Or as Ched Meyer said, calling him a Communist during the cold war. Jesus’ convoluted rhetorical defense says that is the ones who claim to be holy who do the work of satan.

The scribes’ calling Jesus Beelzebub caused us to look up the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen:

Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me,

Eventually the story comes back to Jesus and his assault on the kinship system. Who are my brothers,sisters, mother....Theologically, we get what’s being said. Emotionally, it's hard, and potentially dangerous, that kind of commitment.

And yet I remember the Occupiers I met who’d been kicked out of their home, or ran away to save their lives, who came together here, found safety, security, home...who are my mother, my sisters, my brothers?

Are we ready for that kind of commitment? Whee would it leave?

I need to go get ready for tomorrow’s court case.

Emergency call

6/25

Nate wakes me up at 1 AM. Call from Teddy. Emergency. I pick up the phone. Teddy tells me the white guy in the box attacked him. Teddy punched back, there must be 20 cops there. OK, I’m coming down. Throw on some clothes. Walk down the street. See lots of flashing lights from in front of the church. A Lennox Hill ambulance speeding away. Cruisers with lights flashing speeding away.

When I get to the church, the police have just left. Teddy seems agitated. Blood from his lip down his face and chin. His knuckles and hand bloody. David on the street. Donna on the steps. Rachelle there as well.

Try to piece together the story. Teddy came back from work. Found the guy asleep. Woke him up, told him he’d have to go. Guy says Where the fuck am I supposed to go? Teddy says, I don’t know, bro. But not here. You had a good safe space to stay and you blew it. We got rules here....

Guy starts coming at him. Teddy says, Please, please don’t do that. The guy punches him in the jaw. The same place he had a tooth pulled two days ago. Teddy swings. Decks him.

He gets back up. Two black guys coming from across the street to see what’s going on.. Teddy tells them, I’m good...The Spanish guy in the north doorway starts getting up. Teddy tells him to stay out of it, leave, and he does. Guy keeps coming. Teddy tells Dave to call the police.

Most of the night shift seems to show up. Take a look at the box guy and surround Teddy. David clears it up. Rachelle complicates things by telling the police that Teddy woke the guy up and started beating him up. Later tells me she’s a doctor and the blood was bothering her. I explain that indeed the guy guy was not supposed to be there. (Teddy keeps telling her she's got to get ger things back here before midnight.) I don’t condone violence. Neither do I blame Teddy for striking back.

We will go up to the 24 and make our statements. The officer is very helpful. Totally supportive. Helps Teddy with his statement. Tells us the box guy has been taken t the hospital and when he gets out, he’ll be put in jail. Apparently had needles and stuff in his backpack. Word is if they stop you, all you have to do is be honest. It’s the unannounced surprise needles that freak police out. Cause you more problems.

With all the blood, Teddy thinks he should get the test. Better safe...the ADA should help with that.

I walk him all the way back to West-Park. Hang with David and Donna and Teddy awhile. It’s that middle of the night quiet. An easy rain is falling.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

We are going to the other side

6/24

We welcome new members:
Elder Marsha, Steven, John, Don, Bob. Teddy, Willa (welome back!) and Elder Leila
(who made the rainbow stole)

Big day. Starts out like one of those that feel like you’ve momentarily slipped out of sync with the universe. People I expected would be coming texting or e-mailing saying they wouldn’t. Someone else I’m counting on texting that they’re late coming back from upstate. After talking to Andre earlier, I’m getting that strange message on his phone. Will he make it? The Bengladeshi copy shop is closed. The Internet is wacky at the Israeli shop. Desperate to get the service bulletins and action resolutions finished and its approaching 11. From somewhere I’m learning to stay calm in these moments. Moments when there is nothing you can do.

As I approach the steps, I see my sons Micah and Dan there. It makes me happy to see them, Micah back from Berlin for a week, Dan home from Drexel . Has Andre arrived? Yes, he’s inside waiting, says Micah. First sigh of relief. There’s a nice congregation already gathered and in the pews.

I step to the front. Say a word or two about out of syncness and ask everyone to take a breath. As it is LGBTQ Pride Sunday, we open the service with

God welcomes all, strangers and friends

God’s love is strong and it never ends...

I point to the rainbow flag. Remind the congregation of the More Light Statement of welcome and inclusion from 1978. The knitted rainbow stole, for so many Presbyterian General Assemblies (national legislative meetings) worn as silent symbol of witness of those excluded from serving until the victory last July. And how the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table at the First Presbyterian Church at the Pride March is named for the wife of former West-Park Pastor Bob Davidson who felt that given traditional church hostility to the lgbtq community, offering a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to hot marchers would be a healing witness.

Friends from the Sweatshop Upper West Side Campaign have come to worship with us, to say thanks and to inivte us to their Friday night celebration at Holy Name.

Given the challenges of the day, our opening hymn is Harry Emerson Fosdick’s God of Grace and God of Glory....

God of grace and God of glory

On Thy people pour Thy power

Crown Thine ancient church's story

Bring her bud to glorious flower