Occupy Sandy, Part 2: Midland Beach

11/28

Midland Beach, Staten Island. This section of the city has had the highest concentrated death toll. Up and down every block we see the houses with yellow tags-- and the words enter at own risk without spelling out specifically the  mold problem. So people are moving back, even without light, heat or safety. 

Comfort Cafe and Free Store

Inside the Comfort Cafe, we meet first with the parish priest,Father Diaz, a native of the Philippines. He tells me that 95% of his  parishioners have lost their homes. There are rumors, repeat rumors, of dozens of undocumented bodies in a makeshift morgue. Headed to Potters' Field.  People afraid to report  missing loved ones do to fear of  of deportation. 

Never thought I’d see signs for a NYPD/FDNY Comfort Cafe side by side on a fence with sign for Occupy Sandy Free Store. Here’s what happened: soon after the dust settled from the hurricane, Occupiers George and Amin-- who it turns out had been part of the #OWS encampment at West-Park, arrived at Midland Beach. Wisely went to the local parish priest, Father Diaz.  Told him they were here to help. Got the use of the empty CCD education building across the street. Set up their free store. Put out the word through the Occupy Sandy Social Media Network.  Within 24 hours, food, clothing, supplies were pouring in.

Amin and George

A week or so later, the police and fire guys said that they’d like to open up a cafe. Said they had issues with Occupy. Wanted them gone. Father Diaz and other local clergy said, They’ve been here from the start. This is not about politics, it’s about helping people. They’re staying. Deal with it. So after agreeing to meet every day at 1 PM to check in, they began to work with each other. Warily, but side by side.

So now here are  Red Cross working with Occupy  and retired police and firefighters cooking and serving people. Cooking on charcoal grills and Coleman stoves. While we were there, there was some tension with the Red Cross. They’re trying to get the site designation changed from  emergency recovery to reconstruction. That would mean they could leave. 

The retired police speak up...Wait a minute..you want to leave?  These Occupy guys got here before you. They work 15-18 hours a day. They’re not going anywhere. You’re telling us that you’re leaving and they’re staying?

There is no heat or power in the rectory. (Took me back to the old days at West-Park....but at least we had lights.) There is a rumor that Cardinal Dolan is coming December 8th, but still  unconfirmed. 

Occupy Sandy is building a tool library. Looking for power tools. Saws, crowbars, sledge hammers, nail guns.....

There are mold related problems everywhere.

The Red Cross says that because this mold is mixed with saltwater, bleach doesn't work.

 Turns out after putting out a call for people to donate bleach, it doesn’t work with mold mixed with salt water. (We didn’t know that from Katrina?) 

 Some of these houses will NEVER be inhabited again.

We are four weeks into this crisis  and information regarding mold is still not out. Why?

At this point, the biggest need is for volunteers to be involved in canvassing--spreading the  word about mold and finding out people’s needs.Occupy Sandy’s long term goal is to develop community ownership of the processes that have begun.

Another related action I am  just beginning to understand is the debt strike campaign, when this many of us are in debt crisis,  change must come.

This is a neighborhood of white  homeowners, Russian immigrant homeowners and Latino tenants. it is mainly a working class, middle class neighborhood with a long  identity as a  community of firefighters, police, first responders-- 

  

There are language and cultural barriers with the Russian and Eastern European immigrants. In the community, many didn't leave, despite the warnings. They are currently experiencing trauma. Some left and came back. Others stayed throughout. Already there is a growing division between those who saw water (as they say) and those who were not there.   

It can’t be said enough...mold is serious public health crisis.....there is a need for educational materials,for one on one engagements in Russian, Spanish and English. No one has figured out how todeal with sewage mixed with saltwater. And once again, there is no temporary housing. 

Jessica is  from the make the road program. She works primarily with Latinos and immigrants, mainly undocumented. People who are ineligible for services....They are organizing clinics to deal with stress and trauma,especially the stress of  mothers who feel they are having to hold everyone together.

Many Latinos have already moved out because they have no homes left and have no place to go. And the local jobs they worked in are gone. 

There is this need for educating,for  signage, for...The reality is,  most people can't afford to leave. They are unable to  move out of emergency status. The conversation goes to the thought that it’s time for churches to go back to old school leadership....our churches and ministers  have to assert local leadership beyond the Red Cross. 

Sully talks with us

Sully, a retired cop from the Emerald Society, tells us that the lights only came back last week. There are bungalows here too. But overall,he says,  it feels like the old west. Only the strong survive. And even more, there seems to be dividing line between north and south shore of Staten Island. Just like a typical third world country.

The visiting nurses have set up here now, too.

Susan, from the north shore says that there has been  lots of response but it has been  uncoordinated.

     

Finally Amin says, maybe they don't need money-- maybe they need radical solutions. This disaster is hardest on low lying communities of invisible people.One of the cops says, we're paying the load for this....as taxpayers, and we get nothing back..One of the Occupy Sandy volunteers  says that the issue on the Island is one of the individualizing of crisis, no sense of common good...

Story: Sully and the other police were on the case of the two Occupiers related to 9-11. They weren’t hear, they didn’t know...

Little George speaks up. I was eleven years old when 9-11 happened. I watched  it on TV. I felt I would do anything to help New York City. And now  I have the opportunity to stand side by side with you and work together. I feel its an honor to work with you...And Sully and the cops were silenced. 

And the cops see people they don’t understand willing to work to exhaustion to help the community where the live. Their home. This  is the brilliance of this stage of #OWS. They are getting embedded in communities. Working side by side with real people, seeing police and fire personnel as people,not ideological symbols. And they have proven they can deliver. As they sit together and discuss their shared experiences, questions get raised.   So why are we still in the dark? New opportunities  for reflective dialogue emerge. . Once again proving the main point of organizoing: relationships, everything is relationships.

Bishop George Packard is a good man. He was the first to go over the fence in an effort o get Trinity Wall Street engaged. He was ready to challenge his fellow Episcopal church over their liberal persona and massive 1% ownership in lower Manhattan.  It only unerscoes that moving forward, the liberals are more dangeroue than the conservatives. 

Bishop Packard is referred to as the people’s Bishop.  It’s not because  of any ideological commitment, it's because that’s who he is. A purple heart army veteran, chaplain and then head of all chaplains.  He has been there. As opposed to some of our colleagues who speak and analyze well and may even get arrested, but don’t deal with #OWS at the street level, don’t really know any occupiers, or have not been with the hurricane victims.  George has been there. he is there.  He always wears his chaplain's baseball hat and his magenta bishop's rabat. 

He’s also has a  sixth sense with veterans.  He seems to  know who they are. He went to the beleaguered Red Cross worker,  I see you’re a veteran....your vets for vets badge. where did you serve? A conversation ensues. George ends the conversation with a sincere thank you. 

Portajohns in liturgical colors

As we pass the portajohns in green and purple, I share a liturgical joke with him, so we're moving for ordinary time to advent johns, eh? And he laughs. 

For a m  think of the national guards we saw deployed in Far Rockaway. In their camos, their humvees, cradling M 16’s. Blocking off access to parts of of the town.  Residents are angry...put down your guns and pick up a shovel. 

In the corner, the Christmas tree is glimmering with lights. Darkness is nearing. In the background  the voice of Bing Crosby singing,  I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.  

Table discussion: Father Diaz, second from right

The critical question

9/17

Soledad Barrio of Noche Flamenca

I join Teddy on the steps. He shares stories of his weekend. The OWS gathering in Foley Square.  Well organized. Together. Seeing friends from back in the day. Well, September, that is. Lots of musical groups. All around good vibe. I share stories of my morning. Getting to Zucotti by 7 am. Cut off, surrounded by steel barricades. The lines of police in full riot gear. We gather by the Suvero sculpture. The Red Cube. 

Bishop George Packard

Chris Hedges

My clergy friends from Occupy Faith joined by Veterans for Peace. Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard, resplendent in purple robes, is himself at home with both groups. A bronze and silver star from Vietnam. Chaplain in Iraq in the Gulf War. Commander of all military chaplains. That was his diocese.  First one arrested in the action at Trinity Wall Street last December. He is, as journalist Chris Hedges calls him the Peoples’ Bishop. Hedges too is here and speaks. Of how the Stamp Act rebellion preceded the American Revolution. And the Russian uprising of 1905 preceded  the Russian Revolution of 1917. So the Occupy movement sets the stage for the end of  the current global economy of domination and control. 

There’s the mic checks. The personal testimonies. I think of speaking. Don’t. Standing by Pastor Donna from Judson. A practice sit down. And then we begin. The goal is to disrupt, if not shut down, business as usual at Wall Street. The police, with a clearly thought out strategy,  initiate and create  the confrontation too early. The Bishop is arrested.Too soon.  Along with our communications person. Not good. As the press literally presses in, pushing protestors  behind them, Pastor Donna and I feel the crush of the crowd and need to step out. 

Pastor Michael Ellick speaking to Pastor Donna Schaper of Judson Memoiral

What follows is an ongoing cat and mouse game between a shifting, swirling Peoples’ Wall and the police.  Assemble. Sit. Resist. Arrests.Scatter. Regather. Can’t even tell how many are there. I last awhile. Decide to go. Not my day to be arrested. I have been there. Have been a body. Enough for today. I tell Teddy it was good to see people in the streets again.But it was not the same. Slogans felt a little forced. Not quite that galvanizing sense of urgency from before.  And some people just live to get abused and arrested. That’s what I share with Teddy. 

Martin comes out frantic. Last day of rehearsal before opening night at the Joyce. Needs hours more time. Offers to pay. I tease him, only a little, and agree. Mariola talks with me about the arrangements and when do I want my comps? Disappointed tomorrow and Wednesday not possible.

A young man comes in, looking around. I find him at the piano. He’s from out of town. Here for a visit. I listen to him play.

Hugo arrives with food. Tonight, rice and beans and a beef stew. Our Bible study group will enjoy the food. As will occupiers. And dancers too.

Tonight we pass the halfway point of Mark. At the gentile city of Caesarea Phillipi, we find the critical question. First, Jesus asks, who do people say that I am? And Peter answers, John the Baptist...Elijah...one of the prophets... IE, the one who picked up the mantle of John’s movement, or the forerunner to the Messiah, or....

Then here it is, But who do you say that I am? And Peter says, You are the Messiah...

Jesus reponds by telling them to keep silent. And then speaks of the Son of Man who must suffer, be rejected, be killed...but also rise again... And Peter gets upset and rebukes him and Jesus responds with Get behind me Satan. Well alright, then. What’s going on here?

First, what does Peter mean? By the Messiah, he’s looking for a national liberation project. One where Jesus will lead his people, his nation to overthrow the Roman occupiers. Will restore the Davidic kingdom.

Jesus rejects that. Calls himself the Human One, coming from Daniel’s apocalyptic vision  in the midst of horrendous persecution and oppression under  the Syrian Antiochus Epiphanus.The Human One comes from the midst of people, humanity. Jesus is saying that this is not a national project. Some of our own people are the enemy. Some of our own people oppress us. And some who are not our people are our alies, our people. It’s a new way to cut it. Not Romans vs. Jews, but the Romans and the ruling class collaborators against the marginalized and poor regardless of nationality or ethnicity. In other words, it’s a rejection of identity politics in favor of a class based coalition. Satan is the tempter. Of course it is tempting to Jesus, the man, the human one, to imagine himself the new Davidic king. But that was not his call. 

He references the culture of shame vs. honor. The cross, used by Rome for political subversives, to make a public spectacle of resistors, hung naked in public. To follow Jesus is to risk that fate. But there will be a judgment. And Jesus' going to the cross will break the power of dominion. There is nothing more that can be done to him. That is what some will see, the kingdom of God, come with power. 

So that is the question that stands at  the center. The fulcrum, as Ched Meyer puts it. Who do you say that I am?  On the answer to that question hangs everything.

We finish our conversation. The sounds of gritos and pounding, flashing feet continue to rise through the floor. 

9/18

The house is eerily quiet without our flamenceros. Tonight is opening night. 

Jane and I meet at our Starbucks annex to discuss yesterday’s Occupy anniversary and my participation in one of her salons and possible work with a consultant friend of hers to discern our best ways of working together.  And the ways in which we have been mentors to each other. A joint holiday project. I walk back to the church to close out the day.

A Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower has been left on the steps.