And a pair of shoes

10/10

Joe and the family, including Rob, filling the steps. I’ve got to get them gone. 

Sophie and Carlos from the National Movement Against Sweatshops are here to talk with me about the coalition to get a real minimum wage. Seems to be growing building up steam. Has to include tip workers too. Need to go after Governor Cuomo. I talk about my contacts with the fast food workers. There seems to be some connections  growing  there, but as always, ideological issues keep allies apart when the fight needs to be together. I talk about my recent experiences with the carwasheros. (I love that word.) Sophie takes some notes. Will reach out. I’ll try to see what I can do from my end. 

A woman brings in another woman, kind of wild eyed. Wants to do some volunteer work. OK, a job for Danielle. 

All afternoon Piano Dan is tuning the Bechstein. Something comforting hearing him perfecting note by note, hearing the change, increment by increment.

Anna is in for a visit with puppy and a report on happening is in the world around us. 

Walking back from a visit with Hugo, i see three former occupiers sitting at a table outside Slightly Oliver’s. Jonah, who I never did quite get, Ted, the trust fund kid who somehow always carried that sense of privilege along with him, and Sean, quiet stable African-American who often served as facilitator. I’m working for a union now as an organizer, he says, living at that church, being part of it changed my life, even with all the craziness, I saw what I needed to do. Thank you....

I needed to hear that. 

At the door, there are two very large bags of clothes. And a pair of shoes. 

Happy Birthday, West-Park

6/11

Like I said, things on the steps have deteriorated since the Sergeant went AWOL. Cardboard beds, too many cigarette butts, general disorder. Someone has left a box of kosher bagels.

I hear noise. Open the doors. As if out of nowhere, Sergeant Keith, Anna and puppy have appeared. Anna takes the sweeping equipment and gets to work. The Sergeant has stories.  Seems there’s division in the ranks of the lost patrol. But mainly, he feels like it’s time to move on. He’s got an appointment about an apartment later today. Look, he says,the steps were a landing strip. A place to touch down. A home. But I have to use these steps to step up, I need to step up, get  a life again. I shake his hand. That’s why we’re here. And like a whirlwind, he spins into action, picking up everything in sight and the steps are clean again. 

Inside, Karen is at the piano. Playing. Singing. Sorry she missed my son nate’s friends from Hawaii.  

Bill Skeritt, a pastor from Rhode Island has come in. He looks vaguely familiar. Ten years ago he brought a youth group here for a summer work camp.  Looking for a place again. I explain about the showers. The busted pipe. The water damage. The landmarking....well, ten years of history. You mean they landmarked you and they didn’t give you the money to.....Sigh. Yes....I direct him to SPSA. Pastor Heidi at Trinity is another option. Or Alistair at West End. Sorry we can’t accommodate. No showers. 

The man from the energy company keeps coming back. Persistent he is.

Long, frustrating negotiation conference call, leaves me depressed. Talking with Stephen and Cara in the chapel. Got to keep our work moving forward. Contractors coming. I look up, see the word that looks like blood again. I really want to know what that says....

Well, if it’s lead paint, you never will..., he says. 

It’s a distraction, but I want to know...How many quotes are there? Will it disappear before I get a chance to know?  That’s a monkey wrench, says Stephen. 

Look at my watch. Running out of time. My clergy friends coming soon. Need to run out, get wine and cheese and grapes and crackers and tablecloths and...When I get back, Danielle is here and we get it done. 

My colleagues are slow in arriving. I giv them a brief guided tour of our sanctuary.We talk about what’s missing in seminary education, since we’ve got three seminarians with us. (Including Yale, my school...)And we decide family systems theory, community organizing and basic economics. They now seem to be getting family systems, but CO, no.

colleagues

We talk more. Heidi was a long time organizer in South Bronx Churches (IAF) . We talk about why it’s been so hard here, on the Upper West Side. Gentrification divides community coherence. We talk about the Sweat Shop Free campaign, our frustrations around basic organizing principles. For all our issues with the Industrial Areas Foundation, there is discipline. A praxis that works....And we all agree, relationships are the basis of all successful organizing, not issues. 

And then we talk about the emerging arena of food justice.I talk about how there are three entry points: production (E.G., the Immokalee tomato growers, other farmworkers), distribution (Sweat shop campaign, food workers) and consumption, where we choose to eat, purchase food, etc. You can jump in anywhere. Ultimately it gets into everything from seeds (Monsanto) to corn dependence to...There is a flash of excitement....

I remember that today is a fitting time to gather. West-Park’s 102nd birthday. Lots of Facebook birthday wishes....

It’s time to head to a Presbytery meeting. There I will learn that Alan Thompson has died. He was my teacher at Yale. Allowed me to do two major independent study projects. Introduced me to real leftist politics. Later, he would preach my first installation in Tulsa. Our church  had sponsored his southeast Asian mission work, where he was radicalized. At one point, he was hounded by the government and was later all  but homeless in New York City.  There’s a lot more I don’t know. But I will remember him.

Extra cheese with justice

6/29

The heat continues. Leila stops by just to see what’s going on. Leonel comes in wanting to schedule another performance. And Marc comes in with the proceeds of the EBay amplifier sale. The buyer from Singapore has come through. 

Then we do a tour of the balcony to see the evidence of electrical creativity matching that of any theatre group that has inhabited the space. Unravelling this should be a challenge. Or perhaps a spiritual exercise. 

Thank you Cafe Frida

Jason is connecting

Occupy is in the house: Steve and Jay

Time to head to Holy Name for the Sweatshop Free celebration. Much has been accomplished in the last year. A gathering drawing workers, politicians, clergy, occupiers and community people and small business owners will witness to the progress in community building, community ownership that has taken place. 

The owner of Cafe Frida will speak movingly of how treating your workers right raises the quality of your food. (Though I feel honored to be threatened with her.)Raises the quality of your restaurant. And he will be right. Always glad when one of my favorites does the right thing. 

Pastor Heidi wants justice with that extra cheese

Pastor Heidi’s clever reply to threatening letters from Domino’s shows the sense of ironic political humor I wish I had. How ‘bout some justice with that extra cheese? Oh fresh out? How ‘bout fair pay with that pepperoni? Oh not available?

The coalition: workers, politicians, small business people

After the politicians, I’ll wrap things up. Say my boys pushed me to move beyond solidarity waves into real action. And will tell the workers, we have already won. We just need to live into it. 

Passing by the church late at night, things are quiet. I’ll be up all night packing. Won’t see these steps for awhile.