On the south side of LeClaire Park there are three rocks with plaques that memorialize events or people. As I walked that side of the park today, I stopped to read one of the plaques: "In Commemoration: The Blackhawk Purchase Treaty."
The treaty was signed in 1832. A little background: the Europeans had just won the Blackhawk War against the Sauk, the Fox (aka the Mesquawkie) and the Ho-Chunks (i.e., Winnebagos). Chief Blackhawk himself was in captivity.
If armed robbery is a purchase treaty, then this was a purchase treaty. "Here's my gun. I want your wallet. That's our treaty."
One of the few easily-established facts of history: how it's written, and how it's read, depends on who is doing the writing. And the writing is always done by the victors. The monuments are erected by the victors. Do you think those figures on Mount Rushmore were selected by Native Americans?
So whites wrote the history. And built the memorial. And it was thus the "Blackhawk Purchase Treaty". Not armed robbery.
But it was armed robbery.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Well, DO something about it
If you've read my Facebook posts or my blog you are surely aware that I lean left on most issues. It's time, I think, to point out that I do more than just complain about issues. I see folks on TV, on Facebook, in newspapers to whom social justice is only an intellectual game. I have little respect for such gamesmanship, whether it comes from the left or the right. The question in my mind, when I hear this, is "And what are you doing about it?"
Other note: a few weeks ago I got tired of hearing Newt Gingrich talk about President Obama being a "Saul Alinsky liberal". If Newt hates Alinsky so much, then this Saul Alinsky must be someone worth learning about. He is, indeed. Lessons from Alinsky: 1) the key to getting anything done is organization; 2) your organization's target must be of a manageable size - big enough to make a difference, but small enough so that victory is achievable. Boil a pot of water. Don't try to boil the ocean.
My life outside of work and home:
AT SAINT MARY'S, DAVENPORT: I'm a lector in April, July and October. I'm a Eucharistic Minister in January and May. Two years ago I volunteered to serve on the Parish Council, and I was both humbled and honored to be selected as the Parish Council President. The Parish Council members each serve on one of the committees of St. Mary's. I selected the Social Action committee. That led to my involvement with. . .
QUAD CITY INTERFAITH: We're an organization of several churches in the Quad Cities. We have representatives on our Board from Catholic parishes, from UCC congregations, from Christian Church and Presbyterian congregations. We look to organize, and to assist others in organizing, in order to make the Quad Cities a more just place. We look, not to eradicate poverty and injustice, but to remove the underlying causes of poverty and injustice. We work through committees - task forces. We have an Immigration task force (mine), an Education, a Transportation, and a Health Care task force. Among our triumphs: last August we had a Transportation Summit, at which a Community Benefits Agreement was discussed. The rail line is coming to the Quad Cities (well, the Illinois Quad Cities.) There will a a lot of good jobs that come with the building and running of the railroad, and we'd like to have these jobs go to people in the QCA who need jobs. (Imagine that!) Another: we arranged, in cooperation with St. Ambrose University, a showing of the film abUSed. It's about the Postville raid. You should really research.
QCI does organizing, but important work can be done, and should be done, at the congregational level. We aim to have Core Groups at congregations. We had a training session last spring at St. Mary's to which a number of congregations were invited. As a result of that training, St. Mary's now has my third area of involvement, our
CORE GROUP FOR JUSTICE. Last year our Core Group maintained a focus on immigration and racial profiling. DWB - either Driving While Black, or Driving While Brown - will get you pulled over.
St. Mary's is actually a Spanish-speaking parish that happens to have a couple of English Masses. Probably 2/3 of our parish is Latino. Ours is, I think, the only Spanish Mass on the Iowa side. We arranged some meetings between our Hispanic parishioners and folks from the community that would be of interest to them: a public relations officer from the Davenport PD, someone from the Diocese who assists with immigration issues. This year, our Core Group has met twice. We have studied the issue of human trafficking and what we, in our little corner of the world, can do about it. It is not a very big leap from treatment of immigrants to trying to help victims of trafficking. Lots of victims - but by no means all - are from outside the U.S.
If you're from a parish or congregation that has no connection with QCI, or that has no Core Group, come join us. We'd love to have you! We don't require any particular expertise. The only thing you need is a mind and heart for justice. And a mind and heart for God.
Other note: a few weeks ago I got tired of hearing Newt Gingrich talk about President Obama being a "Saul Alinsky liberal". If Newt hates Alinsky so much, then this Saul Alinsky must be someone worth learning about. He is, indeed. Lessons from Alinsky: 1) the key to getting anything done is organization; 2) your organization's target must be of a manageable size - big enough to make a difference, but small enough so that victory is achievable. Boil a pot of water. Don't try to boil the ocean.
My life outside of work and home:
AT SAINT MARY'S, DAVENPORT: I'm a lector in April, July and October. I'm a Eucharistic Minister in January and May. Two years ago I volunteered to serve on the Parish Council, and I was both humbled and honored to be selected as the Parish Council President. The Parish Council members each serve on one of the committees of St. Mary's. I selected the Social Action committee. That led to my involvement with. . .
QUAD CITY INTERFAITH: We're an organization of several churches in the Quad Cities. We have representatives on our Board from Catholic parishes, from UCC congregations, from Christian Church and Presbyterian congregations. We look to organize, and to assist others in organizing, in order to make the Quad Cities a more just place. We look, not to eradicate poverty and injustice, but to remove the underlying causes of poverty and injustice. We work through committees - task forces. We have an Immigration task force (mine), an Education, a Transportation, and a Health Care task force. Among our triumphs: last August we had a Transportation Summit, at which a Community Benefits Agreement was discussed. The rail line is coming to the Quad Cities (well, the Illinois Quad Cities.) There will a a lot of good jobs that come with the building and running of the railroad, and we'd like to have these jobs go to people in the QCA who need jobs. (Imagine that!) Another: we arranged, in cooperation with St. Ambrose University, a showing of the film abUSed. It's about the Postville raid. You should really research.
QCI does organizing, but important work can be done, and should be done, at the congregational level. We aim to have Core Groups at congregations. We had a training session last spring at St. Mary's to which a number of congregations were invited. As a result of that training, St. Mary's now has my third area of involvement, our
CORE GROUP FOR JUSTICE. Last year our Core Group maintained a focus on immigration and racial profiling. DWB - either Driving While Black, or Driving While Brown - will get you pulled over.
St. Mary's is actually a Spanish-speaking parish that happens to have a couple of English Masses. Probably 2/3 of our parish is Latino. Ours is, I think, the only Spanish Mass on the Iowa side. We arranged some meetings between our Hispanic parishioners and folks from the community that would be of interest to them: a public relations officer from the Davenport PD, someone from the Diocese who assists with immigration issues. This year, our Core Group has met twice. We have studied the issue of human trafficking and what we, in our little corner of the world, can do about it. It is not a very big leap from treatment of immigrants to trying to help victims of trafficking. Lots of victims - but by no means all - are from outside the U.S.
If you're from a parish or congregation that has no connection with QCI, or that has no Core Group, come join us. We'd love to have you! We don't require any particular expertise. The only thing you need is a mind and heart for justice. And a mind and heart for God.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Books part - whatever
I couldn't do my walk by the river today. It was a damp day, a little chill in the air - not great.
Last Saturday I did get to the Bettendorf library. I only live about two blocks from it and, if you ever bump into me away from work or away from home, it will probably be at a library. At the library, on the "New" shelves, two books were close to each other. One was entitled "John Wayne Gacy", the other, "Heinrich Himmler."
A genocidal mass murderer and a serial killer, rapist and torturer of adolescent boys. Now, there's a choice for you! Yes, there were other selections in the "New Books" section.
Never mind. I checked out the book on the genocidal mass murderer, Himmler. He was the head of Hitler's Gestapo, the SS, and thus maybe the most feared man in Germany.
I read a lot of biography, but why in the world would I choose a life of such a despicable character?
Because, if we are to say, "Never again!" as loudly and as emphatically as we need to, this is precisely the sort of individual we need most to understand. As much as I would love to think that our world has only saints - as much as I want to think that everyone is (here comes my heroes list) a King, a Berrigan, a Merton, a Bernardin, a Roncalli, it just ain't so.
So, Heinrich, here I come.
Last Saturday I did get to the Bettendorf library. I only live about two blocks from it and, if you ever bump into me away from work or away from home, it will probably be at a library. At the library, on the "New" shelves, two books were close to each other. One was entitled "John Wayne Gacy", the other, "Heinrich Himmler."
A genocidal mass murderer and a serial killer, rapist and torturer of adolescent boys. Now, there's a choice for you! Yes, there were other selections in the "New Books" section.
Never mind. I checked out the book on the genocidal mass murderer, Himmler. He was the head of Hitler's Gestapo, the SS, and thus maybe the most feared man in Germany.
I read a lot of biography, but why in the world would I choose a life of such a despicable character?
Because, if we are to say, "Never again!" as loudly and as emphatically as we need to, this is precisely the sort of individual we need most to understand. As much as I would love to think that our world has only saints - as much as I want to think that everyone is (here comes my heroes list) a King, a Berrigan, a Merton, a Bernardin, a Roncalli, it just ain't so.
So, Heinrich, here I come.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The River
I'm baaaack! for the first time since November 20. Anybody miss me?
A nephew of mine, who is rapidly becoming a hero to me, had stopped blogging for a time. He started again, with the discipline required to write something every day. He's an assistant professor of English at a university in Virginia. I'm not; I'm just someone who reads a lot. And minored in English as an undergrad. And wrote for the college undergraduate newspaper. And entered, and did OK in, some fiction writing competition. Something William and I both understand: if you would write, the only way to do it is to write. Just write. Daily. No need to worry about profundity or length or originality. Write enough, and those things will emerge. But to start: write. Just write.
So I repent. My wife will hate the ashes I spread on my sackcloth.
Today I invite you along on my walk by the Mississippi River. Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher, took a walk every day, starting every day promptly at 3:00. It was said that the people of Koenigsberg could set their clocks by this, he was so regular. I'm no Kant as a philosopher - if you had to categorize me as a philosopher, it would be something of a cross between Augustine and Kierkegaard - but you can set your clocks by my daily walk.Promptly at 2:30 PM I leave my place of work, at the corner of 2nd and Brady, in downtown Davenport. I return at 3:00. In between, I walk the Davenport riverfront, in LeClaire Park, roughly from the Rhythm City Casion, or whatever it is they're calling that eyesore these days, to the LeClaire Park bandshell and back.
Sometimes I can't. The River does flood now and then, and when it does, LeClaire Park is soggy, and parts disappear altogether. One day, as I was walking the riverfront after such a flood has receded, I saw a fish, good-sized and quite dead, that had been deserted by the withdrawing water. He - or she, I didn't check - must have had a last thought of "What the. . .?" Anyway, one day the fish is on the concrete drive by the casino. The next day the fish was still there. So were a bunch of birds that didn't look in the least bit hungry. The fish had a hole in its side. Thus the unhungry unangry birds. The following day the hole was bigger, and bigger the next day. . .This fish was within a few feet of the casino, but for a few days it seemed not to occur to anyone on the boat that this might be unsightly and bad for customer attraction. The fifth day the fish was gone.
There are memorials around the park. More on the next part of the tour.
A nephew of mine, who is rapidly becoming a hero to me, had stopped blogging for a time. He started again, with the discipline required to write something every day. He's an assistant professor of English at a university in Virginia. I'm not; I'm just someone who reads a lot. And minored in English as an undergrad. And wrote for the college undergraduate newspaper. And entered, and did OK in, some fiction writing competition. Something William and I both understand: if you would write, the only way to do it is to write. Just write. Daily. No need to worry about profundity or length or originality. Write enough, and those things will emerge. But to start: write. Just write.
So I repent. My wife will hate the ashes I spread on my sackcloth.
Today I invite you along on my walk by the Mississippi River. Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher, took a walk every day, starting every day promptly at 3:00. It was said that the people of Koenigsberg could set their clocks by this, he was so regular. I'm no Kant as a philosopher - if you had to categorize me as a philosopher, it would be something of a cross between Augustine and Kierkegaard - but you can set your clocks by my daily walk.Promptly at 2:30 PM I leave my place of work, at the corner of 2nd and Brady, in downtown Davenport. I return at 3:00. In between, I walk the Davenport riverfront, in LeClaire Park, roughly from the Rhythm City Casion, or whatever it is they're calling that eyesore these days, to the LeClaire Park bandshell and back.
Sometimes I can't. The River does flood now and then, and when it does, LeClaire Park is soggy, and parts disappear altogether. One day, as I was walking the riverfront after such a flood has receded, I saw a fish, good-sized and quite dead, that had been deserted by the withdrawing water. He - or she, I didn't check - must have had a last thought of "What the. . .?" Anyway, one day the fish is on the concrete drive by the casino. The next day the fish was still there. So were a bunch of birds that didn't look in the least bit hungry. The fish had a hole in its side. Thus the unhungry unangry birds. The following day the hole was bigger, and bigger the next day. . .This fish was within a few feet of the casino, but for a few days it seemed not to occur to anyone on the boat that this might be unsightly and bad for customer attraction. The fifth day the fish was gone.
There are memorials around the park. More on the next part of the tour.
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