of notes

Now, no one phrases it this way, but Jeptha Wade was the man who killed the Pony Express (24 October 1861). Beginning in 1847, he made his first million by contracting the building of telegraph lines. In 1856 he moved to Cleveland. Wade, and Hiram Sibley (who had been a partner of Samuel Morse) consolidated telegraph companies. Wade eventually became president of the combined company, Western Union Telegraph Company. He sold his interest to Jay Gould in 1867. He received more money, from steel, banking and railroads. Wade donated much land which became home to the institutions of University Circle, Cleveland.

Technology changes commerce. Western Union is still in business. It 'wires' money. It does not transmit telegrams. Many people who have received telegrams, had the note announcing a death. Wade gave land for Lake View Cemetery, and was its organiser and president.

The telegram is dead. Now, a similar contrivance has replaced it in part. 'Twitter' is a mobile social messaging service [my that is a clunky phrase]. Now, while it may pass along news, and in current popular demonstrations under repressive governments — it did; much of it is nonsense, babble, and advertising. Apparently this can be done on the internet, as well as the mobile, électronique telephone. 'Twittering' (referencing bird chatter), then, is telegraphing for idjits, and an individual 'tweet' is the idiot's telegram.

Now, a few days ago, a news story was carried that the pope has made his first tweet. The church trying to be current, okay. This made all sorts of semi-news broadcasts. It seems the local diocese had done so a time before. This only came to my ken when a friend told me to look at Michael McIntyre's tid-bit column, in the very plejndjilar. In Saturday's copy of the Cleveland daily, he writes of a tweet of the day before:

Diocese of Cleveland

NBA and NFL lock u out? Check out God's house...no lock outs and the compensation is always more than generous.

McIntyre caught a diocesan flak issuing that statement ripe in hypocrisy and irony:

Unless God's house, to you, happens to be one of the dozens of parishes in the diocese that have been closed in the last two years. Parishoners of St. Peter, for example, certainly considered themselves locked out; They broke from the diocese to start their own congregation after their church was closed. St. Prokop is padlocked. St. Casimir is fenced off. The message may be sound. The diocese may need some work on its analogies, though.

That may very well be the only instance of a punch laid on lennonism by the local press. The diocese has been very controlling in the shape of its news coverage. Reporters have the tendency to transcribe without probing, allowing less than credible statements stand. Investigative reporting has been squashed. Reporters have been told not to travel that path.

Robert Tayek, the designated liar, is quoted saying:

"There is a wonderful history in this diocese of people supporting the church and, especially, their local parishes."

This was in response to Lennon's signature new project, a capital campaign for $125 million. Well, there he is speaking truthfully; but inconsistently and manipulatively. Yes, people do support their parishes, and your employer liquidates them for dollar notes. Now he wants more.

The writer tells us, that Tayek tells him, that the "fundraising campaign was introduced after three years of planning". The writer does not bring up the obvious about the previous point, and he doesn't write (and probably didn't discuss) why it took three years, nor what other target figures were suggested, nor what the other heap of money was doing.

Lennon enjoys the largest assessment (bishop's tax) in North America. He has sold many properties, real estate and furnishings. Yet he still needs money. There is much vagueness, that is not questioned, in the specifics of what the new campaign is for. In Berry's recent book, there are examples where bishops give large cash gifts to the Vatican. That may not be the destination of a cash cluster, but heaps have been accumulated; and it is always the first order of business.