Friday, March 31, 2017

Ceremonial first pitch

 
 foto President Roosevelt April 16, 1940; he would hit newspaper camera; Joe Cronin Red Sox
“Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost. And, incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to the day shift to see a game occasionally.” — Franklin Roosevelt January 15, 1942 to Baseball commissioner Landis [who hated Roosevelt]

William Howard Taft once played base ball, he won the presidential election of 1908, and he was the first president to throw the first pitch of the baseball season. Franklin Delano Roosevelt threw out the first pitch eight times to begin a season, twice in World Series games, and once in an All Star game. Franklin had polio, had to clean up the Republican Depression of 1929, and manage wars to defeat Hitler and Tojo. Trump once played baseball, he will not throw out the first pitch—he does not want to hear the boos.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

shinrin-yoku

went to an Urban Greening presentation, got a certificate from an Ohio EPA officer, got coffee and donuts
 
A professor from the northwest (U. Wash-Seattle) came and spoke. Yes, this is of value and good; but it is not smooth sailing in to-day's [and especially trump's] America. This is not Japan or Switzerland where there is a national ethic of cleanliness towards our environment. We live in a brutish, vulgar, vulture capitalism where immediate consumption is the programme. The old proverbs tell us that a grandfather plants a tree for his grandson, not for himself. This ethic is easy for an American Indian to understand, accept, and live; people who believe in stewardship of nature too. Dr. Wolf did give me another Japanese aesthetic to enjoy—shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), it is therapeutic in several ways to bathe yourself in a forest walk. 
_______________________
postscriptum: 18 June 2022. The Germans have the word, "Waldeinsamkeit" [alone in the forest(ness)].

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Walter Jones

Well, there is one good Republican anyway, Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina. He used to be a Democrat, his father was a Democratic Congressman. Most Republicans vote 100% with the party line, which is usually evil. Now, Jones has heavy conservative and libertarian leanings, but he has been conspicuously human at times.

I remember, when the last Social Justice Conference in the Cleveland diocese was held. It was scheduled when Pilla was bishop, but occurred after his retirement, and it was announced that it would be the last such. So, that was full indication that the new bishop (Lennon) was not a supporter of such a thing. Well, Sr. Simone Campbell spoke about lobbying Congress, and had only four members that were open to such things. Walter Jones was one of the four, and the only one still in Congress. Joseph Biden was another.

Jones was an initial gun-ho supporter of bushjr's Iraqui War. He along with Ney started the "freedom fries" bullshit, but after a time, he opposed that war. He has been quite contrary to his party on some economic issues (minimum wage), and ethics (repeatedly), and has been punished by Republican leadership.

Well, the latest trouble he has gotten himself in (besides requesting Don-the-Con's tax returns to be examined by Congress) is making the request for Devin Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation of RussiaGate.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Chinese Garden interrupted

Case Western Reserve University is cutting a landscaped path past the Art Museum to the Temple. Old trees and shrubbery have been cut and ripped out. The Chinese had some ceremonial planted trees. Well new money makes its own path. Also, currently there is an ugly blank wall in front of the museum.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Good morning America, how are you?

 Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail...
 

 


 

"iron horse" is crossed out

Sunday, March 19, 2017

more Patrick parade fotos

This year there were many road blocks, some cement barricades, some snow plows/salt trucks, access to intersecting streets (and some parallel) to Superior Avenue. This reduced parking and attendance. There have been international incidents of vehicles as weapons. There was bomb sniffing dogs at a vehicle interest on Superior for parade vehicles. This was all new to the parade. The barricade numbers were greater than the number used for the Repukicans, last July.
Knight of Columbus 4ยบ


 These Irish wolfhounds were fotographed by many, and i have posted a foto in a past year.
 There was a mustard hot dog too.
 During the Irish national anthem



 Dancing with a Leprechaun

I marched with Saint Casimir's

Friday, March 17, 2017

Cleveland St. Patrick's Parade 2017

8th Ohio Voluntary Infantry Regiment (35 years in this parade)
 Joseph Pearce (St. Patrick) during national anthems of Ireland and the United States
 Notre Dame College
 Jason Nichols channel 19/43 weatherman, Ohio University East Green
Leprechaun in the crosswalk
 Saint Helen's Unicycle Drill Team Newbury Geauga County
People in and watching the parade are happy, and do not even have to be asked for pictures. A very good time. Attendance was reduced to-day, because of intense police precautions. Many roads blocked by salt trucks/snow plows and cement barricades. Several pictures here have been horizontally compressed as a squeezebox would be.
 Gaelic Glen Alpacas
 St. Vincent-St. Mary High School
 Local 3 Insulators (ragfitters)




Wednesday, March 15, 2017

The Buffalo Idea, the Mass Mob Movement

Cleveland Mass Mob [click, and here] finished their third year with their twenty-fifth mobbing on the 13แต—สฐ of November 2016 at St. Emeric, which was the last of the eleven parish churches ordered to be re-opened by Roman decrees. It has become, practically, de jure for any religious affiliated thing to have a foundation statement. Of course, after announcing our existence, we had to explain who?, what?, and such. So: We wish to attract people to come for a Mass, a celebration of Liturgy and Eucharist, in a parish community of an historical, and beautiful church.

In Buffalo [click, and here], four friends wanted to help St. Adalbert Basilica. St. Adalbert's was the first basilica in the United States. Buffalo's ordinary had closed the parish and church. Parishioners appealed to Rome, they made note of its status. The diocese denied it was a basilica. The documents showed it was. The diocese reluctantly obeyed Rome, and opened the church for worship (i think one day a year). So the first mass mob was on All Souls Day 2013. Buffalo Mass Mob II made a national Associated Press story [click].

Buffalo was the first to form, and nearly two dozen locals announced thereafter. The Parable of the Sower is an apt metaphor. The seeds were distributed about, and some plants grew well, and others not. Buffalo continues. Some locals did little more than make an announcement. Detroit's [click, and here] has done marvelously. Since their second mobbing, the local daily had a story before and after each and often with several photographs. Local television and radio have had stories, and interviews. Detroit has larger churches than Cleveland, some seat fifteen hundred, and at least one seats two thousand. Most mobbings produced no empty seats.

Something happened in Buffalo. The environment of conditions, and the spark in a few people's minds gave us this 'Buffalo idea'. The spirit we wanted to promote is appreciation that leads to rejuvenation. The United States has relentlessly promoted a disposable culture of immediate reward. So many of our societal problems are children of this philosophy. Community has been attacked for convenience, and for the desires of the aggressively ambitious and selfish. We need to celebrate and cherish something more important and valuable. Mass Mob is a form of popular evangelism. Other than religious aspects, there are community, historical, architectural, anthropological, and sociological aspects to this phenomena.

"For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

These are the red letter words from the mouth of Jesus as recorded by the evangelist Matthew. This is the charter for the parish, a group of people in physical communion with the actual presence of Jesus with them. This is why a parish is so important. An hundred years ago, and more, people crossed the ocean and came to a new country. Their pennies, and dimes (for that was their wages) built edifices to house their community in dignity and respect befitting what they believed honored God. Often, these newcomers, 'greenhorns', were not welcomed by the greater community. These churches were bulwarks aiding them to keep the faith. Now, the progeny of some of these people are the establishment, they are integrated in the general community; but they hold a similar disregard for those who started those parishes, and built those churches. There are bishops, and other Catholics who prefer large homogenised, bland, interchangeable, indistinct units of the suburban sprawl which have large Sunday collections. These old parishes are our legacy, they are our culture, they are part and parcel of our faith.

Our goal was to, at least on occasion, flood the naves with the faithful. We wanted a greater audience to hear the invite. The genius of this Buffalo idea was to invite the public by social media. The chief, and most frequent social media organ than promotes the movement is facebook. The secular press and media, where it has given notice, has been unanimously positive, and the press has increased the invitation beyond the circle of social media available to the local organisers. Here in Cleveland, one reporter at the local daily told the city [click], and the paper [in the physical copy, or at least on line] made notice. And so did an AM radio news station. One television station came to our first mobbing, and it was linked to by an Italian publication.

Of the several locals, the first distinguishing factor was between organic and clerical. Cleveland as Buffalo was organic, and started and remained in the hands of the laity. In Detroit, there were four people who individually wanted to follow Buffalo's lead, and coalesced together with institutional support. The public enthusiasm of their local bishopry has been complete (the archbishop recorded a commercial [click], and has presided over three masses i think; and auxiliary, and retired bishops have said masses), and it is has to be believed it has added to the success there. The bishop of Ft. Wayne and South Bend asked for two mobs, the Knights of Columbus organised South Bend. In Kansas City Mo., and Memphis Tenn., it was organised by young adult ministries. A new seminarian organised in Bridgeport. The opinions of people employed professionally as Catholics, and the 'official' church's reception has been on a continuum of acceptance. Some places have skeptical critics, or have been loathe to say anything publicly. There has been expressed a worry of 'poaching' parishioners.  An old teevee cartoon had various characters say something uncomfortable about "...those meddlesome kids". I know of words that have circulated to me, that, the chancery on East Ninth does not like Cleveland Mass Mob. Some priests were timid when approached about having their parish mobbed.

The press early on was interested in this novel (and perhaps gimmicky nature of this evangelisation, and several liked to example "twitter", which use was scant and sparse) approach; and pooh-pooing critics (outside of the press, and with very small reach) looked dismissively on the movement. We made the Sunday New York Times [click]. The reporter, Michael Paulson, used the term 'Rust Belt Catholicism'. Yes, that captures the situation. Here we are in the battered industrial engine that helped create America; and here we still have great beauty, and the churches and parishes our immigrant forebears created are still here giving witness. The reporters i have talked to, and those who have talked to others elsewhere were universally positive. Many of these reporters are either active, or disenchanted, Catholics; and they like the concept, and the goals. Many people do see the Church as a community of believers that can gain members.

The call to mob is an anonymous opportunity to explore or revisit a parish, a church. A member of the mob can be incognito, and comfortable about it. The people who regularly attend that mass, are pleased to see that others want to see their church, their parish, their community. I was told after Cleveland Mass Mob III, that the mobbing confirmed the parish in its decision to appeal to Rome.

Some people object to the terminology. I remember, a Scottish folk musician say that 'mob' was the English word for a Scottish committee. Our beloved Pope Francis said, in Rio de Janeiro at World Youth Day, to make trouble in the diocese. Keep Massing and Mob On!

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Winds-day has been a blustery day

 Reports of 50 mile gusts have been made. This utility pole has tilted.
A policeman has been tasked to safeguard the sidewalk. He has taken loose yellow police line caution tape from his vehicle's trunk, and the wind has taken it.
The tape waves in all directions.
 A young woman comes to the bus stop and helps.

Monday, March 6, 2017

heroin use



Before the local press would talk of illegal drug usage, and it was shown to be minority (Blacks, Hispanics) criminals. Now, Ohio leads the nation for heroin and other opiate use, but all the people shown are white and never suggested to be criminals. Rob Portman (R) heavily used this in his US senate campaign to appear interested and caring [he will go into hibernation until the 2020 presidential campaign needs him to work for the party, and then again in 2022 if he goes for re-election]. Prisons are loaded with people under drug convictions. The Latin America drug cartels supply American users. In the last few years, state after state has put marijuana/cannabis issues on the ballot. 

There is a temporary art installation in Avon Ohio, partly sponsored by Cleveland Clinic. The artist is Ryan Poignon, and he says it can represent the high, and the low experienced after usage.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

the unnesting

  NestingDolls,  Matryoshka,  ะผะฐั‚ั€ั‘ัˆะบะฐ
 
Well, news broke this morning on the further evolving insanity of the Donald. There is a genre of fiction called alternative history, that begins with "What if...". What if Nixon tweeted while drunk in the White House during the time of Watergate? "The Kennedys are behind this..."
 
I see a future blue book question: Compare and contrast the two most disastrous presidencies of the 21st Century, GWBushJr & DTrump. [this is a test question, not in the form of a question (?)]