Circle the City with Love

Monday, the Republican Convention begins in Cleveland. Friday night, they had already taken the streets of downtown. Traffic will be greatly constricted. Some roads will be inaccessible. There are more snow plows in Cleveland now, than in a blizzard. Snow plows blocking highway ramps, on Public Square, along highways, and driving on highways. There are helicopters in the sky, and planes trailing banners.

Sister Rita Petruziello of the Congregation of Saint Joseph is the chief organiser for a statement of peace for the city. Sunday afternoon in mid 80's heat, thousands of people held hands in an half hour of silence on the Lorain Carnegie Bridge. The Carnegie side is  mostly verboten, and leads to the Republican Convention Arena.

  Lorain side

 

Sister Rita explains the programme. It is billed as non-sectarian, non-partisan; but it does have a large Catholic essence. It does not have many Republicans in the crowd of thousands. There was a lot of foreign press, the foam rubber on their microphones, and their security clearance tags told where (AFP, Global, Al Jazeera, and so on). Local teevee included Kristin Volk (WEWS), and Dawn Kendrick (WKYC). The feeling on the bridge was very good, and even serene; but not everyone viewing was interested in that, an aeroplane was constantly over the bridge with a "Hillary for Prison" banner. At the end, i noticed a couple of Republican tourists wondering at the event. This was not an RNC sponsored event. To call it a protest event would be false. The point was to create positive energy, and this flows from God.

  taking the pledge to act in a peaceful manner 

 walking to spread out on the Lorain Carnegie Bridge

 Carnegie side
 
After the horn sounded to end the half hour silence, "Hell-o I 'm Marianne".