Vermilion anchor

A grand anchor sits outside the Inland Seas Maritime Museum, Vermilion, Ohio. It is a beautiful object: historical, craftsmanship, aesthetic. It is art, most publicly displayed near the western end of the south shore of Lake Erie. Compare this with the FREE stamp some miles to the east. The latter is modern sculpture, but it is not real; it is realistic, it is many times larger model of a small piece of office supply. The anchor supra served real usage for its form. The Cleveland Monument was never meant to be used. It could be, if the letters were inked. It would have to be then lifted by crane to leave an impression, or one could press the paper against it; which would be far more easy and practical, but not the normal pattern of usage of the genuine object.

This anchor is a form of the traditional fisherman's or admiralty pattern. The cross arm, the stock, is a barrel. It is four staves bound by four iron hoops. Its fat center is bored to hold the shank. A shackle with chain is at one end, at the other is a rounded crown arm with a pair of flukes, and peas.

Vermilion is a small town that sits in two counties, Erie to the west, and Lorain to the east. The French translated the name of an indian river, that was dubbed for the red clay on its banks.

Now in the second half of the 17th century, the French had this are as part of Huronia. Huronia was the area about the Great Lakes where the French had indian missions. The Indians about this area included the Shawnee, Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes, Huron, and of course, the Erie. The first Masses in Ohio were said here. Overall, this area was little visited by the French, and little recorded. Vermilion might have been, one day, a first provincial capital of an Erie province. This was lost on the Plains of Abraham.

During the American War for Independence, the generals Benedict Arnold, and William Tryon burned some eight towns in Connecticut in 1779 and '81. In 1792 the Connecticut Assembly granted a portion of its Western Reserve to these fire-sufferers. These lands were called the Fire Lands. Vermilion is on its eastern point. Most of the territory has become the Ohio counties of Huron and Erie.

SNAP Press Statement: Cleveland, 7 June 2011

http://www.snapnetwork.org/

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

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SNAP Press Statement

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Victims blast Cleveland diocese

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

We are saddened and appalled that Cleveland Catholic officials won’t remove a plaque honoring a credibly accused child molesting cleric.

Because the alleged predator is dead, the full truth about him will likely never be known. But this much is clear: the church hierarchy must choose between the feelings of two living women or the reputation of one dead priest. They are choosing to side with the alleged criminal over the alleged victims – the side that top church staffers have almost always taken for decades. The Cleveland diocese continues to do this now, even though the accused priest is deceased and can’t be hurt by whatever choices diocesan officials make.

Church officials will no doubt claim these two women are the “only accusers.” If that’s the case, it’s only because church officials refuse to actively reach out to others hurt by Fr. Monaghan. However, church officials refuse to do this. In fact, they told the Plain Dealer they won't "devote resources" to delving into this brave victim's abuse report. Have they not read in the Bible that "the truth shall set you free?"

Of course, they can take a clear and free step toward the truth with a two sentence notice in parish bulletins, saying "We have an allegation that Fr. Monaghan molested a girl. If you have any information that might prove or disprove the allegation, we beg you to come forward right away." This of course costs nothing and would show that the Catholic hierarchy welcomes victims and cares about victims and about the truth. However, Cleveland church officials apparently refuse to take this simple, non-controversial move.

A cowardly response would be for church officials to "split the difference," taking the accused priest's name off of only the building or only the plaque. But Cleveland Catholic hierarchy can't even bring itself to take this minimal step towards compassion.

Our hearts go out to Barbara Johnson and Karen Roman. We applaud them for their courage. We hope and believe their bravery will help bring them healing. We are confident that their speaking out will help and console and inspire others who suffer in shame, silence and self-blame.

We are not confident, however, that Cleveland church officials will ever live up to their promises to treat victims with compassion.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

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Postscriptum 15 Jun 2011: In a fourth article, by Michael O'Malley, it was announced the plaque will be removed, and the name taken off the parish hall.

What is scandal?

"The nun said to me, 'That would scandalize the parish,' "

Scandal is ... "something less rightly done or said, that occasions another's spiritual downfall." --Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ (II-II, xliii, 1)

Recently, there appeared in Cleveland's lone daily a story of a victim of sexual harassment, and advances, by the founding pastor of a suburban church*. She requested the removal of a plaque, and the name designation of a campus building honouring that man and priest. The sister† quoted is the diocesan 'victims' assistance co-ordinator'. "It would be wrong to do this to his name". The diocese has its priorities.

What is evil/sinful? The bad behaviour, or the public acknowledgment of that bad behaviour? If it is the latter, then one is mandated to lie; to call the malefactor good, or the malefactor's behaviour good, and to discredit any truth teller. Logic, and the Angelic Doctor‡ would never advocate that [additional sinning].

These two people are speaking of two different concepts. Scandal, for St. Thomas, induces bad behaviour in another. Scandal corrupts. Secrecy facilitates the further occasion and operation of scandal. For the other, and for too many (especially those in, or defending, institutions and/or powerful individuals), scandal is the discredit that bad behaviour brings. Scandal becomes merely adverse publicity, that may result in loss of authority, power, credibility or honour. The malefactor is valued above the person he wrongs. Loyalty to an organisation is greater than justice, and charity to individuals. This makes being a 'whistleblower' very risky, and necessitates courage.

Scandalising, for Thomas, would be the continuation, and further manufacture of sin. For the diocese scandalising is the loss of public stature, esteem and resultant reduction in moral authority admission would ensue. But the Cleveland Diocese is not alone in this attitude, this is the standard position for institutions (government, military, business, education, labor et cetera) in general.
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*Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nicholas Francis Monaghan, St. Charles Borromeo, Parma
†Sr. Laura Bouhall
‡St. Thomas Aquinas
Postscriptum 12 June: There has been a follow up story published. Perhaps, those who were denying the story being possible will be less vocal. It seems if a pervert is exposed, more people will tell of their similar encounters. One of the former schoolgirls is quoted, "He was a cigar-smelling, horrible old man. I don't want to rustle his bones in his grave, but having a plaque and a building named after him is an affront to all the young, innocent girls he abused."
Postscriptum 13 June: Barbara Blaine, the founder of SNAP (the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests), came to East 9th Street (outside the cathedral) before noon, to-day, to speak about the molestation of children by priests. A handful of Code Purple (local parishioners asking for accountability of the local church) members were there to support her, and those touched by the lust of Fr. Monaghan. They were ignored by virtually all, but for a cameraman (most probably) working for the diocese, cathedral security (that kept an eye on them from the top of the steps, and shooed away a young man [not with the protestors] whom sat down and typed away on his phone/computer), and a Cleveland Police cruiser that accepted a sheet of paper from a protestor, and then soon left.
Postscriptum 15 Jun 2011: In a fourth article, by Michael O'Malley, it was announced the plaque will be removed, and the name taken off the parish hall.

Roman vassals, and the money trail

Jason Berry's book, ‘Render unto Rome’, was released to the public 7 June. It deals with the Church and scandals, from Rome's Vatican hill to individual dioceses in the US. It is subtitled: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church. It is his third book on ecclesial matters.

Sexual scandal of perversion, predation, abuse and betrayal [often of children] has led to financial settlements. Money is needed to pay (but often other money is used badly, or stolen through embezzlement). Properties are sold to gather this money. Many times these properties are parishes. The parish community is destroyed, and the church is diminished. The whole time this is done as secretly as possible.

Who are the authors of these calamities? Bishops [or other high prelates], who act without supervision and are held unaccountable. Berry follows several stories. He concludes that Vatican justice is a ‘farce’ [as in the US business world, and government extolling business, incompetence by executives is rewarded]. Berry offers an independent Vatican court that does not ‘cater to bishops’. But still many parishioners believe Rome will right the situation, and rule for them as Gospel, canons and justice dictate.

Two American parishes [Boston and Cleveland] share the woe wreaked by the same ‘self taught canonist’. The tenth chapter begins: For a second time, Richard Lennon assumed control of a diocese damaged by dishonest bishops, concealed sex offenders, and mismanaged money. Later in the book, he writes: Lennon repeated the destruction he wrought in Boston.

Now, sometimes Rome removes an incompetent bishop. The papal nuncio [ambassador] Pietro Sambi, and an apostolic visitor [papal investigator] have weighed the Cleveland problem. The problem will not go away. Bernard Cardinal Law is in Rome, but disgraced in America. He had promoted Lennon several times, and appointed him his interim successor [Apostolic Administrator]. He is protecting him now.

Some people say the church is mediæval. They liken a bishophric to a fief. But the suzerain, and monarch is the pope. The church is decentralised. What does the papacy do with a rogue vassal, that is protected by a higher vassal?

The joke is on citizens and parishioners

In a recent Columbus Dispatch article you see a large, elderly, laughing man wearing a cowboy hat. He is David Brennan. He has obtained the use of several former Catholic grade school buildings and made them into a chain of scab schools. He has further enriched himself, and weakened the teaching profession. He also is against unionism and workers’ rights. He makes sure he gets government money in this process. 

St. Benedict, St. Timothy, Holy Redeemer, Annunciation, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of Lourdes, Sacred Heart of Jesus, and Saint Rose [all in Cleveland], and John the Baptist in Akron had parish grade schools that are now part of his Hope Academies. Recently, he has purchased the Annunciation campus cheaply. What belonged, and was built by many parishioners, for that many to use, now belongs to one man. This is what privatisation is all about — the concentration of wealth in the hands of those with greater wealth, and the stripping of the community for the benefit of an individual. The fraud and hypocrisy comes when this is passed off as altruism, which is its true opposite. 

But before Brennan, and his outfit, replaced parochial schools, he was active in replacing public schools. Under Voinovich, Taft, and the Republican held legislature, the corporations wrote the laws that covered their industry/business for sixteen years. Now after four terrible years things are back to normal. The party of private privilege is back in charge. Legislators come cheaply, and they are willing to accept written commands and enact them on the commonwealth. 

Brennan was Voinovich’s choice to head the newly created Governor’s Commission on Educational Choice in 1992. Brennan was a financial contributor to Voinovich (both bushes, Taft, Blackwell and a slew of others in the Republican party). He has given several million dollars to Republican candidates. 

Beyond Ohio, White Hat manages other private schools. With the Ohio schools, the total passes fifty. Of all such charter schools, about half meet state progress reports; public schools about two thirds; one White Hat run school does. Several of these schools are now unhappy. Several White Hat run schools in Ohio have sued to break their management contract with White Hat. The upcoming state budget bill, with White Hat written provisions, may dismiss the lawsuit. 

Brennan gets public money. Public money becomes private money. He demands not to be accountable. He benefits from public largesse, but wishes to be free of public scrutiny. We know that public schools have severe problems. They are accountable to the public, and are a public football. There are some charter schools that perform well. Brennan's hat is not on them. His is the largest chain in Ohio, and he does what he wants, and laughs all the way to the bank. 

____________________________  

postscriptum: 21 June 2011. Brennan is buying Corpus Christi, Annunciation, Sacred Heart, St. Procop and St. Rose properties (all in Cleveland). He may be looking for more. Also, in the Cleveland’s bishop, Richard Lennon’s, capital campaign, Brennan and his wife, Ann, are among the honorary co-chairs. Brennan's wife is also on the Campaign Cabinet, Leadership Gifts Committee, and the Oversight Committee. 

Another co-chair, Umberto Fedeli, has done extensive insurance business with the diocese. Both Brennan, and Fedeli have been appointed by the, then, governor Voinovich to state positions. Other co-chairs are the Dolans, their son was a State Representative, and the failed Republican candidate for Cuyahoga County Executive. Voinovich has children employed by the Dolans. The list of the laity is heavily weighted with those that do business with the diocese. The list is also weighted with large contributors to the state Republican party; a lot of dove tailing. 

postscriptum: 29 June 2023. I see, somehow this post was converted into one paragraph. I have now put it again into paragraphs, i did not check notes to see how it differs from the original.

postscriptum: 29 June 2023. David L. Brennan  died on 14 October 2018.

Robin on chimney

Chimney with robin

Signs of times past

Ohio Historical Marker

THE OHIO AFL-CIO

Following the national merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)in 1955, more than 2,000 labor delegates representing one million union members convened at the Cleveland Public Auditorium for the founding convention of the Ohio AFL-CIO in 1958. This leading labor organization achieved significant advances in the quality of life and security for working Ohioans during the second half of the twentieth century in areas of civil rights, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance. Its notable legislative successes include the passage of a public employee collective bargaining bill in 1983 and a voter referendum that protected workers’ compensation in 1997.

Ohio Bicentennial Commission
Ohio AFL-CIO
The Ohio Historical Society

2003 78-18
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On the 3rd of March, the Mayor of Cleveland, Frank Jackson gave a State of the City speech at Public Hall (Cleveland Public Auditorium). The new governor, John Kasich was in attendance. Protestors against his party’s Senate Bill #5 which would kill public employee collective bargaining and further weaken unions. In front of Public Hall is this historical marker. Kasich has dedicated himself to the destruction of what the sign commemorates. It is a state marker. Get to the corner of East 6th and Lakeside Avenue before it succumbs to Kasich's reversing history, and relegating its achievements to the memory hole.

Republican speak: premium support = voucher

Politicians often know the truth is too obvious and would show them, their proposals, and actions as unpopular, wrong, or even, evil. Euphemisms and word substitutions are used.

Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman (R-naturally), wants to end, or at least change medicare. The repukes have always opposed social security, unemployment insurance, and other welfare programmes, including medicare. gwbjr who lied the US into war, and steamrolled opposition with the help of a compliant press, later tried to ‘privatise’ social security, by giving it to Wall Street. That failed. His poster programme, for his second term of usurpment of the presidency, failed. It is to be remembered, that his father ran for his second term on reducing capital gains taxes. It is obvious which constituency they represent.

Paul Ryan wants vouchers introduced. Instead of government paying medicare bills, people will get a lesser amount to buy medical insurance. This will decrease medical coverage, lead to worse health and earlier death, while making insurance companies richer. That's all fine with his party (Republican congressmen enjoy their government health care fine), but it does not sell that well with the populace (even some elderly teabaggers may figure that it hits them ).

So what does a bold, camera and microphone loving demagogue-to-be do? Well, first accuse critics of demagoguery; second substitute a new term for voucher, ‘premium support’, and then shy away from defining it. Let us see how many others of his party, and enabling media critters will broadcast this term of orwellian newspeak.

Ugly Public Art, Fun Public Art

The Concrete Cows of Milton Keynes, England were done by Elizabeth Leyh in 1978. Milton Keynes is a new town of the 1960s built to move Londoners elsewhere. It is regularly regarded as the ugliest city of Britain. Le Corbusier was an architect who used béton brut (cement poured into wooden forms, and repeated), in english this was called brutalism, and brutal it is. One sees these dull, repetitive, concrete, block buildings everywhere. These brutal buildings are in Milton Keynes. The cows are a public art installation. They were ridiculed by many critics upon introduction. They are vandalised and abused regularly. Sometimes it is humorous, and delightedly whimsical as when they had pajamas painted upon them; sometimes it is vicious (they have been decapitated). Overall, they are enjoyed by children. They are climbed upon. left: Justice Center; back: old courthouse; foreground: minimalist sculpture[sic] Just before this time (in 1976), Cleveland, and Cuyahoga County, Ohio had a new court house, the Justice Center. It was built in this brutalist style. Court rooms and jails are dreary enough, brutalism is an additional portion of dehumanisation. The old courthouse is a Beaux-Arts gem, built in the time of Tom Johnson, and part of several such public buildings downtown. It presents a sense of civic grandeur. In front of the new is an Isamu Noguchi sculpture, The Portal. It is a pipe with five 90° angles, not all in the same plane. An union electrician, if he were to bend such a thing, would have it in the scrap pile. For a lark, he could bend a better looking paperclip out of a length of ½'' pipe in a minute or two. It was not well met, at least public money did not pay for it. Extreme minimalist in form, some think it is a masterpiece; far more think it is a piece of s***. The city and county are short of cash, sell it. Noguchi got $100,000, perhaps that can be recouped many times over. It can be replaced by a fiberglass cop. Free Stamp, Silly Hall to the left A few years later, 1982, Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio) ordered a modernist sculpture from Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje Van Bruggen. They wanted to make a giant rubber stamp out of metal. British Petroleum bought Sohio. They did not want it, especially not one with the word ‘free’. It went to Whiting, Indiana (a Chicago suburb with an oil refinery) for storage. The artists wanted the new location at Willard Park, next to Cleveland’s City (Silly) Hall. George Forbes, City Council President, did not want it. He finally ran for mayor, 1989, and lost. The thing was reoriented (vertical to horizontal) in the1991 installation. Children enjoy it, and no one is upset now. Oldenburg did a clothespin for bicentennial Philadelphia; in 1999 a typewriter eraser for the District of Columbia. He was a pop artist with a sense of humour, not everybody appreciated it. In 1986, Zürich painted lions about the city. In 1998, Zürich had painted cows deposited around town. Chicago did the fiberglass cows in 1999, then the avalanche. Multiple fiberglass models of cows have shown up in cities about the world. They are variously decorated, and it is not just restricted to cow models. Early in Genesis, we read: And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And people have enjoyed these painted fiberglass animals. Cleveland is in the sixth (rabbits, which is the 4th in the zodiac) of fiberglass models of the chinese zodiac. The manufacturer of the bare models is in Chicago, and they have done animals, and other subjects for cities about the country. The installations are partly boosterism, and sometimes fundraisers. 11/16 '' wrenches are not used that much, put it in the tiger's mouth presently there are 24 such rabbits about Cleveland, Ralphie supra

Our not so shared ‘Jerusalem’

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

— ‘Jerusalem’ by William Blake 1804, music: Hubert Parry 1916

English is spoken, and sung, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. Britain and America have many christian denominations in common (though not the same proportions). Some protestant songs are sung in catholic churches, and anglicans, and some others, sing english versions of latin hymns. Many in the pews do not know that a song has crossed over. Sometimes there has been lyric changes, and some have reverted back (‘saved and set me free’, or ‘saved a one like me’ to ‘saved a wretch like me’); and then there are gender language issues, that have not largely reverted back.

Many songs are international (Ave Maria, How Great Thou Art). The one song that is at the tippy top in England is, Jerusaslem. In England this crosses denominations. It is familiar in chapel, on campus, and in uniform. It is sung during sports engagements, and as a team song. In the US, many were introduced to it through the film, Chariots of Fire*. Its inclusion in an american service is probably a rarity.

The terms ‘anthem’, and ‘hymn’ are used interchangeably in many languages. Put ‘national’ in front of either in England and Jerusalem wins. Many, especially republicans (which on the eastern side of the Atlantic is a far more favorable term than on the western shores), would prefer this over the the royalist anthem.

Blake's poem was not so beloved, or known, until the Great War (WWI), when it became a highly patriotic, and nationalistic anthem, newly set to orchestration. The ‘bows, arrows, spears and sword’ are military instruments. The song refers to them as building, when they are destroying. It is a martial anthem.

The last sentence speaks of England as heaven on earth by the sweet phrase ‘green and pleasant land’. The poem starts with a legend of the missing years of Jesus, being spent in part in the tin country of the southwest, near Glastonbury (Camelot). Of course, that was celtic Britain and not the England that replaced it. This sweetness is easily remembered, and lingered upon.

The sharpest line is, ‘And was Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills?’ Not everyone realises what they are listening, or singing to (an english glenn beck, or limbaugh type radio mouthfoamer would have a pompous hissy fit when it is pointed out to them). The very leftist Billy Bragg sings the song in concert. Those ‘dark satanic mills’ built the capitalist economy, and paid for the imperialist state that was England. Those mills were the engines of capitalism, and ‘satanic’ they certainly were, but which pious capitalist would vocally admit them to be? Blake was a revolutionary poet, and protestant, not at all happy with the C of E. Blake’s feelings about the satanic mills would be enthusiastically echoed by luddites.

The british Labour Party sings it regularly. Some years ago, a programme of rude (and sometimes hilariously accurate) puppets, Spitting Image, had a Tory (Conservative) version, And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s lower class?...
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*And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. — IV Kings ii.11.