Slovene St. Clair

Much of the city is in rough shape. To generate interest, a number of things have been tried. Now, there is a push to showcase global ethnic/national culture which had been frowned on by the local powers that had been. Since they [the powers] offer nothing, the old culture of the people's heritage is worth a try.

 There is a Chinese zodiac snake in Slovene graphic style.

New banners are up on a stretch of St. Clair Cleveland between E. 55st & E. 72nd, the old Slovene section, which had bordered Croat, Polish, and Lithuanian neighborhoods. None of these are much intact. Now after the generation of internal migration originating from beyond the Ohio, and further economic and social turmoil the generation after, have transformed a tough area to a grubby one.

copied the style of XIXth century apiary panel folk art

 some are comic, some religious, some irreligious

Carnival season Kurant costume

Perhaps, the oldest settled town in Slovenija is Ptuj. In 1960, a modern organised Shrovetide festival/carnival began, Kurentovanje. Cultural anthropologists suggest these characters are vestiges of pagan gods, turned into laughable and scary buffoonish demons. Cleveland had its first Kurentovanje this year (23 Feb), although they advertised as a 'winter' festival.

ghost sign, vandalised mural

  on Cleveland's (general and governor) Saint Clair-Saint Vitus neighborhood

defaced mural on recreation building

cleveland marathon

St. Clair Avenue Cleveland Marathon 2013, 23+ miles along

line ups

There was a line for those without tickets at St. Colman. The Cleveland Orchestra played on the west side. The crowd was enthusiastic, the musicians were at their usual level of professional ability. They want to perform at home. They played, without an intermission, five orchestral favorites in just over an hour. They flew in with the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) by Mendelssohn. Many people realised this parish was heroically saved from destruction, and a celebratory air was evident. The concert was filmed and recorded for television (5/24 wviz) and radio (6/16 wclv). The orchestra wants public exposure to the non bourgeoisie, and St. Colman's is very active and interested in the neighborhood.

 a dozen in the family

Cleveland public art project - year of the snake E.30th 

last year, dragons; next year, horses 
sorry, i have met too many snakes to be enthusiastic this year 

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it's not over...

I was struck by a letter a friend forwarded.  One of the issues that has concerned me is the rights of the many against the power of the one. What has been important to me, and i have noticed of many others is their spiritual life, and particularly their religious culture and heritage. These two have come together in the questioning of religious governance. I recognise and proclaim to others that in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland there is great discordance. Now, to put this in perspective: Cleveland is not alone, and the majority of people in the area are not Roman Catholics (and in that they are fortunate), also some in the diocese have not been touched. Those in that latter group, should be. It is possible that their lives and communities have not been directly affected, for certain targets are very visible, and others not so much; but they should be cognisant of the damage done. Some are, and some are pitiless.

The diocese is not the Christian unit. The parish is the Christian unit. The parish is the community. The press, at least locally, will not let that argument (and argument it is not so much as it is the fact) air. Now what is a parish, and who created it?

For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.—Jesus quoted by Matthew (xviii. 20)

Instead of having arguments emanating from the parish, we are fed arguments from the diocese. And the crisis here is the diocese extinguishing parishes. The public square has been set. Now the diocese is the bishop, and the one Cleveland has is the proverbial 'hard man'. The parish are the people in it. This bishop 'listens' only to the pastor of the parish, whom serves at his pleasure. The local contest between the bishop and the parish is fixed at every possible point in favor of the bishop. The bishop demands every consideration, and many people demand it for him. I have been scolded, and worse, for my presumed lack of fealty, respect, and love for the bishop; of course the bishop gets a pass.

Well, in Cleveland it is the work of one particularly mean-spirited tyrant, Richard Lennon. He has been censured by Rome, but continues to operate at his wont. But even less odious American bishops have caused immense pain, and i am only speaking on the issues of parish life, governance, and the rights of Catholics in their own local church. There are other issues and causes i am not addressing, and advocates of certain causes may overlap interest in these issues i mention, i am not advocating modernisation and reformation, but a return to justice, even radically so. Essentially i am calling for traditionalism, and that is not anything in similarity to American 'conservatism'. I am anti-clericalism.

I referred to a letter, it was from greater Pittsburgh. I will quote the relevant passage: 

I believe there has been a mental and physical impact on people--many of whom are senior citizens--including my own parents and many of their friends.  I am not a psychologist, but I am pretty sure many of the men I am working with are depressed.  People I talk to cry quite a bit and I think it's because their support network is being taken away.  This is about much more than a church closing.

One woman who is my parent's neighbor was in the E.R. two weeks ago with a racing heart beat.  I realize it could be related to many things, but I know how upset she is over this situation and when I talked to her yesterday, I started thinking about how much damage I have seen.  Something clicked.  One senior citizen was found slumped over his steering wheel the same day he received a letter saying his church was being merged.  Maybe it was a coincidence.  We'll never know.

Is there any way to look at the physical and psychological damage done to people when their faith family is dismantled, their support network is removed and their routine is disrupted?  The damage being done is multi-generational but the group I am working with is largely senior citizens.

We work to try to arrange social events to keep people connected, but when I think about it, we are working to do what their church used to do.

Help for people in situations like this would sometimes typically come from a church, but in this case, it is the church unleashing the havoc.

No, no, no, it is not the 'church'. We are the church, it is those who have wrested power over the local church who have created this desolation. It was an elegant plea for a 'study' to examine the situation. Perhaps a committed academic may achieve national recognition of the situation. We doubt an American cleric would look.

wildlife survives in industrial rustbelt

Geese family on a walk and feed by a remnant of the Ohio and Erie Canal, Cuyahoga Heights. Nearby is a sewage treatment plant, and the remaining industry of Cleveland. There were several steel mills, Alcoa, Standard Oil and many others. Some are still there.

 red bellied woodpecker, red headed is a different species

 gregarious turtles

  tree swallow

and on Whiskey Island, a red winged blackbird

photographs of abandoned places #12

1940-1976 Coast Guard Station Cleveland Ohio

replaced Cleveland Lifeboat Station  1875-1940

Accessed from land by a pier the station is on the west side of the Cuyahoga. During a build up era some thirty years ago, the industrial and warehouse Flats was churning out saloons for overpriced night life. For a short time (1984) a saloon was there on the station. In 2009, the City of Cleveland had a new roof installed. Cleveland was thinking of another museum.

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Postscriptum: For the summer, the adjacent pier is open. It has become a part of Whiskey Island's Wendy Park.

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postscriptum 2016: Cleveland Metroparks is rehabilitating the building

ethnic holidays on US weekends

In America, a land where many have cultural ideas to an older country, people also celebrate the culture of their past. Some things are run by the week's calendar. Saturday and Sunday is the weekend, the other days are generally business days. The US has a dearth of holidays, and there was the successful push to create Monday holidays starting in 1971. First this was a federal governmental item, but immediately picked up universally. It is part three day weekend, and part convenience to business.

This year, the Polish Constitution holiday, the 3rd of May falls on Friday. In America, this is celebrated only in towns with a sizable Polish population and the rest of the society does not know of (or allow for) its occurrence, so the celebration must fall during the weekend. A Polish civic holiday is not readily divorceable from cultural and religious life, and that for most purposes is Catholicism; so it is often marked on Sunday afternoons after Mass. Now, a popular Mexican holiday is the celebration of the victory of Puebla, which is the 5th of May. In the last few years across the US this celebration has expanded, for some it is cultural and for some it is commercial. Now, in Cleveland the city government acknowledged the celebration in City Hall with a luncheon on Friday the 3rd, in which a mariachi quintet played. A Mexican flag also flew for the day from the building, replacing the Ohio swallowtail.

byzantine dandelions

  St. John the Baptist Cathedral, Eparchy of Parma Ohio

sometimes northeastern Ohio looks like western Ukraine

 or in this case —Rusyn Carpathia

 

 

crockery in the creek

China

L - 11

MADE IN U.S.A.

West Creek, a tributary of the Cuyahoga, flows through Cleveland's southern suburbs. After rain storms over the years, and then the dry days household detritus is picked up and deposited. Many shards of pottery and bottles mix with the pebbles and other stones in the creek bed. A delayed opening of a new Metropark nature center will concentrate on the watershed.