Oh, this still exists

Hello

I haven't been able to write much here lately, partly out of busy-ness, but also because not much has been going on lately.

Really, nothing much has happened.

Well, we did go to Boston as a community, we had our Ignatian Retreat, Reed and Hillary ran a ten mile race, and March and April happened. Those things occurred. Shoot. I guess I haven't done a very good job of updating this thing. Also does anyone read this anymore? I think I may be typing to myself.

I'm going to make a more consistent effort to update this thing, especially since I don't have much time left here in Syracuse. Also, I should probably tell more people this blog exists.

I should also post more pictures...

Hm...

I liked this picture

I call it "looking outside"

Because that's what it is.

Pretty simple

A good thing,

Hello

I have been itching to be able to post something new here.

Not a whole lot has happened these last couple of weeks, and I haven't had table internet access for a while,so I haven't had much to write about or the means to update this little blog of mine.

I'm at my favorite coffee shop right now, hanging out with a couple of my housemates. It's also finally snowing. It hasn't snowed in over a week. Thursday was so sunny and warm that it seemed like we skipped ahead a few months to get to Maya little faster.

Also, I am sick right now with a cold, but Advil is working well right now. I really want to write something, but I don't know how well this will turn out.

So here are a few unfiltered thoughts I've had recently:

The Occupy Syracuse movement: I've visited the remnants of their camp a few times in the past three weeks. I attended a recent general assembly meeting. I've tried to engage individual occupiers in dialogue.

My housemate Reed summed up my feelings about the Occupy movement really well during a conversation we had after one of the times we visited their camp. Reed noticed that the occupiers “lacked a certain vocabulary when talking about social issues.” Whenever I've talked to anyone from the Occupy Syracuse movement, they say nothing about solidarity, standing with the oppressed, or taking meaningful action that address issues within Syracuse. Instead, I only hear about the perpetual occupation of a meaningless slab of concrete. Their recent actions don't address any of the real problems the poor in Syracuse face.

It's easy to criticize their lack of action, but I realize that I haven't shared any of these opinions with them yet, so I'm going to try to do that soon.

My work at Catholic Charities: I'm working more with men from the Oxford Street Inn. Right now I am completely speechless about the things I've witnessed working with these men. A lot of the naivete I had about homelessness, mental illnesses, and humanity in general has been chipped away through working with these guys and our other clients. However, I perceive that as a really good thing for me.

In the midst of the organized chaos of working with people who have serious personal problems, I find that I am very happy. I really love being with people who are struggling with addiction and mental illness. There is a realness to this kind of work that makes it full of meaningful purpose for me.

Other clients: I get to visit a couple of guys regularly. One guy regularly talks about pizza and birds. He also talks about Satan and witches a lot, but I try to steer us onto another topic when that happens. I'm going to try to take him out for pizza one day.

Another client really wants to play chess with me so I'm going to get a hold of a board.

I met a fellow 23 year-old the other day whose mother was murdered by his father when he was eighteen. His story has really stuck with me. I can't share all of the details for confidentiality reasons. Suffice it to say, it was heartbreaking. It's apparent that he has some deep-seated psychological issues because of that horrible event. So, in conclusion, I want to learn more about domestic violence issues.

Other thoughts: I have to make a confession. I promised one of the Jesuit novices I worked with at Practical Assistance that I would read “All the Pretty Horses” at the same time as him while he was on his 30 day retreat. I didn't do that. I have to try to read as much of that book by tonight or tell him that I didn't read it.

I'm going to try to make peanut butter coffee sometime this week. My housemates are skeptical about how well this experiment will turn out.

I've been thinking about opening a Catholic Worker house sometime in my lifetime. It seems like a rather snazzy thing.


That's it for now.

Thoughts Part 1

1. Vegetarianism.

I've been vegetarian since November. Well, mid-November. Actually, the end of November.

I've been a vegetarian since sometime in December.  It has actually been a very easy thing to do since we don't buy much meat as a community.

I sometimes get cravings though. 

I really wanted to have clam chowder. We have four cans of the stuff. I figured that clams would be okay to eat  because while they're technically animals, they're not sentient. But they're still living animals. But they're tasty.

But the whole point of my decision of being vegetarian is that I don't want my food to come from acts of violence. I think it's a step towards being a more peaceful and nonviolent person.

I eventually stopped worrying and made spaghetti.

Also, I have become addicted to garlic.

\

This is a puddle of vomit. I didn't get too close. We were going to have to carry furniture around it. Or step in it and wash our shoes off later. Thankfully, we found that going through the back entrance was an easier route for us to move furniture through.

I am fascinated by icicles.

 Dungeons and Dragons. I had to tone it down a little bit. I was a little too exuberant.

Heart patio.

Some mornings.

State St.

It's always about praxis

The most concrete and goal-orientated thing about the Occupy Syracuse movement occurred in the early hours of this morning-- when Syracuse police cleared the camp.

What could have been a positive force for giving voice to pressing social issues will now devolve into really sad squabbling over trying to be allowed to camp at Perseverance Park again. More time and effort will probably be expended on fighting over a 1st Amendment Right issue than was ever used for addressing  things like Syracuse's housing and food security issues.

If we are going to have a mass movement to protest economic injustice that involves camping in public places, at least invite homeless people to stay in the camp. Or instead of just talking about problems and only having rallies, actively address one of the myriad of problems here in Syracuse.

Now that the camp is gone, how about occupying one of the hundred abandoned buildings around here? That might highlight how silly it is that people have to worry about there not being any room for them in the local shelters.

Or how about putting together a fund to pay for security deposits and first month's rent for people who are about to be evicted?

How about doing sit-ins at liquor stores and bodegas in areas of town where there are no accessible/conveniently placed grocery stores?

What has Occupy Syracuse really done for the victims of economic injustice in Syracuse?

A man called moments ago asking for help finding some temporary shelter.

He recently moved from out of state and is unfamiliar with Syracuse. He is also disabled. I didn't get much else of his backstory, but the jist of it is that he will be homeless in a few days.

He was asking for an efficiency apartment for the rest of the month- enough time for him to get his resources together and move to his home state. If we had funding we could give him money for rent. If he was coming out of a shelter we could give him furniture. This a perfect example of the kind of scenario I mentioned in an earlier post; a person needs help but doesn't fit specific requirements for the kind of help that can be given.

He tried staying in a local shelter called the Rescue Mission, but apparently they're out of beds. He could go to Catholic Charities' men's shelter, the Oxford Street Inn. While the "Ox" would have beds, I was hesitant to refer him to that shelter. I know it has a severe bed bug infestation (measures are taken daily to combat it, but the sad fact is that clients bring them into the Ox from the outside), and he seemed intent upon being able to have some privacy. Sleeping within a few feet of other men in a room full of 80+ sleeping men would be the opposite of privacy. Also, if he owns anything large he will have to find a place to store it- the lockers at the Ox are small.

I also referred him to the Department of Social Services, because they might be able to put him up in a hotel room for a week, but I'm afraid that they'll turn him away because he will be receiving Social Security Disability insurance soon. I don't know why they do that to people.

So, a man will probably be out on the streets in a few days. I don't feel right about that. I hope DSS or a caseworker at the Ox or Rescue Mission can do something.

Housing

A typical day at Catholic Charities, Housing Program

1. Get to work.

2. Figure out what I'm doing for the day.

3. Nothing goes according to plan.

4. Drink twenty cups of coffee.

5. Everything goes better than expected.

Resources

I use the excuse "there are resources out there for people" as a way to avoid giving money to people begging on the streets.

There are resources "out there" for people to get help. The truly depressing thing is, those resources often fall short of addressing the specific problems an individual can have. What I've frequently seen is that a person needs help but they don't fit into a specific type of need.

A person can be imminently homeless but not yet living on the streets, and so if literal homelessness is a prerequisite of a program, they don't get help at all. Other programs may help people who are imminently homeless but if that's not the first place someone is directed to, they can be dragged through far more stress by being consistently misdirected until they are actually "literally homeless." Then they start the run-around all over again. Or they die. They probably don't die, that's an exaggeration.

Sometimes people have needs that cannot be addressed by an existing program. For example, there's a need for affordable pest extermination here in Syracuse, but that doesn't actually exist. You can buy cans of bug spray at a store (if you have the time and money to spare) but that doesn't come close to the kinds of things a professional company can do. 

Also, people need to choose for themselves whether they want to get help. Some people don't want to get help or are incapable of making that decision. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that addicts, or people with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and a substance abuse problem, have to decide for themselves to enter a recovery program. I understand the ethical reasons why they need to decide this for themselves, it just seems like such an overwhelming thing for a person in that situation to have to do. I don't think that I would be able to do that.

People.

The people I've met since being here can be grouped into numerous, depressing categories. I'm going to list the ones I can think of now. Let's see here.

I've met people who are uneducated (more middle aged people than I could have believed only have an 8th grade education or less), have more children than they can care for, are always angry, always sad, mentally ill, have a substance addiction, covered in bedbugs, have STDs, have some other chronic health problem, are born into terrible families, can't keep a budget, are uninsured, are hungry, don't trust other people, are selfish, are domestic abuse survivors, have recently hit rock bottom, started their lives at rock bottom, are trying to have some semblance of a happy life.

 I've noticed that these things can apply to anyone, at any time. These really sad circumstances ignore race, religion, sex, or political ideology. I'm not saying that some of these things don't affect certain groups of people more than others, they do, I'm trying to say that these are essentially human problems. They are problems caused and perpetuated by human decisions. They aren't things like weather or gravity- they aren't natural things we just have to endure and adapt. They are realities that can be changed.

So many people in history have said that these realities can be changed, and have acted upon that philosophy. So many people are doing good things for others today. I think that's a hopeful thing. It's nice for me to remember that I'm trying to follow a path that is already well worn. 

The pictures are from the MLK Memorial in Washington D.C., when my house attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In at Georgetown. 

No brakes!

I've mentioned this a few times, but just as a prologue to the adventure I'm about to share, I work at the Practical Assistance program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My day begins when I hop into either a van or a moving truck with "the guys."

I got into a van this particular Tuesday.

This what the world looked like:

(The jumper cables on the ground are foreshadowing things)

My face when I saw this:

The van didn't start, so a few of us had to jump it with a nearby moving truck:

After twenty minutes the engine turned (or whatever the word is for "the car started"). We all felt that the jumper cables were of poor quality so someone (not me) threw them on the ground in anger. Review the first picture for the aftermath of this. 

Anyway,  I felt ready to drive in snow for the first time in my life:

Things started off well. As I drove down the street, I began to notice something odd.

I noticed that it took me about a half mile to come to a full stop after holding the brake down to the floor.

I figured that this was simply due to the icy road conditions. Later, one of the guys I work with noticed that, in fact, there was no brake fluid in the van. I had been driving around for an hour and a half without brakes. 

The moral of this story is, brake fluid is important.

Anyway. This is one of the warehouses where we keep our furniture. We try to coordinate our pickups of donated furniture with what furniture people need for that same day so this warehouse doesn't get too cluttered. However, it is still a mess.

This is "the chevy." It is a Chevy, hence, it's nickname, "the chevy." It used to have a gate that could  used to lift heavy objects but it was so rusted that it posed a health problem. So it was removed. We have another truck with a working gate but the truck itself constantly breaks down. At least the gate works.

We then delivered all of this furniture to people who had none.

We also hurtled around town at high speeds.

Oh look, it's downtown Syracuse. Why yes, that is a man riding in a motorized wheelchair in the right lane and, indeed, a man is just standing in the middle of the left lane- both completely oblivious to traffic.

The Cathedral is right outside of the Practical Assistance building.  I really like the cathedral. I'll take a better picture of it one day.

And so, that was a brief description of an uneventful Tuesday. 

Chicago part two, or, "I am incapable of taking pictures of interesting, memorable things"

Chicago Cultural Center

Obligatory Bean Photo

Traffic.

Museum of Science and Industry: Human Fetus 

Another obligatory picture of the bean.

Zamboni at the Bean

A tall building