1 10 25 https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/b435990c9158e8301824bf2d2df46d8a.pdf d72aacbfba979670978264c9e8f84bf3 PDF Text Text D e c e m b e r 1 4 t h - D e c e m b e r 2 8 t h 2 0 1 8 | Vo l . 2 1 I s s u e 2 3 ( N o . 3 9 6 ) advo cating justice | building communit y Any opinions in this issue are of the authors and don't necessarily represent Streetvibes or The Homeless Coalition. Push Back or get Pushed Out Local public art found in Over-The-Rhine Article on page 8 This Issue is sponsored by Cecilia and Tom Kloecker Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 12 �2 COALITION N o v 14 2 - -NDec. o v 19, 18 | |NNo. o . 393 Dec. 15,2 02018 396 From The Director: E very year at this time we work with our Member Organizations to gather the names of people whose lives were cut short by homelessness throughout the year. This is a very grounding process. It is the ultimate proof of why our Homeless Coalition must exist and why we as a society, must end homelessness. People have immeasurable value. In this human existence you cant get simpler than the sanctity of human life. As we are always proclaiming, homelessness is a systemic problem that can be ended with significant systemic change and replacement of the existing structures that cause and sustain it. We are not finished collecting this year’s list of peoples’ names, but thus far, the average age of people who have passed is fifty-one. How can it be that we have a problem caused by lack of investment in affordable housing, publicly incentivized displacement and gentrification, unjust eviction processes and criminalization that results in the death of people and we haven’t fixed the problems? Greed, prejudice, ethnocentrism, racism and classism sit strongly as pieces of the foundation that continue to uphold this life-stealing problem. And often, people turn a blind eye to oppression, hardship and suffering and are distracted by less important decisions or are afraid to risk their own balance to fight. Sometimes people feel they don’t have enough power to make change. Human Life JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition Many times when a person dies, it is said that: “it was their time to go”. And certainly, many people have had the opportunity to reach the natural end of their days on earth. But for people whose lives have been shortened by homelessness, for the people on this year’s list, it was not “their time to go”. “Their time to go” whenever that would have been, was stolen. They and those around them were deprived of that time and all the time in between. The general standard when a person steals is that they are prosecuted (even when that isn’t always the right thing to do). When someone directly murders another person, the standard is that they are tried for a crime. What about when it’s a society? What about when it’s systems, run and maintained by people? Shouldn’t we as a people bring these systems to trial, prove their guilt and dismantle them? The immeasurable value of human life dictates that we must do all that is humanly possible to prevent loss of life and instead empower fruitful, joyful lives. Through organizing, advocating, educating each other, demanding, strategizing, and building our peoples’ strength, we can accomplish this. We truly can end homelessness. Just like the death of our people this year at the average age of fifty-one was not inevitable, neither is homelessness. Homelessness ends human life, but the systems that create it are created by humans and can be ended by humansby us! Thank you to all of you who are using your own strengths and experiences to be a part of fighting for processes, interactions and systems that have a foundation of valuing people and stand as a force against injustice. Please join us on Friday, December 21st at 5:30 PM in Washington Park as we join with people across the country on National Homeless Memorial Day. Together we will honor and remember those of us who have left earth early because of homelessness and we will further galvanize our commitment to ending homelessness. Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Gabriela Godinez Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Sallie Mascus Layout: Gabriela Godinez Reception: Bonita Batton, Larry Johnson Maintenance: Pete Roper ------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Brian Taylor, Micheal Earl Patton, Bill Woods, Willa Jones, Dr. Mark Mussman, Kim Green, Robert Park, Siqi Cheng, Leah Rutz, Yuliya Milkitin, Kristina McKinley, M.T. ------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Wikipedia (Fair Use), Morgan Mitchell, Gabriela Godinez ---------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 Nov 215, - N2018 o v 19, 2 0 18 Dec. 143-|Dec. | No. 396 3 COALITION The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is Awarded Yuliya Mikitin Contributing Writer O n December 6th, 2018 the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition attended the Tri State of Financial Institutions League Holiday Luncheon. According to their website, “TSL is a community and forum of small community banks, savings and loan associations, savings banks and building loan companies in Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana”. They have generously chosen us as their designated charity for 2018 and for that we are so thankful because without outside donations from our members and from people within the TSL community we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we are doing. In April they provided us with sanitary items to help alleviate the costs of running the office and then this past event we received a $7,500 donation. Lauren Bailey and I were in attendance and Lauren gave an amazing speech on the different areas of work that we focus on such as advocacy, education, and Streetvibes. After the speech, someone attending the event donated a gift card to us that we plan on using at our Annual Dinner on December 13th. We were surprised that so many of the professional bankers attending the event donated their money to our great cause and were able to later make connections from Lauren’s speech and reach out to us and donate the gifts they received in the gift exchange. I cannot stress the importance of our organization members and outside donations that keep us above water. We are proud to not be government funded or funded through organizations that do not support everything that we stand for. The Homeless Coalition and their work is truly for the community and keeping affordable housing affordable while providing some direct services such as the Streetvibes newspaper. Thanksgiving has passed but we are always grateful. Happy Holidays and thank you again to TSL for their hospitality and kindness. Findlay Playground Leah Rutz Contributing Writer T he opening sentence of a Cincinnati Local 12 article published in late October titled, Over-the-Rhine park that's a hotbed for crime closing; new park to be built, reads as follows, “In the hopes of pushing out the bad guys and building a better park, Findlay Playground in Over-the-Rhine will close.” This language immediately registers to me as classist propaganda used to attack the low-income residents of Over the Rhine. The phrase that sticks out the most being, “bad guys.” This playful term is an indication of the glossed over discrimination towards certain race and class demographics in Over the Rhine, the vast majority of Findlay Playground users. Working class people of color. The author of this article must be referring to them, because there’s no way he is referring to criminals. Crime maps have shown that there is no specific “hotbed” in the playground, contrary to the title of the article. I critically perceived this article as an announcement of plans to displace more OTR residents, this time heading north of Liberty, as much of the region south of Liberty has already been touched by the gentrifying hands of private developers. The tactics for reducing crime in a park were left up to the imagination since this and other articles gave no specific information, and I imagined heavy policing, privatization, and inaccessibility. At the very least, closing the park would have an impact on those who use it. I had a lot of questions for the city and the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, the current owners of the property, so I sent some emails. One of my questions was answered: the renovation plans will in fact involve private developers as well as public and faith based organizations. The other questions, like, when will the community input take place? And, what are the demolition and construction plans for the park? What is the timeline? Remained unanswered. I understand that the plans supposedly will not be concrete until proper community engagement has taken place, but it’s also abundantly obvious that a closing wouldn’t have been publicly announced if the CRC didn’t already have at least an idea of what was to become of the park. I was told that safety and design issues were identified through the CPTED process, which stands for Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. Nothing else was specified. Such a lack of transparency for a public space is not appropriate. I also had questions for the people who live near the playground and use it regularly, so I’ve asked them too, in canvassing groups with the Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. Our questions started out vague and broad, and so did the people’s responses. There was a general disposition of somberness or apathy towards the closing. Some people said that they’d really like to see a better playground for the kids, maybe get a bathroom and nicer grills. One individual I spoke to was interested in increased security, but most others were not. Many people spoke of their disdain for greater police presence because they have been subject to stop-and-frisks while walking home from a corner store or leaving work. A stop-and-frisk is the act of a police officer briefly detaining a civilian and searching them for weapons or contraband. These stops are very racially charged, inconvenient and humiliating for those being detained just for walking through a public space. To a lot of the people I talked to living north of Liberty Street, increased police presence does not make them feel safer, it makes them feel paranoia, criminalized, and less safe. Another frequent topic that came up when park users started to share a little bit more about what closing and renovating Findlay would mean to them, was the aftermath of the Washington Park makeover. One individual gestured towards the table where he was playing dominos and pointed out that Washington Park didn’t have any tables anymore for people to sit for extended periods of time. Someone said that it’s clear which population these parks are serving when you stop to recognize that basketball courts were replaced with a dog park. A few people told me that they’d been shooed away from the space near the dog park for loitering without THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED a dog. One person agreed when I asked if it felt like the city cared more about dogs than people. Most of the folks we canvassed felt certain that they’d no longer be welcome in one of the only neutral free public places that existed in OTR after the closing and reconstruction. They felt, to put it frankly, that the park closure and renovation was a plan to attract White middle class Cincinnatians and further displace working or unemployed people of color who could not or prefer not to pay for private amenities. I agree with them. From what I’ve come to understand, criminality is a systemic issue that favors the wealthy and punishes the poor. The crime of carrying an open container, for instance, is illegal in a public place like a park, but conveniently, it is legal when it is sold in said park and money can be made off of it. If you can afford the time and expenses of owning a dog, then you get a VIP pass to Washington Park. But if you don’t, and you perhaps instead need to take a nap on a bench, you are escorted away so that you don’t make the dog owners feel uncomfortable. While public parks are a major player when it comes to the affordability and accessibility of a neighborhood, the issue of displacement goes far deeper than that. Cincinnati in particular has got a lot of soul searching to do when it comes to this sort of displacement. Perhaps we can start by asking ourselves, who are the “bad guys” here? �4 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 214 - N v 19,15, 2 02018 18 | N| oNo. . 393 Dec. - oDec. 396 �No. 39 ov 2 15, - N o2018 v 19, |2No. 0 18396 Dec. 143 -| N Dec. 5 LOCAL The Hidden Costs of Being a Sexual Assault Survivor Siqi Cheng Contributing Writer O n August 23rd, I went into the University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC) emergency department seeking a sexual assault forensic exam, commonly known as a “rape kit.” After roughly six hours of examination, I was discharged with an after-visit summary which included the names of the antibiotics and blood tests I was given and a two-page attachment on sexual assault. I had a campus-based advocate from Women Helping Women accompany me during the emergency room visit. She informed me that the cost of the emergency room visit, along with the rape kit, would be covered by state funding that serves and supports sexual assault survivors. State funding for these emergency services is crucial because emergency room visits and the forensic exams conducted by specially trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are expensive. A forensic exam bill alone is anywhere from $900 to $1200 per survivor. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the US, evidence from sexual assault forensic exams increases the likelihood of identifying the perpetrator, carries significant weight in court, holds perpetrators accountable, and prevents future sexual assaults from occurring. In fact, prosecution of sexual assault is unlikely to proceed without DNA evidence. On October 26th, I received a bill from my insurance company notifying me of the amount of money I owed UCMC for my emergency room visit two months prior. The bill came as a total surprise. The fact that I was charged for my emergency room visit has serious implications. All sexual assault forensic exams take place in a hospital’s emergency unit. If survivors are billed for these visits, it means they need to have the financial means to cover the emergency medical care and forensic exam. This financial barrier deters survivors from seeking care and preserving forensic evidence, decreasing their chances to effectively pursue justice. Making sense of my emergency room bill was incredibly difficult. I called the UC Health patient financial services department five times asking for clarification. First, I wanted to know which services I was being charged for. Second, I wanted to discuss how getting an emergency room bill could be a privacy violation. I wasn’t expecting one to be sent to my home. If the bill was sent to my parents, it would have forced me to disclose the assault to them before I was ready. Third, I wanted to know more about the state funding that supposedly covers sexual assault exams through a program called “SAFE” (Sexual Assault Forensic Examination). Since these exams take place in emergency units, why aren’t the bills covered? And what will it cost for a survivor to have an exam? None of my conversations with all UC Health representatives were helpful. One told me they would draft an email to me and their supervisor. It’s been roughly two weeks and I have yet to receive that email. Most of the representatives I spoke to informed me my bill was flagged for review because of my initial inquiry and that they would get back to me once the review was through. Another rep told me that the state of Ohio only covers the SANE cost and facility fee during the survivor’s emergency room visit; other essential parts of medical care like antibiotics to prevent STIs and physician's fees aren’t covered. That isn’t true. I met with my Women Helping Women advocate to discuss the funding issue. I saw this an opportunity to press for more state funding to cover emergency room costs and alleviate the financial burden for survivors to seek care and preserve crucial evidence. The advocate was surprised to learn that I was billed for my emergency room visit since I only accessed the forensic exam, antibiotics, and blood tests to test for Hepatitis-C and HIV. She reached out to her colleagues inquiring about the situation, and I finally got the answers I needed. The sexual assault exams that are funded through the Ohio Attorney General’s office include emergency room bills. SAFE’s website states that the program “pays for the cost of a forensic examination and the antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent sexually transmitted infections. The program reimburses medical facilities directly in the hopes of reducing the burden of dealing with billing issues for survivors of sexual assault.” I called the SAFE office to ensure that I understood the language correctly. The person I talked to asked which services I received in the emergency room. Then she told me to disregard the bill and that she would contact UC Health about the issue. I researched why UCMC would send the bill to my insurance company despite the fact that they could get reimbursed from the SAFE program. UCMC has been a tax-exempt nonprofit since 1996, meaning that it pays no income taxes and no property taxes. In exchange for the tax break, UCMC is legally mandated to provide a benefit for the community as a safety net hospital by serving a proportionately higher number of uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare and low-income individuals than other non-safety net hospitals. The reimbursement rate from public coverage programs like Medicaid and Medicare is less than the amount billed or the amount that a private insurance company would pay. SAFE funding operates much like a public coverage program. By transferring the cost to my insurance company and me to get a dollar-to-dollar reimbursement, UCMC has prioritized their financial needs with little concern for me as a patient and a sexual assault survivor. Surviving my sexual assault has been a difficult. I’m still trying to understand and process the experience. The emergency room visit was the first step for me to seek care, healing, and justice. So much of the process I went through was laden with barriers due to UCMC’s practices. I was fortunate enough to have the personal network, literacy, and time to look into the funding issue and find a resolution. Not every survivor can say the same. The emergency room bill is only a small part of the immediate cost of surviving sexual assault. According to National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, rape is the most costly of all crimes to its victims, with total estimated costs at $127 billion a year (excluding the cost of child sexual abuse). Research has estimated that each rape costs $151,423. UC Medical Center and UC Health need to take concrete steps to support sexual assault survivors. They need to work with survivors and advocates to develop information about options for hospital billing. If survivors access services not covered by criminal justice reimbursement, UC Health needs to create a clear process implemented with informed consent policies that will maintain the patient’s privacy and address any safety concern. In order to build a supportive community and culture for survivors on campus and beyond, we need to acknowledge survivors’ financial needs and enforce better treatment when we navigate the consequences of obtaining medical care. If there’s a remote possibility that the cost of an emergency room visit would make forensic exams inaccessible for financial reasons, we’re failing survivors. I hope to be the last survivor wronged by UCMC. (If you’re a survivor and you receive an emergency room bill for your forensic exam, please contact SAFE program at 614-466-4797 or email at SAFE@OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov.) The Unhuman Condition Kristina McKinley Contributing Writer A man has never asked me what it is like to go through a menstrual cycle, out of concern or even morbid curiosity. No man has ever asked what happens to me during the week that my body and my brain get hijacked. Hormones make me think the world is out to get me and everything makes me cry. I can put a smile on my face but no one talks to me because I might crack and break into pieces. What I have heard from men is, “It’s just cramps…” like they have ever experienced anything similar. It makes me want to plant a swift kick to their nuts so to explain, “That pain in your belly might come close to what I deal with every month.” I have been conditioned my entire life to think that I should just be able to push through this and function normally while I’m experiencing immense pain that - in an article I read recently - was equated to the pain of a heart attack. A HEART ATTACK. My condition has a name. It starts with a “D” and is long and difficult to pronounce. Kind of like the pain I feel when I’m experiencing cramps – long and difficult to articulate. No one would ever ask this of men. They’ve skipped class and called off work for much less and, “it’s okay, because they’re men.” The functioning world is like one big boys’ club. Medically, I have done everything I can do. Countless conversations with my reproductive health physician, birth control to manage the pain, and Aleve in the biggest doses the bottle says I can have… just to try to go to work and stay upright for 8 hours. Sometimes I can muscle through. Other times, I have to leave early and I have no good excuse except that my body is revolting against me. A male staff member asked me if I was feeling better after having to leave early the day before. “Is it the weather or allergies or…?” His inquiry was lengthy. How do I explain to a man that my period nearly kills me every month when even the word “period” makes men’s eyes peel back in horror THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED and disgust? It’s how they’ve been conditioned, since they were teens. How women and men have been conditioned prevents women from having honest conversations with their partners, co-workers, and friends about things that affect them on a regular basis. If my bosses were men, I would never dream of asking to leave early. A woman is expected to power on through her day; even though, secretly, she has a headache, pain that feels like a heart attack in her uterus, total body tiredness, and her brain can’t focus because all of the emotions are about to boil over and create an all-out sob fest for no reason other than someone smiled in her general direction. �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 214 - N v 19,15, 2 0 2018 18 | N| oNo. . 393 Dec. - oDec. 396 �No. 39 3 |- N ov 2 -15, N o2018 v 19, |2No. 0 18396 Dec. 14 Dec. 7 LOCAL IHN: Living Your Spirituality to Help Others MICHEAL PATTON I Contributing Writer HN, the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati and one of the members of the Homeless Coalition, had their Faith in Action Breakfast at Crossroads Oakley this past December 5. About two hundred supporters attended. I was there, both as a long-time supporter of IHN and also because I wanted to hear keynote speaker Jim Wallis. He is a best-selling author and the founder of Sojourners, a Christian magazine that reports on social justice issues. It was time well spent. IHN provides homeless families – dogs and cats included! -- with emergency shelter through its interfaith partners or host congregations who provide hot meals and shelter for the night. Its 2017 Annual Report lists dozens of host, support, and funding congregations, from Catholic parishes to the Tri-State Free Thinkers. During the day the families meet with the IHN staff at the day center to plan what the families need to do to get back into long-term housing. And, of course, those who are employed continue to work at those jobs. IHN follows a “housing first” strategy – first take care of the family’s housing needs and then work on the other issues. This strategy has been endorsed by HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. IHN’s annual report puts some numbers to this: 366 families for a total of 1,290 individuals, 66% of them were children and 28% of the individuals had some kind of disabling condition. And success: after two years 85% of the families served in the IHN shelter stayed in their housing and did not return to homelessness. Keynote speaker Jim Wallis talked about the need for the people of faith to change the world because what is needed to be done will not happen without them. As he put it, people of faith are the ones who stop trains that have to be stopped. Service to others opens our eyes, and not just to people whom we know. As he put it, meeting people whom he was “never supposed to meet” changed his life. And, if we do not learn from people whom we help, we are not really helping. At times Jim Wallis spoke of how seriously wrong some things are with our country. He called racism “America’s Original Sin.” It was not slavery, although that is often given as the answer. One problem with that answer is that since we have gotten rid of slavery, the implication is that we have also cleansed ourselves of original sin even as we ignore racism. American slavery was based on the social construct that one people were inferior to another. Greeks and Romans had slaves but did not base it on this lie. Some of their slaves even taught the children of their owners – which would have been unthinkable in American slavery. He talked about the GI Bill paying for a college education and FHA loans to white soldiers who had served in World War II. With an education and a house you reached middle class. Racism ensured that no black soldiers got those benefits. I asked him about that after his talk because I was pretty certain that the legislation itself was not racially biased. I also felt keenly about this issue since I know my own father benefited from the GI Bill, having served in the Korean War. I became an engineer in large part because my father was one, and that was because of the education he received through the GI Bill. Jim Wallis explained that the problem was the banks and the universities who excluded blacks, not the laws. It is possible that there were exceptions but he did not know of any. He spoke of the different perceptions between blacks and whites while looking at the same events. Most whites, 72%, think that incidents of police brutality and killings of blacks are isolated incidents while 82% of blacks think they are systemic. Because of this there is “The Talk,” which is when black parents instruct their kids how to behave in the presence of a white police officer. Jim Wallis is hopeful. Hope is not optimism since optimism is a mood or feeling. He said this is the winning side but we cannot see the party yet. We are not needed at the party but are needed now. He closed his talk with his definition of hope: Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change. The closing benedictions were by ministers from congregations of diverse faith that support IHN. Rabbi Ben Chaidell of the Adath Israel Congregation went first and pointed out that at Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, there is a reading from the prophet Isaiah which states fasting is not enough. We must also practice social justice and help the poor and the oppressed [Isaiah 57:14 – 58:14]. Imam Ihab Mohamed of the Ihsan Community Center pointed out that differences in faith were far less important than the similarities. Other benedictions were by Pastor Chuck Mingo of Crossroads Oakley and Reverend Connie Simon of the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati. More information about the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati is found at their website, www.ihncincinnati.org. -Speaker Jim Wallis (left) and Imam Ihab Mohamed All-in-Cincinnati – A New Policy Agenda and Coalition to Address Poverty in Cincinnati BILL WOODS Contributing Writer C incinnati recently received some bad news from the U.S. Census Bureau. The city experienced a 4.2 percent increase in poverty from 2007 to 2017. This revelation of ten thousand more residents falling below the poverty line comes at time when a major project to reduce child poverty by ten percent, the Child Poverty Collaborative, is now in its third year. Attendees at the November 29th Forum at Christ Church Cathedral heard about a new initiative to address inequity and poverty in this city. "All-In Cincinnati " represents both a diverse coalition and an agenda to tackle these critical issues. Two members of the All-In Cincinnati Core Team, Michael Coffey of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Eileen Cooper Reed, former Director of the Children's Defense Fund's Cincinnati office, described AIC's evolution and progress to date. They also spent much of the session fielding questions and listening to the experiences of community activists and social service workers in the audience. What makes All-In Cincinnati unique? Eileen Cooper Reed stressed that this initiative was "all about policy." Unlike many previous undertakings that focus on establishing one or two big programs, All-In Cincinnati emphasizes policy development and implementation as the key elements to bringing about a more equitable community. The local group that started ALL-In Cincinnati was inspired by a conference sponsored by Policy Link several years ago in Los Angles that encouraged cities confronting major inequity issues to take this policy driven, coalition building approach. After returning to Cincinnati, the group decided to work with Policy Link, a national research and action institute that promotes racial and economic equity, to develop a plan and strategy to put such a process in place. Working quietly behind the scenes, a group of community organizations and funders began meeting. It includes the Urban League, LISC, the Child Poverty Collaborative, Project AMOS, the Black United Front, Strive Partnership, the City's Human Relations Commission, Interact For Health, the United Way, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. The first public action of this informal coalition, explained Michael Coffey,was the release last month of a report, "All-In Cincinnati: Equity Is The Path To inclusive Prosperity." The report synthesizes all recent data concerning inequity and poverty in Cincinnati, and it presents a policy agenda for forging a more equitable city and county. Recognizing that poor families and individuals do not have access to jobs that pay a living wage or to affordable housing, many of AIC's recommendations deal with these two issues. One section of the report focuses on "increasing the economic security and mobility of vulnerable families and workers, especially women of color who face barriers to employment." Another section calls for increasing access to "high quality, healthy, affordable homes," as well as policies that prevent displacement. Race, noted Coffey and Reed, must be acknowledged as a factor if progress is ever to be made in reducing inequity in Cincinnati. Both the report and the AIC coalition accept this fact, and women of color are spotlighted as the group that needs the greatest attention if we are serious about making progress. "Black and Latina women are the most THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED likely to be working full time," says the report, "and still remain economically insecure." Some of the veteran community activists in attendance agreed with AIC's focus on developing effective policies. Their concern was whether All-In Cincinnati has the will and ability to get such policies enacted and implemented. Several attendees talked about the difficulties in taking on the often indifferent or opposed political and economic establishment, and kept asking the speakers whether funders like the United Way would fund the kind of organizing needed to mount a successful grassroots policy campaign? Michael Coffey stressed the openness of the AIC process, and that anyone could attend its monthly meetings. In fact, he said that it was critical that all groups and individuals working on issues related to poverty and inequity join forces in effective collaboration. He also recognizes the major efforts needed to bring about needed but long overlooked change, and he invited anyone interested at the Forum to attend AIC's meeting that afternoon. �FEATURE 8 N o v 214 - -NDec. o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N o . 393 Dec. 15, | No. 396 Push Back or Get Pushed Out Dr. Mark Mussman Contributing Writer A t the last Over-the-Rhine Community Council meeting, representatives from Urban Sites and the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce came with updates regarding a proposed Service Improvement District (SID) for the southern section of Over-the-Rhine. Downtown currently has a SID that funds Downtown Cincinnati Inc’s Downtown Ambassador program to physically clean up the sidewalks of downtown, and they wish to extend this type of program into Over-the-Rhine now that the property tax base has theoretically increased to an amount that could sustain the burden. This type of program can be characterized as a form of Neoliberalism, which is not a political ideology as much as an economic ideology. Simply put, neoliberalism can be seen in the privatization of public goods, services, funds, and wealth. We have seen unprecedented neoliberalism in Cincinnati in recent years. From the privatization of the City’s Planning Department in 2005 (now returned to the city), to the privatization of The Banks, Fountain Square, Washington Park, and Ziegler Park, there has been a concerted effort to funnel public money into private hands, such as the private non-profit organization 3CDC. 3CDC currently has “preferred developer” status from the City, which basically puts them in front of any line for public land and services. The designation as “preferred developer” is unclear at best, as there is no formal publicly controlled mechanism for the designation. It may have been the result of a backroom deal, lacking needed transparency. The prefered developer designation makes 3CDC a quasi-governmental organization, and as such, the President and CEO makes more than half a million in compensation each year, dwarfing even the City Manager or Mayor’s salaries. 3CDC has been funding sidewalk sweeping for some years in Over-theRhine, south of Liberty. According to the representatives, 3CDC has been providing about $250,000 each year to provide this service. They claim that there are 13 workers, who are paid a living wage with benefits. There are several questions to what is considered a living wage, and what benefits are received. 3CDC has stated that this program is no longer sustainable, and the proposed SID would generate $500,000 a year to establish and maintain a new non-profit to run the program. The proposed SID would be a shift of the economic burden from 3CDC to property owners in the neighborhood. Property owners would vote on the SID, not residents. The votes are also weighted, in that they need 60% of the linear footage to vote for the SID for it to pass. Once, passed, all property owners would be assessed an additional property tax to pay for the SID. The representative claimed that 3CDC and Urban Sites together own about 30% of the linear footage in the neighborhood, which means their two votes gives them 50% of the votes needed. Adding Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Model Group, and POAH into the mix, it is unclear how many actual property owners would be needed to pass the SID. Questions as to whether the SID would increase rent in the neighborhood were downplayed at the meeting by the representatives. They said that it would not increase rents, although they did not provide any research to back up this claim. For those of us who live in “organic” affordable housing, we worry that increased taxes will force our rents to increase. Our landlords don’t receive subsidies from the government or promises from 3CDC regarding our tax burden. It is implausible that rents would remain affordable with additional taxes levied on our properties. Taken alone, the SID seems to be eroding naturally occurring Pool fees rose from 4 dollars a year to 4 dollars a day for youth through privatization affordable housing. But it needs to be seen in a much larger context. At the same meeting, there was a discussion of the privatization of the alley behind the Transept, on 12th and Elm Streets. At the meeting in October, it was stated that Model Group has purchased the alley behind Findlay Playground so that they can park their personal vehicles on it. Alleyways that have been granted a private lease for 4-5 years by the City have been found to be illegal closed off after their leases, or closed off without a lease by the organization Spring in Our Steps which strives to preserve public alleys and stairways. We are seeing a loss of alleyways in the West End to privatization, including the FC Cincinnati Stadium, which will also permanently close Central Avenue. The Stadium is displacing Taft High School’s stadium, many small businesses, a church, and many historic buildings, including the State Theater. This is just the beginning of displacement in the West End, where we are already seeing the loss of affordable housing at the Arts Apartment, and threats to Stanley Rowe Tower. Currently, there is a fight for Findlay Playground, which is located near McMicken on Vine Street. Past privatized parks include Washington Park and Ziegler Park. Washington Park is plastered with advertising from Bud Light, Southwest Airlines, Taft’s Ale House, Rhinegeist, 50 West, Christian Moerlein, PNC Bank, UC Health, and CommonBond. The cost to use the park is off the charts, as compared to other Cincinnati Parks. It has private security, with cameras, hostile design throughout, and a liquor license. Results of privatization of Ziegler Park include a swimming pool that went from $4/year to $4/day for the youth. The basketball courts can now be reserved for a fee, and the basketball court is simultaneously a Futsol Court, boasting sponsorship from FC Cincinnati. A representative from the CRC (Cincinnati Recreation Commission) said their goal it to make Findlay Playground “income generating” which may mean a parking garage, a stage area, or something else. Cincinnati Police have made recommendations to remove all seating, whether official or unintended, and put in a fitness course and dog park. The removal of the play area, grills, and basketball court, according to the police, would help remove people from the park. Other public initiatives, like the Liberty Street Pedestrian Safety Plan have been put on hold for private interests (FC Cincinnati), which erodes public control of our resources. Millions of public TIF monies that were earmarked for the Liberty Street improvements were transferred to the FC Cincinnati Stadium project. So in addition to the loss of the pedestrian safety improvements, the money was funneled into a private project. On Liberty and Elm sits a vacant field, which for many years was used to grow produce for Findlay Market. Now, as developers fight with residents as to what they can develop there, the field remains empty, and no produce is being grown for the community. There are parallels between these developments and the Main and Schiller development which is threatening a community garden and basketball courts. Fortunately, community organizations and youth are studying how to do development differently, with a focus on preventing displacement. Unless there is a concerted effort to fight Neoliberalism, we will lose all public spaces, facilities, and services to privatization. Just as there is an effort to privatize the federal Postal Service, there is clearly a increase cost privatization represents. Whether it be a publically funded SID, or the use of a park or swimming pool, the cost to use a private facility increases for the user. These costs will ultimately result in higher rents, as we saw when Ziegler Park was updated and nearby residents had their rents raised significantly. The landlord cited the updated park as the reason why the rents were increased. Ultimately, those residents were priced out of the neighborhood and they were forced to move. Who will be next? Spring in Our Steps fights to retain public spaces. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �9 FEATURE No. 39 Nov 2 15, - No v 19,| 2 0 18396 Dec. 143 -| Dec. 2018 No. Rent the Courts Notice for Ziegler Park. Alley behind Findlay Playground, being used for private parking. Facing pressure, Peaslee put This Building Not for Sale on their new mural. Central Avenue faces permanent closure for FC Cincinnati stadium, other alleys lost. Alleyway reportedly purchased by Model Group, bordering Findlay Playground. A fenced off Findlay Playground and Park area. Findlay Playground fenced off, displacing park attendees Central Avenue closed for FC Cincinnati Stadium. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �10 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 214 - -NDec. o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N o . 393 Dec. 15, | No. 396 �No. 39 Nov 2 15, - No v 19,| 2 0 18396 Dec. 143 -| Dec. 2018 No. 11 LOCAL It’s Time to Heal the Community Robert Brown I Contributing Writer was intrigued by the 2009 health care debate – actually nearly mesmerized. What particularly struck me was the quality of the public discourse or, more precisely, the degradation of the quality of the public dialogue. It was as if fact and truth had left the building and objective reality had become a quaint notion. In a lot of ways it appeared to be the political equivalent of the “dozens”. As quickly as the first “yo mama” was implied or expressed, the conversation veered into the ether where any hope of cobbling a solution to the vexing and challenging issue of providing adequate health care to our population was obliterated. I was prompted to take a closer look. Doubtless, the U.S. has an abundance of health care resources. Our providers are talented, competent and committed. They are among the best trained in the world. Our universities engage in cutting-edge and revolutionary research driving the development and adoption of advanced medical treatment and technology. Our facilities are first-rate and maintain superior capabilities. These institutions strive to establish and promote everhigher levels of quality, patient care and safety. Looking closer though, our abundance of health care resources may in fact be an embarrassment of riches. The quality of any system is measured not only by the inputs but also by the outputs – in this case, our health outcomes. One metric by which health outcomes are assessed is cause-specific mortality rates – for the top causes of death, how many folks perish. Based on this single metric, U.S. health outcomes are mediocre at best. Actually, our outcomes are among the absolute worst compared to those of the balance of developed countries. There are even some third-world countries that have lower mortality rates than ours. While these national results are shockingly dismal, looking further we find that there’s more bad news. Narrowing the focus to metro Cincinnati, the mortality rates for the top ten causes of death are measurably higher than the national results! As we follow this path from merely mediocre to dismal, we find there’s even more. Narrowing the focus again to individual communities, we find particularly higher mortality rates in inner-city urban neighborhoods. There is even one neighborhood in Cincinnati where the mortality rate is nearly twice the rate of metro Cincinnati. Not only are these results abysmal, the disproportionality alone screams for attention and action. And may also reflect a shameful and unacceptable failure of humanity. Why the disparity you ask? The structural inequalities found in the general society are often magnified in inner-city urban communities. We find higher poverty, higher unemployment and higher crime rates. These conditions contribute to the deterioration of the social fabric of the community as well as the erosion of the physical infrastructure. Many in the population have limited capital resources and are denied access to health insurance. With little money and no insurance, it is unlikely that a person would have a regular source of primary medical care. Not only is it an economic burden to go to the doctor, it is an economic burden just to get to the doctor. Once there, the person must pray that the doctor doesn’t prescribe any medication because that too is unaffordable. So the person waits until the condition becomes unbearable and wanders into the emergency room or urgent care center. These institutions are not intended or structured to be primary health care sources. They do what they do in spades – competently and efficiently. But as a source for primary care, they are absolutely inappropriate. What about self-care? If a person eats properly and exercises, the person has the opportunity to maintain a reasonable level of good health. That’s right. Unfortunately, in many innercity communities, access to healthy diet options – fresh produce, low-fat, nutritious selections – are severely limited. The daily walk, jog or bicycle ride is constrained because the sidewalks are a mess. In addition, some residents choose not to be exposed to the risk of catching a stray bullet. Cynical explanations for the health inequities we observe cite free will as the underlying cause for the disparity. Constructed on an “us versus them” framework, “those people” are sicker, poorer than us, are dying more abundantly than us, because of the poor choices they make. They are impulsive, shiftless and lazy. They choose to be where they are – as if suggesting they want to endure misfortune and suffering. I believe this is a dangerous position to take. Not only does it betray a certain contempt for less fortunate people – who knows, maybe even for ourselves – , it ignores the reality that our acceptance of such dystopian conditions has a real effect on all of us and all our communities. Just because “those people” don’t live in your neighborhood doesn’t mean they are not your neighbors. What about points of access for health care? While it appears that many in the inner-city may lack access to “private” docs and caregivers, there are a number of community health centers offering a full range of care options – adult and pediatric clinical, dental, mental health care resources. There are FQHC’s (Federally Qualified Health Centers) specifically established to serve underserved communities, city-funded health centers, faith-based centers and other privately-funded clinics. I know the perception exists that “clinics” are subpar and somehow inferior to “private” medical care. I don’t know how widespread this impression is, but in my experience the quality of these community-based health centers rivals any private source. Not only are the people who staff these institutions as committed, competent, caring and dedicated as any others, in some cases, because of strong partnerships with the major hospitals and teaching institutions, service quality is enhanced. In an attempt to mitigate the economic condition and insurance status of the patients, many of these centers charge on a sliding scale based on income. I come from the day and age where the doc who birthed you was the doc who took you out. Not only did this same doc treat your parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncle and cousins, the doc would actually show up at your house to treat you. We are well beyond this idealized past. But the idea raises a fundamental question – a question rarely discussed. It centers on the relationship between the patient and the caregiver. I believe this is one of the most important and significant relationships a person can have. Patients need to find a caregiver they trust. They deserve and must demand someone who is accessible and present, sensitive to the nuances and subtleties of the individual patient. Patients must be encouraged and feel free to be completely open and candid and timely. The caregiver carries the additional burden of educating the patient about the parameters of his condition. The caregiver must make the patient understand the relationship between behavior and his condition and teach him to understand what symptoms to expect and how to respond. What we’re talking about here is health literacy and self care. This is a function of the partnership between patient and caregiver. The patient needs to be self aware – must learn to “listen” to his body – and must be able to communicate to a caregiver who is capable of listening and hearing what is going on. This degree of sensitivity is not limited to the primary caregiver, it must infuse the entire health care delivery organization. Why is it important that you know this information? Researching this information, I was thunderstruck by the seriousness of this issue. As I mentioned, my interest was ignited by the 2009 health care debate – and so was my frustration. Whenever this issue is discussed, dissemblance rears its ugly head. It’s kind of like watching a really, really bad magic trick, clumsy misdirection and all. We need to make this a central issue of open, vigorous, honest public discourse. When the PTB’s – Powers That Be – decide on allocation of resources to craft effective solutions to these challenges, we need the information to keep them honest. We need to know that we are waging the battle for ALL of us and we are being effective, efficient and successful. As such, I invite your input and feedback. Boeing’s VW Moment Robert Park Contributing Writer W ell, they didn’t do it on purpose, putting the travelling public at potentially fatal risk the way VW did when they scammed the diesel exhaust emissions regulations. The Boeing aircraft company joined the IT mafia and said let’s program the airplane and dumb-down the pilots so that we don’t have to worry about them putting their plane into a fixed stall (going too slow to stay flying). But we don’t want to make it look like a significant operating change that would require a lot of re-training for airlines buying the new Boeing 737 Max. So the marketing people had their way, the new manuals looked like an easy transition, no biggie. It just so happened that if you needed to switch off the automatic stall preventer in a hurry because it got confused and insisted on flying the plane into the ground, it wasn’t so easy to figure out how to do it. Some of the manuals may have even been defective, not to mention inadequate training requirements. It didn’t help that Lion Airlines, in Indonesia, had some bad habits of its own. The people telling us that selfdriving cars are going to be better than sliced bread ought to be having a few sober moments here, themselves. It’s those darn sensors; why aren’t they as smart as people. All those simulations with perfect streets, weather, signage, painted lines, no construction, predictable drivers, etc. looked really good. But even a million lines of code can’t stand up to the real world. And it would THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED be nice for a lot of us if our car could last 10 years without having multiple brain and nervous system transplants. So here are two morality plays for the corporate decision-makers planning our future. In the VW case, the splash back was a multi-billion dollar hit on Germany’s proudest players and richest thug-families (think Porshe). At Boeing, the liability is still unfolding on the 189 deaths and loss of the 100 million dollar plane. Maybe their lawyers can stick a lot of it on Lion Airlines… but then maybe Lion Air can stick it back on Boeing. �12 STREET VOICE The White House Christmas List Mother Goose The Donald has a Christmas list. At the top of his list is "The Wall." N o v 14 2 --N o v 19, 0 18 | |NNo. o . 393 Dec. Dec. 15,22018 396 Winter Haiku Night falls early now, Cutting short the bounds of day It hardly sends out a message As Winter beckons Of glad tidings to us all. BILL WOODS BRIAN TAYLOR Contributing Writer Contributing Writer About a Good Boy Perked ears, widened eyes Scratched doors, excited whimpers. "Time to go outside." M.T. Contributing Writer Streetvibes Writing Circle If you would like to submit a story for publication in streetvibes, come join Katelyn Lusher and Chris Wilkey for a group writing session! S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 Nov 215, - N2018 o v 19, 2 0 18 Dec. 143- |Dec. | No. 396 The Struggle STREET VOICE This Xmas Today while watching the news I heard that Santa Claus arrived in a helicopter They also talked about tax cuts and how the politicians were eating out at Red Lobsters What happened to the days when the bells rang for Santa Claus, his reindeer and sled What happened to the belief in miracles and all the little children went to bed Waiting for that glorious morning to open all the presents that Santa left under the tree Asking questions about how he brought all the gifts down the smoke filled chimney Waiting day and night, trying to be good all for Christmas so we'd be granted the ultimate blessing Looking back and understanding that as a child I was tricked, Santa in a helicopter that's a new lesson Without the holiday's Thanksgiving and Christmas Day what else is there to really look forward too Without giving thanks for so many blessings and being thankful for Jesus birth just to name a few So for me Christmas has somehow lost the true spirit and has been misunderstood by all We must always remember God's blessings, don't forget to give thanks and bring back Rudolph the red nose reindeer driving Santa Claus!!!! WILLA D. JONES Streetvibes Distributor Contributing Writer This Xmas Has lots of hope And cheer for the New Year Family, and friends, Have lots of smiles And are near Presents, are here And dinner Will be served Lots of hope And love The promise of hope Seems to be Here on earth So give love And lots of thanks To God above To all families Big and small Merry Xmas to you all KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 13 �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 168 Across Down 1. Postage token 1. Celestial body 6. Hit with something flat 2. Melody 10. Line made from twisted 3. At the peak fibers 4. Method 14. Private instructor 5. Deliver a sermon 15. Expect and wish 6. Diffident 16. Finished 7. Rich soil 17. Positively charged 8. Month electrode 9. Writing implement 18. Tall story 10. Adult male swan 19. Flock 11. Open 20. Revoke 12. Variety show 22. Kind of mineral 13. Appliance for 24. Regret removing moisture 25. Sprocket 21. Closed circuits 27. Not as heavy 23. Matured 29. Extreme excess 26. Monetary aid 34. Pasture 28. Annoy continually 35. Former currency of Italy 29. Scale drawing 36. Animal feet 30. Animation 38. Adult male duck 31. Divisions of geological 42. From a great distance time 43. Informal photographs 32. Plaid 45. Desiccated 33. Mindful 46. Bird shelters 37. Mettle 48. Genuine 39. Song for solo voice 49. Make vocal music 40. Chess piece 50. Assistance 41. Boundary 52. Form a mental image 44. Cut 54. Sore 47. Sieve 58. Small cask or barrel 51. Compulsory force or 59. Type of tree threat 60. Clean-cut 53. Tropical lizard 62. Debris 54. Part of a corolla 67. Hints 55. Form of legal defense 69. Give off 56. Urge or force 71. Pointer 57. Restrict or confine 72. Assist in wrongdoing 61. Unit of length 73. Storage tower 63. Food from the husks 74. Inexperienced of cereal grains 75. Plant with pendulous 64. Two-masted sailing vessel flowers 65. Score of zero in squash 76. Cook slowly in liquid 66. Pitcher 77. Ire 68. Pig pen Nov 2 o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N o . 393 Dec. 14- -NDec. 15, | No. 396 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 389 - MEDIUM 70. Drag behind PUZZLE SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD #40 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 383- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 Nov 215, - N 2018 o v 19,| No. 2 0 18396 Dec. 143-| Dec. Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 RESOURCES St. George Food Pantry 751-8771 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 Churches Active in Northside 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 591-2246 FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Salvation Army 762-5660 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 131 E. 12th Street 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street 45214 Shelter: Men Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelterhouse 721-0643 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 411 Gest St. 45203 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 2121 Vine Street 45202 1437 Walnut Street 45202 Prospect House 921-1613 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Starting Over 961-2256 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Parkway Center 661-4620 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Shelter: Family Interfaith Hospitality Network First Step Home 961-4663 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Joseph House (Veterans) Housing: 1522 Republic Street 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 241-2965 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 Food/Clothing Health 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 15 Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 Other Resources Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 1223 Main St. 45202 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Cancer Justice Network 404-3882 Hamilton/Middletown St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 859-491-8303 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 799 Ann St. Newport, KY 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? You can support our mission and spread the word about your 961-0600 business. For more information contact Gabriela Godinez Feregrino, Center for Respite Care 621-1868 email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �16 N o v 216 - N o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N . 393 Nov. - Nov. 30, | oNo. 394 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource December 14-December 28, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Pg 3: The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is Awarded Findlay Playground Pg 4: GCHC Pg 5: The Hidden Costs of Being a Sexual Assault Survivor The Unhuman Condition Pg 6: Hoe to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: IHN: Living Your Spirituality of Help Others All-In-Cincinnati Pg 8: Push Back or Get Pushed Out Pg 9: Feature Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: It’s time to Heal the Community Boeing’s VW Moment Pg 12: Street Voice Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 14-December 28, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Brian Taylor Micheal Earl Patton Bill Woods Willa Jones Dr. Mark Mussman Kim Green Robert Park Siqi Cheng Leah Rutz Yuliya Milkitin Kristina McKinley M.T. Homeless Coalition Wikipedia (Fair Use) Morgan Mitchell Gabriela Godinez Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF 3CDC Bill Woods Brian Taylor Cincinnati Dr. Mark Mussman Findlay Playground Gabriela Godinez GCHC Homeless Coalition IHN Josh Spring Kim Green Kristina McKinley Leah Rutz M.T. Micheal Earl Patton Morgan Mitchell Over-the-Rhine poverty Robert Park Sexual Assault Siqi Cheng Wikipedia (Fair Use) Willa Jones Yuliya Milkitin https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/2f980a5d8a31c7d763a20a53b7e5ace0.pdf 8075af9bb0db578a7484ed223bab52e8 PDF Text Text N o v e m b e r 1 6 t h - N o v e m b e r 3 0 t h 2 0 1 8 | Vo l . 2 1 I s s u e 2 1 ( N o . 3 9 4 ) advo cating justice | building communit y Any opinions in this issue are of the authors and don't necessarily represent Streetvibes or The Homeless Coalition. In Politics: Morgan Mitchell The Treatment of Political Organizers by the Democratic Party Contributing Writer M any people dream of making a difference with their lives. In America, we are told that the best way to make a difference and create change is to enter politics. Politicians build platforms on creating change and promise to do so, but only if they get elected first! That’s where political organizers come in. Political organizers are usually in their twenties, fresh out of college and eager to pursue their dream of making a difference. They’re the ones knocking on doors, calling voters, registering people to vote, texting voters, and recruiting volunteers to help. This is the dirty work that isn’t normally talked about when discussing the glitz and glamour of working in politics. Yet it is arguably the most crucial work, without political organizers (or campaign workers if they are working for a specific candidate) these candidates and political parties wouldn’t have any momentum. Un f o r t u n a t e l y, political organizers are exploited for their labor, especially by the party that claims to have the working class’ best interest in mind: Democrats. Political organizers for progressive nonprofits and campaign workers for Democratic candidates often work 9am-12am, seven days a week. They are not paid overtime, are very rarely given benefits, rarely make a living wage, are not allowed to take days off, are given weekly or daily quotas that are nearly impossible to meet, and more often than not are fire-at-will employees (meaning they can be fired at any moment with no warning and without explanation) Many organizers aren’t even aware that their horrific working conditions are exploitation because campaign managers and non-profit state directors know what language to use to gaslight and blind political organizers to their exploitation.. Continued on page 9 This Issue is sponsored by (Retired) Judge Mark P. Painter Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 COALITION N o v 16 2 - -NNov. o v 19, 18 | |NNo. o . 393 Nov. 30,2 02018 394 From The Director: Why Is My Head Wet? I f you flip off the lights in a room, walk through the room and run into a pole, do you ask what happened? Probably not, because you know what happened. If you do the same thing the next day, do you ask what happened that time? Nope. If you fill a glass with water and then dump it on your head, do you ask why you are wet? What about if you turn a stove burner on and hold your hand on it, do you wonder why your hand hurts? If you dump a bucket of dirt on someone else, do you ask them why they are so dirty? No, probably not. Outside of mental health decompensation, none of this makes any sense. You don’t ask why these things are happening because you already know the answer, and you know how to prevent them from happening again. If you heard a weather report which called for rain and you left the windows of your car (if you have one) open and later came out to find a soaked seat, would you try to figure out how your seat got wet? Would you call your friends together to study how rain gets from outside a car to inside a car and on a seat? Would you re-listen to the weather report and try to figure out how better to understand what the report meant? No, you would express frustration at having left the window open, especially when you knew rain was predicted, you would try to dry your seat and commit to not leaving the window open again. If you park that same car, get out to walk into the office and someone hollers at you that your left your lights on, likely you would say thanks and then turn around and turn your lights off. Why? Because JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition you know if you leave them on it is likely your battery will lose power and your won’t be able to start your car when you return. You don’t wait for proof that this will happen because logic dictates it will, you don’t want to risk it and likely past experience tells you choosing to not put in the effort to walk back and turn off the lights will result in more problems in the future. So why when it comes to much more important decisions do we very often chose to not follow basic common sense? As a society, city and county we invest millions of dollars in luxury housing, give tax abatements to companies that displace people from their homes, allow landlords to evict without just cause, don’t require companies pay a living wage, subsidize tourist bars and shops that drive out neighborhood-serving businesses and applaud the removal of people with lower incomes from neighborhoods as revitalization and then act surprised when housing instability and homelessness increase. We enact policies that support the depletion of affordable housing and then say we are not sure why we have homelessness to the extent we do and so we must study the problem more and then perhaps temporarily pilot possible solutions. Maybe we don’t yet have the right people in the room to figure out what is going on or maybe there is some best practice model we haven’t considered. Give me a break. If you have a house and you invite your friends over to be entertained by shooting off fireworks in the living room and your house catches fire and you and your friends stand outside watching, debating how best to use the garden hose to decrease the fire when you should be calling the fire department and your house burns down, again outside of some extreme circumstances, you don’t get to say you didn’t know what to do. If you get a new house and this time you only use small fireworks inside, you don’t get congratulated for improving. You don’t get to call people in to do a study to try to figure out how to prevent fires in your home, because the answer is always going to be that you must stop the activity that is causing the fires in the first place. These are all just little analogies, but what if people are trapped in the house and can’t get out of the fire? In 2017, in Hamilton County, least 137 people suffering from the effects of homelessness died. Contributing Writer R esidents of Alms Hill Apartments enjoyed a Halloween Celebration put on by the Alms Residents’ Association on Monday, October 29th. The Alms Hill Apartments contains 200 units of HUD subsidized apartments that have been at risk of closure multiple times in the last 5 years. Residents have worked hard and partnered with the Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and Legal Aid Society to combat slumlords and HUD to keep their homes open and affordable. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Gabriela Godinez Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Sallie Mascus Layout: Key Beck Reception: Bonita Batton, Larry Johnson Maintenance: Pete Roper ------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Alms Hill Residents Celebrate DAULTON KING Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. The Alms Halloween Celebration proved to be a timely event, not just because of the 31st around the corner, but because on Tuesday, October 30th new ownership took over the Alms. The new owners, Related Affordable, have promised to keep the building well-maintained and affordable while completing millions of dollars in renovations for the residents. Kimetta Ann Carter, Public Relations and Advocate for The Alms Residents’ Association expressed “We happily welcome Related Affordable. We anticipate great results and appreciate them stepping up to the plate”. Residents have been long fighting for this sustainable solution to their housing insecurity. Stephanie Moes from Legal Aid society shared “The residents have fought hard to preserve and improve housing at the Alms and Avondale properties for the last three years. With Related acquiring the properties, we hope that they will finally have an owner ready to join them in their efforts to make these properties premier affordable housing in our community.” The Alms Residents’ Association, Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, and The Cincinnati Homeless Coalition are all optimistic regarding the future of the Alms. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Josh Spring, Brian Taylor, Morgan Mitchel, Daulton King, Micheal Earl Patton, Patricia Patton, Allie Graff, Bill Woods, Trenton Davis, Cleo Wombles, Willa Jones, Sabrina Amos, Dr. Mark Mussman, Vicky Warfield ------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Wikipedia (Fair Use), Morgan Mitchell, Gabriela Godinez ---------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �No. 39 Nov 230, - N2018 o v 19, 2 0 18 Nov. 163-|Nov. | No. 394 3 COALITION Underreported: Out of the Shadows DR. MARK MUSSMAN Contributing Writer O Homelessness is not just people sleeping on the street or in a shelter. When two families are living together due to economic necessity, it is called being “doubled-up,” which is a form of homelessness. People living in their cars are experiencing homelessness. People who are couch-surfing, going from place to place, or just staying in the same place, are also experiencing homelessness. If you don’t have food on the table and parental guidance, that’s called being “homeless at home,” which affects a great deal of school-aged children in our city. These are just some of the underreported types of homelessness that greatly affect our city today, whether it be concealed or in plain sight. If your family is not on the lease, you are experiencing homelessness. Doubling-up is a common tactic that is used, generally within families, to help keep people off of the streets and out of shelters. Typically, doubling-up allows one family to bring in another while Shelter beds, like these in Northern Kentucky, remain full year round. Photo Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman they try to work on their independence. In time, doubled-up families may face pressure from landlords, family members, school systems, and others to move out of the property. The family on the lease may decide they have had enough, and the other family is once again looking for options. Doubling-up isn’t seen as a solution to homelessness because of the tenuous nature of the relationships that ensure stability. After the new anti-homelessness laws were created this summer, people living in a car risk criminal charges in Hamilton County. Anyone who is found creating a “domicile” on public land is at risk for arrest. This may put pressure on PATH team members who are tasked with verifying the location of someone who is sleeping in their vehicle. The PATH team must see an individual or family sleeping outside, or in a vehicle, to grant them a homelessness certificate. This certificate grants them access to different services, including housing (when available), and is seen as the first step to getting off of the street. Strategies are developed when living in a vehicle, such as showering at the YMCA or the Mary Magdalen House, spending time at the Library to warm up, and trying to use the vehicle to make money through odd jobs. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about a man who lost his foot to frostbite after sleeping in his car during the winter. Couch-surfing is something that is relatively common among college-aged young adults, but people of all ages are forced into this category of homelessness. When someone has no place of their own, they often find refuge in the homes of their family or friends. Couch-surfers may try to give back by doing chores around the house, or keeping things cleaned up. There tends to be a time-limit to couch-surfing because people want their own space back or there are issues with the building management. Couch-surfers may lose their place on the couch when they are perceived as having nothing to give back for their presence. It is possible that someone may only couch-surf for a few days, but it probably would last a few months or more because securing stable housing is very difficult and time consuming. When someone has a roof over their head, but no food on the table, or parents working all hours of the night, they are and they are battling homelessness in one form or another. When we do the PIT Count in January, we are compiling data from shelters, supportive housing, and other institutions to create a number to represent the people who are experiencing homelessness in our city, county, state, Tents near the Casino only represent a small number of people experiencing homelessness. Photo Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman experiencing a type of homelessness. When they are sleeping on a couch or on the floor, this is another form of homelessness: homeless at home. When you understand that there is no place in the United States where someone who is making minimum wage can afford a two bedroom apartment, you realize that the children are sleeping on the couch and the on the floor. They don’t share dinners together, and often the only meal they receive is the one they get at school. Homeless at home is a place where hunger and homelessness meet, and where many of our youth are located in Cincinnati. More than 75% of African-American children in Cincinnati live below the poverty line due to pervasive racism, which means that most of them go without the food they need and nation. We also join in teams to physically find and count people who are sleeping on the street, in doorways, under bridges, in woods, etc. These numbers go to the federal government to determine how much funding is needed to address the problem. Although we spend many hours on this endeavor, we only count people in 3 of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods. People who are doubledup, couch-surfing, homeless at home, or living in their cars are almost completely left out of this count. The limitations of this one-night count are endless, even though we strive to include as many people as possible. Hopefully, this will make you cautious about any statistic you read about homelessness, and you now why people are under-counted when we are examining homelessness. Cincinnati “Solves” Homeless Crisis by Hiding it ROBERT BROWN Contributing Writer W hen the city issued the initial 72-hour eviction notice to the homeless encampment at 3rd St. and Plum St., I imagined it was due to embarrassment if not abject shame. “Welcome to Cincinnati, here are our citizens”. How can people be evicted from nowhere? The city’s compromise only provided a five-day reprieve, a few more trashcans and a couple of Portalets. When that encampment was relocated, the primary achievement was reclaiming tail-gating real estate for Bengals fans, many of whom break all the city’s open container laws and get drunk and disorderly in public – all with impunity. What’s more, the inference has been advanced that the “campers” refused to go to perfectly good shelter spaces, when in fact they are largely overcrowded, under-resourced. Shelters are life-sized petri dishes for the cultivation of diseases, including but not limited to hepatitis A, B and C, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, lice, scabies and bed bugs. One might argue that the public crisis we are witnessing is positive in that it elevates the conversation we should be having. Prior to engaging in the dialogue, we must dispel the stereotypes often attached to people experiencing homelessness and other marginalized populations. When I engaged the people in the 3rd Street encampment, now dubbed the Colony, I was struck by the sheer strength of their community. They appear to care for and about one another, protect one another, provide for one another and defend their rules and standards. They have literally saved the lives of community members through Narcan interventions and have successfully persuaded others to enter rehabilitation programs. Other Cincinnati neighborhoods would welcome such a strong sense of community. Surely amongst those experiencing homelessness there are substance abusers, people with mental/behavioral health issues, even lazy THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED people, but arguably, the numbers are proportional to the general population. The simple fact is that Hamilton County is short about 40,000 housing units. What people experiencing homelessness need is permanent, affordable, supportive housing along with appropriate job training, behavioral health counselling and other resources. We appear to be disinclined to invest in this actual and affirmative solution, but are willing to devote resources to projects and endeavors that will actually exacerbate the problem. There is shame in this spectacle and even more apathy. �4 COALITION THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 216 - N v 19,30, 2 02018 18 | N| oNo. . 393 Nov. - oNov. 394 �No. 39 ov 2 30, - N o2018 v 19, | 2 0 18394 Nov. 163 -| N Nov. No. LOCAL 5 Attendees discuss healing, solidarity and action in wake of anti-Jewish killings in Pittsburgh BRIAN TAYLOR Contributing Writer C ongregation Beth Adam, in collaboration with the Jewish Community Relations Council, held a special event November 4 to commemorate the lives of 11 people killed October 27, in an anti-Semitic attack on Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, program focussed on handling grief and sadness, helping others in pain and changing the world for the better. They also made butterflies intended to be sent to congregants at Tree of Life. Robert Barr, founding Rabbi at Beth Adam, moderated the event and gave opening remarks to the gathering. “The world is reeling from the murder of 11 innocents in Pittsburgh simply because they were Jewish.” He noted that in Judy and Bob Danenberg address November 4 gathering at Congregation Beth Adam synagogue. Photo Credit: Sam Cooper Pennsylvania. The meeting -- preceded two days earlier by a special service that drew hundreds -- was attended by 150 people from various religious and ethnic communities throughout the city. Dozens of children of the Beth Adam congregation greeted participants before leaving to attend a separate addition to his tie with Tree of Life as a rabbi, he had a very personal connection as part of his family lives in Pittsburgh and specifically attend the embattled synagogue located in Squirrel Hill. After seeing a video presentation coming out o the massacre, he reached out to Tree of Life congregants, Bob and Judy Danenberg to see if he could replay the video to his congregation. They agreed but also volunteered to travel into town to participate in the November 4 event. Bob Danenberg, a Tree of Life member for 35 years, explained that 15,000 people — 30% of Pittsburgh’s Jewish population — reside in Squirrel Hill. He described the thriving community and the close-knit connections of families in the area. “This is of the worst attacks in the history of the Republic…. The shooter had an AR 15 assault rifle and 3 Gloc 57 handguns. He used all of them during the attack and he had a shotgun in the car.” “Many of the bodies,” Danenberg added, “were not immediately identifiable” after the shootings. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the alleged shooter, Robert Bowers (46), posted threats against Jews and immigrants on social media prior to the attack. Judy Danenberg began by reading off the names of those killed. They included: Joyce Fienberg (75), Richard Gottfried (65), Rose Mallinger (97), Jerry Rabinowitz (69), Cecil Rosenthal (59), David Rosenthal (54), Bernice Simon (84), Sylvan Simon (86), Daniel Stein (71), Melvin Wax (87), and Irving Younger (69). She told a story about each of them, highlighting who they were and their contributions to synagogue and to her, personally. She also made mention and honored the 6 people injured during the attack, including 2 congregants and 4 police officers. “The JCC (Jewish Community Center) has become a place to mourn the massacre,” she noted as she described how the incident has lead many from the community to pull together and rejoin the synagogue and the three congregations it houses. Danenberg ended her remarks in a spirited proclamation that “Through all of this WE — people of all walks — will become stronger, tighter than we have ever been.” “This is a wake up call,” Bob Danenberg said. “This can’t be sugar coated. We think it can’t happen to us. It can.” “What do we do now?” he asked. “We can’t let hatred dominate. We have to take measurable and lawful actions to counteract hatred and anti-Semitism. Take some form of action today!” he ended. Beth Adam organized an open discussion period, in which people present raised questions about self defense and preparedness, discussed the current political and social climate as related to anti-Semitism, and talked about the links between this attack and other attacks against Black people and immigrants. Several asked questions about the efforts to repair the synagogue. Messages of solidarity came from Hindu and Muslim individuals as well as antipolice brutality activists. “This has been a week of profound darkness,” Brian Jaffe of the Jewish Foundation, told the meeting. But he reflected on the broad international solidarity that continues to come in and pointed out that “nearly every synagogue and Jewish community in the country experienced an underestimation of support.” “Take what you’ve heard, take what you’ve learned today and turn it into action,” urged Robert Barr in closing the event. NRA and Mass Shootings PATRICIA PATTON I Contributing Writer f you have ever shivered at the grim escalation of mass murders across America, you are not alone. According a CNN report, there have been mass killings in the United States dating back to 1966 to the most recent in 2018. From Las Vegas to Connecticut to Virginia, trying to make sense of these senseless acts seems futile. As I attempt to make sense of this ever-growing ludicrous behavior, carried out by seemingly average looking citizens who in effect have mastered the art of blending their presence inside the masses to commit these crimes, I am filled with more hopelessness than resolve. The culprit is the NRA. Perhaps if we attempt to understand the origin of this organization, we can find a course that would lead to finally unraveling the mounting existence of these unwelcome tragedies that we continue to witness. How did this organization become so powerful? How and in what ways did its influence reportedly lead to so much devastation? According to the online publication “How the NRA Works,” the organization began way back during World War II when its humble beginnings were formed to promote and encourage rifle shooting. The organization continued to grow, and reportedly at one time offered more than 7000 firearms to Great Britain to use as a tool of defense against the German invasion. The NRA website today boasts nearly 5 million members who advocate and support 2nd amendment rights. Its members and advocates exist in places you wouldn’t expect. For example, this same website’s list of affiliates and support is daunting, and its presence is felt in unimagined established institutions such as schools, banks, and traditional media. According to the Business Insider, the NRA provides special offers and discounts to high profile businesses such as FedEx, Hertz, and Apple. In addition, the high school where 17 students were killed last month reportedly supported the killer through a school program, which had its genesis in the NRA. The program was designed to teach students shooting skills. Reportedly, the organization continues to provide money to various schools for ROTC training in Florida and other states THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED throughout the U.S. The NRA provides a substantial amount of political contributions to a number of well-known politicians such as Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, and Ohio’s Rob Portman, to name a few. Who would have thought that such trusted people and institutions would be indirectly behind this organization that has been relentless in its efforts to maintain power and secure wealth at all costs? Who would have known that the previous efforts to stop gun sales by increasing background checks would repeatedly be ignored in lieu of the goal to increase wealth and maintain power? An organization with such humble beginnings has grown as to influence the world. �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 216 - N v 19,30, 2 02018 18 | N| oNo. . 393 Nov. - oNov. 394 �No. 39 3 |- N ov 2 -30, N o2018 v 19, |2No. 0 18394 Nov. 16 Nov. 7 LOCAL Post-Kavanaugh Is No Different Than Pre-Kavanaugh ALLIE GRAFF Contributing Writer L **Trigger Warning: rape, racism** iberals are up in arms about Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. According to some, Kavanaugh’s confirmation was a death knell to a decent, respectable institution. Personally, I believe he is a racist and a rapist who deserves only abhorrence. Looking at the facts, it’s clear the Supreme Court has never been decent or respectable. A comrade of mine, the venerable Senay Kenfe, said, “I can easily compile a list of Supreme Court Justices who sat on the court, that your ancestors didn’t march and protest against, that passed down decision after decision that took rights after rights from the rest of us.” Some examples given by Kenfe: 1876, United States v. Reese, the constitutional right to allow disenfranchisement of black people and poor people of all skin colors; 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson, federal legalization of racial segregation; 1903, Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, the U.S. government has the constitutional right to break all treaties with indigenous peoples. October 9th 2018 the Supreme Court decided they would not hear the case Brakebill v. Jaeger. This means that possibly tens of thousands of indigenous people who live in the area the United States recognizes as North Dakota will have trouble voting or be entirely disenfranchised from voting. A recent North Dakota state law required voters to have identification with a residential street address. A good deal of indigenous people in the state do not have a street mailing address and are only listed at a P.O. Box, the address of which appears on any state-issued identification. The indigenous voters, after fighting the law in the lower courts, brought it all the way to the Supreme Court. And they were turned down. They will not get the opportunity to overturn the unjust law before November 6th 2018. Though Brett Kavanaugh did not preside over or influence this decision, he and the other justices still have power to create problems. Roe V. Wade might be overturned in the near future. If Roe v. Wade is overturned and I need an abortion then the chances I will die will skyrocket. There is a very real risk of the court overturning this ruling. Is this any more egregious than the previous 229 years worth of treacherous mandates passed down by this body? The Supreme Court with Kavanaugh will not be good for us because the Supreme Court has never been good for us. Author’s Note: The author has zero faith in voting in electoral politics (especially not for any capitalists) but strongly believes in everyone’s right to vote. The New Soccer Stadium in the West End Michael Earl Patton I Contributing Writer t looks like construction of the FC Stadium in the West End will begin soon. It will be built on the site of the current Stargel Stadium and some nearby properties. The basic concept has been released and can be found on the FCC website. It will be a modernistic design, about 120 feet tall, brightly lit, and with a canopy covering most seats. I went to the October 16 meeting at the Carl H. Lindner Family WMCA in the West End to listen to the presentation by FC Cincinnati and learn more. I want to outline here some aspects of the stadium that have received little, if any, attention from the regular media. As I had noted in an earlier article, the size of the stadium does require Cincinnati to vacate a couple blocks of Central Avenue. Not the betterknown Central Parkway, which it partly parallels, but still a significant street in its own right. Residents and commuters will have to find a different way. I myself use it occasionally. At the meeting the prediction was that the legislation would be in “2 or 3 weeks,” but as I write this I have not seen anything official. The public streets in the area needed for the new stadium, including a portion of Central Avenue, will be taken up. The deconstruction of the streets will form one of the bid packages for quotes. All work is being broken up into smaller chunks to facilitate bidding by smaller and minority contractors rather than have only “mega” contractors do the work. Demolition of the vacated streets will form one of the bid packages. The buildings to be torn down will be “cleaned up” first. This means that hazardous materials such as asbestos and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, which are environmentally toxic compounds and probable human carcinogens that were formerly widely used) will be removed. The stadium will be built adjacent to a residential area. Yes, there is a high school stadium there now, but this will be much, much bigger and taller – about 120 feet tall. I do not know of any privacy fence that could do anything worthwhile. On the other hand, the new Stargel Stadium will be built in a residential area on vacant land had been slated for further residential housing. People who bought houses there expected to live adjacent to other houses, not a high school stadium. Utilities are now being moved. There is a water main 42 inches in diameter that currently runs under Stargel Stadium. It will be moved, probably to under Ezzard Charles. It is a redundant line in that other water mains can handle its water on a temporary basis. It will be shut off, moved, and restarted. When I asked how much of all this was being paid for by the city (i.e., the taxpayers), no one present had an answer. Jeffrey Berding, who probably did know the answer, had already left the meeting. Copies of the Community Benefits Agreement, which was signed by Jeffrey Berding of FC Cincinnati, was available at the end of the meeting. Among other things the agreement states that FCC’s full time hourly employees will be paid at least $15 per hour. No mention, however, is made of what its part-time employees will be paid. This is important because many stadium workers will be part time as they will primarily be needed on game days. There is very little that is mentioned about the parking situation. There might be a permit program enacted but details are unclear except that any plan depends upon a majority vote of the West End Community Council. As for parking during events at the stadium, FC Cincinnati commits to work with a working group of community representatives to develop a strategy. While it is nice that they commit to work with the neighborhood, it appears that FCC does not yet have a strategy to provide the several thousands of needed parking places, nor is it clear what that strategy would be. There will be monthly reports to the Port Authority, so there will be more details in the future. MEP Height of Proposed Soccer Stadium along John Street THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �FEATURE 8 N o v 216 - -NNov. o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N o . 393 Nov. 30, | No. 394 The Dark Side of Justice: Dred Scott v. Citizens United TRENTON DAVIS Contributing Writer I n 1839, a man and his wife traveled down the Mississippi River towards Louisiana. He and his wife had been married for about three years and were traveling over a thousand miles from the Wisconsin Territory to Louisiana. He, a thirty-nine-year-old Black man, was likely unaware of how this trip would change his life. And change the course of American History. Before the trip, Dred Scott lived in Wisconsin and Illinois: free states where slavery was prohibited. After living in free territories for eight years, in 1847, Mr. Scott found himself in a Missouri court, suing for his freedom. Three years after that, in 1850, a court ruled that Dred Scott and his family were free. Then, in 1852 and 1854, the decision was overturned, and the courts subsequently upheld the decision that Dred Scott was not free. In a final appeal to “Justice”, Dred Scott appealed to the Supreme Court. The majority opinion was read in March of 1857. Dred Scott, as well as all Black people in America, had no rights in federal court. Blacks were told that they were the property of people. 157 years later, in January of 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations deserve the same rights that were denied to Dred Scott. It took until 1868 for the 14th Amendment to guarantee that no “State [may]… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” That was 249 years after the first slave arrived; and yet, equality under the law was still not guaranteed. In 2008, a conservative media group created a documentary called Hillary: The Movie. Because of its proximity to a primary election, a concurrent US law called the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act would have forced Citizen’s United to disclose the names of funders and identification of sponsors. The corporation sued for its right to the freedom of speech. And in 2010, corporations were not told they deserved less than equal rights in federal court. Corporations were not told that they were the property of people. Rather, the Citizen’s United vs. FEC decision said that “All men [and corporations] are created equal”. The first corporations in the US arrived around the time of the Revolution- sometime in the 1770s. However, the first major corporation, Boston Manufacturing Co. was formed in 1813. Depending on which date you choose to acknowledge, the modern corporation waited between 197 and 240 years for its freedom. Now, we are here. Almost 400 years after the first slave arrived. Our nation is now de-facto segregated. Black men are shot armed only with their blackness. Kneeling protesters are told to silence the sound of their blackness. In our great city of Cincinnati, “Residents… of Mount Lookout or Columbia Tusculum live to an average age of 88 years old, which is about 10 years longer than most Americans. However, just a few miles away in the Image Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ neighborhood of South Fairmount, Dred_Scott_v._Sandford life expectancy is more than 20 years people now; perhaps, they should be at shorter.” (Krisberg, 2014) the front lines defending those rights Social and economic disparities as well. permeate all aspects of our culture. We’ve seen corporations take Could we call upon corporations to a stand for freedom. Nike did it by help lead a movement that guarantees backing Colin Kaepernick. Who will equal rights to all by investing in Black be next? businesses and culture? After all, corporations have the same rights as Reflections On The Midterm Elections BILL WOODS Contributing Writer What are we to make of the results of the midterm elections? Too little time has elapsed to draw any definitive conclusions. Nevertheless, a few reflections seem to be in order. For one thing, a huge blue wave transforming U.S. politics did not take place. Furthermore, despite President Trump's victory tweets, a red wave did not occur. While Democrats can point to a major shift with their Party winning a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, Republicans can brag about picking up some extra Senate seats. Taking back the House of Representatives is actually a significant event for the Democrats, and it provides at least a two-year reprieve for those of us who believe in democracy. It required the Democrats to win at least twenty-three Republican House seats, and the number now stands at thirty-four or thirtyfive. Among the new House members are a number of women including a Muslim and a Native American. When the new Congress convenes in January, the House will be a much more diverse body then it is today. This Democratic House will serve as a check on the Trump Administration and the Republican controlled Senate. Plans to further cut housing and other critical safety net programs can now be blocked, and the ongoing efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act will end. Senator Mitch McConnell's goal to reduce funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in order to balance the budget will be challenged by Democrats who will show that the growing deficit can be directly linked to the huge 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the rich. As for forging innovative new policies, it is too early to tell whether any positive bipartisan legislation will be possible in Washington D.C's politically polarized environment. Ohio failed to join Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan; states that reversed their 2016 support for Trump and turned blue in 2018. Buckeye voters did return Sherrod Brown to the U.S Senate and elected an AfricanAmerican woman, Melody Stewart, to the Ohio Supreme Court. With its extremely gerrymandered legislative districts, Ohio kept its Republican majorities in the State Legislature, and no Congressional districts flipped from Republican to Democrat. Even though Ohio had its highest midterm voter turnout since 1994, the impact of new city and suburban voters was blunted in those districts drawn to counter metropolitan political preferences. What really revealed the Republican strength in Ohio were the outcomes of the races for the state's executive offices. The victory of Mike DeWine over Rich Cordray for Governor was more decisive than all the polls had indicated. Except for extreme gerrymandering, the factors that led Ohio to remain in the red column have yet to be evaluated. In reviewing local elections, Cincinnati and Hamilton County's returns give this area a deep blue hue. Longtime County Commissioner Chris Monzel lost his race to Stephanie Summerow Dumas, and now Democrats hold all the three Commission seats. If they had only run in Hamilton County, Jill Schiller and Aftab Pureval would be headed for Washington, D.C. as newly elected members of Congress. Meanwhile, the Children's Services Levy, which was opposed by many Republicans, won handily. In terms of other ballot issues, the City Charter Amendment proposal that would return City Council elections to two-year terms won out over the proposal for four year staggered terms. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED In addition, the proposal to restore individual contribution limits in campaigns for City Council and for Mayor received 87-percent of the ballots cast. However, activists who worked hard for the passage of State Issue I, the proposed Ohio Constitutional Amendment designed to reform the criminal justice system, saw their effort go down to defeat. This grassroots initiative to reduce penalties for non-violent crimes in Ohio was supported by reform groups and religious coalitions such as Project AMOS, but many judges and district attorneys opposed it as too sweeping a measure. The midterms appear to have restored some balance to our system of government, but there is still much to do to renew the democratic process at all levels. The fact that these elections will end up costing an estimated 5.2-billion dollars exposes the warping role of "big money" in political campaigns. Efforts to insure the right to vote and to eliminate partisan gerrymandering must also go forward. Reformers need to make a slogan out of the closing lines of a famous poem by Robert Frost. "We have miles to go before we sleep." �No. 39 Nov 2 30, - No v 19,| 2 0 18394 Nov. 163 -| Nov. 2018 No. 9 FEATURE Exploitation in Politics: The Treatment of Political Organizers by the Democratic Party Continuation from page 1 MORGAN MITCHELL Contributing Writer Common phrases organizers will hear from their bosses are: “Not everyone is cut out for this kind of work,” or “this is what you’re passionate about so it doesn’t feel like work,” or “this is necessary in order for us to win the election,” or “you were warned about this in your interview” or “this is for a good cause,” as if a cause that exploits labor can ever be considered “good.” Organizers are made to feel special, like superhero martyrs sacrificing themselves for the greater good. When in reality, no one is cut out to be exploited and work over 40 hours a week. Unions fought for 40 hour work weeks because studies show that working over 40 hours has negative effects on both employees and consequently the organization or company they are working for. Ihaab Syed, Secretary of the Campaign Workers Guild, a union recently formed by former campaign workers that fights for the rights of campaign political organizers, told Street Vibes that campaign workers need to reject the premise that overworking yourself and allowing yourself to be exploited is the path to victory for the causes that you care exploit them, right? Not necessarily, one could love their factory job, but still deserve a living wage and overtime. Syed also noted that if this kind of work is something you are passionate about, you should find a way to make it sustainable so you don’t have to change careers after experiencing burn-out. Full-time organizers who pursue this as a career are usually salary workers, meaning they aren’t paid hourly and don’t clock in or out. That seems convenient in theory, no matter what--you get paid for 40 hours a week. But exemption laws allow these workers to get exploited and work way over 40 hours and not get paid for it, all legally. At an event titled “Lunch and Learn” held at the University of Cincinnati’s Women’s Center on September 20th, when asked how to avoid exploitation in a field that regularly exploits workers, Kelly Freeman, Central/Southern Ohio Organizer for NARAL Pro-Ohio, and Stephanie Kollmann Baker, Senior Field Manager at Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, said that one has to just get lucky with who their boss is and hope they are not allowing their employees to work over eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. That is hardly ever the case. If employers or the law aren’t going to help fight back against this Andy Thorburn’s campaign for CA39 House of Reps. He lost in the primaries. about. “It’s not fair to ask people to work past their breaking point.” By saying that people who are passionate about their job shouldn’t feel exploited, organizers’ employers are making them feel separated from the rest of the working class they belong to, above them in a sense. The exploited factory workers aren’t passionate about their work so that’s why it’s wrong to exploitation, what is? Unionizing. The Campaign Workers Guild is working with campaigns trying to do just that. Their website says, “We are campaign workers from across the United States who are committed to improving our work conditions, empowering organizers, and promoting healthy career longevity.” The Campaign Workers Guild works to improve pay, create processes to prevent and report sexual harassment, and fight for “the basic labor protections that all workers deserve.” Their end goal is for political campaign organizers is for their work to be fairly compensated, their experience properly valued, and their rights adequately protected. “Until then, we organize.” The Campaign Workers Guild has unionized over 23 campaigns, including the Ohio Democratic Party’s for union busting, to represent them at bargaining meetings. Only recently did the Democratic National Committee finally start paying their interns after it was reported that Republicans are more likely to do so. This doesn’t mean that Republicans are the party for the working class, their legislation and voting records say quite the opposite. Republicans just have donations from special interest groups such as the NRA that give more than enough Ohio democrats showing support for the Campaign Workers Guild. coordinated campaign, the Campaign for Ohio. On top of supporting unions like The Campaign Workers Guild, Democrats must also focus on electing more working class people into Congress and working on campaign finance reform. Right now according to data collected by Vox, “workers make up less than three percent of the average state legislature and the average member of Congress spent less than two percent of his or her entire precongressional career doing the kinds of jobs most Americans go to every day.” This means that a vast majority of the candidates exploiting their workers have never been in their shoes and studies show these Democrats won’t vote or draft legislation to help the workers that are the reason they got elected. Syed said that there is a lot of hypocrisy in political workplaces where they say they fight for 15 dollars an hour and healthcare for all, but then don’t give that to their workers. Syed mentioned that the Ohio Democratic Party hired Republican lawyers that specialize in “union avoidance,” which according to Syed is the polite term THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED funds to pay their interns. Fighting for campaign finance reform and publicly funded campaigns will even out the playing field between the two parties and there will be less pressure to work twice the amount of hours as Republicans in order to match their visibility bought with hundreds of advertisements. Right now, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are enemies to the working class and until campaigns and political nonprofits stop exploiting their workers, Democrats can’t claim to be “progressive” or the party the working class can believe in. With 2020 elections just around the corner, Syed says campaign workers need allies on the outside who help push for them and support them emotionally and the best way to support campaign workers is to let them know unions exist that can and will represent them, they don’t have to be afraid to stand up for their rights and working conditions they want to see. Remind them It’s illegal to be retaliated against for trying to form a union at your workplace and back them up with whatever they decide to do. United we bargain, divided we beg. �10 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED N o v 216 - -NNov. o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N o . 393 Nov. 30, | No. 394 �STREET VOICE No. 39 Nov 2 30, - No v 19,| 2 0 18394 Nov. 163 -| Nov. 2018 No. 11 Walking in Over-the-Rhine The Struggle What was all of the fighting for human rights really for? Why struggle for rights when half of the world is wrong? Now that’s an eye sore! What are the marchers saying or what’re the boycotts all about? I have lived here most of my life. In the 1960s I went to Washington Park Elementary. Seeing the way things are going is very positive for me. From Fountain Square to Findley Market. Why do the people still cry for “Jesus to help?” For in God people know there’s no doubt What does being homeless have to do with all these dilemmas? Why the homeless get beat while the wrong There are a lot of nice restaurants like Venice on Vine. Their pizzas and hoagie taste great. Seeing all the old buildings being remodeled is really great. go free just to be later called a killer? I think the change is for the better to me. Today we as a people still have control of our I used to be hooked on heroine. I am now 28 years and 11 months clean. choices and decisions, So today let’s not forget the past, the marches, the boycotts or we’ll be in a collision, Collision course with the good, the bad, the ugly and the black and white syndrome, Collision course of who can do better or why should I help the person who’s all alone, We must never forget we live one day at a time so we must live just for today, We need never forget no matter how we live Just being able to walk and know that I am not feeling depression and all that comes with my old way of life. I live in a place called Tender Mercies. I have been there for 9 years. It is community housing for people who have mental disorders. I love it there because I have a place to lay my head and feeling really blessed to be there. in this life, we all will die anyway! I go to the YMCA everyday too. So since we all have that same common Seeing life from a positive point of view most of the time. Helps me to go throughout my day in a more positive way. ground which is six feet deep, Forgive the past and recognize that our future with God’s blessing is what we need!!! WILLA D. JONES Streetvibes Distributor Contributing Writer And now this is all I have to say. CLEO WOMBLES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �12 STREET VOICE N o v 16 2 --N o v 19, 0 18 | |NNo. o . 393 Nov. Nov. 30,22018 394 Short Story: Tent City Across America (Part 3) SABRINA AMOS Contributing Writer M r. Scott called Paul and offered to rent a bus to send everyone to Arrow City. People were excited about the trip. Eva was going to apply at the Walmart there. The days passed by quickly. There was less sunlight during and the temperature was in the 40s. Music was blasting through the camp continuously. Terry worked hard to collect fire woods. Three fire drums were burning at the same time. Paul was leaning against a tree as the leaves fell around him. The police drove by and looked at their camp. A policeman read their flag and the sign that said “God has blessed us. Praise Him and thank you to anybody that helped us to survive because we are citizens too.” Paul looked up into the racing clouds and said, “Thank you, God. We don’t want any trouble because the police left.” College kids approached the camp passing out hand warmers, gloves, and socks. Miss Sally passed out loaves of bread as everyone stood in line for bowls of chili from the truck on the street. The dog was in the front of the line on the side eating his bowl of chili. One of the regular donators was across the street taking pictures. The next day the bus arrived early. The bus pulled up and everyone ran out by the street with signs that said, “Welcome. Thank You. Big Hugs. Because it’s illegal to be homeless in this city.” Terry came out playing the song “I’m Happy” and everybody sang with him. The white Coach bus was quickly packed with equipment until nothing was left but a large steel drum. Dark smoke floated high among the clouds. Everyone was seated. Soft jazz music played and people sat with cups of hot chocolate and coffee. Some of the women began to silently cry tears of joy and said, “Praise God, we made it through these terrible times in this city.” The bus rolled out. Mary yelled out, “Such a glorious morning to be moving!” People started to sit back in their seats after small blankets were passed out. Three hours later, the bus pulled up to a rest place for gas. People got out to go to the bathroom and Billy walked the dog, who had been under his seat. They quickly reloaded the bus. Mary fell down while trying to get back because she didn’t take her pills—she had a mental health issue. Paul’s foot had gotten infected. He kept it bandaged as much as possible. It felt good to sit with his feet up. A few people called the temporary services they worked for and told them they would not return. One was told that there is a temp service office in the area of Arrow City. At one point, Mary’s husband Dave started to cuss because the bus wasn’t moving fast enough and he said their situation wasn’t being handled right. Mary said, “Calm down. All you need to do is find your pills.” He also dealt with mental health issues. As they got closer to Arrow City, they approached a burning building. There were at least fifteen cops nearby. Paul yelled that this was the first time they were very close to the police and they didn’t have any fear. Finally, the bus reached its destination and started to unload behind Mr. Scott’s building. Mr. Scott was at the back door telling people to put their things around the back door and use the conference rooms or settle outside. Everybody gathered in a circle for prayer and said, “Praise God, we have arrived!” Edited by Katelyn Lusher Streetvibes Writing Circle S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �STREET VOICE No. 39 Nov 230, - N2018 o v 19, 2 0 18 Nov. 163- |Nov. | No. 394 The Politically Polarized Mother Goose As I was walking to my poll to vote, I met a neighbor in a bright red coat. I politely asked where he had been? He said: "To make America great again." He then quizzed me: "How about you?" I said: "I'm on my way to turn Ohio blue." So, there was not much left for us to say. We're examples of a divided U.S.A. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer Shame Have you ever felt a shame So deep That You forgot who you are? So deep That You forgot If you were ever anyone, at all? And you don't know If you ever were Or ever will be Sorry enough For what they did to you. VICKY WARFIELD Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 13 �PUZZLES 14 Nov 2 o v 19, 18 | N o . 393 Nov. 16- -NNov. 30,2 02018 | No. 394 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 163 Across 1. Freshwater fish Down 5. Cramp 1. Wheeled vehicles 10. Uncommon 2. Blazing 14. From a great distance 3. Detection instrument 15. Spotted horse or pony 4. Assumption 16. Comply with 17. Travel by horse 18. Part of a church 19. Finishing line of a foot race 20. Hobo 22. Fabric used to dress wounds 23. Purposes 24. Soap opera 26. Weedy annual grass 28. Fleet 31. Man or boy 32. Affectation 35. Injure or wound seriously 37. Massive tropical tree 41. Female sheep 42. Related 44. Wonderment 45. Part of a flower 47. Small pond 48. Friendly nation 49. Fuel 51. Direct the course 53. Arachnid 56. Arid land 60. Mental or physical pain 61. Portable shelter 64. Flat metal tumbler in a lock 65. Song for solo voice 66. Attempted 68. Proboscis 69. Space for inserting a coin 5. Health resort 6. Tablet 7. Not in favor 8. Support or foundation 9. Deadly 10. Large circular room 11. Humiliate 12. Repulse 13. Optics 21. Animal foot 25. Acidic fruit 27. Garden tool 29. Cultivate by growing 30. Multiplied by 32. Liveliness and energy 33. Be in debt 34. Unit of play in tennis 36. Marketplace 38. Buddy 39. Nocturnal bird 40. Tonality 42. Happy 43. Require 46. Foment 48. Store of arms and ammunition 50. Resolve 52. Snakelike fish 53. Inclined to anger with overtones of menace 54. Earlier in time 55. Broadcast again 57. Conjure up 70. Relating to the moon 58. Organic compound 71. Similar 59. Tendency to change 72. Heaped wood used in a 60. Fastener for a door or lid funeral rite 62. Square root of eighty-one 73. Foe 63. Squad 74. Give temporari 67. Desiccated PUZZLE SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD #161 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 293 - MEDIUM SODOKU PUZZLE NO 291- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 Nov 230, - N2018 o v 19,| No. 2 0 18394 Nov. 163-| Nov. Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 RESOURCES St. George Food Pantry 751-8771 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 Churches Active in Northside 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 591-2246 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Salvation Army 762-5660 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 131 E. 12th Street 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street 45214 Shelter: Men Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelterhouse 721-0643 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 411 Gest St. 45203 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 2121 Vine Street 45202 1437 Walnut Street 45202 Prospect House 921-1613 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Starting Over 961-2256 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Parkway Center 661-4620 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Shelter: Family Interfaith Hospitality Network First Step Home 961-4663 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Food/Clothing Health First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 1223 Main St. 45202 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Hamilton/Middletown Northern Kentucky 241-2965 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Joseph House (Veterans) 1522 Republic Street 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 Other Resources AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Housing: McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 15 859-491-8303 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 799 Ann St. Newport, KY 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) You can support our mission and spread the word about your 961-0600 business. For more information contact Gabriela Godinez Feregrino, Center for Respite Care 621-1868 email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 for 26 issues $150 for 26 issues and a $50 donation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �16 N o v 216 - N o v 19, 2 02018 18 | N . 393 Nov. - Nov. 30, | oNo. 394 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource November 16-November 30, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Exploitation in Politics Pg 2: From the Director Alms Hill Residents Celebrate Pg 3: Underreported Cincinnati “Solves” Homeless Crisis by Hiding It Pg 4: GCHC Pg 5: Attendees Discuss Healing, Solidarity and Action in Wake of Anti-Jewish Killings in Pittsburgh NRA and Mass Shootings Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Post-Kavanaugh is No different than Pre-Kavanaugh The New Soccer Stadium in the West End Pg 8: The Dark Side of Justice Reflections on the Midterm Elections Pg 9: Exploitation in Politics Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Street Voice Pg 12: Short Story Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource November 16-November 30, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Brian Taylor Morgan Mitchel Daulton King Micheal Earl Patton Patricia Patton Allie Graff Bill Woods Trenton Davis Cleo Wombles Willa Jones Sabrina Amos Dr. Mark Mussman Vicky Warfield Homeless Coalition Wikipedia (Fair Use) Morgan Mitchell Gabriela Godinez Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Allie Graff Alms Hill Bill Woods Brian Taylor Cincinnati Cleo Wombles Daulton King Democrats Dr. Mark Mussman Dred Scott FC Gabriela Godinez Homeless Coalition Josh Spring Kavanaugh Micheal Earl Patton Morgan Mitchel Morgan Mitchell NRA Patricia Patton Pittsburgh politics Sabrina Amos Shootings Soccer Trenton Davis Vicky Warfield Wikipedia (Fair Use) Willa Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/b015f4b13a1eb48ed5593f3ab8784d36.pdf 89240d3d86e1fd8e531c71e45e02bc24 PDF Text Text October 19th - November 1st 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 19 (No. 392) advocating justice | building community Religious Peacemakers: Father George Hajj Puts His Faith into Action | 8 This Issue is sponsored by Cecilia and Tom Kloecker INSIDE THIS ISSUE Issue 1 - A Grassroots Proposal For Ohio’s Criminal Justice System | 2 Living Abundantly in an Age of Scarcity | 7 General Wayne Begins His March North |9 How Long Does it Take | 12 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: The Promise of Tomorrow? I n the book of James, in the Christian Bible there is a verse which translated in English reads, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14, New International Version). This verse has for years been very vivid in my mind. I think it creates a concise, stark image; an image that should spur on the way we live. An evening ago, I was leaving the office and was thinking to myself how I had not finished what I was working on, but that I would continue on the work the next day. Then I was reminded that I don’t have the promise of tomorrow. I really didn’t know if I would continue these tasks the following day, because I didn’t even know if I would be alive. Then I thought of the common phrase, “Live like there’s no tomorrow”, which has much the same connotation as the verse in James. And then I thought, JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition I really can’t completely “live like there’s no tomorrow” because there is not enough time in the moment to accomplish everything each of us is trying to accomplish in life. When I think of a mist I picture when you see your breath in cold temperatures. You blow out, it is clearly visible, but in almost an instant it is completely gone. When you consider how long humans have existed and how many people have been and may be in the future and the incomprehensible number of occurrences through time, it should be clear that our lives really are but blips on a grand radar screen which is greater than our mind’s eye can hold. In fact, when you think about the enormity of even the world as we know it, our lives really are that mist that is here and quickly gone. In truth, the length of our mist, as short as we know it will be in the grand scheme, is not known to us at all. We simply do not know when we will die. So, what do we do with this? Obviously, none of us can accomplish everything in the moment that we hope to accomplish before we die, and we really don’t know what tomorrow will hold or if we will even be here tomorrow or a minute or a second from now. I think the point is to know that we are a part of something (Continued on page 7) State Issue 1 - A Grassroots Proposal to Bring Some Common Sense and Healing to Ohio’s Criminal Justice System W hat do voters need to know about State Issue I before they go to the polls this fall. At the Community Issues Forum at Christ Church Cathedral on October 11th, attendees heard the inside story about this proposed Ohio Constitutional Amendment from one of the organizers and key campaigners for this issue. Elizabeth Hopkins, Staff Lead for Project AMOS, gave a detailed and impassioned presentation about why this proposal is badly needed. First of all, Hopkins stressed that Issue I emerged from a grassroots movement across Ohio dedicated to reforming a criminal justice system that many people realized wasn't working. Part of a statewide coalition called the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, AMOS initially assisted in the process of holding approximately 2,000 conversations with Ohioans about this system that is sending so many nonviolent offenders to prison. The consensus from these conversations was that "incarceration did not make people feel safer." Instead of healing communities, sentencing so BILL WOODS Contributing Writer many young African-Americans to prison for drug related crimes hurts neighborhoods and tears families apart. The next step was drafting a public proposal that would insure real reform of the criminal justice (Continued on page 11) O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Sallie Mascus Layout: Key Beck Reception: Bonita Batton, Larry Johnson Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Jason Haap, Tim Kraus, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Desmond Brown, Cleo Wombles, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, RAINN, The Partnership Center, Steven Wuesthoff, LinkedIn, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Alice Schneider -------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Bill Woods accepting last year's buddy gray award Credit: Homeless Coalition THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �3 LOCAL It Couldn’t Happen to Me No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 A DR. MARK MUSSMAN common trope heard in advocacy circles is “It could happen to anyone.” Whether we are talking about homelessness and hunger, or disease and sexual assault, there tends to be a moment where people’s level of concern increases when they realize that it could happen to them, or someone close to them. In our work at the Homeless Coalition, we strive to uplift and amplify the stories of people who experienced homelessness so that the public can put a face on the issue. This humanizes an often distanced and muddied issue. Homelessness is a systemic issue, rather than a personal one, so this act is often confused as a “scared straight” tactic, even though the humanization of homelessness is what it will take to get people involved in the struggle for affordable housing, housing protections, and a livable wage. Following a recent Speaking Engagement with the Homeless Coalition, one of the audience members said the event will stick out in their head because “It could happen to anyone.” Each time I hear that, my heart sinks a little. The issue is really in that it erases historical and contemporary issues of equity, power, and control. Am I glad that people feels more strongly about the issue of homelessness because of this experience? Of course I am. But if you cannot see how the issue is related to structural violence, then your advocacy comes out of a place of selfishness, not out of a place of common decency, fairness, and Staff Writer equity. Let’s look at it through the lens of sexual assault. Could anyone be a victim of sexual assault? Of course. If you have a body or a mind, you can be victimized. But if 15% of women are raped, as compared to less than 3% of men, is it fair to erase the gender imbalance and say “Well, it could happen to anyone!”? That kind of mentality is not compassionate, nor is it realistic. It denies humanity to women who are deeply affected by this issue, and it doesn’t allow for a full scope to be developed because underneath that one statistic there is a culture of violence against women. Women are likely to experience aggressive sexual acts on a daily basis, whereas men rarely are victims of sexual confrontations like catcalling, unwanted sexual advances, verbal harassment, stalking, etc. The #MeToo movement was created by an African-American women because minority women are much more likely to be victims of sexual and violent crimes: Black women experience intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than white women. The Movement was co-opted by the majority, effectively erasing the intersectionality of sexual violence. Gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic class, and even physical location, impact the likelihood and severity of sexual assault; therefore, saying “It can happen to anyone” erases those who are most vulnerable in our society. This is also true for homelessness. Women are much more likely to be victims of sexual assault Credit: RAINN Homelessness is growing for women and children at the highest rates, but for women who are Black, Native American, or Latinx, the rates of homelessness (and poverty in general) are much higher than for white women. (There may be more white women living in poverty in the United States, but this represents a smaller percentage of white women than it does for Black women.) Black women in the United States will almost universally experience poverty either before or after their 65th birthday. This means their risk for homelessness, sexual assault, violent crime, adverse health, etc., are all disproportionately high. Saying “It could happen to anyone” ignores the structural issues that we do collectively have control over, and puts emphasis on individualism, which is messy and allows us to ignore the suffering by not acting. In the end, your advocacy should be based on the simple notion of equity — that all people deserve to be treated with fairness — with the footnote that there is no universally applied remedy. The forces that create equity for one person, are not the same for everyone. The likelihood that something will happen to someone is wholly based on factors that were determined before birth, and have little to do with choices someone has made. Unless we accept the truth about structural violence, including racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc., we will continue to hurt, and erase the lived experience of people who are victims of our unjust society, when we proclaim, “It could happen to anyone!” [Editor’s note: The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is a nonpartisan organization.] African Americans are disproportionately affected by homelessness due to racism and continued oppression. Credit: The Partnership Center “Breakdown Stereotypes” “Eradicate Misinformation” The Coalition for the Homeless provides Education and Service Programs that help to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of homelessness in Cincinnati. We believe an educated public can be a more compassionate public, willing to dedicate time and effort towards creating solutions to homelessness. The “Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau” program is made up of individuals currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness, who share their experiences. The program is designed to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. To schedule a speaker, contact Mark Mussman at MarkMussman@cincihomeless.org. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �4 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 �LOCAL Something about friendship is bigger than ideas we may hold in a particular moment No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 W ith Justin Jeffre's tenure as editor of Streetvibes coming to an end, I started reflecting on lessons I've learned from him - and the more I thought, the more I realized these lessons may have a universality given our current political moment. I first met him in 2005, and he was a Green Party candidate for Cincinnati Mayor. We were introduced by a candidate for City Council named Andrew Warner. "He's also from that band 98 Degrees," Andrew explained just before introducing us. At the time, I wasn't sure I had ever heard a 98 Degrees song. Instead, I had some stereotypes about "boy bands" and "pop music," mostly instilled through my cliquebased understanding of the world from high school. Pop music was for people who lacked intellectual depth, or so my adolescent ideas maintained. When it came to music, I was into artists like Frank Zappa. Zappa's music, and lyrics, challenge his listeners on almost every front. Zappa was experimental, controversial, and provocative - three traits I fancied attributing to myself, too. For me, pop music was predictable, formulaic, and not thought-provoking. What kind of people would listen to something like that? They must be predictable, formulaic, and non-thoughtprovoking people, I figured. This kind of narrow thinking is typical for adolescents, but what was I doing holding onto these ideas well into adulthood? What I found in Justin was the opposite of what I might have expected. He was smart, and politically radical. He had a keen connection to social justice, and to policy that targeted helping people, particularly the most vulnerable among us. I found him to be thoughtprovoking and intelligent, which was striking because that's the opposite of what I think about pop music. The truth, naturally, is that we are more than our tastes in something like music. This obvious lesson was one I should have known. After all, during the late nineties and early aughts, I absolutely loved watching The Jerry Springer Show, and I can only imagine what sorts of negative stereotypes might exist for fans of that program! People are not their interests. They are more than that. And now this next sentence marks the point in this article where I'm likely to lose readers... People are also not their ideas, or their beliefs, either. We are bigger JASON HAAP Contributing Writer than all those temporary aspects that are subject to change. Over my lifetime, I have changed my interests, and ideas, and even some of my core beliefs. But I'm still myself, in a matter of speaking. Through these changes, I have maintained core friendships and relationships. I believe these friendships are based on something more consistent about human identity than dynamic elements like our opinions du jour. I have a conservative friend, for example, who I cannot be Facebook friends with. We always argue, and unfriend each other. But this month, a new installment in the Halloween movie franchise comes out, and as soon as I heard I knew I had to call him to make plans to see it. We've been fans of Michael Myers since junior high school! That's the thing: there is something about friendship that is bigger than many of these smaller, limiting ideas we may hold at a particular moment in time. There is something to the core of our personalities, having nothing to do with politics and current events, and it constitutes a social connection my conservative friend and I have 5 maintained, in one degree or another, for over three decades. We need to learn to look past some of these differences in the name of fostering friendship. Friendship is more important, I think, than politics and ideology. In fact, it is through real friendships that people with different ideas will ever learn from each other. With friendship, our guards might be down, and we might be more apt to trust a differing opinion as opposed to judging everyone against the rubrics of our own dogmas. With my friend leaving his role at Streetvibes, I'm not sure how often my voice will appear in the paper moving forward. For all I know, his replacement will not send me regular emails nudging me to write something! But in the event, gentle readers, you hear from me less in the future of this newspaper, let me tentatively leave you with this lesson I learned, at least in part, from befriending Justin Jeffre. STEPHEN WUESTHOFF THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 �JUBILEE CAMPAIGN Living Abundantly in an Age of Scarcity No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 W e live in a world of Paradox. A Paradox is a phenomenon in which two opposing ideas or realities that are both seemingly true exist side by side in the same space and time. Paradox is the greatest of teachers because it is in that area of tension between opposing Truths that humans experience the deepest amounts of growth and learning. Knowledge itself is born out of paradox. As a high school history teacher, I knew that I was entering the most sacred of learning spaces when I could ask questions of my students that would force them to live in and struggle with the tension of opposing truths. For example: How could the early leaders of our country write truly revolutionary founding documents and governmental structures that proclaimed and institutionalized the political philosophy that all men (or people) were created equal, and then, at the same time they enslaved a whole population of people thereby making a mockery of the very ideals they held to be absolutely true? Here is another. How can the creation of one thing of social value lead to the destruction of another thing of equal and great social value? This question poses the dilemma of technological and philosophical progress. Is it really progress when an industrial revolution that massproduces the tools and materials necessary for a modern society to exist while at the same time it causes the destruction of the social and family structures that we all cherish? Or, The United States is often considered a country with the greatest amount of Freedom in the world. On the other hand, the United States also has the largest number of people in prison and the largest percentage of its people in prison than any country in the world. It is only by wrestling with JOSH SPRING (Continued from page 2) that is so much bigger than ourselves. We by no means are either able nor supposed to live on an island unto our own being. We should consider what we can do with our mist to positively affect the other mists around us and the mists to come and then act. The life that we have, when TIM KRAUS Contributing Writer the tensions or conflict that these contradictory realities create that we of its natural resources to provide enough to sustain every living being. We see and feel an abundance of Tim Kraus Credit: linkedin.com find ourselves most fully alive and at our most creative. This is not easy work. In fact, it is hard work. But it is essential for us to struggle with these kinds of lived contradictions if we are to create a better world for ourselves and for future generations. One of the most striking paradoxes that we experience today is that we live in a world of great beauty that is gilded by every sunset, sunrise, twilight, and starry night. And we also live in a world populated by an abundance of human talent; enough talent to make right almost all the challenges and problems that we face. In short, we have inherited a paradise of unfathomable proportions and possibilities that continues to give and inspire us daily. abundance and great scarcity; both, at the same time. If living on this earth for the past 66 years has taught me anything, it has taught me that we live in a world of abundance. We experience that abundance every day of our lives. We live in a world filled with the capacity But we also must recognize that there are limitations to the abundance that surrounds us. There are real issues of scarcity that are driven by the fact that we have squandered the abundance we inherited. We have abused and destroyed so many of we have it, is very valuable and we should invest it in long-lasting good. We should do this in concert with other people, spurring one another on to use the moment to accomplish our goals together, outcomes bigger than ourselves. The lack of promise of the next moment or the truth that each of our lives are minutely short, should not be a reason for sadness or stress, but instead should be reason for encouragement that we have the opportunity to use whatever time we have available to join other people in progressively pursuing the establishment of a just and empathetic world. (Easier said than done, I know.) I don’t mean any of this to read as overly philosophical or something THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 7 our natural resources that we now face the real possibility that we will not pass down to future generations a planet that can sustain human life in any of the ways in which we are accustomed. I do not need to recite the litany of endangered or extinct species of animal and plant life that have been depleted in our lifetimes. Nor do I need to review with you the impact of Global Climate Change. We all know that the collective human impact on this earth is so huge and so predominantly negative that something must be done to turn the trend of extinction and destruction around or we will no longer have an inhabitable planet. The paradoxical twist to this scarcity is that there is still enough of everything for everyone to live a reasonably good and comfortable life. The problem is that a very tiny percentage of the world’s population is unsustainably consuming and destroying close to 90% of the world’s resources leaving most of the world no option but to live in squalor. This is an issue of false scarcity. There is enough wealth and enough food in our world for everyone to live. No one should be starving, and no one should lack enough wealth to maintain a survivable standard of living for themselves and their descendants. But our predatory local, national, and world economies have created a world in which 62 of the world’s richest people now own more wealth than half of the rest of the world. Additionally, the top 1% of wealth holders control more wealth than the entire 99% of the world below them. This kind of lopsided economic order spells disaster for all of us. Rich and poor. Therefore, a Big Dream of a Better World is essential. Scarcity thrives on inequality and injustice and it demands inequality and injustice. The sharing of abundance, the sharing of salvation for all, the sharing of the oneness of our existence exposes the lie that many people must suffer so a few can have obscene levels of luxury. Universalism and the best thinking that every religious tradition all provide us with the tools we need to turn our predatory and slave holding world into a world of God’s abundance. [This article is adapted from a sermon given by Tim Kraus of the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati.] --------------------------------------- like that. The truth of the limited space in time available to us and the important opportunity we have to invest it in life and justice is almost as practical as we can get. While all of us will often miss the mark as we make choices in the moment, this truth should serve to prompt us to be thankful for the moments we have and the opportunities to invest them. �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS Father George Hajj, a Maronite, Always Puts His Faith into Action and Fosters Conditions to Allow Others Become Holy Persons "F O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 SAAD GHOSN Contributing Writer or me, social justice and faith are inseparable," says Father George Hajj, pastor of Saint Anthony of Padua Maronite church, located on Victory Parkway, in Cincinnati. "And faith without action is only echo." Hajj was born in the country of Lebanon in a Maronite family where secular and religious lives were closely married and intertwined. Growing up, his parents would always refer to religious events as milestones for those of daily life, associating, for instance, in the summer, the Feast of the Assumption to a change in weather, or the Holy Cross Day to the onset of rain. His parents also raised him with strong moral values, teaching him not only to help the vulnerable and those in need but, as well, to be compassionate and nonjudgmental. "We were always taught to hate the sin but love the sinner," he says. Being the first grandchild, Hajj grew up very close to his paternal grandfather of whom he carried the name and whose unshakable faith strongly influenced his. This latter instilled in him his own good values, teaching him to have complete trust in the work of God in his life, and to always be thankful for God's mercy, giving back to others. "My grandfather had a small cookie jar in his business store and would regularly put in it 10% of his daily income for the poor and the needy," states Hajj. "I learned from him this tithing and have been practicing it myself ever since my first earned income while at the university." For schooling, Hajj attended three different Maronite schools where he strengthened his faith and put it regularly into action. As a student member of the Knights of Mary, a Christian youth organization, he would regularly do volunteer work for families in need and go to camps in poor villages helping with various needed chores. After high school he joined the Lebanese University, studying Archeology, and graduated with a Master's degree. While there he became a member of the Christian Students Youth and participated in their weekly prayer services and masses, in drives of goods and foods for students financially strained and for home shelters, in camps and spiritual retreats. He was not much involved into politics even though Confiding in his girlfriend, "a faithful woman with wonderful values" as he describes her, she encouraged him to know himself and to make up his mind about priesthood or about committing to a family with her. Wanting to be certain, Hajj decided to join the seminary to test himself and get a clearer idea on where to take his life. He went to the Maronite seminary in Washington, DC, kept an open What is the Maronite Church The Catholic Church is comprised of twenty-one Eastern and one Western (Roman) Churches. They all share the same: Dogmatic Faith, Seven Sacraments, Moral Teachings, and Unity with the Pope of Rome. Their worship, however, differs and each: • Encompasses a unique liturgy, theology, spirituality and discipline • Is characterized by its own cultural and linguistic tradition • Is guided by a Patriarch, Major Archbishop, Metropolitan or other Hierarch, who along with their Synod of Bishops are in full communion with the Pope.  The Maronite Church is one of the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. It is headed by a Patriarch, and has over forty Bishops who shepherd the many Dioceses in Lebanon, the Middle East and throughout the world. The Patriarch governs the Church in a synodal manner with his body of bishops. He resides in Bkerke, Lebanon. The Maronite Church dates back to the early Christians of Antioch. It uses Syriac as its liturgical language, a dialect of the Aramaic that Jesus spoke. It takes its name from the hermit-priest, Saint Maron, who lived an ascetic life in Syria and died in 410 AD. Within a few years after his death, over 800 monks adopted his way of life, built the Monastery of Saint Maron on the Orontes, Syria, center of their faith, and became known as the Maronites. Later, the Muslim invasions (7th -10th Centuries), coupled with conflicts from within the Byzantine Empire, caused the Maronites to flee the plains of Syria to the natural protection of the mountains of Lebanon. By 687, they organized themselves around Saint John Maron, whom they elected Patriarch of the vacant See of Antioch, and thus developed as a distinct Church within the Catholic Church. Maronites can attend and worship in any other Catholic church. Today there are approximately 3 million Maronites throughout the world. Due to emigration since the 19th century, approximately two-thirds of them live within the worldwide Lebanese diaspora in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa. Approximately 1 million live in Lebanon where they represent roughly 20% of the population. The Maronites played and still play an influential role in Lebanon's politics. Father George Hajj he participated in marches, for instance against the Syrian presence in Lebanon, and in defense of various human rights. "Christian values were driving me rather than political affiliation," he says. "My goal was to be a good citizen, to become the light, salt and levain of the earth, and to bring love and God's values wherever I was." Twenty-five years old and with a degree in Archeology, Hajj was convinced by his parents not to pursue a doctorate in that same field but rather to travel to Detroit in the US, to live with his aunt and study Business Administration. He enrolled there at Oakland University and graduated a few years later with a Master's degree. While at the University he continued practicing his faith, attending church and praying, but his time was full, studying and working. He was also dating, feeling successful academically, socially and financially. "I had had, however, and for a long time, a strong inner longing for a consecrated life in the church, but had always hesitated about it," he says. Credit: Saad Ghosn attitude, and immersed himself in everything the place offered, studying theology, reading the scriptures, praying, participating in various church activities. "Everything was telling me to be there," he says. "I listened, stayed for 4 years, felt deeply fulfilled, was ordained priest and was assigned afterwards for one year to serve the Maronite church in Cleveland, OH." There, Hajj shadowed and helped the pastor, learned from him, was in charge of the church's youth group, taught a class in Syriac and started a new group for the men of the parish, called the Sons of Mary. "The purpose was to form the men by prayer, by scripture studies, by programs that helped them put their faith into practice, giving back to the church and to their human fellows, particularly those in need," says Hajj. After Cleveland, Hajj relocated to Cincinnati as the pastor of its Maronite church; this was four years ago. The Cincinnati church, which had been in existence since 1910, was the home of a large group of Christians of varying (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �LOCAL General Wayne Begins His March North 9 No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 MICHAEL EARL PATTON O n September 11, 1793 General Wayne finally received his orders to march against the Indians and on October 7, he did. His main force was stationed at a camp he called Hobson’s Choice, a little downstream from Fort Washington in Cincinnati. The town itself had too many vices to tempt his troops so rather than lodge his men in and around the fort he had a new camp built on a spot of high ground. I do not know exactly how far downstream it was but it almost certainly was before Mill Creek. The name of the camp indicates that General Wayne was far from satisfied with its location. His march began from there and troops from Fort Washington joined. Contributing Writer independence, even the former British prohibition against settlement north and west of the Ohio became a dead letter. The young United States took the position that the Indian tribes could not and did not actually own the land. All they had was the right to occupy the land. This was called the “Discovery Doctrine,” which was upheld as recently as 2005 in a U.S. Supreme Court decision. In essence, the Discovery Doctrine said that the land belonged to the governments of the Western discoverers of that area (“I claim this land for …”). Sales of land by the Indians to individuals were null and void on their face. Treaties with the Indians actually involved their ceding the right to occupy certain land. Even at the time many thought that this was a violation of fundamental human rights, but its effect is still felt today. In the Treaties of Fort Finney (near the mouth of the Great Miami) and Fort Harmar (near present-day Marietta, Ohio) some Indians did cede the right to occupy southern Ohio. They saw this as the only way to avoid war. It was not about the payment they received, though in some cases Indians probably signed away rights to land they probably did not and could not occupy anyways – not all Indians agreed as to who had rights to what. The Indians who signed in no way represented the majority yet the American officials touted success. George Washington, along with many others, wanted to open up southern Ohio to settlement. Of course, money was to be made. Many had, or expected to get, tracts of land that would make them wealthy if only they could get the Indians off it. Yet under the Articles of Confederation, which was the constitution that was the framework for the national government immediately after Independence, there was almost no standing army. It had mostly been disbanded and at one point was down to about eighty men, mostly stationed at West Point. In case of a foreign invasion, the idea was to call upon the states for their militias. After breaking away from one empire, many did not want to start creating another. But enough others, such as George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, did want a stronger Fort Washington Monument Plaque Fort Washington Monument Credit: Michael Earl Patton Credit: Michael Earl Patton Wives, girlfriends, and children of the soldiers stayed at Fort Washington. When representatives from the United States and King George III signed the Peace of Paris in 1783 which ended the Revolutionary War, the group who was going to be the most affected was not even present. American Indians, who were almost all of the population west of the Appalachians and north of the Ohio River, did not agree that they were now living on land that was no longer theirs. Britain had even prohibited settlement from the Thirteen Colonies west of the Appalachians in 1763. This was too extreme to enforce so the line was redrawn in 1768 at Fort Stanwix in New York, restricting settlement west and north of the Ohio River. There was some self-interest involved since leaving such a large tract of land for the Indians also meant that the British would still enjoy a lucrative trade in furs with them. But some Indians, who were not a party to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, resented losing Kentucky and took to arms to stop the settlements there. With Military Roads Sign Credit: Michael Earl Patton THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED national government. This meant doing away with the consensus form of government under the Articles and going to majority rule. It also meant the power to tax and raise money to keep troops, and a president who also acted as commander-in-chief. The new constitution, with the same basic form as we have today, took effect in 1788 and George Washington was elected the first president. He took office in 1789. It did not take long for him to get active about creating an army and using it. Fort Washington was started in late 1789 and soon there were military expeditions from there against the Indians. The heartland of the Miami Indians was around present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1791 General St. Clair led a major expedition with the intention of conquering this area and building a fort. The Indians ambushed him while he was still on his way and inflicted massive casualties – St. Clair barely escaped with his life. President Washington replaced St. Clair with General Anthony Wayne, a hero of the (Continued on page 12) �10 LOCAL O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 Do you live in a low-income situation? YOU ARE WELCOME HERE. Are you a struggling student? Or an artist? YOU ARE WELCOME HERE. Even if you're just unsure if live theatre is your "thing," and want to see what we offer without stretching your budget: YOU, TOO, ARE WELCOME AT THE KNOW. All Wednesday performances in our MainStage season are part of the where we offer half the available seats for and offer the rema.ining half for FREE AT THE DOOR on the night of the show. \ WELCOME EXPERIMENT, $5 IN ADVANCE, The 2018–2019 Welcome Experiment made possible in part with support from Judge (Ret.) Mark P. Painter �(JW November 16 - December 8, 2018 For tickets please call (513) 381-2273 Purchase tickets online at www.cincyshakes.com AD Donated by Mark and Sue Ann Painter season sponsored by the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 BILL WOODS (Continued from page 2) system. The decision was made to reclassify crimes, and to make many non-violent acts misdemeanors rather than felonies. Studies show, stressed Hopkins, that convicting people arrested for drug related offenses to prison terms creates huge and often permanent obstacles for them, and that prison certainly does not help a person overcome his or her addiction. Issue I, then, reclassifies current felonies for obtaining, possessing, and using illegal drugs to misdemeanors. It prohibits jail sentences for these acts unless a person is arrested for a third time within a twenty-fourmonth period. If passed by the voters, the Amendment would be retroactive and include people currently serving prison terms for obtaining, possessing or using drugs. Hopkins refuted the argument that Issue I would make it difficult to prosecute drug dealers, as she noted that sellers caught with a large quantity of an illegal drug would not meet the criteria of the Amendment. She also emphasized that the projected dollars saved by implementing the Amendment would be earmarked for rehabilitation and treatment programs. Another facet of Issue I will impact a large number of people serving prison terms. Unless SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) backgrounds and diverse cultures, most of them connected somehow to the Middle East. It was frequented not only by Maronites but also by individuals of other faiths such as Orthodox, Melkite, Coptic, Latin... Under Hajj's leadership it has seen its cohesiveness increase and functions now as one united family, enriched by its differences. Hajj maintains a good blending of the secular and religious lives of its parishioners, preparing them to be the best for themselves and for others, living their Christian values, and always putting their faith into action. The church offers various classes in scriptures, Aramaic, art and social studies, also various activities geared to the different age categories of the parishioners. The MYA, Maronite Young Adults, ages 18 to 35, for instance, gather regularly, socialize, but also participate in programs of spiritual formation, of moral teaching, of various social justice activities such as serving in soup kitchens, helping the needy, doing actions of mercy. A movie night, a book club, speakers from out of town or from the community, present them with meaningful topics and messages, followed by enriching discussions. A new group, the MYO, Maronite Youth Organization, does 11 LOCAL convicted for murder, rape, or child molestation, inmates will qualify for reduced sentences if they participate in educational programs or rehabilitation work. Those who take part in such programs can reduce their sentences by as much as 25-percent. Another group who will benefit from Issue I is made-up of people who have served their time, but are then sent back to prison for a parole violation such as missing a meeting with a Probation Officer. Hopkins noted that approximately 27-percent of Ohio's inmates are in prison due to such violations. Under the Amendment, such parole missteps would only be misdemeanors not punishable by prison time. Although Issue I is vocally opposed by certain judges and prosecutors, Hopkins thinks the people of Ohio are ready for a more workable and compassionate criminal justice system. This grassroots initiative, she emphasized, was tested throughout the state while collecting the 730,000 signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot. During the campaign, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative has also registered 180,000 new voters. The key, said Hopkins, is to get out the word and to make sure supporters actually vote. --------------------------------------- Elizabeth Hopkins, Spokesperson for Project AMOS Credit: Alice Schneider the same with youth ages 12 to 18. A supportive group of women also exists to meet and pray, visit the sick, provide material support to various charitable organizations. There are also religious education classes offered every Sunday to children. The church recently bought 2 adjacent buildings to its sanctuary. It currently uses them as educational centers, but they may also become centers for charity works, even possibly living quarters for the needy or elderly. Recently, Hajj proposed to his congregation a new program, yet to be implemented, consisting of giving a certain % of the church income in charity. "We are currently studying the structure of the program," says Hajj, "keeping in mind the importance of not only providing fish to eat but also a fishing pole to help survive." With other Catholic and Orthodox local churches, Hajj founded the One Church of Mercy, a group of churches whose mission is to bring together the different Christian faiths in the metropolitan Cincinnati, to know each other, participate in common rituals, work through prayer, exposure and with government agencies for the persecuted, religious or otherwise, in the Middle East. The group, started in 2015, organizes major events throughout the year. Last year, for instance, it sponsored the public viewing of the movie "Our Last Stand" ​which told the story of an ​ Assyrian-American ​school ​teacher ​ from ​New ​York, ​who spent ​her ​ summer ​vacation ​traveling ​to ​Iraq ​ and ​Syria ​to ​help ​raise ​awareness ​ about ​the ​plight ​of ​the ​Christian ​ communities ​(Assyrian/Chaldean/ Syriac) ​threatened ​by ​civil ​war ​and ​ ISIS. ​The movie was followed by a community debate. Last March, a Lenten prayer service for unity and religious freedom, gathered Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite Catholics and Orthodox in appreciation of diverse, yet complimentary, rituals. The event was an effort to strengthen bonds and also pray for persecuted Christians around the world. On Sept 14 also of this year, The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a common divine liturgy also took place at the St. Anthony of Padua church, and included an educational program on religious persecution. It also addressed, in particular, the situation of the Christians in the Holy Land. Hajj also involved his church heavily in the 1st Cincinnati Festival of Faith which took place recently at Xavier University, and at which the church choir performed. "We are involved with various charitable organizations such as Soup Kitchens, Food pantries... and we provide various services according to people's needs like visiting the sick, helping parishioners at their THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED home, etc." says Hajj. "We add our voice to those that already exist, thus being part of the Garden of Eden and contributing to it." Hajj does not see himself doing things differently in the future, but rather better. The Christian mission he follows will remain the same and his actions and those he will try to impart on his church will always be after the message of the Beatitudes, the blessings that Jesus listed in the Sermon on the Mount. He points to the fact that the Cross of the Maronite Church has 8 dots, 2 at each end, which represent the 8 beatitudes. "We, disciples of Christ, are asked to take care of the poor, the meek, etc." says Hajj. "We have to be reminded that we are also the poor, the meek, etc. and that we need to take care of each other, walk together on this bumpy road, and contribute to a better world." Many of Hajj's efforts are devoted to projects and actions that form the human and make the human a holy person, able to improve and sanctify the other, thus adding peace and justice in the name of Christ. His inspiration is his Maronite faith, also the teaching he has constantly received, to always put his faith into action. --------------------------------------- �12 STREET VOICE I Need a Beer DESMOND BROWN Contributing Writer I called her Pocahontas Couldn’t talk to her like I wanted to Because Deters was poking behind us Chased to a land where dog’s shit Chased from that land, I guess the dogs are better And we ain’t shit Took many losses Prayed a million crosses Shift gears I wish Pocahontas was here A shear delight… she’s not though So, I need a beer Self-medicated, situations over and over Deep thought, mental depression, revenge contemplated Tears of blood cleanse the sinner like suds Greed dirties us like mud We been chewed up and spit out like cud Overzealous egos MICHAEL EARL PATTON (Continued from page 7) American Revolution. There was an attempt to negotiate with the Indians to get them to surrender southern Ohio, but the Indians having just won a major victory were in no mood to give up. General Wayne used that time to secure supplies, train his troops, and widen the road he would be taking. There is a historical monument marking the site of Fort Washington near Lytle Park. There is also a plaque Top ranked zeros Pinpoint Cranley like bingo Short man complex like Nero Open arms are up in arms Mayor sued his own city Chivalry is dead and there is no charm Armies and coalitions News cameras and politicians Unfair laws got members of the Colony missing Jealousy arose because of the blessings Ambulance calls because of the stressing Citations written because of the pressing Wisdom gained because of the testing I wish Pocahontas was here She’s not so I need a beer ------------------------------on Central Parkway supposedly giving the route north of Generals St. Clair and Wayne. This part of the inscription seems to be in error. The plaque says they went west along a route that corresponds to presentday Central Parkway, but a couple old maps that I examined show no road there. General Wayne had widened the road that St. Clair had made to 44 feet. His first destination was Fort Hamilton. Surely this road would have remained in use after the campaign was over. It did elsewhere and along the first part of his route O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? Waiting on the bus It’s good to have a bus schedule. Buses and the streetcars are sometimes delayed And I get impatient sometimes But I’m accepting things as they are. Living by a schedule is okay But being homeless, it is hard to say Finding where to go For good showers, and shelters too. You learn as you go. No matter how long it takes You have to live the best Way you can CLEO WOMBLES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer was initially called “Wayne Trace.” I have noticed a couple roads named either Wayne or Anthony Wayne just to the west of I-75 in Cincinnati and Lockland. I do not know for certain, but my guess is that these are part of the route he took. I took much of the information about the actual movement of Wayne’s army and some of the background information from the book Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion that Opened the West by William Hogeland. “Black Snake” was a term of respect the Indians gave to General Wayne because of his exceptional, constant vigilance. Unlike his predecessor General St. Clair to whom they had given a crushing defeat, they could not surprise or ambush him. It is the best book I have found about this part of American history. The events of 225 years ago secured Cincinnati’s future and set this country firmly on a certain path, yet remain largely unknown to the general public. I plan to do at least a couple more articles on this subject. Streetvibes Writing Circle S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �13 STREET VOICE No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 THE JOURNEY ADVICE FOR VOTERS MOTHER GOOSE The path has been a journey Voters be nimble. Time traveled through time Days gone bye Voters be aware. Memories and thoughts remembered Attack ads aim to Love and pain uncovered What’s important is now realized and If I could of, should of is thought about But time goes bye Confuse and scare. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer Time whispering something YOU AND I Time’s journey not forgotten Where has this journey landed you You and I must make a pact KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer To be mindful of how we act Toward each other no matter what And not hold hatred down in our gut We must understand that everyone is unique And know that a change is what everyone seeks With time and patience, with help from up above We can conquer the hatred we feel and replace it with God’s love For only with God’s guidance and his so many blessings Will we understand living life together without ever guessing We’ll finally know what it is to live on this planet together To love each other for who we are and not what we are for now and forever!!! WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 160 Across Down 1. Supplication 1. Preen 5. Part of a hospital 2. Relating to the moon 9. Look searchingly 3. Access 13. Part of a ladder 4. Era of history 14. Woodwind instrument 15. Malicious burning 17. Incorporate 19. Out of fashion 20. Spoil 21. Assimilate 23. Storm center 24. Be nosey 25. Layer 26. Level 29. Female chicken 30. Well-being 32. Reverberation 35. Strong wind 38. Mythological nymph 40. Contest or fight 41. Sheltered side 42. Wan 43. Small donkey 45. Soapstone 47. Decelerate 48. Promptly 50. Playing card 52. Notion 53. Part of the ear 55. Nocturnal mammal 58. Part of a circle 60. Surgical drill 62. Fuss 63. Discontinue 66. Subvert 68. Used with a mortise to form a joint 69. Small pond 70. Fiend 71. Salacious 72. Material, can be used as fuel when dried 73. Rind O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 5. Verbiage 6. Humiliate 7. Rotating mechanism 8. Cervid 9. Drivel 10. Epoch 11. Indispensable 12. Reflecting optimism 16. Indicating maiden name 18. Admission receipts at a sports event 22. Hymenopterous insect 27. Vehicle 28. Pass by 29. Car modified for greater speed and acceleration 30. Part of a shoe 31. Aura SODOKU PUZZLE NO 290 - MEDIUM 32. Flow back or recede 33. Change of government illegally or by force 34. Severe tropical cyclone 36. Singing voice 37. Pasture 39. Form of condensation 44. Single 46. Floor show 49. Tackiness 51. Fractional monetary unit 53. River embankment 54. Drama set to music 55. Flatbottom boat 56. Worship 57. Cloth used for drying 58. Perform 59. Bobbin 61. Frolic 64. Female hog 65. Conclude 67. Jump lightly PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 391 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 159 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 289- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 39 2 | Oct 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 St. George Food Pantry 751-8771 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 Churches Active in Northside 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 Other Resources FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 Salvation Army 762-5660 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 131 E. 12th Street 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street 45214 Shelter: Men Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelterhouse 721-0643 1223 Main St. 45202 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 411 Gest St. 45203 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor 2121 Vine Street 45202 1437 Walnut Street 45202 Prospect House 921-1613 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Starting Over 961-2256 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Parkway Center 661-4620 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Interfaith Hospitality Network McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 591-2246 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Shelter: Family 15 First Step Home 961-4663 Hamilton/Middletown 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Joseph House (Veterans) Northern Kentucky Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Housing: 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Food/Clothing Health First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Advocacy Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 for 26 issues $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �LOCAL 16 O c t 19 - N o v 1, 2 0 18 | N o . 392 Redefining Cincinnati Style for Generations FIREPLACES • 117 West fourth Street FURNITURE Downtown Cincinnati • 513-621-0620 street vibes ad 1 Bromwells.com 10/17/18 11:29 AM Expertly Crafted Classic Cocktails Live Jazz Every Thursday - Saturday 125 West fourth Street street vibes harth ad.indd 1 UNIQUE FINDS Downtown Cincinnati Curated Wine and Beer Selecitons Bromwellsharthlounge.com THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 10/17/18 12:01 PM � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource October 19-November 1, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director State Issue 1 Pg 3: It Couldn’t Happen to Me Pg 4: GCHC Pg 5: Something About Friendship is Bigger than Ideas We May Hold in a Particular Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Living Abundantly in an Age of Scarcity Pg 8: Religious Pacemakers Pg 9: General Wayne Begins His March North Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Bill Woods Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Pg 12: Michael Earl Patton Continued Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 19-November 1, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Jason Haap Tim Kraus Saad Ghosn Michael Earl Patton Desmond Brown Cleo Wombles Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Homeless Coalition RAINN The Partnership Center Steven Wuesthoff LinkedIn Alice Schneider Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Alice Schneider Bill Woods Cleo Wombles Criminal Justice System Desmond Brown Dr. Mark Mussman Homeless Coalition Issue 1 Jason Haap Josh Spring Kim Green LinkedIn Michael Earl Patton Ohio RAINN Religion Saad Ghosn Steven Wuesthoff The Partnership Center Tim Kraus Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/71b9112470be7c70773e313e476440c7.pdf 751d1a63d720e9a2537bc1ca5c3263f2 PDF Text Text October 5th - October 21st 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 18 (No. 391) advocating justice | building community Religious Peacemakers: Aaron Bludworth, A Mormon, Discovering & Sharing the Humanity of the Invisible Other| 3 This Issue is sponsored by (Retired) Judge Mark P. Painter INSIDE THIS ISSUE The Critical Issues that Know Your Rights! | 3 Candidates Should Be Adressing As They Campaign This Fall | 2 A Vote for Family and Freedom | 5 The Jubilee Revolution | 5 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: The Heimlich Maneuver or Inaction? JOSH SPRING Executive Director I f two people were standing in front of you; one person having a nice meal and the other person was choking, unable to breath, what would you do? I think most people would probably try to assist the person who was choking in order to prevent that person from experiencing more pain and potentially dying. This is a question that would be easy for most people to answer. The choking person would be vigorously trying to dislodge what was blocking their breathing, but it would be clear that they could not do it by themselves. You would get up, go over and try to perform the Heimlich. [Editor’s note: The American Red Cross recommends a “five and five” approach to first aid. Five “back blows”, if that doesn’t work five "abdominal thrusts" also known as the Heimlich, then five more back blows if needed.] Even if you didn’t fully know how to provide Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition the Heimlich, you would probably still try and if there were other people around, they would likely try as well and together; the person choking, you and others would most likely prevent increased pain and potential death. No brainer, right? In Cincinnati tens of thousands of people are teetering on the edge of homelessness because of forced displacement that comes from gentrification, being priced out of their neighborhood, slumlords, “neighborhood revitalization” and unfair-wage jobs. Every weekday dozens of households are evicted from their homes in a system that does not legislate protections against unjust evictions. So far this year, approximately seventy-eight percent of families with children who have sought family shelter have been turned away because family shelters are already so overcrowded, nearly ten percent of whom were sleeping outside, in cars or other such places. Adult shelters are seeing numbers of people beyond what they have ever seen before and the number of people living outside keeps rising. In Hamilton County we are short more than 40,000 homes affordable to households with low incomes, 28,000 of which are needed inside (Continued on page 7) The Critical Issues that Candidates Should Be Addressing As They Campaign this Fall W hat are the critical issues that local, state, and Congressional candidates should be addressing on the campaign trail this fall? At the Community Forum at Christ Church Cathedral on September 27th, a panel of community leaders took on the assignment of talking about many of the tough problems and public policy needs that often get lost in all the hoopla and attack ads of modern political campaigning. The panel included Michelle Dillingham, Executive Director of Community Shares, John Schrider, Director of the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, D. David Altman, an environmental attorney who specializes in defending average citizens, and Paul Breidenbach of the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center. Michelle Dillingham focused on three issues during her presentation. She pointed to large funding needs for public education and human services, and she cited some of the concerns that have galvanized the women's movement since Trump's election. In terms of the safety net, she provided a long list from Food BILL WOODS Contributing Writer Stamps to child day care that have suffered cuts. At the same time these basic human services lose funding, Dillingham took note of the major tax cuts primarily benefiting well-off Americans that Congress and the Ohio General Assembly have enacted. These same tax breaks have left Public Schools and other education programs severely underfunded in Ohio. Meanwhile, the state's Local Government Fund that used to be a major local government resource has practically been eliminated. John Schrider continued with more statistics revealing the need for major government involvement to address growing poverty and income inequality. He called attention to Cincinnati's growth in poverty by (Continued on page 11) O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Trenton Davis, Dick Croy, Jason Haap, Loa Bennett, Saad Ghosn, Sabrina Amos, Desmond Brown, Cleo Wombles, Kim Green, Willa Denise, Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Dr. Mark Mussman, Justin Jeffre, Trenton Davis, Saad Ghosn, Bill Woods -------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Bill Woods accepting last year's buddy gray award Credit: Homeless Coalition THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �LOCAL Know Your Rights! No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 R ecently, the Homeless Coalition, in partnership with some of our member organizations like Legal Aid and HOME, put on an information session at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County at the Main Branch. We created an informational session that would be useful to all as it focused on historical and contemporary issues, renters, homeowners, and landlords. We broke it into several pieces, starting with the history of homelessness in Cincinnati, the issues that we are currently fighting against, including displacement and criminalization, the basic laws that protect the rights of citizens, and ways to protect yourself from spurious landlords. Finally, we ended with ways to get involved, including hosting informational sessions, speakers, and joining us in our fight to eradicate homelessness. The historical portion started with the 20th Century, and more specifically with Redlining. The underpinnings of Redlining include racism and classism, which essentially run current today. Redlining officially began after the Great Depression and exacerbated segregation in every city across America. A federal housing program forced People of Color into substandard housing, while giving white people the ability to build generational wealth. Combined with legally enforced segregation and restrictive covenants, AfricanAmericans were systematically denied the ability to create wealth through property ownership. After generations of racism in housing, we can certainly see the effects today on family wealth. Following the Civil Rights Movement, when housing discrimination based on race was outlawed, people of color continue to be cut out of housing opportunities. As former President Reagan’s policies of disinvestment in public housing decimated the quality of public housing, emphasis was put on religious institutions to create the safety net that people would need in a changing globalized economy. America began moving towards a service economy, which would push wealth to the very few. Reagan also perpetuated the myth that people “want to live outside” rather than viewing homelessness as a systemic issue. This began the era that we are currently in, of underfunding public housing while allowing it to deteriorate, and pushing money into private hands through programs like Section 8, which allow for private landlords to benefit from public money. Although people believe that there is plenty of Section 8 housing vouchers out there, the window to apply only opens up every few years, for a few days. Some people who get DR. MARK MUSSMAN Staff Writer (left) Jeniece Jones from HOME Shines a Spotlight on Housing (right) ohn Schrider from Legal Aid Speaks on Legal Aspects of Housing Credit Lé Thompson on the waiting list will still be on the waiting list 3 or 4 years later, when the application period is opened again. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waiting list is currently closed, it was last open for four days in January 2017; and before that in December 2014, and in 2012. Of all the low income renters in the United States, less more likely to be cost burdened in Cincinnati, while the average rent for an apartment in Cincinnati has skyrocketed to over $1100 per month. Minimum wages do not cover the cost of a two bedroom apartment. The typical person who makes minimum wage is a 35 year-old woman with children. Her children cannot close the door and do their homework, or find a place to decompress after 3 33.1 percent for Blacks. When it comes down to the laws that should protect people who are experiencing homelessness, there are three main Constitutional Amendments that apply: First Amendment’s protection of free speech; Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; and the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Each of these protections has been recently violated by Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati. Fortunately, the Homeless Coalition is currently fighting the criminalization of homelessness in Federal Court, and we continue to push for these rights while we continue to push for housing and housing protections. Finally, a healthy standard of living, including housing, is part of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. An update to the Criminalization survey was given, which showed that nearly half of all survey respondents (people currently experiencing homelessness) had been harassed by law enforcement officers, even when they were not breaking any laws. The goal of the survey is to push for a Bill of Rights, that will include the Right to Rest, the Right to Move, the Right to Housing, and other important human rights. This led into understanding current Tenant/Landlord Laws, including discrimination, retaliation, researching your landlord, eviction, and filing a complaint. HUD funded housing rights were also discussed, including the right of residents to have advocates, like community organizers, present at meetings and discussions about changes in housing. Creating tenant organizations was also discussed before ending on ways to get involved in the fight to eradicate homelessness: Affordable Housing, Livable Wages, and Housing Protections. If you’d like to watch the facebook live video or access the slideshow, please visit our website: https:// cincihomeless.org/2018/09/13/ know-your-rights-forum/ (left) Josh Spring Executive Director of the Homeless Coalition give Historical Perspective (right) Mona Jenkins Director of Development and Operations Discusses the Housing Struggle Credit Lé Thompson than 25% who would be eligible for assistance actually receive it. This is occuring at a time when the cost of housing has risen, but wages have not. In Hamilton County, we are nearly 40,000 units short of lowincome housing for people making up at about $25,000. This means that people are living paycheck to paycheck, kids are sleeping on the floor, couches, sharing beds with infants, etc. People of Color are way a difficult day because Mom can’t afford a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment while public housing is full and Section 8 voucher waiting list is overburdened. She would have to work 104 hours per week to afford a 2 bedroom apartment on minimum wage. This is even more defined for Black families who are least likely to be home owners, as in 15-county Greater Cincinnati, homeownership rates are 74.5 percent for whites but THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �4 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 �5 JUBILEE CAMPAIGN A Vote for Family and Freedom No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 F TRENTON DAVIS amily is the bedrock of America. I have three younger sisters, and, even at 21, I still live at home with my two incredible parents. There is not a single thing that I am more thankful for than my family. When I was young, my Mother read me books at night. From age three to six, we would end up staying up until midnight because I’d ask to read “just one more book Mommy”. My Dad, he was always my coach. From baseball to basketball and soccer, he’s always been there on the sidelines cheering me on and supporting me. My family is the reason I dream. All those little moments that my family has invested in my success, that is the pursuit of happiness endowed by our Constitution, so many years ago. Who would I be without my Mom at home? What about my Dad? No books at night during my most important years of development. Nobody to teach me how to throw a curveball. There are thousands of Ohioan families that face this reality every day. We talk about the War on Drugs like it’s just a piece of our past, yet we still lock up more humans in America than any other country in the world. Public safety is important, but Ohio spends more than $1.8 billion Contributing Writer dollars every year on a prison system where too many people that pose little risk to society are incarcerated. We are ripping families apart. Mothers and fathers are being locked away from their families. Low-level drug possession offenses are felonies in Ohio, not misdemeanors. That means that non-violent parents, people that may be perfectly capable of raising strong families, are now separated from their kids. Felonies force authorities to send parents to state prison rather than local jails, so not only are they locked up, but they’re locked up far away. Moreover, we are committing injustice. Low-level possession offenses are as small as a sugar packet. So, we aren’t locking up vicious, dangerous drug dealers and kingpins, we are locking up friends, family members, and average citizens that suffer from addiction. Addiction is an illness. Instead of encouraging healing and rehabilitation, we strip people of their liberty. We are treating addiction, not as an illness, not even as a personal struggle, but rather as societal blight that should be locked away for none to see. We need to bring Ohioan mothers and fathers home. We need to heal the addictions of our nation, not cause more pain. We need to create freedom, not take it away. Healthy families are the foundation of our society. Strong, American families raise strong, American children. We need to enable people to heal and make sure not to separate them from Trenton Davis Credit: Jubilee Campaign the people that need them most. Approximately 2,600 of our neighbors are locked up in State prison with a low-level drug possession charge as their highest offense. If we reclassify their felonies to misdemeanors, we can bring mothers and fathers closer to their children. They’ll be free. And with the felony scratched from their record, they will have access to work that can support those families. The Jubilee Revolution I t was my good fortune to have known the late Jim Couts, a retired minister in Marietta, Ohio, who among much else in his busy life of service to people and the planet founded Jubilee Soil, whose mission was to manufacture healthy soil, improve the depth and quality of topsoil, and to increase food production utilizing sustainable, non-polluting methods of agriculture. Jubilee made soil by diverting food waste from local landfills, building local agriculture, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the time of his untimely passing Jim’s still young company had converted 225,000 pounds of food waste, much of it from local prisons, into extremely rich topsoil. He had been in communication with West Virginia state officials about using Jubilee soil to reclaim land devastated by mountaintop mining. The following is a piece I edited for him for inclusion on Jubilee’s website (which no longer DICK CROY Contributing Writer exists). I feel it is as timely today as when Jim wrote it: I first read John Howard Yoder’s Politics of Jesus shortly after it was published in the early 70’s and later discovered Andre Trocme, whose book by the same name predated Yoder’s work. Their premise was that the Jubilee laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy were central to the teachings of Jesus, so central that they resulted in Jesus’ execution as a revolutionary. Reading those books and many that followed resulted in my conversion to Christianity. Much of the Old and New Testament suddenly made sense, especially the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ disdain for the wealthy and his love for the poor and oppressed. It was now clear to me why his church hierarchy – the temple priests, the Pharisees, Herod, and Caiaphas – clamored for his execution. I could now claim Jesus as Lord and mean it. I’ve come Instead of wasting law enforcement dollars on castigating people suffering from addiction, we can, instead, instill a culture of rehabilitation. We can create an earned-credit system so that qualified people can reduce their sentences by participating in group therapy and rehabilitation programs. Prison can cause trauma; some of the work will have to be healing those that have already suffered from the injustice of antiquated drug laws. November 6th, 2018 could be to the conclusion that one cannot fully understand the life and mission of Jesus without first understanding the role of the Jubilee. It’s a radical concept, some believe unattainable – but, to God, just common sense. In 2011, at age 69, I founded a for-profit company and named it Jubilee Organic Gardens. I was partly motivated by the need to be involved in an agricultural revolution that was beginning to grow. Thousands of folks were engaged in growing their own food, advocating for locally grown, healthful food, and supporting family farms. But my passion for the Jubilee also influenced my decision. I have found great comfort in associating myself with a Quaker meeting here in my hometown of Marietta, Ohio, but have been surprised by how few people who belong to Quaker communities acknowledge their Christian roots. Their reasons are sound and quite understandable. Orthodox THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED a day of Jubilee. We can release our prisoners. Vote YES on Issue 1. Issue 1 was carefully written by Ohioans to ensure public safety, but, also, to reunite families and build Ohio a more free, healthy, and prosperous future. There is no civil rights issue on the ballot more pressing than this. When the family is broken, the foundation of freedom is cracked. Help free Ohio. Vote for family and freedom. Vote YES on Issue 1. Christianity and organized religion in general offer little to those passionate about saving the planet, racial and economic justice, women’s rights, and the plethora of social justice issues which confront us daily. For me, including the Jubilee and its importance in Christian thought and practice is not only vital in giving clarity to our quest for social justice, but it also lends zeal, passion, and a real sense of truth to our causes. All this without having to sacrifice our intellect, modern science, or need for spiritual guidance. Ignoring our Christian roots is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. What exactly are the Jubilee laws or principles? They are explained in detail in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 16 but actually dominate entire sections of both Old and New Testaments. The basic principle is as follows: God, out of love, gave us the Jubilee so that we and our planet might not only survive but, in addition, so that we might also be content and happy. The primary themes are care for the earth and care for our neighbors, especially the (Continued on page 9) �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 �OPINION Why Should I Vote for Candidates or Parties I Don’t Trust? No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 O ne night during my high school years, Frank Zappa appeared on an evening news program and announced a run for president. I was thrilled! I decided in that moment I would be an indefatigable volunteer for his campaign. Then, what seemed like just a few weeks later, Zappa was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it eventually killed him in 1993. His campaign never actually got started. Maybe that was the beginning of my interest in non-traditional and third-party political candidates. When I voted in my first presidential election, in 1996, I cast a ballot for Ross Perot. And for almost every presidential election since then, I've voted for a third-party candidate JASON HAAP Contributing Writer - whether it was Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, or Gary Johnson. For every step along the way, I have been told how voting thirdparty is "dangerous" because it "steals votes" from the major party candidates. I've been told there is "too much at stake in this election." It's interesting to juxtapose this sentiment next to the fact that tons of Americans don't even bother to vote. I've been made to feel like voting third-party is more dangerous than not voting at all! I also object to the notion of endless emergencies. I don't think it will ever be appropriate, according to the major parties, to vote third-party. There will always be "too much at stake." Here's the thing: this problem is easily fixed. If we simply had rankchoice voting in this country, we'd never have to worry about these socalled "spoiler" votes again. As a liberal, Democrats love to demonize my voting choices, as if I'm contributing to their candidate losing because I selected a different, non-Republican candidate. But if Democrats would simply support rank-choice voting, then they would never need to worry about this again. If I ranked Gary Johnson or Jill Stein as my first choice, and Hillary Clinton as my second choice, then once it's clear Stein or Johnson cannot win mathematically, my vote would go Will You Stop the Snake from Eating Our Children? LOA BENNETT [Editor’s note: The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition has not taken a position on this issue.] I s the American government the epitome of Ouroboros (snake eating its tail), as it creates societal problems, including drug use to put children in foster care, instituting “the cure” of the prison pipeline in its failed attempt to sustain a “good” economy? Government programs are often enacted in such a way as to promote the failure of humans in favor of corporate systems. This November is your chance to break their stronghold by voting “no” on a Hamilton County levy increase to put children in the government “care” of the foster care(less) system. As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer; “The heroin epidemic and budget cuts from the state have made the Job & Family Service's situation more urgent.”1 Yet what are we to make of prosecutor Joe Deters absconding nearly $100,000 of money intended to investigate and prosecute drug crimes?2 According JOSH SPRING (Continued from page 2) Cincinnati. If you have a low income and definitely if you are Black, being evicted, displaced, gentrified out and/or moved from place to place to place is a part of life. In 2017 at least 137 people who experienced homelessness died. Despite all of this growing pain, as a City, County and society we are giving the person enjoying the nice meal more food and indulgence they don’t need as the situation of the person choking continues to worsen. Contributing Writer to the Enquirer article, Deters redirected the funding toward his own financial interests. No, he didn’t steal money; the fund itself was created to have no oversight as to how the funds are spent.2 Deters has fed the problem of family breakdown while gorging himself on profits confiscated from property. Within the foster care system, the most vulnerable members of society are removed most often from loving homes and end up with greater levels of mental damage because the motivating force for the “caretaker” is often a secure paycheck. Vote “no” on the “protective service” levy to protect the sovereignty of the family. Children should not be a commodity to be used for economic profit. Nor should they be stunted as future wage earners with “high school dropout rates” that are “3 times higher for foster youth than other low-income children.” Only about 50% graduate from high school.3 The lack of value of giving government more money to We may fain care by discussing why they are choking or how we can educate them to take smaller bites. We may go a bit further and discuss gathering some people who are not choking together to discuss the best ways to end their choking. We may tell them we support their efforts to dislodge that which is blocking them up. Perhaps we will offer them a glass of water. Eventually the person consuming the nice meal who is being fed more and more by those present will express to someone that they are having trouble consuming their nice meals while having to view someone warehouse our children is backed by solid numbers. Statistics of people forced through the system are grim, as aging out of “care” 50% end up homeless (40% of homeless are under the age of 18, many foster runaways).4 Findings show that foster care placement increased arrest rate of the marginal child by 200–300%. Men who were placed in foster care as children are 23% more likely to be convicted of a crime as adults than their investigated but never-placed counterparts. Roughly 20% of the prison population under age 30, and 25% of all prisoners with prior convictions, spent part of their youth in foster care.5 This government perpetuates a cycle that keeps many of the unemployed imprisoned and/or homeless. Increasing our financial support of current government programs has been detrimental to people and our planet. Ultimately government has proven to be the Ouroboros consuming little ones to feed the insatiable appetite of its snakelike head. As automation and tariffs desperately trying to survive choking. They will explain that such a scene is bad for the restaurants business and that they, nor other people like them will continue to come there if such an unsightly scene continues. So, some people present will get up and tell the person who is choking that they must leave. They may be told that everyone cares about what they are dealing with, but their presence is upsetting other people and all of that coughing may spread sickness, so they must go. Perhaps you see what I am getting at. Despite one’s politics, background or much of anything else, THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 7 to Clinton. It's a simple concept and everyone can understand it. You know my theory? I think the Democrats are scared. They know there exists a possibility, with rank choice voting, that people will no longer be afraid to vote third-party, so they never advance the concept. They would rather try to bully me into voting for their candidate on the basis of fear. I will not vote based on fear. So, I think I'm not going to vote anymore, until rank-choice voting is an option in this country. I'm sure there are readers right now fearful my decision could lead to Republicans maintaining the control of the House or the Senate, or maybe they are even thinking about Trump in 2020. If anyone can demonstrate an error in my thinking, I welcome your feedback. Please send your email to whyshouldjasonvote@gmail.com. I will select the best arguments to address in an upcoming article. decrease employment, government foster care programs only increases the pool of victims for legal abduction. And it is America’s children who suffer the most. Don’t support a levy increase to finance the dismantling of society. We can reorient the snake of the government from turning our children into homeless, drugged, pawns of state economic gain. Vote “no” on the November tax levy and give the $69.00 to developing a relationship to empower our youth and struggling families in honorable ways, because as it has been stated many times, “No one is going to save us. We’ve got to take care of ourselves.” 1 With sales tax off the ballot, commissioners put an increase in the children’s services levy on ballot, Scott Wartman, Cincinnati Enquirer 2 Senator: Shame on Joe Deters for spending $16K on briefcases, Cecil Thomas, Opinion Contributer 3 National Foster Youth Institute 4 Covenant House 5 Does placing children in foster care increase their adult criminality? Matthew J. Lindquist, Torsten Santavirta, Science Direct https://www.usgovernmentspending. com/welfare_spending 6 A Critical Look At The Foster Care System: How Widespread a Problem?, LiftingTheVeil.org 7 Children are dying at alarming rates in foster care, and nobody is bothering to investigate, Ryan Grim, Aida Chavez most people in this situation would not choose to hand more and more to the person already enjoining their meal but instead would choose to try to assist the person choking in being able to regain the oxygen they need to live, or at least that is how most people would answer the question of what they would do. I know that some people would stand by and for a variety of reasons, do nothing, but most probably would not. So, why do we operate differently when the problem is systematic in nature? --------------------------------------- �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS For Aaron Bludworth, a Mormon, Discovering & Sharing the Humanity of the Invisible Other, Namely the Homeless, & Helping Wherever He Can, Is Living His Faith A O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 aron Bludworth was born in a religious family that belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. Both his parents were members of the church and he grew up attending services regularly, participating in Sunday school and became himself one of its official members when, at the age of 8, he got baptized. Growing up he also received religious teachings and good values from his parents. They would have regular family evenings when they will all meet, pray, read the scriptures and address their various needs. "This is something I still do now with my wife and five children," says Bludworth. "It gets us closer together SAAD GHOSN Contributing Writer and strengthens our faith." Bludworth also participated in the church's youth program, meeting socially with others his age, learning from retreats and conferences; also helping others whenever possible. He attended public school in Salt Lake City, then went for college to the University of Utah, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Political Sciences and Business Administration. While in college, he continued his involvement with the church, but also became interested in politics, standing on the conservative side, helping Republican campaigns and supporting conservative candidates locally and state-wide. "I am a conservative in beliefs," he says, "and one with traditional values." Right after college, Bludworth decided to take two years off and joined one of the missions of his church, in North Carolina. "Our church has 400 missions throughout the world," he states. "Their purpose is to spread the word means, away from home and with very limited contact, allowed only two phone calls to their family a year, on Christmas and Mother’s Day, and no dating. "This experience did me a lot of good," says Bludworth. "It changed me, helped me grow and mature. My oldest son, 19 years old, is right now on such a mission in Guatemala and I like to think that he will be getting 20 years of life experience out of What is the MORMON Religion The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), aka the Mormon Church, is a Christian church which is neither Catholic nor Protestant. It does not embrace the creeds developed in the third and fourth centuries, now central to many Christian churches. It believes that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save all mankind from death and their individual sins, but it is nontrinitarian considering Father and Son as two separate beings who, nevertheless, along with the Holy Spirit, are one in will, purpose and love. It is restorative, considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is central to the lives of the Church members who seek to follow His example by being baptized, praying His holy name, partaking of the sacrament of Eucharist, doing good to others and bearing witness of Him through both word and deed. LDS Church maintains that without the sacraments of the church, salvation is impossible, but also that the Church is universal and timeless, simultaneously open to anyone, living or dead. It also stresses community as an element of salvation, members establishing a web of eternal relations with other human beings and with God. LDS Church was started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s. It takes its original name from the Book of Mormon, a religious text that Smith published, and which he said he translated from "golden plates," with divine assistance, after the angel Moroni appeared to him. The Book contains writings of ancient prophets and gives an account of God’s dealings with the peoples on the American continent. For LDS Church the Book of Mormon stands alongside the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as holy scripture. After Smith was killed in 1844, most Mormons followed Brigham Young, his successor, to the area that became the Utah Territory, and changed their name to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Joseph Smith, founder of LDS Church, wrote, “The fundamental principles of our religion are … concerning Jesus Christ that He died, was buried, rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.” LDS Church believes unequivocally that: 1. Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of the loving Heavenly Father 2. Christ’s Atonement allows mankind to be saved from their sins and return to live with God and their families forever. 3. Christ’s original Church, founded on "one faith,” as described in the New Testament, had been gradually undermined after the death of Christ’s apostles, that it needed to be restored, and that LDS Church is its restoration in modern times. Aaron Bludworth and faith of our religion, proselytize, convert and recruit others to it." In fact, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages its young members, men and women, ideally ages 18 to 20 but no older than 25, to devote two years of their life as missionaries, working side by side along another mission companion, to teach others about their religion. At the same time, they would provide charitable services, where they are, to help individuals and organizations whenever needed. "These are two very tough years," says Bludworth, "but also transformational. You learn to live in a different unfamiliar context, with companions you did not choose, who sometimes do not speak your language. You learn to accept and love them and rely on them in your day to day work. You learn also to deal with rejection and hurt feelings..." During these missions, the two companion missionaries try to meet people on the street, through friends or on social media, to introduce them to their religion. They may be rebuked or even insulted. They also live with very little money and few Credit: Saad Ghosn these two years. He is very happy despite his homesickness and all the encountered adversity." After he returned from his mission, Bludworth married his wife, now of twenty years, who had also returned from a similar mission, but in Scotland, and he pursued professionally a career in the trade show business that he had started while in college. He worked for the same company for 15 years in Salt Lake City, then spent a year in Las Vegas before moving to Cincinnati where he bought his own company in the same field. "I am President/CEO at  Fern Exposition & Event Services," says Bludworth. "We provide the infrastructure for shows and events of trade associations and we have 400 employees in offices throughout the USA." Because of his job Bludworth travels extensively both throughout the United States and worldwide. "My travels have opened my eyes," he says. "I have been exposed to different people who live differently, many on the streets who are poor (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 DICK CROY (Continued from page 5) poor. Today, our fear for our home, planet earth, and our agony for what is happening to the poor throughout the world, makes the Jubilee as relevant as today’s newspaper: • The Jubilee divides life neatly into sevens – Sabbaths. Rest on the seventh day, reflect, and recommit to follow the Jubilee laws. • Never, ever exploit the land. Nurture it. We are a stewards of the land. Treat the land as common property: “The land is mine, says the Lord.” – Genesis. • Every year leave enough of the harvest in the field for the poor to glean. • Every seven years, the year of the Sabbath, debts were to be cancelled to free the poor from indebtedness. The debtor prisons were emptied. • No planting the seventh year; allow the soil to rest. • And then following seven Sabbath years, 49 years, comes the Year of Jubilee, the 50th year. All the basic provisions applied: cancellation of debts, emptying the prisons, resting the land, leaving behind enough of the harvest for the poor to glean. And, in addition, all the land the rich had accumulated over the last 50 years since the last Jubilee was to be returned to the original owners! If actually carried out, that would have been a redistribution of wealth to end all redistributions of wealth. However, greed is not easily overcome. Between the Jubilee years, over that first 50 year period, the rich managed to “redefine” the Jubilee in their favor. Folks were often forced to sell their only livelihood, their land, but were never quite able to satisfy all their debts. Land was confiscated and whole families became indentured servants. Worst case scenario, folks were thrown into prison. Why was the Jubilee so important? Scripture assumes that if poverty becomes fixed in families or segments of society for long periods, or on the other side of that equation, if wealth becomes permanently lodged in the hands of a few, that society will eventually destroy itself. So if Jesus’ mission was to begin a movement to restore the Jubilee, if the feeding of the 5,000 – a significant beginning for a movement – scared the daylights out of the rich and the church hierarchy that supported the rich over the poor…if that’s what was going on during those 32 short years of Jesus’ life, then charges of sedition, of treason, make sense. Believing that Jesus’ mission was to bear our sins on the cross so we might someday slither off to heaven to live happily ever after makes little sense otherwise. If that had been Jesus’ mission, the church officials would have ordained him a rabbi and he would have been given a community service award by Pontius Pilate. After years of study and experience in a church that continually preaches a watered- down, narcissistic version JUBILEE CAMPAIGN of Jesus, with a church hierarchy that has far more in common with Herod and Caiaphas than with Jesus, I decided to take one last shot at putting my spiritual beliefs into practice. I formed a company and called it Jubilee. And since the main focus of the Jubilee principles was in agriculture – caring for the soil, redistribution of land from the rich to the poor – I chose to focus on agriculture, farming, and an attempt to contribute my part in restoring sanity to the way we grow food. Jubilee laws were written for an agrarian society and Jesus lived in an agrarian society. In that setting land and soil were wealth. And that is even truer today in an urban society feeding itself with food grown in sick soil laced with chemicals. With modern industrial agriculture we have managed to destroy over half of our topsoil. Soil has become more precious than ever in part because there is less of it with a lot more people to feed. Because both land and farmers are more scarce, the key word in industrial agriculture has become “efficiency.” That, more than anything else, explains our insane public policies. Get rid of the small family farm (too inefficient), build bigger tractors, combines and planters, and saturate the soil with chemicals that create the illusion of higher yields. And did I mention, disregard completely what all this does to the health of people who eat the food we grow? Add to this emphasis on efficiency the food processing industry, and what we are actually eating is poison – which does in fact kill us more efficiently. Waving the banner of efficiency, industrial agriculture now contributes a minimum of 25% of the greenhouse gases causing global warming – with petroleum-based fertilizers, tractors and combines that burn fossil fuel, and bigger, fewer farms requiring more shipping, from all over the world. My favorite example of this insanity involves tomatoes that are picked green in Florida, shipped to South Africa where they are infused with gases that turn them red, then shipped back to the U.S. with an advertising empire in the background convincing consumers that if a tomato looks pretty – a lovely bright red, perfectly round, without blemishes – then it must be good. Even if it tastes something like cardboard. Let me emphasize one more factor that’s extremely important – perhaps most important of all. The Jubilee principles call for simple living. Waste nothing. We have managed to convince ourselves that the only way to survive is to continue to grow the economy, in a world of finite and decreasing resources. To maintain the American way of life we have built our entire global political and economic system around consumerism. I equate consumerism with hog farming. Hogs, in this consumer economy, exist to eat and be eaten. Crowds charging the doors of Walmart on Black Friday remind me of a herd of hogs charging the slop trough, with each pig trying desperately to out-eat the others. The overwhelming flaw in this thinking is that if every citizen of the second and third largest economies in the world, China and India, were to consume in the same volume as American citizens, we would need seven planets the size of Earth to support such an economic system. IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE! Are the Jubilee principles too radical to be “practical?” Not to God. Just common sense. Are they Communistic or Socialistic? There’s no ideology here, just common sense. Why would you lock poverty permanently into certain families or segments of society or even entire cities knowing that sooner or later all the people will suffer? Why would you allow wealth to accumulate in the hands of a few people knowing that will eventually destroy the entire community, as has happened to all civilizations from the beginning of recorded history? Milking the soil of all its nutrients, exploiting the soil until it has nothing left to give – OUT OF THE QUESTION! Why on earth would you do that? Why would you destroy your food supply? I believe that to God, it is unthinkable that we would destroy the soil and discard the farmers who nurture it. We should do everything possible to insure farmers’ survival. Their knowledge is invaluable and when they no longer farm, that knowledge is lost forever. We have adopted short-sighted, insane public policies that have insured the demise of most farmers in the U.S., and now we’re working on the rest of the world. When Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture in the 1970’s, declared, “Get big or get out,” the few got big while most got out. Let me suggest a bold premise: If the Jubilee principles became central to our public life and public policies, our planet would not be in danger of destruction. Good news and bad news. The good news, maybe we’re wrong; maybe the planet is capable of healing itself. The bad news: maybe it can do so only by getting rid of the human race. Consider the words of the poet, John Brehm: Often I wonder is the earth trying to get rid of us, shake us off, drown us, scorch us to nothingness? to save itself and all other creatures slated for extinction? Nature – the land, the soil, all of life, what we now call the ecosystems – is not passive; it reacts to abuse. Tornadoes pop up where they’ve never been before. Hurricanes appear in the off season and are more violent and destructive than ever. Drought and extreme weather patterns become part of life. With food shortages and the disappearance of THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 9 healthy soil comes war, more death, more destruction. Tragically, while exploitation of the land has brought unimaginable wealth to the few, it is the poor who suffer and the rich become more determined not only to survive but to insulate themselves from destruction by accumulating more resources, more wealth. At Jubilee Organic Gardens we try our best to put into practice our name. • Our first priority is restoration of the soil. We gather food waste by the tons, we ferment it, mix it with soil that’s depleted of organic matter and nutrients. We feed the soil not only organic matter but also concentrated microorganisms which benefit plants and make them healthy. • We treat manure so that it doesn’t pollute the waterways and groundwater but does what manure has always done: enrich the soil with nutrients and beneficial bacteria. • We hope to create ways for farmers to maintain their current yields, or even increase them, without using petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. • But the Jubilee is not just about soil; it is about creating community and a just society. • Our emphasis on Zero Waste is a call to restore the Jubilee principles. • The emptying of prisons is even part of our mission. At Noble County Correctional Institution we are helping to build greenhouses and train inmates for jobs in agriculture. We are trying our best to earn the right to be called “Jubilee.” Finally, I want to share what I think is perhaps the most important Jubilee text in all of scripture. Perhaps more than any other this text helps us understand what Jesus came to do: 4th chapter of Luke, Jesus quoting Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release of the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and (I love this ancient translation) “to proclaim the coming of the Year of Jubilee.” I’ll close with prayer. Prayer keeps me centered and so I begin each day with a prayer I wrote several years ago on a gorgeous Sunday morning while sitting on the edge of my raised bed garden in the back yard – the first garden I called “Jubilee.” This is a sacred garden, prayers are said here. I pray that the hungry be fed, and I hear God say, “I’ve done my part, I’ve given you a garden. Now you do yours.” And again I pray that the hearts of those who cause hunger be transformed. And I hear God say, “I’ve done my part, I’ve given you my Son to restore the Jubilee. Now, you do yours.” �SHELTERHOUSE 10 (Greater Cincinnati largest homeless shelter) O 5 - O 18 , 2 0 18 | N LOCAL SHELTERHOUSE SHELTERHOUSE (Greater Cincinnati largest homeless shelter) (Greater Cincinnati largest homeless shelter) ct ct o. 391 The David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men 411 Gest Street Cincinnati, OH 45203 The David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men 513-721-0643 411 Gest Street The David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men Wednesday Cincinnati, OH 45203 411 Gest Street October 17, 2018 513-721-0643 Cincinnati, OH 45203 Wednesday, October 17,2018 513-721-0643 9:00 - 11:30 am Wednesday 9:00 – 11:30 am Shelterhouse is seeking employers to participate in our job fair! Areas of interest. Wednesday October 17, 2018 • Entry level October • 2018 Customer 9:00 –17, 11:30 am Service • Skilled labor Shelterhouse is seeking employers to participate in our job fair! Areas of interest. • Dishwasher and more…. 9:00 – 11:30 am • • • • • Entry level Shelterhouse is seeking employers to participate in our job fair! Areas of interest. • Customer Service • *11:15 Skilled labor Entry level a.m. - RAFFLE DRAWING • Dishwasher Customer Serviceand more…. *Qualified Skilled labor Participants- Unhoused RRH clients, housed DishwasherRRH and clients, more….and those who once participated in the Rapid Re-Housing Program. *11:15 a.m. - RAFFLE DRAWING Shelterhouse Contact: Lavelle Horne: lhorne@shelterhousecincy.org or (513) 614-6018 *Qualified ParticipantsUnhoused RRH clients, *11:15 a.m. - RAFFLE DRAWING housed RRH clients, and those who once participated in the ParticipantsRapid Re-Housing Program. *Qualified Unhoused RRH clients, housed RRH clients, and those who once participated Shelterhouse Contact: Lavelle Horne: lhorne@shelterhousecincy.org or (513) 614-6018 in the Rapid Re-Housing Program. Shelterhouse Contact: Lavelle Horne: lhorne@shelterhousecincy.org or (513) 614-6018 November 16 - December 8, 2018 For tickets please call (513) 381-2273 Purchase tickets online at www.cincyshakes.com AD Donated by Mark and Sue Ann Painter season sponsored by the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �LOCAL No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 BILL WOODS (Continued from page 2) 13,000 residents from 2007 to 2017, and to Hamilton County's current 40,000 gap in affordable housing units. Furthermore, the Queen City ranks among the top ten cities in the country in terms of housing evictions, a direct cause of poverty and homelessness. Although he applauds the establishment here of the Child Poverty Collaborative, Schrider stressed that piecemeal initiatives will not be sufficient. A comprehensive approach will require a lot of new federal and local dollars. David Altman began by showing Forum attendees a picture of air pollution in Ohio. Under the air nuisance law, Ohioans should be protected from this hazard by the state EPA. Since this Agency has not been effectively protecting citizens, Altman advised that voting in the upcoming midterm election would be a way to rectify this failure. Both the offices of Governor and Attorney General, he noted, are key to how the EPA operates. In terms of pollution protection nationally, a more environmentally friendly Congress could provide some restrictions on an Administration hell bent on dismantling our air and water pollution laws. Finally, Paul Breidenbach offered his commentary on immigration policies. "Although Cincinnati claims to be a sanctuary city," he SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) and homeless. I make a point to talk to them whenever I can, to learn about them, their situation, their experience, and to help them in any way I can. A couple of years ago I also started photographing them." Interested in photography for a long time, Bludworth started using it to document the individuals, mostly homeless, he would encounter during his trips, and to tell their stories. His conversations with them would bring visibility and recognition to them. And sharing their pictures and stories through social media, primarily Instagram and Facebook, would help draw others into their circumstances, open their eyes to their existence, and possibly encourage them to understand them and see them differently. "In a recent comment on homelessness, our Church leadership stressed that its causes were multiple," says Bludworth, "and that our response to those in need defines us as individuals and communities."  And when asked what prompts him to do this, he is quick to answer that it is his faith and that, as a follower of Christ, he believes that everybody is a child of God and that, in a similar situation, "Christ wouldn’t just drive by." "We have an individual obligation to help those in need when we have the ability to do so, whatever the 11 declared, "this title means absolutely nothing." The policy of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office is to inform ICE whenever an undocumented immigrant comes under its custody. This policy has led to a series of deportations. He emphasized that the fall elections have provided the opportunity to challenge this practice. The U.S. Senate and Congressional races also offer a chance to bring about fairer and more equitable immigration laws. During the discussion following the panel's presentations, a number of other issues were put forward. The potential losses in health care received attention, as well as the need for legislation that would lessen the impact of "big money" in political campaigns. Some attendees wanted to talk about State Issue I, and they were told that the next Forum on October 11th would focus on this proposed Ohio Constitutional Amendment to bring about criminal justice reform. --------------------------------------- (top) David Altman (bottom) John Schrider Credit: Justin Jeffre circumstances, and not only those who are like us," he adds. Juggling family, work and social life, Bludworth continues his committed involvement in the church, filling daily responsibilities such as meeting with families he has been assigned to, and helping other members whenever needed. He is an ordained priest and performs many of the temporal religious tasks. He serves also on the high council of the "stake" (diocese) of his church, visiting other congregations and addressing their needs, also helping organize, a couple of times a year, spiritual and educational conferences. In 2015, with leaders from Thomas Moore College, Hebrew Union College and other local religious and educational institutions, Bludworth, representing his church, helped found the Institute for Religious Liberty with the aim to celebrate and educate others about the constitutional privilege and right to freely worship and practice religion. The Institute, based at Thomas More College, organizes regularly academic symposia and lectures featuring internationally renowned speakers to address various issues that pertain to religious freedom. Bludworth is also one of the initiators of an ongoing dialogue between his church and the greater Cincinnati Jewish community in order to foster deeper understanding and exchange. Outside the church, Bludworth continues his many charitable and humanitarian activities, often involving both his family and his business. He helps, for instance, cleaning after tornadoes, helps homeless individuals he encounters and lends a hand at homeless shelters, gives food distribution with his family, supports financially and provides services to various organizations, such as "Be Concerned" and "Isaiah's House"... During the recent homeless crisis on 3rd street downtown Cincinnati, when he heard of a need for transportation to help relocate the homeless, Bludworth immediately offered the trucks and drivers of his company. The relocation however did not occur. "If I can use the ability and resources of our company to help our community, and if it is the right thing to do, I would not hesitate," he says. "I always try to involve others in the decision but in case of emergency, I use my prerogatives of CEO and make the decision myself." Last year, for instance, following the devastating hurricanes that hit Florida and Texas, the trucks of the company were used to drive collected goods from Cincinnati to the affected areas. And in Indianapolis, where there is a big tent city next to the Fern's office, the company allows the tapping of its water and electricity to benefit the residents. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED As for politics, Bludworth who once ran for chairman of the Utah Republican party and almost won, says he is now nonpartisan and antiparty. He has been drifting away from today’s Republican party disagreeing with its current leadership and with some of its values. "I am still very much a conservative," he states, "but regarding immigration, for instance, I would personally welcome bringing more people in our country as we are a rich country with a lot to offer; we can help many others improve their lives." "Within security limits, of course," he adds. Thinking of the future, Bludworth has no specific aspirations except to help where he can. He would like to continue meeting and helping those in need, especially the homeless, learning about their story, photographing them, and sharing who they are and their humanity with others. "This also affects me directly," he says. "Every conversation with someone else changes me, expands me and adds a new human dimension to me." More important, however, for Bludworth, this will be living according to the principles of the Gospel and in the steps of Christ and His disciples. "If I see someone struggling in the street and do not stop and help I would not be living my faith," he concludes. �12 STREET VOICE Tent City Across America (Part 1) SABRINA AMOS N ight went by quickly, rats running through the campground. Terry knows he saw a groundhog the size of a puppy sniffing around. Lots of stars in the sky tonight fading in and out behind gray clouds. It had been a long night. It had started to rain extremely hard for ten minutes and stopped. The wind was blowing really hard and leaves and trash were blowing through the camp. Three of four people came out and started to read, their flashlights beaming up and down the line of tents. The dog, Oliver, was running around through the camp. Living a life in tents was really hard. Life drives a stake through your heart and pride. People have to think positive that they can make it through this part of their lives and they can change and make it. Step by step appointments with the right people and you can meet your small goal, then the ultimate goal. In Tent City, light of day came early. Paul was awake before dawn. Since he lost his job at the bank, he thinks everything he did turned out wrong. He was on top of the business world and it went crashing down because the bank had to downsize employees. Paul had car problems and he was late too many times. Streetvibes Contributor “Good morning, Sally,” Paul said. “Good morning,” Sally said. She was in the next tent over. Sally was a former bakery owner and she got sick and behind on her bills. She ran her own store fifteen years. Her husband died and kids were grown. She was headed to the church four streets down to pick up any food they had to offer. Terry was collecting rocks for people to keep bugs and animals out of the tents. Terry had been working for a temporary service for five years. He partied his money away. He went to AA meetings from time to time. Paul was sitting outside the tent, chipping away at a log as big as his arm. Today was a hot, boring day. Small bits of wood flew through the air as he started to shape the head of a squirrel. His knife quickly chipped swirls for fur. The nice soft wood legs and arm came out fine. His hands were getting tired. He would start on the tail tomorrow. This was the 4th one he had made. They are for sale. Back in the corner, a loud humming sound could be heard. Billy, one of the boys, was blowing away on his harmonica. Hmmmm. Billy worked in restaurants all his life and he was a chef. A lot of restaurants closed down. He works in a shelter sometimes as a cook. He gets to eat good and bring food back to the group. Sometimes the food is piping hot. His dog, Whoo Whoo, was with him, sitting in front of his master. He was a pretty black lab. People occasionally stopped and listened and dropped off sandwiches, dog food, or a dollar. He had put in an application for lowincome housing this morning. Eva was cutting strips of a cotton shirt, making band aids for Bob’s foot. He stepped on a sharp piece of glass. He was grateful somebody cared. He really just had cheap shoes. Eva was a cashier in the layaway department at Walmart for 10 years. She had a small apartment to herself with lots of comfortable furniture and a washer in the downtown area. Then she lost her job when everything in the layaway department went up in smoke. The store told Eva to come back in six months and she was still waiting. Every day she thought about her job. Winter always came quickly… Terry came along and started playing the guitar. People were starting to crowd around them for a couple minutes to listen. Simon was trying to get a lighter. He got one candle and started a small wood fire in a steel drum. He got a nice fire going to throw in some potatoes with French bread someone dropped Fed Up DESMOND BROWN I ’m faced with the same drama everyday With not enough money to pay my way The invisible chains since the early days Is holding my people down ‘til they decay. I’m tired of being slapped I’m out of cheeks to turn. Made too many mistakes I’m outta lessons to learn. But why should I steady blame the white man? When I’m slipping in my own blood And being held down by black hands. Help me Father Which way do I go When I only see one road And it points to the ghetto Contributing Writer Where my people is down and out Dissed and disgusted Can’t pay their rent Because their pockets are busted They encourage us to open the door to opportunity But opportunity is killin’ brothers in my community That’s why I’m screaming “switch”!! Cause I’m really fed up. I was faced with 30 years But a brother still ain’t gave up Your Honor!! You overheard about that Black life Where you only got one choice Between a gun and a pocket knife, The judge asked me “Is it the struggle Or the greed in your eyes That made your ass hustle? See you give a brother a gun And he’ll show you his greed. Give him pen and paper And he’ll roll him some weed But they don’t see the bad luck in our situation Cursed with single parents, high blood pressure, aids and no education We know the problems But what is the solutions? We blaze our grenadiers and swishers To help the pollutions The biggest words we know is Millimeter, penitentiary and cemetery And teenage pregnancy in on the rise every January And brothers leaving their sons behind O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 off. Simon was a factory worker. He worked 10 years as a packer and then the factory closed. Simon was taking a training class to be a conductor and a supervisor in a factory five miles away. He gets text messages from the employment office. He misses his family. Paul stopped carving the wood. He had carved 4 squirrels, so he sewed his tent, which had a few holes in it. On windy days they hoped it wouldn’t blow down. He sat down and started to open four cans of beans with a knife, putting a small hole in the can first then prying it open. He passed the cans around. A woman who worked in a nearby restaurant pulled up in a van and passed out sandwiches. It was a fast day; night would be here soon and they had all made a little bit of money. Darkness began to fall as the sun hid behind the clouds and the moon started to peek out on the other side. Birds stopped singing and flew away to other trees. The fire glowed and the white and red lights of a fire truck flashed as the sirens rang out loud and clear three streets down. A small pickup truck came and dropped off cups of chili to 15 people. Terry sat up to be on night watch since he was asleep most of the day. The guitar was passed to him. The police drove by. Paul, Sally, and Henry were going to a City Hall meeting tomorrow. Call it a day in Tent City. [To be continued…] Without showing them the game And their mommas get stressed out And depend on Mister Cocaine So what is that young one to do? When his stomach is touching his back And his feet is too big for his shoes He put the burden in his own backpack And thinks that it’s cool Commence selling dope And drop out of school Nobody tried to show him the way So he tried to find one of his own He made the wrong turn He just a long way from home See where his daddy at He wasn’t there to show him the plan Where one race was a target And we was on the wrong end Our generation is fed up Been screwed too long We gotta stand up. Jokes for Today CLEO WOMBLES T elling jokes whenever I can. Here I am. This one I like to say about every day. What did the green grass say to the football field? If you water me, I’ll be rooting for you. What did the Buddhist monk say Contributing Writer to the guy at the hot dog stand? He said make me one with everything. Mr. and Mrs. Carrot were going down to the garden patch. A watermelon knocked Mrs. Carrot down. Now they get to go to the Garden hospital. The Garden Doctor said he had some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Mrs. Carrot is gonna live. The bad news is that she is going to be a vegetable for the rest of her life. Cleo Wombles Credit: Homeless Coalition THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �13 STREET VOICE No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 YOUR WEATHER There was cosntant rain for weeks The coldness you could feel in the air THE INCOME INEQUALITY MOTHER GOOSE Rup - a -dup - dup, Economic indicators are up, But the poverty rate still climbs. Wetness was repeated Reasons for this are not funny. The bold thunder was loud with a wild roar Fat Cat get most of the money, Your weather Lord It cleans our Ocean’s shores The rain keeps our earth fresh and clean The constant rain it comes from you Without you Lord what would we do KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer And workers receive a few dimes. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer ANGEL IN DISGUISE LIVING MY LIFE EACH DAY HAPPY AND FREE TRYING TO HAVE PEACE OF MIND LIVING EACH DAY WITH THE BLESSING OF BEING A STREETVIBES DISTRIBUTOR, ONE OF A KIND BEING ON THE STREET EVERYDAY I HAVE THE CHANCE TO MEET PEOPLE FROM EVERYWHERE THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY! THE RICH, POOR, HAPPY AND SAD. SOME JUST DON'T CARE! MY SAYING TO EVERYONE THAT PASSES ME IS ALWAYS THE SAME "HAVE A BLESSED DAY!" GOD HEARD ME, UP WALK A MAN NAMED TOM THAT I AM PROUD TO HAVE MET I MUST SAY EVERYDAY I FIND MYSELF HOPING THAT TOM WILL GET A PAPER AND WALK DOWN THE STREET HIS SMILE IS UPLIFTING AND REAL I FIND HIM EASY TO TALK TOO. PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME HE LETS ME KNOW THAT I AM NEVER ALONE AND ASK ME TO STOP LOOKING DOWN MY NAME IS TOM AND AS LONG AS YOU KEEP YOUR FAITH, ME AND GOD GOING TO BE AROUND NOW, IT SOUNDS LIKE I'M INSANE, I SEE GHOSTS, OR DO I BELIEVE THAT ANGELS REALLY EXSIST? NOT INSANE, DON'T SEE GHOST BUT I KNOW ANGELS EXIST! I ALSO KNOW THAT IF TOM STOPPED WALKING DOWN THE STREET, I'M GONNA BE PISSED WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 159 Across 1. Elevate Down 5. Significance of a story 1. Parts of a chain or event 2. Paragon 10. Military vehicle 3. Sudden burst of flame 14. Not in action 15. Pleasant odor 16. Woodwind instrument 17. Close 18. Corvine bird 19. Loose flowing garment 20. Actions affecting destiny in the next incarnation (Hinduism and Buddhism) 22. Give temporarily 23. Mush 24. Sledge 26. Erase 28. Molars 31. Flop 32. Moderate or restrain 35. Submerged ridge 37. Cook with dry heat 41. Country, initially 42. Stone pillar 44. Sheltered side 45. Shoulder gesture 47. Undercover agent 48. Complete duration of something 49. In favor of 51. Taut or rigid 53. Not present 56. Deprive of status or authority 60. Unit of potential 61. Judicious 64. Not at any time 65. Region 66. Nimble 68. A strong line 69. Male red deer 70. Pass along 71. Similar 4. Colony insect 5. Spoil 6. Using speech rather than writing 7. Wander 8. Make better 9. Came ashore 10. Underwater projectile 11. Approximately 12. Baronial 13. Main castle tower 21. Historic period 25. Aromatic plant used in cookery 27. Skulk 29. Swarm 30. Serf (Middle Ages) 32. Public transport SODOKU PUZZLE NO 289 - MEDIUM 33. Residue of burning 34. Old salt 36. Rasp 38. Any high mountain 39. Large body of water 40. Square root of 100 42. Fiend 43. Transmit 46. Outshine 48. Indefinite number but not many 50. Ahead 52. Transgression 53. Large artery 54. Desolate 55. Large feline 57. Ilicit 58. Reddish brown 59. Vogue 60. Immense 72. Accept something given 62. Storage tower 73. Monotone 63. Panache 74. Metallic element 67. Oculus PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 390 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 158 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 288- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 39 1 | Oct 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 557-2873 St. George Food Pantry 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 751-8771 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 McMicken Dental Clinic 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Other Resources Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 562-8841 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Salvation Army 762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 St. Vincent de Paul 721-0643 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men 131 E. 12th Street 45202 Shelter: Men Shelterhouse 411 Gest St. 45203 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 1125 Bank Street 45214 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 1437 Walnut Street 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Parkway Center 661-4620 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Housing: 471-1100 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Food/Clothing First Lutheran Church 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 421-0065 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 1730 Race Street 45202 Hamilton/Middletown 351-0422 381-6672 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 Northern Kentucky Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 721-4700 421-7803 Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center UpSpring 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 859-491-8303 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 for 26 issues 981-4200 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Health 621-5300 961-1983 381-0111 771-4800 579-8547 721-4811 AA Hotline CCAT 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 977-6800 859-572-6226 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart Goodwill Industries Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Mary Magdalen House St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 1522 Republic Street 45202 961-4555 381-1954 421-5211 241-2600 621-5514 1223 Main St. 45202 961-4663 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Tom Geiger House Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn VA VA Homeless 961-2256 558-8888 351-3500 977-4489 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 221-HELP 721-8666 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 Starting Over 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Talbert House Tender Mercies 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 921-1613 First Step Home 761-1480 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Prospect House 352-6363 Center Independent Living Options Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Caracole (HIV/AIDS) CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 114 W. 14th Street 45202 784-1853 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Interfaith Hospitality Network Charlie’s 3/4 House 2121 Vine Street 45202 Shelter: Youth Shelter: Family 15 $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 O c t 5 - O c t 18 , 2 0 18 | N o . 391 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource October 5-October 21, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director The Critical Issues that Candidates Should Be addressing As They Campaign This Fall Pg 3: Know Your Rights! Pg 4: GCHC Pg 5: A Vote for Family and Freedom The Jubilee Revolution Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Why Should I Vote for Candidates or Parties I Don’t Trust? Will You Stop the Snake from Eating Our Children Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: Dick Croy Continued Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Bill Woods Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Pg 12: Tent City Across America (Part 1) Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 5-October 21, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Trenton Davis Dick Croy Jason Haap Loa Bennett Saad Ghosn Sabrina Amos Desmond Brown Cleo Wombles Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Homeless Coalition Justin Jeffre Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Bill Woods Cincinnati Cleo Wombles Desmond Brown Dick Croy Dr. Mark Mussman Homeless Coalition Jason Haap Josh Spring Justin Jeffre Kim Green Loa Bennett Religion Rights Saad Ghosn Sabrina Amos Tent City Trenton Davis Voting Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/9ac0e8259fc06f03192403c8c5ecc5e5.pdf 25b1cd42b5ef5b8fb81ce2a5eb2e6643 PDF Text Text September 21st - October 4th 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 17 (No. 390) advocating justice | building community Educational Opportunities Abound | 3 This Issue is sponsored by Cecilia and Tom Kloecker INSIDE THIS ISSUE Dismal News About Growing Poverty | 2 Religious Peacemakers: Bakhtavar & Fred Desai | 8 SunWatch Village | 9 When Things Go Broke | 12 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: Time for Action W e need action that results in strategic change. Not “change” in a cliché sense, but we need to operate in a way that actually accomplishes what people need. In terms of homelessness and housing, we know what the problems are, and we know what causes those problems. We know that vast amounts of people are losing their homes. We know that people are unjustly being evicted from their homes. We know companies who receive city development incentives are displacing people from their homes. We know we don’t have anywhere near the amount of affordable housing that we need and we know that daily housing is getting only more expensive as significant numbers of affordable homes become threatened and are decreasing in quality. We know that shelters and other existing “homelessness services” can’t possibly keep up and we know that in reality we should be preventing these problems before they even happen. We also know that we could S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition create and fund an affordable housing trust fund, legislate protections for people against unjust evictions and provide resources to keep people in their homes. We cannot disburse development incentives to companies that displace and instead require that such incentives must be coupled with the development of affordable housing and living wage employment. We can end the governmental criminalization of homelessness by protecting peoples’ basic human rights. We can create legislation that supports the right of tenants to organize themselves and would prevent housing discrimination based on one’s source of income. We can stop giving millions of tax dollars to wealthy people and wealthy companies and instead invest those dollars into the well being of people who really need it. We know the problems, we know the causes of the problems, we know the results of the problems and we know the solutions. In fact, we have known all of this; we have not recently learned these things. Yet we are in the same situations we have been in, except they are getting worse. Our organization and our partners are acting, we are organizing people, advocating, researching and presenting solutions. The people who can pass these legislative items and policy changes need to also act. We have to get beyond discussions and accomplish what we know needs to happen. Dismal News About Growing Poverty T he news media reported last week about growing poverty in Cincinnati. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of residents living in poverty increased by more than 10,000 from 2007 to 2017. Translated into percentages, the city's poverty rate during that decade grew by 4.2 percent to climb to 27.7 percent of its total population. Consequently, Cincinnati has the dubious distinction to be included with four other cities that possess the highest poverty rates among U.S. communities with populations of over 250,000. Although Cincinnati ranked third behind New Orleans and Mesa, Arizona in terms of the poverty growth rate from 2007 to 2017, very few middle size to large cities in the U.S. fared very well during this time frame. In fact, the poverty percentages in half of the country's eighty-one largest cities have not declined to their pre-recession levels. During this decade, the poverty rate in both Ohio and the nation also grew. What are we to make of these dismal numbers that don't seem to jibe with rosy current reports about the U.S. economy? Certainly, they come as no surprise to members of the Homeless Coalition or Advocates For Affordable Housing who work BILL WOODS Contributing Writer with people in economic distress on a daily basis. The recent LISCstudy that shows Cincinnati to have an affordable housing deficit of 40,000 units also provided evidence to prepare us for the grim poverty statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Why is poverty in Cincinnati and in the nation as a whole continuing to grow at a time when traditional economic indicators indicate a successful economy? For those who are able to connect the dots like former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, the reasons are obvious. They see the direct connection between government policy and economic inequality. Since the 1980s, the influence of "big money" and corporate lobbyists have grown at a rapid rate. It is no coincidence that the tradition launched by the New Deal of government policies that promoted a more equitable economy and pieced together a safety net of programs and services has waned. Ronald Reagan as (Continued on page 3) Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Jason Haap, Maria Funcheon, Bob Brown, Jim Luken, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Cleo Wombles, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Dr. Mark Mussman, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Aimee Willhoite, Bill Woods --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Bill Woods accepting last year's buddy gray award Credit: Homeless Coalition THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �LOCAL Educational Opportunities Abound 3 No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 DR. MARK MUSSMAN E ducation is one of the best ways for people to gain a new perspective. Whether you take a Over-the-Rhine People's Movement Walking Tour with the Homeless Coalition, take in a Speaker, or participate in a Streetvibes Shadow Activity, you will undoubtedly gain a new perspective on homelessness. We intend for this work to increase your knowledge about statistics regarding poverty and homelessness in the city but also gaining that perspective to increase your empathy that you have towards people who you might interact with on a daily basis. Understanding the different types of homelessness including living in a car, a shelter, on the street, couch-surfing, or even “homeless at home” where you might have a roof over your head, but there is no food on the table or any support, is the difference of supporting people who need help and becoming an advocate. The walking tour is an opportunity for you to learn about the history of Cincinnati, and of the neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine. This opportunity takes place on your schedule, we do these during the Staff Writer Willa Jones, Streetvibes Distributor and Author, shared her poetry with groups Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman completed by going out onto the street and distributing the paper yourself. We do this in groups, so it is a very supportive environment. People get a new perspective on panhandling through this activity, and it also helps them understand how they can respond to panhandling in their own lives. We offer other educational activities, including one called Shelter Seekers. Shelter Seekers puts yourself in the shoes of somebody who runs a shelter. You are tasked with determining who can stay in the shelter for the night, and who has to find somewhere else to go. Can you make a decision between an older person and a family? This activity is beneficial because all of our shelters are over capacity and so many people, most people, are turned away from the shelter. This is not because the shelters don't work all the time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but because the need is so great. Participating in one or all of these housing, and what currently is available in the neighborhood. This is also an opportunity to learn about what is affordable housing and what does it actually looks like. The speaking engagement is an opportunity to hear from somebody who has experienced homelessness. By putting a face on to the issue, we Cleo Wombles, Homeless Coalition Speakers Bureau Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman are more likely to understand how we can get involved to eradicate homelessness. We have several different speakers who all have an amazing story. Their stories illustrate the ways in which people end up without a home, the ways that they struggled during their homelessness, and hopefully how they're doing today. Each speaker is paid for their time, this ensures that they know that we value them. Just like our educational events, we are available to do these on nights and during the weekends. During the Streetvibes Shadow activity you will be able to learn about how Streetvibes works what goes into making the paper, and who sells the paper, and why. You also hear an individual's story who benefits from the work of Streetvibes, and to put in the work to become a distributor of the paper. This opportunity is dollars. This year, after Congress passed a huge tax cut for corporations and the very rich, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposes raising the rents for occupants of Public Housing. These connected trends of a Congress that is a captive of "big money," and the continual government neglect of growing income inequality and poverty, led a scholar of economics, Robert Reich, to chair the reform group Common Cause in recent years. Reich believes that before we can ever forge new policies to bring about a more equitable economy, we will need to repair our battered democratic process. So, the data released last week on Cincinnati's increased poverty rate is more understandable when seen in the context of political and governmental systems that no longer have an interest in controlling corporate or financial excesses or in Sam Jackson, Homeless Coalition Speakers Bureau, shared his story with CUE students Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman weekend and at night as well. If you get together a group of people, we can do a tour up to about 25 people at a time. Each tour only cost $80. There is also an opportunity to learn about gentrification, displacement, and hostile design. Learn about buddy gray, the struggle for affordable BILL WOODS (Continued from page 3) President even articulated an ideology that blames the poor for their poverty and dismisses anti-poverty programs as counterproductive. From Reagan till today, we have witnessed a steady erosion of funding for programs that assist low income individual and families. For instance, as early as 1987, federal funds for various affordable housing programs had been slashed by $7.8-billion THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED programs through the Homeless Coalition will give you a new perspective on poverty, as well as, how we work to eradicate homelessness. We must work to create and sustain affordable housing, livable wages, and housing protections. Only through structural change will we be able to ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing. Please visit our website to request an educational event. --------------------------------------maintaining an adequate safety net. Reforming these systems is going to take time and monumental citizen organizing. Nevertheless, the process starts now by convincing potential voters that their vote still counts, and that the upcoming midterm elections could be a first step in reestablishing a government that at least partially believes it exists to serve "we the people." --------------------------------------- �4 OPINION S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 SHELTERHOUSE (Greater Cincinnati largest homeless shelter) The David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men 411 Gest Street Cincinnati, OH 45203 513-721-0643 Wednesday October 17, 2018 9:00 – 11:30 am Shelterhouse is seeking employers to participate in our job fair! Areas of interest. • • • • Entry level Customer Service Skilled labor Dishwasher and more…. *11:15 a.m. - RAFFLE DRAWING *Qualified Participants- Unhoused RRH clients, housed RRH clients, and those who once participated in the Rapid Re-Housing Program. Shelterhouse Contact: Lavelle Horne: lhorne@shelterhousecincy.org or (513) 614-6018 Are stereotypes good? W hat if I told you the local library had a new program for your kids? Would you be interested in having someone read your children stories while madeup in blackface? I think you might rightfully be horrified at the notion. Why, then, are we encouraged to celebrate when men read stories to kids while made-up in girlface? If you've not heard of "girlface," it is the more accurate term for what otherwise gets called "drag." "Drag Queen Story Hours" are popping up in several cities, and proponents claim this is a good way to teach children about gender fluidity. JASON HAAP Contributing Writer First, let me make some things clear: I have no problems with the concept of "gender fluidity," and I don't have a problem teaching children about it. I do question, however, the wisdom of promoting gross stereotypes of half the population under the guise of education. I am aware that drag queens have a long history in gay and lesbian culture. Blackface also had a history in American culture, but that doesn't make it right. This parallel, though (which is not a criticism original to me), is not based merely on the fact that people are painting their faces to look differently. Instead, it's the fact that girlface, like blackface, takes all the worst stereotypes, and then exaggerates them to a grotesque extreme. What are some hallmarks of "girlface"? Portraying women as self-absorbed, overly sexualized, and behaving in a way most traditionally described as "bitchy." Why would anyone want young girls to look up to such a twisted portrayal? If a character in blackface wanted to teach kids about how to overcome racism, I'd oppose the notion. The righteousness of the message THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED would not excuse the portrayal. Honestly, I feel like this nasty portrayal of femininity is bad for all women - straight, gay, cis, trans, etc. Womanhood is not enriched by portraying it in offensive and cartoonish ways. Trans women do not look like drag queens, and that's because, in their attempt to live as their true selves, they are not tapping into the worst stereotypes we have about females. So, I'm sorry, but I just can't get on board with "Drag Queen Story Hours," though for reasons markedly different from what I imagine are the common objections from our conservative neighbors. [Editor’s note: You can contact Jason Haap at jasonhaap@gmail. com or send letters to the editor at streetvibes@cincihomeless.org] �OPINION Young Athletes: Be A Player Who Acts No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 W MARIA FUNCHEON ith all eyes on Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has gained considerable attention for his activism against police brutality toward people of color, it’s his collusion lawsuit against the NFL that could be the next gut punch that unveils another side America’s most profitable sport. Some fans believe Kaepernick is being punished for speaking out against racial issues, while others believe his skill level is keeping him off the field. The outspoken quarterback however, who is the new face of Nike, has similar stats to mid-range starting quarterbacks but has been unable to find a job even as a backup in the league. Teams have chosen to sign formerly retired, allegedly out of shape players over Kaepernick likely to avoid inheriting a media mayhem. Whatever the case, his lawsuit is moving forward and could shine needed light on the treatment of outspoken black players by the NFL as an organization. While talent on the field is rewarded in the form of multimillion-dollar contracts, NFL players are also expected to toe the line in H their personal lives. For players who don’t obey the rules, there are consequences. Writing in an oped in Sports Illustrated, former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Jared Odrick argued, “We pledge allegiance to the sport in lieu of a free market and keep our heads down. I’ve asked myself on multiple occasions, Do I want to speak the truth or do I want to make money?” Odrick, who was later released by Jacksonville, recognized that he would likely never play again in the NFL after writing additional articles stating that social injustices cannot continue to be ignored by the league. He is still in free agency. When league Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owners clashed with the NFL Players Association on the freedom to kneel during the anthem, the lines were drawn in the sand. It was clear that the league did not support players’ right to use their voices as any part of a social justice narrative. Despite the fact that 70% of NFL players are black, 74% of NFL front office staff is white. Shahid Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, is currently the only non-white team owner in the league. A Pakistani immigrant to the United States, Khan was the only owner to participate in the player protests during the 2017 season, locking arms with his players during a game in London. In an effort to increase diversity in high level positions, the league instituted the “Rooney Rule” in 2002, which dictated that a minority candidate must be interviewed when making a new head coaching or general manager appointment. When the Rooney Rule was established, there were only two minority head coaches. Last season there were eight. Although these are promising steps to increasing diversity, the league remains painfully white off the field. In 2016, 80 of the 85 offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches, and quality control coaches were white, while all but one defensive coordinator were white. The Rooney Rule is proof that the league is capable of recognizing issues of diversity within their own organization and taking action where it is needed, at least with their upper level staff. The league, however, has not shown this Cincinnati has solved the Homeless crisis… BOB BROWN ardly. When the city issued the initial 72-hour eviction notice to the homeless encampment at 3rd and Plum, I imagined it was due to embarrassment if not abject shame. “Welcome to Cincinnati, here are our citizens”. How, pray tell, can people be evicted from nowhere? The city’s compromise solution only provided a five-day reprieve, a few more trash cans and a couple of portalets. When that encampment was relocated, the primary achievement was reclaiming tail-gating real estate for Bengals fans many of whom break all the city’s open container laws and some of whom get drunk and disorderly in public – all with impunity! What’s more, the inference has been D Contributing Writer Staff Writer advanced that the “campers” refused to go to perfectly good shelter spaces, when, in fact, the shelters are, by and large, overcrowded, under-resourced and are life-sized petri dishes for the cultivation of diseases, including but not limited to hepatitis A, B and C, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, lice, scabies and bed bugs. One might argue that the public crisis we are witnessing is positive in that it elevates the conversation we should be having. Prior to engaging in the dialogue, we must dispel the stereotypes often attached to people experiencing homelessness and other marginalized populations. When I engaged the people in the 3rd Street encampment,nowdubbedtheColony, I was struck by the sheer strength of their community. They appear to care for and about one another, they protect one another, provide for one another and defend their rules and standards. They have literally saved the lives of community members through Narcan interventions and have successfully persuaded others to enter rehabilitation programs. Other Cincinnati neighborhoods would welcome such a strong sense of community. Surely there are substance abusers in the community, people with mental/behavioral health issues, even lazy people in the population, but it is arguable that the Letter to the Editor ear Editor: Last issue, I sent in a story to Streetvibes about the social situation in the semi-rural community to which I have retired. I mentioned having joined a friendly creative-writing group in my adopted town (Peace Dale, RI). For our most recent weekly JIM LUKEN Contributing Writer meeting, I read an old Streetvibes essay (which was republished last issue) I had written about racism (“White Like Me,” May 2015) in rural communites (Hillsboro, OH and Northeastern VT) where I had once lived. I promised a brief report on the reaction of my writing group to this essay. Well, my new friends greeted the story with a good deal of interest, even some enthusiasm. I fielded quite a few intelligent responses and questions. These folks seem to clearly understand that their environs near THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 5 same gusto in supporting diversity and inclusion of thought for players -- their main source of revenue. Jackie Robinson, known for breaking the color barrier in American baseball, was known by many for going about his politics “the right way”: keeping his mouth shut and doing his job in the face of horrible racism. What people may not know was that Robinson was, in fact, very politically active and outspoken. He chose, however, to mainly share his beliefs with the black community, or only after he was no longer playing major league baseball. In 2018, over 70 years after Jackie Robinson took first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, it’s a shame that major league sports are still bullying their black players into choosing between sacrificing their careers, their livelihoods, and their chance to play the sport they love to advocate for what they believe. Sadly, Odrick is right: Right now, the NFL only wants players who play, not players who act – but times are changing. Kaepernick’s activism, his lawsuit, and his commercials are inspiring millions of motivated young athletes around world to be athletes who act. In ten years, professional sports will be full of athletes who grew up idolizing Colin Kaepernick. --------------------------------------- numbers are proportionally higher than in the general population. The simple fact is that Hamilton County is short about 40,000 housing units. What people experiencing homelessness need is permanent, affordable and supportive housing along with appropriate job training and behavioral health counselling. We appear to be disinclined to invest in this actual and affirmative solution, but are willing to devote resources to projects and endeavors that will actually exacerbate the problem. Stop chasing unicorns! There is little shame in this spectacle and even less empathy. the seashore do not provide much opportunity for interaction with black folks. Some mentioned that this was their loss. A number of those gathered had worked in bigger cities and knew the problems first hand. As an outsider, I am pleased to have become a part of a new (for me) group of people who, like most of us, struggle to understand the world around them, as well as the world at large. Sincerely, Jim Luken �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 �OPINION The Seventeen Year-long Lie or Fool me Once No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 JIM LUKEN Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s most people today believe, the CIA, in 1963, pulled off the crime of the century. Once they got away with killing JFK (and Oswald), the spooks knew that they could pull off just about anything. So, in 2001, this century had barely begun, and they provided us with another one. At minimum the most sophisticated and mammothlyfunded intelligence community in the world, did absolutely nothing to prevent 19 partying, bungling Arabs from creating nationwide havoc and fear, by purportedly using box cutters to bring down three buildings and put a hole in the most secure government building, the Pentagon. I have been writing essays, interviews, investigative pieces, and even a movie (non)-review [American Sniper] for this newspaper for more than seven years. At the request of the retiring editor, I sent in numerous articles over the past year from my new home in Rhode Island. I am very proud of this “street” paper and proud that I have been a part of its long history. This will be the last story I send…probably. About four years ago, I did a series—five issues in a row—of stories related to various famous (and infamous) conspiracies, including the Kennedy assassination. As a serious writer, I do my best to unearth the honest-to-God truth regarding anything I write. The conspiracy that has occupied most of my time and energy for the past 17 years is the one surrounding what really happened on (and before and after) the so-called “terrorist attacks” on this country that occurred on September 11, 2001. I don't hesitate to state, up front, that I am convinced that the primary terrorists on that day, “the day that changed everything,” were our own government, its military, its intelligence agencies, aided and abetted by money and espionage from several foreign governments. If any of you find this notion unpatriotic or crazy, feel free to write letters to the editor. I promise to read them and respond with my own letter. In addition to my Streetvibes pieces about 9/11, I also wrote a satirical one act play about it (“Photoop”, or “My Intrusting Day at Skule”) in which George W. Bush is famously sitting in a classroom in Florida listening to 2nd graders recite a story about a pet goat, all the while our country is clearly “under attack.” As he sits there thinking about what is going on up north, W is visited by his dad, his wife, the CIA, even Jesus, who he has invoked through several A Contributing Writer “Oh-dear-God-what-am-I-doinghere?” prayers. [Interestingly, Dick Croy, a close friend and also a contributor to this newspaper, wrote his own screenplay (now a novella) entitled “False Flag,” and dealing with painful human fallout from 9/11. It can be read for free online at Scribd.com.  https:// www.scribd.com/doc/142983438/ FALSE-FLAG-Novella ] Owning an MA in theater, I also wrote a full-length play (Special Eddy) about an Iraq vet with PTSD, who has soured on his involvement in that war, and who now teaches special education at an inner-city school. The teacher, Eddy, debunks the conspiracy theory at first, but—after some on-line research— becomes a true believer. He decides to use YouTube evidence in hopes of convincing his pet student, a fiery black 17-year-old, to give up on his plan of becoming a Marine and “killing ragheads in Iraq. No theater in Cincy would take on my play. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11/01, when I was 64, I took an overnight bus ride to Manhattan and made my way to Ground Zero. There, among thousands of demonstrators, I carried a tri-fold sign that I had made back in Cincy. The sign read: “We honor the victims by learning the truth.” A Canadian radio station interviewed me about the sign. I also talked to an on-duty NYPD cop who had lost friends in the collapse of the Towers. He told me that many cops on the force, as well as many firemen, know that this had to have been an inside job, but were forbidden to say a word publicly about their convictions. I used a fake name in quoting this angry policeman. Over the years I have helped convince many people to take a long look at the official government story, and at the mountain of contradictory evidence compiled by (literally) thousands of people all over the world who believe that 9/11 was an inside job. That the Arabs were patsies. That WE did it! In this my swan song for Streetvibes, I will simply set out a list of factoids (mostly from memory) indicating that the events of that day did not happen the way the 9/11 Commission report said they did. You are free to totally disagree, or to do some research yourself. Your favorite search engine will provide tons of articles and videos. My intention here is to simply provide a concise list of inconsistencies, oddities, lies and impossibilities. To see long lists of professionals who agree with me, please check out (on-line): Patriots for 9/11 Truth, Pilots for 9/11Truth, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (3000 + of them). Many academics and celebrities are on board as well. So here goes: About the 9/11 Commission: Bush tried his best to keep the commission from ever happening. After the Commission’s report was released, the two head guys, Gov. Tom Kean and Sen. Lee Hamilton (in their book, Without Precedent) stated outright that “we were set up to fail.” They wrote that they had been underfunded and lied to by Norad (North American Aerospace Command), the FAA, the Defense Department and the CIA, and given insufficient time to do a thorough job. In the lame attempt at uncovering the truth, the 9/11 Commission failed to even mention World Trade Center 7, a 47-story skyscraper that collapsed into its own footprint late that fateful afternoon at Ground Zero. The 19 Terrorists, the alleged hijackers: 1) Several of them took flight training (in small Cessna prop planes). One flunked. 2) We have been shown no video evidence of them boarding the planes. 3) All of those named as hijackers were from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, seven of these are alive today, living in those countries, the apparent victims of identity theft. 4) After 9/11, the US did not choose to attack Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Instead, we attacked Afghanistan (where as of now we have been at war for 17 years). [Later, we all-but destroyed (Iraq) a sovereign country that is proven to have had nothing whatsoever to do with the 9/11 attacks]. The planes: Most of the worldwide conspiracy community believes that drone technology (available at that time) had been secretly installed in each of the planes. Thus, shortly after take-off, the planes could no longer be controlled from the cockpits (by either the pilots or the patsy hijackers). They flew into the buildings at such speed, and—in the case of the Pentagon—using an incredibly difficult flight maneuver. Dozens of pilots have avowed that such a maneuver would have been possible for only the most skilled professionals. Supposedly only one flight recorder was recovered from the four planes. These are almost always located after a crash. What happened to them? Only one video exists of United Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon. It is impossible to identify an actual aircraft in the explosion. Footage from dozens of other surveillance cameras was confiscated and never released by the Pentagon. The small hole in the building and the absence of any large pieces of wreckage at the scene, have led many researchers to believe that a missile hit the Pentagon, not a giant aircraft. [I find THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 7 myself on the side of it having been a 757 (controlled by a computer or drone pilot) rather than a “missile.”] United Flight 93 famously was said to have “crashed” in remote Shanksville, PA, because brave passengers stormed the cockpit and deliberately prevented it from it doing further damage in Washington, DC. Maybe some readers saw the “Let's Roll” movie. It is a fact however that debris from that plane was found as far as eight miles away from the purported crash site. If you Google “Flight 93 crash site,” you will see an incredibly small hole in the ground, and almost none of the horrible wreckage we associate with giant plane crashes. Many conspiracy researchers believe that an unmarked (government?) plane, seen flying near flight 93, shot the plane down in mid-flight. Probably the most incredible fact regarding the four jetliners is that they flew erratically over the east coast for nearly two hours without ever being intercepted by the most world's most sophisticated air defense system, and that this occurred in the most heavily defended air corridor (Boston to DC) in the world. Sixty-seven times during the previous year, planes had gone off course and were dutifully intercepted by our fighter jets. Another mystery: there were at least five war games being conducted by the US military that day in that air corridor. This apparently resulted in enormous confusion among flight controllers, pilots and commanders, making it difficult for them to distinguish the reality of what was going on in real time from this strange set of exercises. Could this be a coincidence? If so, it is seldom mentioned by those who support the official account. George W. Bush and the pet goat story. This has received a great deal of attention, perhaps because “W” has always been considered something of a buffoon, a Keystone Kop, a member of “the gang that couldn't shoot straight.” The worst president ever, before you know whom. In the midst of this second-grade “photo op” event, the President's press secretary, Andy Card, came up to W, whispering in his ear, “A second building has been hit. America is under attack.” Bush then sits there, a strange quizzical look on his face, instead of—one would hope— jumping into action as, you know, Commander in Chief. Even more incredible is the fact that all the Secret Service protocols involving “a clear and present danger” to the President were ignored that day. No one knew if there were other terrorist planes heading for the school where Bush dallied for 20 + minutes, theoretically putting students and staff, and all the others who were present into imminent hazard. As one who has lampooned this Pet Goat situation, I still shake my (Continued on page 11) �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds" Has Been the Constant Motto of Bakhtavar & Fred Desai Throughout Their Life and One of the Essential Teachings of Their Zoroastrian Faith S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 "W e were taught all of our life to think good, speak good and do good," say in unison Bakhtavar and Fred Desai, both Indian descendants of Parsi Zoroastrian priests, ancient Iranians who fled Iran after the Arab Invasion and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Persia in the mid-7th century, and who resettled in India. "India is a melting pot; and we grew up with people of all religions, free and respectful of each other, in good relations with all," they add. Partners in life and in faith, both Bakhtavar and Fred, growing up, were nurtured by their peaceful religion and by the Non-Violence ideals of Gandhi, also taught by their parents, at school, and through society to live peacefully together and to never look down at anyone else because of their different appearance, religion, race, socio-economic status... Bakhtavar grew up in Nagpur, Central India, and attended a private secular school for girls founded more than a hundred years ago by a group of philanthropic Zoroastrian industrialists, the Tata family, at the request of the wife of one of their founding members, as she wanted to provide education and literacy to women equal to men. The school was open to all girls, irrespective of their SAAD GHOSN Contributing Writer religion, and they all had to attend classes on moral standing which taught them general values and good principles on which to base their life. Fred attended a similar school for boys but in Mumbai where he was raised. Growing up, both celebrated with their family Zoroastrian religious events and festivals, and participated also in feasts and holidays of the other religions of their city, in particular Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Nowruz, the Persian new year celebrated every 21st of March, was a Holy Day for them and marked the respect of their religious community for the creation of God, the birth of the spiritual and material world, the elements of earth, sky, water, air, plants and animals. The festivities included visits to the Zoroastrian fire temple, prayers, reunions and meals with family and friends. They also participated, among others, in "gahambars", festivals that marked seasonal changes centered around agriculture and farming activities, and that expressed their appreciation to God. The Desai's childhood and teen age were quiet and with no strife. Both, however, were critical of the Hindu cast system prevalent in their society and which gave less importance to the low cast poor "servants", the "Untouchables", than to the Brahman priests. "We were revolting among ourselves why would someone be called "Untouchable" and we would not miss an opportunity to befriend Bakhtavar and Fred Desai What is the ZOROASTRIAN religion (aka ZOROASTRIANISM) Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest existing religions, with roots possibly dating back to the second millennium BCE. Zoroastrianism which entered recorded history in the 5thcentury BCE, served as the state religion of the pre-Islamic Iranian empires for more than a millennium, from around 600 BCE to 650 CE. It was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633–654. Zoroastrianism is ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian speaking prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra), and exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), as its Supreme Being. It is monotheistic, with a single creator god, dualistic in cosmology with the concept of good and evil, and eschatological, predicting the ultimate destruction of evil. Some of its major features such as messianism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and free will have influenced other religious systems, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Zoroastrianism's purpose in life is to "be among those who renew the world... to make the world progress towards perfection". Its basic tenets include: • Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. • The existence of only one path which is the path of Truth. • The need to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and that all beneficial rewards will follow. Central to Zoroastrianism is the emphasis on moral choice, to choose the responsibility and duty for which one is in the mortal world. Predestination is rejected, and humans bear responsibility for all situations they are in, and in the way they act toward one another. Reward, punishment, happiness, and grief all depend on how individuals live their lives. The number of Zoroastrians in the world is low and in decline. It is currently estimated at around 200,000, with most living in India and in Iran. In the Greater Cincinnati area they are close to 150. the workers at school, in residential settings, in public areas," says Bakhtavar. "And my parents would pay for the education of our maid's children and facilitate employment for her relatives, in order to help them climb the ladder," adds Fred. After High School, Bakhtavar joined the local university of her town and studied business graduating with a bachelor’s degree. And after working for a while and earning some money, she put it toward her personal interest pursuing degrees in English Literature. Fred graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai, then with a PhD from the University of Akron, OH, in the US. In the meantime, and according to the religious tradition of his family he had also studied to become a Zoroastrian priest, a function he practices until now, leading prayers and officiating at weddings and christenings. While a student Fred would also participate in various activities helping others, such as, for instance, raising money for earthquake victims, helping fellow Indian students adjust to their new conditions in the US and insuring some of their basic needs, meeting with congressmen in Columbus in support of minority rights... After obtaining his doctorate degree Fred returned to India, married Bakhtavar and both resettled right after in Ann Arbor for 4 years, Fred pursuing a post-doctoral Credit: Saad Ghosn research fellowship. "Ann Arbor was very multicultural. We interacted with people from all over the world, learned about their culture and developed friendships," they say. "People in Ann Arbor also had strong concerns for the environment, for nature and the earth, and this resonated with us and our religion," they add. The Desai's started recycling, reusing, avoiding disposable and nonrecyclable materials such as plastic bags and bottles, aluminum products, etc. They continue doing so now, and have engrained this ecological notion in their three daughters and in the youth they interact with. Recently, in an effort to reduce their reliance of fossil fuels, they installed solar panels on the roof of their house. In 1993, the Desai's moved to Cincinnati where Fred had secured a job at Procter and Gamble. This prompted Bakhtavar's regular involvement with the Fairfield City Schools system that her daughters attended. For many years she volunteered her time every day from 9am to noon helping elementary level (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �9 LOCAL SunWatch Village No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 T MICHAEL EARL PATTON he Indians who lived in Ohio before the settlers of European descent arrived at the end of the 18th century are rarely written about. Or shown in movies and television programs. Hollywood has made hundreds of movies and television episodes about the Indians to the west and the conflicts there, but virtually nothing Contributing Writer about the Indians -- and conflicts -here. Here was quite different and if one’s “education” about their culture comes from watching old movies and programs, it will badly lead you astray if you try to apply it to Ohio. We are coming upon the 225th anniversary of General Anthony Wayne’s campaign against the Indians. His march north towards their stronghold began from Fort Washington in Cincinnati. He defeated the alliance of tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers which lead to the Indians signing the Treaty of Greenville, ceding southern Ohio to the new United States. This is what allowed Cincinnati and other communities in southern Ohio to expand. But the Indians were here first and I have wanted to write about them first. My last couple articles were about the site we now call Fort Ancient; recently I went to Dayton to visit a partial reconstruction of an Indian village from roughly the year 1200 that we now call SunWatch Village. (Continued on page 12) SunWatch - Reconstructed Dwelling SunWatch - Harvesting Corn Credit: Michael Earl Patton Credit: Michael Earl Patton (clockwise) Top: SunWatch - Village Model Right: SunWatch - Storage Pit Left: SunWatch - Reconstructed Village Credit: Michael Earl Patton SunWatch - Prarie Grass and Museum Credit: Michael Earl Patton SunWatch - Reconstructed Interior Credit: Michael Earl Patton THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED SunWatch - Gravesite Credit: Michael Earl Patton �10 LOCAL S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 September 7 - 29, 2018 For tickets please call (513) 381-2273 Purchase tickets online at www.cincyshakes.com AD Donated by Mark and Sue Ann Painter season sponsored by the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 JIM LUKEN (Continued from page 7) head in disbelief, not that “W” would be a part of such a travesty. His whole presidency was a kind of travesty. But that his handlers and protectors would ignore their responsibilities and their extensive training rituals. Finally, World Trade Center Building #7. Those of us who are part of the “9/11 Truth Community” believe that, of all the incredible anomalies of that day, this is “the smoking gun.” Building 7 was almost as tall as the Carew Tower. Like Towers 1 and 2, it was built to withstand the impact of a large jetliner. Seven hours after the implosions of Buildings 1 and 2, Building 7—which had been hit by small pieces of burning debris igniting numerous “office fires,” suddenly collapsed, the upper floors falling to the ground at freefall speed. [Engineers inform us that it is impossible for a building to come down at free-fall speed unless all resistance has been eliminated through the use carefully timed explosives.] SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) kids improve their reading, writing and math skills, raising their general literacy. To increase cultural awareness and foster understanding and tolerance the Desai's also contributed to the creation of a yearly "Celebration of Diversity" day at the various schools of Fairfield, at which more than 20 different nationalities and spoken languages are generally represented. For the past 10 years, both also have been volunteering as Girl Scout Troop Leaders, helping girls discover their strengths and empowering them to change the world. To raise funds, the girls would sell cookies; they would then be encouraged to use part of the money they earned to benefit others and local organizations. They have bought, for instance, a refrigerator for a local homeless shelter; contributed money to "Global Giving," the non-profit organization that provides crowdfunding MICHAEL EARL PATTON (Continued from page 9) What the Indians themselves called it, or called Fort Ancient for that matter, we do not know. Confusingly we call the Indians who lived here at that time “Fort Ancient” Indians because researchers first thought that people from their culture had built the earthworks at Fort Ancient. Now we know the earthworks were built by earlier Indian cultures that we call the Adena and Hopewell, but the name stuck. (Columbus, as is well known, thought he had discovered a new route to India and called the people he met “Indians.” And Fort Ancient was not a fort. Early researchers, by LOCAL 11 At first, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) denied the “free-fall speed” argument when researchers pointed it out. Then a high school physics teacher proved that the top floors had indeed gone at that speed. NIST had to admit the fact, but it has never posited an argument for how this could have occurred. It cannot be stressed enough that no steel-frame building in the history of modern architecture (or since) has ever collapsed due to fire. Buildings that burned for a much longer time (and at higher temperatures) have sagged and bent, but never collapsed into their own “footprint.” Only buildings that have been carefully wired for controlled demolition do that. This of course would require that the three WTC towers be wired for demolition in the weeks and months prior to that tragic day. On that day, three huge buildings, all showing the signs of carefully controlled demolition, went down. This is why so many architects and engineers have risked their careers by calling these obvious implosions into question. The BBC and Building 7 (please Google it). If WTC 7 is the smoking gun of 9/11, this video from the BBC is the silver bullet that blows a deadly hole in the government's official account of the events of that awful day. It's right there for all the world to see. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, BBC reporter Jane Stanley is being filmed live inside a room on an upper floor of a nearby building. A smoke-shrouded Ground Zero can be seen behind her through a large window. Stanley is telling her viewing audience that Building 7 has already collapsed, 20 minutes before that collapse actually takes place. It has been verified that the structure behind her is indeed Building 7. The precise time of this televised report has been authenticated. How could this have happened? This question has never been adequately answered. The BBC is the most respected news source in the world. As such it blames the mistake on the chaos of the day. The owner of the WTC buildings, Larry Silverstein said (again famously) of Building 7, “We had to pull it.” “Pull it” is the exact phrase used when referring to a controlled demolition. If this video verifies what it seems to verify, everything we know about our geo-political world-view, as well as the media that reports on it, would be called into question. I leave it do you, Reader, to determine for yourself whether or not it is past time for such questioning to begin in earnest. The 9/11 Truth Community has for many years called for an independent investigation. Rumsfeld and the missing 2.3 trillion. Here is a relevant footnote: On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference announcing that the Pentagon had been found to have misplaced 2.3 trillion dollars. [The 17-year Afghan war has cost US taxpayers $1 trillion.] The following day, something blew up that area of the Pentagon where civilian accountants were working to find out if the money was really missing and if so where had it gone. This bombshell report was totally lost in the deluge of noise resulting from the “terrorist” attacks the following day. platforms for grassroots charitable projects worldwide. They have also collected to be-thrown-away aluminum products and sold them to an aluminum recycler, instead of seeing them in landfills polluting the earth. Bakhtavar serves as a trustee on the board of the local Fairfield food pantry and, thanks to her experience as a CPA acquired in the US, helps find/raise funds for its operation. Each year, the pantry provides food to close to 10,000 residents of the city, out of a population of 45 000. Prompted by questions from their children about their religion and their cultural heritage, the Desai's founded the nonprofit Zoroastrian Association of KY, OH and IN in order to share knowledge about their religion and keep it and its ancient history alive in the region. They lead their tri-state community through various activities, including regional gatherings, teachings, social encounters and community building, summer camps for the children... Bakhtavar presides the association. Learning about the Amos Project's efforts for Criminal Justice Reform in Ohio, the Desai's collected signatures to put the proposal on the ballot. In doing this, they talked personally to potential voters, raised their awareness about the issue, explained how a needed Criminal Justice Reform would bring more justice and peace in our society. For Fred two issues are of great importance: the protection of the environment; and righteousness and truthfulness. He engages all his friends and colleagues on these issues, providing educational information when appropriate and correcting false news and wrong data whenever he encounters them. "We need to counter the negative and rely on correct information that leads to the right choice," he states, "and education, especially of the youth, in that respect, is primordial." In fact, the Desai's would like to remain involved in promoting the literacy of young children and to continue serving as mentors in their city schools. They also want to get more involved in the Cincinnati community at large, expand their encounters and work for secular issues. "I am an activist by heart," says Bakhtavar. "I strive to do every day what I think is right for my family, my community and the world." And they both add: "Our religion is a constant reminder and an inspiration to us to be the best possible persons we can be, to lead selfless lives and help advance the efforts of others who want to make our world a better place for all." Zoroastrianism, the Desai's religion, teaches them the brotherhood of mankind, and both Bakhtavar and Fred realize that in order to achieve it they need to be peacemakers and activists for a more just and fair society. And this is what dictates their daily actions and intentions. calling the people of this culture “Fort Ancient Indians,” completed the string of misnomers.) This was the last pre-contact Indian culture to inhabit the Ohio River valley. The village site was temporary, it appears to have been inhabited about 20 - 30 years. This is typical of the Fort Ancient culture. It is likely that they farmed the area and moved on when soil nutrients became depleted. Where the SunWatch villagers moved to, we do not know. Sometimes village sites were reinhabited after the soil had a chance to recover. There are indications that this was a second occupation. Being made of natural materials which decay, there was nothing above ground. Importantly, there were several inches of soil deposited during floods of the nearby Great Miami River which protected the archaeological layer from the modern plow. Wooden posts leave a discoloration in the soil when they decay. Based on those marks, other clues, and comparisons to historical records of other villages, researchers discovered that the village was about 3 acres, surrounded by a kind of stockade with posts about 2 feet apart and which almost certainly had horizontal branches woven in amongst them. Dwellings for families were just inside the stockade; probably 250 – 300 people lived in the village. Then there was a ring of pits for food storage and trash, then a work area, and then an area for burials. The center had some posts, the tallest of which appeared to function as a kind of solar calendar. The shadow from the tall center post would mark important times as the position of the sunrises changed with the seasons. Most importantly, it probably marked the time when to plant the corn. The villagers had a diet that was heavily based on corn with at least half of the calories coming from that one food. Andy Sawyer, the site THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED (Continued on page 12) �12 STREET VOICE What I want to see in OTR S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 CLEO WOMBLES W hat do we want to see in Over-the-Rhine in the future? I like that there are new businesses, especially on Vine Street. I hope that from 15th Contributing Writer and Streetvibes Contributor Street and passed Liberty Street gets upgraded from housing that hasn’t been rebuilt. I also hope that more people higher neighborhood people for employment. I hope that there are still places where people with low income can still get help for food and vouchers for rent etc. I hope that crime also keeps going down more and more. When Things Go Broke Y ou know how you feel when you go broke. I think we all know that feeling, huh. Nobody around and nobody to lend a hand. But the kind of broke I’m talking about is not about money. At least I don’t think so, but you never know do you? Let me take you back a whole lot of years to 1968. I was 18 years young at the time and being like a lot of teenagers I was wild and crazy, that end of that being 6 months in Juvenile detention. I broke my elbow and forearm in two places and my wrist, half of my ligaments and tendons were messed up. I got a surgical pin from my wrist up to my forearm and was in a cast for 6 months. I had no therapy. It was not a pretty picture. Did I mention the machine broke my arm bone which never healed right? But let me bring you back to the now, August 5 I was coming down the stairs off of East Clifton. I was five steps away from the landing, I lost my balance and went down. I was so hurt I thought I had bruised my leg. I laid there for about 15 minutes thinking I MICHAEL EARL PATTON (Continued from page 11) manager at SunWatch, thinks it may have been as much as 75%. Although they ate game (primarily deer) and had other foods, the heavy reliance on corn led to a nutrient deficiency and shortened life span. The oldest seemed to have lived to their 50’s. Indians of earlier cultures, which did not grow corn, would sometimes live to their 70’s. There is little indication of violence. The purpose of the stockade is unknown, but does not appear to have been primarily for defense. It LEE MCCOY Contributing Writer and Streetvibes Contributor could get up. That didn’t happen, so I asked some people could they help me. And when they did, oh my God, the pain just shot through me, but they got me off the ground anyway. Thank the Lord the set me on the steps and yet I thought I was going to get up and walk away. Boy was I wrong. I called 911 and when they arrived here came more pain and they were as gentle as can be. But with anything that is broke, any movement will bring pain. I was in denial, but I believe somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was broken. When the x-ray came back reality set in. It’s broke. The next surgery they inserted a plate, a pin and a couple of screws. Three days later I was off to therapy. I’m not going to mention the places where I was just because of the unhappy time there. Here’s an example that made me leave before my time was up. I pushed the call light and it took forever to get help. My prescription ran out. It took them 20 hours to get me a pain pill. After I do all of the bitching I can do, they go in the energy box. They gave me two Percocet. Now I admit some of their workers were truly God sent and not may have had more than one use. One could be to keep wild animals from the stored food. Another suggestion is that the stockade was to keep the Indians’ dogs and small children from wandering off. Their society appears to have been matriarchal. This conclusion was teased out from the pottery shards recovered from the trash pits. Researchers noted that different decorative patterns were found in pits near different clusters of houses. Similar patterns tended to be in pits by the same cluster. Since pottery making and use is associated with women, and girls learned their skills from their mothers, this implies that a man moved to the woman’s family dwelling house when they mated and not the other way around. Articles associated with men did not show this pattern. There is a nice little museum at SunWatch which includes a scale model of the site and several diorama and displays. Outside is a partial reconstruction of the village with the center poles, a section of the stockade, four reconstructed houses (one gently decomposing), and some graves. The poles for the stockade and houses are in the exact locations of the originals. I hope that more heroin addicts get more opportunities where they can go and get help. And that these places always get funding, so they can stay open to help those in need. I think progress is always good, as long as it doesn’t bring harm to low income people. And I hope that there will be a place even downtown that they can afford. about a paycheck. And last, but not least I’d like to thank my sister, my brother in law, my son and my daughter for their support as well as all the people that stop me and ask me what happened. God bless you and maybe by the time you read this I’ll be using a walker instead of this wheelchair. Just keep me in your prayers and I’ll do the same. Lee McCoy, Streetvibes Distributor and Contributor Credit: Aimee Willhoite Outside there is a large area that has been replanted in prairie grass. Of course there would have been a large field of planted corn and more houses when the village was occupied, but funds limit the amount that can be done. Nonetheless, this is the best place nearby to get to get a sense of what daily life would have been like for pre-contact Indians. SunWatch Indian Village and Archaeological Park is off exit 51 on I-75. Admission is $7, and $6 for seniors and students. Children under 6 are free. Go to www.SunWatch.org for hours and directions. Streetvibes Writing Circle THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �13 STREET VOICE No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 IF I COULD THE ANONYMOUS OFFICIAL'S MOTHER GOOSE If I could be everything good "Prez Trump is unfit to lead, Unfit to lead, unfit to lead. Prez Trump is unfit to lead," Writes an anonymous official. I would be so peaceful So loving, so great I would be like Jesus So strong, so clean So pure BILL WOODS Doing right, doing good If only I could be everything good KIM GREEN Contributing Writer MY FRIENDS AND ME I wish Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer Trump responds with nasty tweets, With nasty tweets, with nasty tweets. Trump responds with nasty tweets, Tweeting, "fake news and treason!" In today’s world it’s hard to be able to call anyone a true friend But I was blessed with two in my life and that’s the way it’s always been I was blessed in grade school with these two people who never left my side In good times, bad times, sad or happy times my friends they didn’t mind We became close by sharing our differences about people, places and things Before long we invented a club called “LADIES ONLY” in our hearts we sang We recruited a few to the club but their friendship only lasted for a little while Ten years later the club is still open, my friends and me are in for long the mile We began to trust, believe and share our belief only to each other from our heart Never knowing that God had our friendship, God had us three right from the start Today we still come together periodically for club meetings “LADIES ONLY” And it’s open to only us for to be without the club we’d truly be lonely So, we keep in touch and we talk about men, stress and all kinds of attitudes We talk about what’s the right way, the wrong way and how to stop the blues Being older now with the understanding of women’s needs are everyday To have someone you can confide in is a God sent all of the way Yes, I have been blessed with two friends and to God I will always thank you Thank you for your so many blessings, thank you for me, Vee and Bratty too! WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 158 Across 1. Boast 5. One time 9. Blocking vote 13. Acquire by efforts or actions 14. Rural area 16. Iniquity 17. Chills and fever 18. Toil 19. Transmit 20. Send money in payment 22. Textile with a woven design 24. Weep 26. Jump 27. Scuffle 30. Shellfish 35. Crib 36. Drench 39. Terpsichore 40. Motor vehicle 42. Visual representation of data 44. Young elephant 45. Fragrance 47. Addictive narcotic 49. Rodent 50. Menace 52. Red Bordeaux wine 54. Food 57. Prevarication 58. Recall 62. Exact duplicate 66. Small inlet 67. Danger 69. Being the only one 70. Kind of tournament 71. One of the senses 72. Smell 73. Curve 74. Encounter 75. Short letter Down 1. Bruin 2. Fury 3. Starch 4. Laminated metamorphic rock 5. Nocturnal bird 6. Orderly 7. Faction 8. Run away together to marry 9. Waistcoat 10. At any time 11. Diminutive 12. Of long duration 15. A cherished desire 21. Flip 23. Sharp hand shovel 25. Online journal 27. One of the senses 28. Express audibly 29. Currency unit 31. Pouch 32. Trap 33. Enthusiastic approval 34. Remaining 35. Actors in a play 37. Deplete 38. Long narrative poem 41. Single 43. Frame or body of a ship 46. Domesticated 48. Injure or wound seriously 51. Entice 53. Think logically 55. At right angles to the length of a ship 56. Laconic 58. A strong line 59. Fifty-fifty 60. Repair 61. Customary observance or practice 63. Commotion 64. Coagulate 65. This place 66. Adult male swan 68. Allow PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 389 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 157 S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 288 - MEDIUM SODOKU PUZZLE NO 287- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 39 0 | Sept 21 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 St. George Food Pantry 751-8771 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 Churches Active in Northside 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 Other Resources FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 Salvation Army 762-5660 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 131 E. 12th Street 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street 45214 Shelter: Men Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelterhouse 721-0643 1223 Main St. 45202 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 411 Gest St. 45203 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor 2121 Vine Street 45202 1437 Walnut Street 45202 Prospect House 921-1613 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Starting Over 961-2256 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Parkway Center 661-4620 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Interfaith Hospitality Network McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 591-2246 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Shelter: Family 15 First Step Home 961-4663 Hamilton/Middletown 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Joseph House (Veterans) Northern Kentucky Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Housing: 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Food/Clothing Health First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 859-491-8303 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Advocacy Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 for 26 issues $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 S e p t 2 1 - O c t 4 , 2 0 18 | N o . 390 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 21-October 4, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Dismal News About Growing Poverty Pg 3: Educational Opportunities Abound Pg 4: GCHC Are Stereotypes Good? Pg 5: Young Athletes Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: The Seventeen Year-Long Lie or Fool Me Once Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: SunWatch Village Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Jim Luken Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Michael Earl Patton Continued Pg 12: What I Want to see in OTR When Things. Go Broke Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 21-October 4, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Jason Haap Maria Funcheon Bob Brown Jim Luken Saad Ghosn Michael Earl Patton Cleo Wombles Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Homeless Coalition Aimee Willhoite Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Aimee Willhoite Athletes Bill Woods Bob Brown Cincinnati Cleo Wombles Dr. Mark Mussman education Homeless Coalition Jason Haap Jim Luken Josh Spring Kim Green Maria Funcheon Michael Earl Patton Over-the-Rhine Religion Saad Ghosn Stereotypes SunWatch Village Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/e9602532e5f76df3f69355acbb857785.pdf fca3395fff66e2ec24d792700a7d8ac9 PDF Text Text September 7th - September 20th 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 16 (No. 389) advocating justice | building community Religious Peacemakers: Quanita Roberson | 8 This Issue is sponsored by Cecilia and Tom Kloecker INSIDE THIS ISSUE Public Housing is Under Attack | 3 Tourist Season at the Ocean | 5 The Museum at Fort Ancient| 9 The Community Issues Forum Kicksoff | 2 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: Safety vs. Comfort I s being uncomfortable the same thing as being unsafe? Let’s say you are at a neighborhood meeting and you hear a report that attention needs to be given to turn a block from unsafe to safe. You ask how it is known to be unsafe. You are told that there have been many reports of safety issues in that block. You ask what are those reports. You are told that people are reporting they don’t want to walk down that block because they feel unsafe because there is always a group of people hanging around on the sidewalk and stoops. You hear that people feel unsafe because when they walk down the sidewalk they have to walk past a line of people standing on both sides. And another person adds that they are often asked for money on this block. Some say the people hanging out are loud with loud music, etc. Now, think about it, does anything in the above description show that this particular block is unsafe? There is no mention of anything that could reasonably harm another person. Instead folks are just hanging out talking, eating, dancing, listening to music, singing, having serious conversation, goofing around, asking for assistance, offering assistance, saying hello, saying nothing; this list could go on forever because in this S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition example people are simply hanging out doing the social things that people do. For reasons related to systems, assumptions, prejudices, ignorance, etc., this person doesn’t feel comfortable around whomever it is they are passing. This level of discomfort may lead to being afraid, and perhaps their first feeling is a lack of safety, but their being afraid in a situation like this should not lead to pressure on this block to change, but instead for certainly self-reflection and ultimately systematic changes to prevent the systematic prejudices which taught them to be afraid in such situations. In other cases, people are conflating the meanings of the words unsafe and uncomfortable. Essentially just because a person interprets an event a certain way or has a certain feeling during such an event, that does not mean their feeling or the way they define their feeling is actually an accurate description of the event. This is not a trivial issue. It is a common occurrence that cops harass people based on the description of how someone else (usually someone who is white) felt in an area or around specific people, when nothing unsafe actually happened. It is a regular occurrence that a developer says they want to make an area safe, when there are not regular occurrences of unsafe happenings, but some people (who don’t live right there) believe it is unsafe because they here that people say it is unsafe. Consider the city budget debates over what politician cares more about public safety and the many people saying public safety must be first above all else. What have each of these people meant by the word safety? Often, if you really broke it down, they were really talking about people like themselves feeling comfortable. (Continued on page 7) The Community Issues Forum Kickoff on September 13th Focuses on Voting Rights and Increasing the Vote T he Community Issues Forum at Christ Church Cathedral kicks off its fall series on Thursday September 13th with a forum focusing on voting rights and local efforts to register and motivate people to vote. A panel including Elizabeth Brown, CO-President of the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area, Catherine Turcer, Director of Common Cause/Ohio, Amy Teitelman, Regional Director of For Our Future Fund, and Mary Aguilera of the Ohio Poor People's Campaign, will review efforts in the Cincinnati area aimed at protecting voting rights and registering voters. A short training on how to register voters will also take place at this noontime forum. A recent Streetvibes article reviewed the importance of protecting voting rights while also depicting some of the problems that exist in Ohio and other states that have enacted laws designed to create voting obstacles for certain people. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer For instance, Ohio has a tough voterID law, and its current process of purging voter rolls of individuals who haven't voted in recent elections has unregistered thousands of voters. Meanwhile, the number of eligible citizens who vote has steadily declined, and Cincinnati's percentage dropped to less than one-third of its eligible voters in 2017. (Continued on page 11) Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Jason Haap, Jim Luken, Maria Funcheon, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Cleo Wombles, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Allie Graff, Justin Jeffre, Jim Luken, Saad Ghosn, Michael Earl Patton, Bill Woods --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Bill Woods accepting last year's buddy gray award Credit: Homeless Coalition THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �LOCAL Public Housing is Under Attack No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 A relatively new policy, Rental Assistance Demonstration Project (RAD), may decrease the available units of public housing in Cincinnati and beyond. RAD allows housing authorities to privatize public housing by selling properties to private developers. When public housing was created it was supposed to remain public forever. Created as a pilot program in 2012, there was a cap on how many units across the country could be sold to private developers. Since the Trump administration, the cap has essentially been lifted, and they have encouraged demolition over renovation. In addition, the administration is attempting to remove requirements to renew contracts. Under this plan, if housing is demolished, there would be no obligation to rebuild. The land could then lose the affordability contract. Residents don’t know about the Trump administration proposals, which include raising rents and giving money to housing authorities to demolish buildings. This week, I sat down with local organizer, Allie Graff, who is working out of our office at the Homeless Coalition. Allie has been working with CMHA residents to ensure their voices are heard, and to secure a seat at the table for residents who are most affected by the changes. Allie is most concerned that people’s rights are being violated, and she feels her job is to educate residents about their rights and responsibilities. She believes in the power of residents who, once they know what’s happening, will fight CMHA to preserve their housing. She believes in the power of the people, so she thinks amazing things could happen. In order to combat building deterioration, RAD allows housing authorities to sell public housing to private ownership. Due to decreasing public funding for public housing, the amount of deferred maintenance has increased each year. According to Allie, the public housing stock is in bad shape because they have underfunded it for years. Instead of putting the money into to fix it, they are allowing it to be sold off. When they sell, they are allowed to seek funding through banks, low income housing credits, grants, etc, that public housing authorities couldn’t leverage. Public housing money just comes from taxes, which is set by federal government, and they know they aren’t giving enough for public housing. Through RAD, anyone could buy public housing – it could be private, non-profit, or even LLCs. Allie doesn’t know if CMHA is putting calls out to prospective owners, but it may be possible that they are looking to sell the buildings to themselves through LLC’s. The risk of the loss of public DR. MARK MUSSMAN Staff Writer housing is too high because anybody can slip through the cracks. Every single resident is at risk because there is no way to determine who would be able to retain housing. There are at least three ways that we lose housing. Loss of 5% of the units is considered “acceptable” to the government. They can also consolidate units to make it more suitable by converting 1 bedrooms to 2 or 3 bedrooms, which will be a loss of units, but not considered a loss by the government. If a unit is vacant for 2 years, then it doesn’t count as a loss. So, if CMHA evicts people and leaves it sit for two years, they won’t have to rebuild that unit. They may also be able CMHA plans to add new units to their portfolio. We have seen something similar to this in HOPE 6, which greatly affected the West End. Some reports show that 10,000 people were displaced, and only about 2,000 people were able to return. That is an 80% loss for the neighborhood. HOPE 6 was similar in that they said they were going to demolish and rebuild and renovate, but people were displaced. Part of Laurel Homes, which is Liberty Street Apartments, is still there, and is still public. City West, which was built in the area of Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court, and although it is mixed income, Looking out over former CMHA broken promises at English Woods Credit: Allie Graff to demolish a building and not be mandated to rebuild it. CMHA is also talking about doing mixed-income, which will result in the displacement of low-income tenants. If they decide to turn them into market-rate, we’ve lost those units. It’s a possibility that many people were displaced, and weren’t able to come back. Through RAD, all CMHA buildings are at risk of being lost. Which is about 23 high-rises and complexes, as well as, scattered sites, which could be anything from 4-unit Tenant Organizer Identification Credit: Allie Graff all 4 of these scenarios happen. Allie is concerned that people will not be able to return to units, especially since there is no indication that apartments or single-family homes. It is estimated that CMHA manages about 5000 households, ranging between 11-12,000 individuals who THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 3 rely on public housing in Cincinnati. Allie believes that the best-case scenario is that residents organize and purchase the buildings themselves. This has happened in other cities, but is an uphill battle here because the development community will benefit from the building contracts. Allie wants better, safer, homes for our neighbors in Cincinnati, but there is no way to know if this will happen through RAD. The first homes that are at risk right now (that we can tell from CMHA documentation) include: Stanley Rowe in the West End; Park Eden in Walnut Hills; The Pinecrest in Price Hill; Findlater Gardens in Winton Hills; Beechwood in Avondale; and some scattered sites – perhaps about 100 in the Fairmount and Price Hill neighborhoods. Residents have their First Amendment rights, so they can have a voice in the change. In the HUD laws around RAD, they are technically encouraged to be a part of it, and they are encouraged to give official comments that HUD would review, but CMHA hasn’t told them about their rights whatsoever. They have rights to be a part of the process, and they have rights to protect their homes. Allie is concerned that this doesn’t address the affordable housing crisis. It may actually make things worse, and in 15 years all of our public housing could be gone. One of the things with this, after it converts to privately owned, they are only 15-20year contracts, and right now they’d be required to renew, but laws can change. We could sell off the bulk of affordable housing, with no chance to rebuild. She has met people who have experienced homelessness because they lost their homes at Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes. She doesn’t want people to lose their homes and have their rights violated. She also believes in publicly owned and controlled assets. CMHA has tried to stop Allie from educating and advocating for tenants. They tried to have her arrested at a CHMA meeting about RAD with residents. Residents asked Allie to go with them, but the resident who asked her to go with them was late, and CMHA tried to have Allie arrested. Residents are legally allowed to bring anyone with them, an organizer or advocate. CMHA has been sending out letters saying that Allie is coming around and lying to residents, to discredit her. They have tried to stop residents from having meetings. Allie believes that there are thousands of people who need to learn more, and she is just one person. She also has difficulty accessing public housing on the bus, and she is an advocate for a better bus system. Allie believes that there is a glimmer of hope because residents in other cities have organized, created demands to their local housing authority, and were able to get transparency and have a seat at the (Continued on page 7) �4 LOCAL Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Steetvibes Editor Summary of Organization: The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is a unified social action agency, fully committed to its ultimate goal: the eradication of homelessness with respect for the dignity and diversity of its membership, people experiencing homelessness and the community. Our Coalition works towards this goal by coordinating services, educating the public, and engaging in grassroots organizing and advocacy. Summary of Program: Streetvibes is an entrepreneurship program that advocates for justice and builds community through excellent, award-winning reporting. Streetvibes reports on topics related to economics, civil rights, race, religion, gender, LGBTQIA, immigration, the environment, and the struggle to end homelessness and poverty. The printed newspaper version is published bi-weekly by the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and primarily distributed by people who are, or once were without a home in exchange for a $2 donation. Summary of Position: The Streetvibes Editor will produce a quality 16-page bi-weekly paper, maintain the Streetvibes website, cultivate a social media presence, strengthen the relationships among the Distributors within the community and the organization, and provide guidance to enhance distributor productivity and F S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 Job Description Part-Time development. This is a part-time position. Duties and Responsibilities: 1. Produce a 16-page, bi-weekly newspaper a. Strategic planning of articles b. Compose independentlywritten, thought-provoking, and original articles c. Story and photography assignments to volunteers d. Story assessment and editing e. Highlight member organizations, their events, work, staff, job openings, and volunteer opportunities f. Maintain an updated resource page, and other paper assets g. Adhere to a set production format and schedule h. Work directly with layout manager to coordinate distribution to printer 2. Create and post a local events calendar for Distributors 3. Assist Director of Education with Streetvibes Shadow Activities 4. Maintain database records of sales, Distributors, writers, supporters, articles, archives 5. Solicit and supervise freelance writers, volunteers, and field-related interns 6. Work with community members and member organizations to develop stories, ensure a diversity of voices, increase advertising, and improve sales 7. Raise funds for operation of Streetvibes through working with other staff to seek and secure grants, donations, sponsorships, and paid advertisements 8. Market paper to increase distribution 9. Manage Streetvibes website and social media, answer inquiries 10. Attend community events and newsworthy actions 11. Submit timely quarterly and annual reports 12. Plan annual Streetvibes fundraiser with assistance from staff and Board 13. All other duties as assigned Qualifications: • Degree in Journalism or related field preferred (not required) or equivalent writing experience • Photography experience preferred • Writing and Editing Skills • Proficiency with Adobe InDesign, Wordpress, and Photoshop • Ability to delegate, organize, and hold others accountable • Ability to challenge through writing • Familiarity and passion Battling my emerging inner curmudgeon or the past year, I have been battling my emerging inner curmudgeon! I don't like to believe I'm turning into a cranky old man, but sometimes, when I think about the things in this world that no longer make sense to me, I feel like some version of a greyhaired old man yelling at kids to stay off his lawn. Here are a few things that I just can't understand anymore. The "B" in LGBTQ What's that "B" doing in there? It stands for "bi-sexual," but if I've learned anything from the recent trajectory of discourse around sexuality in our culture, it's that there are more than two genders. For the record, I have no problem with that notion. Throughout history, JASON HAAP Contributing Writer different cultures have often included multiple gender designations - and I think that's a healthy thing. But what about that "bi" prefix? Isn't it really a leftover of a hegemonic gender duopoly? There are actually much longer versions of the LGBTQ label. I'm starting to see LGBTQIA appear more frequently, and I'm aware of the acronym extending as far as LGBTQIAPK+. In that configuration, the "P" stands for "pansexual," which seems like a more inclusive replacement for the old-school "B." It's curious to me why the group really raising our awareness about “Breakdown Stereotypes” gender diversity would include such a limiting throwback in their label. "People of Color" I remember being in a classroom, either in high school or college, when an instructor explained why the phrase "colored people" is offensive. If we consider certain people to be "colored," the notion sets up whiteness as a default, as the norm. Any system that measures non-white people against a norm of whiteness is rightly considered "racist." Hence, calling black people "colored" is racist. However, I cannot figure out how "colored people" and "people of color" are substantively different. The phrase "people of color" seems to do the same thing, setting certain for social justice especially the eradication of homelessness and poverty • Comfortable speaking in public, and with controversial issues and stances • Good interpersonal skills, ability to communicate with a wide range of individuals • Ability to convert document file types and use Microsoft Office • Understanding of layout, design conventions, and image requirements for print Working Conditions: • Supervised by Executive Director • Ability to work with and collaborate strategically with other staff in a busy work environment and multi-task • Ability to adhere to strict deadlines • Flexible schedule; some work on nights and weekends Starting Wage: $16.84/hr To apply: Send resume, cover letter, and 3 references to: Josh Spring, LSW Executive Director 117 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 joshspring@cincihomeless.org The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Homeless Coalition does not discriminate based on race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, ability, veteran’s status, homelessness or housing status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. groups apart from the default setting of "people." If the default setting is "non-colored," then, once again, we seem to be setting whiteness as the norm. That's racist, right? Apparently not, as everywhere I look I see the phrase "people of color" or even the acronym "POCs." I just don't get it. "People of color" should be offensive for the exact same reason as "colored people." Monkey Business Recently, in the race for Florida's governor, the white Republican said voters should not "monkey this up" by electing his Democratic opponent, who happens to be the state's first black gubernatorial candidate. He has been roundly denounced as engaging in "dog whistle" racism. I think it definitely is possible this guy engaged in dog whistle racism. I also think it's possible he used a common (Continued on page 7) “Eradicate Misinformation” The Coalition for the Homeless provides Education and Service Programs that help to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of homelessness in Cincinnati. We believe an educated public can be a more compassionate public, willing to dedicate time and effort towards creating solutions to homelessness. The “Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau” program is made up of individuals currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness, who share their experiences. The program is designed to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. To schedule a speaker, contact Mark Mussman at MarkMussman@cincihomeless.org. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �5 LOCAL Tourist Season at the Ocean No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 JIM LUKEN If it's Tourist Season, why can't we shoot 'em? A Rhode Island bumper sticker, popular with the locals Contributing Writer I t's me again, your roving Streetvibes reporter. I keep getting last minute “deadlines” from the (retiring) editor. “Can you send me something? Anything?” So here it is: anything. For the past year +, since I moved near the Rhode Island seashore, I've tried to make my numerous contributions to this paper relate in some way to the what's going on in Cincinnati, downtown, “the ghetto.” [I've always fondly called OTR, my neighborhood for 15 years, the Ghetto. I will always be proud to have lived there.] I understand that “the beloved community” of OTR has become less and less ghetto-specific, meaning less down to earth and less real as it became more and more gentrified and unreal. (Really, it seems more and more like, Disneyland). I've tried to make the essays that I've sent the paper relate to stuff that you big city folks know and live, even though I live a world away from big-city life. As a matter of fact, when I moved here, I pretty well knew I was moving Jim Luken Credit: Justin Jeffre into a different lifestyle. And it is that indeed. RI is 39 x 46 square-mile state, with a huge bay running almost the entire height of the state, south to north. Hard to believe, but there is four hundred miles of coastline here, and 40 miles of ocean beaches near where I live on the southeast coast. It ain't called “The Ocean State” for nothin'. Much of the socio-economic fabric of Rhode Island is dominated by water, salt water. Commercial fishing, lobstering, clamming and crabbing contribute much to the fabric of local life. But for three to five months each summer, the economy where I live is dominated by tourism. And those people eat a lot of “lobstahs,” fish, crabs and clams. I haven't found the tourist influx as bothersome as many of the locals do, because—to a certain extent—I am still a tourist. I ride my bike to the ocean at least three or four times a week in the summer, and I drive to various places along the shore during the other 8 months, when parking is free at any of the beaches. After a lifelong romance with it, I plan to die near the sea. Life here is a lot slower in pace, and the people I meet are seldom tourists. They are locals, living in a small-town atmosphere. Everybody seems to have known everybody else for generations. They are slow to warm up to the new and the different. One different kind of people you don't find a lot of here—even in the summer—are people of color, especially African Americans. That feels very strange to me, because I lived in an Over-the-Rhine Community Housing “tenement” for so long, with most of my neighbors being friendly, engaging black folks. There are some black people here, but nothing close to large numbers. White people with black friends are few and far between. The homeless, almost all of whom are white, number three or four dozen in this area, and they remain pretty much invisible. In the 14 months that I've lived here, I have seen only three people, on various street corners, “flying” their “homeless...please help” signs. And I haven't seen any of these three return to their stations on succeeding days. There are more blacks in Providence, the capital, 45 minutes away. I did a Streetvibes story about homelessness there while vacationing in RI seven years ago. Their downtown paper (Street Sights) is apparently the only homeless newspaper in the US that is distributed for free. A good thing in a way. But the editors acknowledge the downside: the paper doesn't help support any vendors. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in a government-subsidized, 100 unit building. My rent is a few dollars less than I was paying at OTRCH. Onebedroom market rate apartments are nearby, renting for “$1085 and up.” There are two black people in this complex, one a woman 102 years old. Champagne Heights (see photo) is a housing “project” just a mile down my street. It is for families, and offers three, four, and five-bedroom units for poor families, half of which are black and Hispanic. As you can see, these accommodations are nothing like big-city “projects” in places like Cincy. Sadly, as in most rural places where I've lived (like northern Vermont) racism is still alive and well, i.e., sick and deadening to observe. At yuppie-ish bars in Wakefield, the nearby town, I hear things like, “Thank God we don't live up near Champagne Heights.” Or, “I wish those Champagne Heights people would stay among their own.” My (white) son and his wife have lived for four years right across the street from Champagne Heights. They have chickens outside, and they leave various things out in their yard all the time (a lawn mower, for example). I happened to ask him just the other day if they had had any problems with the folks from the project. “Absolutely none…ever.” he replied. Not even any “poached” eggs. Neither he nor I can quite believe the level of disguised racial distrust that we hear from too many of the locals. We both try to negate it when we can. But after a while, you sort of give up. What's the use? A quote: “You (Continued on page 11) Rhode Island Map Entrance to Champagne Heights Credit: Jim Luken Credit: Jim Luken THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 �LOCAL Kaepernick, Athlete Activism, and the Future of the NFL No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 N oted essayist James Baldwin once stated, “I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” Freedom of speech has often been touted as a bedrock of American values, the importance indoctrinated in the hearts of Americans at a young age. When former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to remain seated during the national anthem in the 2016 football season in order to protest police brutality, his actions were seen by many as disrespectful, unpatriotic, and un-American. In the eyes of many, Kaepernick was ungrateful for the opportunities his country had afforded him. What most didn’t realize, however, is that his protest stands atop a rich history of sportsmen who have not only spoken out against issues of race and discrimination in America, but who have done so in the realm of sport and in their roles as athletes. In anticipation of MARIA FUNCHEON Contributing Writer the upcoming football season, it’s time for Americans to understand Kaepernick and others who choose to kneel are following in the footsteps of many athletes of color in history who have challenged what it truly means to be free and equal in America. Muhammad Ali, who many consider the greatest athlete of all time, was known not only for his quickness and agility inside the ring, but also for his peaceful nature. A staunch opponent of war, Ali refused the Vietnam War draft in the summer of 1967 and was sentenced to five years in jail, receiving both support and condemnation during an ideologically divided time in the US. One year later Tommie Smith and John Carlos, members of the US Olympic track team, held their fists in the air as a gesture of black power after receiving gold and bronze medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. In 1996, NBA player Mahmoud AbdulRauf was suspended for refusing to stand for the national anthem, stating his belief that the flag was a symbol of tyranny, oppression, and racism. Sociologist Harry Edwards argues that the events both on and off the field at all levels of sport reflect the larger political and economic context of the world in which we are living. “The Olympics are and have always been political!” Edwards argued nearly two decades after Smith and Carlos’ raised their fists in Mexico City. Kaepernick has spoken publicly few times about the ideology behind his actions, but the support he has received, specifically from people of color, is notable. The day he decided to remain on the bench, Kaepernick joined a unique group: a league of patriotic athletes protesting injustice, almost all of them men and women of color. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said, echoing Baldwin’s sentiment that loving your country can also mean finding fault with it. Athletes of color are changing their public identities from singular player to multi-dimensional human being 7 capable of taking action and using their platform to raise awareness and become more involved with important issues. LeBron James’ decision to fund a tuition-free school in his home town of Akron for at-risk youth is a perfect example. Clearly, sports and politics are inextricably linked, and attempting to remove the political aspect is changing sports as we know it. To ask athletes -- specifically athletes of color -- to distance themselves from the very real political and social situations in the world is unrealistic and unAmerican. If there is anything that Kaepernick’s words and actions have taught us, it’s that the role of the athlete in the United States is evolving from silent bystander to knowledgeable, involved activist. After all, it’s these athletes who have helped build a multi-billion-dollar industry, and to simply ignore their grievances would have seriously affected the sports business economy as we know it. It’s time we stop looking at athletes of color as women and men who need to simply “shut up and dribble” and start looking at them as political actors with a vital voice in this important social movement. --------------------------------------- Here is a caveat to this: people experience and struggle with mental illness. There are times that people because of mental illness feel unsafe and afraid in what are reasonably considered safe situations for most other people. For the (Continued from page 2) person dealing with this, they can be feeling and personally experiencing a bit of fear all the way to an excruciatingly terrifying event that only they are experiencing at that time in that place. This is real. For this person, what they are experiencing is real for them. In the examples above, I am not talking about this experience. JOSH SPRING DR. MARK MUSSMAN (Continued from page 3) table. She believes that this has resulted in better outcomes, including higher quality housing, but it hasn’t been perfect. Residents in other JASON HAAP (Continued from page 4) vernacular phrase. But the more I think about this, the more I cannot figure out the rules. Are all common phrases that include the word "monkey" completely off limits if talking about someone who is black? It's pretty common, when people mess something up, to say they "threw a monkey wrench" into the situation. Are we really suggesting that I can say President Trump, or President Bush threw a monkey wrench into a situation, but I can't say that President Obama did? That seems weird. The word "monkey" just seems very different than other offensive terms that have rightly fallen out of acceptable usage. Consider the case of "cotton-picking" as an adjective, such as with "Get your cotton-picking hands off that!" This is a racist statement because "cotton-pickers" refer to slaves, and white people, back in the day, did not want black people to touch their cities will tell you that they didn’t get everything that they wanted, but it was worthwhile. We hope to have more information about what the residents will demand locally, but I think it will be around transparency, voice, and power and public ownership. The public is the owner of public housing, so if we lose our public housing, we lose our investment. Allie says that “There is a lot at stake. At the end of it, when there’s no public housing, will they have to have a public board, with public meetings? Will they be accountable to the public? There’s always a chance for people to organize and affect change – that’s what we hope to do. If people don’t get organized, everybody will lose. If we do organize around this, we could actually gain more.” things - hence "Get your cottonpicking hands off that!" The same is true for other common words, such as "gypped." It means to get ripped off, but the word is a derivation of "Gypsy," and it's based on a negative stereotype that suggests Gypsies are pickpockets. These words are inappropriate, and people should stop saying them. But "monkey" is different. Tons of phrases exist in common use that have never had anything to do with racism. Monkeys are funny and rambunctious creatures, so if we see a bunch of kids acting rambunctiously, we might say they are "monkeying around." What are the rules here? As a white man, presumably I can look at a group of white boys and say they are "monkeying around." But what if I'm talking about a group of white boys with one black friend? Can I say they are "monkeying around"? For my youngest son's entire life, my wife and I have called him a "monkey." When he was little, watching Curious George, we used to look at the TV, then look at him, and say "We're so glad you're a monkey!" (which is a line from the show). He has tons of stuffed monkeys. We used to tell him, when he was born, we had to cut his tail off so people would think he was a "real boy." (Before anyone freaks out, he always laughed, and knew we were joking.) For those who don't know me, does it change anything when I tell you my son is half-black? Am I racist for calling my brown boy a "monkey"? I'm sure there are people who absolutely think so. But what about my wife? She's black, and she calls him a monkey, too. Does that make her racist? And what about non-white, non-black people? Can I say that a group of Latino kids are "monkeying around"? Whatever the case, the word "monkey" is nothing like the "n-word," as a point of comparison. Most people know they are not supposed to say the "n-word," and anyone who says it (for the most part) knows exactly what is going on. However, I am unaware of any cultural conversations at critical mass about saying the word "monkey." There are tons of examples of "monkey" appearing in benign instances of common vernacular. I have trouble categorically faulting someone for using the word "monkey," when, for all I know, there is no malevolent intent, and when the word is not inherently offensive. Conclusion I know it's a common stereotype that, as people age, their views become outdated. I also figure those aging people don't find their opinions to be "outdated." They probably think the world around them has become crazy. I totally feel like the world around me has become crazy. I don't think I'm an old curmudgeon, but I am just self-aware enough to recognize the possibility! [You can email Jason Haap at jasonhaap@gmail.com or send letters to the editor at streetvibes@ cincihomeless.org] THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS A Water Spirit, Quanita Roberson Is a Healer of Trauma, an Enablor of Love and Compassion, and a Builder and Bridger of Community "I S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 SAAD GHOSN am the promise of forgiveness and reconciliation in the world," says Quanita Roberson, "and my work is to heal trauma wherever it is, on the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels, bringing peace and building bridges between individuals and communities." Roberson grew up until the age of seven with her maternal grandparents, in a house always open to all. She was raised religious and attended regularly her grandfather's church, a Protestant non-denominational church in Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, where he was the minister; and after the age of seven, practiced Catholicism, when her mother married a white Catholic man. "I was also later exposed to Jehovah's Witnesses," she says, "my mother and stepfather having converted to their religion when I was 15; and to the Unitarian Universalists when I was 16, having lived then for a year with a family who belonged to their faith." Growing up, Roberson was thus exposed to different religions and incorporated a little of each in her beliefs, but it is the spiritual teaching of the Dagara medicine wheel from Burkina Faso, West Africa, to which she was introduced at the age of 20, that resonated the most with her. Contributing Writer "Dagara is about spiritual healing," she says, "also about community building and how we are together and how we each live our purpose." According to the Dagara wheel, each individual, depending on the last digit of her/his birth year, represents one of the 5 elements of Fire, Water, Earth, Mineral, Nature. Roberson falls in the "Water" people category, usually considered the peacemakers, the ones with the ability to reconcile differences within the self and with one another. "I am a water spirit and I bring forgiveness, reconciliation, peace building, the medicine of the emotions," she states. Four years ago, Roberson complemented her knowledge of the Dagara by completing a yearlong apprenticeship with Fanchon Shur, a Cincinnati-based movement artist, movement therapist and choreographer who has been practicing movement and trauma healing since the 70's. "I learned from Fanchon about healing through movement, how water responds to it, moving and shifting in our body, and how it affects us." Actually, trauma had been part of Roberson's life from a young age. At fifteen, she went to court and pressed charges against her stepfather for What is the DAGARA MEDICINE WHEEL A Medicine Wheel is the basis of the cosmology and five element rituals of the Dagara tribe of West Africa. In Dagara, people are categorized according to the five elements of fire, water, mineral, earth and nature, each imparting to its respective people a very specific role they are supposed to fulfill in order to keep the community together. Fire, the original element, is seen as a most potent connection to the spirit world. It puts people back on their spiritual track by consuming that which stands between them and their purpose. It is also the state the ancestors are in. Fire people are the link between the village and the world of the ancestors. Water  brings cleansing, purification, reconciliation; it is essential to the spiritual journey. Water people are considered peacemakers, with the ability to reconcile differences, both within the self and with one another. Earth, the central element in the Wheel, is the mother who is inviting us to come home to the community and to the earth, our true home. The Earth person takes care of others and, like a grandmother, wants all people to be fed and to feel content, respected and loved.   Mineral is the elemental energy that invites us to remember, through ritual, who we are and why we are here. In Dagara physiology the bones, not the brains, are the storage place of memory. Mineral individuals are story tellers; their gift to society is that of remembering. Nature is plants and animals and landscapes. It invites us to welcome change and to open ourselves to transformation in order to realize our true and authentic selves. Nature people have the key to the evolution of our consciousness; they make us understand what change, transformation and adaptation mean. sexually abusing her. Her religious family forgave him, but she was initially unable to do so herself and went through a deep depressive phase. Facing at that time the choice to heal or to die, she let herself go to the spirit, was pulled and saved by it, and said yes to life. Later in life, she worked for the Red Cross as an instructor and an instructor trainer, predominantly in Quanita Roberson the area of HIV infection. She thus met many individuals’ suffering from AIDS or infected with the virus and was very touched by their condition and their traumatic experience. "I saw individuals and coworkers dying from AIDs, and parents suffering from the loss of their loved ones," says Roberson. "I lived their pain, witnessed their grief and wanted to help them and ease their agony." After the Red Cross, she joined for a couple of years Public Allies participating in their activist work and in their yearly retreats focusing on social justice; but when her son was born, she decided to quit her job and stay at home. "I was already in my late 20's," she says, "and I felt the need to complete my education and so I went back to school." Roberson received a Bachelor's degree in Organizational Leadership from Wilmington College, then a Master's degree in Organizational Management and Development with a concentration in Integral Theory from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA. "I wanted to help people heal from their trauma, also do organizational development work, and wanted to approach both from a holistic perspective." This is when Roberson established her own practice and started coaching. "My coaching is reconciling internally, interpersonally or organizationally," says Roberson. "I lead individuals, families and Credit: Saad Ghosn organizations through grief rituals, help them learn to grieve, to empty out and make room for the new to come in. I do it one on one, also through workshops and retreats." In helping others do their grief work, Roberson, in addition to easing their pain, takes them on a forgiveness and reconciliation journey, freeing their spirit and thus allowing them more space for love and compassion. She has been doing coaching for seventeen years now and in five countries. Her feminism healing retreats, for instance, help empower women; and her work through the Center for Progressive Leadership, helps activists and politicians in the state of Ohio widen their perspective, discover greater choices and acquire more personal internal power. One of Roberson's main interests, however, is healing the ancestor’s legacy of slavery, not only for African Americans, but "for all Americans," as she is quick to point out. She is currently finishing writing a book on that same topic; it is titled 'The Inner ground Railroad: A 40-Day Journey to Remembering Self and Spirit'. In it (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �9 LOCAL The Museum at Fort Ancient No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 T MICHAEL EARL PATTON he Museum at Fort Ancient is not about the earthworks at the site so much as it is about the story of the American Indians in Ohio, from the first arrivals to historical times. It brings together several different narrative threads and shows that their story is much more interesting than what we generally hear – if we hear anything at all. The earthworks and a possible reason for why they were built are described in a video at the museum, but other for the most part the museum is about the Indians themselves. I had written about the earthworks in my last article, “The Mystery of Fort Ancient.” Through dioramas, exhibits, and signs the museum takes us from the first arrivals as the Ice Age was ending, through the invention of pottery, and describes everyday life. They grew crops in addition to hunting. Early Indians such as the Hopewell, who had built the earthworks, planted Maygrass (grown for its starchy seeds) and sunflowers. Only later did Indians grow the “Three Sisters,” that is, corn, beans, and squash. Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” (the Indians knew it was here) of the Americas marked the start of radical changes. One of them was a series of epidemics that killed millions of Indians. Smallpox was one of the diseases, and probably measles was another, but whatever they were the Indians had little or no immunity. These diseases simply had not been present in the Americas before Europeans came. Most of the time the spread of disease was unintentional although there is at least one documented case involving the British at Fort Pitt (present day Pittsburgh), where it was deliberate. There were also the Beaver Wars, where the Iroquois tribes forced out the Indians who had been living in the Ohio area so as to get the beaver pelts for themselves, to trade with the English and French. Only when the beavers were virtually killed off did Contributing Writer the pressure relent and other tribes settled here again – mainly different tribes than had been here before. With the young United States starting to settle the Ohio River valley including Cincinnati, came a military drive to force the Indians out. The campaign of General St. Clair ended in disaster for the U.S. Army when the Indians united and utterly defeated his troops. General Anthony Wayne was much more methodical and ultimately successful, defeating the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The Treaty of Greenville formally conceded southern Ohio to the government of the United States. It also allocated land in northern Ohio for the Indians, but later settlers in that area, supported by President Jackson, pressured them to leave. There are no federally-recognized tribal areas in Ohio today. This is an excellent museum and does a good job of telling a complex story. The present museum opened in 1998 so if you have not seen it since you were a kid, it is probably worth another visit. From April through November the museum at Fort Ancient is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from noon – 5:00 pm, closed Mondays. From December through March it is open only during the weekends. Admission is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors (60+) and students (6 – 17). The recommended route is exit 36 / Wilmington Road off of I-71, then south on Middleboro Road and then west on State Route 350. See www.FortAncient.org for more information. Ft Ancient Museum - Shaman Ft Ancient Museum - Wall Models Credit: Michael Earl Patton Credit: Michael Earl Patton Ft Ancient Museum - Entrance Ft Ancient Museum - fur trader Credit: Michael Earl Patton Credit: Michael Earl Patton Ft Ancient Museum - Campfire Ft Ancient Museum - First Ohioans Credit: Michael Earl Patton Credit: Michael Earl Patton THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �10 LOCAL S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 September 7 - 29, 2018 For tickets please call (513) 381-2273 Purchase tickets online at www.cincyshakes.com AD Donated by Mark and Sue Ann Painter season sponsored by the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 11 LOCAL JIM LUKEN (Continued from page 5) can't talk someone out of something they were never talked into in the first place.” (attributed to Jonathan Swift). I still try sometimes. On Thursday (the 6th) I will attempt a modest sociological experiment. About a month ago, I more or less joined an open “writing” group that has been meeting at the local Guild hall for an incredible 22 years. Every week, 15 to 20 people mostly my age (50 - 95) write and read something related to an assigned “prompt” or topic. Then people comment. Very civilly. This is New England, remember. The people in this group are almost all long-time residents of the south-shore area. They are mostly genteel, well-educated, upper middle-class, and surprisingly good writers. But, in a strange way, I feel as if they have been sheltered for the most part, from a sense of the way things are out in the world beyond their little seaside world. Their biggest social problem seems to be that every summer they have to deal with lots and lots of tourists. A minor BILL WOODS (Continued from page 3) Since the publication of that article, an informal coalition of civic and religious groups (the Voter Engagement Coordination Campaign) have come together because of their concern about voting rights and the need to register and SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) Roberson uses the Dagara wheel and takes the reader on a 40-day journey through which she shares her own story. "I am a dark skinned African American girl, raised in a biracial family, formerly married to a white man who lives on the Kentucky side of the Ohio river, and my kids are multiracial descendants of slaves and of the sons and daughters of the Revolution," she states. "I grew up exposed to diversity, born in both cultures and do not hold either as victim. We can shift and become connected and that's what community is about." In addition to coaching, Roberson has been heavily involved in organizational development work. Partnering with Tenneson Woolf from Utah, a facilitator and a workshop leader, she has been conducting yearly retreats involving young pastors from the United Church of Christ, guiding them into team building and into community engagement. Working with the Kellog Foundation, she serves as both an evaluator and a participant in their grants on truth, racial healing and transformation. As an organizational Champagne Heights Community Credit: Jim Luken had to face racism, and racial issues in a much different and intimate way than my new neighbors here. Stay tuned. For the next issue, I will write a short letter-to-the-editor with an update as to how it goes with the writer’s group. I will close this with a quote from a speech given by one of my heroes, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, not long before he died. “The most spiritually splendid American phenomenon of my lifetime is how African American citizens have maintained their dignity and self-respect despite their having been treated by white Americans...as though they were contemptible and loathsome and even diseased.” headache, at most. This Thursday, the topic is wide open. We can read anything we want, old or new. I have decided to read an essay I wrote for this newspaper some years ago, entitled “White Like Me.” It details some of the racial issues that I dealt with in OTR, and in Vermont, as well as during a three month visit to Haiti in 1999. I will be interested to find out how my audience of local writers reacts to some of this material. Most of them lean toward being liberal, but, as I mentioned, they have not been exposed to matters of race except through what they see in the media. Although most of you Streetvibes readers are middle class, you have motivate voters. Meeting for the first time at the Carthage Christian Church on August 10th, the organizations represented were the NAACP, the Faith Community Alliance, the Ohio Poor People's Campaign, Project AMOS, MAARC, AIR Inc., For Our Future Fund, and representatives from the AFL-CIO. These diverse groups will work together this fall to complement their various activities. The hope is that this collaboration will provide a lot more oomph to the efforts to register folks and get out the vote. The Community Issues Forum will also facilitate three other preelection forums. On September 27th, a panel of civic leaders will review critical issues that should be on the legislative agendas of candidates running for national, state and local offices. Then on October 11th, Issue I, the Ohio Constitutional Amendment that would reduce penalties for non-violent drug offenders, will be featured. Other ballot issues will receive attention on October 25th. Forums are free, and attendees may bring their lunch or purchase it on site. development person, she will help in the local training of their grantees for community engagement. With People's Action she is currently collaborating on a project designed to identify, across the country, rural communities which voted for Obama and later for Trump, trying to determine within them the thread of conversations around race, religion and immigration. The purpose is to pin point the messages that made it through pop cultures and learn how we can better listen to each other and build improved relationships. In New Jersey, Roberson trained both community and police members in trauma-informed responses to violence. She tried to remove their preexisting biases and bring instead their commonality and complementarity, reinforcing what one participant simply stated, that "they're all trying to get home safe to their families..." Addressing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, Roberson helped design a self-assessment tool for managers, stressing an approach that will shift the topic from just being a subject of discussion to becoming an actual practice. Roberson is also very concerned about the activists in the community, about their need to tend to their own healing in order to become healthier and able to continue their engaged work. She is considering partnering with JustLove to develop an activist cohort to address their issues, and as a result, to increase the efficacy of their involvement. In addition to her coaching and organizational development work Roberson is involved in various social justice activities locally, nationally and internationally. In collaboration with the YWCA, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the Freedom Center, she arranged for the screening of "I Am Not Your Negro," a documentary based on James Baldwin's writings and that explores the history of racism in the US. It was followed by a Q&A session led by Aisha Kiefer Smart, Baldwin's niece, and by Roberson herself. Conversations on race, open to the public, will continue later around the city, also facilitated by her. "The movie connects past to present," she says, "but we also need to connect present to place and examine what race means to us in Cincinnati and what we want to be together." In 2016 Roberson was the Keynote Speaker for The National Diversity Conference in Brazil, also a presenter on Community/Police Relations at the NAACP National Convention in Cincinnati. Going from there Roberson would like to spend time reinforcing the initiatory process in our country. "We're still an adolescent country," she says. "We need to become initiated adults in order to initiate our youth." Asked what she means by initiation, Roberson states that it is how we grow up, how we make our purpose and our calling clear, how our soul meets our self, and how we become spirit instead of only earth-centered and earth-led in our decisions. She is currently planning, with Tennison Woolf, a 3-year cohort for individuals age 40 and under, focused on that issue. Since initiation is culturally specific, Roberson will ask participants to have their ancestral DNA study done and the information available prior to joining the group. For Roberson the essence has always been community. Through trauma healing and through organizational development she has always tried to empower individuals, families and organizations, to create bridges between themselves and to reinforce communities throughout the world. She will continue using the wisdom of the Dagara Medicine Wheel, her water spirit, her skills and knowledge to contribute to peace in all settings and wherever she is. View of Neighorhood Credit: Jim Luken THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �12 F or almost ten years I lived in rural areas of south-central Ohio and then north-eastern VT. In each of these locals, I was an “adjunct professor,” teaching composition or speech part-time, to adults (ages 18-50) in community college settings. In every case, my students were one hundred percent white, mostly poor, lower middle class. A few might be termed “rednecks.” Each of them had come to college trying to better her/himself by hopefully attaining an Associate’s Degree. By and large they were nice folks. At some point in each teaching semester, a strange issue would come up. Its recurrence in every classroom situation, and in states separated by 1000 miles, always felt strange to me. There is a word for this issue that seemed so out-of-place in those rural settings: Racism. More particularly: Affirmative Action. Time and again, one of my students (for some reason) would bring up affirmative action, and most folks in the class would be instantly enraged, instantly in agreement with the notion that white students or white job seekers were being denied opportunities by less qualified blacks. Oh, the rage. Oh, the unfairness. I could almost hear the dread in each of these voices: “What if it should happen to me when I go looking for a job?” Some would even have stories of a brother or an uncle, aware that he had had the better qualifications, who had been by-passed in favor of a less worthy black (according to that brother or that uncle). Such an old meme. But—like a bad check—it keeps bouncing back into the conversation. A few years ago a black woman commentator on Fox news, was in a hissy-fit because Michelle Obama had talked about “race” at Tufts University, suggested that the first lady had been admitted to Yale because of...you guessed it... affirmative action. I often asked my college classes, “How can you guys hate blacks when, living out here in the boonies, you rarely even see one?” Then I would hear the denials. “We're not prejudiced.” “This has nothing to do with prejudice.” They felt that employers were being forced to hire “quotas” of blacks, even if they lacked the qualifications for the jobs. I heard these same angry complaints, at least a dozen times. After a semester or two of this, whenever this discussion arose, I chose to fire back with the same response, a rhetorical question: “OK, Imagine this. It's not going to happen, but try to imagine it. Imagine you could choose whether you could go in for a job interview with black skin rather than your white skin. Would anyone here opt to go to this interview as an African-American instead of a STREET VOICE White Like Me S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 JIM LUKEN Contributing Writer white American? Think about it. Be honest.” Silence. And they were honest. Not one hand ever went up. Every one of these youngish students preferred the special privileges and exemptions that—they knew in their guts—come with being white in a society primarily controlled by whites. Understandable. As a young person, but well into my own adulthood, I can remember the sense—deep inside but seldom articulated—the feeling of being lucky to have been born white. The most startling experience I have had regarding race, i.e., my whiteness, came during a three month stay in Haiti in 1999. Everyone born in that tiny island country is one shade of black or another, all had ancestors who were brought there as slaves of the French. The vast majority are very poor. Before my visit, I felt quite anxious about staying in a place that was all black. In the States, I could often feel hostility—especially from young black men—when I found myself downtown in their neighborhood, on their turf. Even today, after having been a long-time resident of OTR, Cincy's most famous ghetto, I still feel it. But from the moment I arrived in Haiti, I felt none of this. The reason? Haitians do not carry any racial baggage. They don't hate or resent white people for being white. They refer to us as “blans” (whites) but they don't think of us as “white.” Weird. A prominent black American bishop, visiting Haiti at the time we were there, was stunned when he heard himself referred to as a “blan.” He was informed by his host that Haitians call all foreigners—black or white—“blans.” So, moving around among Haitians, it was clear to me that the people weren't seeing me, or judging me, as a white guy. What a wonderful experience. Even more powerful was my own reality. Amazingly, I didn't feel “white” among all these people. I felt as if—except for being richer than most of them—I was one of them, one with them. Looking out onto their Haitian world, I couldn't see (or feel) my white face. The only way to experience my whiteness was to look at my hand. Not being “white' in an all-black society remains one of the most liberating feelings I have ever had. In 1962, when I was senior in high school, a white guy—John Howard Griffin—published a famous bestseller titled “Black Like Me.” With the help of a dermatologist, Griffin had significantly blackened his skin. For six weeks, he roamed the deep south by Greyhound posing and living as a black man. Although Griffin expected the story of his experiences to be of interest only to sociologists, the book proved to be a national sensation, discussed and argued about for many months. My own experiences of being race-neutral in Haiti, in some ways resemble Griffin's journey of more than fifty years ago. Among an alien race, I felt a comfortable kinship. Only occasionally did Griffin deal with any of the discriminatory horrors that black Americans have dealt with for four centuries. And still do today. Now, as a long-time OTR resident, with black neighbors all around me who so obviously enjoy their sense of community, who share the same passionate desire for racial justice, who understand the meaning of “black pride,” I often find myself wishing that I could be part of that community for a while, including being one with them in the continuing, the ongoing battle for racial justice. Like my rural college students, however, who could never be anything but white, I will participate, as something of an outsider, in America's most defining issue. The struggle to prove that “Black Lives do Matter” as much as—maybe a bit more, due to their centuries of suffering—than privileged white lives. -------------------------------------- THOUGHTS FOR TODAY Woke up with my mind made up To stay focused and alert, Moving my head side to side Seeing what is around me You may never know What may come your way. Watch the area you’re in Because you never know when you’ll be robbed. I’ve been robbed twice. You have to be alert. You may never know what may come your way. It’s best to be prepared and ready. I always pray When I go my way Asking for God’s guidance and protection Along the way. Good or evil—I need to be prepared, Come what may Life can be easy and hard. It is always good to be prepared To stay safe every day I believe that is the best way. CLEO WOMBLES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �13 STREET VOICE No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 NO ONE ASKED No one asked. How are you today? THE CAMPAIGN REFORM MOTHER GOOSE Jack and Jill went to the Hill No one asked, To push campaign reform laws. Because no one cared But there the couple's requests Maybe because everyone is too busy Someone went home today Feeling, sad and empty We're taken by Congress as jests, And received a lot of guffaws. No one asked, No one cared Sometimes no one should have to ask. When was the last time you asked someone BILL WOODS Contributing Writer LOVED ONE GONE could you help them? It’s so sad when no one cares enough to ask! KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer There is time for everything including a time to say hello and a time for saying goodbye There is a place for everything including a place to laugh, to cry and ask for reasons why To live each day surrounded by the people we love, never forgetting God is a blessing Is to know that having a mind to remember precious moments will always be a lesson We as people tend to hurt when things don’t go our way or grieve for things that are lost We as people must keep in mind there is never nothing lost as long as God is the boss We must teach our children that as long as we remember nothing ever really goes away Teach them the truth about life and death and remember our experiences everyday Just remember that the good times always outweigh the bad times And remember even though people aren’t with us they’re in God’s House and that’s fine! WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 157 Across Down 1. Kind of star 1. Reported information 5. Group of cattle or sheep 2. Overt 9. To a greater extent 3. Passport endorsement 13. Heroic poem 4. Pretending 14. Make a great effort 5. Lap 16. Iniquity 6. Test 17. Direction 7. Relating to the kidneys 18. Mansion 8. Stingless male bee 19. Narrow projecting 9. Bill of fare strip of land 10. Finished 20. Gastropod 11. Food grain 22. Beauty treatment 12. Moose 24. Pinch 15. Attempted 26. Facial expression 21. Predatory feline 27. Body of water 23. Cot 30. Field event 25. Bard 35. Tender 27. Supple 36. Necessities 28. Worship 39. Carried in a certain way 29. Form of tide 40. Molecule 31. Soak through 42. Greyish brown 32. Unrefined 44. Step 33. Complete or full-length 45. Mouselike mammal 34. Ooze 47. Hunt illegally 35. Freshwater fish 49. Take liquid a little at a time 37. Singing couple 50. Boil vigorously 38. Squabble 52. A need to drink 41. Encountered 54. Apiece 43. Reverberation 57. Metal-bearing mineral 46. Dairy product 58. Linguist 48. Charter 62. Unit of geological time 51. Bird of prey 66. Gag 53. Meal 67. Ashen 55. Hold on tightly 69. Having the means to do 56. Small crude shelter something 58. Rain heavily 70. Halo 59. Gumbo 71. Foe 60. Jump 72. Scorch 61. Measure the duration 73. Enfold of something 74. Mirth 63. Comply 75. A specific kind 64. Applaud S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 287 - MEDIUM 65. This place 66. Mandible 68. Staining substance PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 388 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 156 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 286- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 38 9 | Sept 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 Salvation Army 131 E. 12th Street 45202 Shelterhouse 411 Gest St. 45203 762-5660 2121 Vine Street 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 VA VA Homeless Food/Clothing First Lutheran Church 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 Our Daily Bread 1730 Race Street 45202 921-1613 661-4620 Starting Over 961-2256 Hamilton/Middletown AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Joseph House (Veterans) Northern Kentucky Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 221-HELP 721-8666 768-6907 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 621-5300 961-1983 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 859-491-8303 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 Health 421-0065 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 799 Ann St. Newport, KY 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 977-6800 859-572-6226 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 621-6364 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 241-2600 621-5514 1223 Main St. 45202 961-4663 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 558-8888 351-3500 977-4489 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women First Step Home 352-6363 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 562-8841 Prospect House 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Center Independent Living Options Peaslee Neighborhood Center Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men 721-0643 Housing: 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Other Resources 1125 Bank Street 45214 Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Talbert House Tender Mercies 241-1064 St. Vincent de Paul Shelter: Youth Interfaith Hospitality Network FreeStore/FoodBank 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Shelter: Family 591-2246 621-7265 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 1437 Walnut Street 45202 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Churches Active in Northside McMicken Dental Clinic 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 Parkway Center 751-8771 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 Shelter: Men St. George Food Pantry 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 1528 Race St. 45202 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 15 for 26 issues $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 S e p t 7 - S e p t 2 0 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 9 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 7-September 20, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director The Community Issues Forum Kickoff on September 13th Focuses on Voting Rights and Increasing the Vote Pg 3: Public Housing is Under Attack Pg 4: Battling My Emerging Inner Curmudgeon Pg 5: Tourist Season at the Ocean Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Kaepernick, Athlete Activism, and the Future of the NFL Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: The Museum at Fort Ancient Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Jim Luken Continued Bill Woods Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Pg 12: White Like Me Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 7-September 20, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Jason Haap Jim Luken Maria Funcheon Saad Ghosn Michael Earl Patton Cleo Wombles Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Homeless Coalition Allie Graff Justin Jeffre Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Activist Allie Graff Bill Woods Cleo Wombles Collin Kaepernick Dr. Mark Mussman Fort Ancient Homeless Coalition Jason Haap Jim Luken Josh Spring Justin Jeffre Kim Green Maria Funcheon Michael Earl Patton Museum NFL Public Housing Religion Rhode Island Saad Ghosn Voting Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/7afde6c29cedf56075f782bdbd9e76c7.pdf 3ac9e75f143fc19777752db55308f02a PDF Text Text August 24th - September 6th 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 15 (No. 388) advocating justice | building community Duke Energy's Dangerous Pipeline Proposal | 8 This Issue is sponsored by Cecilia and Tom Kloecker INSIDE THIS ISSUE Cruel and Unusual Punishment | 3 The Mystery of Fort Ancient | 5 Religious Peacemakers: Reverend Daniel Hughes | 8 Sorta Aborta | 7 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: It’s Not A Movie W hat would you think if a law was proposed that would make it illegal to sleep, rest, use the bathroom and protect your belongings? I assume you would think this would be terrible, a breach of basic rights, a breach of the constitution and just plain wrong. Perhaps you would think the chance of this coming to pass would be farfetched and only possible in a movie. Well, it has happened here. The actions of Mayor John Cranley, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters and Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman have made it an arrestable offense to camp or live outside in Hamilton County on both public and private land. So now people without homes who desperately want their own home but are stuck living outside are now in hiding. A police officer or sheriff’s deputy could at any point decide that you have sat too long on a bench or that it wasn’t okay for you to fall asleep at a bus stop or that your neighbor doesn’t have the right to allow you and your child to pitch a A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition tent for a night in their yard or that you have a couple bags with you and it looks like you are seeking domicile or that you laid down for rest on public or private land or any other mix of thoughts that could come into an individual police officer’s mind and then they could demand that you leave the location or be arrested. To make this happen it only took for Mayor Cranley to ask Prosecutor Deters to assist him and sue the City of Cincinnati. Deters submitted a proposed order to Judge Ruehlman that it be required that people be cleared from public land at risk of arrest. The judge granted this order. The judge then granted this order two additional times as Deters continued to expand the geographical boundaries of the order. The third time it was expanded to include private land in addition to public land and instead of the City fighting this lawsuit and unconstitutional order, the city attorneys signed it saying they would comply. This has all happened without a single hearing and without anybody living outside having a chance to defend themselves. This is not how laws are supposed to be created. It is necessary for the general public to continue to stand up, speak out and fight back. This is about basic human rights and the right to not have your attempts to live and survive threatened by the government. Instead as a city and county we should be pursuing the creation of affordable housing, the saving of existing housing and an end to the criminalization of homelessness. From the Editor: Six years at the Homeless Coalition and Streetvibes M y how time flies. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working here at the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition as the editor of Streetvibes for over six years now. I started in mid-July in 2012 soon after the opening of the newly renovated and very gentrified Washington Park. It all started when I received a call from my friend, Josh Spring, the executive director of the Homeless Coalition. He said that their former editor, Jason Dean, was moving on and they thought I’d be a good fit for the position. I told him I didn’t think I would be, but I agreed to come to the office to talk about it. (It turns out, I was right for once Josh, but I do appreciate all the support you’ve given me along the way my friend.) I first learned of the Homeless Coalition’s great work back in 2005 after meeting one of the cofounders and current board members, Alice Skirtz. Alice is a retired social worker and tireless advocate for affordable housing and people experiencing homelessness. Alice gave me a real history lesson about homelessness in general and specifically here in Cincinnati. JUSTIN JEFFRE Contributing Writer (Spoiler alert: The primary causes of homelessness are a lack of affordable housing and jobs that pay living wages, btw.) She’s still an inspiration over a decade later and I highly recommend her book, Econocide: Elimination of the Urban Poor. It couldn’t be timelier with the city and county’s ramped up – and I think illegal - efforts to push poor people out of downtown, Over-the-Rhine and now even all of Hamilton County. It’s a must read for anyone interested in reducing and eliminating homelessness - which we believe is (Continued on page 11) Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Justin Jeffre, Dr. Mark Mussman, Dick Croy, Michael Earl Patton, Robert Park, Saad Ghosn, Jim Luken, Bill Woods, Stacia Hollander, Kim Green, Willa D. Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Laura Domet, Dr. Mark Mussman, The Telegraph, Michael Earl Patton, Cam Hardy, Saad Ghosn, Justin Jeffre, Google images, Bill Woods --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Justin Jeffre served as Streetvibes Editor for over six years Credit: Laura Domet THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �3 LOCAL Cruel and Unusual Punishment No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 DR. MARK MUSSMAN W hen Common Pleas Court Judge, Robert P. Ruehlman, signed the motion filed by Hamilton County Prosecutor, Joe Deters, in agreement with the City of Cincinnati, at the behest of Mayor John Cranley, he effectively legalized cruel and unusual punishment for people who are experiencing homelessness. Building upon the already dubious, potentially illegal, restraining order which demanded that Cincinnati Police remove persons homeless from the public eye, the new motion expanded the reach into private property, including the encampment at the corner of 13th and Republic, in Over-the-Rhine. Today, the encampment has been moved, most persons dispersed to secluded areas, without a community to support them. Throughout this entire ordeal, the City has maintained that there Staff Writer able to talk to an operator, I was told that there were only 4 beds available (at the time, more than 40 people were in the encampment), 2 beds for youth, and 2 for men who have a job, or who are willing to work. By the time we made it to the men’s shelter, the 2 beds were already taken. This gave the 62-year-old man I was working with little hope, and he is still out on the street today. Even as the police closed in on the camp, they expressed their frustration with the system, noting that they too could not get through, or if they had gotten through, there wasn’t any available space. Then there became another frustration, when people in the camp would be fast-tracked into housing, yet hundreds of people are languishing in the shelters already. People who heard they could get housing faster by staying at the camp began to show up, and while this is a good thing that people are having options, it also became frustrating when people who criminalization of homelessness at the State level, members of the camp had entered into a legal case at the Federal level, regarding the unconstitutionality of camp sweeps. It is seen as a Freedom of Speech issue, where tents represent the speech of persons who cannot access shelter or housing. The crux of the issue, as with the cruel and unusual punishment Public Service Employees remove remnants of an encampment Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman Sheriff and Police worked together to remove people from the camps Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman is “plenty of room” in the shelters to accommodate everyone at the site; however, City documents and personal accounts, including my own, have shown that there are not enough beds, and in fact, only overflow mats on the floor (sometimes on the laundry room floor) are available to select individuals. What seemed like a PR / funding move, the shelters bent over backwards to try to accommodate as many people as possible, sacrificing quality over quantity, and questioning whether the situation will be getting better or worse, during the upcoming winter months. The shelters are open 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, and work their hardest to not turn anyone away; however, some statistics show that more than 70% of people seeking shelter are turned away simply because there is not enough room. Spending time on the streets, at the encampments, I was able to see firsthand how difficult it truly is to get shelter. I personally called 381SAFE, the central access point line in Cincinnati, and sat on hold for over 25 minutes. After finally being had moved four times with the camp, were still not getting connected to housing. We have been working with our member organizations, such as Lighthouse Youth Services and Overthe-Rhine Community Housing, to secure housing for as many people as possible. Every member of the Homeless Coalition staff has been actively involved in the housing process, and we’ve been actively trying to improve the process from the beginning. Before the City and the County colluded to push forward the claim, is that there is not shelter or housing, and therefore, persons cannot be removed without a proper alternative. County Prosecutor, Joe Deters, admitted that the jail is also over-capacity, but said that people arrested for homelessness could “sleep on the gym floor,” but did not elaborate on which gym, and if that would create more issues, rather than solving them. In this whole debate, Cranley and Deters have been using stereotypes, (Continued on page 7) Document provided by Councilmember Jeff Pastor showing there is no room for adult men in shelter Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �4 O LOCAL Duke Energy’s Dangerous Pipeline Proposal n September 10, 2010, as families in the Crestmoor neighborhood of San Bruno, California, sat down to dinner, a blast so strong it hurled a 3,000-lb. section of steel pipe a hundred feet through the air changed life in the San Francisco suburb forever. The fireball that erupted a thousand feet into the sky that evening burned several people alive, leaving eight dead and 51 injured. Thirty-eight homes were destroyed, 70 others heavily damaged. First responders and the media believed at first that a large jetliner had crashed. Fire fighters were held at bay for an hour by the intense heat. It took them nearly an hour to discover that a high-pressure natural gas transmission line had exploded. After dashing from their homes in the chaos that followed, first to see what had happened, then to run for their lives, residents returning when all the fires had finally been put out found almost three city blocks of houseless chimneys towering over a sea of ash. A recent Wall Street Journal review found that there were 1,400 pipeline spills and accidents in the U.S. from 2010 to 2013 alone. Four in every five pipeline accidents were discovered by local residents, not the companies owning the lines. From 1994 through 2013, the U.S. had 855 serious incidents involving natural gas transmission and distribution, causing 319 fatalities and 1254 injuries, with more than half a billion dollars in property damage. None, thankfully, has been as serious as the San Bruno disaster. That’s a DICK CROY Contributing Writer catastrophe waiting to happen. Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility company that owned the gas line, was indicted on 27 federal criminal counts for repeatedly violating the federal Pipeline Safety Act; fined $1.6 billion by the California Public Utilities Commission, the largest penalty ever levied against a California utility; and A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 it was there. That colossal error in judgment, lack of concern for public safety, or flagrant act of corporate greed is the brainchild of another public utility, our good friends Duke Energy, the $120 billion company headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The company operates 250 miles of high pressure natural gas pipelines in Ohio and Kentucky, and wants to add a new line right through the center of Hamilton County. Chart Map from Duke Energy's application Credit: Duke Energy Proposal inundated with hundreds of lawsuits filed by blast victims who suffered injuries and lost family members or homes. Yet despite this litany of criminal and ethical wrongdoing, one thing PG&E cannot be blamed for is laying this extremely dangerous, ultimately lethal pipeline through an existing residential community. The line was laid before most homes in the area were built, and most residents didn’t even know On Friday April 13th – a particularly inauspicious Friday the 13th – Duke submitted supplemental documents to the Ohio Power Siting Board in Columbus to their original application in 2016 for a highpressure 20-inch natural gas pipeline in greater Cincinnati through 19 communities and Cincinnati neighborhoods, with a combined population of over 700,000 people. Duke was requesting the OPSB to resume approval proceedings that San Bruno explosion and fire Credit: The Telegraph THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED have dragged out at least partly due to discovery of a Super Fund site near one of the two proposed routes. (The original application was for a 30-inch transmission line; it was reduced in size after an initial public outcry that Duke may or may not have anticipated. Some local residents believe the “concession” was planned from the beginning.) The suburban neighborhoods affected by Duke’s two proposed routes (reduced from three initially) include: • More than 40 public and private schools plus the University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash • 8 hospitals and 5 nursing homes • More than 40 churches and synagogues • The premier shopping mall in greater Cincinnati • As well as many businesses, with well over 100,000 employees, including GE Aviation and a Ford Motor Co. transmission plant. If the proposal is approved as it stands, it would be the largest pipeline project ever approved at the state level, according to Matt Butler, public outreach manager for the Siting Board, which has final approval. Laying a high-pressure gas pipeline through existing communities like this has never been done before. This is not just another gas main or service line distributing gas to homes and businesses. Most mains are anywhere from two to six inches in diameter while a typical service line from main to meter ranges from one-half to two inches at less than 50 psi. What Duke calls the Central Corridor Extension is a highpressure 500 psi pipeline 20 inches in diameter – similar to the 30-inch line that destroyed nearly three city blocks in San Bruno. In other words, it’s a transmission line, part of a nationwide high-pressure, highcapacity system for transporting natural gas thousands of miles across the country from processing facilities to local distribution networks. Extremely high pressure must be used to keep the gas flowing. Although local and county governments have no authority in the matter, Duke’s proposal has been formally opposed by the city councils of Cincinnati and many of the communities involved; by Hamilton County commissioners; by State Representative Jonathan Dever; and by residents, business owners and school boards and administrations all along the route. Duke will seek property easements requiring land to be completely cleared of all trees and landscaping for up to 100 feet, with pipe laid three to four feet underground. Duke’s claim that the routes it has proposed to the Siting Board are the best among 200 originally considered is very hard to believe. And if it is true, what in the world were their criteria? Public safety and human lives couldn’t have been their (Continued on page 7) �5 LOCAL The Mystery of Fort Ancient No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 Spangled Banner is sung. In my view the painting could be showing a scene similar to the lighting of the Olympic torch. Of course, the true answer might be something else entirely. I MICHAEL EARL PATTON F ort Ancient is the name the first settlers of European ancestry gave to the 3 miles of ancient Indian earthworks high on a bluff above the Little Miami River, north-east of Cincinnati. What the Indians called it and what they used it for, we do not know. To the early settlers the earthen walled enclosure looked like a fort, and why wouldn’t it? Not long before, in 1793 – 94, General Anthony Wayne had marched from Fort Washington in Cincinnati and on to Fort Hamilton, Fort St. Clair (present day Eaton), Fort Greenville, and Fort Recovery on his way to fight the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Other forts connected with his campaign were Fort Jefferson, Fort Defiance, and Fort Wayne (Indiana). Near present day Toledo the British had erected Fort Miamis. Forts were something the early settlers expected and this, at first glance, sure looked like one. Contributing Writer permanent settlement that would have supported such a work force. So the thinking is that people must have gathered there at a certain time of year to work on the structure. What could be such a motivation? Many think that it was some kind of religious site, and this is the view that is given at the museum at Fort Ancient. Some of the gaps in the walls line up with astronomical events when seen from one of four limestone-covered mounds within the enclosure. We know there were fires lit on the mounds because the limestone covering them has been burned. A painting in the museum imagines what such a ceremony marking the winter solstice may have looked like. Sunrise at Winter Solstice. Was This Only a Religious Ceremony or the Opening Ceremony of a Larger (Continued on page 11) The "Great Gateway" Which Divides the Northern and Southern Parts of the Complex Credit: Michael Earl Patton Inside Pond Next to Earthen Wall Credit: Michael Earl Patton Adopted from the Brochure for Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve State Park Credit: Michael Earl Patton The enclosed area is about 125 acres. We know it was not a fort because there is no evidence of enough people living in the vicinity to defend such a large area, an area with numerous gaps in the walls besides. The construction time took centuries, from about 100 B.C. to 300 A.D. The amount of soil that was moved to fill 3 ravines and build the walls was astounding considering that it was done all by manual labor – there were no suitable draft animals at that time in North America. In modern terms think of 400 miles of bumperto-bumper dump trucks, each full of soil. On average, each year’s worth of work represented filling up a mile of dump trucks. Even with modern machinery that is a lot of work. But there is no evidence of a Another feature that argues against this being used as a fort is a series of moat-like ponds that were on the inside of the earthen walls, not the outside as in a European castle. Some of these hold water even today. Were these just incidental to the construction – formed because it was easiest to take dirt from close to the wall – or were they an intentional feature? As for the purpose of Fort Ancient, my guess is that it was some kind of games arena. I do not see why such a large area would have been needed for religious ceremonies. Even in the painting most of the area is empty. There probably was some kind of ceremony at the beginning of the games, just as there is with American baseball and football when the Star Sunrise at Winter Solstice. Was This Only a Religious Ceremony or the Opening Ceremony of a Larger Event? THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Credit: Michael Earl Patton �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 �LOCAL SORTA Aborta No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 T he Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) is the tax-supported public transportation system that runs the buses serving the greater Cincinnati area. It is a failing system. Even employers complain about it: the workers can’t get to work on it. It is sinking financially and as a consequence its service structure is imploding – routes are being cut or pared even thinner.  It’s a hub and spokes design that inflicts hours on many riders’ daily commute. So the SORTA Board in consultation with Hamilton County and the City came up with a plan for a big infusion of funds to keep the system on life-support and begin to craft a real public transportation system. How to pay for it? Did the County Commissioners decide it’s time for business to help pay the freight? Time to wean downtown employers off metastasizing parking structures, time to stop adding lanes to freeways? Time to take back our city’s future from 3CDC? No. SORTA said maybe let’s do a sales tax, make the bottom end of the wealth distribution DR. MARK MUSSMAN (Continued from page 3) rather than fact-finding to demonize people experiencing homelessness. They claim that everyone experiencing homelessness is a public health issue, that they are all drug abusers, and that they all have hepatitis A. However, other than one visit from DICK CROY (Continued from page 4) primary consideration. In fact, as absurd as it may seem to the blissfully ignorant, safety to human lives is not one of the criteria the OTSB has to consider. Another Duke claim that strains credulity is that the pipeline is “being designed in order to increase the reliability and dependability of the natural gas delivery system in the area.” But a 20-inch diameter pipeline supplying natural gas at 400 psi is enough for two million homes, while Duke has only 500,000 customer accounts in Ohio and Kentucky combined. Those opposed to the pipeline are skeptical of Duke’s less than transparent long-range plans. Some think it will ultimately be part of some non-local network such as an interstate transmission system to transport gas from northeast Ohio fracking operations all the way to the Gulf Coast. Duke’s proposed 12-mile line is an extension of a pipeline constructed in 2003 to provide gas transmission from cross country pipelines to northern Hamilton County. As planned, it would connect with an ROBERT PARK Contributing Writer pay the biggest percentage of their income for the public good compared to the middle and top tier wealthers. Oops, but the people didn’t go for it and it was looking bad for the careers of some candidates for public office so what did they do? They decided to do nothing. A minimally sufficient public transportation system was a reach too far. To be fair, County Commissioner Todd Portune has a People sitting on a crowded bus Credit: Cam Hardy 7 reasonable vision of a regional transit system which the other counties would not only benefit from but help pay for. This plan isn’t even off the drawing board. Recently, Nashville had its own transit meltdown. A heavily promoted, comprehensive project to bring that city into the 21st transportation century got soundly defeated by the voters. Businesses, real estate and the Chamber of Commerce figured out that if Nashville doesn’t get with the program on urban transit, they’re going to lose-out bigtime down the road. They developed a detailed plan including modern bus routes, light rail and even subway travel beneath the city center. Businesses contributed most of the money to design and sell the proposed plan. There was just one problem: they wanted everyone else to pay most of the more than $5 billion to actually make it happen, much of it from the sales tax which would top out at a whopping 9.75% and later increase further to 10.25%. Sound familiar? The people aren’t stupid. Why is it that every time the corporate bosses want important changes for their own benefit, they expect the rest of us to pick up the tab? Whether football (Continued on page 11) the Health Department on 3rd Street, there has been no other health related outreach. People in the encampment said they were vaccinated against hepatitis with a single shot, but most vaccinations require multiple shots. They were unsure if they needed follow-up shots to complete their vaccination, and they were unsure if there would be any issues if they didn’t receive follow-up shots. The funding for addiction services has also been called into question, as the CAT House receives very little City funding, and what they do receive we have to fight for each year. If the City wanted to end homelessness, they could with affordable housing, livable wages, and housing protections. If they want to cite health issues, then they could provide more health outreach, like mobile nurses, and easier access to health and addiction services. If this was a true health crisis, they would provide testing first, rather than blindly offer vaccinations. The issues that arise from homelessness should not be minimized, but they shouldn’t be used as an excuse to punish people who are already suffering. existing regulator station just north of the county and run through 19 heavily populated northern suburbs of Cincinnati to an existing pipeline at the south end of the line. Arguments against the pipeline have ranged from the obvious public safety problems if there were an explosion, to the loss of property values and damage to the environment and the local economy. For example, Reading, one of the communities affected, expressed concern about losing a major development grant because of the hazard the pipeline would entail. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, one of many government officials against the pipeline, is pushing for Duke to inform any property owner within 2,000 feet, almost half a mile, from the pipeline. This is roughly the "blast zone" for a pipe of this size, outlined by a nonprofit organization known as the Pipeline Association for Public Awareness. The blast zone is also termed an “incineration zone.” When a 30-inch pipeline exploded in rural Salem, PA, in April it sparked a fire that left a man whose home was 500 yards from the explosion, critically burned over much of his body – not from flames but from radiant heat alone. “The heat was so intense it was burning him as he was running away,” said Bob Rosatti, chief of the Forbes Road Fire Department. “I parked a quarter mile away and I couldn’t get out of my truck because it was that hot.” “This is not a 'not in my backyard' issue,” declares Elizabeth RueveMiller, one of the founders of NOPE, a local grassroots organization, Neighborhoods Opposing Pipeline Extension. “This is a 'not in anyone's backyard' issue.” The local Sierra Club agrees. At an informal open house held by Duke in June 2016, club members passed out a flyer likening the pipeline to “a continuous oil train moving huge quantities with potentially catastrophic consequences.” Duke has already been cited by OSHA for not following workplace safety regulations and fined for a gas explosion in Lebanon, OH. North Carolina has  fined Duke for spilling waste into waterways.  “This is not about demonizing Duke,” said Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who authored the resolution of opposition signed by the Cincinnati City Council to fight Duke’s current options in any way possible. “We appreciate them as a major employer and business in our community. But we have a higher expectation of them that has not yet been met.” The community, he said, has let Duke “know that they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole – or rather, trying to force a massive and potentially dangerous pipeline onto densely populated residential neighborhoods.” Blue Ash resident Glenn Rosen, a founder of NOPE, said, "It’s too big. It’s got way too much pressure. It’s intended to transmit gas, not distribute gas to anybody nearby here." He began organizing his neighbors in February 2016 to fight Duke’s proposal. "This belongs in a rural area where there are not a lot of people." Another Blue Ash resident, agreed. "What I'm saying is, circumvent. Why go through Hamilton County? Why go through the city center when we can go around? Go into rural counties where we won't have to train a massive amount of first responders. Accidents happen, 20-30 years from now. These pipelines have life expectancies." THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS For Reverend Daniel Hughes "Leaving Egypt" Takes Courage but Leads to a "Promised Land" Where There Is No Oppression & Where Justice Prevails R A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 SAAD GHOSN everend Daniel Hughes' personal faith was engrained in his family. Both his parents were ministers in the same nondenominational church they had established in a predominantly black neighborhood of Lima, OH. Even though growing up in a rural setting, on farmland 20 minutes away from the city, Hughes spent a lot of time, at least 3 days a week, at his parents' church, attending services and participating in religious teachings. "I grew up in a cross-cultural world," he says, "navigating very early on cultural differences." "I was black in an all-white middle class rural community, but connected with many urban African Americans whom I did not talk or act like. I felt like someone with no place, someone who did not belong in the social arena," he adds. Organized religion also did not resonate with Hughes. He got, however, from his parents and the church, his spirituality and his deep faith which informed his identity. He became aware of social justice issues at home, his family always helping the poor and the oppressed, and constantly reminding him that Contributing Writer everyone is called to be free and to also set others free. "I always had an aversion to see people mistreated," he says. "At school I would protect kids being picked on, and in the school bus I will leave an empty seat next to me for them." Growing up, Hughes also witnessed the gender discrimination his mother experienced as a female minister, churches then not being in favor of women in religious leadership positions. After graduating from high school, Hughes left home and got a job in California. In 1998, and 8 years later, he returned to Ohio to be next to his dying father. His parents’ church was then closed but, fulfilling his father's wishes, Hughes helped reopen its doors, getting it back into operation and serving as its new pastor. "I felt I was called to lead the community and serve its people," says Hughes, "and they selected me as their new minister. I was reading at the time Paul's letters to Timothy, his letters regarding the work of a pastor caring for his community, and I felt as if they were addressed to me." This was the fall of 1998. A few months later, January 1999, Hughes joined the Mennonite's Bluffton University, in Bluffton, OH, 20 miles north of Lima. He spent 4 years there, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Communication, and pursuing at the same time his pastoral work at his church in nearby Lima. "Studying at the Mennonite University raised my awakening to social justice, to pacifism and side of the oppressed," says Hughes. "And I was bringing that experience to my church community in Lima." After graduating from Bluffton University, Hughes went to the University of Bowling Green to complete a Master's degree in Communication, and then returned to Bluffton U. to teach. "But I felt the need and the call for something more," he says. Continuing his teaching, he accepted the position of Assistant Director at the Lima Housing Authority. What is the UNITED METHODIST CHURCH  The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a mainline Protestant denomination and a major part of Methodism. It was founded in 1968 in Dallas, TX by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England as well as the Great Awakening in the United States.  The basic beliefs of The United Methodist Church are: • God is one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. • The Bible is the inspired word of God. • All humans are sinners and Sin estranges people from God and corrupts human nature so that we cannot heal or save ourselves. • Salvation is through Jesus Christ. • The grace of Sanctification draws one toward the gift of Christian perfection. • People, while corrupted by Sin, are free to make their own choices because of God's divine grace enabling them; they are truly accountable before God for their choices. • The church opposes social injustice and evils such as slavery, inhumane prison conditions, capital punishment, economic injustice, child labor, racism, and inequality. The UMC recognizes two sacraments: Holy Baptism (by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion) and Holy Communion. Confirmation, Ordination, Holy Matrimony, Funerals, and Anointing of the Sick are performed but are not considered sacraments. The UMC, with at least 12 million members (7.5 million in the US and 4.5 million in Africa, Asia and Europe) as of 2014, is the largest denomination within the wider Methodist movement of approximately 80 million people across the world. In the US, it ranks as the largest mainline Protestant denomination and the largest Protestant church after the Southern Baptist Convention. The Pew Research Center's 2014 US Religious Landscape Study concluded that the political preferences of UMC members was 54% Republican, 35% Democrat, and 11% Independent/other. Rev. Daniel Hughes to community," says Hughes. "My religious upbringing was predominantly spiritual, but my 4 years at Bluffton connected in a direct and inseparable way my faith to social justice." At the same time as being a student, Hughes worked as a staff member custodian cleaning the student union; he got to hang out with other staff members, custodians, cooks, etc. listening to their stories and resonating with their social problems. He served also on a university team called "Damascus Road" which had goal to address, identify and offer solutions to the systemic racism prevalent in the American culture, "a racism that robbed both white and people of color of dignity, equality and mutual respect," he says. Hughes also joined many peace and social justice clubs on campus, participating in their vigils and marches for various causes, such as, for instance, against t capital punishment. "During my college years and thanks to the Mennonite's influence, I was living liberation theology, knowing that God is a liberator on the Credit: Saad Ghosn "I thought it would be a good way for me to help and impact the lives of average poor people. I found out quickly, however, that I was not meant for politics and decided to quit." Hughes' experience working for the Housing Authority, nevertheless, exposed him further to the prevailing injustices of the system and to the unequal privileges many white individuals blindly live. It determined his deeper involvement in the community. A police shooting that killed for no reason Tereka Wilson, a young African American mother, at her home in Lima, presented him with a good opportunity. The police officer responsible for the killing not being indicted, the city erupted into riots, and Hughes, as one of the religious leaders, was pulled in the center of it. He started working with other black and white religious denominations and groups, with schools, with the mayor, trying to find common ground and bring real healing and change to the city. "When Tereka was shot I felt as if my apathy and selfishness had (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �LOCAL The Worst Day of My Life No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 JIM LUKEN [I am sending this to Streetvibes from my new home in Rhode Island at the request of—and to acknowledge— the paper’s retiring, long-time editor, Justin Jeffre. He has done a fabulous job for many years, and will be greatly missed by present and former contributors.] O f course, everyone has had his or her share of really bad days, sometimes (often?) they are relational. And sometimes they occur within the context of our everyday lives. Hassles, losses, troubles of many kinds. They are real and should be respected, even honored perhaps. For many years (before and during the “revival”) I lived and worked in Over-the-Rhine. I wrote many “Meet Up” articles for this newspaper wherein I interviewed neighborhood people whose painful life stories made my own troubles pale by comparison. During the “druggie” days, I ran across Race Street during a hail of gunfire just down the street. Moments after one of the many shootings, I found myself standing over a dead body, a human being’s life-blood running over the curb and into a storm sewer. As the gentrification continues, no one needs to be told that “our beloved community,” as we often Contributing Writer from a book I self-published (The Strangest Dream) in early 2002. The book recounts my life as a father-of-four, peace activist who found himself in no doubt too many war zones as a journalist for the international Franciscan Order (OFM). Perhaps this story might help readers contextualize the travails and problems in their own lives. I begin it with a quote: On their foreheads and breasts are the little holes where death came in as thunder/ while they were playing their important summer games./ Do not weep for them, Madre, they are gone forever, the little ones, / straight to heaven with the saints/ and God will fill the bullet holes with candy. Norman Rosten, “In Guernica” Father Anto, another Bosnian priest and I make our way by car to the edge of the town of Vitez (Bosnia) to an area near a row of neat, modern stucco houses. As we drive up I notice that the wall of the first house in the row is pockmarked from shrapnel. We park beside what remains of a little playground. I am told that two Two girls' grave Credit: Google Images called OTR, continues to be the locus of suffering and displacement for many of its long-time residents. But I have also been witness to the pain that exists elsewhere on this beautiful planet. I have had the privilege—on numerous occasions— to spend time in places where war and terrorism were taking place. The deepest passion of my life has been an attempt to help Americans see And understand the horrors that people in other places endure (often at the hands of the US military and CIA), this on an all too regular basis. The following is an excerpt us. Cleary, they are still in a state of terrible shock that seems not yet to have yielded to tears. Father Anto tells me that one of the men lost his only two children in the blast. “He had to take small pieces of them from the branches of the tree,” Anto days earlier, on the afternoon of June 10, 1993 (my wedding anniversary), a Muslim artillery shell had exploded here, killing the seven children whose new graves I had just visited, and wounding seven others. A basketball hoop, net-less, hangs from a pole. A wooden picnic table is planted near a ragged, lonely tree. One of the priests explains that this makeshift playground had been set up by the neighborhood parents in order to keep their kids hidden from the sight line of Muslim snipers who often perched in the nearby hills. Zombie-like, three men, fathers of four of the dead children drift out from their nearby homes to join Jim Luken Credit: Justin Jeffre says. The man looks at me and nods. He speaks no English, I think. But he knows exactly what Anto has described. Then how could he not? “This was an accident, right?” I say. “A shell gone astray.” This shelling was not an accident, Anto tells me. The playground had been deliberately targeted. The man looks at me again. I must be registering my utter disbelief that anyone would (or even could) target a playground full of children, from so far away. The same man begins speaking in short bursts. Father Anto translates each line. It was deliberate (the man insists). The Muslim children who always played with the Croat kids (he says) were not there that day. Not one Muslim child (he shouts)! The day before the shelling (he says), one of the Croat children (he doesn’t say which one) had carved a faint Croat flag (he points to it) into the surface of the picnic table. He jabs at the flag again and again. This little checkerboard flag (he declares, weeping now) is why the playground was targeted by the Muslim artillerymen. He pauses, “That flag,” he says, “is why my children are dead.” The Muslim kids (he says, still sobbing, between phrases) had told their parents about that flag. Anto explains that the parents had taken the information to the Muslim soldiers. “They killed seven of our children for that flag,” (he screams). I stare at the silly checkerboard of the almost-childlike Croatian flag. Then the father speaks directly at me. He is asking me something THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 9 in Serbo-Croatian. Why is he asking me? What the hell do I know...about anything? I hear Anto translate the question as if he were calling out to me from another planet. “He is asking you, 'Where were the Muslim children that day?'' I stare into the man’s eyes, into a universe of grief. Those eyes plead for an answer he knows I cannot give. Without accusing me, those eyes indict me. Why can’t you explain for me, Amerikanka, the unfathomable, the absurd, the bottomless pit of inhuman behavior by humans? The translated story continues, spilling from the well of sadness inside each of these fathers. At one point in the telling, a huge explosion takes place at a distance that I cannot exactly calculate but seems frighteningly close to us. A football field's distance, or less. Boom!!! Louder than the loudest “Boom” I'd ever heard during fireworks displays. My head jerks back, my body lurches. A moment later, I look around at the five others. No one is running for shelter. As far as I can see, no one has even reacted...except for me. They all stand planted there, like gravestones. I can’t believe what I have heard. Moments after the most disturbing story I have ever heard another artillery shell blows up a short block away from where we are standing, and no one runs, no one seeks shelter. No one even reacts. I gather myself. I get it: everyone here is accustomed to this. The way we Americans get used to the occasional blast of a nearby cherry bomb, as the 4th of July approaches. Nobody seems to care in the least that the reality behind the ear-splitting noise we had heard might have been deadly. No one seems worried about where the next shell might explode? Obviously, not one among these fathers really cares if he is the next to die. They, we, can do nothing about it. This is the ongoing reality here in Vitez. There is no safe hiding place. This, I recognize once again, is the unspeakably evil face of war, a reality endured night and day, day after bloody day, by civilians living in the numerous war zones, which dot the face of the globe. Reader, I’m sure you see why the scenes at the playground and at the children's grave site are carved forever in my memory, more permanently, no doubt, than that weathered little flag is etched into the picnic table. The whole scene (touching upon my own fear of losing a child, and bringing me to tears once again as I describe it) is the reason I am writing this anti-war tract for you. When they come for the children, without first crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life.—Anonymous. [Editor's note: Jim Luken was a work horse for this paper going back to before I became editor. Thanks Jim!] �10 A LOCAL MONEY AND POLITICS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL s reformers know, addressing the problem of "big money's" role in political campaigns has become harder and harder. Citizens United and other rulings by the Supreme Court have given freedom to big donors and Super PACs to flood money into the political process. Meanwhile, an opportunity has arisen in Cincinnati to make a small step toward lessening the influence of "fat cat" dollars in Council and Mayoral elections. Back in 2001, Cincinnati voters passed a City Charter Amendment that put in place a series of reforms that dealt with contributions and spending in municipal campaigns. Since that election, this Amendment has been greatly weakened. Although the elimination of the public financing of campaigns remains the biggest loss from the initial reform package, the approval of a new funding source to campaigns also changed the contribution limits rules. The contribution's section of the Charter Amendment set specific limits on the amount of money individuals, groups, and parties can give to a Council or mayoral candidate. Parties could allocate $10,000 to A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 BILL WOODS Contributing Writer a candidate, while political action committees were limited to $2,500. Meanwhile, an individual could contribute $1,000 to a Council or mayoral campaign (now $1,100). These figures can periodically be raised slightly to adjust to inflation and the cost of living. The question of how to deal with local campaign contributions of LLCs (Limited Liability Corporations) emerged more than a decade ago. In 2005, the Cranley for Council Committee asked the City whether a $1,000 gift from an LLC would be regarded as the individual limit that would be allowed the person who established the corporation. The volunteer Elections Commission established under the Charter Amendment then over stepped its authority by determining that LLC's had lives of their own, and that a person could contribute $1,000 to a campaign, and then turn around and have his or her LLC write another check to the same candidate. This decision led to people setting up multiple LLCs that each gave $1,000 gifts to a candidate. Thus, an individual who controlled six LLCs could contribute $7,000 to a candidate for Council or for Mayor. This 2005 decision about LLCs was never published and was not widely known by the public. Nevertheless, candidates such as John Cranley took full advantage and several Council candidates also garnered LLC support. Last year, former Judge Mark Painter, Councilman Wendell Young, civic leader Don Mooney, and several people who were leaders in the 2001 Charter Amendment campaign challenged the City's determination concerning the legal status of LLC contributions. This finally led to a law suit against the Elections Commission and Mayor Cranley that stated the Commission had exceeded its authority when it gave Bill Woods accepting last year's buddy gray award Credit: Homeless Coalition of this contribution loophole. In his recent primary and fall campaigns, the Mayor collected an estimated $500,000 from seventy-five LLCs. His opponent Yvette Simpson LLCs individual rights to contribute to Council and Mayoral candidates. A settlement was reached when the (Continued on page 11) September 7 - 29, 2018 For tickets please call (513) 381-2273 Purchase tickets online at www.cincyshakes.com AD Donated by Mark and Sue Ann Painter season sponsored by the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �LOCAL No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 JUSTIN JEFFRE (Continued from page 2) possible - as well as those wishing to understand how we’ve gotten to where we are as a community, with a growing housing crisis. I’ll have more to say about my journey here at the Homeless Coalition and Streetvibes in the next issue. I’m writing this article now though to inform you, our faith readers, that in the coming weeks I’ll be moving on from the Homeless Coalition and this mighty little paper, to focus more on my work with my MICHAEL EARL PATTON (Continued from page 5) admit this is quite speculative, but it is fun – something like figuring out the clues in a mystery novel. Unfortunately, we will have to wait ROBERT PARK (Continued from page 7) stadiums, storm sewer upgrades, tax breaks or whatever. It used to be they could usually get their way on things like this; maybe times are changing. The system is rigged. The project would have been great for business: their workers can get to work, they SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) allowed it to happen," states Hughes. "Her blood, like the blood of Jesus, saved me and gave me the courage, like the Jews in the Old Testament, to "leave my Egypt", i.e. the comfortable and secure system i was living in, for a promised land where there would be justice and no oppression." This is also when Hughes was introduced to the United Methodist Church (UMC) through a white pastor from one of Lima’s suburban churches who reached out to him. Finding similarity between them they decided to work together to fight injustice in the city. Few years later, he was offered the pastorship of Shiloh UMC at Price Hill. He has been there now for four years. Hughes' church in Price Hill is diverse in its membership and very involved in its neighborhood. It works, for instance, with the local Recreation BILL WOODS (Continued from page 10) City agreed to pursue placing a new Charter Amendment on the ballot that would allow the voters to decide the fate of LLCs as campaign contributors. 11 music group. As some of you may or may not know, I’m a member of the vocal group, 98 Degrees, and fortunately for us we’ve become more active in the past few years. Music has always been my first passion. 98 Degrees started getting back together after a long hiatus at the same time my journey began here at the Homeless Coalition. It’s been a pretty tough balance throughout these years, but now it’s time for the next chapter for all us. So, while I’m moving on, I will still remain an active supporter of the great work this organization does and this program/ mighty paper, Streetvibes. I sincerely hope that you all will as well. Through the years I’ve been fortunate enough to work alongside a lot of wonderful people. Far too many to mention here now individually though in this issue. I’d like to thank all of my coworkers both current and past, our volunteer writers and photographers, our hard-working distributors, our interns, board members, donors (big, medium and small, we’ve depended on and are grateful for you all.) I’d like to thank all of the people in our member organizations – which all do such amazing work. And to the people that they serve, we want you to know that we value you all very much as well. It’s been quite an honor and a pleasure to have been a part of an organization and program for which I have had so much respect. Thank you all for reading and supporting Streetvibes! In the back you will see a listing for this position. If you or anyone you know are interested, please contact Josh Spring. Onward! decades to converge on the right answer as more investigation is done, if researchers ever do agree. From April through November Fort Ancient is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from noon – 5:00 pm, closed Mondays. From December through March it is open only during the weekends. Admission is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors (60+) and students (6 – 17). If you want to just visit the outside park and skip the excellent museum the charge is $8 per carload. The recommended route is exit 36 / Wilmington Road off of I-71, then south on Middleboro Road and then west on State Route 350. See www.FortAncient.org for more information. can recruit employees to an attractive city environment, they could operate in a robust networking economy. In Nashville, maybe if the Chamber had proposed that all businesses (not just hotels and car rentals.) would shoulder a substantial part of the cost, people would have been more easily persuaded to join in. Some innovation in urban progressive tax strategies on income and business would help a lot. There are some lessons here from our southern neighbors. Like advice for the Cincinnati ruling class and its Business Committee: your greed is actually eroding your fundamental interests; to move forward, you have to give some back. For the rest of us, we need to reject regressive funding alternatives like a sales tax or even contributions from a flat income tax, and demand that our elected officials come up with ways to mine private and corporate wealth for public infrastructure. We need the tax lawyers working for us, not them. Center offering social programs and events, services, also free meals to the community there. It also partners with Shiloh Sober Living providing financial support to returning citizens who suffer from substance abuse and who have opted to live drug free. In collaboration with the nonprofit LIT (Living In Testimony), housing and a supportive community will soon be offered to men coming out from prison. The church also provides mentors for young juveniles with felony, part of the Block ministry, and offers its facility for narcotics and alcoholic anonymous, and to various Santa Maria activities. Hughes visits the jail at the Justice Center downtown Cincinnati every week. He provides faith and other support to the inmates and is planning a Returning Equity program which will offer them an alternative economy when released and ready to reinsert society. "When freed, these individuals do not feel they belong and are not being accepted," he says. "They are 'the others', a feeling at the heart of their many problems." Hughes also leads the Price Hill Faith Alliance, trying to create relationships between the various local Christian churches; and participates in the Faith Alliance citywide. With other faith leaders of the City he started a year ago the JustLove movement, a movement based on bringing people together to share their experiences, connect by love, and work for justice. Last April, Hughes' Shiloh Price Hill UMC separated from its Delhi sister church and changed its name to the Incline Missional Community. Its new goal is to love people the way they are, liberate them, lead them, and help them realize who they are. The Sunday service has changed as a result and with the parishioners' input is now based on a monthly theme which, in addition to the religious service, progresses with various activities and teachings throughout the month, ending up with an active community service in the neighborhood. "This helps us address important issues we face in our culture and our life, examine them deeply and plan our faith response to them," says Hughes. " Our members own the process and it gives all of us practical tools to apply." Going from there Hughes would like to create spaces for people to belong and be vulnerable. For him who studied Communication, communication is all about connections that these spaces will facilitate, letting people thrive and flourish. They will break isolation, foster acceptance and attract people to the Jesus who is both in them and in "the other". "They will incubate love and hopefully will help change the world," he says. That is where this issue stands today. At its first meeting in September, City Council is poised to place on the November ballot a Charter Amendment proposal that would remove the ability of an individual and that same individual 's LLC to make $1,100 contributions. It would also disallow multiple contributions by LLCs established by the same individual. Although a small step when looking at the overall situation of "big money" in campaigns, it is a step in the right direction. Remembering the dictum that "all politics is local," it is refreshing to be able to pass this reform in Cincinnati. Furthermore, it will reestablish the integrity of the contribution limits that were passed by the voters in 2001. “Breakdown Stereotypes” --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- “Eradicate Misinformation” The Coalition for the Homeless provides Education and Service Programs that help to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of homelessness in Cincinnati. We believe an educated public can be a more compassionate public, willing to dedicate time and effort towards creating solutions to homelessness. The “Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau” program is made up of individuals currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness, who share their experiences. The program is designed to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. To schedule a speaker, contact Mark Mussman at MarkMussman@cincihomeless.org. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �12 O STREET VOICE Tired of being tired A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 STACIA HOLLANDER ver the two years that I’ve been homeless it has put a whole new outlook on my life. Being homeless is not a laughing matter. It’s a very serious problem in our society. Today there are so many people experiencing Streetvibes Distributor &Contributing Writer homelessness on our streets. The hatred I’ve seen and that has been directed at me. Just last month a woman was fired from Dunkin Doughnuts at the East Court Street location for writing on my cup, “Stop standing in front of our store beggin’ when you get a full time job, Thanks Management”. I am so hurt and embarrassed. My feelings are in a million directions right now. They think this issue is Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Steetvibes Editor Summary of Organization: The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is a unified social action agency, fully committed to its ultimate goal: the eradication of homelessness with respect for the dignity and diversity of its membership, people experiencing homelessness and the community. Our Coalition works towards this goal by coordinating services, educating the public, and engaging in grassroots organizing and advocacy. Summary of Program: Streetvibes is an entrepreneurship program that advocates for justice and builds community through excellent, award-winning reporting. Streetvibes reports on topics related to economics, civil rights, race, religion, gender, LGBTQIA, immigration, the environment, and the struggle to end homelessness and poverty. The printed newspaper version is published bi-weekly by the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and primarily distributed by people who are, or once were without a home in exchange for a $2 donation. Summary of Position: The Streetvibes Editor will produce a quality 16-page bi-weekly paper, maintain the Streetvibes website, cultivate a social media presence, strengthen the relationships among the Distributors within the community and the organization, and provide guidance to enhance distributor productivity and Job Description Part-Time development. This is a part-time position. Duties and Responsibilities: 1. Produce a 16-page, bi-weekly newspaper a. Strategic planning of articles b. Compose independentlywritten, thought-provoking, and original articles c. Story and photography assignments to volunteers d. Story assessment and editing e. Highlight member organizations, their events, work, staff, job openings, and volunteer opportunities f. Maintain an updated resource page, and other paper assets g. Adhere to a set production format and schedule h. Work directly with layout manager to coordinate distribution to printer 2. Create and post a local events calendar for Distributors 3. Assist Director of Education with Streetvibes Shadow Activities 4. Maintain database records of sales, Distributors, writers, supporters, articles, archives 5. Solicit and supervise freelance writers, volunteers, and field-related interns 6. Work with community members and member organizations to develop stories, ensure a diversity of voices, increase advertising, and improve sales 7. Raise funds for operation of Streetvibes through working with other staff to seek and secure grants, donations, sponsorships, and paid advertisements 8. Market paper to increase distribution 9. Manage Streetvibes website and social media, answer inquiries 10. Attend community events and newsworthy actions 11. Submit timely quarterly and annual reports 12. Plan annual Streetvibes fundraiser with assistance from staff and Board 13. All other duties as assigned Qualifications: • Degree in Journalism or related field preferred (not required) or equivalent writing experience • Photography experience preferred • Writing and Editing Skills • Proficiency with Adobe InDesign, Wordpress, and Photoshop • Ability to delegate, organize, and hold others accountable • Ability to challenge through writing • Familiarity and passion for social justice especially the eradication of homelessness and poverty • Comfortable speaking in public, and with controversial issues and stances • Good interpersonal skills, over and it’s not. I’m not going to let this go. I can’t, and I won’t. All of the (sorry)’s in the world aren’t good enough for me. I deserve more than that. I want Dunkin Doughnuts to be humiliated and embarrassed. Just like they done me. I’ll never forget this at all. People experiencing homelessness are human. Have feelings and stop the harassment of people experiencing homelessness. ability to communicate with a wide range of individuals • Ability to convert document file types and use Microsoft Office • Understanding of layout, design conventions, and image requirements for print Working Conditions: • Supervised by Executive Director • Ability to work with and collaborate strategically with other staff in a busy work environment and multi-task • Ability to adhere to strict deadlines • Flexible schedule; some work on nights and weekends Starting Wage: $16.84/hr To apply: Send resume, cover letter, and 3 references to: Josh Spring, LSW Executive Director 117 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 joshspring@cincihomeless.org The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Homeless Coalition does not discriminate based on race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, ability, veteran’s status, homelessness or housing status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Streetvibes Writing Circle THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �13 STREET VOICE No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 NO ONE ASKED RUSSIAN MEDDLING - PART II No one asked. Meet Boris, Ivan, and Fyodor, How are you today? No one asked, Because no one cared Maybe because everyone is too busy Members of Putin's spy-corps, Who make the cyber connections. Their goals and focus are steady. Someone went home today These wily Russians are ready Feeling, sad and empty To hack our midterm elections. No one asked, No one cared BILL WOODS Contributing Writer Sometimes no one should have to ask. HOME ALONE When was the last time you asked someone could you help them? It’s so sad when no one cares enough to ask! KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer I feel so blessed that being homeless for me has ceased Ceased meaning yesterday looking at today I still pray for peace I just knew being home alone, finally after living in the street with a slide That I could finally rest with my memories and let my spirit glide I've learned that being home alone doesn't always make one happy Especially to wake up to the reality that the world you live in actually is crappy I hear a security guard involved in the death of a young man I hear for double murder you get twenty-five years in this land! I find myself after all is said and done. I'm lonely, bored, behind the time or missing people I need to be able to talk, enjoy, laugh, respecting history with loud chimes on the steeples I've learned in order to a make a change is some serious work and a lot of effort for me I've learned that I cannot change people I must take the challenge to change myself you see I 've learned to keep my spirit clean for only God knows the truth there is NO DOUBT I'm learning to be honest with myself and living my life is what it's all about For everyone needs to be aware rather it be now or later that the CONSCIENCE KILLS Whether you be good or bad to live in denial, just listen, your conscience will get you. YOU JUST BE STILL! WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 156 Across 1. Travel through water 5. Large African antelope 8. Journey 12. Giant 14. Lubricant 15. Letting agreement 16. Part of a Roman amphitheater 17. Appropriate 18. Expel from a country 19. Dismissal from office 21. Pit viper 23. Dream state, initially 24. A quick run 25. Tantrum 28. Acidic fruit 30. Harry 35. Exam by word of mouth 37. Suspiration 39. Door or gate fastener 40. Lawsuit 41. Homeless cat 43. Floating mass of ice 44. Express audibly 46. Story 47. Counterweight used to obtain net weight 48. Ride on a plank 50. Lacking hearing 52. Unit of play in squash 53. Cut into cubes 55. Place seeds in the ground 57. Lean back 61. Straight section of a racetrack 65. Assumed name 66. Lair 68. Jewelled headdress 69. A drawback not immediately obvious 70. In the past 71. Mistake 72. Leg joint 73. Angry dispute 74. Simpleton Down 1. Celestial body 2. Finishing line 3. Part of a list or collection 4. Landed estate of a lord 5. Successful scoring attempt 6. Pinch 7. Radical 8. Written matter 9. Complain bitterly 10. Small island 11. Look searchingly 13. Umbilicus 15. Deadly 20. Awry 22. Residue from burning 24. Demean 25. Concentrate 26. Very angry 27. One of the senses 29. Baseball glove 31. A flat float 32. Mythological Titan 33. Set of twenty 34. Bed linen 36. Sediment from fermentation of an alcoholic beverage 38. Showing vigorous good health 42. Leavening agent used to raise bread 45. Pungent edible root 49. Be victorious 51. With great loudness (music) 54. Durable aromatic wood 56. Uncanny 57. Cut of meat 58. Zeal 59. Make reference to 60. Delicate woven fabric 61. Form of precipitation 62. Starchy tuberous root 63. Harvest 64. Leporid mammal 67. Self PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 387 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 155 A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 286 - MEDIUM SODOKU PUZZLE NO 285- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 38 8 | A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 131 E. 12th Street 45202 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Starting Over 1223 Main St. 45202 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor 961-2256 First Step Home 961-4663 Hamilton/Middletown 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Joseph House (Veterans) Northern Kentucky Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 961-4555 381-1954 421-5211 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Food/Clothing Health First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 859-491-8303 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Brighton Center (11-17 y/o) 799 Ann St. Newport, KY Advocacy Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 215 E. 14th St. 45202 784-1853 2121 Vine Street 45202 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 558-8888 351-3500 977-4489 Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Prospect House 921-1613 Housing: 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 562-8841 Charlie’s 3/4 House Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Tom Geiger House Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn St. Vincent de Paul 352-6363 Other Resources Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelter: Youth 27 W. 12th Street 45202 271-5501 1125 Bank Street 45214 Parkway Center 661-4620 Interfaith Hospitality Network Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 Shelter: Family 591-2246 621-7265 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 411 Gest St. 45203 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Churches Active in Northside McMicken Dental Clinic 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Shelterhouse 721-0643 City Gospel Mission 751-8771 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 Shelter: Men 1437 Walnut Street 45202 St. George Food Pantry 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 1528 Race St. 45202 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 15 for 26 issues $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 A u g 2 4 - S e p t 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 8 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 24-September 6, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Where are we Headed as a Nation? Pg 3: Cruel and Unusual Punishment Pg 4: Duke Energy’s Dangerous Pipeline Proposal Pg 5: The Mystery of Fort Ancient Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Sorta Aborta Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: The Worst Day of My Life Pg 10: Money and Politics at the Local Level Pg 11: Justin Jeffre Continued Michael Earl Patton Continued Robert Park Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Bill Woods Continued Pg 12: Tired of Being Tired Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 24-September 6, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Justin Jeffre Dr. Mark Mussman Dick Croy Michael Earl Patton Robert Park Saad Ghosn Jim Luken Bill Woods Stacia Hollander Kim Green Willa D. Jones Homeless Coalition Laura Domet The Telegraph Cam Hardy Google Images Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Bill Woods Cam Hardy Dick Croy Dr. Mark Mussman Duke Energy Fort Ancient GCHC Google Images Homeless Coalition Jim Luken Josh Spring Justin Jeffre Kim Green Laura Domet Michael Earl Patton Pipeline politics Religion Robert Park Saad Ghosn SORTA Stacia Hollander The Telegraph Willa D. Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/f680708ee72cfeda00a704a7244a04ca.pdf 10ae348eac9d27a47b6336101aec7ad1 PDF Text Text August 10th - August 23rd 2018 | Vol. 21 Issue 14 (No. 387) advocating justice | building community For Tala Ali, a Muslim, Spirituality Cannot Be Separated from Her Social Justice Work | 8 This Issue is sponsored by Christ Church Cathedral INSIDE THIS ISSUE The city continues to evict homeless camps | 3 Introducing the Enright Ridge Eco-village in East Price Hill | 4 How We Eradicate Homelessness | 5 The Birds have landed in Cincinnati| 12 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: To the People of Cincinnati, From The People Living on 3rd Street I n the midst of an affordable housing shortage at crisis level and as the number of people experiencing homelessness is the highest it has ever been in Cincinnati; the City has decided to put their time and energy into further marginalizing people and forcing people from seeking even the smallest amount of respite on public land. Below is the response of the people who are living on the sidewalk along our 3rd Street: Hello Neighbor, You may have heard about those of us who live outside along 3rd Street.  We want to take a moment to communicate directly. Without this publicly-owned space to lay our heads and protect one-another, we would not have a consistent place to be. It’s not that any of us want to be without a home, but like millions of other people in this country, we are. In Hamilton County we have a shortage of more than 40,000 affordable homes. About 56,000 people are trying to fit into 16,000 affordable homes. Big problems like this one require big solutions. We know that forcing us from the support of the community we have built, and this public land is not a solution. Living outside is already very difficult without the hammer of being forced from even a public sidewalk hanging over our heads. We already have to deal with the weather, lack of privacy, constant noise from traffic, lack of bathroom access, inability to store healthy food and never being able to really relax and have moment to ourselves. We know we are a part of a large and growing number of women, men and children facing homelessness in Cincinnati. We implore the City of Cincinnati and City Council to act toward us in good faith, not only in terms of immediate needs, but to focus on long-term solutions that will create desperately needed access to an adequate quantity of affordable housing. With this said, as Cincinnatians, we release the following list of actions we call for the City of Cincinnati to take with us. (Please visit our Facebook page: The Colony Cincinnati. To get involved contact our partner, the Homeless Coalition: www. cincihomeless.org.) 1. The City of Cincinnati will not engage in the actions of warning, citing, noticing or otherwise telling, forcing or intimidating persons to JOSH SPRING Executive Director vacate public land. 2. In order to sustain a healthy environment for the residents of Third Street, the City will supply and maintain at least three public restrooms with showers, which could A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 into a permanent housing option that is suitable to them.  The City will partner with local housing-focused organization and the City will follow the basic assistant tenants provided in the Uniform Relocation Act as a minimum standard. 5. The City will provide the necessary funding for a no-barrier Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition be in the form of port-o-lets that are accessible to people with handicaps and are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  These facilities will be regularly cleaned, and supplied with adequate quantities of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  The city will provide such restrooms in other areas as deemed necessary for health safety.  All people will have the right to access all restroom sin city-owned facilities with an indoor entrance during the regular business hours of that facility and all restroom in cityowned structures with an outdoor entrance at all times.  3. The City will furnish garbage and recycle vestibules on each block of Third Street in such a quantity necessary to contain all garbage items produced along these blocks (at least four city garbage cans per block) with an adequate rate of pickup; at least weekly.  The city will provide such vestibules in other areas as deemed necessary for health safety and sanitation. 4. Any person residing on public land will have access to reasonable opportunity to relocate Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper shelter that is open and available all year-round. 6. The City will increase the Human Services budget to ensure that social service agencies can adequately provide the following services which are necessary for some people: a. Access to IDs b. Reduce barriers to employment c. Mental healthcare/ addiction recovery d. Transportation assistance 7. The city will approve a motion necessary to re-start the Afford able Housing Working Group staffed by the Department of Community and Economic Development, with the task of bringing forth legislation for City Council to pass in order to establish and adequately fund an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. 8. City Council will begin discussion of proposed legislative protections for people who rent and legislation in the form of a Homeless Bill of Rights. Sincerely with Hope, Residents of The Colony on Third Street THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, People living on 3rd Street, Bill Woods, Jake Dingler, Dick Croy, Dr. Mark Mussman, Trenton Davis, Michael Earl Patton, Saad Ghosn, Laura Domet, Steve Sunderland, Justin Jeffre, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Homeless Coalition, Justin Jeffre, Dick Croy, Dr. Mark Mussman, Michael Earl Patton, Saad Ghosn, Laura Domet --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �LOCAL Homelessness Then and Now - 1986-2018 3 No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 T BILL WOODS he plight of the people on Third Street jolted me to question how much or how little things have changed since homelessness emerged as a major issue in Cincinnati and other cities across the U.S. in the 1980s. When Applied Information Resources was hired by the City in 1986 to conduct a homeless study, activists and social service providers were still organizing new and already existing shelters and services to assist the greater number of individuals and families who found themselves without resources or places to live. Although shelters and services in 2018 have become more professional and better able to assist their clients, homeless numbers remain tragically high today. One common factor causing homelessness both then and now that has actually worsened today is the lack of affordable housing. The City Administrators that asked AIR to assess homelessness in 1986 doubted the big numbers cited by buddy gray, the leading advocate for the homeless in that era, and they hoped that our study would debunk this crisis. The recent commentary by the Acting City Manager and the Mayor about the Third Street encampment seem to imply that the people involved are a nuisance and a health hazard who need to be quickly swept out of sight. This rather callous one-dimensional approach to Third Street once again shows local government's failure to understand the systemic and long term nature of homelessness and the need to take more responsibility for assisting the many residents who are homeless. Our study findings completed in early 1987 confirmed rather than E Contributing Writer refuted buddy gray's high numbers. In fact, the study's estimated yearly figure of people experiencing homelessness in Greater Cincinnati (9,526-11,454) probably topped gray's figures. The new revelation that gained the headlines was the number of families with children that were experiencing homelessness. Families comprised 37.5-percent of the region's homeless, and of the were named as the two primary causes by homeless clients. The lack of suitable, affordable housing was emerging as a crisis in 1986, and it has simply grown over time. Since the 1930s, one of the keys to having affordable housing has been federal funding. As an outgrowth of the Great Depression and the New Deal, Public Housing and housing assistance programs grew up as responses to the economic crisis that confronted so many Bill Woods accepting buddy gray Lifetime Achievement Award Credit: Homeless Coalition 1,800 people counted in the onemonth shelter survey, 320 were children and 130 were single parent women. The study shattered the stereotype of the aging wino or the bag lady, and although alcohol and drugs were certainly given as one of the reasons for homelessness, housing and income related factors Americans. Over the years, Congress and various Administrations accepted housing assistance as an ongoing responsibility that needed to continue. This mandate began to diminish by the 1980s, and the Reagan Administration took the position that the poor were primarily to blame for their plight. Federal The City Continues to Evict Homeless Camps arly in the morning of August 3rd, Attorney Bennett Allen filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati, as well as a request for a temporary restraining order. Who, you may ask, was Allen seeking protection for? Individuals without homes who have taken up residence in tents along Third Street who refer to themselves as The Colony. On Tuesday, July 31, signs appeared along the Third Street camp informing the residents they had 72 hours to vacate the area “indefinitely” in order to allow city workers to clean the area. These signs looked like something anyone could make on a basic laptop, displayed no official seal or insignia, and cited no city statute. Anyone could've put up these funding for housing began to decline during this period. It is no coincidence that the rise of homelessness in Cincinnati and other cities occurred during this initial phase of major cuts in federal housing assistance. In 1981, the federal outlay for various housing programs was $24.9-billion. By the 1987 budget, federal housing funds were reduced to $7.8-billion, and money for any new construction was miniscule. Waiting lists for Public Housing in Cincinnati, especially for family units, grew both in numbers and in long waits for any openings. This trend of shrinking federal resources for affordable housing and other safety net programs has continued from the 1980s to today. Consequently, the long-term chances for reducing homelessness and poverty seem quite small if we continue to wait for a major change in the funding priorities of Congress or the White House. The recent LISC study that showed us to be in need of 40,000 units to address the local affordable housing need is a stark reminder of a crisis that has evolved over the last thirty-eight years. What this really means is that Cincinnati City Government and Hamilton County need to step up to the plate and provide more funding for affordable housing initiatives. Initiatives such as the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is being negotiated between the City and housing advocates, must be adequately funded in order to make a difference. Further, the need to change local government priorities may require activists to promote raising taxes. The mantra of no new taxes must be questioned if an adequate response to reducing poverty is ever to be mounted. Meanwhile, a first step for activists should be to tell the City that sweeping people off of Third Street fails to meet the test of a humane response to homelessness. remove. And now, to top it all off, the (Continued on page 9) JAKE DINGLER Contributing Writer signs- hateful people that demonize the poor, ill-behaved children that enjoy the suffering of others, devilish miscreants with complete disregard for their fellow human beings; turns out it was all three. The City of Cincinnati ushered in their goons (CPD) to intimidate the residents of this camp, hoping they would leave before their arbitrary deadline, and in fact, some did. But those who stayed decided to fight. A coalition was formed between The Colony, the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, Mass Action for Black Liberation, The Ohio Poor People's Campaign, United We Stand, Tiiibe, Peaslee Neighborhood Center, Democratic Socialists of America, Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, and Cincinnati Socialist Alternative. With the help of Bennett Allen, a lawsuit was filed, and it was requested that a restraining order be put on the city in order to stop the evacuation until the lawsuit was settled. In court Friday morning, it was decided that, while the restraining order would not be granted, the camp would only have to move for 2 hours to allow cleaning crews access; The tents would be removed for cleaning at 2pm and returned no later than 4pm. As there was no mess to clean up, save a few cigarette butts, the whole ordeal took just over an hour. City workers wore protective coveralls and masks, an obvious attempt at theater on the part of the city, as there was no actual mess to THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Bennett Allen speaking to press Credit: Justin Jeffre �4 LOCAL Introducing the Enright Ridge Ecovillage in East Price Hill W hile a lot of fuss has been made over its new professional soccer team, Cincinnati boasts something much rarer for a city of any size: an eco-village within its borders. Eco-villages, whose inhabitants seek to live according to ecological principles with as little impact on the environment as possible, have been springing up around the world but there are only a handful within a metropolitan area. Cincinnati’s is the Enright Ridge Urban Eco-village in East Price Hill. Beginning in 2004 on Enright Avenue and expanding to include Terry Street, McPherson Avenue and more recently Wells St., this “intentional community” is now home to more than a hundred families. But cofounder Jim Schenk numbers its residents in the thousands, only 250 of whom are human. “We really are connected with this earth,” he emphasizes, “and we’ve got to change the way we’re thinking about things. So Enright Eco-village is more than just the people living here. That’s really critical for me.” Schenk favors eco-villages within city limits for two reasons. For one thing, instead of “starting from scratch and building from the ground up,” which is one of the main reasons only about 10% of intentional communities succeed, he and his wife Eileen began Enright Ridge in an existing residential neighborhood. More importantly, he sees these ecological communities as an essential evolutionary step in helping to save our cities. “Our whole idea was we have to rejuvenate our cities and remain in our cities. If we don’t, we spread out and we destroy our planet’s ability to support us and other species.” As the Enquirer reported several years ago, Enright Ridge “is kind of a cooperative and sort of a farm project. There are members, a board and elected representatives, but it is really just a string of old houses connected by a sense of belonging and a desire to eat well. This blend of an urban environment with access to jobs, technology and transportation with classic agrarian principles of simplicity and sustainability looks to be an interesting part of the city's future “ Enright resident Jeffrey Stec put it this way: "This is New Urbanism. We are just leveraging a different set of assets than they are in Over-theRhine. Bars, restaurants, living in close proximity, that's what they have in OTR. This is different. We never have a house that stays for sale. Ever. It’s gone." “I think in our culture the whole concept of individualism is just a crazy notion, said Schenk. “We’re a tribal animal. Living in community A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 DICK CROY Contributing Writer is part of who we are. You’ve got to have a community of people who are supporting you. We share potluck dinners once a week and work together on many projects.” So how did Enright Ridge come about? Jim and Eileen met (we actually met at Catholic Social Service Bureau in Covington in 1968. (when) From 1974 to 1977, he was Director of the (County) Covington Community Center and she was teaching at Northern Kentucky University.) “One of the things that dawned on us was that most people in this culture aren’t happy, and we started asking why. Our conclusion is there is a real dichotomy between the values of this culture, which says if you have lots of money and stuff you’ll be happy; and and spirituality from 1978 to 2008,” Schenk said. Their first attempt at starting an eco-village didn’t succeed. “We didn’t have a support system there, and it was the most depressed area in Price Hill. But one morning in 2004 I woke up and said, ‘hmm, Enright Avenue (where the Schenks still live). We’re not too big; we have a support system and we don’t have a depressed area. Why don’t we start an eco-village here? So in June we invited 25 people who lived on Enright and 17 showed up. We asked some questions, did some brainstorming and it started that night.” How have residents converted their existing neighborhoods into sustainable places to live? “Right now, about a third of the people are involved, a third are open to the idea and a third are indifferent. Jim Shenk, Enright Ridge Urban Eco-village co-founder Credit: Dick Croy our reality, which is once you get the basic necessities of life, what really counts is relationship. We became aware of the fact that people aren’t just disconnected from each other but from this whole amazing planet. So we started looking for a model of how we would live if we were to help the earth and her people, with people being sacred and our most important priority.” The Schenks’ first model was Imago, an ecological educational organization with the mission to foster a deeper harmony with Earth by providing educational experiences, creating opportunities for discussion and community building, and conserving natural areas. “We did a lot of education programs and held eight conferences around ecology We don’t have any strong opposition because it has significantly improved the neighborhood. There are about 90 households on Enright, five or six on Terry St. and about 14 on McPherson. We just recently moved onto Wells and now have our own pub, Common Roots, and a Zen center. We have a lot of new young families here now. “In 2009 we started a CSA: community supported agriculture. We have a lot of big back yards with really rich soil, goats and chickens. When a local greenhouse came up for sale, we got a grant from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to purchase it and fix it up. That’s where we start most of our plants now. We also have several acres of woods with walking trails, where people spend time. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Some have started forest gardens for both humans and animals. “After we started the eco-village we purchased some 25 houses in the neighborhood that we renovated and put on the market. For the first house we borrowed money from Imago’s members, back in about 1978. We raised about $62,000 and rehabbed it and when we sold it we paid everyone back at whatever interest they wanted. Half of them chose no interest and the rest chose somewhere between 2-7%. So that was our first house and then we came across the Hubert Foundation. Ed Hubert was really into preserving housing so he started granting us money. He asked us to return the money when we sold the house along with 3% interest. We had a really good relationship. There were times we didn’t end up in the black or really close and he wouldn’t expect any interest.” What happens to Enright if the grid goes down? “It depends on what part of the grid. We’ve done some talking about it; it’s really not so much what are we are going to do exactly, but the fact that we are a community. The people involved would work together to figure out what we’re going to do. We need to be aware of who has access to, let’s say, wood burning stoves, or what homes could provide heat if we need it. Eileen and I have a little gas stove in the living room so if just the electric went down, the gas would keep us warm. We have 20 photovoltaic cells and an inverter, which if the sun is out will run our furnace and our refrigerator. We don’t have batteries yet but I’m waiting for the batteries to improve. It’s interesting; we put in 10 photovoltaic cells and they provided 1/3 of our electricity. I waited like 4 years, put in 10 more and (now) they provided 100%. It’s a great time to do solar.” “Water can’t be pumped if the grid goes down. We have people with a lot of water tanks which they use for gardening so we do have some water around. I want to put in a cistern with a hand pump on top so if something happens, water can be shared.” What do Enright Ridge residents have to say? This is what “Erinjo” has to say about living in Enright Village on the community’s website: “Living in our eco-village means being part of a community and having an immediate, daily connection to people that are working to live more sustainably and with more awareness of the earth. It means working together to plant gardens or rehab housing and having fun together at community dinners and seasonal parties. It means living on a ridge surrounded by acres of woods and yet just a short walk from a major bus line. It means something different to each resident who lives in the Village. Meet Suellyn, one of our residents:” “I moved to Enright Ridge in (Continued on page 11) �LOCAL How We Eradicate Homelessness 5 No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 DR. MARK MUSSMAN Sometimes people ask really loaded questions like “Well, if the Homeless Coalition has been around for 35 years, why is there still homelessness?” I usually have a good response about how things have changed over 35 years, the face of homelessness has gotten much younger, and how families are more likely to experience homelessness now, than ever before. If I was more astute, I might say something like: “How long as the American Cancer society been around? Is cancer still a problem?” Obviously, it is, and so is homelessness. The real answer falls into the category of “I told you so!” where the city, county, state, and country, have been getting warnings about the growth of homelessness, yet fail to act in accordance with the many solutions that we have provided over the years. There has been a major shift over the past few decades, where people actually recognize that homelessness is a real thing, and that affects more people than just those our society deems worthless. Unfortunately, however, there is still much educating to be done, from person-first language, to breaking down stereotypes, to responding to panhandling, to structural violence. First and foremost, the issue is a lack of affordable housing. We know that we are more than 40,000 units short of affordable housing in Hamilton County, just for people at the lowest end of the economic measure. (I chose to not call it the “economic ladder” because upward mobility doesn’t exist for most of Cincinnati.) Affordable housing is simply a guarantee that no one pay more than 30% of their income on housing, including utilities. With utility prices going up $250/year for each customer in Ohio (thanks to Ohio Legislature), these costs are really difficult to get under control. To put the need in perspective, Staff Writer one great affordable housing organization, Over-the-Rhine Community Housing has about 420 units of affordable housing in the neighborhood. We would need allow people who have no reason to be evicted to fight for their home. Other protections, including helping elderly neighbors stay in their homes amidst rising energy costs and property taxes, will go a long way to How We Eradicate Homelessness Housing Protections Tenant Organizing Policy Development and Oversight Know Your Rights Affordable Housing Affordable Housing Trust Fund Coordinate Services Education and Training Livable Wages Employment Pipeline Entrepreneurship Opportunities Legal Protection To join us or to learn more about any of our programs, including our Homeless Experience Speaker’s Bureau, Tenant and Community Organizing, Streetvibes, or Operations, please visit us at www.cincihomeless.org two such organizations in each of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods, just to make up the gap at the lowest end of the measure. Secondly, we need better laws to protect people who already have housing. It could be a “changing neighborhood” or slumlord who pushes someone out of their home. Or it could simply be a matter of personality conflicts. There are many reasons people are removed from their homes, but having something called “Just Cause Eviction” would ensure that people who have made their home over the past decades, would be able to age in place. Finally, we must develop a better minimum wage. When the minimum wage was conceived after the Great Depression, with the idea that it would be enough for someone to purchase their own home. This is not possible today. Even fighting for $15 minimum wage may not be enough. Most Americans make under $20/ hour, and some states like Kentucky, use the federal minimum wage of Opportunity Zones: Battleground America TRENTON DAVIS From new, trendy bars in Over-theRhine to the FC Cincinnati stadium deal, economic development has spurred painful political conflict in our city. The issue of “gentrification” is far more well-known than in the past. Even with our recognition of unjust eviction rates among minorities, overburdened renting families, and the sky-rocketing population of people experiencing homelessness, our public debate continues to fall short of the needed progress. The Recession of 2009 altered the real estate landscape, and now, many of our neighbors are struggling to find one of the most fundamental $7.25/hour. At roughly $15,000 each year (before taxes) most minimum wage earners are women in their mid30’s, not high school students, like many believe. This is exploitation, pure and simple. It’s important that we focus on each of these aspects in order to eradicate homelessness. You may have noticed that I didn’t mention shelters, because they are not a Contributing Writer requisites of life, an affordable place to live. A home provides a structure of security and safety for children and families to prosper. As part of the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress earlier this year, a bipartisan tool was added to the repertoire of “community development” advocates. The idea is to encourage private investment in struggling neighborhoods by designating specific census tracts as “Opportunity Zones”. Basically, the program offers investors the chance to receive either lower taxes or no taxes on gains from funds that are primarily invested in these Opportunity Zones. In fact, to keep the money local, the longer the money stays in that census tract, the less tax the investor must pay. After 10 years, an investor does not have to pay any capital gains tax on their investment. For our struggling communities, this could provide relief. On the West Coast, there are organizing groups that push for lower regulations and increased tax incentives for investments in housing to help make homes more affordable. Logically, the more homes we have, the cheaper the overall price will be. So, are THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED solution, but rather a temporary stage of homelessness. Also, I didn’t mention drug recovery, because again, this is a symptom of homelessness, very rarely a cause. I didn’t mention mental health treatment, because while everyone could use some mental health treatment, it is rarely a cause, but often a result of homelessness. If we could structurally end homelessness, these issues may disappear, but until then, we’ll keep organizing, educating and advocating to end homelessness. opportunity zones the long-awaited savior for our distressed families that pay upwards of 50% of their monthly income to rent? This is a bit more nuanced than the traditional market myth can explain. As we’ve seen in OTR, when capital can gain significant advantage through tax incentives, people are more willing to invest it. Therefore, we’ve witnessed incredible development of the business district. Property values have risen by double digits in some parts. One could argue that OTR is far more vibrant because of the deployment of private and public capital. But in who’s interest? The residents? Investors? The city? The suburbs? The West End was recently named an Opportunity Zone after their (Continued on page 11) �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 �LOCAL Lots of Gas, But Not Enough No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 T MICHAEL EARL PATTON here is a lot of natural gas in this country, more than enough is being produced to meet our needs – at least as of President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union when he said that there was enough to last almost a hundred years. The reason for his optimism was the improvement in techniques for producing “tight” gas, that is, natural gas that is tightly trapped in shale rock formations. Because it is relatively clean-burning, inexpensive, and produces far less carbon dioxide when burned compared to coal, it started to replace coal for the generation of electricity. There seemed to be so much that the United States now even allows it to be liquefied and shipped overseas. But the amount of gas left over from these uses and put into storage, which is then burned during the following winter, is hurting. The amount in storage is extremely low for this time of year, especially taking into account the increased use for electrical generation. As I wrote in my article Natural Gas Shortage Coming in the March 24 – April 6, 2017 issue of Streetvibes, there may not be enough to get us through this coming winter. This chart shows the changes in sources of energy for the U.S. from 1776 through 2017. It comes from the Energy Information Agency (www. eia.gov), as do the other graphs in this article. Note the rapid decline in the use of coal in the past few years, mostly offset by the rise in use of natural gas. There is also some increase in renewables, including biomass (mostly wood), and some increase in petroleum, but the largest increase is with natural gas. The EIA reports that in 2014, 39% of the electricity generated in this country came from burning coal and 30% from natural gas; for 2018 they estimate almost the reverse – just 30% will come from coal and 37% from natural gas. Gas Production in the United States has been up somewhat, but still not by enough. It is the next graph that concerns me. Every week the EIA reports on the amount of natural gas in storage. Supplies need to build up during the summer so they can be drawn down during the winter. Neither Contributing Writer production nor pipeline capacity are large enough to supply the amount of gas that is needed during the winter heating season. The shaded area shows the 5-year It has also been a hot summer, especially in the Southwest where 100+ degrees are common. This means more electricity is needed for air conditioning (and more burning Gas Production 2018 May Credit: US Energy Information Administration Natural Gas Stores 20180727 Credit: US Energy Information Administration range. Some years there is more, some less. Note the draw downs during winter. The lowest level in the 5-year range was reached at the end of the 2013/14 winter, which was colder than average. The next three winters were warmer than normal. Last winter, which was somewhat normal overall, we did not quite reach that low of a level and for a while it looked as if we would build up stocks nicely. But now we are below the 5-year range. Take into account the increased use of natural gas for electrical generation and we are in new territory. A cold winter and the prices will skyrocket, certainly double or more. Energy Consumption in US 1776-2017 Credit: US Energy Information Administration of natural gas). That is the main reason the supplies have not been building up. When the U.S. burned mostly coal for generation a hot summer did not affect the build-up of supplies nearly this much. As for exports, the U.S. is now a net exporter of natural gas and our government has a goal of supplying enough to Europe so that they do not have to depend on Russia for supplies. So far the amounts involved have not made a major difference but I would be opposed to exporting more as that THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 7 would make our supply situation worse. I understand the concern about Russia. NATO has tanks, planes, arms, and soldiers (so does Russia), but if Russia were to cut the supply of natural gas, Europe would be seriously hurting – and without the use of any armed force. Russia has the upper hand here and the U.S. and NATO have to rethink their strategy. A cynic might conclude that the shutdown of coal plants was planned with the knowledge that a shortage would develop and drive up the price of natural gas and profits for the producers. I can’t argue against this. Near Cincinnati the J.M. Stuart and Killen coal-fired power plants in Adams County closed this summer. I know President Trump has spoken against the “War on Coal” but I do not know if this is politically driven or how much effort he made to keep the plants open. More pipelines are under construction but from what I can find out they are primarily intended to increase supplies for export. In any event they probably will not be ready until 2020. Myself, I am in favor of radical energy conservation and a greatly increased pace for transitioning to renewable sources of energy, but that is not going to happen in time. Even a normal winter might mean trouble at this rate. Since I wrote the article last year there have been a couple others who have sounded notes of concern but there has been amazingly little in the mainstream media. I do not know why this is. I would have thought that if there was no need for concern then at least there would be a brief explanation as to why the last chart looks so troubling – not just the same assertions on how innovative and great our industry is. As for what to do, I admit substantial energy conservation takes time and money. I have been working on my house for years and there is still much more that I want to do. But I do not see another way forward for us 99 percenters. The U.S. Department of Energy (www.energy.gov) has lots of good information. Go to their home page and click on “Save Energy, Save Money.” Best to do what you can and if you haven’t started yet, get going. --------------------------------------- �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS For Tala Ali, a Muslim, Spirituality Cannot Be Separated from Her Social Justice Work A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 SAAD GHOSN Growing up in the US, Tala Ali, Muslim Chaplain at the Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, experienced what many immigrants currently face in the country. She and her family, undocumented for a few years, lived in fear and need, trying to survive day by day, and her mother was once arrested by an immigration raid at her work place but luckily not deported. This increased Ali's sensitivity to the suffering of others and forged her determination to fight for everyone’s rights. Ali was born in the United Arab Emirates to a Jordanian father and a Palestinian mother and came to the US at the age of 2, initially to Tennessee for her father's master's degree, then to Cincinnati for his PhD in American Literature at UC. After her father's graduation, the family remained in the States with no legal documents, until he was sponsored for a work visa which, eventually, led to permanent residency and naturalization. Ali's family was not religious. Her father almost never spoke of religion to her, but rather of political activism, especially of the Palestinian Liberation struggle in which he was involved on campus. As a kid she would accompany him to demonstrations and protests, she idealized him and his friends that were activists, and wanted to be like Contributing Writer them. Her mother was culturally a Muslim, but not a practicing one, and would occasionally tell her children stories about Islam. Ali attended the Academy of World Languages, part of CPS, where she learned Arabic; then Walnut Hills High School (HS) from which she graduated in 2000. It is in HS that she became curious about Islam and started learning about its faith and its practices. "I would pick up books relating to it from the school's library," she says. "I also started visiting the Clifton Mosque and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester, participating in their classes and services and learning how to pray." Thus, Ali became familiar with the bases of Islam, discovered its traditions and its feasts, and joined in its Ramadan Fasting. While growing up she had already repeatedly questioned her parents about why, as Muslims, they were celebrating Christmas and not Ramadan, and she had assumed that it was in order to blend and not feel different. "But I was on the contrary increasingly asking myself: Who am I? What is my identity? Where do I belong?" she says. Discovering and affirming her religious background was, in addition, an issue of identity for Ali. In HS and following the influence of her father, Quotes from the Quran and Hadith (Prophet's saying) about Peace and Justice “Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice...” (Quran 15:90) “In the wealth of a rich person, there is a portion which belongs to the poor…” (Quran 51:19) “Have you thought of him that denies the Last Judgment? It is he who turns away the orphan and has no urge to feed the destitute.” (Quran 107:1) “Worship Allah..., and be good to the parents and to the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the neighbor who is your relative, the neighbor who is not your relative, the fellow traveler, the wayfarer and the slave.” (Quran 4:36) “Oh you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness." (Quran 5:8) “On the Day of Judgment, God will ask a person, ‘Oh my servant, I was hungry, but you did not give me food.’ The servant will say, ‘Oh my Lord, how can I feed You, you are the One who feeds the whole of mankind’. God will say, ‘Didn’t you know such a servant of mine in your neighborhood was hungry. If you had served him food, you would have found me there.’ Then God will ask, ‘Oh my servant, I had no clothes, but you did not clothe me.’ The servant will answer, ‘Oh my Lord, how can I clothe you, you provide clothes to everyone.’ God will say, ‘Didn’t you know my such and such servant needed clothes? If you had provided his clothing, you would have found me there…” (Hadith) “Whoever removes a worldly grief from a believer, God will remove from him one of the grieves on the Day of Resurrection. And whoever alleviates the need of a needy person; God will alleviate his needs in this world and the in Hereafter... And God will aid His slave so long as he aids his brother." (Hadith) she also pursued her activism for the Palestinian cause, reading books and writing papers about it, attending conferences relating to it, also being active in Al Awda (i.e. The Return), the student Palestinian activist group of her school. In the fall of 2000 Ali registered at UC to study International Relations. A couple of months later, inspired by other women on campus wearing the hijab (the head-covering scarf worn by certain Muslim women), she decided to also wear it as a sign Tala Ali of intimate relationship with God and of servitude to Him. She has been donning it ever since. At UC Ali joined the Muslim Student Association but was disappointed, finding the Association mostly political and judgmental, foreign to the Islam that she got to know, the Islam that focuses on bettering oneself, on fighting one's ego, on serving God and taking care of other people. Less than a year later, following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and due to her looks, Ali was exposed to repeated physical and verbal attacks. "I was waiting once at a bus stop, downtown Cincinnati, and a passerby threw scalding coffee at me," she says. "I was also verbally abused by many customers at the Goldstar Chili where I was working at the time." By then she had joined the UC antiwar group actively protesting Bush's new policies regarding the War on Terrorism, also his preparation for the invasion of Iraq. In 2003 Ali's application for a permanent visa was denied twice, for no clear reasons, and in 2004 she found a tracking device hidden in her car. She was also bullied by one of her UC Professors who repeatedly refused to acknowledge her and her questions in class and who bluntly admitted it to her when she confronted him. By then disillusioned and disheartened Ali dropped her studies and took a few months break to visit her father's relatives in Jordan and backpack through Syria. Upon her return to the US, she spent more time at the mosque and decided to resume her college studies but this time at Cincinnati State for an Associate degree in Liberal Arts and International Relations, then at Credit: Saad Ghosn Xavier University for a BA in Postcolonial International Studies and Political Science (2011). Ali's years spent at Xavier University (XU) were life changing to her. She resonated very well with the holistic spiritual approach the school espoused, its focus on the entire person, its high moral values and the support it provided its students. She also discovered right away the on-campus Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice (CFJ) which helped her grow in her faith and strengthen its link to social justice. While in her Junior year, she served on XU Interfaith Executive Cabinet. The following year she chaired the Lecture series for the University, helping identify and invite significant individuals to come and speak on campus. She was thus able to feature Franklin McCain, the American civil rights activist and member of the Greensboro Four who staged a sit-in protest at the Woolworth lunch counters in Greensboro, NC; also, to show Howard Zinn's documentary "The People Speak" that gives voice to (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �9 LOCAL Review: The Cincinnati Opera’s Another Brick in the Wall No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 Symphony Orchestra. This exciting performance reminded me of when the Cincinnati Ballet teamed up with rock legend Peter Frampton several years ago in the way it incorporated popular rock music with a more classical art form, drawing new fans into the ballet. LAURA DOMET Contributing Writer A s someone who enjoys music and the arts, I had never been to the opera. Quite frankly, although I was curious, I always feared that I would find myself bored. Images of an insufferably long, stuffy, tiresome performance of high pitched trilling that I wouldn’t understand is how I pictured the opera in my mind. Watching the Cincinnati Opera’s As a fan of Pink Floyd, I consider them one of my essential musical influences. I listened to them often in my formative years, and have many of their albums on tape, cd, and vinyl. When I had the opportunity to see Another Brick in the Wall—The Opera, I figured it’s now or never. If I was ever going to enjoy and appreciate the opera, this was my chance. If I saw this performance, U.S. premiere of Another Brick in the Wall was like watching two classics colliding into something new and refreshing. Another Brick in The Wall—The Opera, is based on Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 album The Wall. The music was done in an operatic style using the lyrics and story - which was also turned into a must-see movie for classic rock aficionados. A friend growing up once described The Wall as the most anti-establishment classic rock album of all times. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see it adapted into an operatic version at Music Hall. and still didn’t like the opera, I would never ever like the opera. From the very first scene of a rock concert attended by many adoring fans gushing about the stage to see their idol Pink perform, I knew I was in for a real treat. The set was very high tech, it was similar at times to being at an actual rock concert, yet still maintained the grandness one might expect at an Opera. The cacophony of voices singing beautifully paired with a psychedelic backdrop which served to help weave a story of a rock star who continues to rise and fall as he spirals out of control while facing his JAKE DINGLER (Continued from page 3) Diminutive Mayor Cranley has publicly threatened to target yet another camp for removal and threatened to file suit against the residents of the Third Street camp. A tent community in the gateway to Cincinnati's business district should serve as a daily gob smack to those that control this city. Every day, a walk down Third Street should be a reminder that there is a housing biggest fears and the inner demons of his past. The words and lyrics by Roger Waters were wonderfully and hauntingly interpreted in a new way that simultaneously preserved the originality and brilliance of the album. The opera featured an international cast of soloists, the Cincinnati Opera Chorus, and the renowned Cincinnati crisis in this city- that conservative estimates say we are 40,000 units short of affordable housing, and more disappear constantly due to gentrification. It's sad to see the fervor in which these communities in greatest need of help are scornfully As the average age of Opera goer is likely getting older, it's nice to see the Cincinnati Opera trying bold new things to expand upon their fan base and draw more people into the opera. As a newly converted opera fan, I'm excited to see what's next for the Cincinnati Opera. This was a night to remember. pushed into the shadows by politicians on both sides of the isle. Politicians that smile and offer you your own disenfranchisement as a solution to this brutal, institutional issue. Cleaners clean up encampment Heavy machinery was brought out to assist the workers Credit: Justin Jeffre Credit: Justin Jeffre THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �10 LOCAL Why is Cancer Mortality So High in Cincinnati Minorities and People of Low Income: Part 10: Imagining a Welcoming Health Care Story For All 1 . Introduction. Consider this Tale of Three Cincinnati’s. The people are real, like you and me. Their names have been changed but no less like yours and mine. Rachel Freeman, a 64-year-old African American woman, with no job and without health insurance, was bothered by recurrent back aches. She had no long-time physician to consult with, so she was puzzled, frightened, and confused about where to go for health care. Living on little income, she attended a dinner at a church where she met Felecia, a Navigator from the Cancer Justice Network. Rachel had never heard about Navigators. Over dinner she shared with Felecia about her pain. Felecia listened and suggested that Rachel visit a health center and get a screening to see what was happening. Felecia offered to accompany Rachel, arrange transportation, help with signing up for Medicaid, and stay with her throughout the process. Rachel agreed and set a time for the screening. The results were early detection of kidney cancer. Within a month, Rachel and Felecia had A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 STEVE SUNDERLAND Contributing Writer found a cancer surgeon, had a second opinion, and decided on an operation. The surgery was successful, and Rachel was grateful to have met a Navigator. Robert Jackson is a 76-yearold African American who began to notice blood repeatedly appearing in his stool. Without a regular physician or health insurance, he did not know what to do except try to ignore the blood. After several months, pain accompanied the blood. Robert felt he had no choice but to go to the emergency room at the hospital closest to where he lived. That hospital said they didn’t take people without insurance and urged him to go to the emergency room at the University Hospital. Discouraged and confused, Robert returned home and waited another three weeks before he went to the University Hospital emergency room. Upon examination, he was told that the cancer had invaded his colon and liver and that he was “too far along” to expect a positive result from any treatment. In prior articles we have described the loss of life from cancer in minorities and people of low income. Both Rachel and Robert are part of this high-risk population. They live with reduced access to healthcare and little knowledge of the warning signs of cancer. Robert’s cancer will likely reduce his life by twenty years in comparison to people with health insurance and in neighborhoods that have hospitals that accept patients with insurance. Death from cancer thrives in places where people live in poverty. Rachel and Robert are Cincinnati citizens with limited chances of detecting cancer soon enough to give them hope. Their experience of hospitals is not welcoming. Their stories conflict with the story hospitals tell themselves of who they are as healers of suffering and beacons of hope ‑‑ a story they indeed make happen for countless numbers of people who fortunately can presume professional medical care is available for them. For Rachel and Robert, that same THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED hospital is there, but they presume it’s not for them. It’s one of the lessons systemic poverty teaches: To die from cancer is part of who Rachel and Robert are. It’s part of their story. And it becomes the story we all tell about “the way things are” and “who we are” in our society. How do we change that public narrative we keep telling over and over? Where might we start? What if the story each hospital told were reinvented, retold to be intentional, to presume our kinship, welcoming of all? Imagine a hospital with representatives who visit churches, schools, and community centers to listen and respond to the questions and concerns of people for whom poor health goes with the territory and medical care is a last resort. Imagine the people who represent the hospital being a team, a Navigator, Felecia, and a nurse, Patricia, or physician, Dr. Nancy. They dine at a church dinner and talk about the warning signs of cancer and why early detection is so important. Imagine that team returning for a (Continued on page 12) �No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 DICK CROY (Continued from page 4) 2008, purchasing my little house when I reached ‘retirement’ age. I was looking for a community where I could own my own place, know my neighbors and reduce my ecological footprint after a number of years living in the suburbs. I love my 1300 sq. ft. almost 100 year old house where the land offers me a challenging opportunity to practice permaculture. “My 5-year-old grandson enjoys TRENTON DAVIS (Continued from page 5) CBA with FC Cincinnati. If similar development occurs in the West End as in OTR, will the people that live in the West End be better off? Will the residents retain possession of their neighborhood, their roots, their childhood? The answer is uncertain. In contrast, surely as a private investor, I want to get in on the development. If I invest my money in the West End, not only will I receive gains of- if all goes like OTR- double digit percentages, I will also be able to do it tax free. I know that as a private investor I will be better off. If capital comes flooding into these SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) everyday Americans who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout US history. Ali was also all along involved with the Holy Land club facilitating films and teachings for justice in Palestine. In 2011 and in her last student year at XU, Ali founded, along with other women and men friends converts to Islam she had met at the Mosque, Salaam (i.e. Peace) Community, a safe third space for Muslims who had felt rejected, for converts who had had a traumatic experience, a spiritually enriching space, also a cultural one. "The Mosque was intimidating to some," says Ali. "In many instances the leadership had kept the mentality of Islam vs the West, and for many of us who were American we did not feel at ease." The space, based on a model the STEVE SUNDERLAND (Continued from page 4) series of visits and really getting to know the Rachels and Roberts gathering there and, where possible, leaving their contact numbers with a church representative. The church community soon begins to know and trust in Felecia, Patricia, and Dr. Nancy as people who care. Soon the hospital team can feel the pulse of poverty’s effect on people’s health and attitude toward healthcare, and provide otherwise reluctant people with an experience of the hospital’s story of hopeful healthcare service. 2, The Importance of a Positive LOCAL 11 visiting and playing with the many children who live on the block. He also attends the Imago day camps up the street in the summer and hikes with me on the surrounding trails maintained by Imago. “The permaculture design I’m developing includes a small amount of water catchment, fruiting shrubs, an apple tree, shitake mushroom logs, and many plants that enhance the land by attracting wildlife, reducing erosion, and improving soil fertility.  “A great difference I’ve found from living in the suburbs is that so many of my needs for service can be met very close to home. Within walking distance I’ve found a supermarket, bakery, post office, local bank, hardware store and auto mechanic. The public library and a good barber shop/salon are only slightly farther. I’ve also found a medical practice that fits my needs in Price Hill. “The first year, I took advantage of community garden beds at Imago to grow some of my own veggies, and now there is a CSA program that supplies fresh veggies all summer. I walk to the Cincinnati Zen Center weekly to sit in meditation with that community. My social life is rich with community activities and casual arrangements with friends and neighbors, and this is a warm welcoming place to invite friends and family. It’s great that several recent newcomers to the village are young married couples and young singles who bring new energy to the place.” neighborhoods, the fact is, property values are going to rise. With many renters already struggling to pay rent, rising property values will make it even harder for struggling families to continue to pay. The market will tell them to leave. However, there are ways for advocates of the common good to utilize Opportunity Zones to benefit all. Remember how property values are going to rise? This presents opportunities to investors that are willing to take some profit, say 3%, and use their excess dividends to keep their housing units affordable. Models like land banking, dividend housing, or homesteading can help us design communities that are inclusive and affordable. If we come together and think like inclusive capitalists, we can design agreements that make social and economic return. This can only take place, however, with concerted and intentional efforts. We must confront the market myth so that we can repurpose the market to serve the common good. These new Opportunity Zones could help lock down neighborhoods as affordable, inclusive, mixed-income communities. Or, capital could come in, make its profit, and leave in ten years with added tax benefit. We must raise awareness of the humanity of capital, and purpose it to serve humanity- not the other way around. Millennials holding public student loan debt, the elderly on fixedincome, and low-income, minority Americans are going to be the groups that are most affected by this aftermath of the Great Recession. We must find innovations that encourage community and affordable ways of living. Otherwise, we will continue to find it difficult to find shelter and safety, and our economy and democracy will continue to suffer. If anyone has any innovative knowledge of how to purpose this new tool towards the common good, feel free to reach out to me at trentondavis2@ gmail.com. Ta'leef Collective from the Bay area had established, is located in the Starfire locale in Oakley. It welcomes everyone and has been functioning like a support center for Muslims, also like a cultural center with monthly meetings learning from a book, a movie night, a gay night, a social meeting place. Ali also attended and graduated from a mentorship program offered by the Ta'leef Collective in Fremont, CA, which qualified her to become a chaplain. When in 2016 XU decided to hire a Muslim chaplain to tend to its increasing number of Muslim students, also to do social justice coaching work, they invited her to join their team. She has been since affiliated to the CFJ, providing spiritual support and guidance to students, taking them on immersion and discovery trips to rough areas, such as for instance South Chicago, opening their eyes and increasing their sensitivity to various social problems. In the summer she also leads an internship program connecting the students with local, mostly nonprofit, Cincinnati agencies, exposing them to the social work these agencies do, teaching them how to identify systemic forms of oppression, how to become aware of privileges, how to give voices to the people without monopolizing their space... When the Dakota Access Pipeline protests started at Standing Rock in the summer of 2016, Ali decided on the spot to go there and provide her solidarity and support. She spent 7 months there on and off, a transformative experience for her, one that merged social justice with her spirituality. "At Standing Rock, we were defending the sacred," she says. "We were asked to leave our "isms" behind, and to not judge the Natives by our western colonial standards, rather support them in their spiritual and justice quest. This resonated very much with me as a Muslim living in the West." Standing Rock actually strengthened Ali's faith, connecting her with the Great Spirit, with God, and giving a spiritual sense to her social justice activism. Ali remains an active member of the Clifton Mosque and participates in its many services and social justice activities. She is a supporter and collaborator of Black Lives Matter and of the Palestine Solidarity Coalition that she would like to see become a sustainable organization. "I always ask God to be gentle with me," says Ali, "to guide me, to help me do the right thing and not get short of my responsibility for others." Ali does not know where she will go from there, but she knows that her faith will show her the way and that her spirituality will always be an intrinsic part of her social justice work against oppression. Health Message. When an individual and community come to expect outstanding health outcomes from a hospital, they are supporting an institution that encourages health for all citizens, both in its neighborhood and city-wide. Health for all communicates the importance of a partnership between citizens and healthcare in which each partner brings strengths and concerns to examine and acknowledge. A positive health message signals that difficult health issues are not being ignored or trivialized. Rachel felt this positive message of health being her right and, having a Navigator, she took steps that likely saved her life. She expected a positive outcome from visiting a doctor and other relevant specialists because she was convinced that the Navigator knew the significance of linking the health center with the hospital. She had experienced being treated with respect, having her symptoms taken seriously, and being seen in a timely way. Robert, a person with few economic resources had both a different set of expectations and a very different result. Not confident of the signals of cancer, he waited until the pain was greatest. Seeking help without a physician, Navigator or a knowledge of hospitals raised his fears and frustration. When he did go to his neighborhood hospital, he was sent to another hospital. He had expected the hospital, of all places, to show interest in his condition, reduce his fears, invite him for diagnosis and treatment. Robert naturally felt rejected. How different would have been the outcome if the hospital related to the neighborhood as a partner in health development for both Rachel and Robert? Cancer care especially needs this approach, as the hospital learns about what it can do to strengthen the neighborhood’s awareness of the danger signals in THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED (Continued on page 12) �12 STREET VOICE The Birds have landed in Cincinnati R ecently an unknown number of electric scooters landed on the sidewalks of Cincinnati. It seemed as if City Hall was completely unaware of their arrival. The startup company, Bird electric scooters, probably kept the news quiet because the reaction to their electric scooters has been different in cities across the country. How does it work? It’s kind of similar to Uber only you have to find them with your app. You download the app, enter your credit card number, scan the bar code on your scooter and on your driver’s license. You have to agree to the company’s terms which say you must wear a helmet, you won’t ride on the sidewalk, only one person can ride it at a time and that you are 18 or older etc. Then you can unlock the scooter. You push it three times with your foot STEVE SUNDERLAND (Continued from page 4) both the insured and uninsured patients. Such a positive message can help connect Robert to a Navigator and hospital at a time when he is in a state of mind to learn more about his health. A compassionate attitude raises the possibility that Robert, like Rachel, will stop the cancer in its earliest stage. 3. The Importance of a Welcoming Health Story. Feeling welcomed into a partnership with a hospital sends a message that all people, whatever the illness, can work for a positive outcome. Preventing cancer requires people to know its early signs and to move quickly for timely treatment. When people who already feel hopeless also feel less than welcome by a hospital, they hesitate to get the help they need. Robert felt like he was in the wrong place, asking the wrong questions, until, finally, he felt rejected. His experience at the hospital contributed to a dangerous delay in seeking treatment. This experience is part of a collective story told by many minorities, people of low income, seniors, and people with disabilities. Cancer finds a breeding ground in people whose lives are A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 JUSTIN JEFFRE Contributing Writer as if it wasn’t a motorized scooter and push the thumb throttle down, then the electric engine kicks in. There’s a handbrake, a kickstand and a bell (that doesn’t work very well). It costs $1 to start your ride and 15 cents each additional minute. First hour is about $10 and the second hour would be around $9. I’ve worn a helmet while riding it before, but most people I’ve seen riding them weren’t. I’ve heard reports of some serious head trauma from accidents involving them. It’s not the cheapest way to get around downtown and OTR, but it is fun and convenient to hop on them and leave them at your destination. If you’re going to try them I recommend your wear a helmet, obey traffic laws and be very careful out there. already filled with uncertainties. Rachel was welcomed by a Navigator, rapidly involved in testing, and had a timely set of treatments. Why not this approach for all? 4. The Navigator Role in a Hopeful Health Care Story. In the past four years, the Cancer Justice Network has sent Navigators into the community to visit at churches, senior centers, schools, and community centers to welcome everyone to learn about cancer and ways to control it. We tell a story of how people, Rachel and Robert, have overcome their cancer by going for screening as soon as possible and, if necessary, accompanied to treatment. Again, and again, we hear how grateful people are when we take time to listen to their stories of cancer and hospital care. Regrettably, few are hopeful. Variations of Robert’s story dominate our conversations. We listen to horror stories of waiting and waiting to see a physician, inadequate time to share physical and emotional stress with physicians, and with outright rudeness in how some physicians communicate. We want to create a hopeful future, a new story. We want to see that no one need face cancer alone and without an ally. The Navigator Bird Scooters are dockless electric scooter Credit: Justin Jeffre is trained to accompany a person through the person’s entire process of finding out about having cancer and being treated. We welcome everyone to participate, to share their stories of fear and hope, and work with us to develop trust in our companionship. People who live in a culture suspicious of healthcare services, tend not to believe we are committed to walk with them through the entire process. Many people, after building trust with us, remain suspicious about how they will be treated by healthcare staff during screening and treatments. Thankfully, growing numbers of physicians, nurses, and social workers are deeply committed to making a new story of welcome and compassion spread across the community. 5. How Hospitals are Making a Welcoming Story Happen to Control and Defeat Cancer. Hospitals around the country are changing their approach to cancer and high mortality for minorities and people with low incomes, seniors, and people with disabilities. A key player in each story is a Navigator guiding people through rapid and reliable cancer care. Methodist Hospital in Memphis, TN has made dramatic reductions in mortality. Hospitals in Columbus, OH, Philadelphia, PA, New York City, Denver, CO, Houston, TX, Detroit, MI, and many others have lowered mortality for the highest risk populations by creating a story of compassionate navigation. These hospitals have realized the power of listening to the stories people tell about who they are and about their experience with health care providers and institutions. These hospitals have seen how the health care story they tell about themselves has not been welcoming to people who live in poverty. And they have seen the need to reshape the story in which they live so that it includes those who feel left out. Navigators play a key role in making these hospitals new story happen, just as Navigators help change the stories of helpless people to bring them hope. Robert’s story can offer hope with a Navigator who helps to access the hospitals and find the right treatments. His story is one of many unheard cries for help. Cincinnati’s hospitals can help shape a new public narrative that turns a “Tale of Three Cincinnatis” into a caring community for all. But it will take all of us to make it happen. Will we? --------------------------------------- Streetvibes Writing Circle THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 STREET VOICE BILLS Here comes another one, Just like the other one, Bills Work hard today Pay a bill tomorrow It’s tiresome, and you still have to borrow Can’t save anything for tomorrow Bills, everyone has them Some, live on the streets, to do without them The rich, the poor Everyone, needs a little bit more Rent, phone, electric bills, and miscellaneous, It’s all so strenuous Bill collectors call and say, Are you gonna make a payment today? Don’t you wish your bills would go away? Then we could all have a happier day 13 A WITCH HUNT UPDATE "End 'the witch hunt,'" snarls Prez Trump, Both in his tweets and out on the stump. Trump declares he has bigger fish to fry, Like making immigrant children cry. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer A THEFT IN THE ECONOMY It takes a thief to steal the people of the country’s belief KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer It takes a thief to have the people have to change their lives, now that’s deep It takes a thief to double the price of football stadiums and fields It takes a thief to convince the county the police deserve a Las Vegas deal It takes a thief to steal channels from our children, scanning for the T.V. Whether it be for the Converter Box, Cable Box or Direct T.V. Do you understand me? For me to steal anything or to be classified as a political thief Would for me never to have believed in the Constitution and damn Democracy So now where do we go as a people in order to regain the stability we so freely lost In the future we must read every dotted line, keep the faith and let God alone be the boss! WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 155 Across Down 1. Conifer 1. Endure 6. Dull pain 2. A great distance 10. Possess 3. Rend 14. Aflame 4. Harvest 15. Literary composition 16. Translucent mineral 17. Relish 18. Snare 19. Jamboree 20. Surgical instrument 22. Run or flow slowly 24. Monotonous routine 25. Hawaiian garland 27. Legal guardian 29. Vociferous 34. Australian flightless bird 35. Starch resembling sago 36. Lifeless 38. Perform without preparation 42. Hobble 43. Divide or separate 45. Information 46. Subject matter 48. Worn in ancient Rome 49. Level 50. Darn 52. Sobriquet 54. Part of the inner ear 58. Metallic element 59. Lyric poem 60. Transparent optical device 62. Leotards 67. Small stream 69. Small mouselike rodent 71. Several members considered as a unit 72. Whimper 73. Object of worship 74. Reddish brown dye 75. Air pollution 76. Bulbous plant related to onions 77. Chirping sound A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 5. Harbinger 6. Pertinent 7. Line made from twisted fibers or threads 8. The courage to carry on 9. Eating apple 10. Domestic swine 11. Separated 12. Relative duration of a musical note 13. Uplift 21. Requirements 23. Large American feline 26. Feckless 28. Happening without warning 29. Sodium chloride 30. Group of three SODOKU PUZZLE NO 285 - MEDIUM 31. Cut of beef 32. Mischievous 33. Claw 37. Dactyl 39. Molten rock 40. Detail 41. Nemesis 44. Implied or silent 47. Cubicle 51. Beetle 53. Chess piece 54. Army unit 55. Abhorrence 56. Stringed instrument 57. Positively charged electrode 61. Wild plum 63. Developed 64. Sharpen 65. Melody 66. Tiff 68. Section of a journey 70. Moose PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 386 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 154 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 284- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 38 7 | A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 557-2873 St. George Food Pantry 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 751-8771 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Other Resources Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 562-8841 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Salvation Army 762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 St. Vincent de Paul 721-0643 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men 131 E. 12th Street 45202 Shelter: Men Shelterhouse 411 Gest St. 45203 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 1125 Bank Street 45214 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 1437 Walnut Street 45202 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Parkway Center 661-4620 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Housing: 471-1100 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Food/Clothing First Lutheran Church 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 421-0065 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 1730 Race Street 45202 Hamilton/Middletown AA Hotline CCAT 351-0422 381-6672 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 Northern Kentucky Brighton Center Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 721-4700 421-7803 Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center UpSpring 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 977-6800 859-572-6226 799 Ann St. Newport, KY 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio for 26 issues 859-491-8303 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 $100 981-4200 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY Health 621-5300 961-1983 381-0111 771-4800 579-8547 721-4811 St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry 1522 Republic Street 45202 961-4555 381-1954 421-5211 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart Goodwill Industries Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Mary Magdalen House 1223 Main St. 45202 961-4663 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Tom Geiger House Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn VA VA Homeless 961-2256 241-2600 621-5514 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 221-HELP 721-8666 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 Starting Over 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 Talbert House Tender Mercies 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 921-1613 First Step Home 761-1480 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Prospect House Center Independent Living Options Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Caracole (HIV/AIDS) CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 114 W. 14th Street 45202 784-1853 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Interfaith Hospitality Network Charlie’s 3/4 House 2121 Vine Street 45202 Shelter: Youth Shelter: Family 15 $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 A u g 10 - A u g 2 3, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 7 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource August 10-August 23, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Pg 3: Homelessness Then and Now Pg 4: Introducing the Enright Ridge Ecovillage in East Price Hill Pg 5: How We Eradicate Homelessness Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Lots of Gas, but Not Enough Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: Review Pg 10: Why is Cancer Mortality so high in Cincinnati Minorities and People of Low Income Pg 11: Dick Croy Continued Trenton Davis Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Steve Sunderland Continued Pg 12: The Birds Have Landed in Cincinnati Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 10-August 23, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring People living on 3rd Street Bill Woods Jake Dingler Dick Croy Dr. Mark Mussman Trenton Davis Michael Earl Patton Saad Ghosn Laura Domet Steve Sunderland Justin Jeffre Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Homeless Coalition Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Bill Woods Birds Cancer Cincinnati Dick Croy Dr. Mark Mussman Ecovillage Homeless Coalition Jake Dingler Josh Spring Justin Jeffre Kim Green Laura Domet Michael Earl Patton People living on 3rd Street Price Hill Religion Saad Ghosn Steve Sunderland The Cincinnati Opera Trenton Davis Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/79db3901636e66547a59cb114c2f2312.pdf d302e0833b11377763a877a7bfd7d137 PDF Text Text J u ly 1 3 t h - J u ly 2 6 t h 2 0 1 8 | Vo l . 2 1 I s s u e 1 2 ( N o. 3 8 5 ) advocating justice | building community Did City Promise Central Avenue to FC Cincinnati? | 5 This Issue is sponsored by Bromwell's Harth Lounge INSIDE THIS ISSUE Read the Writing on the Wall | 3 Youth Opportunities Paint a Brighter Future | 9 Religious Peacemakers: Reverend Alan Dicken's Ministry | 4 Photo Essay: Cincinnati Pride 2018 | 9 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 H LOCAL From The Director: Human Value ow do you prove the need for something we actually all already know we need? People and organizations regularly ask what the solution to homelessness is. And we always say housing is the solution. In reality people know that humans need a place to live; a place to safely sleep, privately use the bathroom, tend to bodily needs, plan, decompress, relax, build energy, cook, safely eat, raise children, privately argue, privately rejoice, for some, to have sex, spend quiet time with friends and family, strategize, to store food and clothing and be warm, cool and dry. We all need a place to be that can be private. Not having such a place degrades health and has the potential to decrease one’s lifetime. This isn’t complicated, it’s simple and we all know it. So perhaps the question isn’t how do we prove that people need housing. So, instead there are really two questions: how do we prove that people are experiencing homelessness because we don’t have enough housing that everyone can afford and how do we prove that everyone has equal value and thus must have equal access to housing? The first question; how to prove that homelessness is caused by a lack of affordable housing, exists because many people who have access to housing want to believe that people J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 JOSH SPRING Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition experiencing homelessness either chose to experience it or they made irresponsible decisions or they have a personal deficiency that limits their access. In the mind of the thinker, she or he has found a way to justify a lack of response because she or he believes people who choose homelessness or are irresponsible don’t deserve assistance. Sometimes this thinker says this in a nicer way; she or he doesn’t want to enable a person to make these bad decisions. Often this person will say that the third category of people in their mind, people with personal deficiencies, should receive assistance because they didn’t choose to have the illnesses or deficiencies they are facing and will express pity for people in this category. To combat this common way of thinking by people who are housed about people who are not housed, we explain that homelessness is a systematic problem, we show how economic, societal and legislative decisions create and sustain the lack of affordable housing. We explain that when millions of different people in different places, at different times all experience the same problem, it is simply illogical to believe that the problem is individual. We explain that people do not choose homelessness and that when people have access to housing that is sustainably affordable and access to what people need to live, that people tend to stay in that housing. We work with people who have in the past or who currently are experiencing homelessness to tell their own personal stories which also reveal not only the personal hardships homelessness causes, but further reveal the systemic causes of homelessness. We show statistics and analysis. We prove time and again that homelessness is systemic. These presentations, talks, and discussions are very important and powerful. The mindsets of some of those in attendance change. Empathy and understanding are built (Continued on page 4) WHERE ARE WE HEADED AS A NATION? PART III BILL WOODS What are the reforms that exist today for activists to support in order to renew democracy in this country? That is the question I posed at the end of Part II of "Where Are We Headed As A Nation?" The challenge, I noted, is to work toward rebuilding a political and governmental system that diverse citizens can believe is striving to live up to the concept of "we the people." One reform that is fresh to those of us who worked successfully to pass an Ohio Constitutional Amendment this May establishing a fair process for drawing new Congressional district maps is redistricting. Because of the extreme gerrymandering of legislative districts that took place in many states after the 2010 Census, redistricting reform has taken center stage for activists and groups such as Common Cause in recent years. One approach that has succeeded in California and Ohio is launching a Contributing Writer statewide, citizen ballot initiative that creates a fair process for district map making. Another strategy focuses on challenging unfairly drawn districts in the courts. This process was making great headway in a number of states until a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court made this approach somewhat iffy. Opponents of extreme gerrymandering in Wisconsin won their case in the Federal District Court, and this decision was then appealed to the Supreme Court. After hearing arguments last fall, the High Court released its five to four decision several weeks ago. The majority said that the plaintiffs had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their grievance, and therefore sent the case back to a lower court without taking any stance on the legality of gerrymandering itself. This finding of the Court seems to leave room for a future ruling against gerrymandering, and legal scholars believe that the North Carolina case provides a compelling example of how extreme gerrymandering violates voting rights. Nevertheless, the recent resignation of Justice Kennedy and his possible (Continued on page 7) THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Tony Castrucci, Michael earl Patton, Peter Block, Saad Ghosn, Ricardo Taylor, Stacia Hollander, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Dr. Mark Mussman, Michael Earl Patton, redstatevirginia.com, Saad Ghosn, Tony Castrucci, Bill Woods --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. �3 LOCAL Read the Writing on the Wall No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 DR. MARK MUSSMAN L ongtime readers of Streetvibes will be quick to point out the lack of “person-first” language in the graffiti: “Kill The Poor!” You may also find offense to the statement as well. When I passed this graffiti, about a block outside of Overthe-Rhine’s northern edge, many thoughts swirled through my head: “Who wrote this?” “Is this ironic?” “Are they advocating for violence?” “What’s with the quotation marks?” How should I take this statement, on the side of a seemingly abandoned building, on the edge of a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood? What do you, Streetvibes reader, make of it? In my mind, “Kill The Poor!” Staff Writer are using tactics to disempower and displace people who live in poverty and people who are experiencing homelessness. Through overpolicing, over-programming of public spaces, raising rents, evictions, privatizing parks, high price points, etc., gentrifiers are gleeful at the removal of “the poor” from private and shared spaces. With a blind eye to history, they believe that if we just remove blight, land values will rise. On the other hand, those who live in poverty, with little means to invest in the already disinvested community, year after year, generation after generation, see how industrial complex. We see how school districts separate students based upon family income, and how hospital outcomes are determined by zip codes. Even more shocking is that your life span may be dictated by the street you live on. If “Kill The Poor!” is not a rallying cry, then perhaps, it becomes a statement of solidarity — one that is possibly revealed by the quotation is the true war on poverty. And it’s costing us millions upon millions of dollars — even locally, just in policing and healthcare costs alone. For example, I bet you’d be hard pressed to find someone whose life hasn’t been affected by jail or cancer here in Cincinnati. I have to remind myself: it’s not like this everywhere. Small setbacks are major when you are experiencing homelessness. Having a relatively small ticket could lead someone down a path to losing everything very quickly, if they don’t have the means to cover the cost. We have seen how evictions cause Monopoly Man with Dollar Sign Forehead Under LOL Graffiti Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman The World Needs More Color Statement Found on Streetcar Pole on Race Street Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman Graffiti reads Kill The Poor! Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman Graffiti on Pleasant Street Reads Mourn Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman waivers between a rallying call for gentrifiers and a statement of solidarity. On one hand, gentrifiers policy, and structural violence kill them. We see how poor families are separated by the military and prison marks. America’s war on poverty was inequitable and it didn’t seem to lift people out of poverty, but rather created a permanent underclass. The true war on poverty is seen in the cutting of housing options and funding, the loss of healthcare, the loss of affordable education, the loss of civility among the police and fairness in the courts, the loss of clean air, clean water, and clean food. This THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED poverty. This means people will have less money for their child’s education, or even food on the table. When our own city can’t muster enough political will to spend even 1.5% of our budget on human services, it makes you wonder what our priorities truly are. And, what do those priorities say about us as a city? Are we to (Continued on page 12) �4 F LOCAL Youth Opportunities Paint a Brighter Future ollowing our three-part mural photo essay series, I sat down with the some of the people behind the paint to talk about ArtWorks, their experiences, opportunities, and the vision they have for the city. Amy Scarpello is the Youth Workforce Development Coordinator. Streetvibes: What programs have the youth development aspect involved? Scarpello: That’s all of our workforce programs. Our signature program is our apprenticeship model. We have programs after school in fall and spring, but our biggest push is in the summer. All of our programs are eight weeks, but in the summer, they get a full week of paid orientation. It varies each year, but they get financial literacy training, empathy training, learn about public art and mural making, team building, and focusing on personal skill sets that will help them be prepared and successful for jobs. Throughout the summer we have speakers, art opportunities, and portfolio reviews to help build skills further. Streetvibes: Who makes up the workforce? Age, socioeconomic status etc. Scarpello: For our apprentices we work with ages 14 to 21. After that we have opportunities for junior teaching artists and professional artists that will mentor them. We employ 50% low income youth and build our teams to be diverse. We look at gender, class, race etc. We try to make sure each team has a balance and opportunities to meet people you otherwise might not. Streetvibes: How does someone get involved with one of these programs? Scarpello: We have a recruitment event at the beginning of each year. Our apprentice and teaching staff JOSH SPRING (Continued from page 2) and sometimes a person shares what they have learned with other people at it spreads or we gain another opportunity to present. Sometimes people become advocates and work alongside others for systemic change. We will continue to provide public education because it is effective, and we believe that armed with the truth, some people will choose to pursue real resolve to homelessness. Some people take these truths back to their places of work and worship, their homes, friends and families, community councils, decisions of what companies they patronage. This can affect both personal interactions and, over time policy and societal decisions. The second question, how do J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 TONY CASTRUCCI Contributing Writer applications open in early February and then in March we have an opportunity for everyone to interview together, we interview about 400 youth apprentices over the weekend. People can volunteer as well and help with interviewing. Everyone has such a cool story and these 14-year olds are way more professional than I was at that age, and from that roster we pull people from throughout the year. Streetvibes: What kind of opportunities do the workers receive and how are they compensated? Scarpello: In the past we payed minimum wage, but this year all of our apprentices will be payed a living wage at 10.44 / hr. That would have been amazing for me in college and these are kids making bank which is fantastic. The apprentice program is the major opportunity for them. Our projects change each season, but many have a public art outcome and we also have our Hero Design program which is another sort of signature program where our apprentices will work with younger kids going through hard times, working with them one on one making capes and engaging in a ceremony to empower them as super heroes themselves. Streetvibes: What do participants of these programs usually do after it is over? Scarpello: There are a lot of returning apprentices who come back to work with us year after year, we don’t really have much data on this but many of our best apprentices move on to college and do great things. Being able to execute a giant project really empowers them to move onto the next step in their professional development, to see it so public in the city and have ownership over it is very powerful. Streetvibes: Can you give me a we prove that everyone has equal value and therefore must have equal access to housing is even deeper. The truth is that even if it were correct that there are three groups of people experiencing homelessness: choosers, irresponsible people and people with personal deficiencies, which to be doubly clear, is not remotely correct, but even if it were, these descriptions ultimately wouldn’t matter because everyone has the same value and if housing is a necessity, everyone must have equal access to it. It is really that simple. There should be but one prerequisite for housing: are you breathing. That is it. So now the question can be asked, well how do we do that as a society? The answers to this question involve prioritizing the needs of people over the excess and profits of a few. But to answer rundown of the Adopt-an-Apprentice program? Scarpello: It’s an opportunity where you can fund an apprentice from one day to the whole summer. As sort of a thank you to the contributors at the end of the year they receive an apprentice card and a handwritten note from them thanking you for your contributions. Streetvibes: For those who get into the programs do you think it’s the parents or the kids or a mixture of both that help connect them to it? Scarpello: I think it’s 50/50. We do a lot of direct recruitment working with schools telling them about the applications before the program opens. I think you can tell the individuals where it’s more the parents pushing them to do it, but I can tell you in the last week I’ve gotten six or seven calls from apprentices or people looking for jobs in that age range seeking it out for themselves. They’re super excited to participate. Streetvibes: I also sat down with Josie Masset, an Apprentice and Biggie Award Winner. Streetvibes: What got you interested working for ArtWorks? Masset: My older brother is in photography and he got a medal in the scholastics art competitions six years ago and everyone who medals in scholastics gets a mail out from ArtWorks and my mom said, “this doesn’t sound like something he’d want to do but it sounds like it’s something you’d want to do.” I applied the first year I was old enough to which was at the age of 14, and I did not get in because it was the first time I had ever interviewed for a job or done anything even regarding jobs. I knew I wanted to do it, so I applied again the next year and got on a three-day project. It was an artist from South Carolina and it was an interactive art piece. After that I the question simply, morally, we have to do it. And how do we convince people of this? Well, we don’t have to convince everyone. We organize people experiencing the problem to fight collectively for the changes necessary to end homelessness and we shed light on truth and offer opportunity for people to join in. We increase our numbers and our strength until the current dealers of access and opportunity succumb and we force a change and then another change and another and another and another, bringing in new people the whole way, never changing our stance or our story; re-evaluating strategy when we lose, building each other up and pushing onward and upward. We must have in our heads a vision of a place where the humanity of everyone is not denied directly or indirectly. We must picture this place. What THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED wanted something longer to work on, so I applied again next year but I had a trip in the middle of the summer, so I would have missed too much time, but at the end of the summer Kroger decided they wanted a mural at their Oakley location. Around midAugust they called me needing two apprentices and I said, “of course.” We had about three weeks to paint a 1,500 sq. ft mural. It was on parachute cloth and got installed later. We worked out of a store front and had to Macgyver the whole project, but we did it. I applied again the following year and it was the first time I was on a full-size mural. I was also on another one last year, and now I’m on the Music Legend Card Deck mural. We’re working with Justin Green who is an artist at Shake-It-Records. They want to make a deck of baseball cards but for Cincinnati musicians, illustrating all the people who were born in Cincinnati or spent a lot of time here. Streetvibes: What are some of the positives and negatives in your experience working for ArtWorks? Masset: Positives. They give you a tremendous amount of guidance on things people don’t usually get guidance on when it comes to art. If you take art classes, they show you how to make art, but they don’t show you what it’s like to be an artist and all the stuff involved with marketing yourself. They don’t tell you about the millions of jobs that aren’t just an artist or graphic designer. There’s so many weird niches that nobody knows about. You get to meet a lot of the artists filling those weird niches. It’s nice because starting so young you otherwise don’t meet all the people in the Cincinnati art scene, especially if you’re not from downtown. When you start working for ArtWorks they know everyone in the whole city because the community is so small. They welcome you into that, even as somebody who would normally be too young to be comfortable talking to 25-year olds who are opening businesses and making moves. The (Continued on page 9) do the streets look like, what are the looks on peoples’ faces walking down the sidewalks, what do the homes look like, what are the priorities of the people and systems in this place, how are those present working to maintain this value of human life? None of this is meant to be fluffy, feel-good talk. If you are going to construct a building well, you need to have a vision of what it will look like inside and out when it is done. We are constructing this place and just like when constructing a building, we have to remove obstacles, demolish previous structures or impediments and build new. Once the vision is reality, it doesn’t mean that everyone present will buy into this cornerstone of human value necessitating equal access, but structure will have been built to keep the power in the hands of the many who do. �LOCAL Did City Promise Central Avenue to FC Cincinnati? 5 No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 T MICHAEL EARL PATTON o be clear, I am referring to Central Avenue, not the bigger, better known, and close-by Central Parkway. Central Avenue runs behind St. Peter in Chains Cathedral and Cincinnati City Hall. It goes north, past Ezzard Charles Drive, Taft High School, Cincinnati Police District 1 headquarters, Stargel Stadium, Liberty Street, and to Dayton Street. As the name implies, it is an important street and connects several places in the West End and downtown. The question is, did the city administration promise to vacate part of Central Avenue so that the new soccer stadium could be built on top of it? We have all heard of the deal with Cincinnati Public Schools to sell Stargel Stadium to FC Cincinnati so they could build a new stadium on the site. But the existing stadium is relatively small, seating about 3,000. The soccer team is talking about something that would seat maybe ten times as many (the final size is still to be decided). It is a question of width. There is not enough room to squeeze in a new, much larger stadium into the existing footprint. To get more room, FC Cincinnati needs to build on the existing Central Avenue. The picture is from the FC Cincinnati website (https://www. fccincinnati.com/stadium) and shows the area of the new soccer stadium site. All the annotations except for the outline of the new stadium area, which is shown on their website, are mine. These include the identification of Central Avenue and Central Parkway, Music Hall, buildings to be demolished, and the width of their current locale, University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium. Because a soccer field is a little larger than a football field, when Nippert is used for soccer it holds less than when the Bearcats play -32,000 fans. That is about the upper end of what is being talked about for the soccer stadium. Yes, the team could pack more people into the end zones, but that would hardly present a good experience for the fans. And the width of the stadium does not take into account any plaza, such as at Great American Ballpark, where fans can gather and meet before entering the stadium. It is unlikely that the stadium would be built with its main entrances at narrow sidewalks which the fans would reach after crossing Contributing Writer Central Avenue. It was while photographing the buildings to be demolished that I heard that the new stadium was to extend over Central Avenue. A little bit of checking and I realized that this made sense. The question is, when will this be announced? It is not in the ordinance approving the Fussball Club Cincinnati Memorandum of Understanding, 76-2018, at least not in any clear language. On page public infrastructure improvements mentioned in the preamble to the ordinance, $34,896,800. This was clearly based on something, and I requested to know what that was. One of the things included in that number was demolition, specifically: “(a) Completely demolish all existing structures on the property being acquired, including but not limited to: 1415 Central Parkway, 1507 Central Parkway, 1515 Central All in all though, this sounds like the city has agreed to vacate Central Avenue so that FC Cincinnati can use that land, and probably part of 15th Street, too. Not to mention part of the parking lot of Police District 1. What are the police going to use instead? And how much will that cost? To make matters worse, that $34,896,800 included the cost to “remediate hazardous substances in accordance with a to-be-completed remedial action plan, including but not limited to hazardous soil abatement.” Readers of Streetvibes might remember an article by Alan Smithee where he thought that the reason FC Cincinnati wanted Stargel Stadium was because it was already used as a stadium. Thus there is no Soccer Stadium - annotated Credit: Michael Earl Patton 4 of the MOU it states “[t]he City will consider selling City-owned parcel(s) and right-of-way necessary for the Developer’s development of the Project Site.” Elsewhere the project site is described as being between John Street and Central Parkway. Although it is not mentioned by name, Central Avenue lies between the two. Was it always intended to be included in the deal? It looks like it. I was photographing the buildings to be demolished because I had done a public records request regarding the estimated cost of the “Breakdown Stereotypes” Parkway, 1500 Central Avenue, 1504 Central Avenue, 1510 – 1514 Central Avenue, 316 W 15th Street, outbuilding on Police District 1 lot, and cell tower equipment building” and “(b) Demolition of roadways and sidewalks [emphasis added], lighting, signage, fencing, and other miscellaneous fixtures” The city’s development agreement with FC Cincinnati contains a concept sketch of a soccer stadium sitting squarely atop Central Avenue – but this is not a final design. change of use and probably no need to do any environmental remediation. Isn’t it nice of the city to commit to remediating any hazardous waste everyplace else? And using our tax dollars to do so? I myself would rather the money be used to fund needed human services and especially to fully fund the Winter Shelter, but this choice was not presented to the taxpayers. It looks like Alan Smithee was right! The hidden costs just keep mounting up. “Eradicate Misinformation” The Coalition for the Homeless provides Education and Service Programs that help to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of homelessness in Cincinnati. We believe an educated public can be a more compassionate public, willing to dedicate time and effort towards creating solutions to homelessness. The “Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau” program is made up of individuals currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness, who share their experiences. The program is designed to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. To schedule a speaker, contact Mark Mussman at (513) 421.7803 x14 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �6 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 �JUBILEE CAMPAIGN Follow the Money No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 W hen asked, most every citizen in Cincinnati expresses the desire to create an economic system that rests on a level playing field and gives each of us control over our economic lives. Call it social or economic justice, call it a working democracy. The challenge is that we have so far been unable to create this. Measures of available housing, sustainable income, food security, infant mortality have not moved much. All of these issues are heavily impacted by who controls and is engaged in land development and the enterprises that sit on top of it. If we want more balanced economic outcomes, we need to look at who owns the land, the buildings, the enterprise and who makes the decisions about these. When making these decisions, especially when public land and public funds are involved, which is almost every time, how do we find a more just way to care for the common good and have the neighborhood and its residents play a more powerful role in this unfolding? Right now, when it comes to development, we are very dependent on functions of governance: planning departments, neighborhood councils, elected officials, zoning groups, mayors, and architects. We depend on the interests of investors, realtors, banks and financial institutions. We are very well organized to serve the private good, which is fair enough. This, however, is part of a long trend which has discounted the value of the common good in service of the private good. Granted there is public value to many private development ventures, but these are collateral benefits which are used mostly to sell the project. What is missing is a process where all players, including neighbors, citizens and residents have easy access to a complete picture of the business venture, the major stakeholders, historical data about the kind of deal being proposed, early information about schedules, plans, partners and community structures which go into every development. Without this insider information we will never be have an equal voice in assuring that development using public assets will indeed serve the common good. The process clearly is out of balance when we come to the common good. We as a community BILL WOODS (Continued from page 2) replacement in the fall by a rightwing ideologue makes reformers extremely pessimistic about future Supreme Court decisions. Following PETER BLOCK Contributing Writer do not have the relevant data early enough, and in the right hands, to act as equal partners in protecting the common good. We find out about plans too late. We don’t know the real economics of putting a development here or there. As a result of this lack of timely information and the absence of a process that endows neighbors and residents with a full seat at the table, it gets bloody. Politics, advocacy, stories of historical wounds, and a procession of celebrity speakers, local and national, are paraded across the stage. Witness the FC Soccer Stadium in the west end as a recent example. There is, however, enough good and land that is part most projects. We, as a culture, give a lot of attention to the questions of justice and equity in prison reform, minimum wages, social safety nets, role of the church, return on not-forprofit programs, denuclearization, import taxes, gun control, programs to end poverty and where the next world cup will be held. What we give comparatively little real attention to is the land. We are captured by the conventional wisdom that every piece of land should be subjected to its “highest and best use.” This is the language of the Urban Land Institute and most experts in this domain. We buy this argument of “best Serving the common good? Credit: redstatevirginia.com will and common interests among us to change this. Meeting with a City Councilman on the subject of development equity, it was easily agreed that: We want balanced development. We need to both attract investment and better the lives of residents. We want wealth creation for marginalized or economically isolated neighborhood residents. We need a development process that is based on trust. Explore what change in policies, capacity building, and neighborhood cooperation is possible. It is worthy of a long-term effort. Who among us would argue with this intention. The challenge is that in this domain of development, there is little trust and little transparency. We have not given priority to a process that is visible and accessible to ordinary citizens, namely what to do with the land, what is put on it and who benefits from the wealth and value it creates. And what is the real return of the public money, variance the example of California and Ohio, at least four statewide efforts to enact redistricting reform by ballot initiatives will take place in the fall. Once again, reformers are concerned about a more right wing Supreme Court eventually ruling that state legislatures and not citizen initiatives and highest use” in our decisions about how and when and who decides about devoting public money, land, tax forgiveness and zoning flexibility to private developers and enterprises. The agreements are made in private and then marketed to the community under time pressure. What is decided in relative privacy are decisions about what is really in the interest of the common good. There is little measurement and public data about what are the real outcomes of this process of development. What have been the public outcomes of historical transfers of public assets to private hands. There are people working to change this process. Peaslee Neighborhood Center has been working on an equitable development rubric to make this shift. Their work begins by questioning the set of assumptions that we take for granted: -Private development brings jobs, housing, tax base, and economic opportunity to struggling neighborhoods. are the mechanisms for determining how representatives are elected as stated in the Constitution. Although such a Court decision is possible, this approach is currently the best way to organize diverse citizens to preserve fair elections. The impact of "big money" THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 7 -Partnering with the private market is the best way for the city to acquire enough power to meet its development needs. - If we ask too much of private development it will go elsewhere, and we will lose out. The rubric offers us a starting point for shifting our thinking about creating development that serves the public interest. You can contact Peaslee Center at jennifer.arens@ peasleecenter.org. To question our assumptions, as they are suggesting, we need to make visible, without political or social ideology, how, when, what and why public land, assets and money are placed on the table in the domain called “development.” We need transparent data to inform and make it easy for residents and those who care for the commons to get involved early and with a voice. Much of this data may be available, but you need to be an investigative reporter to ferret it out. We have been sold a bunch of developments and stadiums, all with the promise of jobs and prosperity. How has that worked out? For whom? With the prospect of good data and leveraged partnership, we can have a real impact on the billions of dollars spent in our city on development. There is a path to restoring the commons. As mentioned earlier, we have been out of balance with the privatization of the commons for a long time. I am writing this article to invite you to participate in creating a development equity open source platform. Crowd sourcing with the intent of following the money involved in supporting the interests of the common good in development in Cincinnati. The point is to aggregate data about how the commons vs private investment is occurring. This, to me, is the essential point of leveraging to reduce the economic inequality that exists in our city. It is not an argument against people of means, or real estate investors. It is a call to come together and build an historical and early information public data base, collected from all citizens the moment they have new information. We all can benefit from a better process. The development stakeholders all have an interest in the common good for they are neighbors and residents also. This can be done without any party treating the others as an enemy. There is something we need to do together, because the goal of equitable development is on everyone’s agenda. If you are willing to help build this platform, please email commonvoice2028@gmail.com. on politics and government is the elephant in the room that has done the most damage to democracy. Due to several Supreme Court decisions that equate spending money to freedom of speech and to money's (Continued on page 11) �8 RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS "Divinity of Diversity" and "Multi Faith Enriching" Are the Mottos of Reverend Alan Dicken's Ministry J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 "G od is on the side of the oppressed," says Reverend Alan Dicken. "In the Christian tradition Jesus came not as a ruler or a conqueror, but rather as a vulnerable infant, and he spent his time with the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the persecuted... That's what his ministry is about." Dicken is the pastor of Carthage Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ Church founded in 1832 in the neighborhood of Carthage, North of Cincinnati. He has been ministering there for the past 5 years. Born in a middle class white family, he was exposed to religion from childhood, both his parents belonging to a long tradition of Disciples of Christ followers. He initially disliked going to church and attending services, but this changed when, at the age of 10, he and his family relocated to Cincinnati and joined the then Tylersville Road Christian Church in the Mason area. "The new church had a youth group, a band that played upbeat SAAD GHOSN Contributing Writer music, a beautiful sanctuary with natural light; all was appealing to me," he states. With the youth group, Dicken went to church camps and on mission trips, discovering other parts of the world and other communities quite different from his. It sharpened his awareness of diversity, also his exposure to social disparity. "These were informative and profound experiences," he says. "They opened my eyes and made me feel better about my relationship to others, to my faith, to God." Dicken attended Sycamore High School and was there further exposed to diversity, not only the ethnic and racial diversity due to the large number of Jewish and Asian students, but also his first encounter with gay individuals. "I sang in the school choir and befriended a couple of gay students who were slowly opening up," he says. "I realized how difficult it was for them; also how little I knew about them and the discrimination they faced daily." This determined him not only to be accepting of them, but also to always be open about and supportive of LGBTQ issues and rights. At age 16, a youth minister planted in Dicken the idea of joining the ministry. The suggestion appealed to him as he felt it was a field he would relate to and at which he would be good. He had already been enjoying the religious courses offered by his church and, wanting building relationships and working in partnership. "In Honduras, I was part of 'La Comisión Cristiana de Desarollo' (Christian Commission of Development) and partnered in mission with local people and organizations who already did work in this country and knew what was needed," he says. "I was a gobetween between them and the community, serving as a facilitator to make programs happen, such as educational, medical, church mission-related, etc. I also helped translate whenever needed." What is the DISCIPLES OF CHRIST CHURCH (aka the CHRISTIAN CHURCH): The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the US in the Reformed tradition with close ties to the Restoration Movement. It grew out of two movements seeking Christian unity that sprang up almost simultaneously in western Pennsylvania and Kentucky – movements that were backlashes against the rigid denominationalism of the early 1800s. The Disciples celebrate the Lord's Supper. Through Communion, individuals are invited to acknowledge their faults and sins, to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to remember their baptism, and to give thanks for God's redeeming love. Communion is open to all who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, regardless of their denominational affiliation. The Disciples practice believer's baptism in the form of immersion. Their one essential is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and obedience to him in baptism. The Disciples have three key beliefs that set them apart from other Christian groups: 1. Autonomy, as they have no denominational creed, giving them total independence to determine their own doctrine. As a result, their local churches vary widely in their beliefs from liberal to conservative 2. Ecumenist Philosophy, with a long heritage of openness to other Christian traditions having come into existence as a 19th century protest movement against denominational exclusiveness. They try to bridge gaps by reaching out to other Christian denominations. In 1977, they engaged with the Roman Catholic Church in an official international dialogue, to explore the possibility of realizing full visible unity in Christ. And in 2007 they were instrumental in the establishment of  Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT), an orgnization that brings together Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Evangelicals and Pentecostal Christians to seek to make a common Christian witness in the United States. 3. Welcoming LGBTQ  As they state, part of the Disciples' mission is to answer God’s call for justice, particularly in the areas of care for the earth, the challenges for women and children, poverty and hunger and immigration. They seek to do this work in cooperation with other people of faith. In 2015, there were 497,423 baptized Disciples members in 3,267 congregations in North America. Rev Alan Dicken to further his knowledge in that area, decided to go for undergraduate school to Bethany College, in West Virginia, a private, liberal arts college affiliated with his denomination. In 2009, he graduated with a BA degree in Religious Studies. "At Bethany, my faith understanding expanded," says Dicken. "I explored church history and learned critical analysis and nuanced interpretation of the Bible..." During his three years at Bethany, Dicken had little to no engagement with peace and justice issues, other than openly supporting LGBTQ rights. He was, as such, an active part of the only Fraternity on campus which admitted and assisted avowed gay students. Right after graduating from Bethany, Dicken did a one year internship in Honduras, part of the international global ministry that Disciples of Christ and United Churches of Christ offer jointly. In preparation for it he took courses on white privilege, on the various models of missionary work contrasting those coming from above and imposing their values to those based on Credit: Saad Ghosn After Honduras Dicken joined Union Theological Seminary (UTS), in NYC, for his Master in Divinity. An ecumenical, non-denominational and strongly academic school, UTS was also strongly focused on social justice. Dicken was exposed there to the teachings of James H. Cone, founder of the Black Liberation Theology; they helped him reframe and reshape not only what church is about but most importantly what it must be actively doing for social justice in the world. This was also compounded by a 1 year school internship he did at a Disciples of Christ church located in the Upper East side of NYC. "I loved the church which was open and welcoming to everyone," says Dicken. "It was diverse in gender, race, socioeconomic status, age, sexual orientation... and people attending were from all boards of society." "There was also a banner on the front of its building saying: Divinity in Diversity. This became as well my own motto," he adds. (Continued on page 11) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 PHOTO ESSAY Cincinnati Pride 2018 9 TONY CASTRUCCI Contributing Photographer TONY CASTRUCCI (Continued from page 4) best parts are meeting the people who are living what you’re probably going to live and get advice on stuff that’s going to be a thing for you at some point. Negatives. There’s not really that much. Working on murals is exhausting. The office is so small that the staff there has to juggle a bunch of jobs and sometimes it can be hard to communicate or know what’s going on. For example, Amy Scarpello is in charge of the entire youth workforce this year, so she has to do every mural and every project around the whole city so sometimes it takes a couple days to get messages through; she has to do so much. The only other thing is that since we’re a non-profit we definitely have main donors that provide money, space, or resources, and because of that sometimes projects have to be compromised because of how the board runs. My last mural was Faces of Homelessness and the artists focus on equality, environment etc. and we still got that message across to a degree, but it took a really long time to approve the final design because of the conflict between people experiencing homelessness and gentrification, and a lot of our donors are proponents of gentrification to an extent. The artists were fed up with going through so many iterations of their design they didn’t really care by the end what was on the sign. Streetvibes: How did growing up from a teenager into college age working for ArtWorks impact you personally? Masset: The first year is terrifying, you’re 15 and like “I don’t know what to do and I don’t know if I can do this. This is a real thing that’s going on a wall that’s going to be here forever.” You’re mostly focused on doing a good job, and it’s great because for a lot of kids it is their first job and an extreme form of accountability. What you’re doing is permanent and everyone is going to see it. The second year is when I started to realize how much Cincinnati still has to offer. When I was younger anytime I was downtown for the Red’s games or something it was just empty I assumed Cincinnati was just kind of done. ArtWorks showed me that they’re investing in the community and help us meet all these other people that are still invested in the community. It’s changed where I think about where I’ll be after college. I don’t know if I’ll always be in Cincinnati but I’m much THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED more interested in sticking around because I know people who are doing really interesting things. That’s really important to tell people when they’re young because a lot of them leave for college because they don’t think there’s anything to be done or no opportunities in their eyes, but in reality, once you meet people you start to get it. A lot of kids that I’ve talked to that work for ArtWorks have parents who are not thrilled about their kids pursuing jobs in the arts because they don’t think they exist. There are plenty of people I’ve met who tell me, “Yeah my parents will flip out if I tell them I’m going into the arts.” I’ve also met people who have worked for ArtWorks long enough that they’re changing their majors to (Continued on page 12) �10 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 �No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 BILL WOODS (Continued from page 7) long-term impact on both major parties and their candidates, doing something effective to remedy this blight on democracy is gargantuan in scope. The public financing of political campaigns remains one practice that partially levels the playing field for candidates, and it has been implemented in states such as Arizona, Minnesota, Maine, and Connecticut, and cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, and Santa Fe. Meanwhile, setting limits on individual and organization contributions to campaigns is another reform that usually complements public financing, and it is in place for Congressional elections as well as in many states and cities. Because of the Court's 1973 decision in Buckley Versus Valeo, public financing cannot be imposed on candidates, and those who opt out can spend as much as they want on their campaigns. Buckley upheld contribution limits, but it also stated that no limits could be placed on an individual candidate's spending of his or her own money. Nevertheless, DR. MARK MUSSMAN (Continued from page 3) assume that people in our city want to help those who are experiencing homelessness, or should we look at how money and energy is allocated to see what we truly value? We must reexamine our institutions. At times like this, when I’m struggling to gain a deeper understanding of the graffiti within the context of gentrification, I feel the need to challenge my own assumptions. I think of the prolific SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) When in his 3rd year of seminary the 'Occupy' movement happened, Dicken participated in it, adding his voice to its various activities. It was, however, a year later, in 2014, with the fatal shooting of 18 year old African American Michael Brown by white officer Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, that his real activist involvement materialized. With another ministry friend of his they drove down to Ferguson and spent 3 days affirming their presence and support of the protest going on. "We just wanted to be present in solidarity," he says. "We wore our religious garbs and stoles, marched with the protestors, held signs, prayed with people, blocked highways..." Dicken was disappointed, however, that there were few people of faith, especially few faith leaders, visible in Ferguson. He returned there 2 more times, wanting each time to intentionally manifest his support and his stand in the name of his faith. A few months after his graduation from UTS with a Master in Divinity, Dicken was ordained LOCAL 11 examples of elections taking place in states and cities that possess these reforms show that candidates who accept public funding have been able to defeat opponents who amassed larger amounts of money through private contributions. The Citizens United Court decision in 2011, however, created further obstacles to the effectiveness of these reforms. The majority opinion gave personhood to incorporated organizations, while further stating that these groups could spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for policies and candidates. Furthermore, if they kept their operations separate from the actual campaigns of individual candidates, their funded activities were not subject to any of the limits in place for those running for office. This decision was a game changer, because it allows corporations or incorporated groups established by billionaires such as the Koch brothers to mount huge war chests that can overwhelm candidates that they oppose. This is not to say that public financing and contribution limits are not worthy reforms, but the Supreme Court has greatly reduced their power to limit the influence of "big money" on elections. Thus, besides attempting to prop up these reforms, activists need to be championing long term efforts such as overturning the Citizens United and the Buckley Versus Valeo decisions. What then looms as daunting tasks for reformers are mounting grassroots campaigns in all fifty states to pass an Amendment to the Constitution. A number of organizations have formed with that goal in mind. A coalition that is solely focused on amending the Constitution is Move To Amend. It has a presence in a majority of the states and also in many cities. It also has written an amendment that specifically over turns Citizens United and Buckley Versus Valeo, and it has collected over 400,000 signatures from supporters across the country. Move To Amend's proposed amendment states that only "natural persons" can have rights protected under the Constitution. Denying the current precedent that links free speech with spending money, the proposal says that federal, state, and local governments should regulate campaigns to ensure that money does not create an unfair advantage for candidates. It also stipulates that all campaign contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. Despite the good groundwork done by Move To Amend and other organizations, amending the Constitution is a huge undertaking. Much education still needs to happen, and an incredible amount of citizen organizing will have to take place in all fifty states. Somehow a majority of Americans will have to be convinced that such an amendment is critical to saving democracy. An immediate activity for activists is taking steps to protect and enhance voting rights. With the fall campaign just around the corner, the goal should be to organize some grassroots efforts to help citizens overcome obstacles that could prevent them from voting. A second goal is to organize those same citizens to oppose existing and future efforts to block certain voters from casting their ballots. [Part IV of this series will examine some of the effective ways groups such as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters plan to work on protecting voting rights in the months ahead.] 20th Century American orator, author, and playwright, James Baldwin, who challenged America to think differently about race and economics. In true James Baldwin fashion, on the 1968 Dick Cavett show, James Baldwin made a powerful statement as a counternarrative to the idea that he (and the civil rights movement) exaggerates the dangers of American racism: “I don’t know what most white people in this country feel. But I can only conclude what they feel from the state of their institutions. I don’t know if white Christians hate Negroes or not, but I know we have a Christian church that is white and a Christian church that is black. I know, as Malcolm X once put it, the most segregated hour in American life is high noon on Sunday. That says a great deal for me about a Christian nation. It means I can’t afford to trust most white Christians, and I certainly cannot trust the Christian church. I don’t know whether the labor unions and their bosses really hate me — that doesn’t matter — but I know I’m not in their union. I don’t know whether the real estate lobby has anything against black people, but I know the real estate lobby is keeping me in the ghetto. I don’t know if the board of education hates black people, but I know the textbooks they give my children to read and the schools we have to go to. Now this is the evidence. You want me to make an act of faith, risking myself, ...on some idealism which you assure me exists in America, which I have never seen.” a Disciples of Christ minister and joined Carthage Christian Church as its pastor. He promptly made it open and affirming to the LGBTQ community and worked at increasing its diversity. Its membership is now quite diverse comprised of white and people of color, black, asian, hispanic; young and old; openly gay individuals... The church also participates with other congregations of Carthage in inclusive services. Every Thanksgiving, for instance, celebratory events are held in partnership with San Carlos' Catholic Hispanic church, New Jerusalem Baptist Temple led by Damon Lynch Jr, and a Nigerian immigrant church in the neighborhood. Different preachings, different music, and different church experiences are all brought together for the occasion. Carthage Christian Church is also increasingly becoming a community center for the area where different resident activities are held and various services offered. A Seniors group and a Narcotics Anonymous one meet regularly there. It also includes a food pantry and serves free meals every Friday to members of the community or from elsewhere; this is done in rotating partnership with other churches of the neighborhood (New Jerusalem Temple, Wyoming Baptist Church, etc.), each taking responsibility for a given week; also with Temple Shalom 4 times a year. All these activities include and are sometimes facilitated by lay members of the congregation. The church is also involved in the Amos project, hosting its meetings and supporting its activities; also in MARCC, the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati. When ICE decided to deport Maribel Trujillo Diaz, an Ohio Mexican mother of four and a Catholic lay leader who has been living in the US for 15 years, a candle light service was organized in the church and was followed by a vigil walk throughout the neighborhood. This prompted a multifaith movement called JustLOVE that Dicken, in partnership with the leaders of Temple Shalom, the Clifton Mosque, the Clifton United Methodist Church and the Shiloh UMC in Price Hill, co-started. The purpose of the movement is to bring people together to share their experiences, connect by love, and work for justice. Dicken and members of his church also participate in solidarity with the Immigration Sanctuary movement; they march every year in the local Pride parade; they held a candle light vigil in response to the Orlando shooting; and after Ferguson, offered Black Lives Matter regular faith services to help its activists heal. "We do our own individual work but also we plug in the various peace and justice movements in the city," says Dicken. "Social justice, diversity, multifaith sharing, and community building, are at the heart of our ministry." Dicken's faith has evolved over the years. It is now strongly connected to and at the service of the "diverse" other. It also seeks enrichment from other faiths. Over the past 5 years as Pastor of Carthage Christian Church he has contributed to the building of a "congregation open and affirming to all of God's Children regardless of political opinion, economic status, educational background, cultural identity, age, race, mental or physical ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other human division." Dicken has also embarked himself and his congregation on a constant path for social justice. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �12 ‘T STREET VOICE The Thin Line Between Love and Hate he differences between love and hate: Love comes naturally, whereas hate has to be learned.’ Now after ingesting the above statement you have seen enough of life to know the difference! If, you can read, then you know/understand the difference and the variance of the above statement. That thin line between love and hate! Usually we act or present ourselves from our understandings or, the beliefs from what we are taught! Ah! These ideas from our parents/ communities, the ambiguities of their learning/understanding, is dumped on us, or perhaps instilled in our thinking!? The thin line emerges itself with the reality of the moment, J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 RICARDO TAYLOR Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer or, perhaps from our ego’s, as too what we would benefit? However, or for any matter, it is like they say, or want you to believe! It is what it is. How absurd is that!? Although love and hate are natural emotions for our species the difference is how they delineated. Too often we have those ideas twisted. Hating what we should love and loving that which we should hate. Too often it is too much inference of material; way too short on ideas of reality or mentality. Our paradigms allow us to become stagnant in our learned and believed ideas and we start hating just because! The fact that our paradigms are a derived set of values directly related to our learned experiences allows no questioning as too whether our beliefs/actions are directed by any thing but truth! We hate because we are taught to hate! In our natural state of creation, we are imbued to love; love ourselves, our neighbors, our environments, etc. That learned and practiced emotion of hate comes from outside and if we are to curtail it we have to get back to our natural state and erase that thin line between love and hate from our make-up and personal existence! The reality for me is that most hate comes from that self-hate which many people have, and really don’t have an idea that they hate themselves, and therefore need to project it elsewhere. This again comes from outside, in so that envy is instilled through negative learning again from those affiliations of family and community. Now, I am no philosopher or psychologist, yet I am convinced that if we as individuals can take a look at ourselves without comparing ourselves to others and change some of our negative beliefs and practices our views of others will also change and that thin line between love and will diminish and help to create a healthier and better world for all. My Life STACIA HOLLANDER I’ve lived in Cincinnati, Ohio for 42 years and have worked legally for over 14 ½ years. I have 6 kids and love each and every one of them no more than the first to the last (as in all relationships, there’s ups and downs). In this day and time, my ways of living have become stressful, homeless and even somewhat jobless. With the help of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition I can at least survive somewhat off of the papers that I sell. Even to this day TONY CASTRUCCI (Continued from page 7) arts because of their experience. ArtWorks pushes that there is still plenty to be had, especially with their creative enterprise development that we hear about, such as Big Pitch or kick starters. They not only show us jobs in the arts but prove it and act as a provider for them. It’s nice to see people pursuing what they care about instead of just following where the money is because nobody’s really happy doing that. They show us that art is a legitimate thing that people need. I have arguments with my friends sometimes who say, “Well that’s just not something I can do,” and I ask them what’s the point of making money if you’re literally unhappy all the time? It’s a matter of lifestyle choice and they present you that option that people don’t even think about, that you can enjoy your life, and that changes how your entire life functions because you don’t hate going to work every day. There was a time when I said I always want to do art, but I’ll have this fallback, and it’s really heartening to see that it’s a fully legitimate thing that people do, and even if you’re not rich you can make it Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer and time I am still wanting to obtain my own apartment and a steady job. I’ve come along way; I used to be on oxycodone for a little over six years. Now at this day and time I’ve been clean now 11 years June 6. Don’t believe it’s easy for me, even when I’m stereotyped as a heroin addict, crack head or even a prostitute. I do still have urges, but I’ve reflected work and live really happy lives. Streetvibes: What are your future plans for your career and artistic ambitions? Masset: It’s hazy right now. I like animation a lot, but I lean toward more traditional methods. I like the physicality of making work more than computers. I like making physical art in general, even other than animation. I’m selling work at Second Sunday every month. It’s a mix of studio art stuff, and I’d like to work on animation or illustration but I’m not sure what I want to do with it. I might go to grad school at the Art Academy because I never realized how nice the Art Academy is and most of the professors are local and really care. I’d love to reach out to a bunch of people I know through ArtWorks and try out different things, such as graphic design, screen printing etc. There’s all kinds of stuff that has blossomed out of the rebirth of art in Cincinnati. I don’t want to move yet, it doesn’t feel right. Most people move for a stable corporate job but that’s not what I want to do. I’d like to stay here, somewhere I can afford and hop around through freelance work and see where it goes. Streetvibes: What do you think ArtWorks impact on Cincinnati is? to the 11 years I’ve gained and truly don’t really miss the years I used. Today I can see my losses. Only “if”! And we all know what that “if” can cause, “Total Destruction”. I’ve been homeless for 2 ½ plus years. Even being ignored and stereotyped, I continue to strive and do what’s right rather than picking back up and losing everything that I love and believe in me, and even my own life. This is why I keep it moving and keep my prayers up. Because some day, Masset: ArtWorks main goal is to beautify the city. You notice it more when you’re working on a mural, but you see how it makes a neighborhood feel valued. We painted one on the Arts Annex in Kennedy Heights and people would walk by and shout “thanks for beautifying our neighborhood!” The past couple of years they’ve been targeting neighborhoods that are troubled or outside of the main core of the city and it really makes people feel like they haven’t been forgotten. This year they’re doing a bunch of murals in Avondale, partnering with Cincinnati Police, and there’s one that’s on a corner where tons of crimes are reported, hoping that art will lessen crime and people’s negative behavior. I think it helps because even if you don’t really care about art in the traditional sense you see something that’s new and people put up in your neighborhood without trying to get something for themselves out of it. The last couple years they’ve been doing work with refugees in Camp Washington with Wave Pool. ArtWorks has this mix of really old traditional people that are on the board or are members of wealthy companies that are donating to us and branching them to people THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED some way, someone will help me for who I’ve become and want to be. who wouldn’t be very comfortable talking about these subjects. Now people who are more conservative might allow things they wouldn’t have before. It’s slowly bridging ideas into more liberal forms of art, like now it’s not just “here’s a pretty mural”, it can be stuff that has more meaning or be more controversial, even though I don’t see how helping people experiencing homelessness is controversial. It’s been about us learning more about these issues and feeling more invested in them. It’s easy to look forward because of guilt when you’re walking by, but you never really think about the fact that these are real people, living real lives, and you should at least treat them with the respect that everyone deserves. That seems so obvious, but a lot of people don’t think about it like that. They’re moving more into real issues instead of just beautification, last year in East Walnut Hills all their mini-murals were about the community and bridging gaps, making everything in English and Spanish. Beautifications great, and it’s awesome that they employ youth, but I think it’s even more important that they make people feel welcome where they often clash. STA HOLLA SINCE �13 STREET VOICE No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 LIVING BY GOODNESS THE GREAT CIVILITY DEBATE Each day God gives us life For Trump, it was his least nasty slam. How merciful our creator He gives us a wonderful start To live life with breath In our lungs and a beating heart Living by goodness and by grace Thank you God for Congressman Lamb, he said is a sham. Now his tweet-attacks most of the time, Do not usually take the form of a rhyme. The Donald's more likely if abusing you, To say you're possessed of a low IQ. In reviewing all his tweeted-out drivel, There isn't a chance of his being civil. BILL WOODS Contributing Writer another day Living by goodness makes one feel WHO DO YOU LOVE good And thankful for Gods good grace TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER THE WAY ONE HAS LIVED THEIR LIFE KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER THEIR OWN HAPPY DAYS AND DAYS WITH STRIFE TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER SO MUCH AFTER SO MANY YEARS TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER MORE HAPPY TIMES THAN YOU REMEMBER TEARS TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER SOME FACES NOT TO MENTION SOME PLACES TO BE ABLE TO REMEMBER THEN UNDERSTAND WITHOUT SUPPORT I HAVE NO BASIS TO KNOW I HAVE NO POWER OVER THE WORLD BUT I HAVE POWER OVER ME TO KNOW HOMELESSNESS, TO BEG, TO PLEAD FOR HELP AND NOBODY SEES TO KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE FOR YOURSELF AND LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND KNOW THAT ONLY YOU CAN MAKE YOU SHINE WILLA DENISE JONES Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �PUZZLES 14 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 155 Across Down 1. Conifer 1. Endure 6. Dull pain 2. A great distance 10. Possess 3. Rend 14. Aflame 4. Harvest 15. Literary composition 16. Translucent mineral 17. Relish 18. Snare 19. Jamboree 20. Surgical instrument 22. Run or flow slowly 24. Monotonous routine 25. Hawaiian garland 27. Legal guardian 29. Vociferous 34. Australian flightless bird 35. Starch resembling sago 36. Lifeless 38. Perform without preparation 42. Hobble 43. Divide or separate 45. Information 46. Subject matter 48. Worn in ancient Rome 49. Level 50. Darn 52. Sobriquet 54. Part of the inner ear 58. Metallic element 59. Lyric poem 60. Transparent optical device 62. Leotards 67. Small stream 69. Small mouselike rodent 71. Several members considered as a unit 72. Whimper 73. Object of worship 74. Reddish brown dye 75. Air pollution 76. Bulbous plant related to onions 77. Chirping sound J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 5. Harbinger 6. Pertinent 7. Line made from twisted fibers or threads 8. The courage to carry on 9. Eating apple 10. Domestic swine 11. Separated 12. Relative duration of a musical note 13. Uplift 21. Requirements 23. Large American feline 26. Feckless 28. Happening without warning 29. Sodium chloride 30. Group of three SODOKU PUZZLE NO 285 - MEDIUM 31. Cut of beef 32. Mischievous 33. Claw 37. Dactyl 39. Molten rock 40. Detail 41. Nemesis 44. Implied or silent 47. Cubicle 51. Beetle 53. Chess piece 54. Army unit 55. Abhorrence 56. Stringed instrument 57. Positively charged electrode 61. Wild plum 63. Developed 64. Sharpen 65. Melody 66. Tiff 68. Section of a journey 70. Moose PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 385 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 154 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 284- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 38 5 | J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 557-2873 St. George Food Pantry 751-8771 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 621-7265 1528 Race St. 45202 Churches Active in Northside 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 Other Resources FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 Center Independent Living Options 241-2600 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 Salvation Army 762-5660 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 131 E. 12th Street 45202 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 215 E. 14th St. 45202 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart 381-0111 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. 579-8547 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 1125 Bank Street 45214 Shelter: Men Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Shelterhouse 721-0643 1223 Main St. 45202 Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 411 Gest St. 45203 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor 2121 Vine Street 45202 1437 Walnut Street 45202 Prospect House 921-1613 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Starting Over 961-2256 City Gospel Mission 241-5525 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Parkway Center 661-4620 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Interfaith Hospitality Network McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 591-2246 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Shelter: Family 15 First Step Home 961-4663 Hamilton/Middletown 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 AA Hotline 351-0422 CCAT 381-6672 St. Raephaels 981-4200 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 Joseph House (Veterans) Northern Kentucky Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both 471-1100 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Housing: 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) 761-1480 CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 OTR Community Housing 381-1171 114 W. 14th Street 45202 Talbert House 221-HELP Tender Mercies 721-8666 27 W. 12th Street 45202 Tom Geiger House 961-4555 Volunteers of America 381-1954 Anna Louise Inn 421-5211 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 Brighton Center Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP 799 Ann St. Newport, KY ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY Advocacy Catholic Social Action 421-3131 Community Action Agency 569-1840 Contact Center 381-4242 Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 VA 977-6800 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Food/Clothing Health First Lutheran Church 421-0065 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry 621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry 961-1983 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513-421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen 535-2719 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $100 for 26 issues 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 859-491-8303 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center 421-1108 UpSpring 363-3300 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 J u l y 13 - J u l y 2 6, 2 0 18 | N o . 38 5 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource July 13-July 26, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Where are we Headed as a Nation? Pg 3: Read the Writing on the Wall Pg 4: Youth Opportunities Paint a Brighter Future Pg 5: Did City Promise Central Avenue to FC Cincinnati? Pg 6: How to Respond to Panhandling Pg 7: Follow the Money Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: Photo Essay Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Bill Woods Continued Dr. Mark Mussman Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Pg 12: The Thin Line Between Love and Hate My Life Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 13-July 26, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Tony Castrucci Michael earl Patton Peter Block Saad Ghosn Ricardo Taylor Stacia Hollander Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Redstatevirginia.com Tony Castrucci Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Bill Woods Central Avenue Cincinnati Diversity Dr. Mark Mussman FC Josh Spring Kim Green LGBTQ+ Michael Earl Patton Peter Block Photography Pride Redstatevirginia.com Ricardo Taylor Saad Ghosn Stacia Hollander Tony Castrucci Willa Denise Jones https://streetvibesarchive.net/files/original/60dcbfcf86747919e9b521dddf81587e.pdf f1633614620dfae899ad67f988a7560e PDF Text Text J u n e 2 9 t h - J u ly 1 2 t h 2 0 1 8 | Vo l . 2 1 I s s u e 1 3 ( N o. 3 8 4 ) advocating justice | building community Spirituality, Social Justice & JustLOVE at the Heart of Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp's Life, Actions & Pastorship | 8 This Issue is sponsored by Christ Church Cathedral INSIDE THIS ISSUE Cincinnati’s Hills and Hollars | 3 A Very Important Little Dam | 7 Photo Essay: Murals of Cincinnati | 9 Life lessons from Mr. Rogers and breaking with social media | 7 Find previous issues of Streetvibes online at: cincistreetvibes.org Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition 113 E. 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 streetvoice | 13 �2 LOCAL From The Director: The Delusion of Opportunity Rubbing Off B JOSH SPRING y the time anyone gets this paper from a Distributor, Cincinnati City Council will most likely have passed a fiscal year 2019 budget which goes into effect on July 1. This year, like every year, we had to fight for the restoration of Human Services Funding. Human Services Funding is supposed to be at least 1.5% of the city’s General Fund, but has been well below this percentage for about 15 years. We also had to advocate for funding for the Winter Shelter. On Monday, June 25, the Budget and Finance Committee of City Council voted to bring a budget to full Council on Wednesday the 27th which if it has passed will bring Human Services from its 0.9% level last year to 1% this year and will have funded the Winter Shelter at more than last year, but still at 68% of the full funding needed. These decisions do represent forward movement. It wasn’t until a few years ago that Council started restoring Human Services after years of cuts. It also wasn’t until just a couple years ago that the city budgeted at all for the Winter Shelter. These improvements have come because of years of advocacy and organizing; years of people emailing, phone-calling, meeting and telling the stories of their organization’s work and their own I J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 Executive Director Josh Spring Credit: Homeless Coalition personal stories of the importance of these funds. This work has also lead to the make-up and outlook of council improving. All of that said, we have so much further to go. Lack of access and opportunity, racism and classism, poverty and homelessness are so rampant in our community that portions of the city’s budget that are supposed to affect any change in these areas pale in comparison to the level of problems to overcome. In our city and really in the world, the problem is not that there is a lack of resources. The problem is that the we are allowing the resources to be in the wrong, small number of hands. We allow individuals and companies to flourish financially and in terms of power at the cost of people. Sometimes folks will try to ease conscience or trick us by saying that when these individuals and companies flourish it creates jobs and people who don’t currently have access to opportunity will. Or that these individuals and companies flourishing increase tax revenues which pay for steps like Human Services. Really, you can paint it however you like, but such beliefs are a belief in trickle-down economics and trickle-down access. But real life does not work like that. Just because a large company has an increase in sales or builds a new office or a group of people have success with a tech startup and create some new jobs, that does not mean that lack of access to opportunity because of racism and classism improve. One does not equal the other. If you truly believe that investment in the former really improves the latter, then show your math, I want to see the proof. Because I know the proof doesn’t really exist. Wasn’t it Einstein that said something like continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity? This country (Continued on page 12) WHERE ARE WE HEADED AS A NATION? (Part two) s the first order of business in this country the need for citizens to attempt to restore democracy back to health? At the conclusion of Part I of "Where Are We Headed As A Nation - A Need For Reflection," I promised to review critical problems that are currently receiving either inadequate or completely counterproductive responses, and to also suggest some possible reforms. Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions this month prompted me to place reviving our democratic process at the top of my list of reforms. First off, the Court upheld the policy of the State of Ohio to purge people from the registered voter rolls if they had not voted in two consecutive elections. This policy put in place by Secretary of State John Husted was justified as a way to prevent voter fraud by efficiently BILL WOODS Contributing Writer removing registrants from the rolls who for a variety of reasons no longer appeared to be Ohio voters. Critics and reform groups such as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters denounced the policy as a Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty. Distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or on the edge of homelessness, in exchange for a $2.00 Donation. Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati. 113 East 12th St. Cincinnati OH, 45202 Ph: 513.421.7803 FAX: 513.421.7813 WEB: www.cincihomeless.org BLOG: streetvibes.wordpress.com EMAIL: streetvibes@cincihomeless.org Editor: Justin Jeffre Executive Director: Josh Spring Director of Development: Mona Jenkins Director of Education: Dr. Mark Mussman Distributor Program Manager: Justin Jeffre Layout: Key Beck Reception: Larry Johnson, Anne Evans Maintenance: Pete Roper ----------------------------------------------CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Writers: partisan step to make it more difficult for many citizens to exercise their right to vote. Research shows that thousands of Ohioans were purged from the rolls and a disproportionate number of them were African (Continued on page 12) Josh Spring, Bill Woods, Dr. Mark Mussman, Martha Stephens, Maria Funcheon, Jim Luken, Robert Park, Jason Haap, Michael Earl Patton, Saad Ghosn, Kim Green, Willa Denise Jones ----------------------------------------------Photography/ Artwork: Dr. Mark Mussman, Michael Earl Patton, Saad Ghosn, Tony Castrucci, Google Images, Bill Woods --------------------------------------------------Thank You For Reading Streetvibes And Supporting Our Mission To Build Community And Advocate Justice. Streetvibes and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless do not endorse candidates for public office. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �3 LOCAL Cincinnati’s Hills and Hollars No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 DR. MARK MUSSMAN T he Appalachian community in Cincinnati has taught me things that have enriched my understanding and my life. It has taught me that simplicity is often the best solution. It has taught me that music and art can be the centerpiece of both community building and struggle. It has taught me that time is fleeting, and without one another, we have literally nothing. I am thankful that the community has allowed me in from time to time, Staff Writer people in families in Cincinnati. The stereotypes: uneducated, dirty, unsophisticated, poor, and unable to work were deeply entrenched in Cincinnati. Many of those stereotypes I had held, not specifically for expressly Appalachian folks, but for people in (then all-white) Norwood, or even the East End. Having grown up in the East Side, in Hyde Park specifically, I learned classist and WordPlay Cincinnati Performs Where I'm From, a group poem, at the Urban Appalachian Conference Showcase Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman without questions, and embraced me and all my identities. Even more than this, the Appalachian community taught me deep truths about the society in Cincinnati. It has been a mirror to the atrocities that we have perpetrated against those in our community who suffer and struggle. I first became acquainted with the Urban Appalachian Council (which has morphed into the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition today) as a freshly minted Bachelor, returning to my hometown in 2001. I was asked to lead a training on peace and nonviolence, which turned out to be more of a training for myself. Within the structure I facilitated for the session, I learned some things about how society sees Appalachian racist stereotypes from a young age. For example, if we drove through Norwood, which borders Hyde Park, we’d see who could hold their breaths the longest. I vaguely remember that if you passed a white church or train tracks, you could stop holding your breath. The only reason I write this today is because I’m sure ignorant things like this still occur today. But, what I most remember from that training in 2001, was the statement that someone made about the police. One of the elders in the group said, “The reason why we don’t trust the police is because they separate our families.” It was this statement that has stuck with me for years. White, middle-class, people in the United States rarely experience the loss of a family member due to the Curt Ellison Discusses Applachian Studies at the Urban Appalachian Showcase Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman “Breakdown Stereotypes” police, but for others, this is routine. In the context of the conversation in 2001, it was about cultural differences and class warfare. Appalachian people, emigrating from the hills and hollars in the mid-Atlantic states, were literally coming here with nothing. They were forced from the Idyllic areas because they could not find work, or any source of income. It was an economic reality to leave, but when they left, they brought with them their culture. Appalachian folk remedies, the importance of work, the centering of the family, were all strong parts of their culture, but the lack of educational and work opportunities gave us, onlookers, a warped view of who they are. I remember my Grandma, who was born in 1911, was telling me that she had to leave State Street in Price Hill when the Appalachians started moving in. When she was still a child, she moved to Oakley, where later she married a man from the “hills of Kentucky” and raised her 7 children there. She had a hollar in the backyard, where we’d an apparatus of the state that rips families apart. For the Appalachian, it was substandard housing conditions and the inability to find educational opportunities and decent work. Families separated because of these reasons knew that the police were the second step, after social workers, who reported them. Whole communities of Appalachian people were at risk, due to economic factors. Today, we are seeing the same thing with ICE, Homeland Security, and the police as well. African-American families are destroyed by police brutality, but are simultaneously expected to repair the societal ills that harm them. Children separated from families is the tradition in America — from the Africans stolen from their homelands and the system of slavery that encouraged family separation, to the Native Americans whose children have been put in “Indian Boarding Schools,” to Mass Incarceration, to the economic separation of Appalachians, to the Tender Age Shelters that those who are seeking asylum in our country are now facing. Separating families is the history of these United States of America because it fulfills the need of underground human trafficking rings. It also creates an urgency to work Rabbit Hash String Band at the Appalachian Showcase Credit: Dr. Mark Mussman play as kids. When she was 86 yearsold, sitting on her porch, she told me (in high school): “it doesn’t matter what color someone’s skin in, even if they have green skin with purple polka dots - they are still family and they are still welcome here.” This revelation took her many years, as she fought the integration of St. Cecilia in the 50’s. I feel that the Appalachian in my grandfather (which is disputed by my family to this day), was what helped her change her views, and humanized all people. Today, we are seeing the same issues where the police are just harder for less. It creates a system of inequality that benefits the rich, while forcing everyone else’s wages down. It is imperative that we understand how Cincinnati’s history is similar and different than the rest of the country. We are a border town, and this year we hosted the Appalachian Studies Association Conference. We are fortunate to have a rich history steeped in the lived experience of African and Appalachian Americans, who have bestowed upon us a very special power to fight for families and culture as vigorously as we fight for justice and equity. “Eradicate Misinformation” The Coalition for the Homeless provides Education and Service Programs that help to portray a more accurate and holistic picture of homelessness in Cincinnati. We believe an educated public can be a more compassionate public, willing to dedicate time and effort towards creating solutions to homelessness. The “Voice of the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau” program is made up of individuals currently experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness, who share their experiences. The program is designed to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. To schedule a speaker, contact Mark Mussman at (513) 421.7803 x14 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �4 LOCAL Unions Are More Important Than Ever J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 I MARTHA STEPHENS ’VE STUDIED the recent article in Streetvibes about the socalled “right-to-work” laws in the U. S., and I’m writing to say, as that article seems to suggest, that full union shops will always be what people need. We know that corporate power in the U. S. has been growing ominously for some years, and that business has been homing in on state legislators to get them to cripple workers’ organizations through “right-to-work” statutes, or in effect “right to work for less” laws. About unions, we might remember that fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched alongside striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, and though he knew his life was in danger, he spoke at a certain rally there on that night later on. The next day he was shot and killed. At the rally he had made what would be his last speech, saying that he believed success would eventually come for all God’s children. “I may not be with you,” he said, but that he’d been “to the mountain top” and had seen “the promised land.” It was a long and beautiful speech. The Issue for the Memphis marchers, said Dr. King, was simply “injustice” -- the refusal of Memphis “to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers.” They were marching, he said, “to force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out.” This great leader would, I believe, want us to persevere today for all workers black and white and of Contributing Writer immigrant origin. THE FIGHT of workers to organize has been going on, it seems, since the late 1800’s. So-called “rightto-work” laws are nothing new and ones that Dr. King understood very well. Some say that such laws began in Texas in 1948, were designed to pit worker against worker, black against white, immigrant against native born. Today such laws are still trying to break union strength and deny the rights of workers to collectively bargain a “closed shop.” In “right-to-work” states workers hired in a company that has a union do not have to join that union or pay union dues, but such workers still benefit from the union’s negotiations for their pay, their healthcare and pensions, for sick days and family leaves. Workers not willing to pay the “fair share fees” are still represented by union staff in any grievance they may bring -- about unfair charges, for instance, or dismissals. IN 2011, Ohio Governor Kasich launched State Bill SB-5 to end closed shops or “union security clauses” in public contracts with workers in AFCSME (city, county, and state workers). SB-5 was defeated in Ohio at the ballot box, with 64% opposed to it. In Ohio there’s a right to a Referendum. That is, if we gain enough signatures, our issue goes to the ballot box, a right that many states such as Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky, do not have. To defeat SB5, Ohio workers and their many supporters gathered over 2 million signatures during many rallies and protests, and delivered those petitions to the state house and Governor Kasich. Kasich eventually accepted the defeat of his effort for right-towork and said that the people had “spoken.” In unions older workers can look forward to a more dignified retirement, with income over and above their Social Security. They will have benefitted from their union’s work for good pay, affordable healthcare, and a measure of job protection, issues union staff face and fight for every day. ON A PERSONAL NOTE, a member of my family began union work years ago and is a union representative in Cincinnati today. It’s hard work, the hours are long, but she is doing what she loves! We don’t see a lot of her at home. As for myself, I helped foment the faculty union at U. C. back in the seventies. I remember going downtown on the U. C. shuttle one day to see a labor attorney, James Paradise. We wanted the university to provide us a list of all U. C. salaries, including those of the administrators, and we knew that state law required this disclosure by public institutions. For several months U. C. tried to get Paradise to be satisfied with salary averages, but we said, “No, no, Mr. Paradise, we are entitled to names and exact figures.” The day our lawsuit was to be filed, the university called Mr. Paradise and said that a full list of names and salaries would be placed in the library the next day. When faculty saw this list, and the differences in faculty and administrative pay, a union team got to work and a faculty vote for a union soon passed. The local AAUP was asked to represent us. During Former Inmates Deserve A Second Chance. Let’s Give It To Them F ormer prisoners re-entering their communities face many challenges associated with reintegration, like landing a job and affordable housing, re-establishing relationships with friends and loved ones, and keeping up with probationary responsibilities. These challenges are compounded by the shame that looms over them because they have served time. Although reentry is touted as a second chance, there are ways society negatively views former prisoners that make this second chance nearly impossible. This shame is detrimental not only to former prisoners, but also their loved ones and our communities. Former prisoners have paid their debt to society, and we must support them in their reentry process in order to truly offer the second chance they deserve. MARIA FUNCHEON Contributing Writer The United States accounts for 25% of the world’s prisoners, locking up more people than any other nation in the world. Over 70 million Americans -- nearly 1 in 3 -- have a criminal record and about 1 in 110 have been to jail or prison in the past year. Chances are, you may work with someone, have a relative, or went to school with someone who spent time in jail or prison and may not even know it. Incarceration is meant to be a punishment paid to society, but it is often paid by those who don’t have much to begin with. The majority of US prisoners lack a high school diploma, and almost 60% were living in poverty at the time of their incarceration. When they are released, they should have a second chance, but society often sees nothing more than an “ex-con”. Many, it’s clear, were not given a first chance. The way we communicate the shame associated with the actions of others, which social scientists call stigmatization, serves to further shame reentering individuals and make their reentry process harder. We cannot preach about second chances when we actively fight against them. Criminal histories can be lifelong barriers to many areas of reentry, including employment, but positive changes are being made. The Ban the Box movement, which encourages employers to not ask job applicants if they have a criminal record, has been successful in allowing a more fair interview process for all candidates, including former prisoners. Similarly, employers may not miss out on a THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED our first strike, we won a 20% raise. I’m not saying it was all easy-going. We were not a closed shop and some faculty did not cooperate (bad for them!), but most of us did. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS need strong unions, and it is perhaps no accident that the largest of this year’s marches and protests by teachers have come about in “right to work” states -- Kentucky, West Virginia, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Fast-food workers are attempting to organize, and Walmart employees have launched an organization (Our Walmart) that may play a larger and larger part in representing the workers there. Such actions must prevail and be supported by all if we are not to sink further and further into a povertyridden, third-world-like country where fewer and fewer people can make a living, have a family home, count on healthcare and pensions and a measure of job protection. Today people’s voices in their workplaces are more needed than ever, yet we are facing a dangerous Supreme Court that may be deciding, in the Janus case, how unions will be allowed to operate. Whatever happens to us, we must all get busy to elect democratic officials who will stand up, in our legislatures and in Congress, for common people, and will appoint humane and intelligent judges to SCOTUS and the lower courts. Otherwise our unions will be crippled by “right-to-work” statutes and all the other means corporate power is developing to impoverish us. [Martha Stephens is retired from the English Department at U. C. She writes books, as well as a blog at marthastephens.wordpress.com. She can be reached at stephem@ ucmail.uc.edu.] superior candidate who may have a criminal history. Ban the Box was signed into law for public-sector jobs by Governor Kasich in 2015 and is a progressive step toward helping former prisoners get back on their feet. It also helps reduce the stigma associated with having a record when applying for a job. Humans are social creatures. We rely on the support, care, and love of others throughout our lives. As a former graduate student in sociology, I have learned that social support from family, friends, and the community is imperative to more positive outcomes during the reentry process. Furthermore, a 2014 study in the International Journal of Conflict and Violence found that higher levels of social support also decreases crime and poverty rates in communities. Supporting former prisoners during reentry is a win-win. It’s time to reduce the stigma associated with serving time not only for the benefit of those reentering, but also to lift up and improve our (Continued on page 11) �WORLD Good Cop, Bad Cop: A Canadian Perspective No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 C anada. Our best neighbor. Just to the north. Along a 3000 mile border. 35 million (cold) people live there (all enjoying comprehensive health care, and a sane Prime Minister who has real hair). For some reason none of those millions seem to be sneaking across the border, seeking asylum in the land of the brave and the free. We Americans picture most Canadians as being tough as a hockey stick. Resilient (who couldn't be dealing with those temperatures five months of the year?), conversant with moose and bears. Here's the thing about Canada that you can tell your friends in the NRA (are those people actually capable of befriending anything but their guns? Just askin'): It is very difficult, almost impossible, to get a handgun permit in Canada. 30 out of a hundred folks there do own guns, mostly rifles and shotguns. 90 out of a hundred in the US own them, many of those keeping huge collections, including those infamous AR 15 assault rifles. Approximately 2 Canadians in 100,000 die from gunshots each year. 13 per 100,000 here. 65 people died interacting with Canadian police in 2017. 963 died here in similar interactions in 2016. [Statistics can vary for obvious reasons, but they never seem to vary by much in terms of gun violence.] This 2-part series of Streetvibes articles will attempt to articulate the difference in policing “styles” in Canada with those in the US. It will be based on interviews I did with a long-time friend, a retired, Canadian police officer, who has worked at operational and administrative level of policing, which has involved cooperative investigations with FBI, DEA, and ATF. For personal reasons my friend prefers to remain anonymous. Background I met Paul (not his real name) at a writer’s conference in Connecticut during the early 70s. He had been a semi-professional hockey player, a boxer, a rodeo rider. I had been a (mild-mannered) hockey player in Cincinnati. Besides our intense interest in writing, we had Canada's national pastime in common. Paul recalled for me that, during the two-week conference, we were thrilled by the news that Daniel Elzberg had bravely released the infamous “Pentagon Papers” to the New York Times. This brave whistle blower action would play a major role in ending the Vietnam War. Elzberg would continue to inspire the two of us, Paul in his ongoing police work, and me as a lifelong anti-war activist. I treasure our friendship. During the two-week conference, JIM LUKEN Contributing Writer he and I became buds. His dedication to high-level police work has inspired me all these years. His expertise has brought him to the international level, wherein he has addressed both Canadian and international investigative organizations, on law and ethical consideration regarding how these apply to use of force confrontations. Clearly, I had chanced upon the right guy to interview regarding the whole “bad cop, good cop” issue. I remember talking to Paul not long after the murder, in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown in the tactics. Like many of you readers, I became appalled by the plethora of violent deaths, black and white, that occurred at the hands of police around the US, many of the victims being unarmed men...as well as several women. A few months ago, I began emailing Paul up north of the border, seeking his professional take on this seemingly out-of-control situation. Paul's responses “As for Canadian policing...well, it's a whole different kettle of fish. Our police culture is so radically different for a variety of reasons, including the fact that our policing environment is Sir Robert Peel’s Principles of Law Enforcement 1829 1 2 3 The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions. Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public. 4 5 The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force. Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law. 6 Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient. 7 Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. 8 9 Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it. Sir Robert Peel's Principles of Law Enforcement (1829) is a list of professional standards used by Canadian police officers Credit: Wikipedia summer of 2014. He had followed the details of that case. He told me that those officers would be treated very differently in Canada. I didn't follow up on this conversation at the time. A year later, Sam Dubose became the victim of an outrageous police shooting at the hands of UC officer Ray Tensing here in Cincinnati. I began covering Black Lives Matter events for this paper, which involved thinking (and writing) about police not complicated by American racial dynamics, and by NRA 'theology.' “Indeed, when your police approach a car, or for that matter any potential suspect (or even a nonsuspect), they have to make the “safe” assumption that the suspect is armed and then, out of self-preservation, they respond accordingly, which is a recipe for disaster. “One of the things that most appalls me when I see a video of a US THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 5 suspect who has been shot, is lying on the ground, and there appears to be a collective utter disregard [by the cops] for the well-being of the downed suspect, which gives me the cold shivers. Canadian police would be assisting the individual in a matter of seconds. “Also, I might add that the US military is a huge feeder for your police forces and a lot of vets join police organizations after they have experienced hard combat. On that basis they are used to dealing with “enemies”...as opposed to citizens who [usually would be assumed to] attract the presumption of innocence. Furthermore, (some of) these veterans are...what's the technical term?...'f*cked up' from combat related PTSD and are totally unsuited for carrying a gun, let alone policing. “Anecdotally, I can tell you that in my experience with police units here, Canadian vets who have come back from Afghanistan and join the force are more prone to become 'problem children' regarding (things like) excessive use of force and substance abuse.” Disciplinary actions when Canadian police use lethal force As the statistics above indicate, Canadian policing sometimes results in the death of a suspect (and occasionally the death of an officer. Because of the country's demographics few of those killed by police are black, and their deaths have few, if any, racist overtones. According to Paul, each of these lethal incidents is investigated by a Provincial Office of Independent Investigations. In the US, similar investigations are usually done internally, by the local police force. Paul indicates that the results of such investigations often prove to be similar. “I can say that, in terms of Canadian police shootings involving death, there have been only two, and arguably three, incidents that resulted in criminal convictions in the past 25 years. “That is not to say that all [Canadian] police shootings, or police use of force causing death, are the result of highly professional police work. I would say that there are incidents where officers, on the basis of all of the evidence available, have had an honest but mistaken belief in a factual situation that resulted in the use of lethal force. In such cases no criminality would result, but what could result would be very adverse professional consequences.” It would be statistically arguable that such “adverse consequences” occur much less frequently in the US where there appears to many, especially African-Americans, to be a culture, born out by the courts, of tolerating, to the point of encouraging, excessive use of force by our police. Paul points out that in Canada there is a very different dynamic in terms of police culture. “Countering these incidents [of (Continued on page 12) �6 LOCAL Notable RBG T ROBERT PARK he recent movie RBG is a documentary on the amazing life and work of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. She was at the top of her law school classes (Harvard and Columbia) while raising a child and assisting a very sick fellow law student (a future New York City tax lawyer) who was her husband. As a young lawyer she took cases that built the foundation for a massive assault on the fortress of contempt for women’s rights and dignity in the work place and in other institutions. She won the right of a young woman to attend the all-male Virginia Military Institute, not because she liked Southern racist reactionary militarism but because it was a great case to break down institutional walls – if you could do it there you could do it anywhere. Many other landmark cases followed, argued in the Supreme Court, including the Ledbetter equal pay dispute which A J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 Contributing Writer although unsuccessful in court, energized a strong Congressional move to change the laws. RBG had an uncompromising vision, and told truth to power: she said we’re not asking for special treatment, just “get your boot off our neck.” She took on the good old boys of both parties and smacked them upside the head with arguments they couldn’t dismiss, on Constitutional grounds and on compelling justice that must have unsettled some even in their personal relationships (with wives and daughters). In 1980 she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and, in 1993, appointed by Bill Clinton to the U.S. Supreme Court. With the rightwing court assembled by Bush et al., victories became less frequent but RBG became a powerhouse of dissenting opinions that themselves help make law. She has become the Notorious RBG of young progressives. In the 2016 election, she made a public statement without naming names to the effect that a candidate for US President should be someone who respects democratic process, the rule of law, fundamental rights and civility (though, after an explosion of public self-righteous indignation, she sort of apologized). RBG didn’t let the fact that the inequities throughout our society sometimes produced Life lessons from Mr. Rogers and breaking with social media new documentary titled Won't You Be My Neighbor? chronicles the impact of Mr. Rogers on American culture, and while I have not yet seen the film, the premise speaks to me - and further it may be the final push I need to quit my social media addiction (even if I just deactivate Facebook for a month, to see how it feels). Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was on television until 2001, ending its long and influential run a full two years before anyone heard of MySpace - not to mention Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006), or Instagram (2010). For decades, Mr. Rogers reminded generations of American children - and by extension their parents - what it means to be neighborly. I'm not trying to draw a direct line of causality here, as if to suggest the increasing lack of civility in American discourse is due to Mr. Rogers going off the air and then passing away, but perhaps Fred Rogers was the last bellwether of cultural norms that, with his passing, have started to pass, too. Social media seems to have heralded a new age of smugness, and this criticism applies equally across the political spectrum. This is a dangerously sharp double-edged sword. The last thing we need, in highly divisive times as these, is to further alienate ourselves from one another. We need to hear more ideas that differ from our own, and we need JASON HAAP Contributing Writer to practice the art of neighborly conversation, even when we disagree. Instead, it seems we either revel in call-out culture, or we angrily delete everyone from our feeds who has a difference of opinion. But there is more to it than that. For all of us with Facebook installed on our phones, each of those notification chimes gamify our daily lives. Like the pleasure a gameplayer experiences when earning points, those beeps and whistles remind us that someone noticed us. So, we check our phones, feeling the satisfaction of someone "liking" a post, or responding to comments left by friends. For some of us, argument carries a bit of an adrenaline rush. When things get controversial, some of us relish the conflict. This isn't healthy. It's not like Facebook is an embodiment of the Hegelian dialectic, with people synthesizing theses and antitheses into new and productive ideas. Instead, we're just trying to score points and to win. Then, there are those of us who do not enjoy the sport of online arguing. The conflict makes us angry, and it encourages us to damage relationships in the real world. Either option is bad. These mind games are non-productive, and they may even be bad for us not only as a nation, but as a species! So why haven't I quit? Because, if I'm totally honest, I still get a kind of narcissistic satisfaction from even my non- contentious posts. Every time someone asks me if I enjoyed a movie, or likes my picture of a burger from a new restaurant, that game theory kicks in, with all those phone beeps making me feel like I have a place in the world - one with a larger reach than would otherwise be possible while sitting around the house in my underpants. Am I at a bar with an old friend from high school? If I post a selfie with both of us in it, I will get dozens and dozens of likes - sometimes upwards of 100! High counts make me feel satisfied. But why? What nonsense is that? How have I come THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED weird consequences for the victories she claimed; institutions might have to spend more money providing equal rights for women than for men because the whole system was deformed. Too bad, fix it. RBG is a great role model… but she was not alone in this: her husband (now deceased) was a champion supporter throughout; gave up a lucrative NYC career to move to Washington D.C. with the new Justice and he lobbied D.C. for her appointment to the Supreme Court and, and he had a great sense of humor. to care when people I barely see in real life enjoy, for a second, a picture of me with someone else? What is happening to me, and to a large number of us? These days, when I talk politics with someone face-to-face, things never go crazy and sideways like they do online. And while my faceto-face reach may always be smaller than when combined with my social media reach, there is a quality versus quantity issue to consider. Instead of worrying about "winning," or calling out all the "outrage" on the opposite side of the political spectrum, maybe it's time we get back to some basics like being neighbors to one another. I will certainly be watching the Mr. Rogers documentary soon. But I think the idea of it is enough to inspire me to take a social media break. I encourage you to join me. �7 LOCAL A Very Important Little Dam No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 I MICHAEL EARL PATTON t was just a small increase in the storm water charges that Cincinnati City Council approved earlier this year with Ordinance 68-2018, but as I have been highly critical of water and sanitary sewer billing practices I decided to check this out. (My major criticism is that those who use less than the minimum billed amount of 300 cubic feet per month wind up subsidizing those who use more.) This is the third utility charge that is bundled together for locations in Cincinnati. Storm water is a separate utility, run by Cincinnati, for the purpose of reducing flooding in the public right-of-way. There are several aspects of this such as levees, about 300 miles of storm water-only sewers, and the Mill Creek Barrier Dam. The increase is due to maintenance Contributing Writer Creek and flooded the areas along there, too. About half the damage done was in the Mill Creek valley. In 1948 the barrier dam was completed. Most of the time the barrier sections are out of the way and the water can flow uninterrupted into the Ohio River. But when the Ohio floods, the barriers are installed. Once installed, the Ohio cannot back-flow up the Mill Creek but now there is the problem of the Mill Creek water coming downstream and being blocked. So up to eight very large pumps take the water from the Mill Creek and route it around the dam to the Ohio River. You have probably seen Mill Creek but may not have known what it was. It is a little to the west of downtown and I-75. Part of it is crane motors fails, the barrier panels cannot be lowered and the Mill Creek will flood. One of the maintenance items that the fee increase is for is to replace or refurbish the cranes. One of the cranes is original, meaning it is 70 years old. The amount of the fee increase, by the way, is based on several factors which are not really interesting but do make some sense. The basic charge is going up from $3.54 to $4.11 per month. Mine will be somewhat higher because my yard is over 10,000 square feet. I do support this increase. This may be the first time I have publicly supported a fee or tax increase since I started writing for Streetvibes. The utility has a well-defined mission, flooding in Cincinnati has been a concern since the first settlement, and this is important infrastructure. --------------------------------------- Partial view of the crane system. The crane in back is 70 years old and should be replaced. Note the downtown skyline in the background. Credit: Michael Earl Patton View of the housings for the pumps and motors inside the pump station Credit: Michael Earl Patton expenses and improvements but the ordinance is vague on details. I talked to a representative of the utility and was invited to a tour of the dam. I thought it interesting enough that I am including several photos with descriptions. The Mill Creek Barrier Dam was built because of the historic Ohio River flood of 1937. Not only did View of Mill Creek from Gest Street. The Eighth Street viaduct and the barrier dam are in the background Credit: Michael Earl Patton the areas along the Ohio River flood, but the river back-flowed up the Mill natural and has wildlife. I even saw a video of a beaver that someone took recently – a beaver in Cincinnati! A very ugly section is lined with concrete and runs alongside southbound I-75 near Mitchell Avenue. Having all eight pumps run is unusual but happened during the flooding this past February. Each pump can handle 1.1 billion gallons of water a day. Even so, there was a period during a heavy storm when the water in the Mill Creek was slowly rising and creeping towards Spring Grove Avenue. Fortunately such periods are extremely rare and relatively brief. To supply electricity for the pumps there are three large transformers, stepping down the voltage. If one of the transformers fails, two or three of the pumps may be shut down but most of the pumps can still get power. There are two different high power lines coming from different directions that can supply electricity in case one fails. Eight pumps, 3 transformers, and 2 sets of high power lines. But there is only one set of cranes that lowers the panels. If one of the This passage is where the panels go when installed. Some of the panels are now elevated, others (out of sight) are on the ground next to the dam. Two cranes for the panels are on top Credit: Michael Earl Patton Google satellite view of Mill Creek Barrier Dam. Downtown Cincinnati and I-75 are to the east (right) of area shown THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED Credit: Michael Earl Patton �RELIGIOUS PEACEMAKERS Spirituality, Social Justice & JustLOVE Are at the Heart of Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp's Life, Actions & Pastorship 8 J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 A s she was growing up, Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp's maternal grandfather would always tell her she needed to become a rabbi to continue the Jewish tradition in her family. She was born to a Jewish mother and to a Catholic Belgian father who converted to Judaism upon marriage. Her parents exposed her at home to the cultural and ritual aspects of Judaism, but it was her grandfather who opened her eyes to its religiosity. "As a baby already, my grandfather would take me every weekend to the synagogue to pray," she says. "He would also tell me the stories of the different individuals whose pictures were hanging there, including those of my relatives who had passed away, in particular Miriam his wife." Born in Texas, Terlinchamp lived in Seattle, WA from the age of 8. Up to the 2nd grade she went to a Jewish school and afterwards to the International School, an alternative liberal arts public institution. But all along she attended 3 days a week a supplementary after school program receiving a Jewish education, learning Hebrew and getting familiarized with Jewish rituals. She also went to the synagogue every weekend. At the age of 16 she had a marking experience witnessing the death from cancer of her best friend, also being part of the spiritual conversations that the latter had on her death bed with her rabbi. These were for Terlinchamp moments that strengthened her faith, pointing to what was important, and to the encompassing presence and love of God. For college, she attended Scripps College in Claremont, CA, double majored in Philosophy of Religion and Studio art, and right after went to SAAD GHOSN Contributing Writer London to the London Slade School of art where she received additional training in painting. "I led in London a free and quite enjoyable life," she states, "but I found it empty, not focusing on 'what things mean'. I knew I was avoiding the essential. So, after 6 months I quit, returned home and changed my path. This is when my real quest towards the rabbinate began." Back in Seattle Terlinchamp worked as a graphic designer for a while, then at the Temple De Hirsch Sinai, as their assistant director of education. Around the same time her sister was in a very bad life-threatening car accident, hit by a negligent and very likely inebriated speeding police officer. The Washington law, then, did not require an alcohol test for officers. Angered by the situation and revolted by the pain and agony of her daughter, Terlinchamp's mother sued the city and the state, won and was able to change the law in order to also have officers alcohol and drugtested. "This made me aware of the privilege we were carrying as white individuals, privilege that enabled us to fight and obtain justice," says Terlinchamp. "If we were black or Hispanic it would have been more difficult to change things." "I realized then the power I had to effect the system; also that I needed to use it to make things better," she adds. This is also when she decided to apply to rabbinical school. Terlinchamp was accepted at HUCJIR Reform Rabbinical School, in Los  Angeles, spent her 1st year studying in Jerusalem, the 4 succeeding ones in LA, and in 2008 received her master’s degree in Jewish texts that Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp likes to quote: "It was for this reason that humans were first created as one person [Adam]: to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world."- Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 "[If] we truly believe that one life is like an entire universe, then all you have to do is change one life, and you’ve begun to change the universe the only way we can, one life at a time, one day at a time, one act at a time. So when, out there, there is despair, let us bring hope. When out there is hurt, let us heal. And when out there is division, let us show that we are enlarged and not diminished by our differences. Let us show the world what it is to stand together and respect one another. Therefore, I say this, never waste a crisis. Never stand still. Go out there, continue the Jewish journey, and be a blessing to the Jewish people, and to the world."- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Hebrew Letters. Her years at the seminary were happy and productive. During them she served as  chaplain at the Los Angeles Country Men’s jail working one on one with a group of LGBT inmates, at the Los Angeles Home for the Aging ministering for individuals over the age of 100, as a rabbinic fellow 3 weekends a month at Temple De  Hirch Sinai in Seattle, WA, and as a national Kol Tzedek fellow Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp for  AJWS (American Jewish World Service). In 2010 Terlinchamp was ordained a rabbi and came straight to Cincinnati, OH, to join Temple Sholom, selected by its congregation as their spiritual leader. Temple Shalom was then located in Amberley and owned a 30,000 square foot building on a 7 acres property; it was, however, deteriorating, its membership decreasing. Terlinchamp right away raised important questions, asking the congregation to reflect on what it meant to be a relevant faith institution and how the huge space they owned affected them both financially and spiritually. A listening campaign was thus started during which it became quickly obvious that, despite all the attachment and memories the place offered, the wisest solution was to sell the place, get rid of the "stuff", straighten the finances and focus more on the essential faith. Two years later all the goals that were then set were met, the membership was increasing with more youth and minorities, the previous dues model replaced by voluntary participation and contribution by members, and all motivated by faith and spirituality. "Our actions and efforts became to manifest God in us and in the world, to be all about love, and not be tied up by our possessions," she says. This also allowed Terlinchamp to be more vocal for social justice, to serve as the president of the Amos Project and through it to involve her community in various projects such as making the synagogue a solidarity sanctuary for immigrants, supporting the Preschool Promise, participating Credit: Saad Ghosn in various multifaith activities. In a gesture of solidarity, for instance, members of her synagogue participated on several occasions in the Friday prayers at the Clifton Mosque, and their kids mingled and shared activities with Moslem kids at the same place. They also march every year in the Pride parade, manifesting Jewish presence in support of the LGBT community; last year, they were joined by the Black Lives Matter movement. They have been active around the trial of University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing who shot and killed African American motorist Samuel  DuBose  at a traffic stop in July 2015, asking for justice to be implemented and for police violence against black individuals to stop. They have also worked for immigrant rights. Actually, following the ICE decision to deport Maribel Trujillo Diaz, an Ohio Mexican mother of four and Catholic lay leader who has been living in the US for 15 years, almost 500 individuals, including many from Temple Sholom, manifested (Continued on page 12) Religious Peacemakers is a regular column highlighting Greater Cincinnati individuals who use their faith and religious beliefs for peace and justice. Saad.Ghosn@uc.edu is the founder of SOS (Save Our Souls) Art, an organization that promotes arts as vehicles for peace and justice and for a change. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 PHOTO ESSAY Murals of Cincinnati 9 TONY CASTRUCCI Contributing Photographer 1. RiversideVineyard (top left) 2. What's Happening Downtown 3. Fresh Harvest (center left) 4. Self - Portrait, Elizabeth Nourse 5. Cincinnati's Table (bottom left) 6. Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon 7. The Hands that Built Our City 8. The Cobbler's Apprentice Plays Ball (center right) THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED 9. Dawn is Coming-OpenYourEyes 10. Tom Wesselmann, Still Life (top right) �10 LOCAL THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 �JUBILEE CAMPAIGN Is it Time for Another Great Awakening? No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 I was at a breakfast meeting with friends Trenton Davis and Derek Peebles from the Economics of Compassion Initiative’s Jubilee Circle.1 During our conversation, Trenton brought up a podcast he’s been listening to on the conditions that led to the Civil War. I am a history nerd, so I knew that the early 1800s were filled with all sorts of economic ups and downs, large multi-national jointstock companies like the East India Company2 spanned the globe. The British Empire had ruled for hundreds of years. Slavery was a global business and central to the accumulation of wealth for the British Empire and later the United States. It was also a time when our institutions as a country were being built or rethought and re-imagined. There was a sense of deep moral questioning on our identity as a country and our commitment to one another, what bonds us together. The social upheaval of the early 19th century gave rise to the 2nd Great Awakening3. It was a religious revival that led to the resurgence of the church in America. This movement also gave fuel to the abolitionist movement. Several of the leaders of this movement gave rise to preachers like Lyman Beecher and Charles Finney who called for renewed commitment to faith where ending slavery and reconciliation were central. Altar calls during this time were marked by a call to make a stand against slavery.4 The 2nd Great Awakening did not prevent the Civil War, but it laid the foundation for ending slavery. It gave folks a sense of agency and that they could be the change that they wanted to be. However, it didn’t go far enough. What struck me in my breakfast conversation with Derek and Trenton is that upheaval of the early 1800s can be compared to our cultural upheaval today. Our institutions are either in decline or in transition, the political debate has become toxic and MARIA FUNCHEON (Continued from page 4) communities. I became familiar with downtown Cincinnati pizzeria and catering company Venice on Vine when I was a high schooler at the REV. RICH JONES Contributing Writer partisan, violence is being inflicted upon our schools and neighborhoods, faith communities are in peril as their numbers dwindle and as they search for identity, and we cannot seem to find our shared humanity as folks stockpile weapons and look for safety by building walls rather than seeking around a specific dogma or belief, nor is in dominated by any one group. This is a movement rooted deeply in faith and in the desire to connect and to see our neighborhoods and communities flourish. It is a movement that is calling institutions towards re-functioning and to a place of support and encouragement rather than control. Rev. Rich Jones Credit: Jubillee Campaign union. Large corporations control a vast amount of wealth and influence It is also a movement that is calling us towards equity in relationships and racial reconciliation. A movement 11 means that we are created good and loved. It is not an Awakening of “certainty” or absolutism, it is an awakening towards what Dr. Walter Brueggemann5 calls “relational fidelity”. That is the trajectory of the notion of Jubilee in the Torah, and in the Christian tradition as well as many other faith traditions. If we are to address the issues of our day, the issues that divide us. We have a need for a change of heart, a change of mind. A word that sometimes is misunderstood is “repentance”. It simply means just that, a change or transformation of heart and mind. Transformation cannot be legislated well, it cannot be controlled or manipulated. True change, growth, transformation, repentance happens when folks are allowed their full agency in their humanity and can come to a place of recognition, awareness, or “awakening” if you will of who they are and their need for community. This Great Awakening is calling for folks to stand up, to walk forward, to be counted as people committed to ending all that divides us, to put an end to any “ism” or injustice that puts folks on the margins or dehumanizes them. It is a movement that will call our country, our world towards union, or, as we say in my tradition, “communion”- a sharing together in unity. And, in so doing, we can address the pressing issues of our day with different questions, out of community and in community with others. Rich Jones is the pastor of Fleming Road UCC in the Finneytown neighborhood in Greater Cincinnati. He is on the board for Economics of Compassion and Oasis Cincinnati and is an organizing team member and community connector for The Parish Collective. He also coaches cross country at Finneytown Schools and is an obsessive runner. His spouse, Debbie, is a PTA and they have two teenagers, McKenzie and Brennan. in our government as well as other governments. It can seem hopeless at times and that we no longer have personal or communal agency. We are still a relatively young democracy and country. What we need now is another Great Awakening, which, I believe is already in motion and has the potential of going much further than the previous Great Awakenings. This is not simply a movement that rejects the notion of divisiveness and fear that keeps power in the hands of a few. It is a movement that leads towards maturity and awareness of our shared humanity and that we are all created equal in God’s eyes regardless of skin color, economic isolation, gender, identity, sexuality, etc… it rejects the labels that divide us. The only label that matters is “human”, and that we are all created in the image of God, which Notes: 1Jubilee is a concept where every 49 or 50 years, debts are cancelled or forgiven, and the land is returned to its original owners. This concept has captured the imagination of many here in Cincinnati and beyond as we strive to bring about a more equitable community and culture. 2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_ Company 3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_ Great_Awakening 4Some scholars suggest there was a 3rd Great Awakening that occurred in between the last 1850’s and the early 1900’s. However, scholars have suggested that this “3rd Great Awakening” was simply an extension of the 2nd. 5http://www.walterbrueggemann.com School for Creative and Performing Arts in Over-The-Rhine. Venice’s owner, Power Inspires Progress (PIP), offers job training and placement assistance to people who may have barriers to employment (like criminal records). The history of PIP dates back over 30 years, and they have helped hundreds of Cincinnatians find work. If you’re an employer, consider following in PIP’s footsteps by offering a chance to someone who needs it. You may find that taking this chance is just as rewarding for you, your business, and your community as it is for someone deserving a real second chance. THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �12 JOSH SPRING (Continued from page 2) and really the world as a whole has been following a system of putting resources primarily in the hands of the few and claiming it will somehow benefit everyone or simply saying that it does not matter if it benefits everyone, for a long, long time. In our city we hear this all the time. We hear about how great the “renaissance” is and about how we need to give tax incentives to attract new companies BILL WOODS (Continued from page 2) Americans and residents of lowincome urban neighborhoods. By a five to four decision, the Court upheld Husted's process as a legitimate way to administer voter registration. Next, the Court punted on the issue of gerrymandering. After the 2010 Census, extremely gerrymandered representative districts were created in a number of states such as Wisconsin, North Carolina and Ohio. By utilizing computer experts to crunch population data, the political parties that controlled redistricting mapping in those states could virtually insure a lopsided majority of safe seats for their candidates. Challenged in the Courts as procedures that established unfair voting in those states, the Wisconsin case was taken up by the Supreme Court last year. This June, however, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs in the case had not JIM LUKEN (Continued from page 5) excessive use of force], the policing culture in Canada promotes considerable, and sometimes unreasonable restraint, that in turn can also attract unreasonable risk to the officers...and has resulted in both injury and death to them. Hence... constraint should have its limits. “That stated, as I have said previously to you, Jim, we have very strict gun laws in Canada and we do not suffer from the great racial divide you have in the USA. So, our officers do not reflectively suspect that every person they encounter on the job represents a threat to their personal integrity.” I asked him about the situation that happened in Toronto several SAAD GHOSN (Continued from page 8) and met in a little church in Carthage. Their reunion triggered the formation of JustLOVE, an association which organizes multifaith spiritual and music gatherings and which is directed by Terlinchamp. The group's monthly meetings prepare for the journey, discussing themes of forgiveness, love, leadership, establishing larger conversations and building allies. REST OF THE STORY J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 and how we need to support startups etc. and that investing in them is actually a way of promoting growth and fighting poverty. I believe that some people in our city truly believe this to be true and that some people say it just to try to shut people up, but either way, it isn’t true. We can legislatively require living wages, we can use tax abatements to spur on the development of affordable housing, we can legislatively provide protections to people who rent, we can refuse to fund, permit or zone projects that displace people from their homes, we can generate and put money directly into new affordable housing, we can tax the stock options of the super wealthy people at the tops of the tall buildings. Imagine how just this short list of changes would so drastically change our city, reduce poverty and increase access. These alone would not be enough, but imagine how much better our city would be. How about we legislate and fund changes that we know would improve life, versus making arguments about how supporting companies is actually good for fighting poverty. Next time you are personally low on money, how about you just go out and buy an expensive car with great gas mileage and when your kids, partner or yourself are hungry because there isn’t enough money to pay for food, just tell each other that it will be okay because you are saving money on gas, and such a great car will lead to new opportunities. (That is sarcasm and a terrible idea). sufficiently proved their contention of harmful damage to Wisconsin voters. They sent the case back to the state, essentially not commenting on the potential Constitutionality of the issue. These cases reinforced my concern about the health of democracy in this country and the number of obstacles that exist blocking many meaningful reforms. Voting rights and the goal of fair elections emerge as the latest aspects of political democracy to be placed in jeopardy by the Supreme Court. Efforts to curb the destructive impact of "big money" on elections have already been stymied by the Court's rulings in Buckley versus Valeo and Citizens United. The ticking clock for reformers in overcoming this series of inappropriate responses to major political and government issues seems to be the limited time available before reviving democracy is no longer a possibility. Most of the activities and decisions eroding democracy bolster the powers of the economic establishment to control government policy. Such control has led to the kind of elitism and income inequality that has disillusioned so many Americans about our current system. One result has been a sharp decline in the number of people who take the time to vote. In fact, Trump's election was in part a reaction by a large number of people that the current system was not working for them. They threw their support to this very loud and angry man who promised to make America great again with simple answers and by attacks on various scape goats. His authoritarian tendencies and his contempt for the complexity and fragility of public affairs make the decline of democracy even more of a scary reality. The challenge is to work toward rebuilding a political and governmental system that citizens can believe is striving to represent "we the people." What makes this challenge particularly daunting is the current set of circumstances. To repeat, "big money" continues to grow as a warping factor in elections at all levels. Legislation aimed at discouraging and actually suppressing voting keeps popping up in many states, and the threat of further extreme gerrymandering still looms as a possibility in 2021. Meanwhile, a vocal minority seems to relish Trump's inclination for authoritarian rule. All this leads to the question of what reforms exist for activists to support in order to make things better? Are there still some significant ways to renew democracy such as the Ohio Constitutional Amendment on Congressional redistricting that voters passed in May? Part III of this series will discuss some of the reform arrows that are still available for activists to put in their quivers. [To be continued next issue. Thanks for reading Streetvibes!] months ago when a man deliberately drove his vehicle onto crowded sidewalks killing 10 pedestrians. The suspect was famously apprehended by a single Canadian cop, without the use of force. This made international headlines. Paul's take: “As for the officer in Toronto, he was correct to eschew any claim to heroism...he had good separation from the subject (over 24 feet), and he did not reasonably fear for his life. Indeed, as I understood the situation, he surmised that he was dealing with a person in psychological crisis who was most likely trying to provoke a suicide by police. “I would say that most of our officers might have drawn down on the subject [i.e., used their guns to threaten him] but would have been very restrained in going 'center mass' given the degree of separation.” in other words, they would not have killed him. Nonetheless, it seems clear to this American student of police use-offorce that such restraint as that lone officer manifested, would be highly unlikely given a similar incident in the US, even though the perpetrator was white. Paul's explanation “All police organizations in Canada are informed by the IMIM, or Incident Management Intervention Model (of policing), where the officer considers the least amount of force required in the given circumstances. Depending on the escalation or deescalation of the level of threat, the officer slides down, or ratchets up, the use of force options he (or she) has, reserving use of lethal force for the most extreme situations.” [To be continued next issue. Thanks for reading Streetvibes!] "JustLOVE is multi faith," says Terlinchamp. "It brings people together; they share their experiences, connect by love, and work for justice. I would like to see it as an example of a harmonious proactive systemic change replicated in various cities across our country." Terlinchamp is also one of 11 invited citizens of different backgrounds and political philosophies to serve on the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Board of Contributors. In that role she writes a monthly editorial in the Cincinnati Enquirer and uses that platform to further her call and message for justice. She is active in Ohio Organizing  Collaborative and serves on several boards and committees  within the Cincinnati Jewish community. "My goal in life is to do good in the world and work for justice," says Terlinchamp, "and my Jewish faith enlightens me and shows me the way." And as a Rabbi, Terlinchamp uses her power and her privilege to expand Sir Robert Peel by Henry William Pickersgill Credit: Jubillee Campaign THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED --------------------------------------- her mission through all the members of her congregation and through the many allies that her leadership role allows her to foster and create in the Greater Cincinnati community. "At Temple Sholom we welcome all people: seekers, interfaith families, and those in search of a spiritual home. We are defined by spirituality, social justice and love, and our mission is to extend these values everywhere and to everyone," she adds. �No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 NO ONE ASKED 13 STREET VOICE No one asked. How are you today? No one asked, Because no one cared Maybe because everyone is too busy TRUMP'S "VERY SPECIAL BOND" What makes The Donald's heart grow fond? For Kim - he's formed "a very special bond." How did U.S. Diplomacy go around the bend By making Kim Trump's new, best friend? Someone went home today Or is it simply Trump's inclination to cater Feeling, sad and empty To any bona fide dictator? No one asked, No one cared Sometimes no one should have to ask. When was the last time you asked someone BILL WOODS Contributing Writer WHAT’S GOING ON could you help them? It’s so sad when no one cares enough to ask! KIM GREEN Streetvibes Distributor & Contributing Writer What’s going on asked singer Marvin Gaye What’s going on in our world of today Stealing from each other, killing one another Lying, cheating and still calling each other brother Disillusioned by what our lives should really be Misunderstanding that we’re all born in sin, you and me Forgetting each day to let live and let love Forgetting to give all praises due to God up above Everyone needs to take time out to pray And ask God to forgive our sins each and everyday To replace hate with peace and love where ever we can Only then can we see what’s going on all over the land So, for me this is what’s really going on We as a people must come together before all life is gone!!! THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �14 PUZZLES J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 154 Across Down 1. Abyss 1. Mantle 6. Launch platform 2. Brass musical instrument 9. Retail outlet 3. Desiccated 13. Large artery 4. Crouch 14. Crystals forming rime 15. Percussion instrument 16. Anterior 17. Allow 18. Waterway 19. Certify 21. Distinguished 23. Cooking vessel 24. Lope 25. Deciduous tree 28. Judicious 30. Eating apple 35. Melt 37. Burden 39. Hex 40. Zero score in tennis 41. Claw 43. Pinkish table wine 44. Sports venue 46. Depend 47. Noisy 48. Lookout 50. Contributions to the poor 52. Elfin 53. Young whale 55. A wooden pin 57. Nom de plume 61. Title of ancient Egyptian kings 65. Large body of water 66. Quantifier for every one 68. Scorch 69. Cut closely 70. A division of 65 Across 71. Musical drama 72. Ripped 73. Female chicken 74. Part of a staircase 5. Large elongated squash 6. Heap 7. Playing card 8. Dissuade 9. Tibia 10. Teeming multitude 11. Portent 12. Saucy 15. Professional judge or evaluator 20. Australian wading bird 22. Cleaning implement 24. One of many used to make a beverage 25. Book of maps 26. Land along the edge of water 27. Sheltered port SODOKU PUZZLE NO 284 - MEDIUM 29. Rise rapidly 31. Knitting stitch 32. Alcoholic strength 33. Publish 34. Indigent 36. Moved to another location 38. Small replica of a person 42. Insect larva 45. Requiring secret or mysterious knowledge 49. Edible tuber 51. Lend flavor to 54. Tether 56. Objection 57. Military installation 58. Reverberation 59. Close 60. Part of a church 61. Scheme 62. Afresh 63. Fiend 64. Cure 67. Sheltered side PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ISSUE 383 CROSSWORD PUZZLE NO. 153 SODOKU PUZZLE NO 283- MEDIUM PUZZLES from puzzlechoice.com and puzzles.ca THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED �RESOURCES No. 38 4 | June 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 Central Access Point 381-SAFE Shelter: Women and Children Bethany House 1841 Fairmount Ave. 45214 557-2873 The Esther Marie Hatton Center for Women 2499 Reading Road 562-1980 Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365 6037 Cary Ave. 45224 Salvation Army 762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 131 E. 12th Street 45202 Shelter: Men Shelterhouse 411 Gest St. 45203 241-5525 Parkway Center 661-4620 1805 Dalton Ave. 45214 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 FreeStore/FoodBank 241-1064 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 NAMI of Hamilton County 351-3500 PATH Outreach 977-4489 Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501 Other Resources St. Vincent de Paul 562-8841 215 E. 14th St. 45202 621-7265 112 E. Liberty Street 45202 4600 Erie Ave. 45227 Serves area codes: 45226, 45227, 45208, 45209 1125 Bank Street 45214 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256 2121 Vine Street 45202 682 Hawthorne Ave. 45205 Shelter: Youth Sheakley Center for Youth (18-24 y/o) 2522 Highland Ave. 45219 569-9500 Lighthouse Youth Crisis Center (10-17 y/o) 3330 Jefferson Ave 45220 961-4080 Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Women Shelter: Family Treatment or Supportive Recovery: Both Interfaith Hospitality Network Housing: First Step Home 761-1480 721-4580 632-7149 381-1171 Talbert House Tender Mercies 221-HELP 721-8666 Tom Geiger House Volunteers of America Anna Louise Inn 961-4555 381-1954 421-5211 Cincinnati Union Bethel 768-6907 27 W. 12th Street 45202 2401-2411 Reading Rd. 45202 2401 Reading Rd. 45202 VA VA Homeless Food/Clothing 421-0065 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 OTR: 1620 Vine Street 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert Ave. 45206 351-0422 381-6672 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 1522 Republic Street 45202 Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board 946-8000 Recovery Health Access Center 281-7422 Sober Living 681-0324 Talbert House 221-HELP Advocacy 977-6800 859-572-6226 First Lutheran Church 1208 Race St. Food - Last Monday 12-1 Clothing - second Monday 12-1 Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry AA Hotline CCAT 830 Ezzard Charles Dr. 45214 Caracole (HIV/AIDS) CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing 114 W. 14th Street 45202 961-4663 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206 471-1100 Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center Franciscan JPIC Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-3131 569-1840 381-4242 721-4700 421-7803 Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center UpSpring 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Health 621-5300 961-1983 Health Resource Center 357-4602 McMicken Integrated Care Clinic and Mobile Medical Van 386-7899 535-2719 751-8771 4230 Hamilton Ave. 45223 721-0643 City Gospel Mission 1730 Race Street 45202 St. Francis Soup Kitchen St. George Food Pantry 2554 Dennis St. 45219 Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 1528 Race St. 45202 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 1437 Walnut Street 45202 15 961-0600 Center for Respite Care 621-1868 Crossroad Health Center 381-2247 3550 Washington Ave. 45229 5 E. Liberty St. 45202 Center Independent Living Options Peaslee Neighborhood Center 241-2600 621-5514 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart Goodwill Industries Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Mary Magdalen House 381-0111 771-4800 579-8547 721-4811 1223 Main St. 45202 People Working Cooperatively 351-7921 The Caring Place 631-1114 Talbert House 751-7747 United Way 211 Women Helping Women 977-5541 Off The Streets 421-5211 Hamilton County Office of Reentry 946-4304 138 E. Court Street Room # 101 First Floor Hamilton/Middletown St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry Northern Kentucky Brighton Center 799 Ann St. Newport, KY ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY 205 West Pike Street, Covington, KY 41011 for 26 issues 859-491-8303 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary 859-572-6202 Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky 634 Scott St. 41011 859-291-4555 You can support our mission and spread the word about your business. For more information contact Justin Jeffre at 513421-70803 x 12 or email streetvibes@ cincihomeless.org $100 981-4200 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276 Want to advertise in Streetvibes? Cincinnati Health Network 2825 Burnet Ave. 45219 40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio $150 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED for 26 issues and a $50 donation �16 J u n e 2 9 - J u l y 12 , 2 0 18 | N o . 38 4 S treetvibes is distributed by individuals who purchase the paper for 75 cents per copy and sell it for a $2.00 donation, keeping the profit they have earned. Becoming a Distributor is a great way for individuals who are financially poor to get back on (or stay on) their feet. This program provides supplemental income for those unable to secure other employment. Money earned helps meet basic housing, food and health care needs. The program is a hand up for people who are often in a place of getting only a hand out, or even no hand at all. All Distributors wear a badge and usually a vest and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northside, Northern Kentucky and at area churches. ALFRED WOOLFOLK SINCE 10/2003 ASRES AYENAW SINCE 2012 BERTA LAMBERT SINCE 1997 BETTIE BAILEY SINCE 10/2017 BRANDON NELSON SINCE 4/2008 BRIAN ADAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHARLES WILLIAMS SINCE 7/2017 CHRISTOPHER KAIHATSU SINCE 7/2017 CLEO WOMBLES SINCE 10/2003 CRANDALL COBB SINCE 2004 DARREL ROZIER SINCE 7/2017 DAVID MCCANE SINCE 2017 ERIC VALDEZ SINCE 2/2017 GERALD FRANKLIN SINCE 7/2017 GRADY COOK SINCE 1997 HENRY BRELAND SINCE 7/2017 JAMES BROWN SINCE 3/2009 JAMES DAVIS SINCE 8/2000 JENNY BURTON SINCE 7/2017 JIMMIE GIPSON SINCE 2001 JON DARBY SINCE 2/2006 JOHN HORN JOSEPHINE BASKERVILLE SINCE 9/2008 J’TORI TYMAN SINCE 5/2014 KIM NGUYEN SINCE 7/2017 KENNY BUSSELL SINCE 10/2009 KAREN COLLETTE SINCE 7/2008 LARRY BROWN SINCE 10/2007 LEE MCCOY SINCE 7/2009 LEONARD JACKSON SINCE 2/2005 MARY MUELLER SINCE 5/2005 MARK SHEARS SINCE 4/2012 MAURICE GOLSBY MELISSA MOSBY SINCE 9/2014 MIKE CARANO SINCE 4/2016 RAESHAWN GIPSON SINCE 3/2009 RAYNARD JONES SINCE 10/2008 RICKY WOODS SINCE 4/2015 RICCARDO TAYLOR SINCE 1999 RONNIE PHILLIPS SINCE 10/2009 SAMUEL JACKSON SINCE 10/2006 STACIA HOLLANDER SINCE 2017 STEPHANIE EAKES SINCE 7/2017 SYLVESTER WALKER SINCE 7/2017 TALINA HILL SINCE 2/2011 VICTOR MUMPHRY WILLA JONES SINCE 1/2010 WINNIE RICE SINCE 7/2017 QUEENACELASTINE SINCE 7/2017 TIA CASS SINCE 11/2007 THE VOICE OF THE STREET...UNSILENCED TONY THOMAS SINCE 3/2005 KEITH EUTSEY SINCE 2/2011 VIOLET COLLINS SINCE 2017 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource June 29-July 12, 2018 Subject The topic of the resource Homelessness Description An account of the resource Pg 1: Cover Page Pg 2: From the Director Where Are We Headed as a Nation? Pg 3: Cincinnati’s Hills and Hollars Pg 4: Unions are More Important Than Ever Pg 5: Good Cop, Bad Cop Pg 6: Notable RBG Life Lessons from Mr. Rogers and Breaking with Social Media Pg 7: A Very Important Little Dam Pg 8: Religious Peacemakers Pg 9: Photo Essay Pg 10: GCHC Pg 11: Is It Time for Another Great awakening? Pg 12: Josh Spring Continued Bill Woods Continued Jim Luken Continued Saad Ghosn Continued Pg 13: Street Voice Pg 14: Puzzles Pg 15: Resources Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Streetvibes Archive Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Streetvibes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 29-July 12, 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Josh Spring Bill Woods Dr. Mark Mussman Martha Stephens Maria Funcheon Jim Luken Robert Park Jason Haap Michael Earl Patton Saad Ghosn Kim Green Willa Denise Jones Tony Castrucci Google Images Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Bill Woods Cincinnati Dam Dr. Mark Mussman Google Images Inmates Jason Haap Jim Luken Josh Spring Kim Green Maria Funcheon Martha Stephens Michael Earl Patton Mr. Rogers Photography Religion Robert Park Ruth Bader Ginsburg Saad Ghosn Social Media Tony Castrucci Unions Willa Denise Jones