Day of Waste - Friday, February 29, 2008
Today, the 29th day of February, comes only every four years, leap year. It is an extra day. So maybe it is not surprising that I felt it was a day of waste. Now for followers of this posting you know that waste is not always that bad. Here is a recap of some of the happenings of my day of waste. In the morning I went with my wife on some St. Vincent De Paul visits to people in great need, some of the people who are neglected and ignored by society. In the St. Vincent De Paul Society we do not judge the motivations of people requesting help (although sometimes we are tempted to do so). For example, one lady asking for a recliner tempted us to think she was using our store as a department store. It turns out that the woman cannot sleep in a bed and the recliner she had for many years finally broke down and she needed a new one. I wasted time this afternoon looking for a quote from an early Jesuit about not supporting an unjust war, only to find it was a Dominican who made this quote. Also I wasted time going out to my coffee shop to pick up waste, coffee grounds. This time one of the employees showed me the place they now dump coffee grounds, a treasure drove of waste for making soil. I wasted some time watching a movie on TV and some time trying to help a friend out. I also felt a little like waste when a group of local Catholics for Peace and Justice send out a monthly newsletter of justice and peace events but failed to mention the major nonviolent action on March 8th to object to the military presence on campus. I guess being a worm of person is not also so comforting.
Top to Bottom - Thursday, February 28, 2008
Today I planted the rest of the parsley seeds in a planter on the shelf below the GP box and in a hanging pot. I found a hook somewhere and hung it up. Now that the room is warmer, in part thanks to the five-pane windows and the frequent sun, I can make this the first of many hanging pots in the sunroom making use of the vertical space. Maybe next winter with some affordable solar and the AIR insulation system the room can be full of plants from top to bottom. Speaking of bottom, my friend John purchased today most of what he needs for a tray on the shelf below the GP box. The idea is for the tea that now drains from the GP box to drain along the tray full of pots and starter plants to a container on the other hand. The tray will be removable and in the summer can be placed along the fence in the driveway where I built the irrigation system from a rain barrel last summer. (Pictures to come will make all this clearer.) So from the top we will have plants and on the bottom more plants, all, like the GP box and the garden, using the same old, same old system.
Waste to Herbs - Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Herbs growing insideToday I planted some small pots with parsley and oregano seeds. These herb seeds are so small it was difficult to count how many I was putting in each pot. I hope to grow these plants by the middle of April so they can be put in bigger pots and used for centerpieces for a conference of human concerns committees of Catholic parishes. With predictions of warm weather coming next week, hopefully I can germinate the plants and get them started. I used a mix of enriched compost, coir and some purchased starter mix. I was hesitant to use the purchased stuff, and only used a little, but did so at the advice of someone at Growing Power that said that would speed up germination. I used all the oregano seeds but had more parsley seeds. I put the leftover seeds in a small dish of water overnight and will plant them tomorrow. According to directions on the packet soaking will speed up germination. I think I will plant a few more early-bird herb seeds tomorrow in some pots. The temperature in the sunroom stays around 60 all day so it should be good for germination except for the hot weather herbs like basil. Herbs are my favorite plants to grow since I use a lot of herbs in cooking and I find them easy to grow. My chives, mints and a few other herbs are perennial and will be back in the spring. I am not real good at knowing what herbs to use when cooking but by trial and error I am learning. Also the use of herbs helps me cut back on the use of salt in cooking and making salads.
Good News - Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Earth WormToday my friend who is crunching the numbers for the AIR system told me that with a little more data he could give us the energy savings for the five pane windows. Today my friend Kathy Kelly, whom I know indirectly and respect, wrote me with words of support for our efforts in the MU Peace Petition. Also today my friends at Church wrote me thanking me for my support of the centerpiece growing pots (something I need to start tomorrow) for their human concerns gathering in the region. Tonight a friend who has a similar value system called me with words of encouragement. Yes, it is good to have friends of like mind and spirit, especially when you are facing some hard times and major challenges. Also today in my “back to basics” mode of this posting I did not do much, but here is an attempt.
Back to the BasicsEvery once and awhile I have noticed that this Diary of the Worm wanders off base. It was established to report on the home model of Growing Power, and through this focus connect to every day life. So once again it is time to get back to basics. Yesterday in Church someone asked me about what herbs would be best grown for centerpiece pots for an Archdiocese gathering of human concerns committees in April. After a little research, calling the production person at Growing Power, it seemed like something like Oregano or Parsley would be best. Because of the time limit and because most of my good enriched soil and compost is outside, she suggested I purchase some “starter mix” from the store to get the plants germinated and started. I happen to have some herb seeds so will start tomorrow planting the seeds in small plastic containers scattered around in the GP box in the sunroom in bare spots. The temperature in the sunroom these days is around 60, and with the growing lights above the GP box and some good tea all should be well. In a related project I can now start to prepare and grow some other plants in the sunroom. Stay tune for reports.
Original VA main buildingSunday, when I was a child, was a day of rest. No one who did not need to work on Sunday thought of working and all the stores were closed. We are far from these days as I am now older and many of us work or shop on Sunday. But not for me today. This Sunday was a day of rest. My work nowadays consists of working in the garden, inside and out, doing grocery shopping, working on issues like the military presence at Marquette, working on the nonviolentworm web site, and emailing. But not today. Today was started with a nice breakfast and then to Church. After Church and some socializing my wife and I made some St. Vincent De Paul calls to persons in need; we went to a science store, now open on Sundays, to get a birthday gift for our grandson; we went on a long walk around the grounds of the Veterans Center, watched Wisconsin basketball on TV, read the paper and watched Masterpiece Theater and a little of the Oscars tonight. I did nothing exciting but it was truly a day of rest with none of my regular work. Tomorrow I will go back to working on DMZ garden, writing, grocery shopping and more of the same old, same old.
The Way - Saturday, February 23, 2008
My work in the garden inside the sunroom was too brief today to get myself grounded, as was the absence of reading and reflection time. I am still flying high on the news of the The Milwaukee Homicide Report last night and still wondering why some emails last night about the report did not get to the persons I sent them to and some I did not email, got it. Who really knows the ways of the computer? I did learn from Tegan of Emergency Digital today a few ways of proceeding with wiki web pages. So all was not wasted but it was a so-so day of being true to the way.
Lifting the Nonviolent CrossMany times in these postings I use the image of the seed dying in the soil and bringing new life. It is an image used in Christianity: in the cross we find the resurrection. Tonight it took on a new meaning when Jesse Garza, a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote me about a new blog, The Milwaukee Homicide Report. It is modeled on homicide reports in other cities and is something we have been asking for a long time here in Milwaukee. It honors and personalizes the lives of all homicide victims. The reporter who does the blog is the same one who wrote the article at the end of the year that covered our Mothers Against Gun Violence web site. I have been begging and pleading with the Journal for some time now to do something like this. Now that it is a reality I feel sad but glad. Now I feel motivated to go back to my Essay on Violence in Milwaukee and update it. Yes, even from the senseless deaths of homicide victims comes new awareness and hope that with the awareness the violence will diminish.
No Snow Job - Thursday, February 21, 2008
Worm Depository TodayThe last few days I have been reading on a list server about the possible use of all the snow that has fallen on Milwaukee as a cooling agent for the summer heat. From what I can gather it will take a tremendous amount of effort and energy to preserve the snow for the summer months and a means to transfer it to cool air. It does not sound very practical. But if it would work, I have plenty of snow in my backyard that I be willing to donate. As you can see in this picture the worm depository pile is topped with lots of snow. However, this is good for the worms. Since snow is full of pockets of air it serves as an insulating blanket to keep the worms in the compost below warm.
Speaking of snow and cold and warmth, tonight my friend John, the creator of the five pane-window inserts in the sun room, took the time to run a test of the heating value of these inserts with their pockets of AIR. We removed the inserts and shut off the heat. In one hour the temperature in the sunroom dropped about 16 degrees. We reheated the room and replaced the inserts. Within one hour the temperature with the inserts in place only dropped about 8 degrees. In other words we experienced roughly ½ the rate of heat loss with the inserts in place. We are happy with the results and it offers more proof of the value of AIR for energy savings. This test and results are no snow job.
The Eclipse - Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Eclipse 2/20/08Tonight, on the news, I heard about the lunar eclipse and that we are entering into the coldest time of this winter. I went outside and took a picture of the eclipse, near its end, and went into the sunroom to make sure the five-pane window inserts were working. I got the picture and discovered a 46-degree difference between the outside and inside of the sunroom. I spent only about 20 kWh or about $2 to keep the temperature in the 50’s or 60’s (with the sun out) for the day. I guess one can have the winter eclipse and one’s natural heat by air and sun at the same time. In many ways the lunar eclipse is a good symbol for the difficulty some persons have understanding how one can receive heat by just air and sun. During the eclipse the moon is still there. It is just covered for a while by the shadow of the earth. But it is there and appears again. Air is all around us but our eyes are shadowed by our minds that air cannot be a source of heat. We really know that heat is trapped in air but with our minds sometimes dominating our sense we cannot understand it. When we see clearly with our mind, body and soul the moon is there clear and bright, as the air we breathe is all around us keeping us warm if we use it.
Just Air & Sun - Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Growing with Just Air & SunAs the worm turns in the soil, eating and casting, the seeds start to grow and reach for the light in my four planters on the plant stand in the sunroom. I am told that new plants take in the energy during the day but grow at night. The fact that my plants are growing at all, day or night, when the temperature outside dips to below 0 is a real testimony to the five-pane window inserts in the sunroom. As you can see below in the daily readings there is almost a 50 degree difference between the temperature outside and the temperature inside. Since the electric heater only used about $2 of electricity the last 24 hours you can see that the heat was maintained by the 5-pane window inserts (AIR). Today I was thinking about affordable solar energy. With pockets of air and some solar, one could heat a home for practically no cost. Could it be that the solution to our winter heating bills is the air we breathe and the sun that shines? Does anyone reading this know much about affordable solar energy? I will share with you the not-so-secrets of using air to insulate and together we can make the world, at least in winter months in the north, rich with energy savings.
Magnificat by Betsy ShankChristian students every year march down to Fort Benning to protest and attempt to close what once was called and still is the School of the Americas (SOA). The SOA (in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”) is a military training program for soldiers in Latin American. They are taught the Army Values that have made the US Army so powerful and feared. When it was discovered that the military trained at this school were responsible for for the torture and deaths of so many innocent and good civilians in Latin America, people in the USA started to march on SOA to close it. What once was a handful of persons is now over 20,000 strong. Jesuit high school and university students form a strong contingent of those who march yearly to close SOA.
In the Mix - Sunday, February 17, 2008
Salad MixIn Church this morning our pastor gave a homily where he talked about our obligation not to sit and watch suffering and injustice but to do something about it. Tonight I noticed that a local pastor of another Catholic church had signed the Marquette Peace Petition. Maybe I should invite my own pastor to sign it and see if he wants to join the real mix of characters that have signed it. After I characterized the conflict of values at Marquette last night in the diary as “Military Vs. Worm”, which is sort of like “David Vs. Goliath”, maybe we can get more Christian and Jewish signers. Who cannot root for the underdog?
I decided to clean my office before the next big freeze and snowstorm. I got partially done, getting things off the desk and onto the floor. But did not finish cleaning the floor, thus leaving the floor a mess. Tomorrow I will need to clean the floor and move my cleaning into the sunroom. My goal is to have two clean, green and warm rooms to write, read, think and grow in. It will take more time and effort but it is a goal worth achieving. Probably by the time I completely finish it, it will be time to move the operation out to the deck, backyard and new front lawn rain garden. However, cleaning the office has renewed my interest in research. For example today I was confirmed in the fact that “Marquette University Army ROTC is the base school for many local Milwaukee colleges and Universities.” Actually I knew this fact but seeing it so brazenly written on one of the Marquette University web pages renewed my passion for this issue. Stopping militarism at a Jesuit Catholic University and promoting Growing Power in a home situation for the time being are my two great work of passion. They are opposite ends of the life-death scale, the military complex at MU at the death end and the Growing Power Home model at the life end. I need to admit that stopping death has more attraction but I know that without promoting life, death has little meaning. The military at MU vs. the worm of the Growing Power home model. The big money is on the military but the smart money is on the worm.
Time: 10:45pm, Office Temp.: 67, Sunroom Temp.: , Outside Temp.: 15, KWH: 1190
Brett Knows the Cold Hard FactsIn today’s world in a lot of situations, except politics, persons are interested in ‘hard facts’, data they can measure. Federal educators are no longer interested in how many students know how to learn but are interested in test scores. We count the calories, carbohydrates, fat in food but care little if it is healthy or not. So in the spirit of facts and at the urging of my friend, John’s father, I decided to start collecting facts about the energy savings of the five-pane window system in the sunroom. Starting tonight at the bottom of each posting we will record the time, temperature in the office (the room next to sunroom), temperature in the sunroom (using the average of a number of gauges), the temperature outside, and the number of kilowatt hours on the meter attached to the small radiator heater. I will leave it up to Tegan, the wiki gnome, to learn how to build a web table for this information and up to my friend to show us how to interpret this information. I will just collect the facts.
This is the third or fourth interview in the “Diary of the Worm” with a worm. This worm is from the Growing Power Home Model Box in the sunroom, since the worms outside in the worm depository below the snow and ice are indisposed at present for an interview. In previous interviews the worm interviewed has said they have no individual identities or names.
Bob: Happy Valentine Day! Worm and I are glad you can join us… After all, this entire posting is called the “Diary of the Worm”.
Worm: Okay, lets get on with it; We like your newly insulated sunroom, but would rather get back in the ground in the box.
Bob: Speaking of the warm sunroom, what do you think of the new 5 pane-window inserts? We seem to have a hard time convincing people that pockets of AIR is an effective and affordable way to save energy.
My Friend - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
My FriendI would like to say that due to natural difficulties, the snow and cold, I was unable to sit down with a worm from the Growing Power Box for an interview today. But I cannot say that, since due to the AIR Insulation Resource system and the sun the sunroom was in the 60’s today. No it was not the worm or the weather’s fault. It was just I. However, today I did help my friend in Mothers Against Gun Violence learn the ways of wiki web sites; I did drive my friend, Ella, of Ella’s Patch Quilts, to the post office, and I did clean up the sunroom today. Now none of these are excuses for not doing the interview with a worm but it makes me feel better to say I did something with my time. Also today I did start a new web page of quotes of Thomas Merton sent to me from my friend in Holland. Thomas Merton is a well known Trappist Monk and writer of 50’s and 60’s. So in place of the interview with the worm I will offer you a Merton quote that I received from my friend today. By the way, the phrase “my friend”, which I constantly use, comes from the owner of the Middle East food store where I shop. The owner, Palestinian Arab Muslim, always greets me as “my friend.” Being of Lebanese heritage myself I understand and appreciate this name, my friend. So my friends covered for me today. Here is that Merton quote on Saints and Sanctity from my friend.
Worm Gospel - Tuesday, February 12, 2008
“Considerable Dance”, brush drawing
by Thomas Merton“The word of the Gospel is understood only when it is obeyed. It is known to those who strive to practice it.” — Thomas Merton Seasons of Celebration (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1950) p 217
As the cold and snow continues I did very little today in the way of growing. I did get a chance to practice tonight what I am talking about — reducing the violence being taught at our universities. Tonight we had a small meeting of our group to plan our next action working to get Marquette to Be Faithful to the Gospel and To Stop Hosting Departments of Military Science. Marquette is home to the largest military officer training program for the war in Iraq in the greater Milwaukee area. It is time for Marquette to practice the Gospel of nonviolence that it endorses. Preaching one thing and doing something the opposite is not just a problem for Catholic institutions like Marquette but for many groups and many individuals. Many of us fail to hear the call of our conscience and do what we, in word, are against. This non-practice of what we preach in what we do is also found in gardens. Many organic farmers call for healthy eating and then make the price, perhaps of necessity, not affordable to those who most need it.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
Edmund Burke
This quote came across my computer screen today and, although I have heard it before, it really struck me. I am a big promoter of nothing when it means silence, accepting, being, and not reacting. But the nothing talked about in this quote does allow evil to triumph. It means, in my opinion, not wanting to know, or if you know about something that needs attention, doing nothing about it. Sometimes doing nothing is the most convenient and easy thing to do. It is hard to anyone upset at you when you do nothing. However, in a home model growing power garden as sometimes in life, nothing is not an option, but can be one of the fruits of the garden.
Today I planted some salad green seeds in the in soil of the four planters on the plant stand. Although it was below 0 outside, thanks to the AIR window inserts and the sun, the seeds were planted in a good environment. The seeds will need more sun and good temperatures to germinate. Also some seeds I helped to plant on the MU Peace campaign took hold with a new flurry of signatures on the MU Peace Petition. Some of the new signatures were from persons I knew in the 60’s when I was a Jesuit and attended Marquette University. At the time there was another unjust war being fought, in Vietnam. Seeds of violence that were planted in Milwaukee over years of discrimination and injustice also took root today, as reports came in of over eleven persons shot last night. Where is the Responsible Handgun Bill that the Mothers Against Gun Violence (MAGV) have been promoting for years? The bill, which would simply close the loop-hole in the present state law and require background-checks for all handgun transactions, has been wasting away as politicians argue about the bill, or worse yet, ignore it. The seeds we plant, good or evil, do come to be, to bless us or to hurt us. I remember a homily by our former Archbishop when he said we must be “broadcasters of seed.” Yes, we do, and since we cannot always be responsible for where the seed lands and how it grows, we need to be responsible for the type of seeds we plant.
Growing Cold - Saturday, February 09, 2008
GP Box 02/09/08Tonight there is a deep cold outside. When it gets so cold outside, below 0 degrees, I noticed that the temperature gauge in my office does not record the outside temperature or the temperature in the sunroom. However since I have a number of thermometers in the sunroom, including one on the small electric radiator heater, I know that the temperature in the sunroom, due to the AIR window inserts, is 58 degrees. Normally the radiator heater would shut off at 58 degrees but today I turned the shut off temperature up to 60 degrees. I raised the temperature when I was preparing the soil for the four planters on the plant stand. I was mixing some coir (coconut shavings, and a word for glossary) with the worm-enriched compost in the planters, and I noticed how cold (but not frozen) it was. The cold was due to the fact that I had left the box with the coir outside all winter, just bringing it in today when I needed to use it. I prepared the four planters on the plant stand but decided to wait till tomorrow to plant the lettuce seeds. Tomorrow the weatherman said it would be another very cold day but he said there would be sun. Sun means natural heat, the electric heater will stay off and the room will be a nice 60 plus degrees — good for seed germination of salad greens. I can take the greater cold and snow of this winter when there is sun. Sun is better light than the fluorescent grow-lights I have above the salad greens in the GP box, picture above, and sun means heat.
Except for bringing two pails of enriched compost/soil up from the basement to the sunroom, my promise to myself to work on gardening today was not kept. I did some follow up on communications flowing from yesterday’s conference at MU, (see and sign MU peace petition), worked with a friend on the Pilgrimage of Peace to India, worked on my GATE trip to Venezuela, did some cooking, talking and hanging around the house. Tomorrow, after shoveling and driving for a friend I promise myself to get working on the garden in the sunroom. Actually I did do some gardening, placing a large order of seeds from a catalog. Also tomorrow I intent to replant the planter in the sunroom with some salad green seeds I already have. Yes maybe slowly but surely I will keep the promise to myself.
MU be faithful to the Gospel,
Stop Hosting Military TrainingTonight after a panel discussion at Marquette University on War, Peace and People of Faith, I felt like a chipmunk backed up to the corner of a yard with no way to escape. I was hectic and hyper, like a weed growing wildly in the garden out of control. I really have not felt this way for a number of years, since I left the Ignatian Associates, the group of laypersons who are close to the Jesuit community. In fact some of the Jesuits and people present tonight where people that I had close ties with in the past. They were, at the time, my friends. With my new friends, like people in the MUPeace Group or in DMZ or MAGV, I feel relaxed and at home with them, and accepted as who I am. With these old friends, I felt nervous. Looking back at why I felt this way tonight, I think it is because with this group, whom I deeply respect and have similar backgrounds with, I get impatient and upset easily. How can persons, formed as I was, in the Ignatian or Jesuit spirituality, not see the Iraq war as the evil it is and how can they, via the Jesuit University, not only support the war effort but actually participate in it with the Departments of military science? My new friends, as I call those I have become close with since my retirement, be they rich or poor, black or white, do not make me feel so defensive and, perhaps, not knowing me well in the past, have not stigmatized me as much. I feel I can be myself like a new plant in a new garden, free to be.
Ash to Ash - Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Thomas MertonThe snow keeps falling down. We shovel and plow and it keeps coming down and piling up. Life keeps coming at us. We deal with it and it keeps coming at us and piling up. When snow or life keeps coming at us too fast, it is time to slow down, do some planting and some deep growing. Today, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is a good time to start slowing down and get ready for the planting and slow death that precedes new life. This is a time of the year, late winter, that I am drawn to the writings of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who withdrew from life in a monastery and thus saw life more deeply and reported to us what life is all about. His writings are what I call eternal writings; they stand the test of time and read, with a few word changes, as they were written today. I understand that monks are gardeners and withdraw from life into nature. This makes sense and is something we can do in the cold of the snow or in the heat of the sun. Snow slows us down. When we slow down, we can see and hear better. “If you would hear God’s voice today, harden not your hearts.” (Psalm 95).
Human Hero - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Will, Human HeroI remember, growing up, how disappointed I was when I discovered my heroes were human and had flaws. I particularly remember how I thought my novice master, when I was a member of the Society of Jesus, was the perfect Jesuit. I was so disappointed when I saw that he was a human and flawed. I eventually got over it and we were friends later in life. The same happened today with Will Allen of Growing Power. When he would not listen to our ideas on the use of Air and dismissed, in a nice way, my efforts to use the ways of growing power in a home model and in the DMZ, I was terribly frustrated. Will was my hero in the urban agriculture movement and to see him so closed-minded about experiences that I knew were effective was frustrating. It was probably very frustrating for him also and fortunately we departed friendlier than at the beginning.
Can John and I have really discovered a new use of an old form of insulation, AIR? My electricity use for heating the 800 sq. ft. sunroom in the four months since the 5-pane window inserts were placed in each of the 12 window/doors on 3 of its walls has been only $100. Translated into a forty thousand square foot greenhouse like at Growing Power this would mean a heating bill of only $5000 for four very cold months. My skills as a salesperson for such a simple, obvious method of energy saving will be tested tomorrow when I meet with Will Allen at Growing Power.
Can a few of us who really believe in Gospel values really shut down the Military war machine at Marquette University? As we gather support from around the world for our campaign (see MU Peace Petition), we will find out. Does our argument in this issue come down to the simple fact that Marquette is violating, with its support of the Iraq war and hosting military training on campus, the basic principles of the Catholic faith?.
Super - Sunday, February 03, 2008
Today we had the Super Bowl of football, Tuesday we have Super Tuesday in the presidential elections and today we start the three days of super party time, Mardi Gras. Throw in a few more super events, like the start of the Chinese New Year, year of the rat, and this has been a super week for some. I enjoyed some super events, like the super bowl football game tonight, but most super stuff for me is not something for me to get too excited about. But as I described in the posting of January 31st what excites me is things like getting the MUPeace petition signed or getting an appointment with Will Allen of Growing Power. I also enjoy a good paradox as I talked about in the posting of Feb. 1st. Paradoxes are easily found in the garden, in life, and in some Gospel readings, like the one on the Beatitudes (Matt: 5 1–12) at Church today. This value system presented by Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount is upside down, Blessed are the poor, hungry, rejected and so forth. But that is what makes it super, it calls for us to find in the ordinary things of life, like air or the worm, the extraordinary.
Groundhog Day - Saturday, February 02, 2008
Jimmy the Goundhog in
Sun Prairie I heard today that the Groundhog in Sun Prairie, WI predicted a quick spring while the one in Philadelphia predicted six more weeks of winter. Fortunately since my days of living in Madison, near Sun Prairie, I have always been a big believer in this groundhog, Jimmy. I understand Milwaukee had its own groundhog but he died. I am sure he would have agreed with the Jimmy in Sun Prairie. In the movie “Groundhog Day” Bill Murray keeps living the day over and over again until he gets it right. Having different groundhogs see their shadow or not see their shadow makes life easier. Instead of repeating the day, all we have to do is choose to believe the one we want to believe in to have a good day.
Garden of ParadoxesWhen driving to visit a woman in need near our Church this morning, I noticed that the side streets in the area had not been plowed since the recent snow. However, driving on main roads today to a store or tonight downtown to a shelter, I noticed the roads had been cleared. The murder of a Miller High Life executive in an up and coming neighborhood area last week is still making big news. You really do not hear much about the other eight homicide victims this year. There were news reports of police all over this safe neighborhood. Friends of mine did a report of political districts where homicides occurred last year. Most of the homicides were not in the two areas the new police chief is focusing his attention on. Someone once told me that all persons are created equal but they are not equal. To be in solidarity with the less equal, the unimportant and marginalized of our society is tough. There are just too many of them. Yet our Gospel, good news, of our faith calls us to do this saying the last shall be first, the least shall be great, the poor are blessed, the hungry will have their full and blessed are those rejected and insulted for they shall have a great reward. Where can we look for some type of response to this paradox of life, where all persons are equal and where the preferential blessing is for the lowest, rejected, insulted and poor?
