Dear Paula, ...A message from the Universe

The Top 10 things about time and space, Paula, that most people seem to forget... 10. You chose to be here and you knew what you were doing. 9. There are no "tests" and you're not being judged. 8. Everyone's doing their best, with what they know. 7. You already have whatever you're looking for. 6. You are of the Divine, pure God, and so is everyone else. 5. Religion needs spirituality; spirituality does not need religion. 4. You're naturally inclined to succeed - at everything you do. 3. You happen to life, life does not happen to you. 2. Order, healing, and love belie every moment of chaos, pain, and fear. 1. Following your heart is the best way to help others. The truth shall set you free,     The Universe

Elections Reflections

Yesterday,  Mitt Romney and Kid Rock (what the fuck is up with that?) rallying 20 minutes north up I-75, in West Chester, Ohio.

At the same time, the same day,  20 minutes south down I-75,  Barack Obama and Stevie Wonder, (thereby winning the cooler than contest) are wooing voters in downtown Cincinnati.  

Today, I hear tell of Laurence Fishburne sightings down at election headquarters getting out the vote.  It's as if Horton has heard the Who's yelling from Ohio.

It's two days before the presidential elections and I am reporting to you from beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio, in what turns out to be "ground zero" in this years political race.  Two of our counties, Hamilton and Butler, have been identified as the swing areas that could decide who wins the election of 2012.

As well it should be.

Hamilton County and Butler County are separated by just 10 miles down the I-75 corridor.  Cincinnati is located in Hamilton County, but the northern suburbs are located in Butler County, known as Mason/West Chester, Ohio.  It is absolutely striking how two places, so close to each other in miles, could be so different in political mind sets.

When the 1960's finally rolled around to Southern Ohio, sometime late in the 1970's, Cincinnati residents fled north from the city as it became more progressive (a big word for any part of Ohio), along with the urban blight that accompanied the changing economy of that decade.

Cincinnati has always been a contrast of black and white, always polarized, and frankly, somewhat confused by the recent influx of other ethnicities.  Our lines had always been very clear, up until the last few decades or so.

You have to understand that Cincinnati, while the gateway to the south, is also, usually, a decade behind the rest of the world.  Just ask Mark Twain. Up until the last 20 years, the regions idea of ethnic food was 16,000 Chinese restaurants.  Sushi didn't arrive until the mid-eighties.

If Cincinnati is ten years behind, that would make its northern sibling, Mason/West Chester, at least 20 years behind. It remains solidly republican, conservative, and homogenous, which is my nice way of saying very, very white.

These are the children of the generation that jumped up the social latter during the great manufacturing years, when Ohio ruled the world in steel production and automotive superiority.  This is where the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, a crazy mix of conservative rebellion and alcoholic melt down, comes to us from.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama chose to save the auto industry, thus saving the bread and butter of thousands and thousands of Ohio workers.  At the same time, conservative voters tend to have short memories, except when thinking fondly of the 1950's, and will forever yearn to bring the sensibilities and social structures of those day back.  Down south, in the Queen City, we seem to have acknowledged, finally, that times move on, and the only constant in life is change.

Suddenly, we are like the ugly girl that came back from summer vacation transformed and finds herself to be the belle of the ball.  Never have I been courted so intimately for my vote.  Ohio is the perfect breeding ground for indecision, and that makes us hot.

For me, November 6th, election day in the United States, can't get here quick enough.  I'll check back in with you later.

My Favorite Uncle Bill

By my favorite Aunt Binnie: 
Everybody loved William. He was a man of great loving kindness, integrity, and generosity of heart. His life was dedicated to being a loving support for all those he encountered, not only in his family but every human being. He was the most successful man any of us ever knew. A light has gone out for us all. 
 

William K. Williams was born in Childress, Texas on July 30, 1925, and came to live with his mother’s family in Hypoluxo, Florida, in 1930. He worked charter boats out of the Boynton inlet, and at seventeen was in Germany, liberating prisoners from concentration camps, mines and chicken coops. His feet were frozen in the snow, which affected the rest of his life. He came back determined to contribute to a world where such things could never happen again. 

He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Drew Theological Seminary, and a Master’s from the University of Miami, and became a Methodist minister. He was the first head of the Florida Council on Human Relations under Leroy Collins, who called him in as a mediator when there were lynchings and cross-burnings in Florida towns, and he circuit-rode the state building an organization that would bring better understanding between the races.

He later became Asst. Director of the Illinois Council on Human Relations, headquartered in Chicago and being sent in to exploding communities from Chicago to Cairo, training State Police in humane riot control, mediating in race relations and enforcing human rights laws. The Governor of Illinois sent him to investigate complaints by students against the University of Illinois, and the President of the University of Illinois asked him to come on his staff to implement the suggestions he made. Through the ‘60s he was the University’s expert on race relations and student activism, responsible for the Urbana campus, the Chicago Circle, and the Medical School campus.

When he and his wife decided to move back to Florida to build a boat and he tried to resign, Black student protestors submitted a demand to the University that “William K. Williams be retained in a high executive capacity to deal primarily with Black people.” The faculty senate also voted to ask him to stay. Mr. and Mrs. Williams decided to stay and build the boat there on a Midwest farm, and the University created the office of Ombudsman for him. 

Five years later, with a navigable hull completed and quieter campuses, Mr. and Mrs. Williams and their children went down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf, and eventually built a coastal trading business around the west coast of Florida and the Bahama out islands, taking goods to families with a lot of children and no money, trading for handmade and natural goods that the Williams sold at docks around the Florida coast, including Bradenton. They were shipwrecked and wiped out in 1984, and after a year back in the Keys to start over they came and settled in Bradenton.