American Kitchen –

Busy Sunday Day.  So take a depth breath before reading this post because it will be almost the same size as  food portions they serve here in USA 🙂

Woke up, and along with Faller family went to West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church to have my presentation on  fracking and what is happening in Romania regarding this issue. A large number of people attended which made me a  little bit nervous.

The presentation went very good, and I had a lot of questions from the public, as they were  really interested to find out about Romania history, about the legislation we have on fracking, about political  context and what  role European Union is playing. Nickie J Antonie, State Representative of 13th House district  atented the presentation, along with Food and Water Watch Members. Also, an american with Romanian roots, John Pais,  from the Communities for safe and Sustainable energy was there at the presentation.

Afterwards, FaCT – Faith Communities Together (for Frac Awarness)  had a meeting to establish next steps for the  antifracking fight. I will write you a small fragment of their mission :
„As members of faith communities in Ohio, we will work together to protect God’s creation from the hard caused by the  extraction of resources as oil, natural gas, coal, and other non-renwable sources of energy. We will do this, by :
-working to educate the public about these hards
-working to end the exploatation of workers and landowners involved
-encourage faith communities not to lease their faith community-owned lands for fracking and to warn their members
-mobilizing faith communities to help pass federal, state and local laws with protect our water and air, as well  as human health and safety”.

What resulted from the meeting :
-need to network/collaboration with other organizations
-create media stories in order to gain more publicity on the issue
-educate : address the health care arena
-leadership meetings across North East Cleveland – organize in order to gain more power
-stop the leasing process – CELDF
-look at NY experience (Governor Cuomo extented the moratorium, as health issues need to be addressed)

After the meeting finished, this interesting man,Greg Coleridge, from American Friends Service Committee, grabbed me  for lunch, as a good excuse to introduce me in American Constitution history and about the role corporation plays in society, and how their  influence must be stopped. He explained me the differences between laws and grounded rules. He explained me about how
corporations have the right to get involved in politics by hiring lobbyst to influence legislators  to vote for or  against differentlaws  or by money. In this way, Companies have the power to envade the communities.

So, after the Citizens United Act, they started Move to Amend (movetoamend.org), that is a project of the Campaign to  Legalize Democracy. In citizens United v FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the wealth elite against the interest  of the American People. Corporations can now spend unlimited money to buy the elections. The Court has legalized  corporate bribery of ellected oficials.

So they Proposed the following amendament :

I’ve got from Greg a really nice souvenir that says „A corporation is not a person. Money is not speech”. I’m thinking  to do the same with our fracking campaign back in Romania.It’s a very good idea. :)He finished his speech by telling me a quote from Henry David Thoreau :” For every 1000 people hacking at the branches,  there is 1 striding at the root”

Dan Phillips picked me up from the meeting had with Greg. On our way to his home (as he and Kathy, his wife are hosting me for the next 3 nights), he told me lots of things about what is happening in Painesville, about the Ohio State budge crisis, and also explained me how the budget thing going on. Didn’t get yet to take some pictures of their beautiful old house that is close to the woods. But I promise tommorow I’ll do that.

After I left my lugage went with Dan to meet, Mark Citriglia, from Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. (www.neorsd.org).Mission ? : ” to serve our customers by leading effective wastewater and stormwater management that  protects the health and environment of our region while enhancing quality of life.”Mark is living the same neighborhood with Dan. What they did, was to test the water before the fracking process  starts. They did this in couple of location, and by now everything is ok with water. If the process of fracking will start,  they will do another round of tests, to see if the water status will be the same or it will change. Afterwards, we’ve been and see another abandoned vertical drilling well, that was 500 feet away from his property.

We came back, and took Kathy and went to help St Vincent Organization, from Saint Mary Catholic Church to run down packages of blankets for homeless people. All went fast, as many volunteers attented. I took advantage of being there  and learned more about the activities  they are doing there with hispanic communities : english lessons, computer lessons, assitence and help in any problem they confront.

Broadview Heights and Downtown Cleveland

Broadview Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. Dorothy Faller, my host family took me there to meet Tish O’Dell, from Madison (Mothers Against Drilling in Our Neighborhoods).
As you can see, we have another town where another organization  is struggling with natural gas issues. So what is the problem here ?

Well, in the city and the surroundings , as Tish was telling us, there are approximately 90 wells – that means that 25% of the City surface area is occupied by Oil/gas wells (well sites are at least 20 acres and are not perfect squares).

Most well sites include their own storage tanks.  The city has vested interest or total owner-ship in about 15 wells

I’ve got one flyer from Tish that says the following : „Over 75 years ago, our Supreme Court held that communities have the RIGHT to enact local laws to protect „public health, safety, morals and general welfare”.  What Broadview Heights citizens want is to take back control on their city.

They proposed a Bill of Rights – Issue 29, that citizens of Broadview Heights can vote for during the general elections. YES for the Bill. What is the Bill about ?

Shall Article II of the Charter of the City of Broadview Heights be amended to add a Community Bill of Rights which provides for the right to pure water, clean air, peaceful enjoyment of home, the existence of natural communities, a sustainable energy future and self goverment by banning most commercial oil and natural gas extraction as well as the storage, transportation or depositing of oil and gas drilling waste products within the city of Broadview Heights ?

YES is the answer 🙂

We talked about many other issues that the community is  confronting, what is the local authorities position on the issue, and how different companies  have strategies in order to facilitate the process of drilling in communities. They  are very smart ! They go first to schools, churches and townships to ask for leasing land. They know these institutions need money, and also know that once they convinced them to lease, it will be much more easier to convince the ordinary people.

This is how I found out, how natural gas is extracted right close to churches or right in the middle of the picnic area of high schools. Personally, it was a shock for me.

After meeting Madion, I went the Dorothy and Dolph downtown Cleveland where  I got the chance to visit the new building of MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland). Afterwards I’ve been with Vanessa from Neogap and her husband to the Cleveland Orchestra.

It is said that the Cleveland Orchestra is one of the best in the world. Well, I got this evening to listen to STRAVINSKY – Pétrouchka, PAULUS – Violin Concerto No. 3 (WORLD PREMIERE)
and RAVEL – Rapsodie espagnole! Impressive ! Not to mention the beautiful art deco hall !

 

MOCA.

 

 

 

 

Meeting with Concerned Citizens of Medina

Sandra from Concerned Citizens of Medina County picked me up from Dorothy house, and we went to meet with Kathie Jones, Judith Cross  and a newpaper reporter Loren Genson .

Concerned Citizens of Medina Country, is a group of people (around 40) that was organized to educate the public about the dangers of Slick Water High Volume Industrialized Hydraulic Fracturing and the threats to health, safety and property rights. They work under the umbrella of NEOGAP organization (Neogap.com). What else they do is to educate elected officials about fracking.

So each time they have the opportunity they are going to the townhall meetings, and have 5 to 10 minutes to talk about their concerns regarding shale gas(2 times per month as I remember).
Michael E. Kovack, County Auditor, has been responsive by having leased maps put together for the County, City and Townships.   I got to see him today. (picture cu Michael).  Some of the Township Trustees and City officials have also been attentive to the literature that has been presented, and many Trustees have passed Resolutions to ban fracking on township owned property.

These maps shows you the County Parcels, the lakes, the streams, and the status of leased proprierties: the ones that  were leased prior to Mid. Dec. 2011 and those leased mid Dec. 2011- and July 2012. Kathie told me that these maps are very usefull and educative, as they help people to know which of their neighborhoods  has leased their properties. In this way they know if or not they will be exposed to the dangers of fracking.

Concerned Citizens of Medina County tried  to collaborate with teachers and school institution in order to raise awarness on the issue, but they refused saying it’s to much politics around this subject. They also organized different meetings, inviting President of Greene County Medical Society, Deborah Cowden to have a presentation about the Effects of Fracking Toxins on the Body.

Judith Cross is a retired judge who is running for Ohio State Representative in Medina County. She is for renewable energy and saving the environment. She is running againt a candidate that wants to Frack the entire country and the State of Ohio. So, we stayed and talked around the issue.
Loren Genson is a reporter from The Medina Gazette, and she was their to listen about my story and what is happening in ROmania with regard to fracking. Hopefully tommorow I’ll get a copy of the article she is writing about my story.

“Then we went to the Eastern Medina County, to see 2 houses, where, as the health agency says, there are explosive levels of natural gas.  This problem is potentially related with the nearby drilling of natural gas wells in 2008 (about half mile away) at Allardale Park.

First we got to see the water well in the backyard of Mark Mangan family and then we went to the natural gas well, that was build in the natural park on the State. You can find more about the story here.
After this we went to the township of Harrisville, where the Devon Energy Production Company has constructed a unconvenation natural gas well, but after a while they took their equipment away, due the fact that the well wasn’t profitable enough. (picture). Kathie from Concerned Citizens of Medina County thinks that they are just waiting for the proper moment to extract the natural gas.

Sandra got me back home and had some interesting conversation about how humanity is not taking care of this planet.

Green Place – bugs and community organizing

Green place is an apartment complex to provide housing  for low income residents, situated 5 minutes from the city hall, Toledo. The majority of people living in the neighborhood are African Americans. As I  walked the neighborhood, I felt I find myself into one of those nice neighborhoods. In Bucharest we don’t have such neighborhoods close to the city hall.

There is a problem in Greenbelt. The place is infested with bedbugs, mice and cockroaches.I found this information during the class we had with community organizer Ramon Perez. : „A sample organizing in a Toledo Neighborhood”. Greenbelt  gets benefits from the federal government, people are paying rent, but no one is taking care of the place. The neighborhood is part of the Housing and Urban Developments (HUD). HUD is failing to inspect units , or to hold private landlords accountable  to standards for a decent  and sanitary house.

After the class, Ramon took us to Greenbelt. He had to meet Sami, one of those 10 residents that will soon become leaders in this solving matter problem. They wrote to this crongress woman, but after a week and a half they did not receive any call back. ………………………………………………….(post not available anymore)

One to one interviews –

Yesterday (4th of October ) we hit Lourdes College (founded in 1962).We had here the oportunity to meet Cris Doby. Not  only  meet but also listen Cris telling us about community organizing. She started by explaning us a a three level  model by which all of us are acting : inner personal (who I am), interpersonal (persons are with persons), social/political/cultural context(behaviors, social identities).

Cris told us that the presented model is interactive, meaning that who I think I am (the inner personal) forces how I behave with you, (interpersonal level) which is shaped by the social/political/cultural context. She gave us the exemple with  the middle east culture, where if people from there want to talk with you they get very close. She explains that in the United States things are a little bit different, as here they take an amount of personal space (3 feet  – the perfect distance for a handshake). We figure out who we are and out interpersonal relations are influenced  by the society that we live in.

How this relate to community organizing ?

Community organizing is acting at the level of social/political/cultural level. Is to change something at this level. And organizing is looking for talents, finding leaders and work with them.

But how do you find leaders ?  How do you find people that care about something? How do you find people that „have fire in the belly” and that care enough about what is happening at the society level ?

One to one interviews might be the answer. 🙂

So, this evening we had the task to interview people coming at the Hungarian Club of Toledo for the International Friendship Night & Welcome Potluck. The purpose was not to identify leaders, but to practice this exercise.

Marianne Elizabeth Polhe was the person I interviewed.

Marianne is a 72 hungarian citizen („once you have hungarian citizenship, you’ll always have it”) living in Templates neighborhood (?? don’t quite remember, and my notes are not helping me to much). She is living in the United States since she was a 20 years old. How she came to USA ?

Well, after the Hungarian Revolution took place on 23th of October in 1956, along with her husband she went to a refugee camp  from Hungary to Austria. There they had the luck to receive some flight tickets  to New Jersey, USA. As she says, it was the only time she flew with the plane.
Since then, never left United States and never plans to do that.

After getting to USA, Marianne and her husband , after staying in a military base along with other 33.000 Hungarians, moved to West Virginia for 6 years and a half. Her husband, a tool maker received a job in this area.  Later on, starting with 1982  they started  a small business om their own – a machine shop. In the same perioade they bought  a house in Michigan, in Template area.
Marianne is taking care of the business now.

I’ve asked her how is the life in East Toledo, and she said that are lots of Hungarians. Old and retired ones, as young people move to other cities  or different parts of Toledo. The problem she sees within the city is the fact that there are no jobs. With regards to local authorities she says : „The city is trying to get care of this part of the city”.

What is Marianne doing ?
Runs her husbands business (2005), watches TV (travel channels, History Channels, cartoons and old stuff). Until her husbands dead, she was a a housewife. She reminds and says the following : „hardwork as a housewife, big responsabilities to rise your kids. It’s not easy to being a mother  and running a business”.

There are two funny stories that Marriane told me that I must share with you.But since the brain is advising me to sleep, i’ll write in a new post.

Day 1 – Harriet Tubman Center And DAC

Lots to see and learn. The day was extremely full. We got to see parts of the city and took part in lots of presentations.How it started ? I woke up early in the morning and with the rest of the group hit Detroit (first night we slept at a hotel nearby airport).

On my way to Detroit, I  got to see a small piece of Canada teritory, as it neighborhoods Detroit City. While getting to city, I was exposed to the well know USA suburbs, that all my childhood I would see in the american movies.

And suburbs are particularity specific for Detroit area, due the racism city is confronted with. What it happened actually? There were some smart guys that during the ’60 ’70 bought cheap land outside the city  and started building houses. With federal Help, highway was build towards this new neighborhoods. And what happened next ? Whites moved out of the city, as there were not comfortable with afro american living nearby.

What we can see now in many areas of Detroit, are abandoned buildings.

We reached Harriet Tubman Center (I will get to your later on with details) where we got to listen to some very good community organizing about their work : Luke Allen, Kayla Manson And Dione Novais Rocha and of course Bill O Brien.

Talking about values (equal opportunities, unity – mutual self interest, cultural diversity) about the concept of power.In community organizing the term means „to be able to.”.So don’t worry, it’s not that kind of power we are used to think of. And you can put the values in practice with Power 🙂.

„All organizing is disorganizing ” is what Bill O’Brien told us today to reflect upon.

To disorganize what ? Existing structures that fallow a certain pattern  and that are not able to fully accomplish their purposes.And community organizing will cause tensions. What other thing Bill told us, was not to act like sheep and that we should always raise questions. Well this is what I’m   planning to do

Later on we’ve been to DAC (Detroit Action Commonwealth)  at Capuchin Soup Kitchen, where we had the opportunity to serve lunch along with low come, indigent, and homeless persons.  After lunch we got to listen to
professor Greg Markus and leaders of DAC. I’ll come later on with details about what they told us.

Now I’m in Toledo Ohio, for a new round of experiences.

Greetings from Detroit !

 

Just arrived in Detroit !

Had a meeting with Elizabeth (GLC program coordinator) and talked the details of our stay here (in USA) for the next 6 weeks! Keep you updated as I promised

Otherwise we are FIRED UP ! READY TO GO !

Regards to friends and family back home in Romania