What they don't get.

Lafayette, Indiana 

St. Mary's Historic District

Why is it that I  feel like my neighborhood is always "at war" with the good people at St. Mary's Catholic Church and the Lafayette Diocese?  Good question because it's happening again so I'm taking a guess about the causes of the problem.   

Once upon a time, when the church on the hillside was new,  a neighborhood built up around the church.  A number of parishioners built homes in that neighborhood.  In the days before automobiles churches served a fairly small geographic area and people walked to church or used some form of horsepower.  That is part of the reason why there were so many little rural churches...people did not want to make long trips to church.  

In the beginning, the neighborhood around the church was full of parishioners.  The leadership of the church, both clerical and lay were neighbors.  There was a real connection to the place and to the people of that place.   The automobile changed everything including the relationship between churches and their neighbors. A neighborhood church became something different.  The automobile gave us the suburb.  People could now live miles from their church building and yet make the trip in the same amount of time...or maybe less time.  No longer were clergy looking at the same faces on Sunday that they could see every other day of the week while shopping at the neighborhood grocery store...   I believe the problems we have now between the church and the neighbors of the church are the result, at least in part, of that shift in dynamics resulting from changes in transportation.  I guess what I am saying in summary, is that the church is visited once or twice a week by strangers to the neighborhood.

The loss of a single building in a neighborhood might be something to regret, but in the big picture one building, with some exceptions,  is not particularly dramatic or meaningful or even harmful to a neighborhood. What they don't get, what has been lost sight of,  by the leaders of the church is that a neighborhood is the sum of its parts. Each tree, each stone wall, each fence,  house, doorway, and garden and each person living there are parts of a bigger picture.  Hacking away at one, and then another, and another individual part can only result in a less colorful,  less rich whole.

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception under the guidance of the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette now hold a permit to remove one more element from my neighborhood. In a mere 56 days the waiting period will expire and they will have the legal right to bulldoze 1014 South Street into a pile of dust. That will be the 5th period home they have removed.   The neighborhood will again get a little less colorful.  I fear my neighborhood is facing a drab, monotone existence if the church continues these attacks one at a time.

My Christmas wish is that St. Mary's Church and the leaders there would become a part of my neighborhood, and not remain apart from us.  

#save1014southstreet
#findanotherway
#stopthedestruction
#myChristmaswish

When Neighborhoods Go Awry

     Lafayette, Indiana

Saint Mary's Cathedral

It is a beautiful building, grand in both style and setting. Perched halfway up the hillside east of downtown the spire can be seen for a long distance.  When I moved to this neighborhood almost 30 years ago I thought of that cathedral as a positive feature.  Most of the homes in our neighborhood date from the period in which the church was built in the 1860's up to about 1900.  A number of the homes were built by parishioners of that church. 

Like most of the older neighborhoods near the city center,  many of the homes here had been converted to multiple unit apartments.  Big old houses cut up into anywhere from 2 to 7 or 8 smaller apartments,  but there were still some outstanding examples of homes that were single-family, and owner-occupied.  

I suppose you might say I was naive in my initial assessment of neighborhood dynamics. There were perfectly obvious examples of neighborhoods that proved my belief that this church was going to be a positive influence in our neighborhood was a Pollyanna daydream. 

I had grown up on a White County farm but most of my adult life has been spent in Lafayette. I had already been a beat cop in Lafayette for 12 years when we opted to purchase the old Shambaugh home on Columbia.  Had I only thought about other neighborhoods in my own town where large well-funded institutions sit at the heart of a neighborhood I would have realized my views were excessively optimistic.  The two local hospitals were perfect examples. Where those institutions once occupied perhaps a square block they eventually expanded to large multi-block campuses and neighborhoods lost dozens of homes as a result of that growth. It is a bit of sad irony that both hospitals eventually left the neighborhoods they had hollowed out.   Purdue University has devoured blocks of residential stock in West Lafayette through it's history.  Other downtown churches had expanded their footprints within their neighborhoods.  I had seen all of that. 

If I was looking for a long lasting stable neighborhood why had I ignored all the signs?  Why did I think the neighborhood around St. Mary's Cathedral was exempt from growth or change?  I simply can not answer that question. We loved the house and the location was excellent for a busy family, convenient to schools, work, shopping and to Purdue. The risk seemed outweighed by the advantages.  

Not long after we settled in and got to know some of our new neighbors I thought it might be a good idea if we had a neighborhood association like some of the other neighborhoods we were hearing about.  Ninth Street Hill and Perrine neighborhoods had formed groups and had tackled issues in an effort to make positive improvements to their respective neighborhoods.  They had some successes which encouraged us.   I remember walking from door to door meeting all the property owners who still lived in their homes and many of those who rented apartments too.  I remember approaching St. Mary's in an effort to get them involved in our new group.  A few of our very first meetings were actually hosted in a basement meeting room in St. Mary's school.  I say "hosted", they opened the room for us but did not attend any of the meetings we had there, neither priests, nor officers, nor any members made any effort to join our group although for the first year or so we tried to interest them in doing that.  Eventually, we decided it was more fun to take turns meeting in one another's homes for our monthly meetings. It seemed that St. Mary's wasn't really interested in getting to know their neighbors.  

When we arrived in the neighborhood there were 33 owner-occupied homes in our neighborhood.  The original boundaries of our district were from the old Wabash RR tracks to Five Points and from Main street to South Street.   Today there are a dozen fewer owner-occupied homes.  St. Mary's church has taken down two fine historic homes that were owner-occupied when we arrived, besides two other houses and one small business building.  Today they again want to tear down one of the true jewels of the neighborhood and one that retains its original exterior appearance including the original wrought iron fence, the original porch trim, & original carriage house. Unlike many old structures, this one looks just like it did in the 1880's when it was built. 

Those of us who own these old homes and value the neighborhoods understand that sometimes it just makes no practical sense to attempt to rehab and reuse a building.  A building uncared for many years eventually reaches a certain point of decay that makes preservation impossibly expensive to repair. The house at 1014 South Street now cleared for destruction after the waiting period ends does not appear to be one of those impossible cases.   From all appearances, this house is far from that point.  When the church bought the property several years ago neighbors were given the idea that their intention was to use the house as a Rectory.  Now we learn that what they want to do is wreck it and build a new Rectory from scratch on the lot.  

I can only speak for myself but what I've learned about living near St. Mary's that it is something like living in the near vicinity to a supermassive black hole and you never know what's going to be swallowed up next.  I might also use the analogy that the church is killing the neighborhood, not in a single dramatic fashion but...death by a thousand cuts. It's a slow way, but ultimately effective. Most frustrating of all is that church leaders refuse to talk to neighbors....not just now, but every time they have taken this sort of destructive action...there was never any talking until it was much too late to find alternate solutions. Clearly, the relationship between the Church and the neighborhood is broken, if it were a marriage it would qualify for a divorce.  Maybe it can be repaired, but it has taken 30 years to reach this state so I don't have a lot of hope.  #stopthedestruction #save1014southstreet #findanotherway

Worst Indiana Book Ever

There it is, sitting on my desk, where it has been for about a month, right there on top of a growing pile of papers I never seem to get filed away.  It's mocking me.   I've been trying to decide what do about it.   If I do anything at all  I will hurt someone's feelings and I really hate doing that. The thing has given me, and several of my friends some laughs, so maybe I should just let it go.  It is quite probably the worlds worst written book on Indiana History.   

It is so poorly written that, at first, I wondered if it could have been written as a prank, ha ha ha the joke is on anyone who spent $18.00 to order it and the author is laughing all the way to the bank.  

It was never my intention to write book reviews here, but this book is so bad that I felt obligated to shout a warning to other unsuspecting readers of Indiana History who might be fooled by the book's cover.   

First, let me assure everyone that I've made plenty of writing faux pas, including spelling, and grammar and I would never try to pass myself off an expert in English Grammar. I do, however, know a little something about history and the grammatical errors in this book are things most of us learned to avoid in elementary and junior high school.    The book is "Indiana History, The Crossroads of America" by C.C. Straub.  

The author wrote, on what I believe is commonly called the Forward,  "This is a work of nonfiction. The events are real according to the author." and on another page called "Gratitudes" she writes "Historical Societies are help in their way of information wherever they are located." 

 The book is "richly illustrated".  Normally that would be a good thing, but in this case, not so much.   The author clearly does not understand that image files of a tiny size taken from the internet are very often too small to be used for print purposes.  Some were so small that the resulting print image was unrecognizable.   Illustrations on a page that have nothing to do with the text of the page or even of the chapter add little.  It would seem that in this case they are only included to take up space.   Sometimes the image fit the text, but frequently it did not.  It appears that if the author could not find an appropriate image for a page that the default choice was either a squirrel, a deer, or an elk.  

A summary some of the items that left me shaking my head from chapter 4 is as good as any other chapter for pointing out the reasons Ms. Straub might want to invest in hiring a good editor before she writes another book.  In chapter 4 we learn that the Mississippian culture was "hightly" developed. We also learn that the author failed to use or pay attention to "spell check" which would have spotted "Missisxippians".   The following sentence leaves the reader wondering if it is simply the result of poor grammar or if the author really does believe that "you cross the Falls of the Ohio and the Wabash River near Vincennes".   

Illustrations in chapter 4 have little or no direct connection to the surrounding text.  They included a bison, two bears, nine persons identified only as modern Cherokee people, the seal of the United States Supreme Court, portrait of Christopher Columbus, an unidentified stained glass window, The Great Seal of the United States, misidentified as the flag of the United States, portrait of George Washington "around in the 1700's" 

Odd choices for illustrations don't end with Chapter 4.  In the chapter concerning the French period in Indiana is a photo of "Wild Bill Cody and Sitting Bull".  In the chapter concerning the British control of the area is a photo of "Young Thomas Edison",  two additional images of Christopher Columbus, and one of "Benjamin Franklin, a great inventor of the past".  

Lest you are left, dear reader, with the impression that the above examples were the exception rather than the rule I can only say that spelling and or grammar errors can be found on nearly every page. Oddly hyphenated pairs of words and the misuse of quotation marks were so frequent that I finally had to read up on the subject to make sure I had not forgotten some basic rule of grammar.  Sadly I had not.  Reading this book has had one very positive result.  As bad as they are, I feel much better about my own writing skills. I want to also note that I feel lucky not to have purchased this book myself. It was loaned to me by an unlucky friend.  

    The above image illustrates what happens when you try to convert a very small size image file from the internet to print form.  

  

Dirty Rotten Liberals!

I lament the loss of perfectly good words, but the truth is that language evolves. The word liberal has ancient Latin and Greek roots and has changed meanings more than once. In the 12th century it referred to noble, gracious, munificent, and generous but by the 15th century there was also a connotation of free, unrestrained, unimpeded, libertine or licentious. Through the 16th and 17th centuries it was used to describe someone free from restraint in speech or action and was a word of reproach. By around 1776 the word was revived in a positive sense during the Enlightenment taking on the meaning of one free of prejudice and tolerant.

Today the word can be a noun or an adjective and has retained the more positive aspects it came to represent during the Enlightenment. Tolerant, broad-minded, generous, favoring reform and progress, not bound by tradition. It can also mean big or large as in a liberal helping of dessert, or someone who was liberal (generous) in their donation to charity. If you're from southwestern Kansas Liberal could be the name of the town where you live. If you are a Tea Party Congressman it's a handy expletive for everything that's gone wrong with the country.

A while back Galanty Miller posted a humor column at the Huffington Post describing a long list of differences between conservatives and liberals. Some of them were pretty funny. Funny enough that I'll risk using a few of them without his express written permission.

Liberals are concerned about economic inequality. Conservatives are confident that one day they will be rich.
Conservatives don't want to hear liberal Hollywood celebrities talk about politics. Liberals also don't want to hear liberal Hollywood celebrities talk about politics.

Liberals support good teachers. Conservatives support eliminating bad teachers.

Conservatives support free speech. Liberals support free speech unless it's politically incorrect.

Liberals love having sex. Conservatives hate when other people have sex.

Conservatives support issues that help their families. Liberals support issues that help families.

Liberals are full of crap because they don't really believe what they say. Conservatives are full of crap because they truly believe what they say.

I suppose this is a good time to bring up the purpose of this edition. I have finally been able to admit it, it took a while, but I'm coming out, Yes, I'm a liberal. I'm not sure how long I've been a liberal, maybe longer than I know. I started out voting for Republicans. I guess it was sort of expected of me.  For more than 30 years I was pretty faithful to the GOP. I was raised in a middle class family, my parents were Republicans, my grandparents were Republicans. I was a police officer, a profession where most of my colleagues were Republicans...even those few who always supported the local Democrats were conservative. I first thought of myself as "moderate". I really didn't want to be called a liberal. Geez, after all a liberal is practically a communist.

But a funny thing happened...the Republican Party moved to the right. I shuffled along with them for a while but by the time George W. Bush came along I felt pretty out of place and by the end of his first term I knew. I was a liberal. Holy Crap! A dirty, rotten liberal. Me? What would my family think? It took me a while to become comfortable wearing that label. So why am I now happy to say I'm a Liberal?
I think I have both specific policy reasons and general philosophic reasons for my political views and I think it's a good idea to be able to state what those are...if you can't then you shouldn't be voting.

1. I believe in science.
2. I believe corporations are businesses, not people.
3. I believe our sexual orientation is something we are born with, not something we choose.
4. I believe in global warming and that humans have had a hand in it (see number one above)
5. I believe women deserve equal rights and equal pay.
6. I don't believe 47% of Americans are looking for a government handout.
7. I don't believe God uses weather to punish sin. (see number one again)
8. I don't believe we are "entitled" to social security and Medicare, we paid for these programs.
9. I believe demand creates jobs, not tax cuts.
10. I believe our constitution doesn't only protect the rights I agree with...sometimes it also protects the rights       I don't agree with.
11. I believe we should protect the weakest among us, not the richest.
12. I believe we should put people before profits.
13. I'm a liberal because I believe in a Constitution that is meant to evolve, grow, and progress.
14. I believe in a free market, with rules.

Speaking of Social security here are what a lot of Republicans in Congress were saying while FDR was trying to get it passed.

“Never in the history of the world has any measure been so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers, and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people.”
“…Invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as…to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the head of our descendants.”
“…Sooner or later will bring the abandonment of private capitalism.”

Of course none of those things happened but it's always the same story from those who most loudly belittle liberal ideas and fight any and all progressive change...."it will ruin the country", "the sky is falling", "death panels", "squawk, squawk, squawk!"

Even with all the name calling between the right and the left in America today,  it remains clear that all of us really want the same things for our family, for ourselves, and for our country.  What we can't agree on is the best way to get there, nor can we agree even on how we got here.   While my own political beliefs would seem to have sprung from some very conservative ground I can point to at least one ancestor who would, by all known standards, have been thought of as radically liberal in his day.  So radical that he and his brother might have gone to jail had the full nature of their activities been known.