Real Hartford

On Main Street

The environments that I work in and many of the people I encounter daily are vastly different from those I grew up in and around. I am most comfortable in situations that are disorganized and without pretense. The people who(m) I am most accustomed to are rough– they curse unapologetically, don’t even own dress shirts, drink beer from a can, speak directly, and have dirt/grease/oil staining their hands (not just under fingernails). I take a lot of pride in knowing that this is my background; I frequently I feel like a visitor in the professional world, like I could be sent away at any time for breaking social norms that I was not even aware of.

I habitually walk in places that I’m not supposed to. It’s unintentional. Growing up, I was allowed in boiler rooms, construction sites, and other potentially dangerous places because those were the job sites for my family and relatives. It’s instilled in me to watch for nails, look to see if I’m going to walk straight into boards at eye-level, and to keep my hands away from circular saws (”you don’t want to get your hand cut off. want someone else to have to do everything for you for the rest of your life?” -mom). When I walk around downtown during the week and see people-in-suits dodging uneven sidewalk or staying extreme distances from construction areas, I wonder if among them, there are any like me who feel more at home with sawdust and paint than with clip-on corporate ID tags and business lunches.

Yesterday, I walked through an area (that I was allowed to be in) where workers were dismantling scaffolding. At one point, chunks of concrete went flying down onto the sidewalk below. Immediately, a couple workers yelled to the others to “take it easy” and “watch it.” I received numerous apologies from four or five of the workers, even though nothing hit me and I was not jumpy or annoyed. I wished that there had been others around to hear the concern coming from men typically portrayed as uncaring and lewd.

“For the last time, don’t share your toys with your brother!”

My ancestors might have been illegal immigrants. I have no reason to suspect that they were, nor any reason to believe that everything was on the up and up. We are not a family of scrapbooking types, so if there ever were immigration papers, they would have been lost, destroyed, or stuffed in an unmarked box in the dank corner of someone’s basement long ago. What I do know is that there have never been any claims of American Indian heritage in my family, so basically, we are guilty of being part of the problem. We come from Russia, Germany, Poland (when it was part of Russia), Ireland, Canada, and France. Maybe elsewhere. My Russian family had our name changed by dolts who could not pronounce or spell anything other than strictly Anglo words. The result: a Russian last name that was –almost ironically–converted to one that looks Hispanic and is often pronounced as such. That part of the family came through legal means, I suppose, in the late 19th century. As for the rest of my family, who knows? It’s plausible that the French-Canadian ones crossed over to Vermont through the woods at night. Others ended up in the state after being routed through Indiana and Wisconsin. At any rate, we have not been here for terribly long.

I was born in the U.S., as were my parents. I can’t vouch for my father’s parents. How far back must one prove legal entrance before the current surge of nativists are content with offering us non-Mayflower arrivals “services” or “privileges?” Because I am white and speak without an accent (beyond the occasional regional inflection) I have not once been questioned by anyone in government or law enforcement about my immigration status or right to be here. It’s assumed that I belong. When I have called the police in past years to report various crimes (drug-related activity, fights/altercations), I was never asked to prove my identity. There was not even a check of my driver’s license.

I can not get away from the irony that exists in the immigration “debate.” For starters, many opponents of sharing the land claim religiosity of the Judeo-Christian persuasion, yet have no attention span about the tenets of their religions. Like many other parts of American life, they have gone the route of picking and choosing what seems most convenient in their religion/laws to suit their personal prejudices. In the Ten Commandments, we are directed not to steal, murder, or cheat. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are urged to love our neighbors, our brothers. Although not an expert, I’ve read the Bible a few times independently, and don’t recall ever seeing a suggestion that God urged people to take up arms, sit by borders, and pick off fellow humans as they attempted to cross without filing paperwork.

As for picking and choosing, some nativists like to talk about how their ancestors did everything by the book, and so they are rightfully here and now entitled to prohibit others from coming. The Edge of the American West addresses this in Eric’s article, “Inventing Illegal Immigration.” Likewise, an overview of immigration history on the Ellis Island website shows that immigration laws and restrictions have been in flux, and at times, there were no laws regarding this issue. Continue reading “For the last time, don’t share your toys with your brother!”…

How to Build Community (Against All Odds): Part One

The Syracuse Cultural Workers created a poster which I’m sure many readers have seen before, but which I feel compelled to discuss regardless. The items in bold are on their list of ways to build community, and my comments are in a regular font.

Think of no one as “them”: Creating categories based on difference allows individuals to more easily justify the unjustifiable, to excuse the inexcusable. The result? When some kind of crime or wrongdoing occurs in an certain area or to a person who belongs to a different group (race, class, sexuality, ability, gender, religion, political affiliation, you name it…), it is not thought of as something that might concern all in society. Thus, it’s remains to be addressed in a productive way. The “answer” goes something like this: “avoid Hartford,” “bulldoze it and start over,” “more prisons,” “send criminals/undesirables to Springfield.” Those sentiments are not productive by any stretch of the imagination.

Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety: In my walks to work, I have felt discomfort. In my old neighborhood, I would pass a homeless shelter and park where people who were basically up to no good, or had no other place to go, would congregate. Even with the verbal street harassment which made the trip sometimes irritating, I never felt unsafe. Continue reading How to Build Community (Against All Odds): Part One…

Reflection on Rachel’s Words

I was born the same year as Rachel Corrie, the dead woman whose letters home I read at the Quaker Meeting House tonight. I am thinking a lot about parallel lives these days. Maybe parallel is not the right word for it, but I can’t think of a better one. When I watched Persepolis, I thought about how Marjane, only a few years older than me, grew up in a war zone. What I feel about this cannot be described as guilt. It’s more like awe. There are some overlaps between us, despite what would otherwise be lives defined by opposite sides of the planet. The punk scene seemed to interestingly save and alienate us both. Being headstrong and vocal got us both into trouble. Yet her adolescence was wrought with gender-based oppression, bombs, and just a generally stifling and dangerous environment. My run-ins with peers at school over pieces of my own identity were nothing in comparison. I never had to fear imprisonment for speaking out. Continue reading Reflection on Rachel’s Words…

Sentenced to be Stereotyped

Hartford’s got issues.

Most places do.

But when a city has got issues, it seems that all sorts of classist and racist attitudes come leaking out the woodwork. Since the collapse of industrial work, the development of a car culture, and welfare to create suburbs (FHA), white Americans have emptied out of cities, leaving mostly racial minorities in areas of concentrated poverty. In areas where there is a smaller tax base (poverty=not getting to own a home many times), there is less funding available for education. The kids get sub par educations, can’t get into decent colleges, and have far more obstacles to overcome from the start than their suburban counterparts.

A few weeks ago I played a game with my college students. I read a few statements and asked them to make educated guesses as to whether the statement I just read was fact or opinion. Now, most of the students are coming from private schools or good public schools. Very few could tell what was fact and what was opinion, and these were not trick questions.

Knowing this must indicate some kind of trend, I should not be surprised when I see people respond the Hartford’s problems in a way that ignores facts.

There was a letter to the editor in the paper today with a sentence that made me stop, in awe, of the various ways that Hartford can be labeled a cesspool:

Perhaps the city already has a good school system, but defective and unruly students.

Continue reading Sentenced to be Stereotyped…

Cool Heads

It seems like logic trumped emotion for a change.

Continue reading Cool Heads…

Hartford Artists Omitted from Discussion

Today’s Courant informs readers of how legal details are creating financial problems for ArtSpace Norwich, a mixed use building that includes a built-in artist community. It’s true that if a place receives public funding, they can not discriminate regarding who they rent to. But, as the article notes, most residents are not even full-time artists.

What is not included in this discussion is what is happening to ArtSpace Hartford. Continue reading Hartford Artists Omitted from Discussion…

Murderous Voyeurism

I’m not sure when the Courant, or any other local corporate media outlet, has given three pages of story to a rally or a crime, and yet, today that’s been done.

You could say that is a step forward. I wouldn’t.

I could not read past 1.5 pages of it. The details disclosed in it are not necessary for the public to know. What purpose does it serve by telling the public every lurid and horrible moment in the last hours of three females’ lives? Continue reading Murderous Voyeurism…

Audio from Monday’s Press Conference on Today’s RadioActive

You can hear a full 30-minutes of the Cheshire/Hartford press conference that was held on Monday on Main Street.

91.3 fm wwuh.org at noon

It re-airs on Tuesday at 1pm on wesufm.org 88.1fm

Media Complicity in Violence

CROSS-POSTED TO UNDERCURRENTS

As Josh reported, we have just returned from a press conference held on 2550 Main Street. The behavior of the media covering the event was just as telling as some of what was said by Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila, and Jerimarie Liesegang.Hartford Independent Media Center journalists overheard a WTNH employee ask the community activists to delay the press conference because his reporter was running late. Then, while waiting for things to start, the WFSB and WTNH photographers told each other that they were planning on taking a similar approach to covering the story because they could not figure out how else to deal with the absence of a speaker’s podium. Just as the conference was starting, Moses Price, an NBC 30 photographer, plowed into me, pushing me out of his way, as if he had more of a right to be in that space than I did. He apologized, but still, it’s unprofessional to do that, and I did not see him treat his mainstream media colleagues in that fashion.

NECN and FOX 61 reporters showed up much later than the 10am start time. Rush hour traffic had thinned long before and the location was easy to find. That only two news outlets (we are included in one of those two) bothered to arrive on time spoke loudly about how low of a priority this issue is to them.

Rev. Cornell Lewis did most of the talking, emphasizing to the media that this conference was happening to put out the message that “all life has value.” He said that when tragedy strikes the elite, it is viewed differently from when tragedy strikes the poor, people of color, and people in Hartford. Lewis said that when violence affects the non-elite, the response from society (including media and government) is to look at the victim’s environment to explain away why such a crime could happen.

Continue reading Media Complicity in Violence…