Category: purposes and ponderances

April 14, 2014

I just don’t understand hate.

Angel Heart Drawing by BZTAT

I understand anger. I understand fear. I understand mental and emotional distress that sometimes motivates hateful actions. I even understand suspicion and prejudice.

But I just don’t understand hate.

The kind of hate where a man wraps his entire life around hating a group of people who he does not even know, simply because they are from a culture that he has been taught to despise. The kind of hate that motivates a man like Frazier Glenn Miller.

Frazier Glenn Miller is the alleged shooter who went on a rampage yesterday and killed 3 people in Overland Park, KS in the parking lots of two Jewish facilities. When arrested, Miller proudly yelled anti-Semitic utterances in full view of a near-by TV news camera.

He is considered the “alleged” shooter, as he has not yet been convicted of the crime. But his long history of hate towards Jewish people has been well documented, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not only has this 73-year old man expressed his hatred in many forms throughout his life, he has mobilized others to do the same. Through “leadership” in the Klu Klux Klan and his creation of militia groups, he has motivated countless others to engage in hate activities towards innocent people.

I am not Jewish myself. But this man’s hate hurts me deeply. My good friend who lives in Leawood, KS is a frequent attendee at the very Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City where his life of hatred culminated in murder yesterday. Thankfully, she was home yesterday. preparing for Passover. But her world is shaken. The place that once represented community and joy and fellowship for her now is shattered by hate.

It also hurts me to know that my friend, who has helped me to understand the beauty of Jewish culture, is hated so violently by people who never have, and never will know her.

I will never understand that kind of hate, and truthfully, I do not want to.

I do, however, want to understand the kind of love and passion that drives people to continue their faith and traditions despite the presence of people who have built their lives around hating them. It is that kind of love that makes our world a compassionate and enriched worldwide community.

We come from different traditions and beliefs, but love is love. I thank my friend for reminding me of that. I pray for her healing, the healing of those who lost loved ones, the healing of the entire Jewish community, and the healing of our worldwide community.

May we all find a way to respond to hate in a way that does not allow it to take us in its grip in the way that it did this man.

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT

March 28, 2014

Why does Canton keep getting put on the bad list?

“Courthouse Angels” Digital Art by BZTAT

Media companies like to put out lists – best and worst lists. My home city, Canton, OH, has a way of getting put on the “worst” lists quite often, for some reason. When it happens, many of my friends who are part of efforts to revitalize Canton get pretty worked up.

They, and I, are typically quick to defend our city. The methodologies and agendas behind these lists are always suspect, and they rarely take into account that there are many positive opportunities in their target cities that could change things on a dime.

One of these lists came out this week from a previously little known (to the general public) real estate blog. The story claimed that Canton was America’s second most dangerous small city. They came to this conclusion based on crime statistics compared with similarly sized cities.

Normally, I would be jumping out of my skin to defend Canton. But last week, I heard a series of gun shots in my neighborhood. Yesterday, I saw a news report about a drive-by shooting just feet away from where I have spent hours trapping a feral cat colony for TNR. I hear reports DAILY of violent crimes occurring in Canton’s neighborhoods that never get resolved.

Canton DOES have a crime problem. I don’t know how it truthfully ranks with other cities, and putting it on a “worst list” certainly does nothing to help the problem. But ignoring the realities does not do anything to help it either.

I want to assure people that, in most respects, Canton is a safe city. The downtown Canton Arts District, in which I have participated in redevelopment efforts, is one of the safest and most enjoyable downtowns you will find in America. Canton has world class parks and one of the most notable public festivals in America around the annual Football Hall of Fame inductions.

Yet there are also good and decent neighborhoods that have been challenged in recent years by crime and blight. Home foreclosure has hit us hard, and slumlords have put previously well-cared-for properties into careless hands. Booming stereos cruise the streets at all hours, ensuring that NO ONE can live with any sense of peace in their own home.

These neighborhoods are not ghettos, but they are fast becoming that. The problem is, the majority of people living in these areas are good, law abiding citizens. Our state government’s efforts to make “smaller government” has led to significant funding decreases to cities, which means that cities like Canton cannot afford sufficient law enforcement. A lack of vision at all levels of government have left citizens to fend for themselves.

I get it. We do not want to draw attention to the problems, lest it will turn people away from investing in community improvement. I do not want anyone thinking Canton is a bad place to be. I have to be honest, though. We cannot change Canton if we do not do something about it’s crime problem.

If you care about Canton, please, keep talking up the positives. Keep doing what you can to make things better. But please, do not shy away from the fact that we need to DEMAND better for Canton. Tell our local, state, and federal leaders that we need resources and vision to fix what is wrong. Tell them that they need to do more, so that what is good gets us put on the “BEST” lists in the future.

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT

March 5, 2014

Riding the Bus and the Rest of the Slog Through Life

“Bus Ceiling” Digital Art BZTAT

When you travel to a large city that has a storied public transportation system (think New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., London, etc.), riding the train or the bus is part of the travel adventure. I have traveled to New York City a number of times, and each time I have found it to be a thrill to ride the subway to various points of interest on my itinerary.

Riding public transit in your own hometown because it is your only transportation option – now that is a different sort of adventure.

I currently have no other transportation options. I have no vehicle at the moment, as my most recent set of wheels has gone to the great salvage yard in the sky. I am saving up to purchase another vehicle, but it will take some time. So for now, the bus is my main mode of transportation.

I am grateful that my city has a decent public transit system. Canton’s SARTA has buses going to most places that I need to go, and it is not very costly to ride. There is a stop 2 1/2 blocks from my house and a bus that stops there on the hour.

But there is no way to spin it nicely. I seriously doubt that SARTA would be anyone’s first choice if they had other options. Riding the SARTA bus is not the most convenient way to get around, and it puts you in close contact with people who would not necessarily be your first choice of riding companions.

Most people who ride the bus are quiet and just biding their time until they get to where they need to go. Others, however, feel the need to share their angry phone conversations with everyone on the bus. They shout into their phones, hurling expletives and dramatic emphases as they implore someone on the other end to show them RESPECT.

Hmmm.

Other times, there is the guy who tells you his whole life story in a 5 minute wait at the bus stop, or the woman who feels the need to tell you her latest drama with working for the “man”.

Having two Master’s degrees and a Bachelor’s degree probably makes me more educated that the typical Canton bus rider. And I will be honest. I struggle with this. Not that I look down on people who are less educated – far from it. But I have to be real – it puts me in a different mode of experience.

I have a tendency to look at the experience as an anthropologist would, studying people and their way of life as though it was something completely separate from my own. I act as a participant observer who has inserted herself into a different culture in order to understand that culture’s way of life. And that truly is arrogant, I know, because this way of life is my way of life.

When I chose to become a full time professional artist, I chose a way of life that dips into unglamorous poverty at times. I agree with Ann Rea and Cory Huff who work hard to dispel the myth of the “Starving Artist” – it does not have to be this way, and I am moving towards a prosperous career as an artist. But every entrepreneur will tell you tales in retrospect of the sacrifices and struggles that preceded their success. I am simply telling you about mine in real time.

Riding the NYC public transit system is nothing to be ashamed of. People from all walks of life share tales of riding the NYC subway as part of the world’s romance with NYC culture. But riding the bus in Canton, OH? There is no romance to it. It is a sign that you have fallen on hard times, or that you are in that socio-economic group that is on the bottom rung. And for the time being, that is me.

I do see myself as different than others who are in my situation. I chose this, whereas others did not. Others are stuck because our culture has little else to offer them. Despite this, they are proud, and they find ways to enjoy life and maximize their experience. I admire that.

I also am different because I have opportunities to move out of “hard times”. I have ambitions, networks, skills, talents and an education, all of which give me reason to believe my experience of “hard times” will be temporary. I am grateful for that. I am sad that others have much more limited opportunities. Everyone should have access to opportunity, in my opinion.

I, like everyone else, though, simply has to do what I have to do to get through the slog of life. It is not easy for anyone – we all have rough spells. I have no shame about mine, so please, don’t throw me pity. I ride the bus without shame or pride. It is just a way to get me where I am going.

And have no doubt, folks. I am going places.

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT