5/1/23

 Monday, May 1, 2023

In bed at 10:30, awake at 5:30, up at 5:45, let Lilly oout into a light rain and snow forecast for the next hour.  35℉, high of 43℉, wind WNW at 19 mph, gusts up to 38 mph, wind chill    is 24℉.  Sunrise at 5:45, sunset at7:53, 14+7.

Kitty candle  I lit my Kitty candle today, not the yahrzeit candle but the votive light like the one I sent her a couple (few?) years ago to keep her company during her nightly insomnia and as a sign I was with her.  Also lit a myrrh incense cone to enjoy before Geri and Lilly wake up.  I think incense bothers Lilly's sense of smell.   I've decided to use my Catholic yahrzeit candle as an multi-person yahrzeit: Dad on February 2 (2007), Kitty on March 3 (2022), Mom on April 15 (1973) and Tom, January 18 (2023)

 McCarthy has invited Netanyahu to visit Congress, skip White House.  Here we go again. Fascisti cum fascisti congregantur.  Has he checked with Netanyahu to determine whether the invitation will be accepted once extended?  If so, Netanyahu once again pokes a stick in the eyes of American liberals and moderates.  In 2015, as Netanyahu was trying to torpedo President Barack Obama’s plans to negotiate a nuclear weapons deal with Iran, the prime minister arranged with Republican leaders to speak against the deal to a joint session of Congress.  Today McCarthy is scheduled to become just the second U.S. speaker to address a full session of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the first since his fellow Republican Newt Gingrich appeared here in 1998.  McCarthy is the second high-profile Republican to visit Jepeaker to address a full session of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the first since his fellow Republican Newt Gingrich appeared here in 1998.  McCarthy is the second high-profile Republican to visit Jerusalem in recent days. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 presidential candidate, stopped off during a four-country trade mission last week.  Netanyahu, McCarthy, Gingrich, DeSantis - Fascisti cum fascisti congregantur.

Ulysses.  It has been lightly raining almost all day.  I drove down to The Repairers of the Breach to drop off some clothing of Geri's and mine and some other useful stuff.  I exited the freeway at North Avenue, turned south at 12th Street, the route I used to take to get to MULS when Anne and I lived on Oriole Avenue, turned west on Walnut to 17th Street, where The House of Peace is located (and looked busy today, from the cars parked in front), then down to Vliet Street only to discover the street was closed, torn up for repaving, only the westbound lane open for traffic.   I took a circuitous route that got me back onto 12th Street where I could turn west again on Vliet Street and drove past Repairers and saw that there was no way to get close with my car so I headed back to 17th Street and then north till I hit Fond du Lac, to 20th Street all the way up to Capitol Drive which would take me to the Spectrum Store where I could drop off the router and 2 wifi extenders which I needed to return so Spectrum would stop billing us for renting them.  (The Eero mesh system we bought from the Geek Squad rep has been working perfectly, keeping my fingers crossed.)

As I drove on some residential streets in this inner city neighborhood, I noticed how incredibly bad the streets were, potholes and cracks abounding, the result of years and years of deferred maintenance.  Driving over them with my tender bladder reminded me my trip in the ambulance from our house outside of Saukville to the ER at CSMO.  I compared those streets with the streets in Bayside, Fox Point, River Hills and Mequon.  I saw a number of churches which seem almost as numerous as taverns in the inner city and reflected on how enslaved Africans and those who lived under Jim Crow came up with their own forms of religious practice, liturgies, clergy development and music since they were excluded from the White churches in the Slave States.

I passed The House of Peace both on the way to and the way from Repairers of the Breach and wondered if I should stop in to visit Linda Barnes, who is assistant director now.  She was the Catholic Charities-funded social worker there when I was executive director.  I decided not to stop, in part because of the rain and the risks of street parking there and because she might be busy with business of the HOP, but I should make a point of calling her to see about a visit.  I haven't returned there since I left under circumstances less than ideal and my nose has always been a little, maybe more than a little, out of joint about how the Capuchins dealt with me, especially Brother Bob Smith, nephew of the place's founder Brother Booker Ashe.  It's been 20 years since those days and I've long since come to realize why they came to think of me as 'not in the club' (naively outspoken about the sexual abuse scandals in the Church).  In any event, Linda and I had a good relationship when we worked together and I ought to see if we could visit.  Linda was the victim of a criminal stalker when I was leading the HOP.  She dated him once of twice and realized he was no good and refused to see him anymore.  One night, he lay in wait for her behind her garage, armed with a knife, and attacked and slashed her, requiring some hospitalization.  When he was captured, arrested, and convicted  of the the assault, the judge (Joe Donald, an MULS grad) sentenced him to some months (not years) of confinement which of course shocked Linda.  The ADA had told Linda that it was not necessary for her to be at the sentencing and Linda had opted to stay away.  When she received the news of the light sentence she came to my office in distress.  I offered such comfort as I could though I was also shocked by the light sentence.  Linda's statement to me as she left my office was "I'm going to get me a gun."  Therein lies a big part of reason why so many people in the inner city own firearms.  Not the only reason by any means, but part of it, the realization that the police and the courts cannot protect them from violence.  In Bayside, we have a police car cruising down our street at least once an hour.  Hard to know whether it has any deterrent effect in our already low-crime village but that practice, and the state of our well-paved streets, reminds me again that I am a 'limousine liberal.'