The Women's March: on the Road from Allegany County

WELLSVILLE: Nearly 3 million women, girls, sons, husbands, fathers, uncles, friends and others with concerns for the political situation now clogging the news in the United States headed for a Women’s March in Washington or elsewhere on Saturday, January 21.  It was reported the huge crowd in New York City turned the “march” into a “stand” while the event in Buffalo involved thousands walking on both sides of Delaware Avenue to Niagara Square.  In Philadelphia people strolled with songs, shouts and chants on the Franklin Parkway.

                In all the marches, there was a center point where speakers talked about ways to become and stay involved.

                Some people mocked the marches as useless. What’s the goal? Is this a permanent group? Does it ever matter to speak up? People who talked with me in Philadelphia that day as well as those who recounted the day to me later all found goals and support.

                I marched with 3 young women in Philadelphia. Emma Meetz took a bus from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to march with college friends. Meetz said, “There’s been so much negative conversation in the last year that this seemed like a chance to get together and be with people who would give me ideas about how to carry forth.”

                Meetz works in a Pittsburgh Library that services a large group of Bhutanese Buddhists. She plans to return with energy to advocate for women.  She said, “I will try not to be selfish but to be a better listener and to understand the views of the Trump supporters in my community.”

                Emily Royer hosted Meetz in Philly. Royer has been upset about the changes that the Trump administration presented. She said, “I’d like to see the ACA remain and to keep Roe vs. Wade. I don’t support a Muslim registry and want to protect the rights of LGBT people.”

                Royer said that the emphasis on fossil fuel production stifles renewable energy jobs. “Opportunities for tens of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy are at risk and these would be local jobs that would boost our cities.”

                Lauren Westenheiser marched with them and said that in looking over social media she felt that almost everyone she knew marched from her aunt (Tucson), to colleagues (DC), college friends and cousins around the country. She said she is inspired now and will follow up with regular phone calls to her local and national representatives.

                Rusty Tobin, from Belmont, went to Buffalo. The event there was organized quickly by the Western NY Peace Center under the name: No Hate. No Mandate. Police were friendly even though the march had no permit, the reason why marchers held to the sidewalk until reaching Niagara Square for the speakers.

                Tobin had marched against war in the 60s but not since and said that she was surprised and delighted by the creative signs brought out. She described the group as about 80% women, many over 60, but also including babies, children, and teens.

                Tobin is interested in staying in contact with representatives at the state and national level. She said the event was psychologically empowering and will help her fight the move to privatize Medicare.

                D. Chase Angier left Hornell at 2:30 am to ride a bus to Washington DC. She hoped that the world would see that there are still many Americans who want to stand up for human rights, women’s rights and the security of a healthy planet. She has always advocated for these things as well as for the arts but now has more friends to work with in those areas.

                Because the environment is important to her, when she stayed with a friend recently, instead of giving a bottle of wine, she gave a membership to the Sierra Club. Moving from material gifts to meaningful, active gifts is a change she is seeing more and more people make.

                Rebecca Bennett has family in Wellsville and Andover but works in Binghamton so that’s where she went on Saturday. The organizers expected 200 or so but were shocked with the arrival of over 3,000.  From Martin Luther King Park, they could see streams of people walking to gather so they offered the microphone to anyone wanting to talk as they waited for all to arrive.

                Bennett said that several children spoke. One 10 year old boy said that some of his friends are immigrants and others are people of color and he wants all of them to be safe.  

                Another to talk was a great grandmother who said she had marched both for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. She said, “We’ve come too far to go back.”

                In agreement, Bennett said that she will read to keep informed and write letters and call her representatives to push them forward.

                One of the most significant local sites for a march was in Seneca Falls. Many from Alfred chose to attend events there including JoEllen delCampo. She said the planning for the event was flawless with a great cross-section of speakers including indigenous people and a sound system that allowed everyone to hear.

                Being among the men and women, of all ages, was inspiring. The message for the day, she said, was, “Make this a movement and not a moment. Be a participant with persistence and patience. Call, email, attend town meetings and, if you are of the right temperament, run for office.”

               

BOX

For Alfred and Alfred Station

Senators - Charles Schumer (202) 224-6542 and Kirsten Gillibrand (202) 224-4451

Congressperson Tom Reed (202) 225-3161

State Senator Cathy Young (518) 455-3563

Assemblyperson Joe Giglio (518) 455-5241

For ideas on how to contact an elected official:

Womensmarch.com (focused for march participants)

indivisibleguide.com

roganslist.blogspot.com (focused for liberal ideas)

Dumpster Diving

Story Jar April 2 2008

It was called garbage picking when I was a kid, then dumpster diving and now the Freegan movement. It’s the fine art of giving rebirth to discarded objects. Karrie, an artist, says that people should look at nearly all trash as opportunity. Our house is full of great opportunities.

My dumpster diving days began when I moved into my first apartment in Greene, New York. All that I owned fit into a Volkswagen bug and this was an unfurnished apartment so when I saw an abandoned, maple drop-leap table nestled between the trash cans I gleefully dragged it upstairs to my empty kitchen. Not long after, I discovered a brass floor lamp in the same place. With a new wire threaded through and a lampshade added, it became a treasure. Now antiques, both are in Emilie’s Boston apartment.

The next major treasure was found in Binghamton in the late 70’s. I was jogging past a huge carriage wheel placed near the curb. It was clearly garbage with two rotted spokes but it was a "treasure" nonetheless. I rushed home and dragged Rick to our station wagon. Grumbling, he came along and found that the wheel was larger than the car, a Chevy Vega. The only way to get it home was to roll it.

Inconveniently, we lived at the top of a steep hill. It was so steep that on an icy winter day, Rick stepped into the road to put the garbage at our curb, slipped and flanked by bags of garbage, slid down the hill past about ten houses before he could stop.

Rick considered the wheel unworthy of further attention but I started rolling it. In a short distance, it became clear that I was a lousy wheel roller. Thankfully, Rick felt sorry for me and, grumbling a little more, took over the rolling while I drove the car. I cheered him on. He growled.

That wheel came with us to Alfred and again to Wellsville (with additional growling). Jay dressed up in Daddy's hat and stood in front of it once for a photo before several more spokes finally gave way to rot and we put it at the curb. In just a few minutes someone else began rolling that wheel away to their house.





My dresser was once trash. The mirror was gone and a few pieces were broken. We bought it at an auction with few people bidding in competition. They didn't see potential the way we did. With the discarded wings from an old vanity making a frame for a new mirror and a few other pieces of wood it has provided decades of service.






Rick once trashed a narrow, paneled door but I pulled it back into the garage and he eventually built a wonderful blue cupboard around it. Sometimes, the reflection of the cupboard can be caught our half-round window.




Once part of the Wellsville High School, it now is part of our kitchen along with some discarded oak cabinets from Andover School. Andover also gave us a glass lamp found resting on a pile of old light bulbs and Alfred State College "sold" oak book cases for $5 - not far from a dumpster price. Things made of oak, beveled glass or brass just aren’t meant to be garbage.















I rescued a 1972 dress model with wheeled cast-iron feet, stamped metal arm and neck plates and a fancy cast-iron finial. Discarded by the girls moving out of Jay’s Cherry Street apartment, it now stands in our living room in an outfit made (and discarded) by members of Thailand’s Karen Tribe. Leaning against the wall are some fly fishing poles that Jay rescued for us from another Philly apartment. You just can’t find stuff like that in a store.

The only time Rick gives any discarded stuff a glance is when he notices my pottery. Once he took an enormous but perfectly ugly bowl out of our trash and shipped it to a gallery near Chautauqua where it sold for over $200 – a record. I’m still astounded.




photos of other rescued items are at flickr

Story Jar: The City of Brotherly Furniture

The City of Brotherly Furniture
The Story Jar

Philadelphia, 2002: Jay spent Sunday with his friend, Cora. After lunch they went to a thrift store for a few things to dress up their apartments. Jay wanted a ceiling fixture and a carpet. Cora wanted a comfy chair.

At the first store Jay found a ceiling fixture - functional but ordinary, nothing of a sparkle to it - but he considered getting it for $25 if he couldn’t find anything else.

After a bit of shopping in other stores, they headed back to the first one to get that fixture but they spotted a ceiling fixture discarded on the curb. Not totally brimming with character but lacking a price tag, it was perfect for Jay. They tossed it in the truck and Cora told him that he was a lucky guy.

The next thrift store had carpets. Persian style carpets. Just what Jay wanted. The one he liked best was about four by six feet and carried a whopping price of $200. While that’s cheap for a carpet, it’s way out of Jay’s budget so he told the guy that he would think about it. He didn’t have to think for very long.

Cora said that, luckily, they turned down a narrow street, so narrow that they generally avoid using it, and on this day the street was carpeted. Sticking out of a box was the end of a carpet. It was dirty but plenty large – 9 x 12. Into the back of the truck it went with the light fixture and room enough for steam carpet cleaner.

By then Cora had to get to the train station to head back to work in Rhode Island for the week. Jay drove her there but it was a busy day so Cora was bumped off that train. She had to wait for the morning train which was a mild disappointment that she would feel better about if Jay could just find a chair for her.

Jay took his no-problem attitude and cruised Philly. They drove down a couple of blocks and found, abandoned on the street and waiting for Cora, a fine, almost new, leather recliner. They stood for several minutes to see if someone might come back for it but no doors opened, no trucks stopped, no people showed up at all so the chair went with the rug and carpet cleaner.

They felt successful and headed home but the streets of Philly held one more treasure. It was a sticky, empty beer keg – the kind that means a $40 deposit when returned.

All this success built an appetite so they went to Jay’s house to make dinner. Cora went to Jay’s garden to clip some fresh basil leaves but she accidentally cut leaves from a pepper plant. Ah well, everyone's luck eventually changes.