Kim, a volunteer and Bryan, a staff member of On the Rise Bakery
It used to be that missionaries went to other continents to serve the poor and underprivileged. But recently, many people seeking to do good by going on a mission trip have chosen a much closer destination… Detroit. On any given day, one could veer off the beaten path in our once great city, and be totally convinced that they are in an area ravaged by war. And make no mistake, there is a war here. But the war that rages in Detroit is not one that can be addressed by the usual methods of warfare. This war is against evil and the only thing that can battle evil is Love.
I myself have gone on overseas mission trips. The first was to South Africa, where I assisted in five, free medical clinics for people who waited all day to be seen by the doctor. The second trip was to Israel where we held a camp for Christian Palestinian children in an area where Christians are very much in the minority. Both of these trips helped me, I’m sure, more than I could have possibly helped others while I was there. And they also gave me a perspective on poverty and persecution that I didn’t have before. But little of what I saw on either of those trips can really compare to the stories that I heard from guests of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen when I brought a group of 4th and 5th grade Student council members to serve there last week.
One of the reasons that I started writing this blog is because I see how afraid people in our suburbs are of going into the city. One of the things I know for sure is that, if you are afraid of doing something, that is exactly the thing that you need to do. The devil has his weapons, and one of his most powerful weapons is fear. And fear is what keeps our city in chaos. Fear is what separates us. And fear is what will destroy our city if we cannot overcome our fears and begin to find ways to help our neighbors. And the people of the City of Detroit are our neighbors. They are not the enemy. They are good and kind people, many of whom have fallen on hard times and can’t see the way out of a desperate situation. As Brian, one of the men who helps to run the Capuchin-sponsored, On The Rise Bakery said, “No one grows up wanting to be a junkie.”
Prices are kept low so that people from the neighborhood can afford the items. Children are allowed to purchase a giant cookie for 50 cents.
One of the tasks I gave my 4th and 5th grade Student Council members was to interview people at the soup kitchen in order to prepare a presentation on hunger and homelessness for the entire school. They came up with their interview questions in advance and valiantly went in to conduct their interviews with staff, volunteers and guests of the soup kitchen. I noticed that many of the guests seemed to open up to the kids. Not only open up, but I saw a sort of regression in some of them. Some of the people seemed to look back on their childhoods to remember what it was that they did wrong. They seemed to re-live their regrets so that they could share them with the children. So that they could help the children not to do the things that they had done. One man was so excited and impatient for the students to interview him that he kept waving them over while they were interviewing another guest. After his interview, he came up to me and said, “I did you a favor. I told those kids some things that they needed to hear.” What he told them was, “If you don’t want to have to come here to eat, you need to listen to your teachers, stay in school, listen to your parents…” His message was echoed by some of the other guests who told the students, “I never thought that one day I would have to eat at a soup kitchen.”
We need to stop pretending that we are separate from the people of Detroit. There is so much suffering that is going on right outside our doors. Suffering that can be alleviated, at least in part, by you. There is no excuse for any of us to ignore what is going on in our city. I don’t care how old you are; if 10-year-olds can make a difference, than so can you. If 10-year-olds can go into a soup kitchen and fearlessly interview the homeless and hungry people of the City of Detroit than what excuse could you possibly have? I don’t care how you do it; with your money, with your time, or with your prayers. You can make a difference. You must make a difference.
If you are a Christian, the Bible teaches us that Jesus will judge us on this one point, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was naked and you clothed me; I was homeless and you took me in.” Even if you’re not Christian, even if you don’t believe in God, how can you look at the suffering in this world, in your own backyard, and ignore it? We are all going to die one day. What do you want people to say about you? That you sure knew how to have a good time and to spend money on yourself? That you were selfish and self-serving? Or that you lived your life in service to others; that you made a difference; that you changed peoples’ lives?
People are hungry for more than bread. They are hungry for love.
Mother Teresa said, “Hunger is not only for bread, hunger is for love, to be loved, to be wanted. That terrible loneliness of the old and the … people is a terrible hunger. Nakedness is not only for a piece of cloth but nakedness is also that want of dignity, that beautiful gift of God, the loss of purity of heart, of mind, of body. Homelessness is not only for a house made of bricks, homelessness is also being rejected, being a “throw away” of society, unwanted, unloved, uncared (for)” (From Where There Is Love, There Is God). Our streets of Detroit are not so different from the streets of Calcutta that Mother Teresa served tirelessly until her death. It is time for us to rise above the fear and to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11) in order that we can help our brothers and sisters who are caught up in poverty, hopelessness and violence. It is time for us to love.
Photo by Prem Mukherjee www.ArisingImages.com info@arisingimages.com 586-944-7736
By Shelly Bennett
“Brother, can you spare a dime?” This phrase has come to epitomize the hopelessness of the Great Depression. Americans had suffered the stock market crash; the middle class had lost homes and jobs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Ok so we haven’t had a Dust Bowl (and hopefully we won’t) but you have to admit that our current economic situation has some eerie similarities to the events that led up to the Great Depression. So will Barak Obama end up being the FDR of our time? Or is it going to be up to us to make the new New Deal? Let’s think about this for a moment…
I’m sure you’ve heard similar words to “Brother, can you spare a dime.” Only now it’s more like, “Could you spare a few dollars for bus fare or a meal?” I know you’ve been asked a version of that question. But what do you do when you hear those words? Do you pretend you didn’t hear them? Do you dig in your pocket or purse for some spare change? Do you feel ashamed? Guilty? I have done all of the above in my life, but now I do my best to help that person out a little bit. Even if all I can do is to ask their name and tell them that I will pray for them (which I do).
The phrase I’ve heard on several occasions goes something like this; “Excuse me ma-am, but could you help me? I’m trying to get to the Pontiac Shelter.” In fact I heard those exact words one night when my daughters and I were leaving one of our favorite local restaurants. The woman who said those words was staring into my face at the exact same time that my mobile phone began to ring.
Answering my phone would have been the perfect excuse to avoid this lady but I ignored my phone and talked to her instead. I asked her how much the bus would cost. She told me that it costs $2 to ride the bus. I looked in my wallet at the two singles and three twenty-dollar bills tucked in there. I reached for the two dollars when I felt the urge to do more (That was God-he’s sneaky like that). I pulled out one of the twenties and gave it to her with the words, “I hope this helps you get to the homeless shelter.”
You would’ve thought that this lady had just been handed the Publisher’s Clearing House million-dollar-super-gigantic-check. She started laughing and saying over and over, “God bless you! God bless you! God bless you!”
I could tell she wanted to hug me but she was afraid to, so I went over to her and gave her a big hug. She cried, “Oh thank you! Thank you God! Thank you!” She gave me the biggest hug and gave my daughters a hug too. My oldest daughter asked her if she would like a mint and you’d swear that that was even better than the twenty dollars the way she went on about it-laughing and thanking us and praising God. She was so happy to have that twenty dollars and that mint that it made us all want to cry.
“I’m going right over to McDonald’s and get me a Happy Meal,” she told us. “Then I’m getting on the bus and going to the Pontiac Shelter.” We offered to drive her there but she declined. I think she was looking forward to getting her Happy Meal the way most of us look forward to Thanksgiving dinner. I guess twenty dollars goes a long way on the street.
But how many of us take twenty dollars for granted? An African cab driver once told me that his friend’s son died because the father didn’t have twenty dollars to have an operation that the boy needed. When I heard that I felt sick to my stomach. I’ve spent twenty dollars at Starbucks and not thought twice about it. And let me tell you, the twenty dollars I gave that lady outside the restaurant that night, gave me a lot more joy than Starbucks ever could.
My hero, Mother Teresa, believed that each of the poor that she tirelessly served, were actually “Jesus in His distressing disguise.” If you are a Christian, you may know that Mother Teresa’s belief in this came from the Book of Matthew Chapter 25 where Jesus (my #1 hero) says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Matt 25:35-36) Of course the people had no idea what Jesus was talking about, since all that time they never saw him while they were doing these good deeds, so Jesus goes on to say, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:40)
If you’re not a Christian, this whole business might sound a little cuckoo, but it basically means that we should serve the poor as if they were God himself. If you think about it, if everyone treated everyone else as if they were God; putting others above themselves, wouldn’t this world be a really amazing place? What if everyone shared what they had, not because they had to, but because it actually feels good to give stuff away? What would the world look like then? It really does feel good to help someone else out. I feel the need however, to put in a little disclaimer; I don’t think it is generally a wise idea to hand out money as you don’t necessarily know what that person will do with the money; a high percentage of the homeless population are addicted to drugs and/or alchohol. What I’ve done in the past is to go to McDonalds and buy several $5.00 gift cards. Then I pass these out. It makes me feel better than saying no or giving money that may not even go towards food. Another option is to donate to a local soup kitchen and write the information onto little cards that you could offer if someone tells you that they are hungry (two of my favorites are Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Grace Centers of Hope). Or buy some bus tickets. Be creative.
So what is the hope for this world? If you’re a Christian than Christmas brings with it hope. The hope of salvation. The hope of a new life through Christ. But what if you’re not a Christian? Where will hope come from? Is it going to come in the form of some government run new, New Deal? We all know that the old New Deal didn’t really work out so why would a new version? No, I believe that the only hope for this world is that people will actually start putting others above themselves. How that looks is entirely up to you but maybe it can be as big as listening to someone who’s homeless (check out the photos and interviews with some of Detroit’s homeless on photographer Prem Mukherjee’s blog at http://arisingimages.com/blog/index.php?s=homeless) or as small as taking the money you budget for your morning cup of Joe and giving it to someone who needs bus fare instead. Hope is not a four letter word. Hope is spelled y-o-u.
Oh, say, don’t you remember? They called me ‘Al”
It was ‘Al’ all the time
Say, don’t you remember? I’m your pal
Buddy, can you spare a dime?
Check out the video below to see a few of the faces of homelessness in Detroit.
As any teacher knows, as soon as fall comes around every child’s conversation revolves around Halloween. What costume they want, if they’re going to any parties, who they’ll go trick-or-treating with… this is all that’s on the minds of any elementary aged child right now. If kids can plan their Halloween before summer is barely at a close, so can we. This year I want to try to hit a few fun spots while my daughters are still interested in going with me. So I’ve been researching some of the creepy things that will go on this month and I thought I’d share them with you.
October 30-31, 2011 Brandywine Cemetery http://www.brandywinecemetery.com/ Free, simulated graveyard. Donations go to benefit a local food bank. Family friendly
Holly:
October 26-31, 2011 The Holly Hotel; A Victorian Seance http://www.hollyhotel.com/October2011.pfd Actual seance in a known haunted location. Dinner package also available.
Bloomfield Hills:
October 1-30 (Fri, Sat, Sun only) Bowers School Farm “Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch” and “Haunted Maze.” Family Friendly
October 14-30 (Weekends Only) Greenfield Village “Hallowe’en in Greenfield Village” http://www.thehenryford.org/events/halloweenEvent.aspx Trick or Treat through the village. Advance tickets a must as this event often sells out. Family Friendly
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and my daughters and I will be able to attend a few of these creepy events. If you know of any other Halloween events, feel free to post them in the comment section or email me at littlemissdetroit@hotmail.com
Again it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I have been trying to think of a remedy for this and so I’m going to try making my posts a bit shorter. The beginning of the school year is a hectic time for us teachers (and parents and students) so time is at a premium in September. Other things that are at a premium at this time of year are; sunny days, warm weather and strawberries. But some things can be had in abundance in the early autumn; fresh-picked peaches, tomatoes, apples and corn are all waiting to be taken home from your local farmer’s market. These fruits and vegetables are the harbingers of fall but also the reminders of summer’s long labor. Why not find a way to preserve some of these gems as a reminder during the cold winter nights, that summer will come again?
My daughter, Madeline and I canned peaches a few weeks ago. I had never done this before but I found that it wasn’t very difficult. The hardest part was peeling them. Despite the hot water bath we had given them, the skins only wanted to come off in razor-thin strips. But our hard work was rewarded by rows of jewel-like jars lined up on the counter. I was so encouraged that I canned a half bushel of tomatoes the next day. It made me feel like an old, Italian lady but I know I’ll be happy this winter when I have my tomatoes, preserved in glass jars, for my spaghetti sauce. For a step-by-step guide to canning peaches go to: http://www.make-it-do.com/cook-it-bake-it/the-best-way-to-can-peaches/
If canning seems too daunting of a task for you, you can always go the route of the freezer. Peppers, peaches & berries can all be frozen as they are; just wash them and place them in a freezer bag (chop up the peppers first and remove the seeds). Corn can also be frozen and I’m going to give you the best recipe for freezing corn, given to me by my friend Dianne. This is Dianne’s family recipe, direct from the Iowa cornfields. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I have.
Iowa Frozen Corn
8 c. Corn, cut off the cob
1 c. Water
1tsp. Salt
1 Tbs. Sugar
1 stick butter
Put water, salt, sugar and butter into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add corn. Stir and bring back to a boil. As soon as the corn begins to boil, remove from the heat and place the corn in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process (I use a metal bowl placed in a sink full of ice water). Place cooled corn into freezer bags or containers and freeze.
For more freezer recipes, see last year’s post Freezing Summer
I have to apologize for not writing for so long. If any of you have tried to write something for publication on a regular basis, you will know that it is extremely time consuming. And I just haven’t had much time lately. First there was the end of the school year in my classroom and then there was my six-week vacation in Italy. As I’m writing this, I have been in Italy for a little more than five weeks. Today I have felt very homesick and ready to go back to Detroit. However, I know that once I get home, I will miss Italy. I guess there is always something to miss.
Being here for so many weeks has really been an experience. Besides all the beautiful sights and great food, I have had an opportunity to experience Italian culture. Although I truly believe that people are more alike than they are different, it really isn’t all that easy to fit into someone else’s culture. Even a culture that is as fascinating and alluring as the Italian culture, can be difficult to understand. For one thing, there is the difference in language. Although I have been studying the Italian language for about five years, I have never lived here and have never had the opportunity to speak with native speakers on a daily basis. That is, until I started dating my boyfriend Diego one year ago. We have spoken every day for the past year and that has helped me to improve my language skills greatly. But it is one thing to speak a new language with someone who loves you, has the patience to understand what you are trying to say and who lovingly corrects you when you make a mistake. It is something different altogether to try to speak with a crabby person behind the ticket window at the train station or to ask someone for directions when you are totally and completely lost.
My first week here I was trying to figure out how the trains work. Since we no longer have train transportation in Detroit (sadly), it is not something that any of us native Detroiters are used to. My daughter Merryn was with me and we were on our own because my friend, Marina had to go out of town. She left us at her apartment in Sarzana, a little town near Cinqua Terre. Her apartment is a five minute walk from the train station and very convenient so I didn’t think there would be any problems. But if you are not used to trains, they can be a little difficult to navigate. Still we wanted to go to the sea, so I asked the woman behind the counter if she spoke English because I wasn’t exactly sure of myself at that time. She said no. So I did my best to speak italian and managed to get our tickets to go to Monterosso. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to find out where the train was and she made it very clear that she didn’t want to help me. So I tried to figure out which track our train would be on. I asked a couple of people to help me but they couldn’t. I looked towards the window to see if I could get the woman to help me but she was speaking to the next person… in English! When she saw me looking at her she started yelling at me in Italian that my train was there. I said I didn’t know which track the train was on and she pointed at the monitor. Thanks a lot. To make a long story short, we missed the train and had to wait two hours for the next one. Lesson: If someone is struggling to speak English, be nice to them. It doesn’t take anymore energy to be nice than it does to be mean.
Another difference between America and Italy is the food. While you will never hear me complaining about having to eat Italian food, it is sort of strange to eat Italian food every day. Americans take for granted that we can eat food from any culture, anytime we like. We get used to having different foods, trying new things, and making up new recipes. It doesn’t work like that in Italy. You might come across a Chinese or Japanese restaurant here and there (more in the larger cities) but for the most part, you will be eating Italian food. And Italians are extremely particular about their food. To an Italian, food is closely linked to tradition. We have been making carbonara this way for hundreds, no… thousands of years. My mother made it like this, my grandmother made it like this… You don’t go changing things on them. They think it is weird if you try to change things.
For example, one day Marina and I were making sandwiches and I put some pesto on my sandwich. I asked her if she wanted to try it. She looked at me with a very strange expression on her face. “No! You don’t put pesto on a sandwich. Pesto is for pasta.” Then later she told Diego, “Shelly put pesto on her sandwich. Those Americans! Always trying new things.” Every time I would try to mix things up a little, she would say something like that, “You Americans!” and laugh. But whenever I cooked something, she loved it. She told me that I should move to Italy and open a restaurant.
“No one will come. Italians think that American food is crap,” I said.
“They’ll come because they’ll be curious. And they’ll come back because it’s good,” she said. “I tell my friends that one thing I miss about living in America is the food. They’re always surprised, but Americans have good food.”
Yes we do. That is if you can find food that isn’t genetically modified or laden with hormones. I told Marina’s husband, Sandra, that I always buy organically grown food here. “What you call organic in America, is what what we call normal food here,” he replied. If Italy can feed everyone without chemicals, why can’t we? We have a lot more space to grow food than they do. Sigh. That is definitely a strike against America in my book.
Every culture has their unwritten rules: In America we stand in line. In Italy, not so much.
In America we don’t use many hand gestures. In Italy, they have many hand gestures and most of them mean something like, what the hell do you think you’re doing?
In America we take for granted that if you are in a wheel chair you will be able to use the bathroom (which probably has toilet paper available). In Italy, I really don’t know what you do if you are in a wheel chair and you need to use the bathroom (which probably won’t have toilet paper) because you have to go up or down many steep stairs to use the bathroom pretty much anywhere you go.
In America we have clothes dryers. Not in Italy; you hang your clothes out to dry there. None of these differences are bad (unless someone pushes their baby stroller in front of you while you’re waiting in line and insists that they were there first… true story) they’re just different. But if you don’t have someone to tell you about where to go, where to find what you need, how to act, then you are going to feel really weird. Thankfully I had my friends with me there to help me. But in America, we have a lot of people who come here from other places and they might not have someone to help them.
Marina told me that when she lived here, she really felt depressed for about a year. She struggled with the language, with where to go to find things, with how the schools are here. She told me that not everyone was so nice to her. She said that one time a lady said to her, “You’re in my country, you should speak my language.” How ignorant is that? So that means you are going to speak Italian when you go to Italy, Chinese in China and German in Germany? Or you’re basically just going to stay here everyday of your life? I have to say that as Americans we can be pretty stupid. We take for granted that wherever we go, we can just speak English and everyone will understand us. But we don’t go out of our way to help someone who is struggling with English. We think that everyone is just like us. Guess what? Everyone is not just like us and we need to be more aware of that. I think every American needs to go and live somewhere else for a month. It will really change the way you think. Like me, you will be more appreciative of the great things we have here in our country such as accessibility for people with handicaps and our diverse cuisine. But you will also realize that we don’t know everything and there are other places and cultures that are rich with tradition and history that we just don’t have here because our country just isn’t as old.
Whenever I travel outside of the U.S. I can hear Americans coming a mile away. Usually they are talking too loud, laughing too loud, and assuming that what is acceptable at home is acceptable everywhere. It’s not. If you travel, take some time to look around at how the locals act. Learn at least a few words of the local language so that you can at least say please and thank you, hello and goodbye. Dress a little more neatly than you normally do-no pajama pants, backwards baseball caps and basketball shorts guys, come on! And when you meet someone who is a visitor in our country, give them the respect that you would appreciate if you were the one who was the outsider. You might just learn something while you’re at it. Not to mention the fact that your karma will thank you.
How many of us have a hero that was a teacher? I know I do.
By Shelly Bennett
I’m just realizing that it has been about a month since my last post. I have to apologize, things in my life haven’t exactly been going the way I have expected them to and I have found myself caught up in life, relationships and especially work.
I think I’ve mentioned before that my day job is 2nd grade teacher. You may think, by the way we are being portrayed in the media lately, that being a teacher would afford me lots of time to pursue other interests. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While it is true that the school day is only about seven hours long for students, most teachers I know work many hours beyond that schedule. I myself, typically arrive at school around 7:30 in the morning (an hour and a half ahead of the students) and leave around 4:30 or 5:00 in the evening (forty minutes to over an hour after the students have gone home). In addition, I usually eat my 40 minute lunch at my desk so that I can check my work email, set up science experiments or get some papers graded. I have to do these things when the students are not around because when they are around, I am with them. By the time I get home, I am exhausted. I make dinner, get things ready for the next day, talk to my daughters a little, then crawl into bed. I don’t have time to write.
I know that teachers are getting blamed for a lot of things right now. And I am here to tell you that we don’t deserve it. Sure we get the summers off. But most of us are doing some sort of professional development during that time (mandated by the state but paid for out of our own pockets) or working on our plans and setting up our classrooms for the following year. And don’t even try to tell me that you wouldn’t need a couple of months to become sane again after spending all day, every day with 20-35 children. Most people can’t even stand to be around their own kids for the weekend, but they expect one teacher to basically raise an entire classroom of kids and to do it for pretty much no pay. Come on people! You wouldn’t even invite 30 kids to your house for a two hour birthday party, and you know it!
I know that there are a few teachers out there who aren’t the most talented professionals in the world. I know a lot of teachers, ranging in ability from excellent to not-so-good. But I don’t know one teacher who doesn’t care about kids and who doesn’t want to do the best that s/he can for the students in his/her classroom. I don’t know one teacher who doesn’t spend their own money to buy things for their classrooms or for the students in their classrooms. I don’t know one teacher who has never had a student or parent thank them for all they have done to make a difference in at least one child’s life. I have a feeling, if you take a minute to think about it, you have at least one teacher, probably multiple teachers, who have made a positive impact in your own life and the lives of the people you know. We have to stop vilifying teachers and start supporting public education in this country or we will be in serious doo-doo (putting it in 2nd grade terms). Even if you don’t have children, never had children, don’t want children or hate children, the quality of education in your neighborhood is going to to have a direct effect on you, your neighbors, and your community. The quality of the schools in your community directly effect the value of your home, the type of businesses that choose to come to your community, the type of people who choose to reside near you, etc. Not to mention the fact that our children are the FUTURE. If we let them down, we let everyone down.
We now have a governor in Michigan who appears to be intent on punishing teachers and dissolving the teacher’s unions in our state. You may think that teacher’s unions are just a way for us greedy, lazy teachers to milk more money out of the system, but let me tell you something. One of the biggest issues at the bargaining table for teachers is not salary. It is class size. If you ask any teacher what they would rather have; more money and a smaller class, or less money and a larger class, I am here to tell you that by far, they would choose less money and a manageable sized class. That is because the great majority of teachers take their jobs seriously and care deeply about being able to educate their students. We are not living in mansions. We don’t get bonuses. We don’t have gold plated staplers and Waterford crystal chandeliers in our classrooms. We just want to make a difference in the world while being able to afford our house payment. Considering that most of us have Master’s degrees or above, I don’t think that is too much to ask.
If you give half a hoot about the future of this country, you may want to consider writing a letter supporting public education and teachers in general. I think the way that teacher’s have been negatively portrayed in the media is just plain wrong. I don’t really care who you write your letter to, just write one. You could write a letter to the governor and your state senators and representatives telling then to revise the governor’s horrific budget (a sample letter and contact information is listed below). You could write a letter to your local paper, telling them that the quality of education in our schools is important to you. Even if you just write a letter to your old first grade teacher, thanking him/her for teaching you how to read, it would show your support for the teaching profession and go a long way towards validating someone who has given their life to educate and enrich the lives of children. Whatever you do, do something. The future depends on you.
Sample letter
Letter to legislators:
Dear,
I am greatly concerned about Governor Snyder’s proposal to eliminate additional funding from public schools. Our district has reduced expenses since 2002. The governor’s current proposal, plus our existing deficit, creates for us a multi-million dollar problem for the 2011-2012 school year. Michigan’s public schools cannot sustain these continual reductions. Education should be seen as the major key to Michigan’s economic recovery. With the failure of Proposal A to properly fund schools, and the many reductions to public education, we won’t be able to be part of the solution.
Please work collaboratively to find a way to adequately fund our schools. Michigan’s future depends on an educated workforce that is prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Reductions like the one currently proposed aren’t part of a solution; they are only compounding our state’s problem.
I am truly disturbed by what is going on with the food supply in this country and I think you should be as well. I believe without question that genetically modified foods are going to end up devastating our environment, our lives and the lives of our future generations unless we do something about it right now.
Genetically modified (GM, GMO) foods have been allowed to run rampant; contaminating our food supply unchecked despite alarming scientific evidence that these crops could cause physical harm to ourselves and even our future generations-GMO foods have been shown to cause 2nd generation infertility in mice, as well as causing numerous other health problems. Click here to read more on these studies, I believed that you will be shocked, outraged and disgusted by what is going on.
You need to educate yourself about these dangers and to stop buying genetically modified foods. Look for the “No GMO” labeling or buy organic whenever possible. Don’t rely on the government to protect you-it is clear that is not going to happen as many of Monsanto’s former executives now hold important positions in government food regulating agencies. The deregulation of GM seeds has been approved despite insufficient testing regarding the safety of these crops.
In addition, despite concerns from researchers, proponents of organic farming, as well as more than 250,000 concerned citizens, GM alfalfa was recently granted unrestricted approved by the USDA for use as a food crop. GM alfalfa is a “Round Up Ready” crop despite the fact that 93% of current alfalfa crops are grown without pesticides or herbicides. The use of these seeds will be detrimental to our entire food supply as alfalfa is a prolific pollinator and will quickly contaminate other, Non-GMO crops. Alfalfa is also the fourth largest crop grown in the US and is used primarily as animal feed. This means that it will be even more difficult to avoid consuming GMO’s as they will be more deeply rooted in our food supply from cross contamination. Do you really want more chemicals in your food? Do you want to be a guinea pig in what is essentially a mass, uncontrolled science experiment? The introduction of these GM alfalfa seeds is blatant sabotage by Monsanto on the organic food industry. We should all be outraged!
GM foods have been banned in Europe and in many countries throughout the world, however the US government, and the FDA do not even require anything genetically modified to be identified on ingredient lists. I don’t know about you, but this terrifies me! One way to protect yourself is to buy only products labeled “Non GMO.” You can download the “NO GMO” ap. for your phone or download the free “Non-GMO Shopping Guide” from the Institute for Responsible Technology (http://responsibletechnology.org/resources/download-brochures).
The following information is from Institute for Technology’s website: Here is a summary of crops, foods and food ingredients have been genetically modified as of May, 2010:
Currently Commercialized GM Crops in theU.S.:
(Number in parentheses represents the estimated percentage that is genetically modified.)
It’s time we let the food companies know that we have new healthier criteria if they want to keep us as customers. And front and center in those new criteria is to commit to no GM alfalfa in their supply chain (which is used as animal feed, particularly to dairy cows).
Please use the link below to send a letter to the food companies letting them know!
In addition, please take a few minutes to watch this video about the hidden dangers in our food. If you have children or if you want to in the future, you must educate yourself about the dangers of genetically modified organisms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVH9x4s-5Pc
Diego and me at Layfayette Coney Island. Notice the clean plates.
By Shelly Bennett
I don’t know about you but I’m frickin’ sick of the snow. You wake up… snow. Go to sleep… snow. Go to the grocery store and there’s no snow but when you come out… more F-in’ snow. Except on the day I wanted there to be some snow. The day my boyfriend, Diego, came in from Rome. We had built up a nice base of snow here in Detroit, and Diego had never seen a lot of snow-a big snow in Rome is about a centimeter’s worth; and that closes down the entire city. A couple of days before he got here we had a few days of spring-like weather and everything melted. I was a little disappointed but then we had Sunday’s huge snowstorm and that made me wish that Diego had gone a bit longer without seeing a foot of snow on the ground. Because Sunday was the day we had tickets to see Cirque du Soleil at Joe Louis Arena.
Driving in the snow is not fun, at least not in my car. But we did it anyway and lived to tell the story. Cirque du Soleil was worth a drive in a snowstorm. If you missed this last engagement you can get another chance in October when they do their Michael Jackson the ImmortalWorld Tour (click here for more information). I imagine it will be nearly as good as seeing the King of Pop performing himself. And since sadly, that won’t be happening again… the performance will be in Detroit for one day only, October 15, 2011.
My worries that Diego wouldn’t get to see snow were unfounded as it ended up snowing pretty much every day he was here. That didn’t stop us from going out (however we did end up spending a lot of time at home which was actually nice). He taught me how to make Spaghetti con Carbonara and I gave him a taste of his first American hotdog, well, actually I gave him two tastes of American hotdogs-the two most famous Coney Island-style hotdogs in Detroit; one from Lafayette Coney Island (118 W Lafayette Blvd, Detroit, MI 48226) and one from American Coney Island, right next door (115 Michigan Ave, Detroit, MI 48226).
We went with my sister-in-law, Beth who was more excited to watch Diego eat his first Coney than I was. We were initially going to take him only to Lafayette, where I had gone as a child, and where others insisted the best coneys are made. But when we got there and explained the on-going controversy of which restaurant had the best coneys, Diego suggested we try them both for ourselves. Why didn’t I think of that?
First was Lafayette. Small yet charming in an odd, 1930‘s sort of way. Old fashioned, institutional white ceramic tile walls, menu on a board on the wall in type so small you have to go stand next to it to read it. I guess they think pretty much everyone is coming for the same thing, so why waste paper? The coney sauce here is rich and smooth. Nice crunch to the dog. Fries a little undercooked. Cubed ice in the drinks. They don’t bother giving you a bill, they just figure it out in their heads and let you know what you need to pay. I sort of like this unintentional environmentally friendly style. You sort of feel like you’re in another world. But on to the next dog.
Coney #2 (or 3) at American Coney Island. Clean plates again? You bet!
American Coney Island is much bigger but still with that old fashioned feel. However this place is more patriotic than institutional with its red, white and blue theme. You imagine yourself in the 1950’s here; you could be wearing a poodle skirt and your boyfriend’s letter jacket. They actually have menus and more to choose from than coney dogs. So far, ambiance wins at American but the proof is in the pudding, or the dog in this case. This time we ordered chili-cheese fries to go along with our coneys. Beth and I split one and she orders a side of diced tomatoes for her half (something they didn’t have next door). The chili cheese fries are a bit over-cooked but divine nonetheless. Real shredded cheese melts deliciously underneath the hot, spicy coney sauce; a heart attack on a plate. Crushed ice in the drinks. The hotdogs here still have that nice pop when you bite into them. The difference for me is the coney sauce (or chili if you prefer) which, here, has a nice spice and tang to it as opposed to the more bland sauce of the competition. Diego liked them so much he ordered a second (really his third) here. He paid for it later, but that’s another story.
So which coney joint emerged victorious? We all, hands down, preferred American’s coney dog to Lafayette’s, again because of their superior chili. That’s my decision and I’m sticking to it… at least until next time. I know that this is one argument that some people will fight tooth and nail over but maybe that’s something that you need to find out for yourself. At just over two bucks per dog, it’s a pretty economic way to do your own taste test. If you only have room for one dog, you can always flip a coin for it. No matter which place you choose, you’re guaranteed a great coney experience. One more thing worth driving in a snow storm for? I would say yes.
“ I was told that my job as an artist is to come up with solutions. I came up with a solution that makes people set aside their fear. And they come here because they gotta see it.”
-Tyree Guyton, Artistic Director The Heidelberg Project
By Shelly Bennett
Imagine spending your life’s work making nothing into something; toiling in the ghetto, expressing yourself where there once stood only abandoned houses. Putting your whole heart and soul into your project only to have part of that project torn down, not once, but twice, by the leaders of the same community that you are trying to heal.** The reason for the controversy? The age old debate of, “Is it art? Or is it trash?” This is just part of the story of The Heidelberg Project, an open air art installation that is in its 24th year.
While surrounding cities are flourishing, Detroit continues to be a place that instils fear in the hearts of many suburbanites. I myself have been in the car with people who are continually checking the door locks when driving in the city limits (is there some mystical force field that will render door locks inoperable once crossing Eight Mile Rd?). But it is that same fear that has inspired artist Tyree Guyton to come up with a solution. And his answer to the problem is to turn decay into art. Click HERE to read about the history of the project.
The Heidelberg Project is off the beaten path. It is definitely in a neighborhood and there are no signs pointing the way. It is best to take a map with you and to go during the day so that you can see everything (as well as for safety). There is no entrance fee and you can take as long as you like to roam the two streets where once abandoned houses now sport a new look. I spent about an hour there and that included a discussion with artist Tim Burke. He was kind enough to explain some of the materials that he uses in his art and where he found them such as the styrofoam drippings left from Nerf Ball production that now have new life as art. Tim also gave some insight into some of his works; “Found:Weapons of Mass Destruction” featuring empty liquor bottles; or the advertisements for cigarettes touting the bonus of lung cancer. He said that he thought these items contributed to ruining more lives than all the wars put together. To learn more about Tim’s work, visit his website: www.detroitindustrialgallery.com Standing there speaking with Tim, I got a little taste of the flavor of the neighborhood…real people, just trying to make it work, despite sometimes desperate circumstances, find pride in these works of art. It is a diamond in the cesspool of urban decay.
Real art tells a story. Whether it is an account of bourgeois life in 18th century France, or the tale of human suffering during the Spanish Inquisition, art is a documentation of society’s history and evolution. If you look at art in this way it is easy to see the unfolding plot of The Heidelberg Project: the sad, yet hopeful story of the city of Detroit. It also makes it easy to answer the question…Is it trash? Or is it something much, much brighter?
The Heidelberg Project
Phone: 313.267.1622 • Fax: 313.267.1623
Mailing Address: PO Box 19377, Detroit, MI 48219
Office Address: 3360 Charlevoix, Suite 206, Detroit, MI 48207
http://www.heidelberg.org/index.html
**It is not news that the former leaders of the City of Detroit have sometimes been lacking in judgement (we won’t even go there). So tearing down internationally acclaimed art is probably not viewed as such a bad thing when compared to extortion, embezzlement, perjury or bribery. I’m just saying.
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” -Dalai Lama
According to the Dalai Lama, once a person has control of his own mind, things start to fall into place. This is easier said than done. Apparently meditation is the best way to achieve focus but I have never been a big fan of meditating. One reason I don’t like to meditate is because I get frustrated and bored and my legs start going to sleep. But I think there may be another way for those of us who don’t like sitting still for long periods of time…yoga.
In the practice of yoga you are taught (if you have a good teacher) to focus on the present. This means focusing on your breathing and keeping your breathing slow and steady even when you are struggling with the difficult poses. As I said in my last post, I had struggled for years with anxiety. My anxiety really increased after my divorce and lasted for several years. The first step that helped me begin to feel less anxious was beginning to trust God (See Inner Peace:Part I). But I still struggled with worrying… I continued to let little things bother me. The anxiety was still there, it just wasn’t quite so bad. I had taken some yoga classes at my gym and I really enjoyed them. I found them physically challenging but also relaxing. But my gym eventually got rid of the more challenging yoga classes and replaced them with a watered down, old lady version so I quit that gym and began trying yoga at a few different studios.
I have to say that it is important to try out a few different yoga studios first to see if you can find one that is a good fit for you. There is a huge range in style and philosophy; from flower-child types, to rigid yoga drill sergeants. You will have to decide what works for you. After trying a few different places I found one that I enjoyed, Detroit Yoga (www.detroityoga.com ). It was extremely challenging but it didn’t have any of that flower child, “Feel the Earth,” crap that makes me crazy. The owner, Jason Schramm is very committed to both his practice and the business of teaching yoga. He takes yoga seriously and expects the same from his students. Although I have since moved on from attending classes at Detroit Yoga, I am grateful for what I learned there… I learned to pay attention.
When I first was asked to focus on my breath during a yoga class I thought, You’ve got to be kidding me. I can barely get enough breath into my lungs, much less focusing on controlling it! But after the days and weeks and months went by, I started to realize that I could keep my breath slow and steady even when I was feeling physically challenged. Jason told us that if we were able to keep calm in the studio when things got tough, it would make it easier for us to do the same out it the world. This is truth. Yoga is practice for life.
So yoga has helped me learn to focus on the moment, but there is something else that helped me as well. As I said before, I’m not a big fan of meditation (although I’m definitely thinking about giving it another shot). Well, a former boyfriend gave me some meditation CDs, The Holosync Program (www.centerpointe.com) which he swore changed his life. Basically, you just put on stereo headphones and listen to them. It sounds like a rainstorm with some gongs going off. I don’t really have the space to explain the technology behind it-if you’re interested, it’s on their website. I’m telling you, I know it sounds really weird but the CDs worked. I found myself feeling much more calm; little things didn’t bother me anymore. Just another step on the road to inner peace. And I have to tell you that after feeling anxious for so long, peace feels good. When you go from anxiety to peace, you will never want to go back.
I know that I don’t even come close to being the Dalai Lama when it comes to knowing what’s what about inner peace, but I figure you probably don’t come too close to being him either. Most of us are just normal schmucks trying to get through the day. The things I shared with you really did help me. And if they helped me they can help you too. As they say at the end of yoga class… Namaste.
Little Miss Detroit’s Recipe for Inner Peace
Trust God. He knows better than any of us.
Focus on the moment. Try a yoga class but make sure you have a good teacher who teaches you to focus on your breathing.
Practice meditation. Even if it is the cheating, meditation CD kind like I did.
Be kind. Nothing makes you feel as good as when you do something to help someone. And nothing makes you feel as crappy as being mean. Give to a worthy cause, take dinner over for your neighbors, play a game with your kids or spend time with an elderly person.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Think about whether or not what you’re worrying about will even matter to you next week, next month or next year. Put it into perspective. It’s probably not that bad. And if it is that bad, go back to item #1 and trust that God has got your back.
