G.A. Minutes 7-26-14

It’s kinda hot and humid upon our arrival at CJM this evening. We are greeted by the sound of a woman and a man screaming insults at each other from the back ledge. People are hanging out in small groups scattered around the Memorial site and the street.
A middle aged man from a group at the site says to the man who is yelling, “Shut up! Don’t talk like that around here”. The loud man doesn’t want to shut up and he argues. The middle aged man doesn’t back down. Eventually the loud man walks off in a huff.

We think Oh great. It’s going to be another night where folks are crabby because they can’t handle the heat.

It turns out the man and woman are shirttail relatives. The man was making sexual advances and touching the woman quite inappropriately. The woman had to get loud, scream and call attention to the situation in order to defend herself. The man then denied he had done the things he was accused of. Yelling and making a big scene is about the only form of self-defense available to the weaker folks of the street.

There are only a few Occupiers present as we set up our chairs and such. It’s another night where we’ll wait to start the fire until the weather and the inhabitants cool down.

One of the Occupiers is feeling sad and angry. His neighbor, a badly traumatized, alcoholic, Vietnam vet was found dead in his apartment earlier in the day. We emphasize and allow the Occupier to vent.

“It’s not right!” he says, “The guy was drafted into the army and forced to risk his life and endure horrible things. When he came back badly damaged, nobody cared. The government wouldn’t help him and his family rejected him”.

A couple of the Occupiers are old enough to have clear memories of the Vietnam War. They reminisce about the way the soldiers who made it out alive were treated when they returned.

We’ve been having some trouble with our website and Facebook page lately and we discuss the problems. An Occupier who is computer savvy offers to attempt to fix things after our meeting is over.

People have been coming to get their drinks but not stopping. Everyone is on the constant move. Then a gentle cool breeze arrives and gray clouds cover the sky. The street folks settle down. Sounds of laughing and joking are heard. Is it going to rain? Who knows? We light the fire.

The thin older woman who had joined us at our meeting returns. We welcome her. She is capable of following and joining the conversation.

An Occupier asks us what type of society we think would be best to put in place when our current system fails. He remarks he can see the attitude of the general populace changing.

The thin woman says, “That’s right. Everyone used to think if they worked hard enough they would get rich. Now we know that’s not true. It doesn’t matter though because there are lots of things more important than wealth”.

An Occupier who has been doing other things arrives. He’s been working on organic farming and other important things. He tells us he’s interested in coming to work with us again and we catch him up on the current goings on. We invite him to come with us on Tuesday to the next NWA meeting and to attend the mayor’s open office that same evening.

It’s completely dark now and the street lights are on. We should pack up but we don’t want to. The night air feels wonderful.

However, Mother Nature has other plans for us. She sends down a soft but steady rain. So much for the fire, smudge pot and paper cups. We laugh as we pack up.

With meetings next Tuesday and the FDL Pow Wow on Saturday, we won’t be back for an entire week. We trust the people of the street will keep things in order until then.

G.A. Minutes 7-22-14
Weather wise it’s another one of those near perfect evenings. The 1st Occupier rolls up to the CJM Memorial, sets her chair down and checks out the scene. She’s a lone woman sitting in a fairly dangerous area of the city however, she is unconcerned. The street folks are used to the presence of the Occupiers; some of them appear to like us.

The 1st Occupier notices there are many people on the street. Most of them are talking loudly and appear to be somewhat angry. A regular street woman, well known to the Occupiers is walking across the Memorial grounds. She appears quite intoxicated and unhappy. She doesn’t recognize the Occupier. The Occupier says to herself, “It looks like everyone is going to be crabby tonight. They’re probably out of sorts from having nowhere to go to escape the afternoon heat”.

A regular street man who is possibly developmentally disabled sits down. He says, “I have to sell the air conditioner that my daughter gave me. My landlord says we can’t have air conditioners in our apartments”.

The 1st Occupier asks, “Does your landlord pay for your utilities?” The man says yes and the Occupiers responds, “He probably doesn’t want to pay for the increase in electricity. Air conditioners take a lot of it. I guess he doesn’t care if his tenants get over heated”.

A couple more Occupiers arrive, the man leaves to go to his nightly AA meeting, everybody scurries to set up the beverage table etc. The fire pit is set up but not lit. People come up to get beverages, a few to smudge. Everyone is polite but no one is staying or even talking much. As additional Occupiers appear and get settled, a discussion begins.

The FDL Sobriety Pow Wow out at Mash Ka Wisen will take place August 1st thru August 3rd. The Northwoods Wolf Alliance has invited us to assist them with tabling on that Saturday and we all agree we would like to be there.

The next Idle No More NdN Taco Sale will be held this upcoming Friday. We have already promised to help out.

It looks like Tuesday, July 29th will be a busy day for us. We have the INM meeting at noon and then will attend the mayor’s open office hours at 5pm.

A very thin older woman we have seen in the CJM space for quite a while comes to sit with us. This is the 1st time she has joined us. An Occupier says. “So what shall we talk about when we go to visit the mayor?”

Another answers, “We’ve already agreed we will talk about homeless and housing issues. I’m wondering if we should also bring up the topic of his support for Enbridge”.

The thin woman knows what Tar Sands oil is and listens as we explain the Enbridge plan to double the amount of Tar Sands they are currently pumping thru their already old pipeline and then to ship this dangerous material across Lake Superior on barges. “

What!” the thin woman exclaims, “I’ve never heard about any of this. Don’t they know people need clean water to drink?”

As we are talking we hear a big thump. We look to see one fairly large woman lying on top of another fairly large woman. Only a minute ago they had been talking in a small group on the back ledge. We wait to see what will happen next.

The woman on the bottom screams, “Let me up!”

The woman on top says, “I’m only holding you down”.

A man walks over and says a few words. The women disengage and the top woman walks off. The bottom woman walks across the space rubbing her forehead. She asks the folks on the back ledge, “Am I bleeding?”

They assure she is not bleeding. She walks off in the opposite direction. It is obvious her pride has been injured. The thin woman gets up, walks to the sidewalk and yells down the street, “Is everybody stupid tonight?”

Ms. Slender lady returns. She says, “I don’t drink or take drugs. I just try to take care of these people and give them the help they need. Some of them are really crazy”.

An Occupier says, “Maybe now would be a good time to light the fire. It might serve as a diversion”. It does.

The Memorial empties of all the people who were sitting around and they are quickly replaced with several groups of African American men. A few come over to get cold lemonade. They are cordial but obviously preoccupied with whatever they have going on.

Our old friend, a retired political man from the neighborhood appears. We haven’t seen him in at least a year. He appears incredulous that we are still meeting here, still doing what we have been doing for the last 3 years.

An Occupier reports on what he observed at the first meeting held by our friend the City official. The meeting was the 1st in a series of meetings to be held about the lack of hiring of Duluth people of color for City sponsored projects. Many so called big shots attended the 1stmeeting. There were wealthy businessmen, union leaders, government officials and NGO professionals.

The Occupier reports that these people basically said they were doing the best they could and didn’t plan to do anymore. The Occupiers hope we will be able to attend the next meeting.

Duluth does not have any official standards concerning the hiring of P.O.C. We don’t expect the so called big shots will return so may be able to help plan some actual strategy to get more folks hired.

A few of the Occupiers need to leave early tonight so we decide to pack up early too. The thin woman asks, “When will you be back again?” We tell her we’ll be back on Saturday.

G.A. Minutes 7-5-14

It’s almost 90 degrees and very humid as we roll up to CJM tonight. The sky is grey, looking possibly like rain. We decide to set up without starting a fire. In this heat it would be crazy to start a fire. However, the weather in this city can change in a minute. We’ll wait to see. The worst that will happen is that we’ll get wet.

The street is pretty quiet again, almost, but not quite empty. The 1st Occupiers to arrive are slowly bringing things into the space.

An Occupier who has been out of town for a while arrives and says, “Where is everybody?” “

Oh they’ll show up,” is the answer. Soon a young Occupier appears, bringing the Occudog with him. We haven’t seen this dog in over a year and she doesn’t remember us or the fact she had been christened the Occudog. She barks at everyone who shows up. She’ll need to get reacquainted.

As we’re settling in a woman from the street asks for something cold to drink. Most folks know the routine by now. We set the snack table slightly away from the circle so people can help themselves and not have to interact if they don’t want to. If they feel like sitting with us they are welcomed, if not, that’s o.k. too. In spite of this, everybody always asks before they take anything. Most are very careful not to take what they consider to be too much.

An Occupier reminds us that Idle No More/Northwoods Wolf Alliance will meet this upcoming Friday, 1pm at Randy’s. She also reminds us that we are planning to attend the Pow Wow out at Big Lake on the Fond du Lac reservation this upcoming Saturday. If possible, we will assist with tabling for the NWA.

2 older women from the street who we have known for years arrive. They are twin sisters and have been living the life for many years. They smudge; get their snacks and stay to chat. We ask them, “Where is everybody tonight?”

They answer, “Down at the carnival”.

We remember that this time every year a traveling amusement show comes to the Bayfront. Homeless people might go unnoticed in those surroundings.

As the women depart an Occupier mentions that Food Not Bombs will be having their feeding event in front of City Hall on Monday. They will attempt to hold a free food event every Monday before City Council meetings.

This leads into a discussion of city government and one Occupier says, “Remember that we had planned to go visit the mayor on the last Tuesday of July?”

The Occupier who has been out of town asks, “Oh, what’s up with that?”

She answers, “The mayor has open office hours the last Tuesday of each month from 5pm-7pm. I suppose we can talk to him about homeless issues, that’s what we know most about. Also I’m going to ask him why he didn’t appoint me to the Human Rights Commission”.

“Oh really?” says the other Occupier. “Why do you think he didn’t appoint you?”

Another says, “It might have something to do with not wanting an Occupier on his commission”.

She laughs and says, “Yeah, probably but I think it was really because of the comment I wrote on his Facebook page the day after he held that press conference in Superior announcing his support of Enbridge and all the environmental pollution they want to bring to our beautiful land and water. A lot of people were reaming him out and I was feeling particularly poetic that day so made a pretty good comment. I remember just before I pressed enter, I thought that it might cost me a seat on the commission. Oh well, I’ve known the mayor as just a regular person for years. I didn’t think he would be that petty. I guess he is. I think being in the current political system corrupts people. It’s probably for the best. I’ll do better just attending the meetings and working from the outside”.

Just then a cool eastern breeze blows across the Memorial. Everybody stops talking and says, “Whoa!” We just sit in silence for a few minutes to make sure what we’re feeling is actually happening. Then we start up the fire.

An African man from Senegal sits down. We had met him briefly last fall and we remember him. He starts talking and we listen. He expresses frustration over the fact that many white people don’t like his black skin.

He says, “If they don’t like it they need to keep that to themselves and at least be civil when working with or interacting with me. I mean, it’s just skin. What’s the big deal?” He speaks of his frustration dealing with African Americans from the neighborhood,

“They don’t like me much either. They want to intimidate me by saying they are gangsters from Chicago. So what? I’m from a country where there is civil war. A country where they slit your throat just because of your last name. I’m supposed to be afraid of a gangster? When they see that the so called gangsters leave”.

A female Occupier responds, “Well right here we’re pretty much about getting along. Pretty much about peace”.

The African visibly relaxes smiles and says, “Yeah, peace is so easy. Why does everyone want to fight?” He then begins talking about playing his drums.

One of the Occupiers is also a drummer so they carry on a conversation about the spirituality of drumming. The man also tells us a little about his travels throughout Europe.

An older African American man comes walking over. He looks drunk and angry. We gone through this routine so many times; we know what he is going to say and do before he even starts.

He yells and points to the sculptures of the 3 black men who were lynched here in Duluth in 1920. That lynching is the reason our Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial was created. The angry man says, “Those men were killed by white people! White people! You don’t belong here! You don’t have any blacks here!”

The African man jumps up, assumes a fighting stance and says, “Get out of here!”

We say, “Come sit down and talk with us about it”. Both of the black men stare each other down and the African American man stomps off.

The African man says, “That’s disgraceful. They bitch about you being here yet they come here and drink and smoke crack and stuff. This place is sacred. What do they think they are doing?”

He sits and talks a little more but begins to yawn. He states, “Tomorrow is Sunday. It sure is nice to wake up in the morning and know that you don’t have to go to work”. As he leaves, he promises to return another day and bring a couple of drums.

The street lights come on and the 2nd shift is arriving. As we are packing up an Occupier says, “Well that dude shot my stereotype all to hell. Because he’s from Africa I expected him to be very sexist but it appears that he’s not”. We all laugh and plan to meet here again on Tuesday.

G.A. Minutes 7-1-14

It’s one of those “it might rain and it might not” evenings. It’s been like that all day with various shades of white or grey clouds passing over. It didn’t actually rain all day so we’re gonna bet it won’t rain tonight either.

The Memorial is empty, the street is empty too as we set up our things. Seeing as it’s the 1st of the month we’d half way expected the place to be packed full with street dealers and customers. Seeing as the place is empty we think the people who get small government checks probably got paid yesterday and are off trying to enjoy a few days of relative comfort before returning to the street. An Occupier says, “Some people rent a motel room for a few days and take showers, sleep in an actual bed and just lay around for a few days. After that their money’s gone until the next month.

By now we’ve learned you never know what’s going to happen around here. We’ll just have to wait and see how the evening unfolds.

Someone says, “Hey, did you notice the no drinking, smoking etc. sign is gone from the fence?”

Another responds, “Maybe the members of the CJM BOD actually listened to what I said to them when I went to their meeting last week. However, the sign wasn’t put up there very securely so maybe somebody from the neighborhood just pulled it down”. The Occupier goes on to tell the story of his visit to a CJM BOD meeting. He told them the sign they had posted on the fence was offensive to street people. He also told them a sad story about the time he tried to find housing for a very pregnant homeless woman. Everything was full and he watched her walk off into the night; probably to sleep in a doorway or a bush. When he finished his story a BOD member asked primly, “Have you ever heard of the CHUM?”

We all groan. We know the woman who the story was about so we know she worked as a maid in one of the big hotels and didn’t get off work until 6:30 pm. The CHUM requires everyone who sleeps there to be in the facility by 6pm on the 1st night they stay there. They make no exceptions, even for extremely pregnant women. A sizeable portion of our city’s homeless population is not allowed to stay at CHUM for a variety of reasons. Many Duluth citizens believe all any homeless person has to do is show up at CHUM and they will be welcomed with open arms. Everyone who has any clue at all what the life of the homeless is like knows this is far from the truth.

The street is still empty. The only passersby are musicians who are going up the street to an open mic at our friend’s recently opened club. We know most of these musicians and wave and exchange pleasantries. We lounge about, enjoying the warm weather and watching the clouds. Every once in a while we feel a raindrop or 2.

An occasional Occupier comes walking up. We haven’t seen her in months. She sits down and says, “So what’s the topic of discussion tonight?”

Someone comments, “The building kitty corner from here is for sale”.

She answers, “No kidding? Tell me more”. She’s blind so we describe the large, 3 story brick building to her. She’s also a founding member of CJM and has many connections with organizers and politicians in the city. She writes down the phone number from the For Sale sign and tells us, “I wonder if it would make a good multicultural center? I’m going to call and see what they have to say. Seeing as it’s in this neighborhood, I doubt they are asking a lot of money for it”.

Another Occupier remarks, “Yeah, especially seeing as how beat up the old Kozy is now. It looks really bad and it doesn’t seem Ringsred is going to do anything about it. If we could get African Americans and Natives to work together, we could tell the City that the casino was going to buy it, they would quickly sell it to the African Americans to prevent the casino from getting it. Then both groups could split the building and have a multicultural center”. Everyone laughs and then discusses the difficulties black and Native street folk sometimes have getting along with each other.

Someone says, “It’s so sad. If the 2 groups would work together, they would be so powerful”.

Another friend, former camper and neighborhood cab driver stops by. He grabs some lemonade and tells us about the actions he and others are planning re: Neonicotinoid poisoning of the world’s bee population. Then he has to go back to work.

A couple of women come over to get watermelon and a smudge. Another woman sits for a bit and tells us she is waiting for her mother to come out of the casino. She can’t go in to look for her because she had herself banned from the place. A serious gambling addiction forced her to apply for self-banishment. Now she has money to pay bills and buy the things she needs. However, Mom still likes to play the slot machines.

The topic of possible indoor meetings at our friends’ newly opened club is broached. An Occupier says, “Yeah, I’m gonna go talk with him but I want to wait until the World Cup is finished. It will be hard to talk with him when everyone’s eyes are glued to the TV set”. People talk a little about sports in general but mostly about the horrible mess the capitalist system has made of what were basically games that were fun to play and interesting to watch.

A middle aged man appears; he asks for watermelon and sits down with us. He says, “This is really good. He eats piece after piece, then starts in on the humus and crackers. Because there have been so few people out tonight, our snacks have barely been touched. We are happy to see someone making use of the food. As he eats he tells us, “You know you can’t fight City Hall. Nothing is gonna change”. We beg to differ and tell him about our battle to have our fire at CJM. He says, “You mean the mayor let you have this?” We say, “No, he didn’t let us have this. He found he really didn’t have much choice or maybe he didn’t want the headache of trying to enforce a law that didn’t exist”. As he leaves he tells us his name. An Occupier says, “He’s a member of a big African American church family in this town”.

As it’s getting dark and we are packing up, a young woman who it appears has been “working the street” for the last few hours and not having much luck, comes over saying, “I am so hungry. Do you have anything left?” We give her everything she can carry. She’s very grateful.

No rainfall tonight. We’ll be back to try our luck again on Saturday.