January 17, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

The winds of change

I wasn’t downtown when it happened — Mondays keep me pretty busy on deadline here at the Local office — but I saw the highlights on the news. And that was enough.

On the afternoon and into the evening of Monday, Jan. 7, Mayor Michael Nutter began his first term by receiving a long line of well wishers that stretched down the stairwell of City Hall and half way around the building’s large, central block. The line lasted from 4 to 10 p.m.

 The people in this line were visibly excited. There were men, women and children, young and old.

One 4-year-old girl smiled to a TV reporter and said, “I want to see the mayor.”

Some in line had even made the pilgrimage from Jersey just for the opportunity to shake hands with the man.

And to complete the ambience of celebration, the news showed a clip of a marching band performing a bombastic number in front of City Hall.

For Philadelphians, it was clear that there was reason to celebrate. This was bigger than winning the Super Bowl or World Series. This was much bigger.

It struck me at the moment that it seemed Philadelphians had just driven some great tyrant from power — this was what neo-cons expected to see after Saddam was driven from power. It’s what the streets of Italy looked like after Mussolini was dragged away.

I don’t believe John Street is close to that bad, and am not suggesting so here. But judging by the size and scope of public reaction to Nutter’s arrival at the top job in town, this much is certain: Philadelphians expect a great deal from him.

People in this city are weary of crime and violence. They’re tired of bad economic news, high wage taxes and diminishing services. They want their local schools to work.

Nutter was elected because enough people in Philadelphia want change and they want it big.

So far he has delivered by filling city jobs with impressive, credentialed people — people who have records of success in similar roles, not personal ties to the mayor — who have already begun work. His new police chief Charles H. Ramsey embarked on a series of town hall meetings across the city [closest he’s coming to Chestnut Hill is Martin Luther King High School on Wed. Jan 23 at 7 p.m.]. During a meeting in South Philadelphia, Nutter arrived half way through and received a standing ovation.

It’s a good start to the open and transparent change that Philadelphians are hoping for, a road map to how his government will address the expectations of a city

The expectations are great. It will be a challenge to meet them, but it appears the city believes they chose the right man to do it.

Pete Mazzaccaro

The Local offices recently received an upgrade of our telephone system. As a result, some voicemails left with us during the week may have been missed or skipped over. If you didn’t get a return call last week on important business, please call again.             — PM

What would God say about Democracy?
by GEORGE STERN

“I don’t quite know how to put this,” a sociologist asked me recently, “but maybe crass is better: Do you think God would prefer democracy to any other form of government?”

We were in the middle of a conversation about the intersection between religion and politics, part of a study she is doing through the Princeton Center for the Study of Religion. The interview was quite fascinating, and by the time she asked this, I was pretty revved up, and more than ready to tell her that I couldn’t answer that question as posed, since I’m not even sure what people mean when they use the term, “God.” Of course, I said, our ancient religious texts assume either tribal societies led by elders or monarchies. But I went on to remind her that, as I had said before, I think that the most important religious models for us are the prophets, who are presented as spokespeople for God. And it is pretty clear that the thrust of their message was to speak truth to power and to stand up for the more lowly in society.

Democracy was not a concept they had any conscious understanding of; but fairness for all, no matter what social class, was very much on their minds. So I can imagine that, were Isaiah or Amos or Jesus or Muhammad alive today, they might well look favorably on a government that strove to assure the rights of all citizens. Perhaps they would agree with Winston Churchill, that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Such thoughts are not inappropriate at this time, as we look ahead with hope to the Nutter Administration here in Philadelphia and take note of the outpouring of support – at much higher than usual turnout rates — for presidential candidates representing and talking about change. As one who “came of age” in the 1960s, I must say that I am quite thrilled to note the number of younger people who are participating in the primary process, no matter how torturous it may be.

The weekend of Jan. 19 calls upon us all to reflect on the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so tragically cut down in his prime during my junior year in college. This year, for the 25th time, Neighborhood Interfaith Movement will hold an Interfaith Celebration of Dr. King’s work. Picking up on a theme we began last year, we are looking to the future and trying to imagine what Dr. King would be concerned with were he alive today. By the end of his life, he had begun to teach that “civil rights” depend very much on decisions and policies that on the surface have little to do with racial justice.

He saw, for example, that African Americans and the poor were disproportionately hurt by the Vietnam War. He recognized that the sanitation workers — black and white — in Memphis could never realize their dreams when they did not make enough on which to live. Without denying the major role that race has played and continues to play in American life, I imagine that Dr. King would also continue to use his prophetic voice to insist on the rights of all the vulnerable among us.

A few months ago, Martin Luther King III, the great Dr.’s son, began a talk before Congress by quoting a statement his father made when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: “Granted that we face a world crisis, which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom.”

King’s son then went on to say:

“Today, a new world crisis looms, one that we knew little about 40 years ago.  Last week, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former Vice President Al Gore and to a panel of 2,000 scientists who have been lifting our veil of ignorance on the global warming crisis.

There is a bridge between this crisis and that which my father confronted, because both require a new paradigm of moral courage and leadership.  In this climate crisis, I too see both opportunity and danger, and I am hopeful that we can find our salvation. 

I am here today to tell you that global warming is a form of violence upon the most vulnerable among us, and to ask for you to step forward to protect those in need.”

I cannot say what God would tell us about global warming, but I am pretty sure that a prophet like Isaiah or Martin would have something strong to say about the unjust distribution of the effects of global warming and environmental degradation, which affect most profoundly the poor. All you need do is take a quick drive through large swaths of North and Southwest Philadelphia to see what I mean. Not to mention the slums of Mumbai.

So it is that a committee made up of members of NIM congregations chose “Environmental Justice” as the theme for our MLK Program this year, and for a Day of Service Integrated Pest Management Project we are sponsoring at Germantown High the next day. I invite you to join us at Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ (Stenton and Ogontz Avenues) on Sunday Jan. 20 at 3:30 p.m. and at the high school at 9 a.m. on Jan. 21. I am sure that prophets past and present would approve.

Rabbi George Stern is the Executive Director of Neighborhood Interfaith Movement (NIM), a coalition of 60 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian congregations and faith institutions dedicated to building a more just and sensitive community through learning, service, and advocacy. NIM is located at 7047 Germantown Ave.

Always listen to your mother
by HUGH GILMORE

I begin this week with a belated expression of gratitude to my mother and with the warning that this is one of those columns where I take a deep breath and don’t come up for air until the end.

My mother’s maiden name was Catherine Loretta Dooley. She gave me the gift of encouraging me to read. She taught all six of her children to value learning above money. (And a good thing too, for learning is ours for the taking, all of us, all the time, while money is not.)

She loved to read herself. Though the Great Depression made it necessary for her to leave high school and go to work at 15, she read sophisticated books all her life. She never had time to waste on “trashy” entertainment, as she called it.

We lost her two years ago, so she won’t have the “I told you so” satisfaction of knowing I read a book this week she must have told me a hundred times I should read. And which, of course, I didn’t. Until I finished it last night.

How I came to read this book is part of the story too.

I started writing a novel on New Year’s Day. My model for how to do this has been Walter Mosley’s This Year You Write Your Novel (2007). Mosley is the mystery writer who gave us, among other books, Devil In A Blue Dress (yes, made into a Denzel movie). His dictum is that an aspiring novelist must get up and write first thing, for at least an hour and a half, every day. Every day. For all 16 days of 2008 I’ve done that and I’m now more than 16,000 words to the good. After about another 84 days (mid-April?) I should have enough written to call it a first draft. Then the real work will begin.

Nothing makes me appreciate a craft of any kind more than trying to do it myself and failing. I don’t expect to ever be good at plumbing, sculpting or whistling, but I might be able to write a readable novel. My hopes would rise if I knew just what qualities in a book make people want to read it. 

In the world of fiction nowadays, most books are bought and read by women. What do women want (in a book)? In the past half-year, five different women whose taste I respect, on five different occasions, told me they really enjoyed Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. That book’s been a best seller for more than a year.

I read Water For Elephants last October. I couldn’t stand it. I thought it was the most phoney-baloney book I’ve read in ages. I barely resisted making my reaction a column subject.

But then came January. A week into my own novel, I had a sudden craving to reread Water For Elephants to see how it was constructed. Maybe I could learn more about novel construction.

Unfortunately, the Free Library’s copies were out on loan. Though I really wanted to read Water For Elephants, I didn’t want to buy it. I sat on the sofa and told my wife my plight. Then I added, “If not Water For Elephants, then some woman’s book, something I could learn from.”

“Are you open to suggestions?” she said.

Boy oh boy, is that ever a square to be stuck on in husband-wife checkers! What could I say?

“Yes,” I said, “I need to read a book women like. Immediately.”

“You should read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.”

Here we go again. My mother told me all my life, every time the subject of books came up, I should read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I never did. I don’t have interest in that kind of sappy, girl-comes-of-age book. I can’t identify. I hate sentiment. That’s a … pinafore book! 

“Do we have a copy?” I asked, knowing, but hoping anyway.

“Yes,” and she retrieved it from the “Hers” section of the house.

Okay. 476 pages. Small type. Thanks m’love.

Now it just so happened that I’d brought home from the library that same day, Melville: His World and Work (2005) by Andrew Delbanco. As readers of this column know, Moby-Dick was the last book I read last year. In fact, I finished it, number 100 on my reading list for the year, at 11:07 p.m. New Year’s Eve. Party animal, I know.

Moby-Dick was so masterful, so philosophical, so jazz-like in its intoxicating rhythms, so Yo-ho-ho, that I really wanted to know more about Herman Melville. And this biography is a nice big fat book. So, which do I read first?

A Tree Grows — for the sake of my novel (and intra-marriage credibility)? Or the biography of Melville while the subject still blazed like Ahab’s doubloon in my mind?

 I tried samples of both. The Melville bio was vivid, witty and fascinating. It promised to help me understand America’s most mysterious genius. Great first chapter.

Next I started to read A Tree Grows.

Mom: Janet: All the other women: I was wrong. Again.

I couldn’t stop reading it. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a wonderful book. Very human. Great characters. Details evocative of a vanished American way of life, the world of my parents and grandparents. Admirable. Maybe a little mushy at times, but never forced or artificial. A tough-minded book too, with a deep vein of nastiness running through the sentimental core. Existential in its own way, in its hunger to experience life and insert significance where the world does not provide easy answers. A very enjoyable balance. A formula for having personal dignity despite a very small purse. My mother to a T.

I’ll get back to the Melville book tonight.

And, with luck, perhaps tomorrow, as I write my thousand words first thing in the morning, some of A Tree Grows will have rubbed off on me. (And I will reread Water For Elephants, I will, I will.)

In the meantime I’m wondering if this means I should read Goodbye, Mr. Chips, another title my mother always tried to get me to read.

Hugh can be reached at gilmorebooks@yahoo.com