New songs for Independence Day

This column is a collage of thoughts for Independence Day. The
collage is composed of excerpts from folk and pop songs. Your comments
are welcome.

WE CAN'T MAKE IT HERE ANYMORE

Vietnam vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The VA's budget's stretched so thin
And there's more coming home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor fall through the cracks
They can't make it here anymore

--- James McMurtry (2004)

I DON'T FEEL AT HOME HERE ANYMORE

I want my country back
and a good dream to stand up for
Got my hand over my heart
But I don't feel at home anymore

Big, big flag above the big, big mall
and the shake, rattle and roll to the core
things sprawl after they fall
and I don't feel at home here anymore

Homeland of Sojourner Truth
and Chief Joseph before
many quiet words of wisdom drowned out by TV
and I don't feel at home here anymore

Blind engineer, war train on the track
many many a heart is sore
We want our country back
We want to feel at home here once more.

--- Greg Brown (2003)

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

As I was walkin' I saw a sign there
And that sign said...no trespassin'
But on the other side it didn't say nothin'
Now that side was made for you and me

In the squares of the city - in the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some and grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

---Woody Guthrie (1956)

CHIMES OF FREEDOM FLASHING

For between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowing rain
Dissolved into the bells of lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burning constantly at state
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

--- Bob Dylan (1964)

PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING

As I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony

Cause each time I feel it slippin' away
Just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding

--- Nick Lowe (1974)

I'M NOT AT WAR WITH ANYONE

We could live as one
Between the sea and the sun
I am not at war with anyone

I don't need to be friends with everyone
But I'd like to live in peace with everyone

--- Luka Bloom (2003)

GET TOGETHER

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
One key unlocks them both
It's at your command

Come on people now
Smile on each other
Everybody get together
Try and love one another right now.

--- Chet Powers (1963)

THIS IS MY SONG

This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my hear ts
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
Oh, hear my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine

--- Lloyd Stone (1934)

Hope for the long-term

At times it seems the struggle for just and tolerant communities is too
overwhelming. We look around and see so many obstacles: poverty,
intolerance, even indifference. We are on the verge of losing hope.

At times like these, I think of Bill Sackter. I've found him to be an
extraordinary source of hope and inspiration. He spent nearly half a century
in the old Faribault State Hospital in Minnesota, completely cut off from
family, friends and community. But he emerged with his spirit intact.

It's that remarkable spirit he brought to Iowa City. It's that
same spirit he shared wherever he went. It's also the spirit which Barry
Morrow captured in the two movies, "Bill" and "Bill On His Own."

I recently talked about this spirit of Bill at a service learning
conference. It was part of a presentation on "Sustaining hope for the
long haul."

FIVE IDEAS FOR
SUSTAINING HOPE

How does one keep hope alive? How can one find the strength to continue social
and community work despite the obstacles and the failures?

I have come up with five ideas on restoring and sustaining hope which I plan
to take with me to the conference in Minneapolis:

1. Places
John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, spent much of his life trying to
protect areas of wilderness so they could continue to serve as places of
inspiration for future generations. Paul Gruchow described this as the
"necessity of empty places." Wallace Stegner said this is a "geography of
hope."

Of course, not all of the places which restore the soul are rural, something
acknowledged in the Beatles' tune: "There are places I remember..." I think
each of us has places we go to restore hope. For myself, there are five
which come to mind: Field of Dreams in Dyers ville, Iowa, Minnehaha Falls in
Minneapolis, Alum Rock Park in San Jose, Jane Addams' gravesite in
Cedarville, Illinois and the Pacific Ocean behind the San Francisco Zoo.

2. Music
Music has the power to restore. My inspirations range from Pachabel to Led
Zeppelin, from Mozart to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The best gifts I have
received in the last couple of years have been "home brew" CDs of music.

3. Friends
Hanging out with friends is a way to restore and sustain hope, especially
friends who are engaged in similar struggles. There are friends I call and
say: "Remind me again, why are we doing this."

4. Youth
Listening -- really listening to young people -- is another way to restore
hope. I am impressed not only by the idealism of youth, but also by their
persistence; not only by their "sense of wonder," but also by their
practicality.

5. Thoughtful moments
You may call it meditation, contemplation or even prayer. But these are
times when I am able to clear away the clutter of life and consider the
"meaning of life" stuff. It could be in concert with any of the other four
ways of sustaining hope or on its own. Recently, these moments have come
while rereading "Frannie and Zooey" and the Letters of Jane Addams.

That's what I have come up with so far. Have some additional ideas? I'm
interested in hearing from you.

Building a bridge over violence

MARY JOHNSON has had this dream for a lot of years. She has
imagined building a bridge across a divide which seemed impossible to
cross. This impossible dream recently came true in a small coffeeshop.

Mary and I have been friends for about 10 years. We met as the result
of murder -- the epidemic of homicide which has been the scourge of so
many US cities for more than a decade.

I met Mary because her son had been murdered, shot to death at a
party. Her story was all too familiar to me. More than a dozen young
people I knew were shot to death during a decade of teaching and
community work in Minneapolis.

It was sad, tragic and an epidemic. Worse, the deaths continue. In
fact, gun violence is the leading cause of death for young people in
Minneapolis and most other US cities.

I was teaching high school when Mary found me. She'd heard about
students in our school who had been shot and killed like her son.
"We've got to do something," she said in her first phone call to me.

That "something" turned out to be a group for parents whose son or
daughter had been killed. We called it Parents of Murdered Children.

I remember well the first day this group met. There were more than a
dozen parents at that meeting. "I'm not sure what we are going to do,"
I said to Mary as people continued to arrive. "But clearly we are
responding to a need in our community."

That group met regularly for several years. Though it started as a
support group for parents, it soon branched out into other activities.
Some of the parents started speaking to classes at local high schools.
Others talked at churches and community groups.

I particularly remember one talk Mary gave at a local church:

"Some nights I still find myself listening for my son to come in the
door." she told the group. "And sometimes I still look for my child in
the faces of the young men I see on the street.

"You never think this can happen to you. It's always another city,
another neighborhood, another person. But not you."

By the time Mary finished she was in tears. So was the audience.

There were other projects as well, including talking to young people
who had been arrested on gun charges. We also worked on a community
theater production which highlighted the hopes od fears of youth in
the city.

But Mary had one more idea. She mentioned it several times to me. "I
want to get the mothers together," she said. "I want to bring together
the mothers of those who have been killed with the mothers of those
who have fired the guns. If you think about it, we both have lost a
child."

A wonderful, wonderful dream, I thought. But to me it did not seem possible.

I was wrong. Mary patiently and persistently pursued mothers around
the city -- mothers of those who have been murdered and mothers of
those who have murdered. It was a process which took several years.

Then, on a recent Saturday evening, Mary gathered mothers and others
affected by gun violence at a small coffeeshop at the corner of
Plymouth and Penn in Minneapolis. There she announced the formation of
"From death to life: Two mothers healing group." The new group was
celebrated with music, dance, stories and a dinner.

One particularly striking part of the event was the exhibit of
photography on the walls. Each photograph was of a mother holding a
picture. Each picture was her son or daughter who had been murdered.
It was a profound reminder of the epidemic of gun violence in our city.

But there was a hopeful air in the coffeeshop. Perhaps if mothers
could gather together the community could gather together. And perhaps
then there could be peace. If there could be peace in this one place,
couldn't there be peace in other places.

If you'd like more information about the Two Mothers group, call (612)
501-3512. Or send an email to twomothers@hotmail.com.

How's your hello?

IT'S THE quality of the hello. That's one of the distinguishing
characteristics of Bill's Coffeeshop and other places like it. These
are the kinds of places where people really are glad to see you. You
get real people saying a real hello.

It's not a televised fairy tale like "Cheers." Or a place where
someone is paid to say hi to you like the greeter at Walmart.

Oh, each of us who has been behind the counter at Bill's has had our
days. I certainly have growled at my share of people while working in
the coffeeshop. But that's not typical.

What is typical is a strong, genuine hello. It's the kind of hello
which makes you feel special and makes the shop or store seem special,
too. This kind of hello is far more likely to be found at
locally-owned businesses. It's far less likely to be found at the
chain stores, whether it be fast-food outlets or big-box stores.

This kind of hello not only makes you want to come back again. It also
gets you thinking of how to give this kind of hello along to others.
In the coffeeshop, we see this as passing the spirit of Bill
along to others.

Bill had a genuine hello for each person who came into the coffeeshop.
His example can be an inspiration for all of us. My wish for this week
is that each of us has lots of opportunities to give Bill-sized hellos.

* * * * *

I was thinking about this whole idea of welcoming people one recent
evening and found myself surrounded by a number of voices. Now, don't
be alarmed. Those of you who know me know of my interest in theater. Over the
years, I've had a hand in creating a number of fictional characters
for the stage.

On this particular evening, a number of my favorite characters stopped
by to pass along their ideas of a welcome.

Harry, the aging hippy, is one. He always does his welcome with a
protest sign and a ponytail. His hello goes something like this: "Hey,
I know these guys. We went through the 60s together."

Anne, the aspiring comedian is another. But she often starts laughing
even before she starts the joke. "Say, shouldn't you dress up in a tux
or something if you're going to welcome people," she said. "That would
be a great te to tell the penguin joke, you know the one from Prairie
Home Companion. It's even in the movie.

"It goes like this...There were these two penguins...
The first one says: Hey, you look like you're wearing a tuxedo?
To which the second one says: Who says I'm not.

Neighbor Daryl is another character. "No problem saying hello," he
said. "Just ask 'em: 'Hey, how about those Twins?'"

Super salesman Francis X. McCarthy always has one thing on his mind.
"I'd just say hi and then try to sell them something."

Finally, there is the character Janelle. She always wants to greet
audiences, but is extremely shy. "Let me, let me," she said. "I could
do a great welcome."

"No," I responded. "Do you remember the last time?"

"You mean when I tripped and fell on that guy who came into the coffeeshop?"

"No, I was thinking of the time when you came out to say hi and threw up."

"Oh, Tom, that couldn't be helped. That was my old boyfriend."

This advice from my imaginary friends is great fun, even if it isn't very
helpful. But it did get me thinking a lot about the quality of the
welcomes I give to others in my life.

And it reminded me again of the importance of the greeting we give
each other in the coffeeshop and in our daily lives.

Reinvigorating social work

Bill's Coffeeshop is not only a model for employment of individuals
with disabilities. It is also a model for reinvigorating the "social"
in social work.

Coffeeshops like Bill's were a part of many early centers of social
work, including Hull House in Chicago. Jane Addams, a founding mother
of social work, called for an integrated social work practice which
was committed to strengthening neighborhoods as well as strengthening
individuals.

This model of social work was a "holistic rather than specialization
approach, advocating for social reform while giving services," writes
Rolland F. Smith in an essay for the Encyclopedia of Social Work. This
approach has "an orientation to family and neighborhood strengths
rather than to individual pathologies."

Addams' idea of social work was a radical notion when she first
proposed it in the late 19th century. It's at least as radical today
in a society which is based in many ways on an exaggerated notion of
individualism. Modern society has been built around segmenting the
lives of people in many different ways.

First, there is the separation between work and home. This is
compounded by the increasing distances between on and the other.

Second, there is the separation at work itself. Many jobs have become
very specialized. From construction to social work, from education to
manufacturing, jobs have been moving away from general skills and
towards specialist skills.

Finally, there is the growing separation of neighborhoods by income.
The growth of the suburbs (and urban renewal in the cities) has fueled
this phenomenon, resulting in economic isolation for so many families
and individuals.

Bill's Coffeeshop (and its cousin Uptown Bill's) are antidotes to this
separation. These two coffee shops, and others like them, are working
to restore the "social." They not only offer an alternative to the
separation in our communities, they also offer an alternative model
for social work.

Coffeeshops offer three distinct advantages to traditional settings
for social work:

1. A less formal setting than regular social work agencies
2. An environment with the potential of being shaped by the "client"
as well as the social worker.
3. An experience of community at the same time individual needs are
getting attention.

Coffeeshops fit with the idea of "a reconstructed social work"
outlined by Harry Wasserman and Holly Danforth in their book, "The
human bond: Support groups and mutual aid." This kind of social work
"envisions a theory and practice in which the individual, family,
small group and community constitute an interdependent quartet. This
requires...an internally consistent set of concepts and...a web of
human connections."