[Dialogue] 44 years ago today ...

Sun Apr 8 07:36:55 EDT 2012

Happy Easter, y'all.

Thanks, Bill for you additional reflections.

When I returned in early May of '68 to intern, I met a very different community than the one with which I spent time the previous December (while attending a Chicago SDS conference).  Five weeks after April 5th, most folk were still in shock of some kind.  And understandably so.  That is part of the emotional impact on me, a relative bystander.  In May, I came without that scar and a lot of fresh energy.  It was as if others were part of a spell and I was on onlooker.

And for me that event was 'the gift' that prompted a spirit explosion and plans for replication.  We should not be contained by a single location.  In that sense, it was inspiring.

I remember having to sort through a mountain or two of clothing donations in a very hot Jet Hanger.  I was working with Marshall Jones and Joe Thomas.

I took off my jacket and shirt to work and half an hour later went looking for my clothes.  Marshall had sorted them with the rest.

This time of death and rebirth was extremely significant to me - and to the Spirit Movement.  "From the Blackness of the West-Side, now the spark bursts into flame ..."

Ken

On 2012-04-07, at 10:14 PM, Bill Schlesinger wrote:

We had calls coming in (I was on switchboard for awhile) from Boston, New York, etc.  “Are you burned out?” “No, we’re still here.”  One call was to announce that they would ‘take responsibility for being the new Chicago.’  Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary at the time.  

There were a lot of ashes in the air – not just from our building.  It almost started again when a National Guard unit (they were the ones with the automatic weapons) fired a tear gas blast from a large device on the back of a jeep.  But it didn’t. 

Bill Schlesinger
Project Vida
3607 Rivera Avenue
El Paso, TX 79905
(915) 533-7057 x 207
(915) 533-7158 FAX
pvida at whc.net
www.projectvidaelpaso.org
From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wilson Priscilla
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2012 12:34 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] 44 years ago today ...

I often wondered when and why Michael Borge left. He was on the Board at the time.
One of our best stories...Rod called the west side about something...I think he and Len Dresslar were getting ready to deliver something to the west side. Anyway, when he called who ever answered the switch board said, "I can give you that number, let me blow the ashes off this list first."
Priscilla

On Apr 7, 2012, at 1:18 PM, W. J. wrote:

Sometimes our legalism needs to get radically called into question by the intrusion of divine activity (which is not at all the same as any human activity).
Yes, we all knew who set the fires (as well as who put them out). And, according to Lingo (I think) there was a lawyer in our group who was insistent that we report who dunnit to the cops. His first name was Michael. 
Of course JWM was wise enough to know that we owed our continued existence in 5th City to the willingness of the local community--including the fire setters--to have us stay. And apparently that didn't sit too well with this lawyer! So he and his family picked up and left.
When I arrived a few weeks later, there were burns in the carpet in the middle of the seminar rooms, as well as the bullet holes in the doors etc (hence the name of the "bullet hole office" at the top of the stairs in the Administration Building). Funny how those little details stick with you long after the building's been 'dozed.
Marshall

From: Bill Schlesinger <pvida at whc.net>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sat, April 7, 2012 7:07:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] 44 years ago today ...

Mixed memories.  Mine included Tony going around putting out fires as (never mentioned) friends set them in the building, and instructions not to discuss those activities with the police, JWM talking earnestly with folk asking them not to destroy what we were building.  Life is complex.

Bill Schlesinger
Project Vida
3607 Rivera Avenue
El Paso, TX 79905
(915) 533-7057 x 207
(915) 533-7158 FAX
pvida at whc.net
www.projectvidaelpaso.org
From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Wilson Priscilla
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 5:03 PM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Cc: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] 44 years ago today ...

We lived near O'Hare so we were picking up returning pedagogues from the weekend...then farming out Order children until the riots quieted down. We had the Marshall children at our house during for a week...or more, I can't remember. 
I'm sure everyone has memories of those moments...where we were when we got the word of MLK's death and the subsequent fires across the nation.
Thanks for the reminder of how the "gangs" really saved the Institute work at that moment.
Priscilla

On Apr 5, 2012, at 8:31 PM, Ken Fisher wrote:

Dear Colleagues,
On my fb page I wrote ...
44 years today, the West Side and South Side were burning and seething with rage. The shock of 'oblivion' or non-being catapulted Joe Mathews and the Order: Ecumenical into the New Religious Mode and the New Social Vehicle. I recall arriving on the West Side five weeks later and being a part of the spirit rebirth of that cataclysmic event. At that time, Gene Beasely and his gang moved into an apartment of 3444 as protection.
Ken

From Kathleen Hamm Jones 
Wow, thanks, Ken. I remember so well where I was, in an apartment on Blackstone St in Hyde Park. Unlike the West side of Chicago, the Southside was kept from burning mostly by patrols by Jeff Fort and the Blackstone Rangers, who went door to door of the businesses and posted flyers signalling their protection of the establishments. The back story was of course about Rev John Fry of 1st Presbyterian Church who poured his whole life and at times, his sanity, into making that gang into a precursor of the "guardians" which got attention in NYC later. Somewhere I think I still have his book of sermons from that time called "Fire and Blackstone." Since then I think we have gone backward in institutional racism, as the USA leads the world in incarceration of African-American males. And on top of that fact, the pernicious reality that prison populations are being "sold" as private corporations take over running the prisons. It's a profitable biz if you contract out cheap captive labor. It makes my head feel like exploding.
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Priscilla H Wilson
Pris at TeamTechPress.com
913-432-2107
www.teamtechpress.com

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Priscilla H Wilson
Pris at TeamTechPress.com
913-432-2107
www.teamtechpress.com

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