24 December (yes, 24 December) 2015
Cleveland Heights, OH
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Photo
10 June 2015
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Tricia Dykers Koenig
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Photo
There is no crying in baseball. Everyone who has viewed A League of Their Own knows that.
There should also be no racism in baseball. Or at least as little racism as possible. And there certainly should not be racism in teams names, mascot, and imagery.
For that reason I, who have owned a home in Cleveland Heights since 1985, believe it is time for the Cleveland baseball team to change its name and mascot.
I was delighted to see, and honored to sign, a petition to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and the Paul Nolan, the CEO of the Cleveland team.
The petition, started by Toni Buffalo, a Lakota person of faith and a member of the United Church of Christ and posted under the name of the the Justice & Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ states:
Our faith tradition teaches us that we are all created in God’s image. Holding on to racist images and inappropriate names only serves to injure our common humanity and to disfigure God’s image in all of us.
I urge you use your power to change the name of the Cleveland baseball team and to eliminate the use of its current mascot, Chief Wahoo.
Amen.
I signed. I hope you will too.
It is time for this change.
It is past time.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Antiracism, Baseball, Cleveland Heights, Current Events
27 December 2015
Cleveland Heights Garden Center
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Photo
One hundred years ago
In a war ravaged corner of the world
For a few moments
Short moments
Precious moments
Defiant moments
Sacred moments
Shooting stopped
As guns stood silent,
Warring men
Forced death to take
A brief hiatus as they
Dare to leave the trenches
And enter
No man’s land
Filled with mud and corpses
Wire and blood
And enter
No man’s land
Of peace and
Shared humanity
One hundred years later
We gather to remember,
Sing songs, eat cookies
And though we know the
Undeclared truce failed to hold,
We dare proclaim
Peace is possible
Possible in our cities
Possible in Syria
Possible in South Sudan
Possible in the DRC
Peace is possible
Though violence rages
Though hate shrivels human hearts
Though fear squeezes human souls
We dare proclaim
Peace is possible
And we recommit ourselves
To praying,
Working,
Living
To make real that possibility.
24 December 2014
Bells for Peace
Commemorating the Christmas Truce of World War I
Church of the Covenant
Cleveland, Ohio
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Current Events
This year will bring a different type of Christmas Eve. Here’s what is happening:
Soldiers in World War I impulsively laid down their weapons and sang carols together on the battlefield 100 years ago this Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914. In memory of this famous “Christmas Truce,” and in honor of those seeking peace throughout the world, the bells of University Circle’s carillon will join a global musical event by playing the carol best known to English- and German-speaking troops a century ago, “Silent Night,” this Christmas Eve, December 24, 2014, at 7:14 p.m., or 19:14 in military time. The McGaffin Carillon is located at 11205 Euclid Avenue, in the block between Severance Hall and MOCA Cleveland.
All are invited to bundle up and listen to this playing of the carol from the Church of the Covenant lawn and parking area and Case Western Reserve University’s north campus. Members of the Church of the Covenant Choir will lead singing of the carol afterward. From 7:30 to 8 p.m., University Circle Carillonneur George Leggiero will play a recital of other carols mentioned in soldiers’ diaries and letters about the experience. Enjoy cocoa and cookies from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
This is part of the project “Bells for Peace,” in which carillons throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere will play “Silent Night” at 19:14 in their time zones. Leggiero’s 7:30 p.m. recital precedes an 8 p.m. prelude and carol sing and 8:30 p.m. candlelight service at the Church of the Covenant.
The Christmas Truce involved vast portions of the war’s Western Front, including German and Austro-Hungarian troops with British, French, Belgian, and Russian forces. Soldiers on both sides observed an impromtu ceasefire, tentatively emerging from their trenches, singing carols, trading gifts from their care packages, and wishing one another well in the other’s language as best they could, with at least one Christmas day makeshift soccer game documented. Bells for Peace is part of the larger Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Project, whose center is the little city of Messines, Belgium, near where a soccer game took place.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Advent, Cleveland Heights, Current Events
Diamond
on board.
Platinum
on board.
Gold
on board.
Silver
on board
The rest wait,
patiently like gravel,
to be called.
18 December 2014
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Travel
As Jules places his head in my lap
I remember Charley
And, after all these years,
pain tweaks my heart,
my eyes leak,
love dances in my spirit
and a smile plays across my lips.
8 October 2014
Louisville, KY
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Family, Louisville, Photo
A bee enjoys
purple flowers in South Euclid.
24 August 2014
South Euclid, Ohio
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Poem
A butterfly enjoys
purple flowers
in Dennison Park
24 August 2014
Cleveland Heights, OH
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Photo
Along the Graybeard Trail 