The Wop has gone back to heaven for the weekend to enjoy some of his old haunts. I am sitting here at 9:00 am eating a raw Salens hot dog and loving life. I am going to Mighty Taco, Hoak's on the lake for a real Buffalo Fishfry, will have a plate of "cherrystones", have a beer or two at J.P. Bullfeathers, and party by rear off at Sunset Bay on the Lake. It will get me in the mood to do a Norm at Nite on Tuesday night with the Irish kids when I get back to Washington. To the left is pictured St. Gerard's Roman Catholic Church where I attended school as a kid. The school has long been closed and is now used as a home for unwed mothers.
Interesting news in Buffalo concerns the Catholic Church. The Diocese is plannng to close several Catholic churches and schools in some of the old ethnic neighborhoods around the city. The Polish community has responded very bitterly to the idea. Buffalo Common Council Presient David Franczyk introduced legislation condemning the Bishop's actions including language that the Dioceses' plans has "a whiff of ethnic cleansing" to them because it would force city catholics to attend generic suburban parrishes far from ethnic neighborhoods. Buffalo Bishop Kmieca responded that "Not only to make such a statement, but to put it in writing and to introduce it into the public record is appalling, irresponsible and misinformed" The whole controversy might make a great case study over at Hogwarthe's but then it deals with little people and Catholic issues so maybe it isn't "worthy" of their consideration Read the article in the Buffalo News. The city's Polish community feels particularly picked on in the controversy is predominately Catholic Buffalo and the Buffalo News covered that on Friday. Enjoy the articles if you choose to read them.
3 comments:
That would be MONDAY night - 2 July - not Tuesday!
And what the hell is 'party by rear' anyway??
Mainstream DC culture is so far removed from small town (even though Buffalo probably doesnt even qualify as small town) America. So many places here cater to the high powered, creme de la creme attitude of the city's "elite." I feel (based on my experience at hogwarts and surrounding areas)like so many people around here qualify America and the American spirit based on the 10 largest (coastal) cities, and that-that is a shame. That attitude mirrors one that our country's leaders have grown fond to adopt. "Lets qualify Iraq as the greatest evil facing our country because a select few people are yielding a pittance of power and woe are we who would consider the ENTIRE country and its attitude toward America before waging a decade long war." We from DC have to import folk life just to get any. We from DC know that it is so culturally devoid a place that we say we're from Virginia, Maryland, or the state we were raised in long ago just to avoid admitting our connection to the place. There are cultural havens in DC, but so many of the "well to do" have completely forgotten those areas exist. How many times does a kid from Georgetown venture out to NE, or SW? They'd rather stay in their comfy elitist den of ignorance rather than experience any true sense of an American dream or an American struggle, which, as made clear here by Wop, thrives in other parts of the country. More power to those people who value who they are, who they've been, for better or worse, rather than who they think they should be so as to appeal to the elite. Boy am I going to be glad to leave this place.
Ah - but don't be so quick to denigrate or belittle what will always be your own. Many of us from small-towns were doing the same thing as young adults and couldn't wait to get out into the 'real world' to escape the little minds, entrenched attitudes and biases of life in the provinces as it were. Only with age have I realized the wisdom and intelligence, the warmth and generosity, and the inherent worth of those people that surrounded me in small-town Ohio, those people I was all too quick to put down and dismiss years ago. Regardless of how you feel about it now, you will always be attached to your hometown. There will come a time I think when you might come to appreciate it, with all its shortcomings, for what it is and be happy with that. I must sound like a hypocrite since I've been railing against DC myself lately and seek to escape to the great north woods... but then I'm ultimately seeking a return to my own smll-town roots in a way by attempting to remove myself to the countryside; completing the circle.
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