In our retirement we are have decided it is time to leave the bubble of Ithaca, New York and see what America is really about. We invite you to join us as we learn about people, places and the natural history we experience in our travels.
Did you know that Dearborn Michigan is an Arab majority city? Yesterday we visited the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn. It claims to be the first and only museum of its kind about the Arab American experience.
We learned that “the middle east” is an outdated term that is based on British colonization. The preferred term is “the Arab world”.
We learned about the cradle of civilization and ancient Arab contributions to art, music, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and architecture.
We learned how to write in Arabic.
A very moving exhibit was called “Waiting for Peace“ by Rajie Cook. I will let the exhibit speak for itself:
As we were driving east on Rt. 90 near Gary, Indiana we noticed a sign we had never noticed before for Indiana Dunes National Park. This piqued our curiosity and we decided we had to have a look.
Gary is about 25 miles east of Chicago. You know you are near Gary by the stench of sulphur dioxide spewing from the US steel plant there. Gary is a decaying post- industrial city. A national park here?
We drove through Gary and came to a back road leading into the countryside. We left Gary and its smell in the rearview mirror and came upon sand dunes and a swampy natural area. We could no longer detect that we were just a few miles from Gary.
Once on the LakeMichigan beach, it is hard to tell you are not on Cape Cod or some other ocean vacation spot, except for the shoreline view of Gary and Chicago to the west and Michigan City to the east.
I’m glad that the good folks of Gary have a place like this to get away and enjoy.
The park was closed due to the government shutdown, but the bathrooms were open and immaculately maintained. The garbage cans were empty. There was no litter anywhere. All was well (and free).
My heroes of the day are the volunteers who have stepped up to maintain this park. In spite of our initial skepticism, we recommend a visit to the Indiana Dunes National Park.
My heroes of the day are all of the Chicago residents who have decided to fight back to protect their neighbors from being kidnapped by ICE agents. ICE agents are now in multiple Chicago neighborhoods- swooping in and taking street vendors, mothers walking their children to school and harassing pretty much anyone with brown skin who is out in public.
But Chicagoans are fighting back. There are now rapid response and mutual aid efforts organized in multiple neighborhoods. These grassroots efforts are organized into a network. There are crowd sourced maps of where ICE agents are spotted and people with orange whistles verifying ICE sightings. When ICE agents are spotted they blow whistles and others blow their car horns. People come running to help. Neighbors are walking to school in groups and doing shopping for their neighbors so they do not have to venture outside.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order declaring public property, such as parks and city garages, off limits for ICE agents. They may not use public property for staging any more. He has encouraged private businesses to join with them.
This is a terrible moment in U.S history that will go down in infamy, but the upside is that people in communities everywhere are uniting. This is inspiring and cause for hope.
We were introduced to Pearl’s Place soul food restaurant in Bronzeville (in South Chicago) by our new friends, Andrew and Lisa, who live in Chicago.
Pearl’s Place serves delicious home- style food and in a very friendly atmosphere. We were seated by Michelle, whose father is a chef there. They have an amazing, award- winning buffet and peach cobbler to die for.
Pearl’s Place has deep roots in the community, having served its residents (and celebrities from far and wide) for 30 years. Needless to say, I recommend you visit Pearl’s Place on your next visit to Chicago!
Photo courtesy of the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council
Yesterday we visited the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Southwest Chicago which, until the 1950s, was the largest livestock yards and meatpacking center in the country. The invention of the refrigerated boxcar in 1880, along with the concentration of railroads in the area, led to the industrialization of food processing and the rapid expansion of the Union Stock Yard and the adjacent packing plants.
The meatpacking industry provided thousands of jobs and attracted numerous immigrant populations including, Irish, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Czech, Mexican and African American communities, whose shared impact you can see in the surrounding neighborhoods today. (University of Chicago/ Chicago Studies)
In 1939, Saul Alinsky, along with Joseph Meegan, founded the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, which still exists today. It became a model for organizers, focusing on identifying common grievances, building large coalitions of existing institutions, and engage in strategic campaigns to pressure those in power to address community needs. The Neighborhood Council supported clergy, business owners, union officials, and neighborhood residents.Their motto was “ we the people will work out our own destiny”. By focusing on cross- organizational cooperation, they could overcome tensions between ethnic and racial groups. The Catholic Church was a major player. Click here to learn more about the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council.
We stopped at the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Facility t(outside of Chicago) to participate in the protests there.
My justice hero for the day is Caren, who has been going to the Broadview ICE Detention protests every day in spite of being shot with pepper spray bullets. She is a nurse for the VA who works around the corner and decided she needed to be there.
There were probably only about 50 people at this protest, but it is clear that they have created a community – these dedicated souls, diverse is age and back grounds, are showing up every day. I was inspired.
On this trip I am going to share examples of courage fighting injustice, both current and from for history. I very much need this inspiration to keep fighting the good fight.
Last night, we stopped in Elyria, Ohio, on the Black River six miles from Lake Erie and 20 miles west off Cleveland.
We learned about Reverend John Monteith (1788-1868), who was an abolitionist in Elyria, Ohio who used his home, Monteith Hall, as a “station” on the Underground Railroad. For seven years, his home served as a hiding place for enslaved people escaping to freedom. A tunnel ran from the back of the house to the Black River, which was used to help people escape to the shores of Lake Erie. From there they could board a ship across the lake to Canada and freedom. The home was built in 1835 as a boarding school for girls , which he also gets props for, and a residence for Montheith’s family. He managed the Underground Railroad network on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
It has been a minute since we have travelled anywhere. We are on the road again to visit our son in Wisconsin. Join us on our journey! Not even sure of where we will go, but we will let you know what we find along the way.
Today we went to Harpers Ferry National Park in West Virginia. Harpers Ferry is where John Brown took his last stand against slavery, He attempted to take the federal army at Harpers Ferry in order to lead a slave rebellion and create an armed underground railroad. The fire engine station (shown in the picture above) was used by John Brown and his army of 21 men as their fort. It was where they were captured and some were killed on October 18, 1859. He was hung shortly after. John Brown’s last written words predicting the Civil War were: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood”.
John Brown
I have been interested in John Brown for a long time, especially after reading the book, Cloudsplitter, by Russel Means. It is written as historical fiction, from the perspective of his son and based on historical documents. I feel a bit guilty admiring John Brown so much since violence goes against my Quaker beliefs. Nonetheless, his steadfast dedication to the abolition cause, in spite of major hardships in his life is an inspiration.
Thomas Hovenden, The Last Moments of John Brown (detail), 1182, oil on canvas, 196.5 x 168.3 cm. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.At an anti-slavery convention in Chatham, Ontario, John Brown presented a new constitution abolishing slavery.
While the whole plan at Harper’s Ferry was ill conceived, it did have the support and financial backing of well-heeled abolitionists and the support of Frederick Douglass, who knew of the plan.Harriet Tubman thought very highly of John Brown as well. Brown intended to create a corridor on the underground railroad. By arming abolitionists and freed enslaved people, safer passage to freedom could be provided.
After John Brown was executed in Charlestown, VA, a funeral procession embarked across six states. The funeral train, carrying his coffin traveled through a divided nation teetering on the brink of civil war. John Brown was laid to rest at his farm in North Elba, New York, in the Adirondacks. His body lay in state at the Adam’s Hotel in Elizabethtown, NY (near North Elba). I am proud to say that one of my ancestors, ACH Livingston (an abolitionist from the area) served as a poll bearer. On December 8, 1959 John Brown was laid to rest. John Brown’s Farm and grave is now a State Historic Site.
Yesterday we visited McLeod Plantation, one of many former southern plantation’s that gives tours near Charleston, South Carolina. A major difference berween the McLeod Plantation and all of the others is that it is owned by Charleston County Park, Recreation and Tourism Commission rather than the heirs of the original planation owners. It is also a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Consciousness, that focuses on transforming places that preserve the past into spaces that promote civic action.
The McLeod Plantation has been controversial because it introduces you to the Gathers and Dawson families, who were enslaved on the plantation, as well as the McLeods. It talks about the free black Massachusetts 55th Volunteer Infantry emancipating the enslaved people and using the planation as headquarters as well as the plantation being the headquarters for the James Island Freedman’s Bureau during Reconstruction. It tells the truth about the brutal treatment of the enslaved people on a sea island cotton plantation and the plight of Black folks in Charleston even to this day.
Our tour guide Kayla showing us Sea Island cotton plants.Bricks with fingerprints of young enslaved children who labored to make the bricks. Inside of slave cabins that people still rented until 1990. Here is a video describing the McLeod Planation tour. If the video does not load, here is the link: https://www.ccprc.com/1447/McLeod-Plantation-Historic-Site
In case you cannot tell, if you find yourself in Charleston, highly recommend this tour!
Perspectives on the Road 