May 2014 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Mother’s Day: no mother, again

There are days when everything is really going well. Then there are other days you wish you could call your mom on the phone.

Here are a couple more pictures of my mom, before she was my mom. I don’t know exactly when they were taken, if I saw them before, I don’t recall them. Funny how she has that head tilt in both, albeit in different directions. My sister Marcia is doing a yeoperson’s job of finding photos, scanning them, and putting them on Facebook.

I’m fairly sure I know where the first one was taken.

It looks like the front of Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, 35 Sherman Place in downtown Binghamton, NY, where I would later be baptized, in August (?) of 1953.

The Sherman Street church, indeed, all of that street was razed in the late 1950s to build a playground right across from the Interracial Center at 45 Carroll Street, where my father spent a lot of time working on social justice issues.

The church congregation moved to 203 Oak Street, at the corner of Lydia Street, only two short blocks from my home at 5 Gaines Street.

Don’t know much about this clearly earlier picture, except that the man in the car is almost certainly her Uncle Ed Yates, her mother Gert’s brother.

The freaky weather in Albany last month (80F on one day, 27F and snow 36 hours later) reminded both of my sisters of something that happened to my mom one Mother’s Day, or perhaps before: she slipped on ice on the front porch of our house and ended up in the hospital for at least a week. I think it was 1966; the week before May 8, the low temperature was 31 to 33F, and down to 26F the night before in Binghamton, NY. Though it COULD have been 1967, when it was 33F to 35F the evenings of the week before May 14.

There are days when everything is really going well. Then there are other days you wish you could call your mom on the phone. I’ve had more than my share of the latter thus far in 2014.

Methodist church in Oneonta stands for LGBT rights; Karen Oliveto to speak May 17, 18

First UMC Oneonta has a long history of standing for justice. Our work, however, regarding inclusivity in the church is not about an issue, it is about people—our people.

I was reading the website of the First United Methodist Church in Oneonta, NY. It’s a pretty special place whose motto is: Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors. It is A Reconciling Congregation, which, in UMC parlance, means to “create full inclusion of all God’s children regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” I should note that my parents-in-law are members of the church.

The congregation did something rather remarkable, especially if you understand church polity. It held a:

Special Church Conference on Sunday, March 16… to discuss a resolution presented to the congregation by the Reconciling Ministries team of our church… After two hours of discussion, listening, amendments, voting, and tears, the special session of church conference voted to pass an amended resolution. It reads:

RESOLVED, that First United Methodist Church of Oneonta, New York will withhold 40% of its remaining apportionment from the Upper New York Annual Conference in 2014 and will [withhold] 100% of its apportionment beginning in 2015. In 2014 the 40% withheld will be redirected to the Reconciling Ministries Network. 40% of the 100% withheld in 2015 and beyond will be given to RMN, and 60% will be given to other ministries as determined by the First United Methodist Church of Oneonta. This practice will continue until the United Methodist Church removes the discriminatory language from the Book of Discipline and grants gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people all rights and privileges accorded to heterosexual people, specifically ordination and marriage.

The resolution was then sent to our bishop, Rev. Mark Webb, along with a letter composed by the Reconciling Ministries team here at our church. The bishop responded promptly, asking if Pastor Emily and Pastor Teressa would sit down with him, our district superintendent Rev. Jan Rowell, and his executive assistant Christine Doran… We were able to sit down together on Wednesday, April 9th during the bishop’s noon break.

The bishop began the meeting in prayer and then expressed several times that this meeting was in no way a reprimand nor was there any negativity. We discussed the action our church has taken and why this decision was made. The Bishop indicated that he understands the pain and heartache the congregation feels, and that he has to manage these types of actions being taken by churches… A time is being set up for our District Superintendent, Rev. Jan Rowell, to have a conversation with the congregation about the issue—Monday, May 12th in the evening at 6:30 p.m.

First UMC Oneonta has a long history of standing for justice. We make our voices heard on many different issues—hunger, homelessness, human trafficking, health care, education to name a few… . Our work, however, regarding inclusivity in the church is not about an issue, it is about people—our people. It is about the wonderful church family that worships together, learns together, spends time in fellowship, and lends their hands and hearts in service. Our denomination currently holds that some of our active and engaged members cannot have the same rights as others who worship along side them. No matter how gifted and talented they are, some members cannot become clergy. No matter how committed and loving their relationship is, some members cannot get married in their home sanctuary. This church takes a stance on many issues, but we understand that equality isn’t an issue. It is simply the way God calls us to live as citizens of God’s commonwealth.

Further:

SAVE THE DATE—May 18, 2014 First UMC will be celebrating 25 years as a Reconciling Congregation by bringing Rev. Karen Oliveto, pastor at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, to our pulpit on May 18. In her pastoral assignments she has expanded congregations and has been instrumental in the effort to open the doors of the United Methodist Church to all persons including those identifying as LBGTQ and their families.

As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you. ~Genesis 9:9
I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. ~Exodus 6:7a

At its heart, covenant is about belonging. We belong to God. As the Body of Christ we also belong to each other. God commits to us and we, in turn, commit to be God’s people. Covenant knits us together. God initiates covenant and never betrays the call, gifts, and promises given to God’s people.

The church exists because God’s Holy Spirit has called us together and bound us in covenant for the purpose of a particular mission: God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.

Bound together in this covenant, as disciples, we form what many call the beloved community. We have insisted, always, on the importance of walking together in all of God’s ways. We are called to be careful caretakers of this covenant, stewards of our relationship with God and one another. Though the month of May is a busy time and our calendars fill up quickly, let us commit to be stewards of our covenant. Let us be sure to make time to be together in community, to be the Body of Christ.

There will be one service at 10:00 am with a luncheon after. Rev. Oliveto is a remarkable preacher, teacher, and theologian. A few of us have had the wonderful honor of hearing her speak and preach at national events. Please save the date and come worship and celebrate with this wonderful church family! And please RSVP to the church office so we have plenty of food for fellowship after the service.

In order to take full advantage of Rev. Oliveto’s visit, we will not only hear her preach but glean some of her wonderful wisdom. On Saturday, May 17, First United Methodist of Oneonta will be offering a workshop: Evangelism: A Ministry of Invitation, facilitated by Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto. Rev. Oliveto is also part of the adjunct faculty at Pacific School of Religion teaching evangelism. Evangelism can be a “scary” word. She will help us develop approaches in becoming intentional in our invitation to invite and nurture “disciples for the transformation of the world” (Upper NY Conference mission statement). The workshop will be from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with lunch provided. The workshops are designed to be appropriate for both youth and adults and we encourage our youth to attend and be part of the conversation. Reservations would be appreciated by Thurs. May 15. Please indicate in your response if you need childcare on Saturday.

You may email or call the church office. Phone: 607 432-4102.

And there’s this:

ALL God’s people. In May we light the candle for Bishop Melvin Talbert. Bishop Talbert is retired from the Western Jurisdiction and has recently been brought up on charges for performing a same-gender marriage. He is the first Bishop to have done so. Bishop Talbot was also a colleague of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement. During General conference 2012 he has started advocating for Biblical Obedience; challenging the United Methodist Church to put obedience to the Bible before the Book of Discipline.

What WAS that creature in my backyard?

NOT a rat, a possum, or raccoon.

I wrote this on my Facebook page last Saturday morning after The Daughter and I saw something run across the back of our Pine Hills yard, under the raised shed, then towards the front of the house, before it evidently went into the neighbor’s property, heading south towards Western Avenue. “Albany, NY: So what was that stocky, gray beaver-like animal that ran out of my backyard this morning? Tail more like a cat, and it ran reasonably fast for its size.”

I really didn’t know, and I wanted to. The Daughter thought was a beaver, and it was similar, but I’ve seen beavers, and it did not look quite right, especially the tail.

“Woodchuck? We’ve had one in the backyard every summer for years. Pretty harmless, just eats the grass!” Well, maybe; I hear that they can be fast.

“Opposum? Did it look like a gigantic rat?” Nah, I’ve seen possums before. The tail’s all wrong, among other things.

“If you were down here in the city, I’d say it was a rat.” Definitely not. Saw a rat in the French Quarter of New Orleans way too close for my comfort.

“I’d guess opossum, too, but other possibilities are muskrat and woodchuck. Here are some native mammals; remember if it was early morning the color could be pretty deceptive.” Perhaps, but don’t think it was a muskrat either.

Definitely not a raccoon. Lacked the facial markings.

“Fisher cat? I think they’re in the Pine Bush…” “Fishers are in the pine bush, so one may have moved into the city. If neighborhood cats and squirrels have gone missing, this may be your critter, Roger!” “They are vicious.”

And THAT seemed to be the most likely. A fisher, or fisher cat, though it is NOT a feline: It is “a large, dark, long-haired member of the weasel family. Their stature is relatively low to the ground, with short legs, small ears, and a well-furred tail. The color of their fur varies from dark brown to nearly black.”

So, if I were a betting man, I say 70% chance of fisher, 20% chance of woodchuck, and 10% of something else. And if it WAS a fisher, I’m glad our cats are of the indoor denomination.

The Black Panther on the Daredevil art spread

Perhaps the item appearing in the Daredevil Chronicles was an early iteration of what appeared as the cover of the DD Index

Comic book connoisseur Alan David Doane, who used to frequent the comic store known as FantaCo, where I used to work back in the 1980s, asked me this on Twitter recently:

“It took me 32 years to wonder — why is the Black Panther in this pinup? Anyone know?”

He asked me because the picture appeared in a magazine called the Daredevil Chronicles, which FantaCo published in 1982. This was a magazine Mitch Cohn edited, while I was editing the Fantastic Four Chronicles. He also asked Klaus Janson, the inker on the piece over Frank Miller’s pencils, the same question.

Truth is, I had never thought about it. In the Daredevil “family”, Elektra (the woman on the top) and the Black Widow (the woman on the bottom) were featured in that comic. But Black Panther, other than being another costumed Marvel character, was not related to DD at that time.

But around that same period, there was a competing product, the Daredevil Index, published by George Olshevsky, which was, oddly, 9B in the series:

Frank Miller also penciled this piece, although Joe Rubenstein inked it. Perhaps the item appearing in the DD Chronicles was an early iteration of what appeared as the cover of the DD Index, which also featured The Black Panther, as well as Shanna, Black Goliath, Human Fly & Dazzler. I no longer have my DD Index, alas.

I should note, for those unfamiliar, that the Black Panther had nothing to do with the political movement of the same name, and in fact, predated the organization. Rather, it referred to T’Challa, an African king, who first appeared in a Fantastic Four comic book, cover-dated July 1966, but released a few months earlier. It was the then-upcoming version of Olshevsky’s X-Men Index that prompted FantaCo to come out with the X-Men Chronicles the year before.

If someone has a more definitive answer to this question, please feel free to jump in. This is merely my best guess.

Meta: the case of my missing blog

What was MUCH more upsetting was what would not be retrievable: about 170 items in some form of draft, including at least a couple dozen blog posts that were complete, but unpublished.

When I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled back on the morning of Wednesday, April 16, I knew I’d feel pretty crappy afterward, so I took off the whole day. That afternoon, I tried to get rid of an alarming amount of spam – 770 and growing every minute – caught in the Akismet, fortunately. Eventually, though, I couldn’t access my blog at all.

I had suffered an outage earlier in the month; the vendor said it was 18 minutes, but I believe it was longer. The NEW problem, though, was for what turned out to be 15 +/-2 hours. I knew at least a few people noticed that my ABC Wednesday link was not working.

This got me thinking: what if the server never came back up? I wasn’t particularly bothered by the loss of the items I had posted over the last nine years.

The first five years still exist at my old Blogger blog. My current blog exists on the Wayback machine, at least through February 8, 2014. Some of my recent blog posts I posted again on my Times Union blog. There would be loss, but it would be minimal.

What was MUCH more upsetting was what would not be retrievable: about 170 items in some form of draft, including at least a couple dozen blog posts that were complete, but unpublished. THOSE I could NOT get back.

This prompted me to restart my shadow blog at rogerowengreen.wordpress.com. I’d initiated it after I decided to give up my Blogger blog, but it wasn’t as pretty as I thought it’d be. Frankly, I didn’t think I could copy from a WordPress blog to another WP blog, or maybe that wasn’t an option five years ago. I figured out how to copy my entire rogerogreen.com blog to my rogerowengreen WP blog, despite the size maximum for such a transfer having been exceeded. Yay, me!

Now I compose in rogerowengreen WP and then copy it to my main rogerogreen blog. This is a bit of an annoyance, especially when I have to make corrections, but it isn’t as much a pain as trying to recreate a few dozen posts from scratch.

This also addresses the issue of what will happen to my blog when I die. As long as WordPress is allowing for free blogs, I guess it’ll reside there for whatever time we have before the electrical grid goes kablooey.

One last thing: I’m still generating a ton of spam in Akismet, several hundred every day. I used to look at the items in my spam folder when it was a dozen or two daily, but now it’s onerous. So if your comment didn’t make it to my blog – and it’s been years since I’ve blocked one – it probably got caught up in the electronic junkyard.