As I’ve previously mentioned, my primary service site has been the weekly suppers at Saint Patrick’s parish in the Washington neighborhood. My duties have varied each week, depending on which parish organizes the supper, but mainly it’s consisted of helping prepare the food, serving food, and cleaning up afterwards. Now that I’ve done it for the last five weeks, I have begun to recognize the regular attendees of the supper, as well as some of their tendencies.
One thing that I have noticed and surprised me the last couple weeks is the attitudes of some of the people there. I mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago how some of the people were kind of rude, but the greediness of a few of them surprises me as well. I understand that the majority probably do not get to eat a full meal very often (even with the meals offered in Dubuque every night), but the attitudes and methods some of the guys use in order to get more food still surprise me. Last week, I was serving milk, and sometimes we serve everyone two milks if we have plenty of milk, but it was very crowded last week, so we didn’t think we could serve everyone two. Some people just ask politely for a 2nd one, and I’d give another one to them, but then others demand another milk, and even come back afterwards saying they didn’t get any milk, even though I knew I had just given them two. We noticed later on that some of those people bring bags or containers and put all the extra milk and food in there and then sneak it out.
Additionally, those were the same people that try to get 2nd portions of the meal before everyone has been served. Tyler said two weeks ago that the same guys were coming back asking for more chicken nuggets “for the little guy,” even though we know they do not have children with them. Most of the people there have trouble affording meals regularly, but the lying that some of them do in order to get more food surprised me.
I don’t want to make it sound like the service hasn’t been enjoyable, though. Most of them are very polite and make it a good place to do service. I enjoy talking with the people there, and we were able to meet a very interesting man last week. He told us all about his collection, which happened to be fluorescent light bulbs. He has collected them since he was in college, and still takes them home with him every week after the supper. Being able to meet interesting people like that has made it a fun experience.
Outside of Saint Pat’s, I also have participated in the cleanups the last two Saturday mornings. The one thing that really stuck out to me was how lucky and privileged we are. One of the sites that I helped winterize was a trailer in the middle of Dubuque. When we first walked in and saw that a man and his two kids all lived in the trailer, it put things in perspective for me. I could not imagine growing up in a trailer where all of my family lives and sleeps within 10 feet of me. Seeing things like that make me want to help them out.
I only have a few weeks left at Saint Pat’s, which is really hard to believe. The time has definitely flown, but it has been worth it, and I think we might continue to help out with the suppers occasionally next semester.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Catholicism at Loras and the Catholic Worker
I’ve already mentioned previously that I have attended Catholic schools since 1st grade, so the “Catholic” environment at Loras has just been a continuation of what started in grade school for me. As such, I feel like I haven’t learned much more about Catholicism since coming here. If anything, I’ve actually learned more about other religions and how Catholicism differs from them. For example, sophomore year I was required to take a Priest, Minister, Rabbi course to fill the “Catholic Identity” general education course required at Loras. I already had a pretty good understanding of Catholicism entering that class, but I did broaden my horizons by learning a lot more about Judaism and Protestantism than I previously knew. In addition, now I am able to compare the three religions to each other and see the strengths and weaknesses of each religion. This perspective allowed me to have a better understanding what makes Catholicism a good, sustaining religion, as well as why it is criticized. Before attending Loras, I did not have that same understanding of other religions, so that will be the biggest thing I learned about Catholicism in the past four years.
Previously, I’ve blogged about what makes a Catholic college distinct, but I will explore that idea a little further here. Catholic colleges really emphasize being active in the community because the Catholic Church stresses it, and this is a viewpoint that a public university could not spread campus-wide. The Catholic organizations at the public universities could encourage involvement in the community, but Loras is able to take it a step further and spread the message to the whole campus. We regularly receive emails about various Catholic services occurring throughout the campus, ranging from the weekly masses to Catholic speakers that are on campus. Regarding the Catholic speakers, we are rather limited in what we are taught, though. The speakers can usually only speak on issues that the Church agrees with, and this stretches to the classrooms too. Issues such as abortion and birth control are only supposed to be taught from the stance that the Catholic Church takes on it. The students are obviously allowed their own opinions, but a professor cannot teach his/her class that abortion should be legal or encourage birth control, or even give the other side of the argument and its strengths. That issue came up a few years ago when the market was not allowed to sell condoms, and that is the limited stance that we have here. While the public universities can teach whatever side of the issue they prefer, the Catholic colleges are limited to teaching the Church’s stance. This should help to strengthen our Catholic values and practices, but at the same time, we are not always getting both sides of every issue, thus separating Catholic colleges and public universities.
I have to admit that I was not aware of the Catholic Worker movement at all before this semester. I had heard of the Catholic Worker and Dorothy Day, but I had no idea what it was or what she did. Growing up in Dyersville, Iowa, a town of over 90% Catholics, and then attending a Catholic college, I haven’t had as much exposure to non-Catholics as others; as a result, I have not had many arguments about the faith. While I have not really engaged in many religious arguments in my life that I can recall, knowledge of the Catholic Worker would be beneficial if an argument like that was to occur. The knowledge that there are services like the Catholic Worker available to anyone in need would be a good example to a non-Catholic of what members of the Catholic Church do in order to help each other out. The Church praises helping one another and being active in the community, and the Catholic Worker would be a great example of that. Knowing about the Catholic Worker will be beneficial to me in the near future, as I am graduating from Loras soon and will be entering the workplace where it certainly will not be as predominantly Catholic as I am used to. I hope Loras has prepared me well for those confrontations, but only time will tell.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Politics at St. Patrick's
With the upcoming election, politics is definitely a word that is being thrown around a lot. When I hear it, the most obvious definition that comes to mind is anything concerned with the governmental elections. Besides that, there is a more broad definition that can be meant when politics is used, and that is when someone tries to gain a higher position in some organization. When I use the word, I could be using it to describe the presidential election, or maybe the actions that someone is taking to become the president of a club at Loras. It can be used in a variety of ways, and that has been apparent so far at the suppers that I help out with at St. Patrick’s.
After hearing about the Catholic Worker houses that Dave McDermott has worked at in class on Monday, we got the impression that there is almost no politics at the Catholic Worker house, as pretty much everyone works together to make all decisions. It seems to be the same way at St. Patrick’s, especially the first two weeks when local parishes were in charge of the suppers. Whenever a decision needed to be made, like when the mashed potatoes were edible, for example, a group of people would discuss it and make a decision. There is one worker who’s there every week and I seem to get the impression that he would be in charge if ever needed, but so far, he hasn’t ever had to stop in and make any big decisions. This past week, though, a local union from Dubuque organized the supper instead of a parish. While once again no one person was in charge of everything, there was definitely a marked difference in how the supper was organized. It was set up just like a factory, with each person doing their own job. The atmosphere was a lot quieter and less enjoyable. When it came to politics, each person more or less made their own decisions, and things went faster because there was no debating.
Concerning the definition of politics dealing with the governmental elections, I did notice that the presidential election is a very hot topic among the people that attend the suppers. Throughout the tables the last couple weeks, I have heard a lot about why each person supports a particular candidate. I didn’t really pick up on any trend for either Obama or McCain or any common issues at hand, but I did talk to one woman who had a very biased perspective of the candidates because of her background. She was raised on a small farm in Iowa, and has been around whites her whole life, so when it came to this election, she was clearly against Obama solely because of his race. She even went as far as to say that this country would become the “United States of Africa” if he was elected. While I didn’t hear any other reasons as extreme as that one for a particular candidate, it was clear that they were very interested in the election. I would guess that their interest is in the hope of the next President being able to help out the lower class more, and enable these individuals to get their life back on track. As a result, I’m anxious to hear their thoughts on the election as it continues to approach, since some of them are very informed on why they would vote for someone, while others (the woman mentioned) clearly are not voting on the issues at hand. The supper on the day after the election could be a very interesting night as I will be able to get their reaction to the election results.
The impression that I’m getting from Ellison about politics is that in nearly all of the organizations mentioned, it seems like there was one person clearly in charge, and the others were all below him. Whether it was Bledsoe at the college, any of the contacts in New York the narrator was sent to, or Kimbro at the paint factory, there was always one person who made all the decisions, and the politics involved was everyone below him trying to strategize and work their way up to that position at some point. Bledsoe even talked about that to the narrator when talking about how powerful he was in the position he had worked his way up to, and that he didn’t ever want to give up that power. In addition, a white person always was in power unless it was an all-black organization, like the union or the college.
It seemed like Ellison was trying to emphasize how one person held all the power, and everyone else just wanted to get to that position, unlike today, where there isn’t any power figure at St. Patrick’s, as the decisions are all made as a group. I’m curious to see if the role of politics is any different when I work with another different organization at St. Patrick’s each of the next two weeks, since different organizations organize the supper each week of the month, and the union supper was definitely different from the other suppers.
After hearing about the Catholic Worker houses that Dave McDermott has worked at in class on Monday, we got the impression that there is almost no politics at the Catholic Worker house, as pretty much everyone works together to make all decisions. It seems to be the same way at St. Patrick’s, especially the first two weeks when local parishes were in charge of the suppers. Whenever a decision needed to be made, like when the mashed potatoes were edible, for example, a group of people would discuss it and make a decision. There is one worker who’s there every week and I seem to get the impression that he would be in charge if ever needed, but so far, he hasn’t ever had to stop in and make any big decisions. This past week, though, a local union from Dubuque organized the supper instead of a parish. While once again no one person was in charge of everything, there was definitely a marked difference in how the supper was organized. It was set up just like a factory, with each person doing their own job. The atmosphere was a lot quieter and less enjoyable. When it came to politics, each person more or less made their own decisions, and things went faster because there was no debating.
Concerning the definition of politics dealing with the governmental elections, I did notice that the presidential election is a very hot topic among the people that attend the suppers. Throughout the tables the last couple weeks, I have heard a lot about why each person supports a particular candidate. I didn’t really pick up on any trend for either Obama or McCain or any common issues at hand, but I did talk to one woman who had a very biased perspective of the candidates because of her background. She was raised on a small farm in Iowa, and has been around whites her whole life, so when it came to this election, she was clearly against Obama solely because of his race. She even went as far as to say that this country would become the “United States of Africa” if he was elected. While I didn’t hear any other reasons as extreme as that one for a particular candidate, it was clear that they were very interested in the election. I would guess that their interest is in the hope of the next President being able to help out the lower class more, and enable these individuals to get their life back on track. As a result, I’m anxious to hear their thoughts on the election as it continues to approach, since some of them are very informed on why they would vote for someone, while others (the woman mentioned) clearly are not voting on the issues at hand. The supper on the day after the election could be a very interesting night as I will be able to get their reaction to the election results.
The impression that I’m getting from Ellison about politics is that in nearly all of the organizations mentioned, it seems like there was one person clearly in charge, and the others were all below him. Whether it was Bledsoe at the college, any of the contacts in New York the narrator was sent to, or Kimbro at the paint factory, there was always one person who made all the decisions, and the politics involved was everyone below him trying to strategize and work their way up to that position at some point. Bledsoe even talked about that to the narrator when talking about how powerful he was in the position he had worked his way up to, and that he didn’t ever want to give up that power. In addition, a white person always was in power unless it was an all-black organization, like the union or the college.
It seemed like Ellison was trying to emphasize how one person held all the power, and everyone else just wanted to get to that position, unlike today, where there isn’t any power figure at St. Patrick’s, as the decisions are all made as a group. I’m curious to see if the role of politics is any different when I work with another different organization at St. Patrick’s each of the next two weeks, since different organizations organize the supper each week of the month, and the union supper was definitely different from the other suppers.
Friday, October 10, 2008
First couple weeks of service
Last week, I started my service work at St. Patrick’s parish. Every Wednesday I go down to Foley Hall in the basement of the church with Tyler and Regan and help out with the suppers that they serve. We do a variety of tasks, ranging from making mashed potatoes to serving food to cleaning up afterwards. Anyone is allowed to come to these suppers on any given week, so a wide variety of people from different backgrounds come for various reasons.
Something that stood out to me was how ungracious some of the people were. The majority of them were polite and very thankful that suppers like this are available every night in Dubuque, but others were just rude. Most of the time, it would just be a comment complaining about how the food tasted or why other tables got to eat before they did. One other time, though, a woman came back into the kitchen and actually semi-raised her voice when complaining that the fans should not be on anymore since it’s no longer summer, and she was cold. We had the fans on because it was hot in the kitchen, but I just thought that it was rude that she would come back there and complain while the other people were grateful for the service we were providing. It was interesting how some of the people seemed like they were just there to get their food and leave, while others enjoyed themselves and socialized.
One other observation that Regan pointed out to Tyler and me was the number of veterans that have showed up both weeks. It just seemed unfortunate to us that these men served for our country (most likely in Vietnam), but now our country is not taking care of them after they returned. Maybe these veterans just received some bad breaks in life after the war that other veterans did not receive, or maybe the country isn’t providing enough for the veterans. Interestingly, while I was talking to one of the workers that helps out with the supper every week, he told me he attended Loras College back in the 60s only to avoid the draft. He missed out on the draft only because his parents could afford to send him to college, while others were drafted because they were not as fortunate as him. That whole situation reminded me of the situation that the narrator from the Invisible Man was put in. His situation involved race issues instead of wealth, but they are similar. The narrator had to work twice as hard to achieve something in life compared to the whites because he started out lower as a result of his race. It was kind of the same with the veterans. Only because their parents couldn’t afford to send them to college to avoid the draft, they are now eating at these suppers every week. Meanwhile, the worker was sent to college to avoid the draft and is a successful businessman because his parents could afford it. The veterans could have been just as successful as him had they been sent to college instead of the war, but because they never had that opportunity, their lives took a completely different route.
I’m eager to continue with this service each week to not only help people that are less fortunate than us, but also to see what I can learn and take from the time spent there.
Something that stood out to me was how ungracious some of the people were. The majority of them were polite and very thankful that suppers like this are available every night in Dubuque, but others were just rude. Most of the time, it would just be a comment complaining about how the food tasted or why other tables got to eat before they did. One other time, though, a woman came back into the kitchen and actually semi-raised her voice when complaining that the fans should not be on anymore since it’s no longer summer, and she was cold. We had the fans on because it was hot in the kitchen, but I just thought that it was rude that she would come back there and complain while the other people were grateful for the service we were providing. It was interesting how some of the people seemed like they were just there to get their food and leave, while others enjoyed themselves and socialized.
One other observation that Regan pointed out to Tyler and me was the number of veterans that have showed up both weeks. It just seemed unfortunate to us that these men served for our country (most likely in Vietnam), but now our country is not taking care of them after they returned. Maybe these veterans just received some bad breaks in life after the war that other veterans did not receive, or maybe the country isn’t providing enough for the veterans. Interestingly, while I was talking to one of the workers that helps out with the supper every week, he told me he attended Loras College back in the 60s only to avoid the draft. He missed out on the draft only because his parents could afford to send him to college, while others were drafted because they were not as fortunate as him. That whole situation reminded me of the situation that the narrator from the Invisible Man was put in. His situation involved race issues instead of wealth, but they are similar. The narrator had to work twice as hard to achieve something in life compared to the whites because he started out lower as a result of his race. It was kind of the same with the veterans. Only because their parents couldn’t afford to send them to college to avoid the draft, they are now eating at these suppers every week. Meanwhile, the worker was sent to college to avoid the draft and is a successful businessman because his parents could afford it. The veterans could have been just as successful as him had they been sent to college instead of the war, but because they never had that opportunity, their lives took a completely different route.
I’m eager to continue with this service each week to not only help people that are less fortunate than us, but also to see what I can learn and take from the time spent there.
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