Gloria Ferris

At Monday’s City of Cleveland Council meeting, Councilman Brancatelli, Cummins, and Kelley submitted emergency  Resolution 375-10 opposing the above referenced application.

The resolution was read three times, and then,  council voted.  It passed with all eighteen members present voting “yea”.  Councilman Cummins verified that this mining permit application does have a connection to Bradley Road landfill.  Councilman Brancatelli confirmed that information on TY Inc. has been difficult to obtain at this point.

Several people have submitted letters of objection.  Chris Trepal, executive director of Earth Day Coalition notified me her letter of objection has been mailed.  Robyn Sandys, executive director of Old Brooklyn CDC emailed me to tell me that OBCDC would be formally objecting.  I learned today that the objection was unanimously approved at last night’s board meeting.

At this point, not much is known about the details of the application or the ramifications of what such a permit would have to the community.  Many city departments are compiling data, city council has objected and asked for answers, OBCDC is gathering information, and most importantly, private citizens are aware and asking questions.    

The kickoff rally for the health and human services Renewal Levy will be12:30 pm at MetroHealth today.  This is a renewal and will not raise taxes but will continue services at  the  current level.  This levy is essential for people who need the miraculous services of MetroHealth (me),  the Alcohol and Mental Health Board,  reentry programs,children’s services, and too many others to name here  

Being a child of the Sixties, I have aged with this Hubert Humphrey quote in my mind :

“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

and  The Golden Rule: 

¹²So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

   I believe all religions  have a form of  The Golden Rule , and therefore, religious or not, we should be able to come together to support  our brothers and sisters that need us myself included.

I will be watching to see which county council candidates rise to the occasion and support a large chunk of the core mission of county government, not with words but with action.

I received a flier from Mansfield Frazier. I plan to attend “The Long Road Home”  a documentary narrated by Peter Lawson Jones tomorrow January 28th in MetroHealth’s Scott Auditorium. The presentation is from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.

The recession has hit everyone hard, but especially for those trying to reenter after leaving the prison system. Those who know me well are aware that I am a board member for C.A.T.S. –Community assessment and Treatment Services, Inc. We are presently finishing up our capital campaign to “build a Better Place for Women. We serve a population of offenders whose drug and alcohol additions have caused them to make very bad decisions.  I believe in second chances.

And, I am looking forward to seeing the documentary based on Mansfield Frazier’s book “The Long Road Home” and to listen to the panel discussion that will accompany the creening.

your own, your doctor’s, the hospital’s, in my case, MetroHealth Medical Center, your family’s, your friends’. When I spent those two months in the hospital last December and January, I learned that you need to speak up when you want to know something or you need a change in treatment, environment, or information for peace of mind.

The first time I really employed this advocacy thing was during the incident of the Jumping Bean Bed.  Because of that bed, I was not getting rest and I told my nurses I didn’t know how I was supposed to heal if I could not sleep. They told me to ask my doctors when they had rounds that morning for a new bed. Dr. Shwee said he didn’t see why I couldn’t have a new bed if one was available.  When I arrived back to my room from my physical therapy session, there was my new “old” bed.  The nurses had found a bed and moved everything in and out when I was gone. 

Now, I could have continued to suffer in silence complaining to friends and family, but they could have only sympathized.  By telling my doctors directly,  my problem was fixed quickly and efficiently. It gave me the confidence to ask questions about the drugs I was taking, to discuss the progress of my rehabilitation with therapists, nurses, and doctors.  During my stay at MetroHealth, I learned that this hospital is an “unsung hero” of our county. I have vowed to promote this awesome place of “miracles and hope” whenever and wherever I can. I also ask others who I meet who have experienced the quality care and compassion at this tremendous hospital to join me in my advocacy.

Yesterday, was the Shearer Family Christmas, and I was reminded of my Uncle Gene who was our family advocate. My mother and father divorced after 25 years of marriage. I was an adult but divorce affects any child no matter their age.  Uncle Gene would seek me out each year and ask me “What’s new”? We would chat a few minutes, and then, he would tell me a short story about something he remembered about my dad.  It might be a hunting story or an incident at one of the County Fair horse pulls.  He never failed to mention my dad. This conversation was held at the get together for my mother’s side of the family. Without lecturing or making a big deal out of it, he  would remind a 25 year old woman  that there were good times to remember when we were all together. I’ve never forgotten how I appreciated his attention and his compassion.

I learned from my uncle that too often people simply stop talking about people important in their lives because it is painful or because we think it might make others uncomfortable.  Uncle Gene always considered what was important to the person with whom he was conversing.  I never turned away from him without feeling just a bit better and walking a bit taller.  I work each day to be an advocate for my family and friends as he was.  He is a fine example of how an advocate of others should live.    Be an advocate by accentuating the positive to family and friends. Share stories of loved ones who are no longer with us.  Use those stories to strengthen bonds between generations.  

This lesson was again learned from one of my parents.  This time my mother was the one who gave the lesson.  My mother had polio as a young child; hence, my concern about her health I mentioned in yesterday’s post. She had coped for many years with a metal plate in her leg and scoliosis of her spine.  Each year our church back home had a big Chicken Barbeque on Fourth of July.  Each year my mother baked many, many pies for this event.

When I was 24 my mother called me to make sure that I would be coming home for the holiday because she wanted my help in baking pies for the church picnic.  I said I would be there to help, and she said good because there were fewer women who had volunteered for pie baking.

Well, at 24, I was not the responsible, reliable, predictable person I am today, and as young daughters will do, I arrived late with a hangover.  My mother didn’t say a word.  She just threw the apron at me and told me to start slicing apples for her famous Dutch Apple pie.  We worked in silence for what seemed like an eternity to me until I finally broke the silence with this question “so, is your leg aching today or is it your back”?

She flew around to face me, and with that look that only a mother can give, she said through clenched teeth “I am in pain every day of my life. This is not about pain, but about giving.  I gave based on what you told me you would give to me—help.  Because you did not see my giving as a priority I may not be able to give what I said I would.  You give what you can and I do but because you did not give what you could I may be short my giving”.  There was little I could say, but I began to work a bit more efficiently and faster, and we were able to make good on my mom’s promise to the other church ladies.

When I laid in that hospital bed for days on end needing help to eat, to dress, to accomplish the most basic of needs there was little I could give.  What I could give was a smile and a thank you which I did often and freely.  It was easy to remember my mother’s axiom of “You give what you can based on what you can accomplish”.

My doctors, nurses, and caregivers told me when I left how much they had appreciated my smiles and “thank yous”. They mentioned that my family and friends never failed to thank them, too.  They told me it wasn’t necessary, but it was greatly appreciated.   Sometimes, a smile and thank you is enough for those who give to you.    

When Monica Robbins interviewed Tim and me a few weeks ago I mentioned that when I spoke at the October Stroke Conference I did three things related my experience,  and shared seven things I learned.  She immediately asked what were they? I of course drew a blank and could only relate five.  I have since found my notes and intend to relate them here over the next few days.

The first thing I learned was to Count My Blessings. Actually, I had learned that years ago when I was a small child, but over the years I had remembered to do it much less frequently. While I was in ICU the nurses would turn on the television for background noise. I don’t know if I listened to the dialogue from “White Christmas”or if I simply dreamed portions of one of my favorite Holiday Classics.

In any case, it reminded me of my father who taught me to “count my blessings”.  When I was much younger I was a “worrywart”.  I worried that my cousin who was in the Navy would get lost in the jungles of Panama, that my teacher would call on me and I wouldn’t know the answer soon enough, that my Dad would go to work one day and not come home again just like my Grandpa, that my mother would get very, very sick. The list was a mile long, and I would stare in the darkness long after the house was quiet with my spinning, worrying mind.

It was shortly after my seventh birthday when my dad walked me into a starlit pasture and told me that I needed to learn to count my blessings instead of chronicle my worries.  That night he showed me how to count on the people who loved me, to count on myself, to count on my strengths, to count on the thousands of stars in the sky. That night I fell asleep confident my blessings outweighed my worries. 

Fifty years later lying in a hospital bed with arms hooked up to too many IVs to count, with a machine to help me breathe,  it would have been easy to have a head spinning full of worries. What if I never walked again, what if I couldn’t use my left hand for eating and writing, what if this and what if that.  I could have spent my hours endlessly worrying, but instead I decided to count my blessings.  It worked. It helped me stay positive on the hardest of days and saw me through long, dark nights.

So just as Bing Crosby sang Irving Berlin’s words to Rosemary Clooney in the movie “White Christmas” so many years ago, I would tell you this Christmas ”when you are worried and cannot sleep try counting your blessings instead of sheep”. It worked for me.

There will be two community meetings for neighborhood residents to comment.

 The first: Wednesday, July 22nd at 6:30 p.m.  at Applewood, 3518 W. 25th Street.

The second: Thursday, July 23. It will be on the Agenda of the BCCA meeting to be held at Brooklyn Memorial United Methodist Church, 2705 Archwood Ave. also at 6:30.

The Item to discuss:  Noise Barriers along I-71 in the Brooklyn Centre Neighborhood .  Here is where they would be placed.
Northside of I-71 from W. 25th Street/Pearl Road going west to Denison overpass, and
Southside of I-71 from W. 25th Street/Pearl Road going west to Fulton Road and also from Westside of Denison (other side of overpass) to the first railroad crossing overpass by the small residential section containing W. 46th and W. 47th and Denmark Avenue.

Here is the email that Councilman Brian Cummins sent out earlier about these impending meetings.

Please spread the word…
See message below regarding ODOT funding for mitigation of noise issues for I-71.  The map  can be found  here..  OBCDC and ODOT will be doing outreach and mailers to the immediate areas and we’re asking civic associations and block clubs to help spread the word.  Meetings will be forthcoming.  If you have any question please let me know. 
So far I have attended one preliminary meeting.  In discussions over the years about noise walls, most people have stated they do not want them and a few want them very much.  It was brought up in the meeting with ODOT what other alternatives could there be?  If walls are not put up, other mitigation actions could be taken nut only 15% of the total allocated funding could be used.
Another big issue is that the access roads to the freeway between Fulton and Pearl Roads were initially part of the innerbelt plan and then dropped.  ODOT confirmed that lowering the access roads, is no longer in their plans.  I think most of the comments about not wanting the barriers is that homes (other than on Smith and portions of Riverside and Mapledale) are fairly far off the freeway and that the options of barriers could impact the tree lines that are currently in place.  One suggestion was to see if ODOT could put up nicer privacy fencing or something else other than a barrier wall of 12 – 14 feet.  There will be a lot to discuss in the up coming meetings.
We’ll be getting a lot more information and will share it when it comes.
Regards,
Brian.

Just received this email from our friend Dennis, the inventor.

Come see the speakers at Euclid side of Halle
Building during the ingenuity fest   Please forward this to all your friends.

Sent from my iPhone
Dennis All-Tronics
Builders of one of the finest  speaker systems in the world.
WWW.Atssounds.com
WWW.all-tronics.net

He has invented the most awesome speaker I have ever experienced.   Yes, it is an experience-not hearing, not listening, but experiencing.  Everyone I talk to who has head them say it is hard to  describe  to those who have not yet seen them and sat in the seat to hear them.  Kind of like being right there in the concert hall.  And a piano, the sound of a piano at its best if you can’t be there live.

Stop by when you are strolling down Euclid Avenue enjoying the Engenuity Fest!

Yesterday I accompanied Tim on his “complete physical” appointment with our primary doctor at MetroHealth.  Our doctor told him that he was an example of a Greek God.  All of his tests came back showing a much younger man than his actual age.  Let me say this, we didn’t really need the boost to Tim’s ego, but I for one was greatly appreciative that his health is so good. I know the girls will be pleased as well.  Those of you who have had parents or friends who take on the role of caregiver know how stressful it can be and how often that person’s health suffers.  Tim attributes a lot of it to his ability to fall asleep any time, any where, and any how.  His doctor and I think there is a bit more to it than that, but whatever works for him.

One of the questions she always asks him is how is he coping with what is going on in my life.  Yesterday, Tim told her that he was extremely worried about me because I was extremely “flat”.  In fact, he said he thought “I was “going away again”.  She turned to me and in her direct and pointed way, she asked”are you depressed?  You know, if you are that is very common and acceptable given all you have been through”.

I paused, said”no”, then hesitated. Not depressed exactly, but discouraged.  All this time, I have treated each event—the heart attack, the stroke, the stroke rehab, the cancer as one more hurdle, and here i am at the last hurdle-the cardio rehab- and I am sore, I am weak, I am so tired.  “Last hurdle, this is not the LAST hurdle this is the first hurdle, the one that begins a long journey of life.  You are beginning training to last a lifetime.  Consider it marathon training.  You train hard, then you ease off, then you go at it again, until it becomes a way of life.  Tim asks her if she is a runner.  She smiles and says “yes”.

Perspective-how important our perspective is on how we face the hurdles of life.  The first hurdle, not the last hurdle-how interesting just a simple switch of perception gives me a whole new outlook on how I see my future-not one of an invalid, but of an athlete-an athlete of life.  Thanks, Doc!  you’ve given me one more reason to love MetroHealth.

Michele Obama reframed the dialogue yesterday at the reopening of the renovated American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there’s free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.”

Hear, hear.

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