Carol Bergman

        

 

Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right

I am stuck in the middle with you…

And I'm wondering what it is I should do…

 

-Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan.

 

 

I was pumping away on the exercise bike when the song "Stuck in the Middle With You" surfaced on my Pandora app. And I thought to myself, I've got to stop reading the news while I am eating my breakfast. Three wars this morning and one wannabe war.  Let us say their names: Sudan, Pakistan-Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iran. Lest we have forgotten, now that we have a Department of War,  we've got our own war and warriors here in America. One of those warriors wore a long, warm Nazi coat with its sparkling buttons and big lapels during the attempted invasion of Chicago.  Bless him! Bless the People of Chicago more! And to the Governor of Illinois, thank you. And the brave citizens of Minneapolis, thank you. And my friend Ed who is standing  witness in silent vigils at the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan, thank you. And to Sarah, the Jehovah's Witness I talked to on the phone this morning who offered Biblical verses for kindness and peace, thank you.  For the record, I accept all blessings and kindness: Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist, Jehovah's Witness, Episcopalian, Methodist, and any religion or denomination I have not mentioned.

 

And, by the way, the war in Gaza, the war on Gaza, the ethnic cleansing/genocide of Gaza, that war is not over either. I leave the final definition of what the Israelis have done to Gaza and, ultimately, to themselves to the International Criminal Court. Many are calling it a "colonial project," as is much else these days it seems. Minerals!!! Geopolitical realignments!!! Land!!!!  The West Bank!! Greenland!! We want it, we claim it!  With guns, of course, lots of guns and missiles and bombs and cruelty. And whatever stands in the way—children, families—let's just bulldoze right over them and shove everyone left who is half-starved and barely alive into tent cities.

 

So that's my mood today, alas, even though the air is warmer, the sun is out, the sky is a cloudless blue, and I had a good workout. Last night there was a gorgeous sunset. I don't mind being stuck in America when I can witness such a beautiful sunset over the Minnewaska Ridge, no bombs or ICE agents in sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Empathy is not a moral luxury; it is a precondition of freedom.

 

-Timothy Snyder, Substack,  2/21/26

 

 

 

 

Do you prefer quiet days or active days?

 

Does your heart pound as you approach strangers? What was the most stressful situation you have ever been in?

 

Have you ever fired your gun at a person? Killed someone? Wanted to kill someone? Do you use the word perp or perpetrator when you are talking about your day to friends and family?

 

What are your thoughts as you take off your uniform? How do you feel when you are not in uniform? Are you  still a law enforcement officer when you are off duty and out of uniform? Please explain.

 

Do you take public transportation or drive your own car home? If you are in your car do you turn on the radio?  If so, do  you listen to news or music on the radio?  What is your favorite music? Do you sing along to your favorite tunes? Do you like to dance? If so, are you a good dancer?

 

What do you like to read? What do you read to your kids before they go to sleep?

 

Do you like to cook? Do you like to eat? Do you invite friends over for pot luck dinners? Are all your friends law enforcement officers?

 

Are you married? Do you enjoy making love with/and to/ your wife? Have you ever been unfaithful to your wife or, before your wife, to a girlfriend? Are you rough or tender in bed?

 

Do you have kids? If so, what do you tell your kids about personal safety in school and on the street?

 

Do you have any pets? Did you have any pets before you had kids? Did you have pets when you were a kid?

 

What do you watch on TV? Are you religious? Have you traveled anywhere outside the United States? What about inside the United States?

 

If so, how do you feel when you don't understand the language or local culture, national or international? Do you shut down or do you try to communicate? Are you curious or judgmental?

 

Describe yourself and your personality:  How do you think others see you? Do you like to be liked? Admired? Are you solitary or gregarious? Do you have friends from different backgrounds? Do you see yourself as a public servant? A protector?

 

What have you done well? What are you grateful for? What would you like to improve about your work life and personal life? Do the two relate one to the other? Would your parents be proud of you?

 

 

Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America. 

 

- John Lewis  Selma, Alabama, March 1, 2020

 

 

I went to the Good Trouble Café at the Lutheran Redeemer Church in New Paltz last Friday night. It was an open mic event. The pastor sang a freedom song and there was a gospel ensemble, some rap poetry, and home baked goods. I wanted to sing along, instead I took notes and chatted to a young English/Journalism student at my table whose diligent notetaking I admired. The event was sponsored by the SUNY Student Christian Center, all donations that night to go to the Margaret-Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture. Esi Lewis, the President of the Center was there. She read "Oppression," a poem by Langston Hughes.

 

It's been four years since I first interviewed Esi Lewis in front of the derelict Ann Oliver House in New Paltz which will soon become the Margaret Wade Lewis Black History and Cultural Center named after her mother, the first Chair of the Black Studies Department at SUNY. The Center's Board has raised $750,000 in grants for renovation. Though prices have gone up, Esi says, and they will probably need a million dollars, they have started a search for an architect specializing in historic houses. Their mission statement reads in part:

 

Our vision is to create a more just and equitable society by promoting a greater understanding of the history of the Black community in the Hudson Valley. We believe that by educating people about this history, we can help to create a more inclusive and compassionate community for all.

 

The Ann Oliver House was built in the First Free Black Neighborhood in New Paltz by Jacob Wynkoop, a free Black man. His mother Jane Wynkoop, born a slave and freed in 1827, purchased the property because the vote was only granted to landowners; she wanted her two sons to be able to vote. Jacob fought in the Civil War, and became a contractor and builder when he returned. He is buried in the Rural Cemetery in New Paltz, a prominent citizen, his contribution to the Union Army and the  community unrecognized until recently.

 

Esi grew up in a modern home on Huguenot Street with its neighboring stone houses built in the 17th century  by the slave-owning French Huguenot families. An accomplished lawyer, she returned to New Paltz after many years in the city and decided to run for the Town Board where her father also served.

 

 "It is well-documented that the Huguenots were slave owners," she wrote eloquently in her proposal for the project. "For the forced labor that toiled on this land we have mere signage. Most, if not all of the properties that were built and were owned by the first Blacks and hold the history of the African Americans in New Paltz have been turned over to white ownership.

 

The ONLY anti-racist action under these circumstances is to restore the Ann Oliver House at 5 Broadhead Avenue to Black ownership and create an African American Cultural Center on this historic property."  

 

Enslavement has been designated a crime against humanity by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Such crimes require reparations, or truth and reconciliation commissions; as Americans, shamefully, we are just at the very beginning of this process. The Center Esi envisions will be an act of reparative justice for New Paltz, more so if the descendants of the slave-owning families—many of whom still live in the town—contribute  financially to the project. They have not, as yet, done so.

 

The Village of New Paltz—the Town Historian, the Village Historic Preservation Commission, and the Town Board—worked hard to preserve the derelict Ann Oliver House. When the restoration is complete, it will become a companion to the  Jacob Wynkoop Anna Banks House at 6 Broadhead, under the care of Historic Huguenot Street, which is already a stop on one of their curated walking tours.

 

For information about the center, donations, and upcoming programs: https://www.mwlcenter.org/

 

One is thunderstruck that such a brutal violation has occurred in what previously seemed a benevolent world.

 

-George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

 

 

 

In our digital/AI age, in a year that has challenged relationships, the body politic, common sense, the United States' global standing, the American democratic experiment, in a year of incessant war and war mongering, there is solace in a creative spirit whose wisdom, gifts and judgment leads us to a quiet place of reflection and hope.  Such are the joys of reading Steve Zeitlin's How Do You Wear the Universe; Poems and Essays 2002-2025 to be savored slowly and with intention.

 

Zeitlin is the founder of City Lore, trained as a folklorist, and well known in New York as one of the guardians of the city's cultural history and treasures. Born in Philadelphia, raised in Brazil to Jewish migrant parents, he's at ease in multi-ethnic urban diversity without complaint or judgment. But his self-doubts surface nonetheless, as for us all. The practice of writing 14 lines of poetry every morning, "to figure out who I am," began early, and continues to this day. "I almost dedicated the book to myself," he says with wry humor. Instead, he dedicated it to his two children, Ben and Eliza. "May they wear their universe snuggly," he writes to them, and for them.

 

As the co-owner of Mediacs Books, I was honored when Steve agreed to our publication of How Do We Wear The Universe. I wrote to him immediately:

"I just spent a pleasant afternoon reading your book. Your writing practice and process is so interesting, similar to mine. Your emotions are accessible in the poems, which I always appreciate, and also your life story surfaced so I got to know more about you and your family. Poetry as memoir and much else. (I was curious how your family ended up in Brazil.) The ruminations about time and mortality are ever present, challenging, but digestible as poetry, if digestible is the correct word, and it probably isn't. Such ruminations can be disturbing unless we allow our minds to fly off into the universe in art, no? So this is what poetry is for, I thought to myself as I read. The poems live on, as art and artifact, and we live on in them.

I have a few favorites: The poems about Eliza, the poem by Eliza.
The poems about Amanda and other loves in your life.
The Seder poem and other poems that reference your childhood.
The poems about finding poems in everyday life.
All the rhymed poems for some reason.
and more...

To combine essays and poetry in one volume worked well, I thought. The essay about your father-in-law is particularly special."

 

Why the 14 lines? I asked during a recent phone conversation with Steve. "Shorter than a sonnet, longer than a haiku," he explained. During poetry gatherings at City Lore of a poetry group he founded called Brevitas, Steve projects the poems onto a wall so that the audience can also view them. "Reading poetry is also a visual experience," he says. He'll be gathering poets together again at City Lore to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America and reading from How Do You Wear the Universe at Barnes & Noble, Union Square, in New York City at 6 pm on Thursday, April 9th. Steve will be in discussion with my husband, MediacsBooks President, Jim Bergman, followed by an audience Q&A and signing line. This event is free & open to the public.