The "Having Faith Really Does Matter" Story

It was an ordinary day; May 31 in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and all was not well.  By mid-afternoon a large group of protesters had begun to gather in front of Lancaster's City Police Station to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.  

Mayor Danene Sorace

Wasn't long before Mayor Danene Sorace had put out a call for help from the local faith leaders in Lancaster.  The Minister and Assistant Minister at the church where I am a member, St. James Episcopal, which is three blocks from the Police Station, showed up to assist in calming the crowd.  Rev. David Peck, said in an interview with the local newspaper, that it was a very frightened and angry environment.   There was tension in the air with dozens of Police vehicles and many demonstrators.  The Mayor asked if they could pray first.  Protests around the country such as this had turned violent in many cities and towns.  Rev. Peck said that they weren't called just to pray for peace, but to help build peace.  The Mayor gave credit to Blanding Watson for coordinating  her request for the gathering the faith leaders, since Watson is the president of the Lancaster County branch of the NAACP.  Blanding Watson understood the moment more than others and had participated in moments such as this in the past and knew how to handle the hostility.  

Rev. David Peck

She immedia- tely asked her sister, Rev. Shayna Watson, associate pastor of St. James Episcopal, for help since she had helped organize events in downtown Lancaster at a rally in 2017 were more than 300 people arrived at Penn Square to support immigrants and refugees.  Blanding Watson said she felt the presence of a faith group would provide a different energy to the crowd.  Just the wearing of the collar and cross can change the demeanor of the crowd.  Seemed to work since protestors put out their cigarettes and stopped cursing in the presence of clergy.  Rev. Watson said they could provide the help since they had training in de-escalation.  The Rev. Edward Bailey of Lancaster's AME Church (African Methodist Episcopal) spoke and shared a message of loving your neighbor.

Rev. Shsyna Watson

Several other pastors put themselves between the police and protestors.  One minister wanted to be there for both sides and to show solidarity with the young people protesting and hear their pain and to let the police there know they were there for them, also.   A few of the clergy ended up taking pepper spray, but said they would do it again to protect the crowd.  The police eventually pulled back and the violence ended.  Rev. Peck was pleased that protests in the past few days have a peaceful tone to them.  It was not an accident that Lancaster was able to bear the weight of suffering and protests without the escalation and violence.  There is hope for the city of Lancaster, but the ongoing work to correct the many problems that led to the protest in the first place must be addressed.  Hopefully in the same manner that the faith group illustrated.  Lancaster will survive and hopefully make the necessary changes in attitude.  Let's all pray that that will happen.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Perhaps The Most Famous Engravings Ever" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Surfing through a few historical websites when I came across what has to be declared one of the most famous engraving in history.  While teaching high school graphic arts, one of the projects we attempted was making engravings.  At first we used copper plates and a metal stylus, but then shifted to plastic plates due to the cost of copper.  The procedure is known as "Intaglio" which means: a design incised or engraved into a material.  Intaglio is also said to be printing from a depressed surface.  Those students with some artistic ability usually enjoyed the project and were the most successful with the procedure.  

The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street by
Paul Revere dated 1770. Click to enlarge.

Well, as I was looking through the website I found an article about the Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street.  Took place on March 5, 1770 in which British Army soldiers shot and killed people while under attack by what was said to be a mob of angry citizens.  To loyalists, this was not the Boston Massacre but "an unhappy disturbance."  It was depicted by others as a street fight between a "patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks and a squad of British soldiers.  Several colonists were killed by gunfire and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.  

Parker Brown displaying the hand-copied engraving of Paul
Revere's famous rendering of the Boston Massacre.  As you
can see, it is engraved in a piece of copper plate.

The British troops weren't welcome in Boston and when British Captain Thomas Preston was attacked, additional soldiers were called into action and after being attacked again, fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, rope maker Samuel Gray and mariner James Caldwell), and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later.  A town meeting was called demanding the removal of the British and the trial of Captain Preston and his men for murder.  Most were acquitted, but two soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter.  This fight, later called the Boston Massacre, was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War.  This famous mob event was depicted in an engraving made by Paul Revere who had copied it from an engraving by Boston painter Henry Pelham.  It was hand-colored by Christian Remick and printed by Benjamin Edes. In the background of the engraving is Boston's Old State House.  Pelhem wrote to Revere accusing him of copying the work.  

Revere's pen and ink diagram plan
of King Street.

Revere did make a slight change when he added a fictional "Butcher's Hall" sign.  Paul Revere also presented an accurate view of the event in a pen-and-ink diagram plan of King Street.  At the time it was common for engravers to take designs wherever they found them without the original artist's permission.  Eventually the two settled their differences and Revere ended up making engravings for Pelham.  I realize that the main idea in the story on the site I was reading was the Boston Massacre, but for me, Revere's etching was just as important.  Without the etchings, history wouldn't have been the same.  As is today, a picture is worth a thousand words. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The Boston Massacre took place in front of The Old State House which is pictured here.  The building was the seat of British colonial Government from 1713 to 1776.

The Boston Massacre took place in front of the balcony, and the site is now marked by a cobblestone circle in the square.

The "Woman's March On Washington - A Personal Experience" Story

Marg's story framed by newspaper articles.  Notice Marg's beautiful
cursive handwriting.  They no longer teach that skill in our schools.
Click on photos to enlarge them.

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story that Marg, a close friend of my wife, gave to Carol to pass along to me.  Marg and her daughter and granddaughter were part of "The Woman's March" in Washington, D.C. on January 21, 2017.  I thought it might be interesting to hear about the experience so I wrote a few questions on a sheet of paper which Carol gave to Marg.  What follows is Marg's story on her exciting day in Washington, D.C. as part of "The Woman's March".  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"The Women's March" of January 21, 2017 was the largest group of people I have ever been among in my 71 years.  Because I don't like crowds I did not plan to attend, even though I agree with the reasons why women wanted to march.  But, when our twelve year old granddaughter passed me a note during church asking me to please join her and her mother, I had to say yes.   So at 6:30 a.m. on January 21, Alice, Becca and I boarded one of the many buses leaving from Lancaster.  There were two men on our bus, which led to an amusing situation when the bus stopped for a bathroom break.  A 15 minute stop didn't allow much time when there was only one ladies room, so women lined up at the men's room too.  

Speakers stand

The only time all day I heard someone say "no" to someone was when the men thought they could walk right up to the men's room door without waiting in line.  Everyone was in such a good mood the men just laughed and got at the end of the line.  As we got closer to Washington people got more excited.  There was conversation about how hard it was to sleep the night before, because we couldn't wait to be part of an historical event.  Looking out the bus windows we saw metro stations with long lines mostly of women waiting for transportation into Washington.  What we noticed were pink hats on many women, even some men.  The bus parked among hundreds of other buses at the R.F.K. Stadium.  As we got off the bus a woman we didn't know greeted us with a large box of pink hats.  She said, "I stayed up all night making these hats.  Please take one."  She did not accept our offer to pay for them.  That spirit of friendliness we saw all day.  

One of many posters.

There we were, a group of mostly 40 somethings, a few girls, a few old ladies, all wearing pink hats and wondering how to get from the stadium to the mall area.  A large friendly policeman said not to walk because it wasn't a good neighborhood.  He suggested we take a shuttle.  As we stood waiting for the bus, cars drove by honking and passengers waving and cheering us on.  We felt welcomed to Washington.  Talking to people on the shuttle bus, I realized there were many teachers.  The woman sitting next to me was a teacher from North Carolina.  At the mall area there were people everywhere.  It was hard to know how many people there were, but it was easy to know why they were there.  The signs people were holding represented their concerns.  I've never seen so many interesting and creative signs.  Lots of the signs spoke of Trump being a sexual deviate.  There were many dignified, older women holding signs concerned about the future of planned parenthood.  There were groups concerned about the environment, lots of signs saying "show your taxes"; native Americans with signs saying "keep the oil in the soil"; etc. etc.  

Marg, Alice (photographer) and Becca.

The first event of the day was the rally.  We stood shoulder to shoulder listening to many speakers.  They were activists, authors, television hosts, film makers, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., singers, etc.  I never thought I'd see Madonna, but there she was talking and singing.  The second part of the day was the march.  I don't know the route, but it had to be changed because there were so many more people than expected.  We heard all kinds of chants.  "Refugees are here to stay!" and "This is what a democracy looks like", and many more.  When we got to the Trump Hotel the march stopped and the chants were "Shame on you" and "Pay your taxes".  I don't know how long we marched.  We were getting tired and hungry.  We hadn't eaten in a long time, but we had candy bars in our pockets.  At the end of the march we found a metro station.  Even with hundreds of people we were surprised how quickly the line moved.  Once we were back at R.F.K. Stadium, it was hard to find our bus in the dark among the hundreds of buses.  Once on the bus we felt we had one of the most exciting days of our lives.  I would do it again.  It was thrilling!

I want to thank Marg for writing about her experience.  I certainly couldn't have written about it as well as she did, since she experienced the event.  Years from now, she and her daughter and granddaughter will be able to talk about that day in history when they marched in Washington, D.C. for a cause greater than any other in history of women.  I only wish I had been part of it myself.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.