A little Adrienne Rich and a winter blast
December 21st, 2008 by Julia TaylorWatching the temperature start at minus 4 and then drift up to 0 degrees today, brings to mind the comments at Mary Louise Mussoline and Jim Cope’s Holiday Party last night about why we stay in this cold climate.
Most of us who live here over the years hold onto those sweet October evenings when you can still sit outside by the fire pit, watch the evening stars come into view and spin the conversations of old friendships a little longer . Then the temperature begins its shift to the 40s and its time to dig out coats, then the downward spiral to the 30s and 20s and it’s the time for finding the one good pair of leather gloves that still match from last season, untangling the scarves and unearthing the ice scraper from last season.
We stay here for those nights when the sky is clear and the snow falls caught in the streetlight and we walk hand in hand to the car down the snowy street. The sounds of the party spill out of the front door behind us and we are warm from the wine and the talk of friends who bind us all together in this place. The political discussion, the talk about the economic troubles all ebb away. What matters is the solidness of our friends who are with us when our emotional weather is the perfect summer evening and the rigors of the sub zero times and the absolute energy and sureness about life of the young people dancing, laughing and creating their own climate change.
It’s a good place to be, the weather withstanding.
An avalanche of snow from the roof
Here is one of my favorite poems from my college days. It seems to fit today as well as we huddle down with the weather and “troubles” swirling outside the keyhole.
Storm Warnings
The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of grey unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky
And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.
Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters.
I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture.
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.
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- -Adrienne Rich
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Thinking about Irma Walker
December 13th, 2008 by Julia TaylorA number of years ago at the YWCA, a young man on the maintenance staff was killed. He was in the wrong place on the streets and was shot. He left behind a very young widow with a several month old son. He was so proud of his family and started both a college fund and working with Select Milwaukee to buy his first home. It was a day we all remember as we dealt with such a sudden and violent death and loss.
My friend, Irma
Irma Walker, the COO, raised 15 foster children over her and Walker’s lifetime together as well as 6 of her own children. this young man was one of these foster kids and the only one Irma lost. It was one of the saddest and hardest times for Irma and for our agency.
Irma oversaw two huge projects for the YWCA–over 200 units of housing and a new 50,000 square foot building–the Enterprise Center on MLK Drive. Irma went on to found My Home, Your Home– an agency that keeps siblings together in foster care and Lissey’s Place–a home for kids who age out of foster care and end up on the streets. She took care of so many people and raised marvelous, talented people. Charlie is an incredible successful artist, Connie is the Executive Director of My Home, Your Home, and Lee and Irma helped a ballet for inner city kids. Tonio is a handsome young man. And Irma still had a foster child in college living with her and Walker.
Irma passed away on Thanksgiving day this year after several rounds of cancer. Her service was last Sunday at COGIC on 40th and Capital. The service was marvelous and so like Irma–full of stories, singing and laughter. I talked about Irma’s incredible gifts to the YWCA and as a teacher and friend and mentioned the sad story of the young maintenance worker in my remarks. The real story for me of Irma came at the end of the service. A woman with a young boy of 8 or so came up to me and introduced her and her son again. It was his widow and son. Irma had taken them into her family and as she said–there was no better family to help raise a child.
So Irma, I know you are watching out for all of us–especially those young sweet children when no one else steps in to love, protect and raise so well. I miss you already but know you are in a better place with no pain and much to do. I think about you every morning and how to honor you through my deeds.
Love you,
Julia
Doyle’s Economic Stimulus Package
December 12th, 2008 by Julia Taylorhttp://www.scribd.com/share/upload/5959120/1xqzq405arg9tjmf479w
What Went Wrong
December 7th, 2008 by Julia TaylorFirst a disclaimer, my academic background was in English and Philosophy so my basic understanding of financial markets is based on a few years on a bank board and reading a lot and talking with people who study or work in the financial arena in Milwaukee. Fortunately, Milwaukee’s financial markets are still strong though suffering the market downturn like every where else today.
I would recommend Michael Lewis’s Portfolio article After the Fall and Kevin Phillip’s book Bad Money
Some key points I learned-
- The rating agencies allowed a lot of bad paper to be sold. They made more money from opinions on these bundled mortgages than the larger corporations in a great market. The NY Times has a straight forward article on this today.
- The investment banks going public transferred the risk for this bad paper from the partners to the shareholders.
- The investment banks then over leveraged and resold and repackaged the bad paper and sold it again–some leveraged up to 35 times the worth of the firm. This is how 300 billion of sub-prime mortgages became a 700 billion problem (for starters).
- The smart investors who shorted the investment banks and often the actual bad paper transactions kept liquidity in the market.
- This liquidity actually kept the engine going for a while.
- This October the engine seized up but it had been running on bad gas for many, many years.
- As credit freezes up, companies retrench, most of us pull back on spending just due to uncertainty, companies retrench more, lay-offs occur and now the new economic concept is lay-away.
- The cycle just spirals more until there is enough confidence and credit to turn things around.