On October 30, 2001, the Allen County Common Threads Conference was held on the Bluffton College campus in Bluffton, Ohio. Based on the identified themes of trust among leaders and respecting differences, local people from diverse backgrounds throughout Allen County were interviewed, in advance of the conference, by Michael Rohd, founding artistic director, Sojourn Theatre, Portland, Oregon. Their thoughts and comments were compiled into four intensely moving monologues written by Michael Rohd and performed by both Sojourn Theatre and local actors at the conference. Following each monologue, conference perticipants were invited to ask questions generated by the content of the monologues. Listed below are the four monologues, Trickles, Chisel, Tend To See and First Impressions:
Trickles
Written by: Michael Rohd
Performed 10/30/01 at Bluffton College by: Vicki Shurelds, Lima Resident
I think
More so with black folks
I think we rely on prayer more so
Than the system
White folks count on the system, I think
But for us, the system doesn't always work
Matter of fact
Sometimes its working against us
My daughter
She was going to a majority white school
And there was this guy there-
He was white
All the kids were talking about him
They were saying
Something about him
Everyone was saying it
Whatever it was
My daughter is five feet tall
About 120 pounds
This guy
He's 6 feet, 240
One day in the lunchroom
He walks up to her
He says
'did you say this about me?'
she says
'well, everyone said it
at one point, I said it too'
he pours a container of milk overher head
now, my daughter
small though she is
she has her father's temper
so
she stands up
she goes at him
then
he picks up a chair
and smashes her with it
she has to go to the hospital
she's hurt pretty bad
fractured hand
bruises all over
I go over to the school
And I am very, very angry
This is my daughter
I am mad
They won't let me interact with this boy
Or with his family
The school doesn't do anything
So I go to juvenile court
I ask them
What are you gonna do?
The court says
the boy and his family
will pay the bills
the hospital bills
ok
I start getting the bills in the mail
I go back to the court
They say they can't help me
The boy's got no money
That summer, the boy gets a summer job
He's making money
He still doesn't pay a thing
And now
With me making a fuss about this
I am worried about his boy
Jumping my girl back in school
Because clearly
Noone is doing anything
to make him think
that was a wrong thing
And I get angrier and angrier
The system did not help me here
And I start to fear for my baby girl
I am a mother
And nothing is more important than my girl
That's what a mother is
I start thinking about jumping on this boy
Doing anything to keep him from acting out on her
Because she's scared, too
But I knowif I do that
Its wrong
And then I'm gonna get in trouble
I'm gonna end up in jail
instead of him
The thoughts in my mind were running rapidly
So I turned to Jesus
Not for the first time
I turned to prayer
I prayed
I prayed hard
I was able to calm down
And release a lot of anger
The main thing about that spiritual thing is
You can always rely on it
When you feel you have nowhere else to turn
Prayer is always there
No matter what
You say-
'humble me
help me do the right thing
find the right words to speak'
cause there was a storm brewing
there's always a storm brewing somewhere
and prayer
prayer helps us deliver
I think the good news
When you looik at the black community
Is that we're strong in faith
You see
in general
A whole black community that is strong in faith
That's the good news about us
Some of the good news-
Even though we go to this church
And that church
Lots of churches, expecially around here-
We're strong with God
And we believe a lot of the same things
The good news ab out the black community here
Is also
That when you talk about leaders
When you talk about leaders
There is not just one
We're all trying to do our own thing
Help in our own way
There is no Martin Luther King here
There are many leaders
Some are attached to churches
Some are not
But we're all trying to accomplish something
The downside to that
Some people say
Is we're not unified enough
And when its time to speak as one in thr larger community-
Well, how does a whole community speak as one
Anyway?
The thing about leaders
One leader
Or many leaders
They have a responsibility
Because if they're at the head
If they're up top
Of a family
Of a church
Of a part of town
What they say and do
It trickles out
It trickles down
To the rest of us
Love trickles down
Hate trickles
Deceiving trickles
So you've got t have positive people at the top
You have got to be a positive people
We have to be positive
Because our community, its abut faith
It can be all about faith
And love
We need each other
And our leaders
To stay strong
And let the right words
trickle
Chisel
Written by: Michael Rohd
Performed 10/30/01 at Bluffton College by: Ben Johnson, Lima Resident
I think people are more and more aware of difference
More aware of
Of what to be sensitive of
I think majority leaders try
They try to find ways to do things . . .
But even so
They don't know us
They simply don't know us
I grew up here
This is my community
but
there really is very little here
for people of color
let me give you an example
fourth of July
big celebration
community leaders
They put this whole thing together
And you know they're thinking
Oh This'll be great
This'll be fun
and then they think
Oh
W don't have anything for black people
Ok, we'll get a gospel group
That'll do with that
Then they go on
I really believe
at this point in my life
the whole exclusion thing-
I really believe it's not intentional
Its not anybody saying
'well, we don't care about them'
it's just
we're not even a thought
to some people
there are exceptions
new events
efforts
you have to say
I'm gonna stay here
And make a life for myself in this community
And there are things that will happen here
That I will accept
And things that will happen that I won't accept
What do I have to do to make things work for me
panels come up in town
committees
to plan events
to suggest policy
these groups always talk about the importance
of diversity
and I know
what happens over and over again
is one black person walks into that room
onto that committee
into that group
they look around
and there are no other non white faces
if we're working on diversity-
is that truly diversity, or simply representation?
you can see the work folks have put in
Clearly someone has thought
'lets make sure people are represented'-
To me,
being 'represented' is not enough
I mean
the initial people who put it together
should look around the table and say
where are the voices of the people
we are trying to include-
where are they. . .?
They need to find a way to say
What do you want?
What would make you feel involved
What would make the day, the week, the event
yours
I think the main thing that has changed
They are trying
Majority leaders are trying
And that is no small thing
but
They don't know us
They still don't know us
And I struggle
With helping to change that
Because I don't know them either
I have a friend
Who was an autopsy technician
He said
An autopsy
Makes you remember
difference
All the major organs
One body to another
They're placed in the same place
The only thing that's different about it-
the pigmentation
the pigmentation
Is different
The color of the skin
When he came to grips with that
When he opened the bodies
Of a black man and a white man
Side by side
He was changed
He said
he always thought
That maybe something on the inside was different
He realized
Its only the mindset
And by the time he saw the bodies
The mindset was just a memory
Passed onto the minds of those still walking the earth
If you're a child of color here
It should be your ambition to get out
A large part of me believes that
The structure is so-
Its very difficult to find a place-
You have to chisel a place
but
This is my community
Noone is going to force me out
Even by accident
I decided that
along time ago
So
I chisel away, and I make my home
Tend to see
Written by: Michael Rohd
Performed 10/30/01 at Bluffton College by: Ryan Keilty, Sojourn Theatre
I tend to see
at the core
a bulk of the community's issues
now
here's the thing-
when you say racism
some people get their back up
it makes folks very
it can make people uncomfortable
right up front
I'm a white guy
I understand that feeling
For a long time
I hear racism
And I think somebody is saying
Hate
I equate racism
With hate
And I don't believe that I carry hate around
So, if somebody talks racism
I'm done
I'm out of the conversation
You lost me
At least, you had
Then
I start thinking about
How me and my neighbors
How we-
Oh, I live in Shawnee
Well, born there
Live in Lima proper now
Which means
I have some views
on all the annexation business
I start thinking about me and my old neighbors
Lots of folks
don't want to be part of the city of Lima
because they
we
associate the city
with crime
with violence
with general trouble
It's really a pretty reasonable association
if you take it at surface
There are parts of this town
that are
well, they're rough and pretty hostile
at least in appearance
particularly if you happen to be a middle class white guy
used to the general
quiet
of the suburbs
and that existing truth
that situation
it can grow based on a person's attitudes toward-
toward different race and class groups
So that when a person who is afraid of
or even
unaccustomed
to urban black culture
drives down south Main street
and is stuck behind two loud black guys
standing outside their cars
holding a conversation in the middle of the road
that becomes, to the white driver, an act of violation
The next time they consider Lima, downtown Lima
they think of that moment
Of their discomfort
Of their fear
And
They tell the story to others
Their fear passes on
the growing sense
of a lost city
to others they know
Which is really
Not a lost city
It's a different city
On the other side
those two black guys
they're used to stopping in the middle of the road to talk
because,
typically the only folks driving through this neighborhood
are other black folks-
if your neighbors don't like you standing out there
blocking their way,
they'll ask you to move
and you move.
But the feelings of that man
that man from a township
who felt himself
an inconvenienced visitor in a frightening urban landscape-
Those feelings grow into assumption:
if we start letting the city of Lima take over our land,
the next thing you know
we won't be able to drive down the street
there'll be ganstas loitering around
there'll be crack cocaine
there'll be different people
Lima's "Problems" will spill
out
here
We don't want spill
Spill is bad
Its less a thought about people
Than an assumption about what those people represent
I don't think its hate
I think its fear
And ignorance
And years of TV newsthat only show certain parts of town
If a crime has been committed
There are 450,000 people in the 10 county area
Most of the area's 10,000 black people live in a 15 square block area
Think about when you see
that part of town
I mean, I grew up on Starsky and Hutch
My images of black people came more
from that little box
Than any actual contact
Contact, it scares people
Because you don't know what could happen
And your choice is
Take a chance
learn about people
Or
stick to what you know
Racism is when 'stick to what you know' becomes behavior
Becomes action
Becomes
public policy
this isn't what people say,
it's what they think
at least, its what I think
First Impressions
Written by: Michael Rohd
Performed 10/30/01 at Bluffton College by: Jenn Van Nice, Sojourn Theatre
The problem with the city-
Well, sometimes the city thinks everything is about
the city
That the city is the system
They forget it's part of a system-
A county with a city in it
Not a city with a county in it
Its not all about the city
That's what a relative of mine says
often
He's an official representative in this area
he goes into rooms to talk about these issues
And it's good people in those rooms, he says
Everyone's a good person
But business-
Well, he'll have coffee with them
some of them are his friends
But he'd just as soon not have to do business with them
I'll tell you an issue I hear about
Being related to a man
who spends several hours a week in 'important' rooms-
you only get one chance
To make a first impression
And these days
With a lot of folks that have to work together
There's 10 impressions walking into a room with each one of them
Lately
Around here
history makes a first impression before people ever can
its like family
family is important to us around here
you spend time together
sometimes, it's a joy
sometimes it's not
but you're tied up
you're tied together
that's how I feel about the whole area
I know not everyone feels that way
In the city
And out here
There are people who would like to see more separation
Not more cooperation
its complicated
I heard about one meeting-
the city representatives
they were talking about annexation, about a plan
whatever the plan was at that particular time
and on gentleman from a township
he sat there
with steam coming out of his ears
arms crossed
he just stared straight ahead
and he finally said
"they're forcing it down our throats
we can't do anything about it
and
we don't like it"
now, my relation happened to agree with him
he didn't like it either
but what stuck out for him
was that the gentleman in that meeting
reminded him
of folks he meets on the street in our area
they come up to him
and they ask him
what's going on?
And he starts to tell them
He knows all the figures
He knows all the plans
And proposals
He has some very intelligent thoughts
On the whole ordeal
But these folks that come up to him
They glaze over
They don't want to hear
They just want to talk opinion
Their opinion
He likes to say
'either they don't know
or they don't care
but either way
they'll tell you what they want'
his job is to know
and to care
and he does his job well
he's proud of that
and I'm proud of him
but this gentleman in that meeting
the one with the steam coming out of his ears
he's acting just like the people on the street
he closes off
says his opinion
and behaves like its out of his control
well, it may seem like that sometimes
but he has been sent there to make a difference
I agree with the steamed gentleman's opinion
I do
But
He is there
to speak out
and
most importantly
to listen
he is a leader
how can he led if he doesn't hear what he's leading against
for that matter
how can he lead if he can't see where he's going
I think
And I know people that agree with me on this
That we're not going to get anywhere
On this whole city/county/township
Conflict
Without some cooperation
I know
The city works at communication
The mayor-
People have heard the mayor say it
He tries to open up the conversation
I know he feels shut out sometimes
Like I said
Its first impressions
Its history
All sides get trapped in history
People in and outside the city know
We have to plan
We have to have long range goals
And act on them now
But we have to make long range goals together
Otherwise, its not a goal
Its just a decision turned into an action plan
And
When you act on a decision without cooperation
You're ignoring history
You're making more history
The kind that makes first impressions for a long time to come
I would like to meet people in Allen County
And by that I mean the city
And the townships
And the villages
And the municipalities
I would like to meet people
And make my own first impression
I wish that even more
For the leaders that represent us
All of us
Conference evaluations were extremely positive and strongly recommended creating more opportunities for people from all backgrounds to come together to explore and dialogue on the issues of trust among leaders and respecting differences. Participants expressed the desire to get more county residents and people associated with agriculture, townships, heathcare, labor and business involved in the next phase of the project.
For more informatioin on Common Threads 2002, a theater-based civic dialogue process or if you would like to join the project, please contact:
Christine Rodabaugh, Project Coordinator
Allen County Common Threads/Animating Democracy Initiative
P. O. Box 5283
Lima, OH 45802
419-224-6873
threads@wcoil.com
