Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A long time coming


Oh Boy! How long it has been since I have written my last blog post! Over a whole season of the year! My apologies to all who have read my blog in the past.

So much has happened since my last blog post. The Capuchin Volunteer Corp, the program that I was apart of that allowed me to work at Faith Community for Worker Justice finished up in mid July and left me in a place where I really had absolutely no idea what I was going to do. Dreams of heading out to the mythical and idealistic American West were thwarted by an all consuming and overriding college debt that keeps me one step away from pure freedom.

I must say that I have never been a financial guy; you know one that kept meticulous count over how much money you have in the bank and whatnot, but what I have found is that debt might as well be a form of slavery, because it has the ability to build a wall between you and the dreams that you have for yourself. So my determination on the matter is that if debt is the wall between true freedom and involuntary servitude, it must be broken down.

So I have to say I have come to accept a new financial practice. Simply no debt! May be harder than it sounds but I'm going to give it a whirl.

So I got a job working with the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, a union organizing position working on area hospitals to get them union representation. This does a number of things, it allows me to work for positive social change in our health care system while simultaneously making enough to hack down on some of this debt.

What else has been going on? Elizabeth moved to Detroit a few weeks ago where she got a job working with an organization that provides IT and other computer related stuff to area non-profits and C(4)'s on stuff related to the elections. From what I can gather, she really likes the job, Detroit however, is providing an interesting experience for her. Living in the City of Detroit has got to be a hell of a trial by fire. It is certainly a testament to the troubles of globalization and disappearance of unions in a formerly economically viable urban center.

The house that she's living in is a mansion! Originally it was set up to be a single family house, but her and her roommate Molly (a former Cap Corp volunteer) have the top floor and I must say that the house is absolutely astounding! The intricacies of the woodwork and molding in the structural frame of the house is certain evidence of high class housing before the jobs left the city.

Its definitely difficult not having her here in Milwaukee like she was. Adjusting to a long distance relationship has certainly been difficult for both of us. But I think were going to cope in the end and pull it though. Were certainly a great match for one another and I guess they say that love conquers all. (I assume that includes distance as well).

I moved back into the neighborhood that I was originally living in when I originally moved to Milwaukee. Its an area called Riverwest, which sort of serves as the fringe arts and culturally beautiful neighborhood of Milwaukee's north side. I moved in with a friend of mine from mNSC http://www.milwaukeenetworkforsocialchange.org/ (the group that puts on the free vans and markets) and a friend who I did some organizing with at UWM with SDS and the Student Labor group they have going on there.

Anyway, that's really whats going on in my life right now. I will keep you posted on the way that organizing goes with the nurses at our next project in Milwaukee.