“Hatred will not weaken a city of steel”
Apparently, these words were on a sign someone was displaying in Pittsburgh following the killing of eleven people and the wounding of six others at The Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of the city.
Pittsburgh and its neighboring communities extending to West Virginia and Ohio have a rich history of steel mills and people of steel. It is a city of immigrants, laborers, and labor leaders such as Joe Hill who have had to struggle to claim a fair share of the profits.
When I think of Pittsburgh I think not only of the world class museums, conservatory, and arts community, I think of tough people such as my now deceased friend Stephie. Stephie lived in the apartment complex in which I lived for some time. The back yard/area of the building was, as I recall, about the size of a football field. The building boiler had burned coal for many years. The coal ash had been dumped in the yard for many decades. It eventually covered all the soil. Several blocks away new construction left an excess of dirt. Stephie and another woman,d using a wheelbarrow, hauled enough top soil to cover that yard at a sufficient depth to allow grass to be grown.
Stephie told the story of her dad coming to the United States with a promise to get a job and send for his fiancé. His fiancé, Stephie’s mother waited and waited in Czechoslovak and no passage money or word came from him. Her mother finally made enough money to pay for her own passage. Arriving in Pittsburgh it was easy to locate the section of the city which her fiancé might be living with others from Czechoslovakia. Stephie says her mother made the rounds of the bars until she found him. She went in and without saying a word took him by the ear out of the According to Stephie, this was the last time her dad entered a bar. Eventually Stephie’s mother and dad had 12 children. There were all people of steel living in a steel city whose coal powered plants covered the city in black soot. Today there is little evidence of that soot. Yet the people of steel remain.
Football, baseball, river traffic, heath care as well as the arts form the core of this city. It is a city which remembers that it took people of steel to build this city. It took people of steel to reclaim post holocaust lives. It will take people of steel to answer hate with love and leave open the doors.
It is indeed the friendly city which will gather together to celebrate the lives of those shot to death on Saturday. It is the city who has welcome the holocaust survivor and the wounded from all around the world. It is the city which had remade itself economically, but will forever remain the city of steel which will not respond to hatred with hatred. While the city has not been immured or protected from the legacy of racism, sexism or homophobia it has once again shown that it can rise above the coal ash of its past and work to expand Mr. Rogers neighborhood to include all its citizens. It is a city of steel in the midst of transformation which will not be weakened by hatred.
Written October 30, 2018
Apparently, these words were on a sign someone was displaying in Pittsburgh following the killing of eleven people and the wounding of six others at The Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of the city.
Pittsburgh and its neighboring communities extending to West Virginia and Ohio have a rich history of steel mills and people of steel. It is a city of immigrants, laborers, and labor leaders such as Joe Hill who have had to struggle to claim a fair share of the profits.
When I think of Pittsburgh I think not only of the world class museums, conservatory, and arts community, I think of tough people such as my now deceased friend Stephie. Stephie lived in the apartment complex in which I lived for some time. The back yard/area of the building was, as I recall, about the size of a football field. The building boiler had burned coal for many years. The coal ash had been dumped in the yard for many decades. It eventually covered all the soil. Several blocks away new construction left an excess of dirt. Stephie and another woman,d using a wheelbarrow, hauled enough top soil to cover that yard at a sufficient depth to allow grass to be grown.
Stephie told the story of her dad coming to the United States with a promise to get a job and send for his fiancé. His fiancé, Stephie’s mother waited and waited in Czechoslovak and no passage money or word came from him. Her mother finally made enough money to pay for her own passage. Arriving in Pittsburgh it was easy to locate the section of the city which her fiancé might be living with others from Czechoslovakia. Stephie says her mother made the rounds of the bars until she found him. She went in and without saying a word took him by the ear out of the According to Stephie, this was the last time her dad entered a bar. Eventually Stephie’s mother and dad had 12 children. There were all people of steel living in a steel city whose coal powered plants covered the city in black soot. Today there is little evidence of that soot. Yet the people of steel remain.
Football, baseball, river traffic, heath care as well as the arts form the core of this city. It is a city which remembers that it took people of steel to build this city. It took people of steel to reclaim post holocaust lives. It will take people of steel to answer hate with love and leave open the doors.
It is indeed the friendly city which will gather together to celebrate the lives of those shot to death on Saturday. It is the city who has welcome the holocaust survivor and the wounded from all around the world. It is the city which had remade itself economically, but will forever remain the city of steel which will not respond to hatred with hatred. While the city has not been immured or protected from the legacy of racism, sexism or homophobia it has once again shown that it can rise above the coal ash of its past and work to expand Mr. Rogers neighborhood to include all its citizens. It is a city of steel in the midst of transformation which will not be weakened by hatred.
Written October 30, 2018
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