How Long Can I Last?

Getting Used to the Pandemic

William Sundwick

We are gradually re-opening. Phase 2 has begun. Chances are good that I can soon get an appointment at my local Hair Cuttery. Heck, if I wanted to, I bet I could go to my gym again starting this weekend.

It’s been nearly three months of pandemic quarantine in Northern Virginia. Long enough for old routines to be replaced by new ones. Long enough for me to become quite familiar with grocery delivery services and literally everything else I need or want in my day-to-day life, all available with “contactless delivery.”

The new routines have become so comfortable, in fact, that I’m in no hurry to return to the Before Times. And, nobody in my life is encouraging me to jump back in. Kids and wife all urge caution. Perhaps my previous life was not so dependent on getting out, anyway. I’m more concerned with weight gains from gym withdrawal than any social deprivation; more concerned about my car battery dying from sitting in the driveway than from the absence of driving pleasure (despite having just bought a new car in September).

And, loneliness is not a problem since my wife works from home. I know not everyone’s life is so well-situated. I gather there are serious class divides, not to mention personality constraints, that determine how well people can cope with quarantine fatigue. As always, I must “check my privilege” here.

Some adaptations I’ve made in my admittedly favorable circumstances as a retired, high risk, 73-year-old man are these:

•          Daily neighborhood walks are now enjoyed in company of my wife, after she goes “off the clock” late in the day – a new opportunity for some companionship. We’ve altered some of my standard routes on account of crowded trails or difficult topography. 
•          Doing our own housecleaning has been required since maid service was suspended during the quarantine. I’m not very good at this, but doing some things occasionally feels like mastery.
•          Discovery of grocery delivery services – Amazon Fresh, Instacart, Peapod, our favorite bakery. I had not been aware of this world previously but, indeed, you have always been able to get delivery of most things. It is contactless but I often leave an extra tip in an envelope taped to door. Delivery is getting easier now as more time slots are available. I try not to think about crossing picket lines for Amazon and Instacart drivers, who have been trying to strike.
•          Podcast listening times have changed somewhat – no longer during neighborhood walks or gym workouts -- but quite compatible with my typical Internet cruising routine during my wife’s workday. I still cannot combine listening to a podcast with reading a book, however.
  
•           One thing I do miss is my music library. That was previously reserved for listening while at the gym. I have not found another convenient time where my collection of rock, blues, and folk gives me the same biofeedback or physical/emotional charge as during gym workouts. Since I am not sure when I will return to the gym, I have some incentive to find another good music environment.
•       Speaking of my gym, I have noticed weight up about five pounds over this quarantine period – vigorous exercise, mostly cardio with some back strengthening, apparently was also a weight control strategy. Yet, gyms are high-risk indoor environments and I still await guidance. Surely, I won’t return until Phase 2 is well-established (gyms only at 30 per cent capacity, with no backsliding in new cases). Investment in home exercise equipment remains a dubious endeavor. 

In addition to these adaptations, there have been some non-routine experiences. I learned to give myself a haircut (after a fashion); with extra begging, my wife does the back of my head. It looks reasonable! I have ventured out, occasionally, to the post office, pharmacy, or local hardware store. Post office and pharmacy were fine (masks required), but the hardware store with its narrow aisles and many customers was somewhat scarier. FaceTime has become the standard means of communication with the grandkids, and my two adult sons as well. Recently, the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests came to my neighborhood (finally), and I crafted a sign, walked to the protest site, and mingled with the masked crowd for an hour!

Perhaps the best part of the pandemic quarantine, however, has been deciding what to watch next on television! The entertainment ecosystem has blossomed in recent years – it’s little wonder that movie theaters, even without a pandemic, are having a hard time surviving these days. Subscriptions to streaming services (and cable still in my house!) provide a myriad of choices – quality choices, too! When the latest Hulu series is complete (right now, Little Fires Everywhere), there is yet another queued up in “My Stuff” – or maybe back to HBO for the final season of The Wire, or Netflix, or Prime Video (just finished The Romanoffs there). With such a panoply of late-night entertainment, including snacks and nightcaps, there is conceivably no limit to how long I can last!

Community Organizing

VOICE, the IAF in Northern Virginia

William Sundwick

Saul Alinsky and Bishop Bernard James Shell founded the Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago in 1940. Their idea was to mobilize diverse faith communities of urban poor and working-class people lacking in political power.

It was a goal pursued by organized labor as well, but labor unions were based on employment in specific industrial sectors. Alinsky saw religious groups as the more fruitful partners in efforts to organize the marginalized for political action, regardless of employment status.  He was Jewish, and not necessarily religious himself, but Shell was a Roman Catholic prelate.

In time, the basic interfaith nature of their enterprise would also encompass African-American protestant churches. As it grew beyond Chicago, IAF had considerable success organizing in Texas and California, among poor Hispanic residents. New York City also became an early venue for IAF organizations. Other industrial centers in the Midwest, and Baltimore, came into the fold later.

The DC Metro area (DMV) is now represented by three separate IAF organizations: Action in Montgomery (AIM), Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), and VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement).

VOICE was founded in 2008. It includes over 40 congregations from Northern Virginia jurisdictions – Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Jews, Methodists, Muslims, Presbyterians, and Unitarians.

Administrative offices are at Arlington Unitarian Universalist Church (UUCA), one of the organization’s founders and primary supporters. In the last two years, enthusiastic engagement from two Northern Virginia mosques have provided many volunteers, and much financial help – Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, and Dar al-Noor in Manassas. Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church and Our Lady Queen of Peace in Arlington have also been active supporters since its beginning.

In its first ten years, the organization succeeded in obtaining relief for Prince William residents affected by the foreclosure crisis of 2007-08 by securing grants from Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and GE for victims of their predatory lending practices, via principal reduction and renegotiation of loans, as well as $30M in additional investment capital for the county. VOICE secured $3M from Fairfax County to improve parks and athletic facilities for low-income residents along the Route 1 corridor. And, it has helped Arlington and Alexandria save existing affordable housing units from upscale development, expanding their number by adding more than 1000 new units. Just this year, VOICE pressure on the Arlington County Board contributed to an additional $600K added to Arlington’s affordable housing trust fund.

Each year, VOICE has “asks” of local elected officials. For 2019, these include:

1. Criminal Justice Reform – end cash bail and restore rights of returning citizens from incarceration (such as suspended driver’s licenses for court debts)
2. Increase investment in school counselors, mental health facilities
3. Invest further in pre-K for low income residents (already successful for some in PW County)
4.  Keep families together – immigration and ICE enforcement (protect interests of U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants)
5. Make Northern Virginia communities affordable for their own public employees (the rationale behind Arlington and Alexandria affordable housing)

On October 21, at Fairfax High School, VOICE held a major action with Governor Ralph Northam and AG Mark Herring, attended by 1400 enthusiastic VOICE members. The Governor and Attorney General were presented with VOICE asks. Both appeared to support the criminal justice reforms and promised to work with the General Assembly to end cash bail, and restore rights of felons. Additionally, they agreed to explore a program to reduce mass incarceration over a 5 to 10-year period.

Increasing investment in schools and mental health resources met with deflection by the Governor, as did the question about the state’s Housing Production Trust Fund. Instead, the governor crowed about the commitment of dedicated resources to Metro funding as his great accomplishment with the General Assembly this year (it was a VOICE ask last year).

The crowd in the high school auditorium shouted down his deflection on schools, “Answer the question!” The moderators, calm clergymen from member congregations, reminded the audience to be respectful of our honored guests!

Indeed, VOICE relies on clergy from its member congregations for leadership in all public actions. This was an important organizing principle taken from Saul Alinsky, identified in his manual for community organizing, Rules for Radicals (1971). It’s clergy who have the stature, the moral authority in the community, to really mobilize the people – their flocks. VOICE has been successful in its political endeavors only because of committed clergy. 

The co-moderators on October 21 were Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe from Temple Rodef Shalom, Rev. Rebecca Messman from Trinity Presbyterian in Herndon, and the inimitable Rev. Dr. Keith Savage of First Baptist in Manassas (a fiery speaker in the tradition of Martin Luther King).

Non-partisan GOTV canvassing (Get Out The Vote) is next on the VOICE agenda. VOICE was wildly successful when it did this last year for state elections. They identified certain precincts where there was historically low turnout for off-year elections. The results were spectacular. In each Fairfax and Prince William precinct where VOICE sent canvassers, turnout was up more than 10 per cent over 2013. This year, they will be concentrating on precincts in the VA-10 congressional district – Fairfax/Loudoun border (Sterling), and PW County near Manassas.

My wife and I have signed up for door-knocking in the Sterling area on Saturday, Nov. 3 and on election day, itself, for a three hour shift each day. Hopefully, VOICE can do as well as last year. It’s strictly non-partisan. We’re not hoofing for any candidate, just trying to get people to the polls.

Saul Alinsky hated both political parties. And still today, there has been absolutely no partisan grist to VOICE or any IAF organization. If one party wants to oppose organizing marginalized groups in the community, that is its choice. During Alinsky’s lifetime, and since, there has been much scorn directed at him and the IAF. But, let’s write that off to jaded cynicism about prospects for social change.

VOICE is an organization of religious people of different faiths who are willing to give it a try by working together. It will never work if you don’t try – even if sometimes it doesn’t work when you do.

Exit Strategy

Was Getting Out Inevitable?

Flint Series, Chapter 5

William Sundwick

Sometimes I think that friendships are simply a matter of convenience. While many people seem to make life-long friendships with kids they grew up with, my experience has been different. I lost contact with my childhood friends in high school, lost touch with my high school friends while we were all away at college, didn’t pursue college friends after the post-college diaspora. Indeed, even grad school, which was right here in the DC area, didn’t produce any lasting relationships, despite many of us staying here to pursue our careers.

No, my life has been marked by associations based on externalities, convenience, common interests – and those interests have changed over the years.

Through high school, in Flint, my primary interest focused on my future. Not that the present was so bad, just that it seemed to have no growth possibilities. Flint was already as big as anybody in my world could imagine it. My friends would say, “Well, you may not know where you’ll end up, but it sure as hell won’t be here!” My mother said with a look of anguish on her face, “Surely you must come up with a plan to go somewhere else?” My father mostly would laugh at the prospect of coming back to Flint after college – “What, and work for GM?” he chortled. And, he had been a General Motors “lifer.”

Only the “other Sundwicks” in Flint had any sense of attachment to the city. Perhaps it came from their mother’s family, the Stebbins. Perhaps it was from the complex web of social interconnections that the three siblings had woven over more years than my relatively brief Flint lifespan. As it turned out, only one of the three left Flint – middle cousin, Bob.

During one foray back to Flint, in 1979, staying with cousin John, I contacted a high school friend who was still in Flint (hadn’t seen him in more than a decade). He had graduated from MSU in E. Lansing, with a degree in oriental philosophy, and was working as a computer programmer for the City of Flint and raising his young family there. He was the exception.

Everybody else from high school, by that time, was far away. Even though, in 1979, I didn’t know where any of them were, it seemed inevitable they wouldn’t be In Flint.  I believe it was inevitable for me, and I never needed an exit strategy.

Once Google was available, I discovered a Ph.D. dissertation from friend Nate. And my mother had informed me, when I moved to Northern Virginia, that childhood friend Charles had married a “Korean girl” and was living in Reston. I never contacted him, though. I have no idea what happened to Abe, best of friends through both junior high and high school. But, it didn’t matter. The deed was done, escape effected. All who came before erased from memory.

Is there something wrong with me?

Once, during a trip from Kalamazoo in my college senior year (1968-69), I dropped in unannounced at Abe’s house on Mackin Road and talked with his younger brother, Sol. I introduced my girlfriend of the moment, who had driven there with me.

What transpired in the conversation is fuzzy, but one haunting aside from Sol keeps impinging on my consciousness. I believe he interjected, almost unnoticed by me at the time, “You know Abe is gay, right?” I think I didn’t want to acknowledge the import of that. I didn’t reply. In high school, he often joked (I thought) about “us” being “queer” – I had always taken it as a lame excuse for our not being able to find attractive girls to date at the time. I guess the meaning was deeper for him.

I’ve often wondered what happened to Abe during the AIDS epidemic of the eighties. But, I never followed up to locate Sol or Abe. No trace of either on Facebook, Twitter, or Google.

Abe had been the ringleader of the whole Get Out of Flint movement, not that there was much opposition from anybody else in our crowd. But, he was the most vociferous. Could he have been motivated by some personal animus against that conventional blue-collar midwestern city? His alienation may have been stronger than the rest of ours, and not just because of his Holocaust survivor parents, either!

All this leads me to wonder if any of us has an obligation to our hometown. What is it about place that can inspire loyalty, a desire to return after leaving? To “give back”?

In the case of Flint, the city has become known everywhere over the last thirty years as a dying place. Poisoning its residents through willful negligence has only been the “icing on the cake” of a three-decades-long disinvestment by its corporate overlord, General Motors, and by politicians not beholden in any way to those residents – the poorest city in the country, from a 2017 survey. Flintoids don’t have the money to buy the politicians. And, that generations-long brain drain, common to many rust belt cities, depletes any wherewithal to resist. We all shed a tear for Flint, but what have we done about it?

In the last chapter of my saga, I will try to shed some light on where the city is now. Some folks there remain optimistic, others are merely trying to keep expectations low. Is the popular local meme true? -- “Flint, coming soon to a city near you!”

Grocery Angst

Choosing Where to Shop in Opposite of “Food Desert”

William Sundwick

Retail food shopping is very competitive  in many places these days. If you have access to a car and live inside the beltway in Northern Virginia like I do, there are many choices. No food desert here.

Indeed, there are so many choices that sometimes I make arbitrary decisions. I can easily stipulate that all the stores where I will shop must fall within a ten-mile radius. And even among those, the closest stores get the highest priority when I plan my trips. There are other factors -- quality of fresh foods, certain brand preferences, a friendly, helpful staff. But the clincher is usually that I’m not getting any younger, and gas is not getting cheaper!

I don’t mean to minimize the social/economic problem of food deserts in America. I understand that I am part of a privileged class in this country – the class of people that can afford to live in affluent neighborhoods and communities, places profitable for grocery chains to exploit. There is much competition to provide services for communities that are willing to pay. Not so much, places where there isn’t a sufficient consumer base with disposable income. Food deserts do exist, rural to be sure, and in urban neighborhoods that have not seen much gentrification of their population. Grocery angst comes not only from a plethora of choices for me, but my knowledge that many Americans don’t have those choices.

Having a car also enables far more choice. I would not be in the position of deciding which supermarket to put on my semi-weekly “medium-size” grocery trip if I had to walk or take Metro. Much less a bus. The size of my larder governs the size of the trip more than my ability to transport the goods. Not so for many – although Internet food delivery services are growing exponentially. Competition for my time is the luxury I can afford. With fewer choices, others must just make time!

Here are my choices in major supermarket chains -- arranged by proximity to my house:

·         BJs Wholesale (0.8 mi. – but, limited selections)

·         Safeway (1.2 mi. to nearest – and biggest)

·         Target (1.4 mi.)

·         Shoppers (1.5 mi.)

·         Harris Teeter (two stores to choose from, 1.7 or 1.8 mi.)

·         Giant Food (2.8 or 3.0 mi. – two stores)

·         Trader Joe’s (2.9 mi.)

·         Whole Foods Market (4.1 mi.)

·         Aldi (4.8 or 5.1 mi. – two stores)

·         Costco Wholesale (6.7 mi.)

·         Walmart Supercenter (8.4 mi.)

·         Wegmans – too far (outside my maximum 10 mi. radius)

Ranked by convenience, BJs should be at the top of my list. I could walk there if I weren’t planning on buying much. But, therein lies BJs greatest weakness – small quantities of many brands (both private and national) cannot be found in their big warehouse store! Also, I don’t have home storage capacity for huge quantities of most items, something that seems to be a BJs specialty.  Target’s grocery department, on the other hand, is developing, but so far has fewer choices and less fresh food than either the local Safeway (in the same mall) or the two Harris Teeter’s within two miles. Hence, if I must drive, the first choice for my semi-weekly trips will either be Safeway, which is a superstore by Safeway standards – virtually all amenities and brands of any competitor – or, one of the two equidistant Harris Teeter stores. It is hard to choose between Safeway and either of those Harris Teeters.

My rationale for consolidating the grocery trips, despite what many would consider extreme geographic convenience, is that I feel that competition for my time. I must include exercise, walking to garner my requisite 10,000 steps, reading and writing (Warp & Woof!), frequent babysitting for my grandson, seasonal activities like yardwork and politics, occasional social interaction – and, of course, eating and sleeping. Don’t want to make lots of annoying short trips to get this or that thing I forgot to put on my last grocery list. The semi-weekly model works well for my schedule and my food storage capacity. 

Neutralizing the convenience factor, I usually choose between Safeway and H-T (my elder son calls latter “The Teat”) based on other characteristics. All the staples of my regular life can be found at either chain. My wife feels that produce at Safeway is often fresher than either Harris Teeter store I frequent, but I tend to consider that evidence anecdotal. There is also no evidence that a longer trip to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods would significantly increase that freshness probability, either. Farmers markets in the area are limited in duration (one day per week for each – hard to schedule).

Then, there are the intangibles – friendly staff, store organization, amenities. Between Safeway and the two Harris Teeters, I have to say staff friendliness and professional dedication seem equal – with a few extra points given to H-T for having more staff available in aisles restocking while I’m shopping (more opportunity to ask questions, make comments, etc.), and some humanitarian points going to Safeway for employing a couple of special needs baggers (one of whom went through elementary and middle school with my younger son in Arlington Public Schools). My interaction with staff occurs mainly at deli counters, fresh meat and seafood, or checkout, and all three stores excel in those areas.

Store organization is something you get used to in any store where you are a regular customer. However, in one of these three cases, the Harris Teeter at Lee-Harrison Center in Arlington, a recent store remodeling has caused an unnatural (for me, at least) division between upstairs and downstairs – the two-level design of the store may be basically flawed, anyway. Since that redo, this store often loses out to the other two for the semi-weekly staples trips – although its garage does have a free EV charge station!

Amenities are related to store layout and organization, but these days all major chains seem to have wi-fi, café seating area, Starbucks, salad bars, fresh bakeries, and full-service pharmacies. If I were interested (which I’m not), the Broad Street Harris Teeter in Falls Church even features a wine bar and sushi bar!

Even so, I have a small spark of curiosity to try other stores, perhaps farther afield, because I hear so much from friends and family who use them. Perhaps I should try Shoppers? They may have the large tubs of Utz pretzels that both Safeway and H-T are lax in restocking. Could be that Target carries Land-o-Lakes spread in tubs, which Safeway and Harris Teeter seem to have dropped. Trader Joe’s might be fun for snacks or frozen food.

But, it’s unlikely that I would change my regular shopping patterns for any of these reasons, unless my wife gets tired of the choices that the “big two” chains offer. When she accompanies me to any of the main three stores – relatively uncommon – I find we buy things NOT on my predetermined list. Is there a future for more boldness in my grocery choices?

Recently, I made the discovery that reduced fat peanut butter is not healthier, or lower calorie, than regular peanut butter. My research was prompted by the disappearance of all reduced fat varieties of chunky peanut butter from both Safeway and Harris Teeter shelves – this made me wonder. Indeed, the Internet provided the answer. “Reduced fat” was a scam for peanut butter, all along! I might similarly be surprised by further research into other disappearing products from my favorite store shelves. Do the major supermarket chains know best? Could be …