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There are two Clevelands, two Akrons, two Northeastern Ohios. There is the proud bustling workhorse of the past and present, turning out engines and steel, pistons and paint, tires and complex chemistries for a hungry nation. There is also the quiet Cleveland, the soil and rivers and forests of our youth, the farms, nurseries and parks that stretch from Summit and Portage to the Lake, a vast watershed of memories, legacies and possibilities. Our vision, our challenge, is to bring together these mighty opposites in a dynamic, responsible and sustainable partnership yielding a region where we can live and play in a vibrant emerald ecosystem, profit from our conscientious industry and ethic, and grow old with the knowledge that we work and yearn within a vital nexus of grand ideas and restless energies.
Last year a Latino father in Ashtabula was deported because of false documentation. Not an unusual occurence in Northeastern Ohio. He left behind a wife and three children. The wife soon grew despondent and could no longer work. As she became more depressed, the oldest daughter had to step up and take care of the younger children. Eventually it became too much for the daughter. Last week she committed suicide. She was twelve years old. A rally was organized on the square in Painesville and I was asked to speak as a representative of the nursery industry. I wrote the words below and had the Hispanic ladies at our nursery translate it into spanish. I practiced it a couple times in front of them, to their great amusement. At the rally there were over 100 Hispanics...people of all ages...some local supporters...and some 'Grass Roots' demonstraters carrying signs. The police kept them on the far side of the square but they tried to make a lot of noise to distract us. It was a beautiful spring day. When it was my turn to speak, I walked up the steps to the gazebo, took the microphone, and began speaking a couple lines at a time...first in Spanish, then in English. Veronica, the organizer, stayed close to help me out with the spanish but I managed to stumble through it all on my own.
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There are too many crying children, who can no longer be with their parents.
Too many crying parents who must leave their little ones behind.
Too many arrests and too many deportations
Too much fear for people who just want to work and live in peace
Too many problems in Mexico...violence, corruption, bad conditions...too many reasons to leave...too many reasons to never go back.
Too many problems with our immigration laws here in America...to many people who must break those laws to find work and a better life.
I am a nurseryman and a businessman. We obey the laws as best we can. But something must be done to improve the laws.
Nurseries want three things.
We want new AgJobs legislation to make it easier to legally bring workers here to work in our nurseries. We need skilled workers who return every year and AgJobs H2A Visas can help. Plus, the new legislation would help workers to live hire year-round and have a path to permanent legal status.
We want comprehensive immigration reform. The system is broken and we need to fix it. Our elected officials don't want to face up to this...they want to leave it the same for another twenty years... We elected them and we must make them fix the broken system.
And...we want no additional enforcement efforts...no more Arizonas. This is a problem for all America and we can't fix it by making laws in one city...one county...or one state.
That's what nurseries want.
But I would like to see more...I would like to see a legalization of all the workers...all the workers...who are here now. We have a bad problem...how can we fix it without inviting the people who have already started their lives here in through the front door. Why not let them raise their hands without fear of arrest...without fear of being sent away? There is no other practical way to fix this problem.
The border is much stronger now...it is very difficult for new people to come across...so why not ask those who are here to stand up and be counted. Why not have a fair program where employers can help those workers who turn out to have bad documentation...help them gain legal status...
America is a great country. I love America and northeastern Ohio. But sometimes America moves very slowly. It takes a long time sometimes before we get things right. It takes many people joining hands and speaking out and sending letters and going to Washington...before we get things right.
Mexicans are a good people with strong families...strong work ethic...strong commitment to their employer and their community.
I would like to see America become stronger and better...by letting all the workers stand up and be counted...without fear...without any more arrests...without any more deportations...
without any more crying children and crying parents...
I would like to see America become stronger and better...by letting all the Latino workers from other lands...with their great spirit and hard work...help make America an even better place...truly...a place with liberty and justice and jobs for all.
This essay was submitted to a 'Sustainable Cleveland' contest sponsored by EcoWatch Journal. It Won! Kris and I got to attend the EcoWatch Annual Dinner at Landerhaven and meet lots of great people, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr! In June, 2010, the essay was published in the EcoWatch Journal.
Note:
We are proud to consider ourselves Clevelanders!
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Green is More
Green is more than a color. It's more than a movement. It's more than a walk in the woods or a walk to the end of the driveway with a recycling bin. It's more than the whales...more than the dragon flies...more than the native plants in vacant lots...more than a check in the mail by the end of the year.
Green is more.
The age-old black muck that lies below our ridges...rotting leaves from robust maples, oaks and ash...light alluvial silts beneath the dark waters of our rivers purposeful and proud...these things whisper of a green legacy stretching back to the glaciers two-miles-high...to the tribes and the trappers...to the tamers and the farmers.
Green is more than what we do...it's what we breathe. It's what we inherit...it's what we bequeath.
Green is, above all, action. It is the slow turning of vast timeless wheels grinding out countless interactions beyond the comprehension of the human mind. It is a summation of the competing reckless energies of every living thing.
And still...green is more.
Green is God. Green is Science. Green is Zen. Green encompasses impossible opposites, then joins them in exquisite beauty and leaves mankind, with all our frailties and limitations and possibilities, observing and participating with a sense of awe and reckoning, laughter and tears.
Why am I green?
Why do I live?
I grew up in the nursery community of Northeastern Ohio. Our nursery roots go back over 150 years. It's a proud tradition of fruit trees, berry bushes, ornamental shrubs and trees. My wife and I run a nursery and garden center specializing in perennial plants, ground covers and small shrubs. We raise plants for the landscape trade, for homeowners and gardeners. We believe in horticulture. We also believe in native plants and the natural areas of Ohio.
Tonight I watched a coyote meander across one of our fields. We host other players as well...fox, deer, wild turkey, rabbits, ground hogs, muskrat, red tailed hawks, herons, cranes, owls, the occasional bald eagle, and many other creatures requiring the open space, wood lots, creeks and ponds to survive. Encounters with our extended flock are like enchanted visitations.
We attended the original Earth Day during college. We travelled around the country and lived in the Rocky Mountains. We raised a family and showed them back-packing, camping and climbing. We walk our parks and marshes and beaches. We kayak our rivers and lakefront.
We aspire to provide an example of responsible environmental stewardship on the lands we manage for a brief time. During the last year I joined the board of the Ohio Invasive Plant Council as well as the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association and seek to promote constructive collaboration between the two. I co-founded a water council tasked with monitoring agricultural runoff. I work with LEAP, CMNH and other groups to further responsible behavior in this wonderful corner of our state.
For me, at this point in my life, green is believing...and green is action.
As we wrap up another catalog, perhaps it is an appropriate time to pause and reflect upon the passing, at age 86, of Edward 'Ted' Gilson, and upon the Sixtieth anniversary of the company that he founded
Ted grew up in South Euclid, Ohio, and served in the South Pacific during World War II. He attended Kent State University and The Ohio State University and, after working at a local nursery for a year, founded Gilson Gardens with his father in 1947. Upon the site of a previous nursery, they produced perennials, ground covers, shrubs and chrysanthemums. Over the years that followed, Ted grew a business and he grew a family. His wife, three sons and a daughter would all provide major contributions to the company
Ted loved the nursery industry. He loved the soil and the greenhouses and the thrill of growing new things. He loved the nursery associations, serving as President of the Lake County Nurseryman's Association, and the trade shows. He loved talking with newcomers and old-timers, with students and professors
Despite Ted's advancing lung cancer and Parkinson's Disease, we enjoyed many visits and activities during his last year. But by Christmas 2005, it became clear that the trade shows and greenhouse puttering were behind him
It is now left to us to remember the past and embrace the future
Much has changed over the past sixty years In a way, Ted's life and the growth of his company mirror the steady progress of an ever-evolving industry...the advancements in field and greenhouse production...the advent of container-growing...the computer age...the good years and the not-so-good...the development of well-trained and highly capable professional managers and the contribution of women in many of these roles...the double-edged changes in the marketplace as we enter a new millennium and a new reality And yet, much remains the same The long hours...the family involvement...a spirit of sharing and cooperation and innovation...the joy and fulfillment of working with plants and the soil...the belief in what we do and our positive contribution to society and the world around us
It is left to us to meet the challenges and the opportunities of a new age while maintaining that which is meaningful and good It is left to us to build our own legacy, to nurture and grow this positive and dynamic industry with all its wonderful history, to create, in a spirit of cooperation and conscientious stewardship, the sturdy limbs upon which others may one-day stand
It is left to us...to carry on