Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Sunday I took a bike ride in Indiana where they have some wonderful biking and walking trails. The photo shows the Big Four pedestrian bridge on the right. Now closed to traffic, it is busy, especially on weekends, with many bikers and walkers, including whole families, enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views of both sides of the Ohio River.
Yesterday the Angela Merici Class of 1975 had their 50-year reunion. It was held at Incarnation Church and was a fun and joyous event. I felt honored to be invited because I spent thirteen years at A.M. and was one of the teachers of these women in their senior year.
We are living in difficult, tumultuous, important times. If you believe our government and way of life as a nation is seriously threatened, as I do, I encourage you to learn about the demonstrations for true democracy set for October 18th, and to participate in a huge peaceful demonstration in support of the values and beliefs on which our country was founded.
With better wording than I am capable of, I post here part of a recent e-mail from MoveOn. I am most interested in your becoming aware of what is happening and hopefully joining the resistance. This is from a MoveOn request for financial support, but I seek not so much your money but your participation on October 18. MoveOn is sending the e-mail asking members to donate. If you can do that, I’ve left the last paragraphs, about donations, on the e-mail.
Dear MoveOn member,
On June 14, we did what many claimed was impossible.
In partnership with hundreds of organizations, we peacefully mobilized more than 5 million people to take to the streets in every corner of the country and declare with one voice: America has no kings. It was one of the largest single days of nonviolent mass protest in U.S. history—and it mattered.
The world saw the power of the people. Donald Trump’s outrageous birthday military parade was drowned out by protests in every state and across the globe. His attempt to turn June 14 into a coronation collapsed, and the story became the strength of a movement rising against his authoritarian power grabs.
But Trump has doubled down since. And he has teetered our country into authoritarianism, causing grave harm to many people already and threatening the safety of all of us.
His administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They’re targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting, and detaining people without warrants. They’re threatening to undermine free and fair elections. Gutting health care, environmental protections, and education. Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our schools. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaires, as families struggle.
Trump thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings—and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.
That’s why we’re coming together for No Kings Day on Saturday, October 18, the next nationwide day of protest and defiance.
As Trump escalates his authoritarian power grab, the No Kings nonviolent movement continues to rise stronger. On October 18, we’ll unite once again to make crystal clear: America has no kings. The power belongs to the people.
But organizing a nonviolent mobilization of this scale—bringing together millions of Americans in cities and towns nationwide—takes significant resources. We need to support thousands of local organizers, provide materials for protests, ensure safety and security, coordinate across all 50 states, and ensure the protests are plastered everywhere in the media.
I’m slowly accumulating the things I need for living in Nazareth Home and Louisville. Some items are major, like an e-bike for getting around. Others are more utilitarian like a toilet brush. Today I got a wooden executive-type filing cabinet. I was going to get the usual metal two- or four-drawer file cabinet but my sister saw the wooden unit above in a consignment shop and took me to see it. The price in such a shop drops regularly according to how long it stays in the shop. The nice wooden cabinet had been marked at $100 but was in the bargain room when I saw it, and I was able to get it for $20. My sister Mary and her husband Mike picked it up today and brought it to me. Thanks! Now all the papers on the couch can be filed away!
Last week my sister Jane surprised me with a framed flag of Hong Kong from the colonial era. I was living in Hong Kong in 1997 when Britain ceded control of their Hong Kong colony to China. Remembering what had happened at Tiananmen Square, thousands and thousands of Hong Kongers were fleeing to any place that would take them. The bishop asked those of us from the missionary groups to stay, to try to provide an element of stability and reassurance to a frightened people. On one of my trips home, I brought this flag and Jane had it in her basement and decided my return to Kentucky was the time to return the flag to me.
At Nazareth Home Clifton, seven of us priests abide in the Independent Living building on the right called Cedar Hall (for some unknown reason, since there is no wood in the building except some of the furniture). The building on the left is the main administration building, and between them is a lobby or large gathering space that can be used for family or other gatherings. The lobby is basically a bridge between the two buildings. It has a door that is almost never used because it requires an electronic fob to unlock it where the outside door to Cedar Hall has a keypad for punching in a security code that unlocks the door.
Mike Davis is unloading my new bicycle at my home. Mike spent all day negotiating with the bike shop, waiting for the bike to be assembled, checking it out (and discovering a bad taillight), and then delivering it to Nazareth Home. Thank you, Mike! The bike is a dream!
I’ve been pretty much “confined to base” the last few days. Because of early macular degeneration I decided not to start driving again because I would have to stop driving sometime in the future and it may be good just to make a complete break now. That is one of the reasons I got an e-bike (in addition to just liking to ride!).
But the bike I got, picked out and delivered by my dear brothers and sisters and cousins, turned out to be a bit too big in the frame so Thursday it went back to the store and my brother-in-law (a really SERIOUS bike rider, read three 14,000-foot Rocky Mountain peaks in one day) picked out another one that I loved in a test ride. I can’t wait for it to be delivered tomorrow!
Fr. Jerry Eiffler’s sister died and he presided at her funeral today at Holy Spirit Church in Louisville. Jerry and I are friends and live close by so I attended.
The church is only 2.5 miles from Nazareth Home Clifton where I live and I biked over there, the first time I’ve used my bicycle for a “churchy” event. It was also the first time I wore the black suit I had made in Cambodia shortly before departing. Not to attract too much attention, I put my suit coat in my backpack and wore a windbreaker.
Turbulent skies as I left Phnom Penh. I miss it all!