Sr. Simone Campbell is hitting the road, visiting bookstores to listen to people’s stories and discover where they are finding hope in these challenging times. Each day, she shares a heartfelt "postcard" capturing the voices, struggles, and aspirations of those she meets, offering a glimpse into the power of connection and community.
Today was a different day, because we didn't have a bookstore event. We had tried for a wide variety of places in the more northern parts of the lower peninsula of Michigan. We discovered that the bookstore didn't do events, they were closed for vacation, or they didn't have the space. So not finding a bookstore, we had a day off to use in a different way.
We met up with Katie Boller Gosewisch who lives in the area and is the Executive Director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking. We thought that she lived in a “rural” part of Michigan, but what we realized after talking with her is that we were wrong. This area while looking rural is actually more of a suburban Detroit feel. While sort of rural, it is also suburban, with people commuting into the Detroit area for jobs. Now, we had heard at Comma Books the night before that some people were getting priced out of Detroit, moving to the Flint area, and then commuting back for their work. So it wasn't a total surprise to us, but what happens when that's the case means that the community in which they're living is more just like their bedroom and not so much where they're invested.
Politically, we had noticed in Flint a lot of yard signs for various political people, mostly Democrats. But when we got down to Fenton where we met Katie, we saw a whole different set of more conservative Republican signs. And we asked about that, and she said, oh, yes, that the town we were in, Fenton, was more affluent and more Republican-leaning, so the Republicans had their signs up in the more Republican town, and Democrats had it up in the more Democratic town. That was interesting, because I would expect you would want to advertise in both places. But anyway, they didn't. Or at least we didn't see the signs.
At lunch, Katie talked about her work, which is national work with policies to prevent human trafficking. They do everything virtually and then occasionally have meetings in different locations. The capacity to do virtual office, I find intriguing, fascinating. But I also wonder about creativity and community when we don't have physical proximity with each other.
It seems to be working for these folks, and they're making an impact by trying to get some legislative changes in DC and also really doing educational work with a wide variety of folks, including the trucking industry and hospitality industry. There's a lot of work to be done to prevent trafficking and help people recognize what's happening and be able to intervene if someone really is caught in the system.
After lunch, we had an afternoon free and debated about what to do, what to explore. So looking at our map, we realized that Ben had never seen Lake Huron. And so we needed to “collect another lake.” We drove up to Bay City, which was about an hour north of Flint, to see Lake Huron and the town. Well, again, this is a town that at one point was a vibrant port community with a lot of shipping, a gateway to either the Great Lakes or to the railroads. And so, once again, it's a town that really changed by current reality. The lake is beautiful. We stopped at the visitor center just as a little rain shower passed, and they had this wonderful exhibit.
But I think the thing that I was struck by was the beauty of the lake, the lakeside area, and then kind of the old sadness of downtown that is very sparsely populated. I may have used this image before, but where there are houses or office buildings missing in the downtown, it really felt like the city had missing teeth. There were just these few gaping holes. But it also seemed like this was a bedroom community for places like Cheboygan or other nearby bigger cities. But we saw the beauty and took a little walk.
We were impressed with the the handicap path so that folks in wheelchairs can actually get out to the beach. We headed back to get organized for a big day tomorrow as we head off to Lansing and then on to Muskegon, where we should have a big event. So this is a short postcard just to say we're still exploring. We're trying to discover more - figure out what's going on. And we look forward to reporting on tomorrow's evening event.
