TAKING A STAND
Ihave known Joe McCain for most of the 22 years I have lived in the Central North Side. He lives on the same street. He has always impressed me as gregarious, warm and fun. Now, thanks to another neighbor, John Engberg, I am more impressed — by the scale of Joe’s largesse and activist humanity.
John tipped me off last week that Joe will be standing for 10 hours a day for a week, starting this morning, at the Black Lives
Matter mural along the Allegheny River in Downtown. He will be standing for several key groups but will end every day with a prayer that our entire society can move forward united.
He invites others to stand with him at any time between 8 a. m. to 6 p. m., either at the mural or across the river at the Korean War veterans memorial on the North Shore.
In this summer of tumult, as Black people continue their endless plea for justice and equal treatment under the law, more White people are pleading alongside them. So his call for unity has some level of optimism in it.
I capitalize White because we Whites must recognize ourselves as racial and stop sidestepping
“I’ve been thinking about this for months,” Joe said. “I wanted to create something for solidarity, for love, for a dialog that brings people to realize that almost all of us want the same good in the world.”
At 8 a. m. each day, Joe will kneel for eight minutes and 46 seconds to recognize the amount of time it took for George Floyd to die when a Minneapolis police officer pushed his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck on May 25.
“I know that the majority of people who don’t look like me are good,” said Joe, who is Black. “We all know that the majority of police officers are good, but I have been stopped by police seven times in the year when I purchased a new car.”
Yes, it infuriated him, he said, “but what got me over it was my diversity of good friends. It has kept me grounded.”
At noon, he will salute first responders for nine minutes and 11 seconds, the time being relevant to the date of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“That’s for all first responders, including law enforcement officers who are doing the right thing,” Joe said.
At 3 p. m., he will be standing for the LGBTQ community, “supporting them for equality, for 10 minutes and 12 seconds.”
That time span symbolizes the date of the death in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was beaten, tortured and left to die while tied to a fence in Wyoming.
At 5: 30 p. m., for half an hour, Joe will join participating clergy persons in prayer.
“Prayer for everyone,” he said.
I capitalize White because we Whites must recognize ourselves as racial and stop sidestepping our responsibility in righting this ship. It was our forebears who created and perpetuated race as an issue in the first place.
“I’ve been to protests and speeches,” Joe said, “and what I’ve noticed before [ this summer] was that once the marches and speeches reached their high point, the momentum fizzled. We wait for the next tragedy and start over.”
Maybe this time, the momentum won’t fizzle. In the meantime, Joe keeps doing his thing.
For more than 20 years, he has been passing out gloves, socks and hats to people on the streets in the winter, whether they are living on the streets or waiting for a bus without protection from the cold.
For several years, he has distributed food to families before Christmas at the
Park Place African Methodist Episcopal Church in his hometown of Homestead. More than 4,000 families have gotten 26- pound boxes of food that Joe and his colleagues distribute. Joe calls various food service companies for donations and inspires dozens of volunteers to help him distribute the food.
Last year, he took a stand for 12 hours every Saturday in October for breast cancer awareness.
“I want women to know that there are men out there who support them in what they have to go through,” he said.
Joe grew up helping take care of his mother, who had multiple sclerosis and could not walk, he said. He received a basketball scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, where he graduated with a degree in business finance and marketing.
Joe came up with an arduous task this week to inspire unity others. I cannot imagine standing for 10 hours for eight consecutive days.
“If you’re going to be taken seriously, you have to actually sacrifice,” Joe said. “There are so many leaders before us who have given their time. I want people to see that it’s coming from my heart.