She Who Must Be Heard

I've been just a tiny bit discouraged lately, what with the events in Ferguson and having seen the documentary about Edward Snowdon just over the weekend. Not sure whether I should flip or fly.  Seems like our country may well collapse under the burden of its racism and a level of espionage and intrigue worthy of a LaCarre novel.  

Maybe some good could come of the unjust grand jury decision in Ferguson, amid the outrage and indifference.  Maybe we could wake up in white America and get that something in our program is just a little bit funky.  It is the legacy of slavery in this country that created the environment that allowed an unarmed black teenager to be shot and killed by a white police officer.  And something is terribly wrong that the police responded to the protests in the aftermath of the shooting with quasi military force. We can't change anything until we look at reality through a clear set of eyeballs.  As long as white people are convinced that we are living in a post racist world, the gross injustice and violence will continue. 

As for the Edward Snowdon thing: Jeez, don't ask me.  George Orwell may have imagined a world in which my stupid emails and phone calls and this blog could be of concern to the federal government, but who'da thunk it would come true.  I have visions of some NSA person saying, "Frank, she's posted another blog.  What a big mouth that woman has." Really, kids??? Just what the hell are we supposed to give up in pursuit of an increasingly elusive sense of "safety"?  

I say this:  Stand up. Speak up and don't ever stop. Write letters and emails. Show up. This democracy can only be take away from us if we allow it.  And white people: start by recognizing that you have privilege not afforded to others. Live in reality.  Painful as it is, it is far better than denial, excuses and bullshit.  

More Wow.

I've often had a very ambivalent feeling about Veteran's Day and felt guilty about it for years.  I worked with veteran's way back for a very brief period.  It was some of the best and most heartfelt work I did in my career and left me with an affinity for veteran's bordering on being kind of sappy. Yet I still had this very ambivalent feeling about Veteran's day.  Then I read this article that was posted on Facebook and previously in Bill Moyer's Journal.  It said what I had never been able to articulate for myself and here it is.  I just kept saying "Wow..." as I read.  I hope you do too.






On This Veteran's Day, You Can Save the Thank Yous 

The Movie, "Pride" and Other Lofty Thoughts

Okay, so I am a fair-weather Giants Fan.  So sue me.  This was taken at a game in September with the Padres that I attended with my brother, Don, just as they were sliding in to win the pennant and go on to the World Series. I love ATT park. It is a beautiful thing in a lovely location. But on to other matters:

So in the 90's some time, I was a member of the Idaho Society for Clinical Social Work.  The national organization with which the local group was affiliated had decided to venture into an experiment by aligning itself with Unions.  The idea was to become a professional guild and throw our lot in with unions in the hopes of expanding our influence and, in the bargain, gain some benefits for members.  Well, the experiment didn't work out, mostly because the benefit part didn't pan out as well as expected.  It was a big disappointment to me when the national group broke ties with the union.  Back then I thought of it as having the potential for great things, as it could have consolidated the profession of social work's influence nationally on issues of social justice. I went to a lot of local union meetings and attended a national meeting.  Anyway the film, "Pride" brought all that back for me.  The movie is the true story of an organization of gays and lesbians  in England who decided to support a Welsh group of striking miners in the mid 1980's.  The story showed how these disparate groups of people with seemingly nothing in common joined together for a common cause.  It's a beautiful story and I highly recommend that you see the movie.  Because it depicts how people didn't miss their chance to join together to get something done.  I don't see that happening today very often. But I dream of a world in which gay rights groups join together with women's groups who join together with people of color and unions and spiritual progressives and groups dedicated to ending hunger and on and on and on.  We have so much more in common than what our differences might be. We could truly change the planet.  Or at least greatly increase our collective compassion and caring for one another, which maybe means the same thing.

Wow!

Okay.  I just read something on Facebook that I must comment on.  I tried to comment but then it looked like it didn't take.  The posting was supposed to be a long diatribe by Bill Cosby about "being tired" everything,  from the government trying to take away his money and give it to people with "no work ethic" to how terrible Muslims are.  And a bunch of other nonsense in between. My comment was "I'll tell you what I'm tired of.  I'm tired of rich people who have had every benefit available from capitalism tell me how tired they are of everything. If Bill Cosby is so damn tired, why doesn't he go take a nap." I guess we have come a long way when rich black folk can talk out of their asses right along side of rich white folk.  This is what people suffered for during the civil rights era I guess.

My question is: When did we become a nation of people who like to blame everybody else for what is wrong with everything.  It's the people with "no work ethic", as if there is a whole class of people out there livin' off the government doing nothing.  In case you weren't looking Bill Cosby and others who think like him, welfare as we know it was pretty much eliminated during the Clinton era.  In Idaho you can get "welfare" but it's something like $250 per month and you have to practically kill yourself for the privilege of receiving it.  It's awful and degrading and anyone who is desperate enough to need it ought to damn well be able to get it without the likes the Bill Cosby's of the world ragging on them about it.  I know this because I made my living knowing it. If Bill or others are talking about people on disability having "no work ethic" then I invite them to live in some country where there is none and then write me a letter about it.  Another object of blame for Mr. Cosby was those nasty Muslims who are doing everything from being responsible for female genital mutilation to somehow making it so that Cosby doesn't have enough to live on in retirement, for chrissake.  If you are dumb enough to think that it is somehow written in the Quaran that females should undergo genital mutilation then I have a bridge I want to sell to you, too.  Genital mutilation has to do with culture, not religion. If we are going to blame Islam for every damn thing wrong in the world then we better not forget about Christianity which has not exactly been the bearer of all things Christlike over the many centuries, in case anyone is wondering.  Case in point: Pat Robertson telling the world  recently that we should not buy towels from Kenya because they carry AIDS.  This is the type of wisdom we have come to expect from so called Christian leadership.  (this was on Facebook, too.  Could be that my source is a little limited and crazy and if so, like Emily Littela, "Well, never mind".)

In summary, for God's Sake, get a grip and get to work making this a better world and quit blaming everybody else for every damn thing that is wrong.(unless, of course it is the stuff I agree with that needs to be blamed)  I have attempted to attach the link here to Cosby's statement.  If you are able to get to it, you will see that Bill is posing for his photo with a nasty looking beard.  I say, get a razor, Bill and quit embarrassing your wife.  

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Living in a Backward, Backwoods State for All My Adult Life!

With the exception of 2 years (1980-1982), I have lived in Idaho my whole adult life.  I have witnessed this state going politically from tolerable to bad to worse. From the days when Cecil Andrus was governor (a centrist almost left leaning Democrat) in the 70's to today's embarrassment of a governor, Butch Otter.  From the great Frank Church to the embarrassment of Jim Risch.  From Richard Stallings to Raul Labrador.  Help me, Jesus.  One could liken spending my adult years in Idaho to the frog in the boiling water, just didn't quite notice the changing political climate until it was too late. When I first came to Idaho in 1972, there was a man named Willie Ludlow who ran for Congress.  He was a lefty of the extreme kind.  Just my kind of political person.  I voted for Shirley Chishom in the '72 caucus right there in Pocatello, Idaho.  Anyway, it's a sad state of affairs when Idaho is kind of the barometer of the political climate of the rest of the country.  We have fallen just that low. 

 Anyway,  all that being said, today marks the first day when LBGT people can get married just like everyone else right here in River City.  And it is because of the courage and perseverance of a group of women who wanted the right to marry and went to court to make it happen.  It certainly didn't happen because the state suddenly found it's heart and it's misplaced sense of justice and good sense. Otter would have fought to the end of time if it wasn't for the fact that he needed to get busy on his millionth run for his office and being the stalwart defender of "traditional marriage" didn't turn out to be the political lynchpin he had hoped it to be.  No, it happened because four same sex couples made it happen. And because it is right.  So what that confirms for me is that when people band together, wondrous things can occur, even in the worst of political climates.  Those women inspire me. Although I do wish that making what is right happen didn't always take such courage and stamina and guts and fight.  We really will overcome someday.  

Reflections on 9/11/01

I guess like everyone, I remember every little thing about where I was and what I was doing on that fateful day.  I remember saying out loud, "The terrorists have already lost because those first responders are going up those stairs when everyone else in the buildings are running in terror to get down them."  God, I never felt prouder to be an American. Really. That day I hugged more strangers than I ever had before or since.  I sat down and cried on the steps of St. John's Cathedral in downtown Boise. I grabbed the hand of a young man and we sat and cried together.I remember thinking that maybe this country will unite in response to the horrific events of that day. And we did for a short time. But of course it didn't last.  And now I think our divisions are even worse than they were then.  The Beloved Community of Martin Luther King's dream seems more and more distant and beyond reach. And the world continues to be threatened by terrorism, maybe more so than then.  

So beyond remembering and honoring the sacrifices of that day, what else?  How do I really honor the people who were sacrificed by a bunch of lunatics bent on murder and destruction? Here's my thought on that: turn the words "remember" and "honor" into action verbs. For me that means doing what I can to uphold what is best about our country and our democracy in an age when the forces are great that want to turn our democracy into an oligarchy. What I want to support and uphold are the values that have to do with civil liberties, the protections of the Bill of Rights, our innate compassion and sense of fairness, our instincts toward inclusion rather than fearful exclusion. These are the values that have always glued us together and will prevail one day I hope. I think that often Americans are perceived as a bunch of spoiled, overly privileged, children by some people around the world and that becomes an exaggerated and distorted viewpoint of persons who join the ranks of terrorists. So my way of honoring and remembering will continue to be to uphold the best in us, the better angels of our natures as our beloved Lincoln once said during another fearful moment in our history.

   

What does one write about after confessing to being a racist?

Yes, this would be the question.  Everything else might seem kind of anti-climatic.  Well, in my view, if we white folks just admitted to the terrible reality of racism, we would all be better off and might actually get somewhere in combatting it.  Anyway...I see that guy who posts on Facebook, HONY (Humans of New York) is discovering the great big world out there outside of New York City in areas of conflict around the world. Today he writing about a former child soldier who has made his life into helping others avoid his fate:

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/

I had the distinct and unusual wondrous experience of working with refugees from around the world for the last 10 years of my career.  So I learned so much about what we Americans tend to be sheltered from of some of the terrible happenings in the world.  I am forever grateful for the lessons taught me by my former clients.  Listening to their stories put my trivial problems into the perspective to which they belonged.  Another wonderful site to learn about what is going on in the world of refugees is the UNHCR site (United Nations High Commission On Refugees):

http://www.unhcr.org

Photo by Steve Lester