#and i hope our community never has to be divided by supposed privilege lines of who came out when and who spent more time as 'cis'...

[wild-at-mind]

Don't want to tone police anyone else, but I kind of hope that if anyone sent me a misguided ask trying to 'correct' some terminology I used for my own self-identity, I'd be able to reply in a way that didn't frame myself as superior for being out longer than the asker.

[shlrzy09]

A Letter To My Mother

To my mother,

As it was said in class, fear is an identification that I am at risk. Ma, what I am about to tell you is something I have never shared with you. When Donald Trump was running for president, I did not think that his bigoted self would win. I really had hope for this country. Coincidentally, that was around the same time that I was very involved here in the university and I put in a lot of work to make changes organizing with student leaders and my community. When the news channels said he won the election, I remember being in the student center here at Rutgers University and the shock that went through my body caused me to drop my stuff on the floor. I immediately went back to my off-campus housing and I cried the whole night. I thought about myself and the people who similarly identified as me- queer bisexual scholar, artist, activist woman of color. I thought about you, Frankie (my sister), and Alex (my step dad). I thought about my community and the closer communities we work with. I panicked, I did not know what to do so I went home the next day. You thought I visited to taste your home cooked meal but in my head, it was hell’s kitchen. I needed to know that you were safe because fear took over me and somehow, I imagined what life would be like after these four years and what it would be like for us. I coped through writing and came up with this poem: 

 “Before listening to me,

Remember that what you hear,

And how you’re listening 

Is a projecting force from within.

 So, bear with me. 

Take this to your deepest core.

 If you ask me why I am the way I am,

I want you to know that

I am the way I am.

 But 

if I had one chance to pray,

I would pray this,

Please bless me, bless me, bless me because-

 Here I am, pouring sweat on my body,

But it hurts every time it touches me. 

It burns like acid-looking/wax-burning on a candlelight, lit with fire 

as if I was made from one. 

As if I carry the ocean waves of tears 

Of my ancestors crying for 

Not another day where 

They had to give little pieces of themselves,

Willingly being robbed or their tongues,

Bear,

To ride the bandwagon of such a white blanket. 

Spaces.

 No.

 My tears speak for how heavy my heart feels. 

its weight pushing down my organs 

trying to find the right ways to escape a body so whole, 

yet so hollow.

As if I stand a chance.

I can feel my ancestors’ footsteps marching,

Running, crawling, 

a smoke of sand blowing everywhere,

Stumbling back home.

 No.

 Rooted from my veins, my blood-

My blood always find the right points of temperature enough just to boil immediately 

as if it was a default setting, 

regularly bound to happen. 

Like my body is not mine to keep

Every single time someone who does not

Look like me speak. 

My blood boils 

Ooh 

My blood boils. 

 As if my body was wrapped up, 

bonded by the pacific ring of fire. 

My blood boils.

 No.

 On schedule, there was no structure as to how I scrape the walls of my bones 

And no, it doesn’t hurt,

And no. 

(I mean) 

yes, 

red alert,

red alert, 

red alert,

But not 

to then revert 

the forbidden tending motion

Of the protection I had 

From this 

Red 

White

Blue 

Land of the 

Red white blue

Land of the 

Free?

Free?

Free?

 United Snakes of America, 

Land of the free,

Applies to you,

And you,

And you,

But not for me.

One nation

Under God,

Indivisible,

With liberty,

And justice for all

 - except if you’re not white.

 I knew all along.

Somebody like me will never really be 

My skin so brown

My eyes so wide 

My hair so black. 

My teeth so bright. 

I can’t quite find the silver lining.

 How could I have been so foolish?

I want to feel the privilege of 

Sleeping peacefully 

Knowing that racism,

Misogyny,

And 

Intolerance will not affect me.

 But

I am young

And foolish 

Full of ambition 

 But 

I am young

And foolish 

Full of ambition

In this country.

 Need I say more?

I’m not mad. I just want you to feel what it feels like.”

Ma, we got here ten years ago and it still feel like I do not belong here. There is this concept we talked about in class about humanitas vs anthropos and I could not help to think that I am the other (anthropos). The white folks (humanitas) have done their job again making me feel like I am under them instead of next to them. What it means to me now is that my work is not just for me. This degree is not just for me. This is for you and the family, everyone after me, my brothers and sisters, and everyone who needs love in this country. And then I ask, are we inside the border of something we did not expect to be in or we were just really blind to the reality that this country was not meant to be for us? I believe in the power of visibility. This is our struggle and what I am about to tell you is theirs. 

James Baldwin’s “I am Not Your Negro,” and Ta-nehisi Coates’ “Between The World and Me,” covered the stories of black bodies here in America. Let me tell you, the subjects of their books were not so different than us. Baldwin and Coates were phenomenal writers who exposed so much about their truths. They wrote about their communities with respect and power. I will never turn my back against any writers who talk about the concepts of their communities’ realities because I aspire to be like one of those writers.

Vulgar racism was one of the concepts that were mentioned in their books. Vulgar can mean rude, distasteful, overdone, or in our language- “bastos.” I do not need to explain to you what racism is. You know what it is. Ma, do you know that the Black communities face this vulgar racism the most? I thought that my middle school bullies were the worst, but no. This is beyond calling me chink and making fun of how I say “detention.” This is beyond the point where I hold my tears all day, run to our bathroom, cry, and cause harm to my body because this country was a huge adjustment for me so I had to learn how to assimilate the hard way. 

Ma, in Baldwin’s book, he shared his despair about the time that they had heroes who fought many battles for them but with this concept of vulgar racism, their heroes were only able to fight for a limited amount of time. I pray my respect to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evans. 

There was also another incident when Dorothy Counts, a powerful black student, was taunted and disrespected by white folks for attending an all-white, non-integrated school. That could have been me, ma. I think back about middle school and how nice and cruel the folks were but never this much. Ma, this bigoted white community willingly hurt these humble people for the color of their skin and their desire to mobilize. All they wanted was love and to be treated equally. 

And then in Coates’ book, he shared many examples of police brutality. Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and many more. You’ve watched the news. You’ve seen how they drop dead like flies. Ma, I learned that it is important to say their names, to remember them, and to know how they died. This is all out of respect. They are constrained in their black bodies. I see chains tied up all around them to the point where it is questionable how they even breathe. They operate through the concept of fear, ma. There are many African-American families and other intersectional identities in the Black communities that live through fear. 

This similar fear, I empathize when Donald Trump became president. When my stuff dropped on the floor of the student center, I felt their pain on top of my fear for the future of this country. I am a permanent resident trying to naturalize myself into a citizen of this country I am supposed to love and die for but this is how they treat their people. Tell me how to maneuver around that, please. You always know what is best for me.

Other concepts are the causes and effects of racism. I have mentioned a little about what happens after racism exposes itself in the air but for the Black community ma, again, they have it worse.

In Baldwin’s book, he mentioned a statement that struck me with multiple reflections about how the black community have been treated since the centuries of slavery back in the day. He said, “Blacks are not human, or as human as they are,” (pg 40). This automatically sets a divide between their community and the rest of us. But I understand that it is not their fault. This institutional racism played a huge role that made their lives play out like this. 

In Coates’ book, he mentioned one of the young honorable children who died through police brutality. Ma, he was the same age as RJ (my cousin) the year this happened. The black body is not going to be truly safe in this country unless they know the ins and outs of the streets or even in stuff like higher education. The cause of racism is their black bodies. The effects other than death equals fear throughout their lives. A black child cannot grow up the same way a white child would. The black child, to me, has to grow up faster in different routes. 

Because I know it is not about me, selfishly, what this means to me is that I am not alone. I am not the only one who struggles with some type of institutional system set up against me and people like me. Positively, I know that I will be able to determine who can help me understand the struggle and how to get out of it. I know you are thinking that this does not affect you but to think about it, the foundation of the oppression we face roots from the hatred this country has against people of color, especially the Black communities. 

Ma, I know my tattoos do not mean much to you and in fact, I remember you resenting me for them. I have a safety pin to symbolize a safe haven within my body for people to see that they are safe with me. I have “Love Yourself First” to remind me to healthily love others. I have arrows moving forward to remind me that I am a force that gets set back in order to build momentum for the push forward. My narrative, along with the Black communities only scream unity within adversity. Our narratives need to be heard and I believe that visibility matters. I am your daughter and this is the reality I live in my head. All you know is that I am a college student working for a degree so then I can have better opportunities in the future so then I can buy you a house in the Philippines that you always wanted, and to get us out of Irvington. What you do not know is that Irvington raised me along with you. My friends from middle school are the foundation of my knowledge through the streets and they helped me improve my English. My high school friends taught me about love and relationships with people. And my college friends, I know I am going to cherish for the rest of my life. The people I met, the teachers who believed in me, and the experiences I have seen and heard of all helped shape who I am today. I made the decision to dedicate the rest of my life to my community. Do not worry. You did not raise a quitter. Ma, there are some good in the bad after all. It is just that people like us need to look for the good using different routes and we have to work three times harder. That’s all. Thank you for giving birth to me because I believe in healthy, gradual change and I will be responsible for some of it.

Para sa iyo,

Ang anak mo’ng si Patricia.

[dailyaudiobible]

02/18/2021 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 6:1-7:27, Mark 3:7-30, Psalms 37:1-11, Proverbs 10:3-4

Today is the 18th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today like every day. What a joy. What a privilege that we can come together like this no matter what's going on, no matter where we are, no matter where we are on earth we can step into this different place, this safe peaceful place around the Global Campfire and just be together, knowing we’re not alone, knowing we’re on the same journey and knowing that…that the Father delights in us being on this journey together as we learn, as we grow, as things challenge us to change, which in effect is the essence of what repenting even is, to change, to change your mind,. And, so, we’re doing that a lot, we’re done that a lot already this year. And, so, let's dive in today, take the next step forward. We’re reading from the Common English Bible this week. Leviticus chapter 6 verse 1 through 7 verse 27.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s look in the book of Mark for a second. Let me just…let me just quote Jesus out of the book of Mark. “A kingdom involved in the civil war will collapse” and “a house torn apart by divisions will collapse.” Like there's a part of me that feels like there's nothing else that needs to be said. A family, whether a national family or an immediate family that is splintered and fractured and divided by feuding is gonna collapse. It’s standalone solid wisdom but why is Jesus even saying this? He’s saying this because the religious people who are trying to be the leaders, the…the spiritual caretakers of the people are spreading false information about Jesus by saying, “He can do what He can do because He's empowered by the devil to do it.” Jesus simply responds basically, “how can…how does that even make any sense? If the devil’s divided against himself then the whole things going to come down, the whole thing will fall apart.” But then He goes on to talk about blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And the thing is, Jesus and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they’re supposed to be on the same team. Jesus is a rabbi teaching Torah just like they are. Obviously, God is working through Him because He's performing miraculous healings and He is teaching with authority in a way that the people haven’t heard before. They’re supposed to be moving in the same direction, but instead they have gotten the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the leaders, the religious leaders of the people have gotten so sideways that the whole thing has become about control. The whole thing is about controlling people's behaviors. And they’ve been looking for reasons to accuse Jesus, but a couple of the reasons are the things that He does on the Sabbath. He breaks the rules in their minds. And, so, He disqualifies himself in their minds. And, so, Jesus is basically like, “yeah. You can curse all kinds of things. You can say…you can spout off your mouth and run it as much as you want but when you curse the Spirit of God, when you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that doesn't bode well, which is exactly what the religious people are doing. They are calling the Spirit of God within Jesus, they are calling God's Spirit the devil, in part because they're jealous and envious of the way that the crowds are following Jesus and in part because they don't understand what's going on. They don't have eyes to see her ears to hear. And, so, they’re calling a move of God, like not just a move of God, they’re calling God in the flesh who is moving, they’re calling Him Satan, they’re calling Him the devil. This is where He gets His power. It's easy enough to look at that and go, “okay…well…you know…that's Jesus and I would never do anything like that.” But when we curse people…when we call them of the devil because their theology doesn't line up with ours, or their agenda, whether that be political or vocational or just life choices, if those aren’t in agreement with…with us and we start calling things the devil, it's…it's tricky waters because we can do the same thing by calling the Spirit of God within them the devil because we can't stand them, or we don't agree with them or we don't agree with some of the ways that they believe or we don't agree with some of the things that they do or want to do. We have to be particularly careful about people who are…who are brothers and sisters who…who will claim the name of Jesus and then we curse them. A house divided against itself will collapse. And I’m not saying that we’re not observant or that we can't look at the fruit. Like, Jesus says you’ll know by the fruit. But God works in counterintuitive ways and He does not care. He does not care what we think when it comes to do with His will. He’s going to perform His will through whoever He chooses however He chooses whenever He chooses. He is the Almighty God, and we have nothing to say about it. But labeling people as being empowered by evil, by the devil, if they aren’t explicitly claiming that we should be very careful. And the point of all this is that it should bring us to a place of humility. It's important that we guard our own heart and our own mind, that we keep our eyes on our own lives. Are we walking the narrow path that leads to life? If we are then it’s gonna be very difficult for us to throw labels on people, labels that may be cursing the Spirit of God within them.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, the last thing that we want to do is that. It's the last thing that we want to participate in. And, so, we just ask for forgiveness for the things that happen to us that we react to that just have us moving in destructive ways. We need to keep our eyes on our heart. We need to keep our eyes on You. You will lead us into all truth. Nobody else is gonna do that because nobody else can, no matter what news channels we watch. You are the only one that's gonna lead us into all truth. And, so, that's where our focus is, not on making up names and labeling and all of the kinds of stuff that lead us into a house divided. Come Holy Spirit, that we might not be divided inside of ourselves, that we might be wholehearted and give our whole heart to You. The rest isn’t our responsibility. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family. I want to just thank God for your lives. May His blessings continue to follow you wherever you go. Also, again thank you so much to the Hardin family for this amazing ministry and those working behind the scenes. It's February the 14th and I just want to just say that I love you all because you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. And I want to read something from first John chapter 4 verse 9 to 13. God showed how much he loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends since God loved us that much, we surely should ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other God lives in us and His love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us His Spirit as a proof that we live in Him and He in us. God bless you all. Love you all. Stay blessed and have a blessed week ahead. Take care. Sarah from London.

Hey siblings it's your little sis his little Cherry in Canada and I find myself praying a lot for people who are in chronic pain who are suffering. And tonight, I have been rereading second Corinthians 1 and I just want to pray for the suffering ones from second Corinthians 1 8 through 11. Daddy I want to pray for those who are crushed and overwhelmed beyond their ability to endure, those who think they'll never live through it, those expecting to die, those who don't have any hope left. I pray Daddy that Your plan and Your purpose would be fulfilled, that they would stop relying on themselves and learn to rely only on You who raise the dead. So, I’m praying for resurrection, resurrection of hope, that You would make a way where there seems to be no way, that You would part the sea, that You would make a road in the wilderness, Lord that You would answer their prayers in ways they haven't even considered. Daddy, that You would rescue them from mortal danger and rescue them again and continue to rescue them, that their confidence would be in You and that all those who would…who are praying for them would give thanks to You for graciously answering so many prayers. So, Lord I add my prayers for those who are suffering.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Renzo from Maryland. I just heard somebody called in on February 13th about just struggling with forgiveness and her name was Diana. And I just want to really like just pray that that can just go against that, we can just go against that spirit because that's something that I struggle with myself. There was a time in my life where I struggled with an addiction to pornography and I got freed from it but then right after the same…like right after that season was over and God just gave me His everlasting love and He just helped me not struggle with that anymore I struggled with unforgiveness toward the people that made me fall into that and influenced me. And it got so bad where I didn't even want to be in my own neighborhood, I didn't want to be in my own area. It was really really bad. But I just want to pray that we can go against that because just like you said even…even Jesus forgave Judas Iscariot. And let's just pray. Father God I just thank You for everything You bless us with Lord. And just please just help us to get closer and closer to You Lord and I just please pray for Diana that she just please just You help her with her unforgiveness Lord and whatever she's going through God just please help her to get closer and closer to You Lord and we love You and we thank You Jesus for everything You do and thank for dying on the cross in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is John calling from Bethlehem it's been a few weeks I feel like at least anyway since I called in but I just wanted to say hi and let you guys know that the Corrado’s are doing well here in Pennsylvania. We’re thinking of and praying of so many of you. I just wanted you to…to know that. And also, I just wanted to mention today as I got through listening to the 15th of February's program and started to do the transcripts, just the very tail end of Exodus is just something that blows my mind. When we hear about God and His dwelling place and His presence filling the dwelling. It just reminded me so much of…well…here's the scripture, right? The Lord's cloud stayed over the dwelling during the day with lightning in it at night clearly visible to the whole household of Israel at every stage of the journey. And to me when I heard that, in so many…in so many aspects of Exodus really and all the work that we're seeing go into the tent, the Tabernacle - God's presence staying over the dwelling I just relayed that or related that to God's presence in our own dwelling during the day with lightning at night like gods lightning power to heal us in the evening as we rest clearly visible to the whole household of Israel every stage of the journey us being light in the world for everyone to see. And Lord Jesus right now I just thank You so much for the opportunity to be able to be in Your word and as we as we seek You that You are always there for us Father God that You found us first and we just thank You for that and then we thank You for Your word and how it brings to light so much of Your goodness in Your grace and mercy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I pray everyone who is connected on social media that they will have discernment Lord. I pray that…that technology will not rule the lives of…of Your people, that they will that people will not be deceived, will be able to just connect themselves from that and seek You and be productive in their lives in a more personal here and now in the moment way I just pray that You will intervene and that You will break the addictions around technology Lord. In Jesus’ name.

[ladystylestores]

Mothers’ Power in U.S. Protests Echoes a Global Tradition

Wearing matching shades of white or yellow, the women of the “Wall of Moms” in Portland, Ore., have become instant icons of the city’s protests, though the mothers nightly gatherings only began last Saturday and the city’s protests have been going on for more than a month.

They join a long line of mothers’ protests against state violence and what they view as authoritarianism around the world, including in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Armenia, which have shown that mothers can be particularly effective advocates for a cause — but also that there is a catch.

History suggests that mothers’ power is most potent when they are able to wield their own respectability, and the protections it brings, as a political cudgel. But that is easiest for women who are already privileged: married, affluent, and members of the dominant racial or ethnic group.

Mothers who are less privileged often struggle to claim that power, even though they are often the ones who most urgently need it.

Theresa Raiford, a Black mother who is the executive director of Don’t Shoot Portland, a local group that works to end police violence, helped to organize and direct the Wall of Moms’ early actions, but noted that the positive response to the mostly white mothers has been proof of the very racism they are protesting.

Mothers had been participating in the protests for five weeks, but “nobody recognized them until they literally put on white so they could be highlighted as white,” she said.

“What it does show us is that Black lives don’t matter here, white moms do,” she said. “And those moms know that, too. That’s why they’re standing in solidarity with us.”

‘Mothers are symbolic to the nation’

Bev Barnum, who posted the original Facebook message asking moms to come and protest, said she had asked women to color-coordinate their outfits in order to stand out in the crowd, but otherwise told them to dress “like they were going to Target.”

“I wanted us to look like moms,” Ms. Barnum, who serves as the group’s informal leader and organizer, said in an interview. “Because who wants to shoot a mom? No one.”

Mothers’ protests are often powerful precisely because the gender roles that ordinarily silence and sideline women, allowing them to be seen as nonthreatening, turn into armor for political activism, experts say.

During Armenia’s 2018 “velvet revolution,” a largely nonviolent uprising that eventually toppled the country’s leader, Serzh Sargsyan, mothers took to the streets pushing their children in strollers, indelibly tying their maternal identities to their political demands.

In Armenia, “mothers are symbolic to the nation and, to some extent, have immunity in protests,” Ulrike Ziemer, a sociologist at the University of Winchester in Britain, wrote in a 2019 book chapter about the uprising. “If police would have touched mothers with their children in prams during the protests, that would have brought shame on them individually, but also on the state apparatus they represent.”

In the Armenian protests, mothers from all walks of life were able to claim those protections, Dr. Ziemer said in an interview. But in societies that are divided along racial or ethnic lines, mothers from marginalized groups cannot access that full political power so easily.

In South Africa, the Black Sash, a group of white women who opposed the apartheid regime, were able to use their gender and race as a shield for their political activity that others could not.

“The Government has let Black Sash survive while closing down other anti-apartheid groups in part because white South African society has perched its women on pedestals,” The Times reported in 1988. “The police find it awkward to pack the paddy wagons with well-bred troublemakers who look like their mothers or sisters.”

The government had no such compunction about locking up Black women. Albertina Sisulu, a pioneering Black anti-apartheid activist who was also a married mother of five, was arrested and held in solitary confinement multiple times. Countless other Black women suffered even worse fates.

In Sri Lanka, women from the Tamil minority group have been protesting for years to demand information about sons and daughters who were kidnapped by state forces during the country’s civil war and never heard from again. Their activism has drawn international attention and some limited engagement from the country’s government.

But when the women’s demands went beyond their own individual grief and engaged with politics more broadly, national politicians and civil society groups dismissed them as pawns of male activists, said Dharsha Jegatheeswaran, co-director of the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, a Sri Lanka-based think tank. As members of a marginalized minority group, she said, motherhood could take them only so far.

In the United States, there is a long tradition of Black women claiming their identities as mothers when protesting against police shootings, lynchings, and mass incarceration. But, like the Tamil activists in Sri Lanka, they have tended to be viewed through the narrow lens of their own grief and fear for their children. White women have typically been taken far more seriously by white audiences as representing mothers generally — another case of bias on display.

Ann Gregory, a lawyer and mother of two who joined the wall of moms in Portland on Sunday, said they had hoped to serve as a buffer between other demonstrators and law enforcement.

“We realize that we’re a bunch of white women, and we do have privilege,” she said. “We were hoping to use that to protect the protesters.”

“We don’t need silent victims, we need loud witnesses.”

Instead, the women got a crash course in the grievances that had set off the protests in the first place.

Ms. Barnum, new to such activism, said she was surprised when other demonstrators warned her group that they could be in danger.

“The news said that if you give the police officer a reason to fear for their life, a reasonable fear, they could hurt you,” she said. “But if you didn’t give them a reason then they wouldn’t hurt you.”

The moms, she reasoned, would be peaceful and give the officers no cause for alarm, so had no reason to worry.

That may seem an unusual belief for someone attending a protest against police violence, but it illustrates the privilege taken for granted by many people who have not had run-ins with law enforcement.

So on her first night at the protests, when federal officers fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the group of moms, “I couldn’t believe what was happening,” she said. “We weren’t being violent. We weren’t screaming expletives at them.”

The power wielded by police has long been justified with the claim that officers must be able to use force when necessary to protect themselves or the public, and that people who have done nothing wrong have nothing to fear. Black activists and their allies have been contesting that claim for years, but the tide of public opinion has been slow to turn against law enforcement.

However, when officers fire tear gas and projectiles at soccer moms holding sunflowers, as happened in Portland on Sunday night, even more observers — who may not previously have thought they could be at risk — see that as a fate that might befall anyone. And history suggests that could have profound political consequences.

In Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, women whose children had been “disappeared” by the military government — seized, tortured and murdered in secret — were the most visible opposition to the regime, with their distinctive white kerchiefs.

They “continually pointed out that the majority of the disappeared were not terrorists, as the junta claimed, but loyal members of the opposition, including people who had never engaged in politics and even some members of the establishment,” the political scientist Marguerite Guzman Bouvard wrote in “Revolutionizing Motherhood,” her 2002 book on the group.

“In shattering the lies that served as a rationale for the junta’s terror,” Dr. Bouvard wrote, “the Mothers exposed the glaring weakness of the entire system.”

There are obvious differences between the Argentine dictatorship of and the United States today. But Ms. Gregory, the Portland mother who joined Sunday’s demonstration, was deeply disturbed by the federal officers’ violent response to the protest.

“We weren’t any danger to them,” she said. “We were just standing there with flowers. We’re a bunch of middle-aged moms.”

“This isn’t what America is supposed to be like,” she said. “We’re not supposed to be ruled by militarized, jackbooted forces.”

Ms. Raiford, the longtime activist, is cautiously hopeful about the power of that message — and its messengers.

“Sometimes when people hear activists say ‘Black lives matter,’ they say ‘well that has nothing to do with me.’” she said. “But when we talk about the intrinsic value of humanity, and how all of our lives intersect because we have children, we have families, we live in communities, we have loved ones, I think that that creates less of a barrier.”

She hopes the attention on the moms will help to spread that message. “We don’t need silent victims,” she said. “We need loud witnesses.”

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[gracewithducks]

“You cannot sit apart.” - Nelson Mandela (Ephesians 4:1-6, 21-32)

Rolihlahla was born in the village of Mvezo, in South Africa.

 Growing up, Rolihlahla heard the stories of his ancestors and their struggles for freedom. Because, of course, South Africa had not always been as it was then. In 1652, Dutch settlers arrived, followed almost a hundred and fifty years later by boats full of entrepreneurs from Britain. As elsewhere, the colonizers were met with resistance from the land’s original inhabitants; there were not one but many wars of resistance. Many peoples fought, and many laid down their lives, trying to defend and protect their families and their homes, fighting for their history and for their future.

 However, again and again, the battle was lost. The settlers brought with them more advanced weapons, yes, but they also knew the value of divide-and-conquer, dealing with each tribe in isolation, and allowing fear and mistrust and old rivalries to keep their enemies from daring to unite against them.[1]

 Rolihlahla was inspired by these stories. He was inspired by the sacrifices his ancestors had made, and as he looked around him, “he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the [his people’s struggle for freedom].”[2]

 When Rolihlahla went to school – it was a Methodist school, by the way, because even then, Methodists believed in not just preaching but teaching and healing, too – at school, he was given a new name, a “Christian” name, because even Methodists can make mistakes, and because renaming was the custom at the time. What was meant by that, really, is that he was given an English name. And so Rolihlahla became “Nelson” – and this is the name by which we know him: Nelson Mandela.

 And if you’ll indulge me in a sidebar today – I found it interesting that, while this supposedly Christian name “Nelson” isn’t a biblical name, it is a significant English one. Originally a surname – a last name, meaning “Neil’s son,” the name started to grow in popularity as a given name, a first name, when it was given in honor of the British admiral Horatio Nelson.[3] This Nelson was most famous for the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the most celebrated victories in British history. Horatio Nelson led a fleet of twenty-seven British ships against thirty-three united French and Spanish ships. During the battle, in spite having the advantage, the French and Spanish lost 22 ships, without a single British ship being lost.

 The British fleet accomplished such an amazing victory because Horatio Nelson broke tradition – he tried doing something in a way it had never been done before. It was customary, when you faced an enemy, to face them line to line, parallel to one another. Instead, Nelson came at the opponent with his ships in two columns, two lines of attack – and it worked. He changed the game; he came at the problem in a whole new way – and in doing so, he beat the odds, leading his boats to defeat a much stronger and mightier foe.

 During the battle, however, Nelson was shot; he was one of the casualties of the greatest victory of his life. He won the battle, but lost his life.[4]

 I don’t know if Nelson Mandela knew any of that. I don’t know if he knew the heritage of his new name – but I do know that, so often in the story of faith, names are important. And Nelson Mandela was a man who believed the game could be changed, that “we’ve never done it that way before” doesn’t necessarily mean we never should, and that might doesn’t make right, and it’s still possible for David to defeat Goliath… and he also knew that, when you make a stand for what you believe in, it just might end up costing you dearly; there are times when you have to believe that there are victories worth living and dying for.

 Anyway, back to Nelson – our Nelson’s – story. He grew up, attending church and learning at one Methodist school after another, and his faith became an important part of how he saw himself.

 Throughout his life, Mandela increasingly found himself not quite fitting in: because he would not accept a marriage arranged for him, he ran away from his tribe and his home… but in the world beyond, he faced racism and prejudice because of the color of his skin and where he’d come from.

 I cannot begin to do justice to the long and fascinating life and struggle that shaped Nelson Mandela, but for today it is enough to say that he was the leader and voice for the fight against apartheid – against legalized, institutionalized discrimination and racism – in South Africa. Over the course of two decades, he stood for what he believed in, and as his influence grew, he was often banned from speaking publicly, arrested, and tried for a variety of supposed crimes.

Eventually Mandela found himself facing possible execution for his activities; during his trial, rather than mounting a defense, Mandela gave a speech, concluding by saying that, [The ideal of a just and free society of equals living in harmony] is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”[5]

 He did not die, but instead, the judge condemned Mandela – and two others – to life in prison.

 Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years; perhaps you know that he did, eventually, regain his freedom – but he didn’t have any reason to hope, then, that he ever would. At first, he was kept isolated, forced into hard labor and allowed but one visitor every six months. But over time, he gained more and more privileges – including the privilege of celebrating communion.

 One pastor, Father Wiggett, shares the story of one communion service in prison, where Nelson was present. Father Wiggett was accompanied by a warder, a guard, who was there not only for his protection but to monitor anything and everything that was said, to make sure no illegal or illicit communications were being passed.

 This one day, then, partway through the communion service, Mandela interrupted the pastor, saying, “Just a minute.” And he looked at the warder, the guard, and he said, “Are you a Christian?” And the guard answered, “Yes, I am.”

 And Nelson Mandela said to this jailor, “Well then, you must take off your cap, and you must come and join us. You cannot sit apart; you can’t sit there on your own… This is holy communion, and we must share and receive it together.”

 Father Wiggett remembers being stunned: “As a priest,” he said, “I didn’t think of doing that, but the political prisoner released the warder!” The guard took off his hat, and he took his place at the table with the rest of the body of Christ.[6]

 And this, friends, is why I share this story today. Nelson Mandela is, in my opinion, a saint: not because he always got it right, but because he did the best he could, to love God, to follow God, and to honor the image of God in others.

 Here was a man who had his whole life been excluded from the table – an outsider, everywhere he went, and for all the influence he gained in his lifetime, he gained it only through constantly and persistently fighting for a place at the table.

 And this is the man who looks at the guard at his prison, and says, “Welcome. Come join us. You, even you, belong here.”

 Can you hear there the best of Methodist tradition? This is why we believe in an open table table – because we believe that, no matter where we’ve come from, no matter what we look like, no matter what we’ve done, what limits others place on us – this is the one place where we all, truly, belong. Here we are equal, and here we stand on common ground: when we gather to receive the grace of God, freely offered at the table of Christ.

 Our scripture for today if from Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church – which is still another of Paul’s prison letters, which seems only fitting as we sit with Nelson Mandela, who also spent much of his life in prison, uncertain if he would ever be released, continuing even there to speak and act as faithfully as he could.

 And here in Ephesians 4, Paul writes these words: “I, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called… making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [For] There is one body and one spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God of us all…

 “So then,” he continues, “let’s speak the truth to each other, because we belong to one another; we are members of the same body in Christ. Be angry, but do not sin… Put away bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander and malice, and… forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

 Friends, you and I know that we live in a world where we continue to divide ourselves – based on race and color and gender identity and nationality and ability so many other factors. We ourselves live in a society built over the graves of those we disenfranchised and devastated for our own sake; we live in a society where prejudices are still woven into the very fabric of our lives together.

 I don’t pretend to have all the answers today. There are no easy answers or quick fixes. But the story we find ourselves in is not just a story of prejudice and segregation and death – it’s a story of justice and reconciliation and resurrection, too.

 This is why I love World Communion Sunday: because we know, we are reminded, that we are not alone; we come to a table that extends around the world – and just because we are divided by time and distance and culture and language and on and on… what matters more is that we are united, we are one, we stand on common and level ground, when we gather at the table of Christ.

 This is where prisoner and guard break bread together. This is where slave and free drink from the same cup. This is where black and white and red and yellow and brown sit side by side by side, as one family. This is where young and old and all of us in-between, where women and men and boys and girls and those who find themselves somewhere in-between, where all of us hear the good news:

 You are welcome. You are loved. You belong here.

 Christ welcomes us today, to come as we are. And Christ invites us, today, to begin once more to become who we are called to be.

 My prayer is that we will be faithful, not just here, but when we go back out into this divided world; my prayer is that we will refuse to allow fear and old wounds to keep us apart; that we will work for reconciliation, for peace and justice both; And my prayer is that we will be the ones who look for those who are on the outside, waited to be invited in – and we will extend welcome and grace, again and again.

 You cannot sit apart, friends, so come to the table, where we find that God’s love, truly, makes us one.

  God, you know the story that surrounds us: and it’s a story of divide-and-conquer and might-makes-right, a story of brokenness and injustice and loneliness and despair. Invite us once more into your story. Transform us, and help us to transform the world, for the sake of all of your beloved ones. Make us into peacemakers, and when we lose hope, help us to believe we really will see your kingdom come. In Christ’s name we pray; amen.

 ------------------------

[1] Jack Simmons, “Wars of Resistance” (unpublished draft paper).  http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/wars-of-resistance

[2] From the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s “Biography of Nelson Mandela.”

[3] “Nelson.” https://www.behindthename.com/name/nelson

[4] “Battle of Trafalgar” (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar

[5] “I am prepared to die” (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Prepared_to_Die

[6] “Father Wiggett by Marc Bellamy” (December 23, 2015). http://www.humansofsa.co.za/father-wigget-by-marc-bellamy/ // Kenneth M. Loyer, “Holy Communion: Celebrating God with Us.”

Other References and Resources: 

“Nelson Mandela” (Wikipedia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

Nelson Mandela Foundation, “Biography of Nelson Mandela.” https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography

[themindfulword]

PSYCHOLOGICAL & SPIRITUAL THERAPY: Post-election imperative to become vessels of peace and communication

In our new weekly Psychological & Spiritual Therapy column, therapist Jack Surguy is offering professional advice to The Mindful Word readers for all those questions and problems you have wanted to discuss with someone qualified and caring. If you would like Jack to assist you in any areas of your life and relationships, fill out this form. He will respond to your questions through this column, normally published every Tuesday.   On November 30, I received the following question, and I thought I'd like to add to this and provide more information, since we just witnessed further acts of violence and mass arrests in the United States. The question was from Delphine in NZ and the response titled, “Fearlessness will aid you when dialoguing with others being driven by fear”:  

QUESTION

How do I navigate in the craziness that's going on around the world since the U.S. election? I watch the social media and have friends on both “sides,” I have friends who are being hurt—or perceive the smallest possibility of being hurt—and no matter what I say (I refuse to take sides) I'm attacked. I watch how they treat their friends, and if anyone tries to show the slightest bit of understanding for the opposite view, there's a mini-war declared. It's ridiculous. If I remain neutral, I'm told I'm clueless and attacked for that. If I try to show understanding to both sides, I'm called a traitor to one or the other. I tell them to be calm and try to put themselves in each other’s shoes; I'm told I don’t know what I'm talking about. There's so much fear going on right now, I can see absolutely no solution. I find myself withdrawing more and more. I'm struggling to come to terms with the energy that the constant fear and loathing—yes, loathing—and intolerance is causing around the world. It feels to me as if it's in the air I breathe. I suppose it is. I do meditate, I'm a naturally positive person. Nothing usually gets me down, but what's going on in the world now is making me withdraw more and more from contact with others. It feels as if anything that even looks like happiness or joy isn't acceptable anymore. And I wonder if it ever will be? What do I do?  

ADDITIONAL RESPONSE

It appears that race relations have unfortunately declined within the U.S. over the last few years. This is very disheartening, especially in light of the fact the U.S. had twice elected Barack Obama as President of the United States. I can still recall the speech that former President Obama delivered during the 2008 election. His words on race and racism inspired me and gave me great hope that perhaps, under this person's leadership, the racial divide could finally be truly addressed. The following are excerpts from that speech: "This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign—to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction—toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren." "But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America—to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality." "Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow." "Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings." "That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful. And to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races." SIMILAR ANGER WITHIN THE WHITE COMMUNITY A similar anger as mentioned above exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they've been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience—as far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything. They built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labour. They're anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. In an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity has come to be seen as a zero-sum game, in which "your" dreams come at "my" expense. So when these people are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, or when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighbourhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they've helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers on unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or even reverse racism. WE'RE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE IDEAL THAN IN 2008 During this past election year, accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia were hurled as political hand grenades on an almost daily basis. References to Hitler and Nazis became more and more frequent. This past election wasn't an election focused on policies; it was one focused on identity politics and group divisions. If people supported one candidate over another they were accused of not being American, of being ignorant or uneducated, or worse, of being morally defective. What many found very insulting was that even after electing Barack Obama for two consecutive terms, the nation was called racist and it was alleged that white supremacists and sexist individuals had come out to vote because of their hatred. Those statements just don't reflect reality and only cause further division and animosity within our communities. MTV even put out a video telling "white guys" what they needed to do better in the coming year. "White guys" were also told that just because they have minority friends, that doesn't mean they're not racist. This ad basically declared that white males, who make up roughly 36 percent of the nation's population, or around 223 million individuals, are racists and need to "do better." Again, this type of politics and rhetoric isn't going to bring any healing or reconciliation. In fact, according to a controversial psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, Jordan Peterson, things are probably going to get worse before they get better. I truly hope this isn't the case. However, you could make the case that our government and media are pushing the nation towards a civil war of races. Paul Schrader, an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic who wrote or co-wrote the films Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing Out the Dead said the following words: I have spent the last five days meditating on Trump's election. Upon consideration, I believe this is a call to violence. I felt the call to violence in the '60s and I feel it now again. This attack on liberty and tolerance will not be solved by appeasement. Obama tried that for eight years. We should finance those who support violence resistance. We should be willing to take arms. Like Old John Brown, I am willing to battle with my children. Alt-right nut jobs swagger violence. It's time to actualize that violence. Like my Civil War Michigan predecessors, I choose to stand with the black, the brown and the oppressed. A protester stated on CNN, "If we don't fight, who is going to fight for us? People had to die for your freedom where we're at today. We can't just do rallies, we have to fight back." Said Lily, the same Latina woman from Los Angeles, "There will be casualties on both sides. There will be, because people have to die to make a change in this world." Jesse Benn, a journalist for the Huffington Post, wrote an article in June of 2016 entitled, "Sorry Liberals, a Violent Response to Trump Is as Logical as Any." In this article the author stated, Violent resistance matters. Riots can lead to major change.... And when those who hold that privilege dismiss the potential validity or logic of violent resistance, it's effectively an effort to dictate the rules under which oppressed peoples respond to existential threats, and to silence forms of resistance disagreeable to privileged sensibilities. Even more disturbing was the undercover video of Scott Foval, the National Field Director of Americans United for Change, when he described the practice known as "bird-dogging." This is, essentially, when one party sends people into the opponent's rally with the intention of inciting violence to discredit the opposition. Except for one instance above, these quotes come from people considered among the social elite, or in positions of power and prestige. The goal here, however, isn't to say that one group is innocent and the other is the offender. The goal here is to point out that people who are known, are respected, and have a voice in the media are calling for violence against fellow Americans—this should cause us all great concern. A HEALTHY AMOUNT OF SKEPTICISM But what are we ordinary citizens supposed to do? More specifically, what are we, as practitioners of mindfulness, to do to help correct the course this nation is heading onto? Mindfulness is about being in touch with the present moment, here and now, and isn't about escaping reality. Mindfulness isn't about sitting on a pillow and experiencing bliss and feelings of peace. Mindfulness is about seeing and experiencing reality as it is, and doing our best to limit the obscuration within us that distorts and twists reality. While I support standing against tyranny and oppression, all I can see at this time is that all this rhetoric is turning Americans, including those who I know are good people, into enemies. We're not clearly seeing each other. Instead, I believe that often, we're projecting our own fear and hatred onto the "others." This isn't to say that awful, despicable things don't occur, but I don't believe these events represent the majority of Americans. The Founding Fathers of America were rather intelligent men. One piece of wisdom I take from them is to have a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to believing everything reported to me by the government and by the media as well. Thomas Jefferson stated in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many.... What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and power into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate. VESSELS OF PEACE AND COMMUNICATION In other words, it doesn't matter who's in charge, the Republicans or the Democrats; a person should always question what's being reported as truth. If I maintain some skepticism in the back of my mind, then I'm unable to fully convince myself that those on the other side are enemies worthy of violence. Through mindfulness, we can become vessels of peace and communication. Understand that this mindfulness practice may not entail you specifically dealing with issues of intolerance or anger within yourself, but will perhaps influence how you'll respond if others project their own anger and intolerance onto you. We're standing at a crossroads today in America. We need those who are well-grounded in the present moment, who are able to see reality quite clearly, and who can refrain from projecting their feelings onto others to lead us into the future—mindfully into the future. Read more about American politics in U.S. ELECTION: Bringing awareness into our political winter of disconnect» Jack Surguy has an MA in both Theological Studies and Counseling Psychology, and is currently completing his doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He has spent years studying and practicing mindfulness meditation and finding ways to effectively implement the teachings and practices into his therapeutic intervention philosophy. His main area of practice focuses on the effects of trauma and childhood maltreatment on overall psychological/emotional and spiritual functioning. He currently works in a facility that specializes in treating traumatized adolescents and families. image via Pixabay Click to Post