Blessed ramadan What Can Quakers Do To Combat Islamaphobia?

Blessed Ramadan: Zakat

Meditations without comment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/practices/fivepillars.shtml

https://www.islam-guide.com/ch3-16.htm

RantWoman spent part of midweek Meeting for Worship meditating about zakat or giving alms, the SHARE group who have been sleeping in our worship room, matters of carpet replacement and one Friend's wish to forego the carpet replacement in favor of giving money to the poor, never mind other questions of carpet.

Culinarily, RantWoman is unsure which of the 5 pillars stand atop the full range of Muslim dietary practices beyond Ramadan. Unfortunately,   RantWoman would not do very well as a Muslim. While Muslims were breaking their fast, dessert after responsible zucchini and brown rice and tossed salad featured ice cream with Kahlua.

Blessed Ramadan

Ramadan reflections du jour; Blessed Ramadan for a Tuesday

RantWoman's Ramadan reflection of the day.

Hold Ferrener Husband in the Light. RantWoman is unclear what if anything he is doing about Ramadan without any surviving family members to bring it up. But by tonight he will be back in Seattle. RantWoman's info streams have unbidden been informing RantWoman of progress on a flight home. RantWoman is not quite sure what to make of this unsolicited info except for the general point of someone grieving and needing prayers.




Image slurped into this blog
from Deceased Denizen's Facebook wall.

It's Don't Mess With People's Comfort Food day next door to the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. That means a community of immigrant elders gathering for lunch with  a social worker to help about many life issues. Occasionally someone is both interested in computers and conversant enough in English that the Friendly Neighborhood Center can help them more than they can help each other. It also means lunch odors and memories of a deceased denizen of the Friendly Neighborhood Center who used always to work on Tuesdays. Deceased Denizen had sort of uneven customer service skills in person, but he had a huge community of fans online. In his memory, in honor of various food associations, RantWoman's Ramadan meditation or tonight is a spiral of hands of different sizes and colors all wrapped together, individual particularities collected as a whole.

Transgender Marriages in Pakistan???

On a theme of topics likely to evoke LIVELY  conversation when families break the fast:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/pakistani-clerics-declare-transgender-marriages-legal-in-islam/

Hunter S Thompson goes to the Hackathon--and earns an Honorable mention.

A more official version of this announcement with proper hashtags and "now what?" reflections and everything can be found on RantWoman's other blog.

RantWoman has also been sitting with the question of whether and how to censor this post to protect the privacy of someone who shared a story RantWoman DEEPLY respects. There would also be questions of positive branding where the world wants happy events and is less engaged about humbling, stunningly brilliant, caring ways to deal with serious YUCKY TOPICS FESTIVAL issues. As of the latest clicks of Schedule, RantWoman HAS opted to omit a couple elements. But the story is enough as is.

Warning: this post does contain terminology from a number of vocabulary domains. RantWoman imagines that readers can either cope or feel free to ask RantWoman to clarify.

The Prep such as it was including multiple references connecting to Meeting Life, multiple references to RantWoman specific, um, quirks, and what RantWoman will call the search engine problem. In this case all the things that exist in ntWoman's head as parks will not necessarily show up in data from the Seattle Parks and Recreation department.

Opening Night:
It was a dark and stormy night...

Uh, no, but the soft tacos had been served and the pitches pitched.

RantWoman pitched "Do ONE THING no matter how tiny" about accessibility. RantWoman acknowledged that accessibility is a big hairy scary topic, but RantWoman specifically mentioned really easy things like saying whether the paths in a park are concrete, asphalt, gravel, cedar chips so that people with mobility issues who want to enjoy what they can at our parks can make sensible choices.

RantWoman also mentioned basically wanting to know whether trails are mostly flat and level, have modest inclines and declines or are so steep that mountain goats would get vertigo.  RantWoman mentioned this in the same sentence as markers of social connection such as going for walks with different combinations of people of differing ability and vigor levels.

Little did RantWoman know: RantWoman was in "I don't code; Make it So" mode. The God as Personal Butler model of divine presence showed up in the form of middle aged techies and eager youth. The middle-aged techies had to joke around for a bit about submitting a non-technological "app" called Put The Screen Down and Look Behind You. And there were moments of lived experience that cannot be solved simply by writing more code. And RantWoman ran off for more live data events involving #blind people and #ULink2016. While RantWoman was away, she fielded a cellphone call from the SeattleTrails team: BIG points for reading RantWoman's blog and then reaching out.

RantWoman came back, solved the get into the building problem, found the restroom and some water, charged her phone, cooled her heels until...

...RantWoman learned that she got signed up to present for a team and RantWoman learned what cool things there were to present.

Team SeeAddledParks work product; further explanation--and accessibility commentary-- pending



The Team SeAddled Parks Map, release 1.0
 

Supper happened, wonderful Asian food and curry. Presentations got presented and people milled around while the judges judged.

[RantWoman, what is Hunter S Thompson doing in this post, especially since a big percentage of the people in the room have no idea who Hunter S Thompson is and were not even conscious until say the first Bush administration starting cranking out more vets with PTSD and access to astounding arsenals?

[Team SeeAddledParks chatter while waiting for the judges to judge ran heavily to a teenage who it is ardently HOPED can stay connected to the mental health resources he clearly needs, and to the matter of vets with PTSD issues and responsible management of home arsenals. RantWoman, based on the account she heard has complete confidence that the specific astounding home arsenal referred to here has been responsibly dealt with. However rantWoman assumes that there are probably lots of other households where astounding home arsenals are one part of a mental health picture. RantWoman wants to bear witness to the value of people close to the situation helping the owners think about safety issues and to the power of connections over rough spots.

[Thank GOD there are also some pitiful streams of official funds to help vets deal with the consequences of their service (begin rant..end rant). But thank God there are also people like the half of Team SeeAddled who recently was part of a successful effort to get one of those astounding home arsenals separated from someone with PTSD and into safer custody and not say out being waved around in public. But yeah, that is what Hunter S Thompson is doing here.]

Apps embodying the very accessibility ideas RantWoman mentioned, including the efforts of Team SeeAddled  Parks received special honorable mention.

 RantWoman heard a couple other groups mention accessibility but did not register how the groups interacted with the issue. RantWoman also notes that a good accessible app that makes it easier for all kinds of people to sign up for classes and reserve tennics courts, etc would definitely enhance access for everyone. But RantWoman is getting ahead of herself.

And hey, at least this "app" involves technology

Blessed Ramadan with London Mayor Saddiq Khan at Pride2016

RantWoman is aware of the option just to let the photo speak for itself, but RantWoman specifically also offers prayers for everyone fighting the forces of globalization and conformity by being clear about their religious / spiritual identity, whatever it is. May we all find paths to live together in love.

London Mayor Saddiq Khan
addresses #Pride2016

Queer Muslims Need Safe Space

RantWoman's Blessed Ramadan thought for tonight:

YES Magazine: stop asking me to denounce Islam to prove I care about LGBT Rights

AVP Workshop with People with DisAbilities, El Salvador

Report of an AVP workshop with People with Disabilities, Quezaltepeque, departamento de La Libertad, El Salvador.

Reseña del taller PAV básico con Fraternidad Cristiana de Personas con discapacidad de Quezaltepeque, departamento de La Libertad, El Salvador, realizado los días 25 de mayo, 1º, 8, 15 y 22 de junio de 2016

http://pavelsalvador.blogspot.com/2016/06/la-luz-de-la-humildad.html

With prayers for blessed Ramadan

A powerful new story for tonight: Imran Yousuf, PULSE bouncer and war veteran saved dozens of lives.

Muslim war veteran saves dozens of lives

Prayers also for everyone digesting the various threads of survivor narrative, law enforcement spin, and response by various political figures. RantWoman feels multiple full-scale rants coming on, but will stop with wishes for blessed Ramadan.

Lovely description of Quakerism from HuffPo

RantWoman has been contemplating a need to break out in hives recently about a couple formulations of spiritual life and Quakerism in the air around her.

--RantWoman can handle the reality that someone's spiritual path includes the phrase "spiritual but not religious." RantWoman can handle this reality but the phrase makes her break out in hives. RantWoman is trying to figure out what dialogues need to result from this reality.

--RantWoman is also allergic to all formulations of Quakerism that boil the community down to SPICE, whatever words one assigns to the acronym. RantWoman also notes ruefully that she is having to postpone any inclination to hyperventilate about this issue because of more pressing matters, but stay tuned.

In the meantime, a wonderful summary of Quaker worship from the Huffington Post.

Four things America can learn from one of the oldest faith communities in the country

Dear God, Please send the NRA a plague of boils: samatha Bee

Warning: vocabulary that will set many readers' teeth on edge ..and Bible verses ..and frank questions to the divine and those who quote hum / her

In other words, EXACTLY RantWoman's kind of post.




...Faith without works is dead...

...Dear God, Please send the NRA a plague of boils...

Blessed Ramadan, with weird signups.

A peculiar RantWoman eye reflection on the #OrlandoShooting shooter Omar Mateen trying to sign up for mutually antagonistic islamicist radicals while busy wrecking havoc with his assault rifle:

Long ago and Far Away, okay in graduate school in IN,  RantWoman spent a good deal of extracurricular time organizing speakers and trying to encourage the Indiana Congressional delegation to stop voting for the Contra War 

RantWoman lived in Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lee Hamilton's district. One day RantWoman got a phone call or an email, she does not remember which, from some human rights activists in Baltimore: Hi, we just sat in at your Congressman's office! Wouldn't you like to issue a statement of some kind in support.

NO, Actually we would NOT. Compared to the REST of the IN delegation Cong. Hamilton was the best IN could do for sanity about the issue. No, we really did not think sitting in would be on point. Yes, OF COURSE, he chaired the Forign Affairs Committee so he was fair game, but....

RantWoman does not remember exactly what sort of statement her local group issued but RantWoman thinks the statement probably reiterated something about our concerns and some of the talking points raised by those who sat in.

RantWoman has been thinking about that story today and wondering whether any of the various strands of Islam contacted by the #PulseShooting killer Omar Mateen have any sympathizers with kind of similar reactions. Please excuse RantWoman for not keeping the names of the various strands straight; RantWoman trusts her readers will get the idea.

Hello Al-Nusrah, I wanna sign on....

uh...

Hello, Taliban, I wanna sign on....

uh.....we're kinda busy getting our butts kicked right now....

Hello ISIS, I wanna sign on...

Uh, hmmmm, wife-beating, heavily armed, virulent homophobe and willing to act during Ramadan? Sure plenty of other faith traditions manage to work in some of the above but... Okay, let's see if we can fit you in....

and a Blessed Ramadan to all.

Tonight's Blessed Ramadan thoughts

RantWoman has neighbors who gather with family every night during Ramadan. RantWoman again wishes people a blessed Ramadan.

RantWoman has been thinking about the daily realities of being a Muslim  in the US. RantWoman has thinking that probably many Muslims experience a lot of microaggressions even if they do not call the daily grind of offenses  against one's dignity microaggressions. In any case RantWoman says a prayer and keeps her ears and eyes and heart open to hear what needs to be heard and say what needs to be said.

Enough of this peace and love.

RantWoman also finds herself wondering, an awful lot of families have really fabulous arguments when they get together for holidays. RantWoman wonders whether this also happens during Ramadan gatherings.

Please hold RantWoman and her Muslim neighbors in the Light.

Unconscious people do not want tea!

Between opening a piece about sex and consent with God Save the Queen and the sexy "it's in British" accent, RantWoman is rolling on the floor laughing.


Readers who would not particularly prefer another journey to Planet RantWoman are not particularly invited to skip the following excursion, but RantWoman can handle the fact that some people will try to duck away anyway.

HOWEVER, ya know what?

1. Blindness is not particularly consensual. Suppose RantWoman is peacefully going about her business, perhaps bearing a nice cup of tea. Suppose RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack happen upon an unscious person. (rest of mental excursion left as an exercise!)

2. Oh, Lord does this rustle up content of the "Go Talk to Your Therapist (about RantMom for instance) " sort lurking in RantWoman's Spiritual compost heap. Mleah.

The Bedbugs, Technology, Information

Dear World,

It’s us, the bedbugs at UFM. It’s another round of construction projects, both redoing the worship room and finally building the large building near RantWoman’s Meeting.

It’s another dang leap year and our missive is way overdue. It’s time to hold our noses for another Presidential election year. Most of all there was another worldwide Quaker gathering. Considering all that, we the bedbugs feel both called and entitled to weigh in!

 We bedbugs feel so strongly called to offer our testimony that we tried technology ourselves. Someone got hold of this thing called Siri. We are told if we say it, Siri is supposed to write it. We do not see any problem about how we talk, but Siri keeps writing “direct unmitigated connections with the Divine.” We mean unmediated and we do not understand why Siri does not realize this! We do not think our accent is THAT strange.

After we tried Siri we wondered whether enough of us could jump up and down on the touch screen keyboard at once to write that way. Maybe if we had RantWoman’s favorite majorette coach / choreographer /high school English teacher to help us keep in time that MIGHT have worked. Also, autocorrect is just brutal and we cannot possibly jump up and down fast enough sometimes to fight its effects, but we definitely do not like this path to “unity.”

Technology is having an uneven impact for RantWoman. RantWoman’s  Smartphone allows her whole new communications frontiers even if trying to type via touch screen has cut down a little bit on the output from the Still Didn’t Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation.

As far as ways to make people settle down so we can have lunch, we definitely appreciate all the Quaker communications channels now providing videos, blog posts, podcasts, emailed articles and other paths for inspiration besides dusty pamphlets and out-of-print books.

RantWoman really is inspired that modern publishers of Truth are finally being electronically present, but she told us bedbugs to wash our mouths out about the dusty pamphlets because the library at RantWoman’s Meeting is a really important resource even if there is not very much there that RantWoman can read herself. RantWoman is kind of looking for a couple books of the Bible in Braille to donate, and RantWoman means it about books: Psalms in 3” thick in Braille. RantWoman is also thinking about some large print options but as long as things are going all digital, RantWoman points out that there are some publications she reads in the library, not only on paper saving ecological grounds, but also on money-saving ones. Subscription / access realities in the digital age have not quite caught up with this preference, and RantWoman’s Light is spluttering in too many other directions to labor with Friends about this just now, but one of these days…and then maybe RantWoman will also throw in lending concepts for other electronic content…

 

If RantWoman gets really carried away, we the bedbugs are afraid she is also goingto start babbling about “corpus of Quaker language” and Quakerism in many language, being theologically multilingual and getting to Truth bypassing Google translate.

At this point, we the bedbugs are just trying to help RantWoman clean out her notebooks and we are not too worried about tidy totality. Please hold such efforts in the Light.

American Sign Language for Quaker

From RantWoman's eccentric path toward preparation for Meeting for Worship for Business
Signing Savvy entry for Quaker

and a Professor at a University where one can get degrees and minor ins ASl sasy so!
Prof. Kevin Cramer at Central Michigan University


The association with Meeting for Business specifically comes via the Association of Bad Friends and numerous confessions of thumb-twiddling but RantWoman feels called to spare readers further excursions to Planet rantWoman just yet.

Bedbugs on teenager in Drug treatment.

...and all of the children are above average…

 

One of the teenagers in our community has been through drug treatment out of state, and his parents’ interactions with the required family therapy have figured frequently in messages out of worship.

 

The family has the resources to go out of state, something they had to do because of WA State law which allows youths whose parents might be impediments to various kinds of needed medical and mental health care to get help but also leaves parents who need to intervene in very difficult situations if youths will not cooperate.

 

We the bedbugs are not quite sure what to make of this level of openness. For one thing the frequency and duration of messages in worship make other people squirm. We are VERY glad the family is getting help and VERY grateful that messages seem to reflect progress with the program and recognition of growing ability to help others.   People crammed close together or living in distress make it easier for us to get a foothold. We believe that of lunch in everyone, we much prefer lunch that is not polluted by drugs, that has decent nutritional status and does not have too many other vermin for us to have to compete with.   There are WAY too many people with substance abuse issues who desperately need treatment and cannot get it, and we HOPE this exercise in worship leads people to think about how to address that problem. If that means cutting back on the people around to munch into, we would have to adapt but we think we could manage. And we kind of understand why RantWoman’s head might be exploding over messages about “respecting the time of people who did the work” about the State of Society while taking up massive amounts of time for this one issue.

 

 

The Bedbugs offer "help" about minutes.

Dear World

It's us, the bedbugs still managing to be part of the UFM community. Do not get us started about the persisting among community bit, at least not right now.

It's a leap year. It's a Presidential year. It's a Leap year. There has been another worldwide Quaker convening, and we are certain the world is again entitled to our point of view about life at our faithful spokesgal RantWoman's Meeting. We still have not found anyone else with quite RantWoman's gift for channeling our communications. We also are a little annoyed that she keeps getting started on our missive and then casting it aside for something or other. RantWoman keeps babbling about stuff we are pretty sure is only tenuously connecting to life at her Meeting and saying "one eruption at a time" so here goes the latest, about draft minutes related to a process for generating a State of Society report for NEXT YEAR.

The clerks of (two committees with whom RantWoman has expressed prepeated concerns) described the process used this year to select people to write the State of the Society report, which in the past has been done late in the year, with volunteers recruited ad hoc. (Said committees) each came up with a list of proposed names. The clerks convened to evaluate this list and make a recommendation to the meeting.

*****

Friends approved (names not particularly objectionable to RantWoman beyond  a general process objection) as authors of this year’s State of the Society report.

*****
NOTE from the Bedbugs who were not paying attention and are annoyed that RantWoman is stuck and will not work on our Bedbug missive until ...: Can anyone remember what concern RantWoman expressed? RantWoman has coughed politely and noted that at least a TINY bit more of the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT points which come out of RantWoman's mouth seem to be making it into minutes.

We the bedbugs think RantWoman would be terribly gratified if SOMEONE ELSE asked to have the minutes corrected to reflect RantWoman's concern!!!! RantWoman does not ... whether  someone else SHARES RantWoman's concern. RantWoman in ask for what you need mode, would really really like to hear that SOMEONE has HEARD it. We the bedbugs wonder where RantWoman gets off about her God as personal butler expectations though.

A Ramadan blessing for tonight

Blessed Ramadan

RantWoman has not exactly been fasting but does honor the ingathering of fasters as the sun sets.

Of particular note:

RantWoman thanks Muhammad Ali for the opportunity to think about a Muslim prayer service.

RantWoman recently found herself another older wiser crone having crone clucking about Muslim youth and the usual realms of sex and drugs and things teenagers wander into. Islamophobia is real. So are teenage struggles. RantWoman offers prayers for wise voices, accurate information, negotiating skills, and protection from thoughtless outsiders who do not realize the significance of concerns as well as from predatory creeps who take advantage of people's difficulties talking about such matters.

But then maybe RantWoman is off-base thinking only about the Rant family and no family from another culture could possibly have any of the same dynamics going on.

Blessed Ramadan all.

Where to stick a certain Border Wall

RantWoman is spectacularly and unapologetically grateful for one TX Congressional representative's choice of words.

5th Generation Mexican American Rep. Filemon Vela tells ... where to stick his Border Wall
RantWoman hopes and prays that our national civic discourse will evolve in a more inclusive, engaged, and respectful direction, but RantWoman most definitely considers the language sufficient to the age.

Muhammad Ali in a Time Warp courtesy of George carlin

RantWoman has good intentions about elaborating at more length about themes of service and refusal but RantWoman may simply launch this for now, with apologies if George Carlin is in any way taking up too much space.

William F Buckley interview from 1968

The Full Firing Line Episode

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-zirin-muhammad-ali-legacy-20160603-snap-story.html

Serial Rapist????

RantWoman is trying not to fall too far into the #brockturner media maelstrom but unfortunately is also going to make readers use their own search engines for the full details of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, his dad, and the Stanford Alum judge who gave Brock a slap on the wrist for a serious sexual assault.

 A great deal of what RantWoman would say is being said by many others. Furthermore, RantWoman is posting to her blog partly as time marker and partly because she has not sorted out where else in the internet whirlwind it most makes sens to post this. So it gets launched from Planet RantWoman in faith that someone will hear it or it will amplify notes from other directions.

The survivor's statement

One Tweet destroys the statement from Brock Turner's dad




Dad's letter, fixed

Now, here is the point that is going to make rantWoman's head explode if she does not commit it to electrons:

The statement from Brock Turner's dad talks about Brock wanting to educate others about the dangers of alcohol and sexual promiscuity.

Did the probation report even do anything with substance abuse issues? Recommend a substance abuse evaluation and substance abuse treatment?  Or did Brock's pale skin shield him from access to such services? Sounds to RantWoman like BOTH Dad and Son are in major denial and it would be nice if this disgusting public unwinding counts as "hitting bottom" on the way to treatment.

Is Brock talking about himself?

Were there other encounters?

Were any of them as "consensual" as the one in this case? The possibility would definitely occur to RantWoman that the media storm might trigger  memories for other women. RantWoman does not wish that on anyone, but if it occurs, RantWoman ardently hopes women will find the support they need and come forward.

RantWoman does not even want to go research the question was there DNA? If there were though it would definitely occur to RantWoman to run the DNA against unsolved rapes  in the area...

There. Now RantWoman will quit playing amateur detective and go back to...

That is all.


RantWoman has been amplifying the voices of men disgusted by the affair. This is not because RantWoman needs men to speak for her. It is because it matters a lot that there are men who get it. Here is a nice statement that hits many notes RantWoman concurs with.
To Brock Turner's father from Jon Pavlovitz

To many Muslims in my life, Blessed Ramadan

From a previous Ramadan blog effort:

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan Kareem

Faith Action Network Offerings for Ramadan



RantWoman offers particular prayers with Ferrener Husband and Muslims in his homeland. This means layers and layers of history and identity too much for a simple generalized Ramadan greeting.

RantWoman, though, humbly notes a particularly badly translated item going around Facebook suggesting that Muslims in Russia or at least the ones who want to live under Sharia should go back where they came from.

(Putin made basically the same suggestion in saltier terms a number of years ago. It passed across Russian language news screens not quite fully bleeped and gave many Russian language specialists lots of exercise in circumlocutions probably best left unexplained during Ramadan)

Never mind, in any case, that Muslims are generally on Russian territory because of Russian and Soviet imperialism / colonialism. RantWoman does not particularly think President Putin is offering to give back previously assimilated territory. Furthermore, rantWoman definitely suggests that there might be better paths to enlightened coexistence, but for the time being perhaps it is sufficient to wish all a Blessed Ramadan.

Publishers of Truth.

Catchphrase of the day: "publishers of Truth," with particular concern for the possibility of "a little too much of the Truth."

Domain Facebook and a Yearly Meeting IT issues listserve.

Question: Does Conflict Is a Gift of God Friend in fact have status as a released Friend and where can one go electronically to check on this?

The minutes of Yearly Meeting Ministry and Oversight? Yes apparently but see notes below about indexing, archiving.

The minutes of some yearly meeting body? Possibly. RantWoman is unclear though there will be graphical evidence at least of an endorsement. Again with the indexing concern.

The minutes of Conflict is a Gift of God Friend's monthly Meeting?

Yes, over time, not easily searchable. Internet availability and indexing / archiving practices unspecified.

Plus, last time ...'s status was renewed, discussion at one moment went something like

Friend 1: "Conflict is a Gift of God Friend can sometimes be (a mean nasty abusive jerk)!

Friend 2 "Friend 1's experience exactly matches mine"

The minutes of said Monthly Meeting for Business:  "Conflict is a Gift of God Friend can be a little prickly sometimes" The minutes made no mention of another point from oral discussion: a thought as to "always travelling with an elder," a concept that it was beyond the Light of those assembled to apply to electronic realms. Suppose for instance, that Conflict is a Gift of God Friend were to arm-wrestle RantWoman for task of clerking the Still Didn't Get the Memo Committee on Email Immoderation. Just suppose?

But Never Mind. RantWoman does tartly note progress in her (and Conflict is a Gift of GOD Friend's) Monthly Meeting over a number of years about released friend minute attention to basics such as appropriate cycles for renewing such documents.

In the present case, Conversation with Conflict is a Gift of God Friend himself reveals suggestions from several quarters that he post documentation of his status in some way on Facebook. Conflict is a Gift of God Friend proposed to post gifs of assembled and translated documents along with endorsements. He awaits time and technical assistance to accomplish this. RantWoman will speak to the most tech-savvy member of Conflict Is a Gift of God Friend's support committee. By tech-savvy, RantWoman means knows way around spreadsheets for work-related reasons and regularly posts on Facebook. RantWoman thinks it should not be a giant stretch from here to do what is needed.

Accessibility note: RantWoman will feel entitled to whine on principle about gifs of relevant documents. Then RantWoman will shut up and rely on her screen reader's OCR function for everything except the handwritten endorsements! See RantWoman COPE!

And in case RantWoman and God cannot between then get it together to COPE, a lovely prayer via Facebook from a Cuban Friend for Conflict is a Gift of God Friend's most recent travels.

(Amiga Cubana) Mi hermano, querido (Amigo) ,que Dios sea contigo durante este mes en que ministras a los Amig@s en esos lugares. Que te de sabiduría de palabra y humildad de espíritu al compartir los dones que provienen de lo alto. Que la Paz del Señor sea siempre contigo. Estaré pensando y orando en y por tí. Va un fuerte abrazo.