Renaming? Righteousness? Dlscenment

Muddling and Complacency?

 

RantWoman is still sitting with her twitch about what to do with certain committee names—besides get rid of the dreaded O word.

 

On one hand, for the next few weeks to live out testimonies on Integrity, Equality, Community RantWoman feels called to urge everyone she knows to factcheck EVERYTHING and amplify the voices of people bearing the worst ravages of the current regime, to reach out beyond our bubbles, to encourage people all over the country to get out and vote, to know what voter suppression efforts are going on and to do everything possible to counteract them.

 

On the other hand, the renaming of a certain committee was delegated to said committee without suggestion to consult the Peace and Social Concerns committee or whatever the Ad-Hoc Committee on eradicating Racism is called. A timeline for making a decision is approaching. RantWoman has NO, zip ZERO leading to attend the meeting where a recommendation is expected to be approved. So RantWoman may just have to live at least for now with whatever decision emerges. (SIGH! Whine. Grumble! Murmur!) But RantWoman deeply wishes someone else might also be afflicted with RantWoman’s twitches to:

 

1. Think about what the words of a chosen name have meant historically and what they mean or conceal today. (Hint: changing a committee name alone does not win the battle for equality and against white supremacy / racism.)
2. Think about what message we want to be sending out into the world in choosing a new name.

 

RantWoman in fact prefers to think she would be perfectly fine with just leaving the committee name “The ? Committee” for now while friends are discerning. RantWoman says this in great humility because besides, the twitch above about witness and the midterm elections, RantWoman has lalmost no bandwidth just now to research and wordsmith about what other Yearly Meetings call said committee.

 

One reason RantWoman has no leading to show up at the meeting where the committee renaming is on the agenda: RantWoman will be attending a memorial for someone RantWoman has previously labelled Righteous Anger Friend. Righteous Anger Friend and his wonderful bride Mrs. Righteous Anger friend moved to Seattle partly, RantWoman has surmised, because of magnetic grandchildren—and their parents.

 

The couple earns RantWoman’s boundless respect though because they showed up every year until illness stole their ability to do so at Seattle’s annual Martin Luther King Day celebration, not something just every retired professor couple even thinks of doing.  In terms of people discovering our Meeting at many different stages of life, Righteous Anger Friend makes RantWoman smile. He did not feel particularly called to master the nuances of Quakerese. Instead one of his favorite comments was “My Spirituality is Music, Art, and Revolution!”

 

In that spirit, RantWoman is unclear how best to Let Our Lives Speak particularly as regards the name of certain (quarterly and yearly meeting) committees. Let the discernment continue?

 

 

 

[Yes, readers, RantWoman has fallen down on her promise to deliver daily disability related resources. Readers into the Twitter are invited to look up RantWoman’s Twitter name, read the Disability and Accessibility lists, check out any of the blogs mentioned in the profiles of people on these lists. Readers can also try the hashtags #CripTheVote #CripLit #PWD #DisabilityInChurch. That is enough or even too much for one day.[

The Dreaded O word again

Friends in the vicinity of RantWoman are in the process of renaming the committees now called Ministry and Oversight in RantWoman’s quarterly and yearly meetings, and RantWoman is again overachieving on the insufferability front.

 

RantWoman’s problem this time: RantWoman admits to being fond of the wor Oversight in the sense of “oops, well” because the phrase just covers a lot that one might prefer not to have to deal with .However, RantWoman is fine with removing the dreaded O word in the name of reducing the harm of the word’s association with racial injustice. But as long as committees are being renamed in the name of racial justice, RantWoman would be terribly grateful if Friends can think about whatever words get used. Do not just rename the committees Ministry and Counsel because “all” the other Quaker kids do that. All that does is leave the naming with the same level of racism permeating the Religious Society of Friends.

 

 Instead, how about a thoughtful discussion of the history of the terms used, how meaing in Quaker context might be different from other faith concepts, how whatever name we choose speaks to a priesthood of all believers, being patterns and examples for the world, that of God within all… See, RantWoman is a word nerd. She can geek out all day about questions like this.

 

That is RantWoman used to be able to geek out all day about this kind of linguistic research. Now RantWoman cannot read for herself and has to prevail upon others in hope sthatthey will be seized by the same curiosity afflicting RantWoman or at least that hanging out with RantWoman will be enough fun to justify the afternoon. Okay this is RantWoman, so…

 

RantWoman appreciates people on the Facebook Quakers group who pointed RantWoman to a greek word that means bishop and that has been preserved with the word Oversight. RantWoman would find it interesting to hear Friends think about the meaning and history of whatever words are proposed for the committee name. RantWoman has no idea where to look. RantWoman may manage, grumpily, to live with whatever name(s) get proposed, but as RantWoman said, she would be delighted if some conversation goes a little more in depth first.

 

In Light and Faithfulness

Disabilities Awareness: U District Mobility Plan and Isn't it fun to think about pedestrian safety near Meeting

U district mobility plan released. Further thoughts from RantWoman pending.

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2018/10/disabilities-awareness-u-district.html

Disabilities Awareness: WONKY DONKEY SONG UNOFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

RantWoman was recently blessed via the interwebs with a stream of country music items. RantWoman definitely believes in the sort of God who can handle creatures like the donkey in this song. As for people who might have problems..., consider you-selfs held in the Light!




Alas, RantWoman might suggesting improving the accessibility of a video about a donkey like this as follows:

--Opening credits: either post them below the video on Youtube or include audio perhaps pointing to a link because probably most viewers will not care about all the detail. RantWoman on the other hand outrageously laments no longer being able to read every single line of the credits including all the funny jokes and film vocabulary if she wants to.

--The video needs audio description. RantWoman is very grateful to see some of the great visual touches but people unfamiliar with audio description in films can check out a service like 3PlayMedia which coincidentally just sent RantWOman this resource list:
https://www.3playmedia.com/resources/white-papers/wp-education-bundle/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpJM1ltTXpNbU14TTJKbSIsInQiOiI4YkJTak5oRTJyVGlIZVF3MXJyYTdhUlRxenpqQ3VrMlJCUjZvMmlqOGVSUFwvMGxSQTlPTUtcL0UyZXdpUHdjTVNuR2V6MVdnbjJyaGhSTzlWNExxcjZzT1NIaTNrcENCaUhzQnA5eVlqQzVKaFkrS2I4WjJ5eW1DNzI1TGdqWmZNIn0%3D

Disabilities Awareness Bookshare

One of the many content streams RantWoman can check when in search of things to read. Enough said for now. Whine about media, devices, screens and tactile options only in daylight I say.

Bookshare (@Bookshare) tweeted at 10:25 AM on Thu, Oct 04, 2018:
Bookshare recently added #ARoomAwayFromtheWolves by @novaren for young
adult readers. Read this book and many more in our accessible ebook library
of over 650,000+ titles. #bookshare #accessiblebooks #assistivetech
https://t.co/wdgnMy1cHG https://t.co/rTexegwm4v
(https://twitter.com/Bookshare/status/1047900548073021440?s=03)

Disabilities Awareness: Here we go again

Hark, National Disabilities (Employment) Awareness month #NDEAM has rolled around again.

Look world, EVERY MONTH is National Disabilities Awareness Month around Planet RantWoman.

However, awhile ago, like several years ago, RantWoman devoted a whole month to daily disability-related dispatches. RantWoman was, um, a seriously confrontational bitch about some of the topics that came up. The world survived.

Furthermore, RantWoman heard VERY little response at the time beyond what sounded to RantWoman like "shut up" from more than  one person from whom RantWoman considered it VERY inappropriate to hear "shut up." However, long after, RantWoman received feedback that someone found the many resources she presented VERY valuable.

With that in mind and with some spectacular examples on her mind of how NOT to do it, RantWoman again wades into National Disabilities Awareness Month.

Besides topics percolating in RantWoman's head, look for some resources culled from the profile info from people on a couple of RantWoman's Twitter lists.

RantWoman does not quite feel qualified by herself to venture into realms she is calling Bitch Goddess Bible Study, but these dispatches are likely to include  disability-related items from the Bible as well as whines about the ups and downs of RantWoman's various reading options.

RantWoman also promises more #DisabilityInChurch moments: RantWoman does NOT apologize to her beloved faith community but will strive to be firm in corrections and  affirming especially when things get done right. (Headings. Headings. Headings! Mentioning in the bleeping minutes that rantWoman is incredibly grateful for the headings. !!!)

Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode.

Republicans Need Jesus | The Daily Show

Tell anyone what to believe? Who, RantWoman? No. Instead RantWoman will let Trevor Noah's show do it for her.