RantWoman is NOT writing this year’s State of the Meeting
Report. RantWoman found the initial draft well-crafted. Humbly, as usual, RantWoman
found herself wanting to upset the careful crafting; RantWoman is also cross about
things that seem otherwise to RantWoman than they are presented in the State of
Society report. RantWoman reminds herself that she gets to suggest corrections.
Others get to suggest corrections, and the practice is on the second monthly
reading to accept the efforts of the drafters with gratitude.
Here were RantWoman’s suggestions, a couple notes added
after the initial email, with particular emphasis in a second email on the joy
of the FLGBTQC gathering including many steps inviting Friends to make access
needs known and a clear point of contact before the event for accessibility
requests. RantWoman is perfectly fine with the thought that she may be telling
too much of the truth about a number of hard realities and hard realities that
others want to lay at RantWoman’s feet. Suffice it to say, RantWoman has the
sort of versatile God that gets things done lots of different ways but many
many things need to be held in the Light.
Suggestions for the State of the Meeting Report.
RantWoman will keep to her practice of not posting the
entire draft State of Society report until it actually passes through Business
Meeting a second time. However, RantWoman is called to share a number of
suggested additions to her blog and the known universe. (RantWoman will also
check to see whether she has posted last year’s report. RantWoman remembers
something like “learning about ableism” in last year’s report; RantWoman
remembers thinking “Ableism? News to RantWoman?” But back to crafting this
year’s report, acknowledging no word limit on suggestions even though good
sense dictates that the State of Society Report should under NO circumstances
be longer than two sides of a page in a reasonably readable font.
The minimalist approach: Add the italicized changes below to
the draft:
● Volunteers modernized, organized, and decluttered our
library, clearing away older volumes and making room for new light, including the cataloging of a large-print
Bible for low-vision Friends who want actually to hold a book instead of
interacting with an electronic device. A new project is underway now to
create an electronic catalog of all library materials,
● Under new editors our monthly newsletter, Gleamings,
underwent a cosmetic redesign including
addition of headings to make it more readable for screen reader users. Submissions
have increased.
The minimalist approach as above plus one addition, with
disability content in italics:
·
In February our Meeting hosted a mini Midwinter
Gathering for FLGBTQC with the theme Have FUN. Friends came from 3 yearly
Meetings and several Monthly Meetings for a day of worship, crafts, food, fun
and variety show. An invitation at
Opening Worship to share access needs made it safe for Friends to speak of
things others might not even have thought about.
Look, RantWoman knows there needs to be a word limit if only
for the sake of readability. But RantWoman thinks it is never terrible to name
some of the things our worship is a bulwark against, kind of like this:
We strive to remain faithful to Light among us in the face
of many challenges:
·
Seattle is growing and its transportation
infrastructure badly needs to evolve to keep up with this growth. A region-wide
housing affordability crisis makes it difficult for many among us to find
stable housing and also makes for many heated public meetings and creates many
pressures for displacement.
·
We have been firmly reminded of ecological
crises: last summer brought several weeks of wildfire haze, with many days so
severe that people were advised to limit time outdoors. Images of an
undernourished mother orca carrying around her dead calf haunted us for many
days until the grieving whale was able to release her baby. This winter, we
lived through a once in about 10 years two-week long snow emergency.
·
As if we did not have enough challenges evoking
each other’s best selves, our national political mood assaults our souls,
conscience, and sometimes physical beings.
Cut straight to the chase. Add as SECOND paragraph
Version 1
A long ago moment when Nominating Committee declared
everything to do with disability off-topic for a Friend experiencing midlife
vision loss continues to haunt our community, most recently with an appointed
Care and Accountability committee for the same Friend that also thought its
charge did not include figuring out what does or does not work about matters of
disability. Currently a clearness committee is at work on a minute to create an
Ad-Hoc committee on Disability at UFM to hear Friends’ stories and cultivate
better mutual understanding.
Version 2
A long ago moment when Nominating Committee declared
everything to do with disability off-topic for a Friend experiencing midlife
vision loss continues to haunt our community, most recently with an appointed
Care and Accountability Committee for the same Friend that also thought its
charge did not include figuring out what does or does not work for that Friend
about matters of disability. Considering the number of former clerks of Quaker
everything flummoxed as we struggle to talk of these challenges, it has to be
okay that lots of other Friends are struggling too. We are gratified though
when people able to do many simple things turn out to be extremely helpful.
Currently a clearness committee is at work on an effort to create an Ad-Hoc
committee on Disability at UFM to hear Friends’ stories and cultivate better
mutual understanding.
Version 3, the fractal version in danger of having as many
characters as the entire rest of this post.
A long ago moment when Nominating Committee declared
everything to do with disability off-topic for a Friend experiencing midlife
vision loss continues to haunt our community, most recently with an appointed
Care and Accountability Committee for the same Friend that also thought its
charge did not include figuring out what does or does not work for that Friend
about matters of disability.
RantWoman notes and greatly appreciates many step s our
clerk took to try to recognize challenges of blindness in Business Meeting.
However, efforts actually to discuss a number of different disability issues in
Business meeting led to very colorful disruptions. There was no space for a perfectly
legitimate at least to RantWoman question about wheelchair access to homelessness
services provided by a new tenant. Another tangled discussion of minutes
degenerated with occurrence of the word “idiot.” See multiple references on
this blog. “Idiot” is certainly ableist language, and RantWoman is having the
same problem about that term as many disability justice advocates have about
words which may be used to characterize the current occupant of the White
House. A matter of physical safety also entered the picture and the result was
yet more distress, as well as lively ongoing dialogue involving “safety,”
eldering, and a number of other challenging concepts.
Considering the number of former clerks of Quaker everything
flummoxed as we struggle to talk of these challenges, it has to be okay that
lots of other Friends are struggling too. We are gratified though when people
able to do many simple things turn out to be extremely helpful. Currently a
clearness committee is at work on an effort to create an Ad-Hoc committee on
Disability at UFM to hear Friends’ stories and cultivate better mutual
understanding and better centered processes in Meeting for Business.
Change the paragraph here as suggested by the italics
This year, our meeting considered several issues related to
changes in our local community,
including a letter to the mayor and city council in opposition to the building
of a new youth jail in Seattle. This
proposal led to dialog within the meeting, but no action was taken. Friends approved a minute making the
connection between transportation changes in our area and the struggle to
address climate change as the U district Mobility Plan (related to a new Light
Rail station set to open in 2021) evolves.
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