Tearing oneself away from....and warming up for Annual Session

 This item has been gestating since March. Just stop there RantWoman.

Speaking (only partly)
of cycles of growth and renewal
as tended by
Nasturtiums in Salad Friend

RantWoman has been bathing herself more than is healthy in the muddied info streams that are war in the social media age. Rather than add half-digested commentary to the media glut though, RantWoman is going to take an early look at ...summer vacation, aka NPYM Annual Session, this year hybrid and moved from Missoula to Monmouth OR. RantWoman feels a separate rant coming on about hybrid but tonight RantWoman is going to offer a few off the cuff comments about items to be seasoned as currently shown at NPYM

RantWoman's initial draft probably needs to pass through a snark and sarcasm filter but in the event that does not occur before RantWoman hits Publish, PLEASE hold this in the Light.

And if the Snark and Sarcasm filters don't take, WILL RantWoman get to a voice of "Criticize to Lift Up, not to tear down."

Here we get to "RantWoman, are you just personally irritated by specific individuals and WHAT is needed to hold growth and learning????"

Okay, okay can we at least aim for "what will help nourish fruitful discussion before and at Annual Session?

Comments offered more or less in order of RantWoman's capacity quickly to say something concise and hopefully constructive.

1. GOOD ON YA to everyone connected with posting things IN FORMATS RANTWOMAN HAS THE TOOLS TO ENJOY and in time for people to read, reflect, and HOPEFULLY have more centered discussion than when everything is handled in a rapid-fire slam-bam who shot Sam rush either in person or in Zoom boxes.

2. Epistle Supporting Amending the 13th Amendment

RantWoman so wants just to celebrate the Light of the young Friends who have done the research behind this epistle. RantWoman wants Friends to consider carefully how to distribute this epistle and how Friends might take up the work this epistle hopes to evoke. RantWoman is VERY humble about "great idea" and "no, I personally cannot add very much work on it to my plate, but please receive the bearers well and listen attentively to their ideas."

3.Minute on Ending hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Excellent Quakerese. It is trite to say nobody ever asks for MORE hate crimes against anyone. RantWoman's bigger problem with this minute based on an informal RantWoman observational census of Asian American and bicultural families she is aware of in local communities is that the minute totally erases these Friends. RantWoman would like to ASK them what wording would matter and then to suggest some kind of addition about we stand with ... in our own Quaker communities and in the larger society. RantWoman does appreciate the specific ally behaviors suggested.

4. Minute in support of the Quaker Statement on Migration

Brief, precise about what action is requested and on-point. So how many hours can discussion take up in Meeting for Business? NO taking bets. Remember Quakers don't gamble.

5. Report of Earthcare Minute revision discussions

Again excellent Quakerese. Still, RantWoman is having some Quaker process hiccups. 

For one thing, RantWoman herself is all about saving the planet with better sidewalks, less driving and more urban greenspace. So far RantWoman has not sufficiently honed the kind of elevator speech that might easily be used to elicit more than blank stares from many people who advocate from a faith community perspective.  RantWoman admits to being a little insufferable in her zealotry about less driving, especially around people who drive more than is remotely fathomable to RantWoman and arrive at meetings all flustered and irritated because of terrible traffic they have just been out contributing to. RantWoman is grateful for some around her who have the gift to hear when RantWoman intones one of her mantras about "safe continuous travel routes for all modes."  RantWoman HOPES she has not reached abolitionist talking to slaveholder level of contentiousness but sometimes RantWoman surprises herself in such realms. This minute is not necessarily the vessel RantWoman would seek for talking about these challenges of hers. 

Next, the Friend who has offered to collect more thoughts a weighty Friend in many rolodexes as living commitment to nonviolence but this Friend is somehow missing important discussions in their own meeting. Although RantWoman is at present definitely not supposed to know or care about the life of this Friends Meeting, RantWoman specifically remembers said Meeting, in conjunction with the opening of new Light Rail stations in the neighborhood approving a minute embracing the new transportation developments as part of Earthcare, the battle against climate catastrophe, etc.  

RantWoman also remembers and invites Friends to find the 2018 or 2019 State of Society report from said Meeting speaking of great grief about the mother whale who carried her dead calf around on her head for weeks before finally doing whatever whales do to release their dead. 

And even before that, RantWoman has vague memory of that Meeting seasoning some kind of Green Congregation minute which disappeared into a minute book never to be heard of again until RantWoman brings it up NOW.

There is, of course, always room and urgency about doing more, more, more. Maybe, please, though, are we allowed to lay off the self-flagellation, honor work Friends are already doing, and see what next steps that might lead to?

6.DRAFT Minute in Support of Indigenous People

RantWoman, say it 10 times. What will help nurture discussion between now and annual session and / or beyond? What will help nurture discussion between now and annual session and / or beyond? What will help nurture discussion between now and annual session and / or beyond?

RantWoman, HOW much of what you are trying to say is personal irritation?

Can we maybe just let RantWoman go off and hold the needed seasoning in the Light?

Word has reached RantWoman, unsolicited and from multiple directions, of a tumultuous Meeting (for worship???) for Business in one Monthly Meeting  where voices who might have had something to contribute to the seasoning were silenced on threat of severe eldering. WTF??? (Okay, rantWoman is relieved to learn whatever tides are roiling organizational equilibrium do not only come from RantWoman. RantWoman is also invoking her much recorded experience seasoning a minute decades ago before the World Trade forum ministerial in Seattle: sometimes minutes that come before larger bodies do in fact come out rather differently than when they started.

How many indigenous elders have been consulted in formulating this minute?

But RantWoman aren't we supposed to work on educating ourselves before troubling those who are marginalized? 

Sure, if our only task is amusing each other without endeavoring to walk alongside people with lived experience or to use our privilege, or to care about doing what is most needed. RantWoman is thinking of a tweet she saw recently by a Black Woman "We asked you to stop killing us and you renamed the pancake mix"

Doctrine of Discovery? Arrrrgggh. RantWoman is not used to seasoning minutes that have entire bibliographies appended. RantWoman can easily fathom an action item in a minute that says "learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery and here are some suggested study materials. Renounce the Doctrine of Discovery??? RantWoman is having a time-warp problem. RantWoman most assuredly is NOT getting how renouncing something from centuries ago translates into doable action in this century.

Also, frankly, sometimes RantWoman needs to put specific faces to issues and minutes. As it happens, the interwebs have brought to RantWoman's attention a young fashion designer of Crow/ Northern Cheyenne heritage named Bethany Yellowtail. RantWoman commends a  journey to Wikipedia or via the search engine of one's choice.

Bethany Yellowtail Wikipedia

RantWoman especially thanks Wikipedia for the information that Ms. Yellowtail's Crow name means "Overcomes through Faith" and her Northern Cheyenne name means "Sun Road Woman."

Ms. Yellowtail's fashion design house currently has a problem about another fashion house copying her designs. RantWoman has no opinion about whether Ms. Yellowtail sits around thinking "Oh, I wish those Quakers would write another minute about the Doctrine of Discover when they could be standing up to help me protect my trademarks!"

RantWoman is having parallel thoughts about tracking the lives of missing and murdered indigenous wormen. Doctrine of WHAT now?

Speaking of discovery though, it seems entirely on point to speak somehow of the fresh awareness of past horrors now being revealed in the realm of "Indian Boarding Schools." RantWoman would like it if a minute wrestled in more detail with that history 

Proposal for P&SC working Groups

Clear structure and accountability. RantWoman has thoughts about one to add but does not think Peace and Social Concerns is the right place for it. RantWoman thinks any standing committee should have the right to create working groups.

There. Now RantWOman has spluttered the first raw chops salad of her thought across the internet. Now it is time to listen more deeply..

 Stay Tuned.