Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War: Book event April 28, Seattle Public Library

RantWoman heartily endorses this event even though this blog already also contains another event calendared for the same evening:

Syrian-British writers Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami will discuss their new book Burning  Country: Syrians in Revolution and War.

Thursday, April 28, 2016
at 7:00 PM in PDT
Seattle Public Library
Central Library,
1000 4th Ave,
Seattle, Washington 98104

This event is co-presented by the Elliott Bay Book Company and will be held at the Seattle Public Library (1000 Fourth Ave.) Level 4, Room 1. It is free of charge and open to the public.

Leila Al-Shami writes a blog on popular struggles, human rights and social justice from an anti-authoritarian perspective.

About the authors:

Robin Yassin-Kassab is a regular media commentator on Syria and the Middle East. He is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus (Hamish Hamilton, 2008) and a contributor to Syria Speaks (Saqi, 2014).

Leila Al-Shami has worked with the human rights movement in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. She was a founding member of Tahrir-ICN, a network that aimed to connect anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Leila Al-Shami says:

I have both Arab and European roots, straddling two worlds and belonging in neither.

I’ve been involved in human rights and social justice struggles in the Middle East since 2001.

I’m a founding member of Tahrir-ICN a network that aims to connect anti-authoritarian struggles across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Leila's blog:
a blog on popular struggles, human rights and social justice from an anti-authoritarian perspective

https://leilashami.wordpress.com/

Syrian-British writers Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami will discuss their new book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, which the journalist Hassan Hassan says is "poised to become the definitive book not only on the continuing Syrian conflict but on the country and its society as a whole."

Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare. It explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others...

Some collected links remembering Bonnie Tinker

http://www.glapn.org/6323BonnieTinker.html

http://onequakertake.blogspot.com/2009/07/bonnie-tinkers-lessons.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2009/07/bonnie-tinker.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2009/07/surviving-wife.html

Another reflection: when my 8th grade history teacher passed away his
obituary talked about some media interview where he was asked
something about most significant Supreme Court cases. He mentioned
Brown vs Board of Education and also Tinker V DesMoines a case brought
with Bonnie's older brother Paul, now Paul TinkerHEss as lead
plaintiff.
My funny memory of Bonnie is the year NPYM minuted support of
same-gender marriage and full legal marriage equality. Bonnie and I
ducked out of the queer quakers eating ice cream and went off to my
room to finish word-smithing the minute that needed to come to
Business Meeting the next day.

The State of Society as Stood Aside From

[2016 State of the Society Report, as approved in Meeting for Business with RantWoman standing aside and requesting that the report be held over for further work, with multiple other Friends expressing unity with RantWoman’s views after the close of Meeting for Business.The report is not due until April. RantWoman notes a desire that edits not make the report longer than it currently is, approximately 987 words. Do urls count? How about Twitter handles?  Hashtags? Never mind. Further editorial comment left to UFM's bedbugs separately. The bedbugs do sincerely wish to thank God Almighty for the ABUNDANT data  the seasoning process offered to feed RantWoman's Show me don't just tell me Inner Editor. Possibly no one but the bedbugs realize that RantWoman even has an inner editor. Hold that point in the Light!  ]

University Friends Meeting 2016 State of the Society Report - Draft

We are a large, urban meeting, diverse in our personal theologies, length of Quaker experience, and expectations of community. Our size means we can take on many ministries and activities. It also brings challenges: our many visitors and new attenders are not always fully welcomed. We struggle with issues of privilege, class, and race. We often find ourselves overextended.

Before all else we are a spiritual community. Our mission is to nurture each other into our best, spirit-led selves and into the work to which we are called. Each of us needs to take up this challenging task. Many formal and informal activities at UFM contribute. Several members who are current students or graduates of Way of the Spirit bring the fruits of that work that to our community, as well as deepening our connections to programmed Friends.

Adults are nurtured by worship, vital and well-attended adult religious education sessions, and by our pastoral care committees. Many adults contribute to the spiritual nurture of the children and teens as teachers, mentors, and a caring adult presence. We do struggle to meet their needs across all age groups and especially for the middle school age who begin to drift away from First Day School. There is a long standing monthly regional gathering of Junior Friends (high school), and a newly-begun similar gathering of Central Friends (middle school). Together with South Seattle Meeting and Salmon Bay Meeting we support quarterly Sunday joint meetings for the nurture of Quaker families.

Worship remains the heart of the meeting and our great blessing. Meetings for worship are often deeply centered and endowed with rich vocal ministry. Many experienced Friends uphold the worship and vocal ministry. Our three weekly meetings for worship each have their own character. The small Wednesday evening meeting is valued by its attenders. At 9:30 on Sundays 20 - 30 gather in a close community for worship that is rich in silence. The 11:00 meeting is much larger, with many children joining us at the end of worship, frequent newcomers, and much vocal ministry. Particularly at the 11:00 meeting we note the challenge of discerning the difference between spirit-led vocal ministry and other types of messages.

We serve the UFM community, our local community, and the world. Our two structured ministries to our local community are the 24 year old QuEST program which places six or seven recent college graduates into a year of service in organizations with Quaker values, and our nine year old SHARE shelter, which provides a dry safe sleeping place for homeless individuals in our worship room. This year the possibility of affiliating QuEST with Quaker Voluntary Service led us to a period of active discernment about the relationship between QuEST and the relatively new Quaker Voluntary Service. We have not reached a conclusion but have been influenced by the process to strengthen the QuEST relationship to other meetings in Seattle and build stronger experiences for QuEST fellows. As the homeless population in Seattle grows rapidly our SHARE shelter continues to provide a nightly haven for about 20 people. We are grateful for the opportunity to get to know these folks and feel especially enriched on holidays such as Thanksgiving when our two communities come together.

Several members of UFM are called to leadership in broader Quaker organizations. We feel fortunate to have, among our members, deep Quaker experience that we can lend to the world, but we also see the reduction in energy and experience available to UFM itself. Like many meetings, we have difficulty filling all the positions on our committees. More worrisome is the serious difficulty we have finding Friends willing to assume clerking roles at UFM. We sometimes fail to bring the necessary level of practical and spiritual preparation to business meeting. Like many other meetings, we seek good ways to manage disruptive behavior so that everyone can contribute helpfully to our committees and business meetings.

Our buildings and grounds receive the good care of staff, members of the Facilities Committee, and individuals with a special gift for gardening with native plants. The costs of maintaining our aging buildings, neighborhood construction impacts, graffiti, and inadequate parking present challenges, however, our finances have been stable and healthy the last few years. Discerning our role in a rapidly changing neighborhood, how we can be better stewards of our facilities and how our ministries can better serve this changing community will be an important task for us in the coming years.

We nurture each other physically, emotionally, and spiritually through twice monthly light lunches, numerous and robust care committees, and clearness committees that assist Friends seeking discernment at significant life decision points. Members of the Friends Center Committee put considerable energy into Sunday morning social hour, light lunches, and holiday gatherings, especially the big Thanksgiving feast.

Several committees and numerous individuals are seeking ways to provide a more welcoming environment to new attenders and to help them integrate into the meeting. Improvements might be a step towards improving diversity. Integrating newcomers is a challenge as it is easy for someone to be ignored in a meeting as large as UFM. We recognize that diversity in our community of seekers is essential for us as a community and as individuals if we are to come to deeper understanding of the Truth, and see past our own limitations.

As of February 2016 we have 138 members. Since last June we have lost one member to death, one has resigned, one has transferred out, and seven missing members have been dropped from our rolls. We have welcomed one new member and two transfers into the meeting.

We understand from the Friends who attended the December 2015 consultation at Ben Lomond that other Western unprogrammed meetings face similar challenges to the ones we document in this report, and feel energized to hear about and learn from others' experiences and approaches to addressing these challenges.

Sex, Religion, Starbucks, Translation, Eldering

RantWoman has a neighbor who likes to talk about sex

 And religion

 In the lobby of our building

 Among people with whom it would not occur to rantWoman to discuss either sex or religion.

 Sometimes RantWoman deeply esteems this neighbor for this trait.

 

Recently this neighbor asked RantWoman, do you think God answers prayers?

 Yes definitely, but sometimes we do not necessarily like or understand the answers.

 

 And the Lord spake unto RantWoman?

 Um, noooo, but God definitely told RantWoman to go to Starbucks.

 

 

There is a Starbucks on the way from RantWoman’s bus stop to Meeting. Most of the time when thoughts of lattes rise enroute, RantWoman asks God whether the situation is just caffeine addiction and marketing.

 Most of the time God firmly reminds RantWoman that there generally is perfectly fine caffeine at Meeting and besides RantWoman should just contribute her latte budget to helping ensure that there is plenty of milk for others besides herself who like a little coffee with their milk.

 But this week, God definitely told RantWoman that to prepare for Business Meeting she needed to go to Starbucks, to eat a spinach foldover and enjoy a latte.

 RantWoman had already had one conversation about the point she was stuck on. RantWoman was trying to be at ease somewhere between “Trust…” and “Trust but Verify...” RantWoman was NOT succeeding.

 Munching at the spinach foldover, RantWoman to God, “Am I just being an egomaniacal bitch?”

 RantWoman, YOU decide about the egomaniacal bitch issue.

 You do in fact know quite a lot about the topic. You have earned part of your living doing various strands of work related to the topic. You are WAY more likely than other people involved in the process to have personal contact with people receiving the output from the process.

 Yes, and …completely shut out of …otherwise…

 RANTWOMAN, you were true to your Light about concerns (and mutual support!) not uncommon in the work processes of those who shepherd meaning back and forth between languages. You jumped up and down very hard. You WERE listened to. You know you were listened to both because Conflict is a Gift of God Friend bitched MIGHTILY and because another Friend shared data you would not have minded being wrong about.

If you were shut out of one moment, you are NOT RESPONSIBLE if the results of others’ efforts were less than perfect. Plus, just because Conflict is a Gift of God Friend bitched does not mean you should try to evaluate without reading…

Yes, but these particular documents go out in the name of the whole Meeting. Some of the rest of us will likely be called to carry and share work going forward. Besides if we are supporting a ministry well, the minister should not have to translate his own travelling minutes.

RANTWOMAN, you know all those junior staffers you go to meetings with? The ones dealing for the first time in their careers with language access issues in this multicultural city? The ones whose first thought is to Google translate their flyers and whose second thought is MAYBE they can listen to members of various communities particularly when the various communities say “forget all that paper and give us live competent humans.” This situation is definitely not just Google translate in the first place but it’s definitely like junior staffers learning something new. In the second place, can you please somehow for once in your slightly less interpersonal finesse than a Brillo pad life just BE GENTLE with people?

Ummmm…

 

Business Meeting got VERY interesting.

RantWoman was given many words of testimony on target except, peace testimony and all, “on target” might not be the best metaphor.

Discussion meandered toward ministry within our Yearly Meeting. Not so many translation issues for sure.

Somewhere in there, MUCH truth telling occurred. A newcomer reportedly expressed admiration for the honesty.

Progress was made in the realm of steps to move forward efforts where timeliness is an issue.

Language emerged about “always in presence of an elder.” And thanks to RantWoman reading subsequent email, RantWoman now also has the opportunity to promote and test understandings of “always in the presence of an elder” when gadding about in the electronic realms of Quakerdom. Hold that testing in the Light, especially since RantWoman really wants to TRY to let others tend for the moment.***

 

***And yes, dear readers, RantWoman reminds her public that this is blogging as Quaker journal, for better or worse 100% free of recognizable elder presence. Hold that point in the Light.

EVENT: The Prison Experience in WA

“Ain’t nothin’ easy ‘bout livin’ in a cage”

 

The Prison Experience in Washington

April 28, 7-9 p.m.

University Friends Meeting

4001 9th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA,  98105

 

 We live in an age of mass incarceration unprecedented in human history. If you’ve ever wondered what that looks like in our own blue state of Washington, please join us on April 28.  Dr. Steve Herbert from the UW’s School of Law, Societies, and Justice will sketch the historic and international context for us. Then a panel of four former prisoners will talk frankly with the audience about life in prison—their daily lives, their fears, their successes and failures, prison’s impact on their families, and their recommendations for change.

 

We’ll leave two hours later with a better understanding of the human face of our prison system, and more importantly, ideas about four crucial policies changes that can happen in the next legislative session if we start working now:

 

1) change the mission of the Department of Corrections from punishment to reintegration

2) create an independent ombuds office to oversee the DOC

3) restore higher education funding for prisons

4) create a sentence review (parole) program.

 

For more information about the event or about carpooling options from outside Seattle, please leave a comment with your question.

74 Years ago a terrible thing happened on Bainbridge Island

Blog as filing cabinet item regarding the start of the actual deportations of Japanese Americans  inland under Executive Order 9066
http://seattlish.com/post/141959666340/74-years-ago-today-a-terrible-thing-happened-on

PARKING: "Mobility impaired" vis "disabled"

In case anyone wonders why RantWoman keeps standing aside from all kinds of things, repeatedly offering help even when help is repeatedly turned down, being insufferably true to her Light and generously spreading consternation in as many ways as possible, here is another example, "mobility impaired" parking as distinguished from commonly understood "Disabled Parking / Handicapped Parking."

A new announcement as it appears in the Weekly Bulletin after being announced in Business Meeting as a decision after the fact, not including a request for input that might have changed the decision. Hint: ask for input BEFORE you order the signs!

NEW RESERVED PARKING FOR THE MOBILITY IMPAIRED. We have installed four new Reserved Parking signs in our parking lot in spaces near to the Meetinghouse. These spaces are now reserved on Sundays from 10:45 to 2 pm for the mobility impaired. These are not state designated handicapped spaces, but rather our effort to increase access to the building for people who use canes, walkers, wheelchairs, or who need to minimize the distance they walk. If you think this applies to you, then please use these spaces, as the system is based on self-definition andis self-monitored.

Construction is occurring near the Meetinghouse. Parking is a mess for everyone. especially people with mobility limitations. There are people who are not coming to Meeting because of parking problems. RantWoman is not in that number. RantWoman continues to get around mainly in the chauffeur-driven limousines operated by King County Metro though thanks to #Ulink2016 and the latest Metro shakeup, #bus2link, RantWoman gets to babble a lot about public transit but that is a different problem.

RantWoman's Light on the parking places issue and the announcement as digested from email and phone calls.

Reserved Parking
State Disabled
Parking Permit
Required
 

--"State-designated Disabled Parking Spaces" RantWoman supposes there are some state or local code issues defining minimum number and characteristics of disabled parking Spaces for different categories of buildings. Honestly, RantWoman likes to hear reference to stuff like this in Business Meeting because RantWoman appreciates knowing that relevant committees have a handle on the right issues. RantWoman can get along without this info for now mainly because of other data.

--RantWoman would not have minded a verbal description of the new signage in business Meeting  because she can imagine needing to direct people to the designated spots. RantWoman has since located the new signage and has no further comment.

But never mind that for now. RantWoman thinks that if everyone at Meeting who, RantWoman is just guessing, probably fully qualifies for a disabled parking permit had one and displayed it when parking in our parking lot, Meeting might realize that at least on Sunday morning there is way more need for disabled parking than there are officially designated disabled parking spaces.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, RantWoman also knows that there are ways to designate temporary disabled parking spaces, ways such as parking meter bags. RantWoman thinks this point would be highly topical for the limited time window when Meeting regularly needs more disabled parking places than it probably does the rest of the week. That is the parking spaces. Now for the people.

"People who use canes, walkers, wheelchairs, or who need to minimize the distance they walk"...(not to mention other people who have hidden disabilities..).?

--Why those sound like the very same EXACT people who probably qualify for a Disabled Parking Permit and who MIGHT, maybe possibly benefit in other parts of their life from having one as well!

--RantWoman had a conversation with one Friend who thought it would be MUCH too forward to suggest to anyone that maybe, possibly, they might qualify for, benefit from, really, really need a disabled permit.

--RantWoman shared her discernment about the issue and herself: RantWoman can bloody well walk. RantWoman really really needs regular exercise. BUT RantWoman goes about sometimes with people who a. really like parking garages, an element of infrastructure RantWoman is NOT well-disposed toward, and b. are lousy sighted guides whose arms RantWoman would NOT take. So possibly for the safety of RantWoman and others, RantWoman COULD think about getting a disabled parking placard. RantWoman will continue to think about this.

--RantWoman had an email exchange and learned that one specific Friend already has a permit. RantWoman implied also a community awareness point about the process of applying and why one would or would find permits beneficial, but the email covered only one person.



Individual placard

--Disabled Parking Permits come in two forms, a license plate and a placard that people can hang on their rearview mirror or lay on their dashboards.

--A disabled parking placard is a commonly understood clue with
commonly understood rules. Sometimes for everyone's sanity it works
best to use rules everyone is supposed to understand rather than
making up something just because we are Quakers and we are special. This also seems on-point in the event that say newcomers with actual disabled parking permits show up and want to park near Meeting as well.

--Should anyone feel the slightest inclination to look up further information about applying for disabled parking permits, the link to do that is
http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/parkingget.html

RantWoman does not even apologize for feeling highly motivated to spam the entire committee who announced the decision. At this point, RantWoman has much else exercising her but does specifically mean to plant some ideas because the parking situation WILL continue to evolve. And yes, this post has a certain boring engineering count things and fit them into space and other parameters aspect. Cope.

and furthermore, one more thing or maybe more than one:
--RantWoman would love to be able to deliver smooches of gratitude to someone else for providing this information or signs of interacting with this information instead of having to look it up and assemble graphics her own dang self.

--RantWoman deeply humbly thanks those near and dear to her in Meeting for so many opportunities to try to be centered about all such vexations because the rest of RantWoman's life ALSO abounds in opportunities to speak about the very same issues! Good Thang there's...WORSHIP!