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.[