Vocabulary: Sometimes people GET IT but Uprooting Racism--While practicing Ableism?

RantWoman wavered about timing for this post. However since this year's theme for dabbling in matters of Hanukkah is persistent Light, RantWoman has decided to go ahead and post it.

RantWoman humbly acknowledges that finding the right path to phone conversation MIGHT be on point here. Please all just hold that problem in the Light. This post reflects things RantWoman feels called to say to anyone who will listen but that RantWoman may not be able to get out of her mouth as directly as she can splatter all over a keyboard.. The post also contains content highly relevant to any Ad-Hoc Committee on Disability that at some point WILL get created. And even though RantWoman would find it frightenly easy just to let her head explode, RantWoman will be TRYING to make sense and not just have a good fit for the holidays. RantWoman will be TRYING.

RantWoman's Meeting thinks it has released itself from RantWoman. One person uses the word "divorce;"  RantWoman would tartly point out that divorce still frequently means shared custody of the planet, common history, and of a future.

RantWoman's Meeting cannot possibly release RantWoman from moral obligation to be faithful to her Light, to attend to Quaker testimonies including continuing revelation about basic terminology related to accessibility. Nor has RantWoman been released from a call to worship in the community and desire to come promptly to a shared understanding about this.

RantWoman's email contains several threads that fill her with DESPAIR. Out of care for her own holiday sanity, RantWoman is trying not to dump the whole sleigh out at once. RantWoman does note word reached her that the last Meeting for Business  approved a minute creating an Ad Hoc committee on Disability, to last a year from whenever Nominating Committee gets around to nominating a committee. The language of the minute is VERY boiled down. RantWoman considers that a problem, but Santa Claus physics or not, that topic gets to stay in the sleigh for another day or two. One clear task though: discuss what has worked and what has not.

Consider the humble monthly newsletter, which RantWoman is not reproducing in its entirety here.

RantWoman has for a long time had a standing reasonable accommodations request to have newsletter editors use headings on all articles in the newsletter. RantWoman has not pushed this request very hard with past newsletter editors but is disappointed that the current editor has fallen away from initial success in this area. RantWoman deeply appreciates the current editor's service and wants as gently as possible to encourage improvement. RantWoman does not want to speculate on what parts of the document preparation process get in the way of document accessibility happening on a consistent basis.

In the most recent issue, two things were odd:

--There is a list of articles at the beginning. The titles run over several lines in a column but instead of one heading per title, each line is its own heading. Not catastrophic because RantWoman and her screen reader can still skip fairly quickly over the extra headings, but kind of a nuisance.

--Bigger nuisance, one article had a title in the same font as other articles but was not marked as a heading. RantWoman reproduces the article below as an additional opportunity for Friends to explore important terminology.

UPROOTING RACISM BOOK GROUP BEGINS FEBRUARY Starting February 2, 2020, Peace and Social Concerns will host a monthly book group on uprooting racism. The group will run initially for six months on the first Sunday of the month from 12:30PM to 2:00PM in the First Day School Room.*** We will usually read one book each month, all of which will be available from either the Seattle Public Library or King County Library in various formats.***** Some titles will also be available to borrow from the UFM library. The topics will include white privilege, white supremacy culture, the impact of racism on specific communities of color in the United States and uprooting racism. The first book we’ll read is Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving, Elephant Press 2014. After that, the participants will select future titles from a curated syllabus, and we’ll publish the complete list in Gleamings and post on our website.   Each session will be open to everyone whether or not you plan to attend them all. Questions? (leave a comment and RantWoman will forward because she has not asked permission to post the contact info)

***Remember one of RantWoman's gripes about the Care and Accountability Committee wanting RantWoman to go hide in places physically inaccessible to people RantWoman might want to have sit with her including her own sister? The First Day School Room is one such place. If someone who uses a wheelchair wanted to participate in this book group, would the group consider a different location? There are several points in RantWoman's thinking about this question. Stay tuned.

****"several formats!!!!" Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Someone familiar with the concept of multiple formats and getting such from libraries. Now if only the person correctly considering this term did not insist on wanting RantWoman Gone Gone Gone from Meeting life. Please hold the entire fiasco in the Light.

*****RantWoman feels particular call about general Uprooting Racism conversations for one thing because RantWoman is also called to pay attention to matters of intersectionality, including some encapsulated by the various hashtags such as #DisabilityTooWhite.

Consider also the electronic edition of Faith and Practice, delivered in a format accessible to RantWoman only AFTER.... Stay tuned about that issue as well.

In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman