Meeting for Sufferings with concern for Myanmar Tuesday 3/16.

 As many Friends probably know, Myanmar has had a very difficult six weeks. See for instance NPR reporting on the Coup in Myanmar

Friends in Davis, California will host a Zoom-based Meeting for Sufferings, this time an opportunity for Friends to both worship together and share information about how we can be of service to the people of Myanmar. The Meeting will be this coming Tuesday evening, 16 March, 6-7:30 pm Pacific time. 

Friends who would like to participate can request the Zoom link from Rebecca Ambrose rcambrose@ucdavis.edu

T. Vail Palmer Memorial Signup and Obituary

 RantWoman again reminds readers of the memorial on Saturday March 13 at 11 am for Quaker Theologian T. Vail Palmer.

This link makes relevant points about this weighty Friend much better than RantWoman can.

Obituary and Sign up for T Vail Palmer memorial

RantWoman testimony on memorials, especially for young Friends imagining different versions of elders: People come to Quakerism lots of ways and the Quaker tree has several distinctive branches. sometimes as with weighty Friends it can be very instructional to go to a memorial and just sit with the mix of history and theology that comes up. So consider signing up and if someone asks why, tell them RantWoman sent you.

RantWoman also feels very seen. Look what got posted on Twitter on Sunday.

Meetinghouse BP (@MeetinghouseBP) tweeted at 9:05 AM on Sun, Mar 07, 2021:
News of Quaker theologian T Vail Palmer's passing came to rantWoman via Twitter while RantWoman was attending a Ben Lomond center virtual workshop about Quakers and the Internet. https://t.co/NKZik5ppPH
(https://twitter.com/MeetinghouseBP/status/1368608638240231425?s=03)

RantWoman has more to say about Quaker materials, access, and other possibly heretical meditations but not here and not now,

How Racism Harms White People: Drained Pool Politics

 

RantWoman will be tagging anything involving the voices of women #WomensHistoryMonth

Megan McGee, self-proclaimed policy nerd and author of 

CNN Interview

And a story similar to the ones cited in the book.

I have followed Heather McGee even before her book and I totally AGREE with this concept.   In Kansas City, MO we had ONE amusement park when I was growing up ...

but want to share this with you.   I studied African American studies when I was in college because I was so angry that schools hadn't taught any of that to me when I grew up, and I had come from a very bigoted family (and was pretty much ostrasized for my own beliefs, which

were that people are wonderful, no matter their skin color, beliefs, sexual orientation, etc.,   So when we were growing up, there was a small Black community and our high school class was the first integrated class.  My last name was Robbins before I was married, and I had the

good fortune to share a gym locker with the only other Black female student in our class, because her name was Joan Robinson.  Joan and I became friends in school.  I knew I could never invite her to MY house, of course.  She wouldn't have been welcome.  But she and I knew

we shared many values, and we laughed together.  She dated one of the other REALLY nice black kids in our class, and at the end of our junior year, he was voted the boy most likely to succeed.   I say this to lay the groundwork to tell you that on the other side of the fence was this

story.   We lived in the smaller town of Independence, MO.  (I don't know the population, but in Kansas City, there was one large amusement park in those days called "Fairyland Park"...with Ferris wheel, big old wooden rollercoaster (this is back in the early 1950's, all kinds of rides,

fun houses with mirrors and the like, and it was always a special treat for us to have a big group of our teenage kids get to go to Fairyland Park for special occasions.   Never ONCE did it occur to me that my BLACK friends (or any other people of color were not allowed at this facility!

As a kid in the 1950's, I was too busy having FUN to even notice that not everyone was able to be included. (shamefully)   I did not know this until JUST THIS YEAR!  Finally, in the 1960's, a group of  People of Color protested, and the owners of Fairyland Park CLOSED THE DOORS

so NO ONE ever entered the park again!     It made me think of all the other facilities we had gone to as teens where we'd had so much "fun" but we had been oblivious to the fact that none of our Black and Brown friends were there.    And so today, (now I live in Phoenix, but it still hurts

me to think that perhaps the malt shops we frequented, the hamburger joints, the movie theaters, the rollerskating rinks, and so many other places WERE DISCRIMINATING.....and many STILL ARE!    We all have to be aware of this, and make sure that the people who are open for

business are open for business to EVERYONE.....  Heather McGee is absolutely correct with the premise of her book.  No one in business should be able to get by with only serving SOME people.  When I was a waitress, I wrote down orders for customers who could not speak, and though

I could not sign, I found people who could, and we always found a way to HELP people, not turn them away....  There is never a way for HATE....   And if we give into it here, our country will perish.....  

Mountains, meditations, service, and forgiveness pro and con

WHY?

RantWoman WHY are you posting these links TOGETHER?

1. They are true to many themes on RantWoman's mind.

2. There is a difference between digesting ideas with good oral or written conversation and fitting one's Light into the preferred 30-second messages of some Friends around RantWoman.

3. Pope Francis is in Iraq promoting interfaith dialogue. RantWoman generally considers interfaith dialogue a good thing, no matter how many other questions might be swirling around a person or an institution.

Read on for more.

And WHY do you insist on tagging the post #Women's History Month???

The short answer: there are some inspiring female figures here. There is an article that calls itself feminist and that reminds RantWoman why feminism needs to be a big tent. Also not every moment of women's history is glorious and inspiring and part of women's history is what women deal with on an ongoing basis.

Flashback? How far back?

Flashback Friday 100th Anniversary of Mt Rainier and Featuring Floyd Schmoe

Floyd Schmoe was a founder of UFM. At the time of this interview he was older than Mt. Rainier National Park. He died in 2001 at the age of 105.

It would be catty to post the details of what this story has to do with #WomensHistoryMonth

Old Stranger item about Seattle's Best Christians

WARNING: there is cringe-worthy  mention of a now-disgraced politician. RantWoman has no basis for any opinion about what anyone should write now about this individual and faith.

Aside from the admirable struggles and service chronicled here, RantWoman did her customary count names and measure space exercises.  The Stranger article mentions 3 men and 2 women. Each man gets considerably more space than either woman. 

In case anyone has missed a generational theme, 

Radical Discipleship Dreaming a World to Come

A letter to young activists

RantWoman thinks some of the language here might have spoken to Friend Floyd.

Feminist Killjoys on apologies

Apologies for Harm Apologies as Harm

Happy Reading. Thoughts? Comments? Questions?

Apropos of Homelessness

RantWoman awhile ago heeded a call to deliver, unsolicited, some questions to a younger Friend by email. RantWoman assured the young Friend that she was heeding a call to deliver but did not have any specific expectations of results. RantWoman has been gratified to see seeds sprouting over time from that exchange.

Resources anyone?

With that in mind, RantWoman is heeding an inner call to deliver some contributions to discussion about homelessness.

 

Bill Radtke The Record several segments about homeless issues

One of RantWoman's consistent go-to journalistic sources about homelessness issues is Erica C Barnett.

Here is an article from May 2020 that covers many homelessness related issues.

May 2020 article on REACH programs

Also presently, find Erica at Publicola.com and on Twitter at @EricaCBarnet

Does anyone besides RantWoman care about bus benches and grafitti?

Grafitti and a bus bench

The Light Rail is Coming.

    And finally, lest anyone forget that a new Light Rail Station is opening near UFM in SEPTEMBER 2021 (Are we ready?)a slightly edited version of an email RantWoman fed into the work of Quaker Voice:

This item overlaps with economic justice and criminal justice. I am passing it along in case anyone has time / capacity to monitor. and decide whether any alerts would be helpful.

Via Twitter from Rep. Fitzgibbons   

House voted 96 to 1 to pass my bill HB 1301, allowing @SoundTransit to develop a non-judicial system to resolve fare evasion citations. When @kcmetrobus did this, they got a system that's more effective, sees less fare evasion, and resolves more citations than before. #waleg

RantWoman:

For background at some point King County Metro or someone in the county audited all the citations issued for fare evasion on Metro buses. Probably to no one's surprise, the vast majority of the

citations were issued to people living unhoused; and a very low percentage of the fines were ever collected. So Metro switched to a program of the formmerly fare enforcement staff emphasizing paths to help rather than fines of something like $194.

To me it's a no-brainer that the Senate should allow SoundTransit to do as Metro has done. I have no read on whether there might be howls of protests from the suburban afraid of light rail anyway crowd particularly places north and east of Seattle set to get new stations and service in the next few years.

FWIW also, perception of safety is one key driver of whether people who have the choice about travel method are willing to get out of their cars and on to transit.

Questions to consider

What does it mean to be a good neighbor either in UFM standards or for others?

Where might be some points of conflict besides p-p-p-arking?

What is within our Light and capacity to do?

 
Invitation!

Okay RantWoman, what to you would indicate that people have interacted with many topics raised here?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING!

Leave a comment. Post questions for discussion.

Will word reach RantWoman of what themes might emerge from discussion?

"How The British Took Over India" - TREVOR NOAH (from "Afraid Of The Dar...

RantWoman is delighted by two things in this video

--the theological worlds in collision

--the sounds of laughter indicating that there was a live audience.

This video is a much younger Trevor Noah. RantWoman needs laughter and acknowledgment of worlds in collision.

Marianne Kaba prison abolitionist

 

The inspiration for today's #WomensHistoryMonth moment

"I very carefully and deliberately choose how I'm going to show up in the world. I always want to make sure I'm always opening the door for other people" 

Marianne Kaba Wants Us to Imagine a World Without Prisons