RantWoman is going to cut to the chase for Friends short on time or patience with peregrinations about RantWoman's spiritual compost heap:
Problematic Mentor Figure, known to many RantWoman readers needs to be held in the Light. He needs all the healing energy the universe can send him in whatever languages Friends deliver it. Last week he had two detached retinas, one that could easily be repaired with a laser pulse and one that sent him to the hospital overnight for the kind of treatment that mashes all the tissues around the eye, inserts a silicone band, blows in a gas bubble and will require him to keep his face down as much as possible for a couple weeks so the gas bubble will paste the retina back where it goes.
Mentor Figure can already read out of the lasered eye, and the gas bubble eye is doing about what is expected at this point. Mentor Figure definitely does not have the lifetime of eyevexations RantWoman has accumulated. RantWoman thanks a Friend she emailed with a separate question about service animals for pointing out that for the unitiated, this sort of experience is probably terrifying; RantWoman admits her own terrify-o-meter may be seriously out of kilter compared to others and some of the time manages to sit respectfually with this point in terms of what she expects of others. Some of the time, at least. RantWoman knows several people who have had very positive experiences with the gas bubble. Mentor Figure got help immediately instead of cluelessly walking around for weeks as RantWoman did and much looks positive, but in the meantime ....
RantWoman has been struggling some about how much elaborate detail to write of others' medical issues. Here, although RantWoman seriously means it about holding said Friend in prayers, RantWoman is basically self-centered and means quickly to resume examination of her own spiritual state with hopes that greater clarity for herself or something of value to others might emerge.
RantWoman has been there and done that, TWICE, once in each eye with the gas bubble thing. RantWoman has had a "Fire Photon Torpedoes" experience with opthalmological laser beams for soemthing else. All RantWoman wants to say is "OWWWWW!" or :Yuuuuccccck!" Unfortunately, the Owwwww comes freighted with a whole bunch of "can you top this?" narrative elements such as temporal juxtaposition with key roles in Quaker events, caregiving for ailing relatives, and assorted other familial and interpersonal super dork moments.
Even thinking about these past events makes RantWoman tired and they are really, really probably not what someone else wants to think about in the midst of a very bruised up face and vertigo from a gas bubble bouncing all over the place. This would be one reason to dump such in a blog to share with such as might interact and not necessarily drop them in the lap of any specific person. RantWoman supposes she might also be expected to summon gratitude for having come THROUGH all of these events. RantWoman is definitely not overdoing it on the Quakerly centeredness and gratitude front, though readers may be forgiven for stopping here and skipping the rest of RantWoman's excursion. It's not that RantWoman thinks the excursion is unimportant, but RantWoman will definitely find more occasions to get in people's faces.
RantWoman is going to take a slight break from digesting generalized Imago Dei thoughts over at http://walkingthesea.blogspot.com/ RantWoman is still banging at the peanut M&M metaphor where the peanut is the kernel of God within all of us. RantWoman's experience is that peanuts send some people she knows into anaphalactic shock. RantWoman means at some point to cavil elsewhere about the chocolate in this metaphor. In fact RantWoman is giving herself the option eventually of ditching the peanut M&M metaphor like a pair of rejected shoes at the shoe store. For now, RantWoman has decided she can go with the peanut thing for a bit: RantWoman is aware of many studies showing that blindness and vision loss are the most feared form of disability for many, many people. For instance RantWoman recently read an item noting that people in the US fear vision loss more than heart disease.
RantWoman has decided that she, speaking only for herself has no choice but to embrace this inner peanut, this nugget of god delivered in the form of realities fearsome enough to terrify many around her. For RantWoman's trouble she is getting to have lots of conversations of the form "This conversation is not about (a certain problematic mentor Figure). It's about RantWoman and RantWoman's realities. LISTEN TO ME!" Lonnnnng stupefied, very occasionally worshipful silence. "Ohhhh!"
Sometimes this is followed further by some other form of cluelessness or other circumstance sufficient to try the souls of much better Quakers than RantWoman. Sometimes RantWoman suspects she may have been doing too good a job a faking it about some or another problem or hiding the trial and error nature of her quest for the role of "well-adjusted blind person." Sometimes RantWoman gets to be grateful for direct unmediated cluelessness rather than third parties' patronizing speculations and pronouncements. Sometimes RantWoman would so like a different basket of gratitudes!
RantWoman is also still sitting on some opinions for which she has not come up with adequate English to Quakerese blogworthy formulations.
There remains a whole festering stewpot of personal and community life ISSUES RantWoman is poking through with due deliberation, definitely choosing to stay in the game which is probably incomprehensible to some observers.
But for now, there is the River of Peace. The river of peace in the title is from this entry http://forusa.org/blogs/leila-zand/river-peace remember the 30th anniversary of the Iran / Iraq war with a boatload of schoolkids full of hope for something better and in any case borne forward by a Spirit stronger than any single person's inner peanut alone.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Supporting and Grounding One Another In Our Ministries
On October 23, Marge Abbott will be leading one-day workshop called Supporting and Grounding One Another In Our Ministries: Committees for Clearness and Support, Peer Groups, and Spiritual Friendships at the Multnomah Monthly Meeting
Here is a direct link
http://www.multnomahfriends.org/oversight_workshop.php
RantWoman is interested. RantWoman is definitely interested. Perhaps that is enough said for now. RantWoman hopes everyone close who is interested will hurry up and get themselves signed up. This is because RantWoman considers Seattle sort of the far outskirts of "the Portland region," but RantWoman will happily work on the how of getting to take up a seat if there is space still available....
Here is a direct link
http://www.multnomahfriends.org/oversight_workshop.php
RantWoman is interested. RantWoman is definitely interested. Perhaps that is enough said for now. RantWoman hopes everyone close who is interested will hurry up and get themselves signed up. This is because RantWoman considers Seattle sort of the far outskirts of "the Portland region," but RantWoman will happily work on the how of getting to take up a seat if there is space still available....
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Most of WA and ID
Integrity is breaking out all over the place among the Friends around RantWoman. RantWoman thinks she is supposed to appreciate Quakerly attention to precision for example in naming our gatherings and the exercise of laboring under the concern for rightly ordered representing among Quakers and in the wider world, but so far RantWoman finds movements of Spirit around the question almost imperceptible. Perhaps RantWoman just needs more practice seeking.
RantWoman recently returned from the fall session of the Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting. RantWoman is grateful for respectable but not unlimited levels of sunshine, for flowing streams and clear air and gentle pace, and for many ways to renew and deepen ties among Friends. RantWoman has a lot else to say, but one thing at a time.
One of the items on the agenda at Meeting for Business was whether to change the name of this body. There are questions of geographical and temporal precision, as well as multiple pathways to confusion with other Friends bodies both in RantWoman's Yearly Meeting and another geographically overlapping but theologically distinct Yearly Meeting. The agenda featured only initial reports from Monthly Meetings but to say the least there is NOT unity:
Begin with the question of meeting frequency. Some Friends have no problem with the term Quarterly: while there are only two plenary sessions, fall and spring, each year winter adnd summer also involve a Continuing Committee meeting. Any darn fool who does not already have enough meetings in his or her life is welcome at Continuing Committee. RantWoman for instance is more than satisfied that these meetings add up to Quarterly sessions.
Some Friends note only two actual plenary gatherings per year and suggest calling ourselves half- yearly, a concept which could lead to confusion with parallel usage in Western Canada.
Some Friends who are distressed by the term Quarterly and what they view as only two meetings / year suggest terms such as Regional Gathering. This usage has legs among unprogrammed Friends in MT and AZ. RantWoman could live with this if there is a groundswell in this direction but is amused by terms that do not make any reference at all to frequency of meetings, a point RantWoman files under "not cultivate unreasonable expectations."
Next comes the question of geography. Pacific Northwest is too large and also conceivably confused with Northwest Yearly Meeting. Some Friends like "Cascade." Most of the Friends who like this live west of the Cascade mountains; this label has no appeal for Friends in ID who live hours away from the Cascades. Other Friends note that the Cascade mountains actually extend all the way into northern California and some north into Canada and thuse the term is unhelpful in the current context.
Next we learned that, while RantWoman for instance thought the Quarter include all unprogrammed Friends in WA and ID, in point of fact around the southern edges there are Meetings and worship groups under the care of Willamette Quarter to the south. At the moment, the option RantWoman likes best is completely unadorned: Most of WA and ID, either Quarterly Meeting or Regional Gathering.
RantWoman expects to learn more of usage and custom and history among other Friends. RantWoman also expects more practice with shared discernment. RantWoman may also be bringing sewing to Meeting for Business to help keep idle hands and idling soulds out of trouble during the process.
RantWoman recently returned from the fall session of the Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting. RantWoman is grateful for respectable but not unlimited levels of sunshine, for flowing streams and clear air and gentle pace, and for many ways to renew and deepen ties among Friends. RantWoman has a lot else to say, but one thing at a time.
One of the items on the agenda at Meeting for Business was whether to change the name of this body. There are questions of geographical and temporal precision, as well as multiple pathways to confusion with other Friends bodies both in RantWoman's Yearly Meeting and another geographically overlapping but theologically distinct Yearly Meeting. The agenda featured only initial reports from Monthly Meetings but to say the least there is NOT unity:
Begin with the question of meeting frequency. Some Friends have no problem with the term Quarterly: while there are only two plenary sessions, fall and spring, each year winter adnd summer also involve a Continuing Committee meeting. Any darn fool who does not already have enough meetings in his or her life is welcome at Continuing Committee. RantWoman for instance is more than satisfied that these meetings add up to Quarterly sessions.
Some Friends note only two actual plenary gatherings per year and suggest calling ourselves half- yearly, a concept which could lead to confusion with parallel usage in Western Canada.
Some Friends who are distressed by the term Quarterly and what they view as only two meetings / year suggest terms such as Regional Gathering. This usage has legs among unprogrammed Friends in MT and AZ. RantWoman could live with this if there is a groundswell in this direction but is amused by terms that do not make any reference at all to frequency of meetings, a point RantWoman files under "not cultivate unreasonable expectations."
Next comes the question of geography. Pacific Northwest is too large and also conceivably confused with Northwest Yearly Meeting. Some Friends like "Cascade." Most of the Friends who like this live west of the Cascade mountains; this label has no appeal for Friends in ID who live hours away from the Cascades. Other Friends note that the Cascade mountains actually extend all the way into northern California and some north into Canada and thuse the term is unhelpful in the current context.
Next we learned that, while RantWoman for instance thought the Quarter include all unprogrammed Friends in WA and ID, in point of fact around the southern edges there are Meetings and worship groups under the care of Willamette Quarter to the south. At the moment, the option RantWoman likes best is completely unadorned: Most of WA and ID, either Quarterly Meeting or Regional Gathering.
RantWoman expects to learn more of usage and custom and history among other Friends. RantWoman also expects more practice with shared discernment. RantWoman may also be bringing sewing to Meeting for Business to help keep idle hands and idling soulds out of trouble during the process.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Interest and Leading
RantWoman submitted the items below as part of her expression of interest in being a delegate from her Yearly Meeting to the upcoming FWCC conference in Kenya in April 2011.
RantWoman, as her readers can attest, seldom has trouble going on and on at great length but was surprised at the ease with which words assembled themselves and fell into line in the space available. Okay RantWoman cheated SLIGHTLY. RantWoman needed to be able to complete the form with help from Mr. JAWS and wound up making a document that approximated the form she received and was one page in length but might have had a bit more space for leadings than the actual form. RantWoman does not even apologize.
Are you a member? Yes or No YES Since what date? 1996 / 1997
Will you be between the ages of 18 and 35 in 2012? NO
Have you ever attended an international Friends conlerence before? If yes. Please tell us when and where:
FWCC Section of the Americas Peace Conference, Guilford College 2003
FWCC Section of the Americas Annual meeting, Canby OR, 2009
Please describe in the space below the leading that has prompted your interest in attending the Sixth World Conference of Friends in 2012.
On many occasions I have recommended that Friends from wealthy countries ought to travel to the countries where Friends are most numerous simply to bring Friends events to the largest number possible of Friends. I would be honored to help carry out this recommendation.
I am proud of the theological diversity of North Pacific Yearly Meeting and I would be honored both to share the gifts and challenges of that diversity and to experience others’ understandings of the Divine, of worship together, and of blessed community.
I was born in Billings, MT toward the eastern edge of NPYM and have been a lifelong activist for peace and justice. Though I was not raised a Friend, today a quest for prophetic vision and the spiritual work to realize it are central to my life. I would be honored for the connection to my birthplace while representing NPYM at a gathering like this and very happy to share my experiences across NPYM upon my return.
As someone who has become legally blind as an adult after a lifetime of vision issues, I have come, not entirely willingly, to carry a concern about access, participation and inclusion for people with a variety of disabilities. I never know what form that might take in different situations but am led to call it out and to be open to where it goes in a given situation.
I have travelled among Friends and overseas in several contexts and would be glad both to be an elder for Friends new to international gatherings and to share the joy of others’ new experiences.
I speak English, Spanish, and Russian. I interpret English <>Russian much more often than English<>Spanish. I have received feedback that I hold my own in Spanish and would want to pray hard before taking on bilingual word smithing of minutes in plenaries but would be glad to contribute something because of my language background.
RantWoman, as her readers can attest, seldom has trouble going on and on at great length but was surprised at the ease with which words assembled themselves and fell into line in the space available. Okay RantWoman cheated SLIGHTLY. RantWoman needed to be able to complete the form with help from Mr. JAWS and wound up making a document that approximated the form she received and was one page in length but might have had a bit more space for leadings than the actual form. RantWoman does not even apologize.
RantWoman in all humility might or might not pick herself knowing of the variety of weighty and interesting Friends in her Yearly Meeting. Suffice it to say, RantWoman is glad not to be on the selection committee and also interested, regardless, in tending to matters of Salt and Light.
http://www.fwccamericas.org/events/2010_Salt_LightA.shtml
http://connectingfriendssaltandlight.blogspot.com/
Are you a member? Yes or No YES Since what date? 1996 / 1997
Will you be between the ages of 18 and 35 in 2012? NO
Have you ever attended an international Friends conlerence before? If yes. Please tell us when and where:
FWCC Section of the Americas Peace Conference, Guilford College 2003
FWCC Section of the Americas Annual meeting, Canby OR, 2009
Please describe in the space below the leading that has prompted your interest in attending the Sixth World Conference of Friends in 2012.
On many occasions I have recommended that Friends from wealthy countries ought to travel to the countries where Friends are most numerous simply to bring Friends events to the largest number possible of Friends. I would be honored to help carry out this recommendation.
I am proud of the theological diversity of North Pacific Yearly Meeting and I would be honored both to share the gifts and challenges of that diversity and to experience others’ understandings of the Divine, of worship together, and of blessed community.
I was born in Billings, MT toward the eastern edge of NPYM and have been a lifelong activist for peace and justice. Though I was not raised a Friend, today a quest for prophetic vision and the spiritual work to realize it are central to my life. I would be honored for the connection to my birthplace while representing NPYM at a gathering like this and very happy to share my experiences across NPYM upon my return.
As someone who has become legally blind as an adult after a lifetime of vision issues, I have come, not entirely willingly, to carry a concern about access, participation and inclusion for people with a variety of disabilities. I never know what form that might take in different situations but am led to call it out and to be open to where it goes in a given situation.
I have travelled among Friends and overseas in several contexts and would be glad both to be an elder for Friends new to international gatherings and to share the joy of others’ new experiences.
I speak English, Spanish, and Russian. I interpret English <>Russian much more often than English<>Spanish. I have received feedback that I hold my own in Spanish and would want to pray hard before taking on bilingual word smithing of minutes in plenaries but would be glad to contribute something because of my language background.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Slug Rut / vulnerable to God and others.
RantWoman's Meeting is currently grappling with concepts such as Truth and Integrity.
Meaning or not meaning commentary, here is a topicla piece by Emily Dickinson:
http://nongae.gsnu.ac.kr/~songmu/Poetry/TellAllTheTruthButTEllItSlant.htm
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
---Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
The Truth must dazzle gradually
or every man be blind.
RantWoman's Sunday worship discussion experience began with queries as to what we mean by "Honest to God." RantWoman when asked was seasoning one of her trademark metaphor manglement messages. RantWoman suspected her message was too much for the moment. RantWoman does not actually think, as one responder suggested, that this reticence reflects her own fears of being unlovable. RantWoman is quite certain God can handle matters; If anything, RantWoman's reticence reflects cavils and quibbles and possibly patronizing thoughts of protecting those around her.
RantWoman's metaphor manglement also was not fully assembled at that moment: RantWoman's experience is that God sometimes shows up, craps all over her floor, presents indications that there is no HazMat / Biohazard team any more adept than RantWoman available, and demands that RantWoman figure out how to make compost--Safely. RantWoman feels no obligation to explain how a non-personified / post personified God / vague and nebulous Divine presence with or without sandals and robes can crap all over anyone's floor. RantWoman simply gets to be true to her experience that such occurs--and not even necessarily to sugarcoat it in treacly Quakerese. Furthermore, RantWoman is sure enough of the God presence part that she has given up even trying to filter the muddle of what at first frequently looks like incompatible or outright noxious components, RantWoman is not quite to total surrender to circumstances but at least some of the time manages to let herself just be guided even when she herself cannot see where the heck something is going.
RantWoman found a few nuggets among others' messages but RantWoman's suspicions about the topicality of others' self-protection took spectacular shape in reactions to a pair of quite self-declaratory messages from Friend Poet. Friend Poet lives considerably closer to even more challenging circumstances than does RantWoman. Friend Poet struggles with more poetic excess than needed for his poetry; Friend Poet also has life themes, living close to homelessness, that he regularly and faithfully summons Meeting closer to God about.
Friend Poet's first dollop of Truth for Sunday's community conversation was something in passing anyone who listened closely to might think both "oh my God," and "I would like to ask more in private but if I ask more, how likely am I to collide fast with more than should be tried without the right letters behind one's name?" This just got cut off and bounced past, which may or may not have been reasonable in that large a group.
Friend Poet's second dollop of Truth arrived in the form of an Honest to God busborne interpersonal meltdown with fisticuffs and flailing limbs and falling underwear and 3 cop cars. This dollop of Truth was getting told in a way that was making RantWoman nod repeatedly in recognition of the story's versimilitude. Were it public radio, laughter would be occurring in spite of the theme. RantWoman expects that many of those assembled might have found the story just TOO MUCH and it abruptly got cut off cliff-hanger-style without any information about events after three cop cars!
RantWoman, thinking of a God who surely already knows of the fisticuffs aboard the bus, found herself wondering what Flailing Friend / Friend Poet needed of those who heard his tale. RantWoman's life aboard the bus has never taken her close to fisticuffs but she can definitely understand the concept of "anger management moment." RantWoman also knows that sometimes people lose it around the edges when some or another aspect of their lives comes under stress and has made mental notes to probe further about Friend Poet. RantWoman has no idea what even to wish of others assembled who also heard the tale.
BusBorne Flailing Friend left quickly after Adult Ed, before we heard the whole story. RantWoman can imagine that the most topical question she can ask is something along the lines of "How can I walk alongside?" or "How can I help you carry what you are carrying?" RantWoman means to, HAS TO ask.
But at the time, RantWoman just headed off to Worship, and to Truth in other channels.
RantWoman notes that Eye Roller Friend was more prescient than usual this week: RantWoman detected audible eye rolling as soon as anyone got up to speak, before they even spoke. RantWoman means to inquire of Eye Roller Friend exactly what constitutes good Meeting for Worship for Eye Roller Friend and how he knows in advance a reaction to the message, and RantWoman means beyond reacting to the fact of the message. RantWoman is vexed to remember only the eye-rolling and not the essence of most messages, except that RantWoman remembers the overall flow as meaningful, connected variously to Truth. homelessness, integrity, and to calls to service outside our walls.
RantWoman is proud actually that some in our Meeting feel called to help churches near us discern about participation in local efforts to support the homeless. RantWoman is further pleased that, though Friend Poet frequently summons us to interact with the topic, this time the call came from more than one other direction and RantWoman herself has even offered to attend topical meetings and uphold the discernment.
Here we come to more theological hiccups. The title of this message has nothing to do with the fisticuffs on the bus. Instead it is from one of those endearing gardeners' messages Inveterate Gardener Friend offers about divine dirt therapy. On Sunday, Inveterate Gardener Friend had been out tending to something fall-related and her mind wandered to rutting season among such as moose and elk in places such as Alaska or Montana. This is a peculiar excursion for RantWoman because mention of such animals and reproduction sometimes summons for RantWoman images of shotguns and their role in respectable wildlife management, not particularly what RantWoman expects out of Meeting for Worship. Mercifully Inveterate Gardener Friend did not linger long with rutting among large animals; she merely announced that for anyone who cares, it's also rutting season among slugs and snails.
RantWoman will come back to our sex-crazed slimy things; the message stream flowed from there to the discernment previously mentioned and then to a wonderful message from a young Friend speaking of how she talks to her friends of silent worship: a time when she feels / lets herself be vulnerable both to God and to others.
RantWoman would have been very happy to leave things therel God had other ideas. Shortly a Friend rose to speak of his struggles with homelessness and of camp, "the lie that tells the Truth" and then a Meeting closer elected himself. RantWoman actually thinks that is fine: her thoughts wandered, categorically NOT to any messages for Meeting but to two women who used to live in RantWoman's building and all the ways they can try RantWoman's sense of integrity.
The two women are both deaf-blind enough to need interpreters in large group situations but they sometimes came over to RantWoman's to drink tea and gossip. If we all arranged our seating and lighting very precisely to maximize visibility and minimize glare and an outside observer did not notice one of them signing to the other, the observer would hardly notice anything unusual. That means RantWoman got to collect lots of their nightmare stories about trying to get medical care without appropriate interpretation.
RantWoman a time or two had occasion to get services from the same organizations who serve her former neighbors. RantWoman's former neighbors have some spectacular dyysfunctions, but as with the fisticuffs on the bus, sometimes the story can be really, really funny, wrapped in the tenderest most respectful cheer one can summon. RantWoman of course knows that other service providers will not even be able to acknowledge that specific spectacularly recognizeable people are clients and has evolved a whole bouquet of pseudonyms and circumlocutions so that topics can enter conversations without violating anyone's confidentiality.
RantWoman has no idea what to do with an even more earthshaking fact of her former neighbors' lives: one of RantWoman's former neighbors is transgendered. Being transgendered and poor means that all kinds of facts most of us take for granted are stuck permanently in forms the transgendered person knows do not reflect her truth. However, the fact that some of these details are stuck in undesirable states ALSO means that sometimes one can finesse rules about services available to opposite sex couples but not to same sex ones. RantWoman has surmised all of these points from conversations over time. RantWoman's biggest problem with all this experience is that she has no idea what her former neighbors want to be called when we run into each other on the bus.
Perhaps it is just as well that so far all of this has not yet collected itself clearly enough for messages in worship! Perhaps given all the conversations RantWoman also gets to have about relationships and sex not happening among people definitely interested, we should all just have a wild full moon celebration of rutting season among slugs.
Meaning or not meaning commentary, here is a topicla piece by Emily Dickinson:
http://nongae.gsnu.ac.kr/~songmu/Poetry/TellAllTheTruthButTEllItSlant.htm
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
---Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
The Truth must dazzle gradually
or every man be blind.
RantWoman's Sunday worship discussion experience began with queries as to what we mean by "Honest to God." RantWoman when asked was seasoning one of her trademark metaphor manglement messages. RantWoman suspected her message was too much for the moment. RantWoman does not actually think, as one responder suggested, that this reticence reflects her own fears of being unlovable. RantWoman is quite certain God can handle matters; If anything, RantWoman's reticence reflects cavils and quibbles and possibly patronizing thoughts of protecting those around her.
RantWoman's metaphor manglement also was not fully assembled at that moment: RantWoman's experience is that God sometimes shows up, craps all over her floor, presents indications that there is no HazMat / Biohazard team any more adept than RantWoman available, and demands that RantWoman figure out how to make compost--Safely. RantWoman feels no obligation to explain how a non-personified / post personified God / vague and nebulous Divine presence with or without sandals and robes can crap all over anyone's floor. RantWoman simply gets to be true to her experience that such occurs--and not even necessarily to sugarcoat it in treacly Quakerese. Furthermore, RantWoman is sure enough of the God presence part that she has given up even trying to filter the muddle of what at first frequently looks like incompatible or outright noxious components, RantWoman is not quite to total surrender to circumstances but at least some of the time manages to let herself just be guided even when she herself cannot see where the heck something is going.
RantWoman found a few nuggets among others' messages but RantWoman's suspicions about the topicality of others' self-protection took spectacular shape in reactions to a pair of quite self-declaratory messages from Friend Poet. Friend Poet lives considerably closer to even more challenging circumstances than does RantWoman. Friend Poet struggles with more poetic excess than needed for his poetry; Friend Poet also has life themes, living close to homelessness, that he regularly and faithfully summons Meeting closer to God about.
Friend Poet's first dollop of Truth for Sunday's community conversation was something in passing anyone who listened closely to might think both "oh my God," and "I would like to ask more in private but if I ask more, how likely am I to collide fast with more than should be tried without the right letters behind one's name?" This just got cut off and bounced past, which may or may not have been reasonable in that large a group.
Friend Poet's second dollop of Truth arrived in the form of an Honest to God busborne interpersonal meltdown with fisticuffs and flailing limbs and falling underwear and 3 cop cars. This dollop of Truth was getting told in a way that was making RantWoman nod repeatedly in recognition of the story's versimilitude. Were it public radio, laughter would be occurring in spite of the theme. RantWoman expects that many of those assembled might have found the story just TOO MUCH and it abruptly got cut off cliff-hanger-style without any information about events after three cop cars!
RantWoman, thinking of a God who surely already knows of the fisticuffs aboard the bus, found herself wondering what Flailing Friend / Friend Poet needed of those who heard his tale. RantWoman's life aboard the bus has never taken her close to fisticuffs but she can definitely understand the concept of "anger management moment." RantWoman also knows that sometimes people lose it around the edges when some or another aspect of their lives comes under stress and has made mental notes to probe further about Friend Poet. RantWoman has no idea what even to wish of others assembled who also heard the tale.
BusBorne Flailing Friend left quickly after Adult Ed, before we heard the whole story. RantWoman can imagine that the most topical question she can ask is something along the lines of "How can I walk alongside?" or "How can I help you carry what you are carrying?" RantWoman means to, HAS TO ask.
But at the time, RantWoman just headed off to Worship, and to Truth in other channels.
RantWoman notes that Eye Roller Friend was more prescient than usual this week: RantWoman detected audible eye rolling as soon as anyone got up to speak, before they even spoke. RantWoman means to inquire of Eye Roller Friend exactly what constitutes good Meeting for Worship for Eye Roller Friend and how he knows in advance a reaction to the message, and RantWoman means beyond reacting to the fact of the message. RantWoman is vexed to remember only the eye-rolling and not the essence of most messages, except that RantWoman remembers the overall flow as meaningful, connected variously to Truth. homelessness, integrity, and to calls to service outside our walls.
RantWoman is proud actually that some in our Meeting feel called to help churches near us discern about participation in local efforts to support the homeless. RantWoman is further pleased that, though Friend Poet frequently summons us to interact with the topic, this time the call came from more than one other direction and RantWoman herself has even offered to attend topical meetings and uphold the discernment.
Here we come to more theological hiccups. The title of this message has nothing to do with the fisticuffs on the bus. Instead it is from one of those endearing gardeners' messages Inveterate Gardener Friend offers about divine dirt therapy. On Sunday, Inveterate Gardener Friend had been out tending to something fall-related and her mind wandered to rutting season among such as moose and elk in places such as Alaska or Montana. This is a peculiar excursion for RantWoman because mention of such animals and reproduction sometimes summons for RantWoman images of shotguns and their role in respectable wildlife management, not particularly what RantWoman expects out of Meeting for Worship. Mercifully Inveterate Gardener Friend did not linger long with rutting among large animals; she merely announced that for anyone who cares, it's also rutting season among slugs and snails.
RantWoman will come back to our sex-crazed slimy things; the message stream flowed from there to the discernment previously mentioned and then to a wonderful message from a young Friend speaking of how she talks to her friends of silent worship: a time when she feels / lets herself be vulnerable both to God and to others.
RantWoman would have been very happy to leave things therel God had other ideas. Shortly a Friend rose to speak of his struggles with homelessness and of camp, "the lie that tells the Truth" and then a Meeting closer elected himself. RantWoman actually thinks that is fine: her thoughts wandered, categorically NOT to any messages for Meeting but to two women who used to live in RantWoman's building and all the ways they can try RantWoman's sense of integrity.
The two women are both deaf-blind enough to need interpreters in large group situations but they sometimes came over to RantWoman's to drink tea and gossip. If we all arranged our seating and lighting very precisely to maximize visibility and minimize glare and an outside observer did not notice one of them signing to the other, the observer would hardly notice anything unusual. That means RantWoman got to collect lots of their nightmare stories about trying to get medical care without appropriate interpretation.
RantWoman a time or two had occasion to get services from the same organizations who serve her former neighbors. RantWoman's former neighbors have some spectacular dyysfunctions, but as with the fisticuffs on the bus, sometimes the story can be really, really funny, wrapped in the tenderest most respectful cheer one can summon. RantWoman of course knows that other service providers will not even be able to acknowledge that specific spectacularly recognizeable people are clients and has evolved a whole bouquet of pseudonyms and circumlocutions so that topics can enter conversations without violating anyone's confidentiality.
RantWoman has no idea what to do with an even more earthshaking fact of her former neighbors' lives: one of RantWoman's former neighbors is transgendered. Being transgendered and poor means that all kinds of facts most of us take for granted are stuck permanently in forms the transgendered person knows do not reflect her truth. However, the fact that some of these details are stuck in undesirable states ALSO means that sometimes one can finesse rules about services available to opposite sex couples but not to same sex ones. RantWoman has surmised all of these points from conversations over time. RantWoman's biggest problem with all this experience is that she has no idea what her former neighbors want to be called when we run into each other on the bus.
Perhaps it is just as well that so far all of this has not yet collected itself clearly enough for messages in worship! Perhaps given all the conversations RantWoman also gets to have about relationships and sex not happening among people definitely interested, we should all just have a wild full moon celebration of rutting season among slugs.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
How fares the Truth with Thee: Ableism
The word of the year at RantWoman's Meeting is Integrity. RantWoman, being RantWoman already foresees a bumpy go of it. RantWoman is grateful for blog entries about the integrity of taking up the space one needs; still RantWoman would not in the least mind being wrong or being delivered divinly down smoother paths than she sees, RantWoman, in the name of Truth is starting where she's at:
wherein RantWoman walks all over hard conversations about ableism, processes more of her fixations related to a certain problematic mentor figure, and, should she call attention to the subject, poses challenges others have not even detected about the line between personal presence in a conversation occuring across miles and modes of interaction and responsible participation in processes that involve shared discernment and are supposed to involve some degree of confidentiality--and all this before midafternoon tea. RantWoman wishes to be very clear: the views here are her own and RantWoman can make no promises about whether anything different may come out of shared discernment. Given the differences in timeline, geographical and thematic span between live meetings and the internet, RantWoman does not even promise that some of these points will imediately register in certain parts of the conversation, possibly still another problem.
RantWoman first notes that she thinks the two posts below both refer to the same interest group at a recent NPYM Annual Session.
http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2010/09/difference-and-discrimination-part-i.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/08/god-are-you-out-of-your-mind.html
RantWoman remembers Friend With A particular Ministry's ADA problem, but until today when RantWoman read this Friend's blog post, it had not even dawned on RantWoman that finding a way to avoid vile dry erase markers or to move the Interest Group to a space not reeking of new carpet chemicals would be one more responsive way to address the ADA issue. RantWoman has enough trouble articulating her own needs in different situations that she can summon a measure of sympathy for Friend With... Ministry's inability toformulate that exact request at the time. Also RantWoman feels no inclination to apologize on behalf of everyone else who did not think of that solution either. Perhaps RantWoman can at least file the thought that Friends who raise such concerns can be asked what might help, something else which did not occur, though at least no obviously untenable or irrelevant alternatives to staying were proposed either.
RantWoman mentions irrelevant, hopelessly well-meant but clueless alternatives because of once at a public event being asked THREE TIMES whether she wanted to move closer to a screen to appreciate Powerpoint. RantWoman has a long and tumultuous, moderately dysfunctional relationship with Powerpoint anyway. In that situation RantWoman was stayed from full public vituperation by other considerations. The Powerpoint wound up not getting projected anyway and RantWoman once more demurred about any need to inspect things up close. Now RantWoman is trying to get someone's attention about the topic and trying NOT to line it up with TOO many other parts of patterns, or at least trying to have a conversation about one thing at a time.
But RantWoman digresses. The opening go-around at this Interest Group identified a number of conflicts in Friends' different Meetings. One point that struck RantWoman was that over the course of the workshop several of those present mentioned conflicts that could in some way or another boil down to ableism or how respectfully to relate to people with differing abilities, To be clear this is not merely appreciation of different gifts; this is situations that challenge even very, very centered Friends desiring to discern that of God in some or another situation.
Time ran out without opportunities to explore the point in any depth but it definitely stuck out to RantWoman. RantWoman regretably did not have a chance to follow up about her impressions with anyone present. Other themes arose as well as one might expect at a workshop about helping Friends talk more easily of conflicts among ourselves.
The previous RantWoman blog item addresses part of RantWoman's experience including RantWoman's perspective on her own issues, an area where RantWoman has no problem thinking exhorint herself about "room for improvement" and "roll with it," along with some generalized and still inchoate ranting about a desire to have more Quaker reading materials in formats accessible to RantWoman and a lack of enthusiasm for having to dig up the HOW of bringing that about herself. A couple more points specifically from the Interest Group stick out in RantWoman's mind.
First, at one point Problematic Mentor Figure made a comment in passing as part of a go-around calling out something about conflicts. The comment was about sexism sometimes being a factor in conflicts. MAYBE RantWoman is being oversensitive, but the way it was delivered came across to RantWoman not as an invitation to candid discussion but as a way of paying lip service and otherwise blowing off any further discussion of the topic.
To say the least, RantWoman finds this brush-off kind of problematic and, with an eye toward opportunities for different senses in the future, RantWoman is seasoning how first to get Problematic Mentor Figure's attention about the issue and second what might be done to make more space and openness for conversations that sometimes need to happen. Perversely, though RantWoman is hypersensitive about the topic, RantWoman is also unclear whether this exact concern registered with any of the other participants in the Interest Group. This point is important: it's not like RantWoman has NO expectations about further occasions to call out the issue. Rather, RantWoman's life is so overendowed with reasons to be outraged and opinionated that much just has to wait in line, the way an overabundance of messages during Meeting for Worship also gets filtered and tested and prioritized with RantWoman open to the possibility that shared discernment may go different directions in a given moment than what is urgently exercising RantWoman.
RantWoman may be seasoning ways to keep openings to talk about sexism for awhile because conversations with Problematic Mentor figure already got stuck for now on something else mentioned in RantWoman's previous blog post. Interestingly, at least some of the time Problematic Mentor Figure can admit that an interest in conflict resolution does not automatically mean that conflict resolution is always necessarily easy for him either.
As long as conversations are already stuck anyway, RantWoman has the following further comments: Problematic Mentor Figure is not the only person in RantWoman's experience who makes mistakes related to ableism and RantWoman is seasoning ways to have more discussions in community terms rather than necessarily singling out a specific individual. RantWoman also has a rich life beyond her Meeting and is amused to note many opportunities in these spheres to be vexed in presentations by "this one here and that one there." RantWoman would not mind in the least not having to accumulate so many spectacular holy and unholy examples of this mode of vexation.
(Presentation modes aside, RantWoman is also close to formulating the view that Problematic Mentor Figure could HIMSELF benefit from having an elder or two and / or a support and accountability committee to nurture his work. RantWoman is prepared for grumbles to the effect that she has a lot of dang nerve to be wanting to get in Problematic Mentor Figure's face about this, but tough! RantWoman thinks she may not only get in Problematic Mentor Figure's face but, horror of horrors, suggest that the term "elder" might be highly compatible with someone younger chronologically. Stay tuned.)
As long as RantWoman is trying to get Problematic Mentor Figure's attention anyway, RantWoman is going to TRY to talk to him about his practice of writing on boards in small letters. RantWoman of course is supposed to be exempt from any expectations that she will be able to read the board but RantWoman noticed enough about this to suspect that others in the room would also have trouble reading the board. Plus, RantWoman is so sensitized about the topic that she writes on whiteboards and chalk boards and flip charts in the largest preposterously large letters she can manage. That is RantWoman's experience though of course that does not imply that this must also be Problematic Mentor Figure's experience. RantWoman, when she manages to be fair or further to muddle matters also notes that depending on one's vision loss issues, bigger is not necessarily better, for instance if one has normal acuity but big holes in one's visual field. Siggggh. As noted in RantWoman's post cited above, RantWoman herself would be happy with slightly different explanatory notes in the oral presentation about the content of the white board, another theme she gets lots of practice articulating. Siggggh.
At the moment RantWoman finds herself simply having to breathe with another point: the practicalities of dealing with all our differing abilities are at least as complex as our theological diversity. Or, to paraphrase another Friend from RantWoman's meeting about "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," But what if I don't WANT the same things as you do?" Ask me what I like or what would help!
RantWoman: "I do not see well, so if I don't recognize you please don't take it personally. I am interested in getting to know you..."
RantWoman herself generally appreciates more personal space than average in group circles and hugs. RantWoman was next to someone in a circle this summer who, RantWoman realized, despite being considerably smaller than RantWoman would probably like at least as much personal space in the circle as RantWoman can take up. Recently RantWoman has heard a number of Friends express pain about musculoskeletal issues alongside FIRM requests not to hug without warning or to grab arms or hands.
"RantWoman, please do not be offended if my hearing loss means I need to move to avoid the audio distraction of your noise taking notes in Braille."
"Sure, please, RantWoman does not mind in the least exchanging opinions about your eyeglasses options. RantWoman is happy actually to know something about the issues behind your concerns and is not bothered in the least that your concerns are, at this point, irrelevant specifically to her. RantWoman finds she not only can but frequently must be quite self-centered about articulating her own concerns; RantWoman recommends that all around her really take advantage of those moments when RantWoman manages to be more broad-minded."
An old item on ableism just to recycle
wherein RantWoman walks all over hard conversations about ableism, processes more of her fixations related to a certain problematic mentor figure, and, should she call attention to the subject, poses challenges others have not even detected about the line between personal presence in a conversation occuring across miles and modes of interaction and responsible participation in processes that involve shared discernment and are supposed to involve some degree of confidentiality--and all this before midafternoon tea. RantWoman wishes to be very clear: the views here are her own and RantWoman can make no promises about whether anything different may come out of shared discernment. Given the differences in timeline, geographical and thematic span between live meetings and the internet, RantWoman does not even promise that some of these points will imediately register in certain parts of the conversation, possibly still another problem.
RantWoman first notes that she thinks the two posts below both refer to the same interest group at a recent NPYM Annual Session.
http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2010/09/difference-and-discrimination-part-i.html
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/08/god-are-you-out-of-your-mind.html
RantWoman remembers Friend With A particular Ministry's ADA problem, but until today when RantWoman read this Friend's blog post, it had not even dawned on RantWoman that finding a way to avoid vile dry erase markers or to move the Interest Group to a space not reeking of new carpet chemicals would be one more responsive way to address the ADA issue. RantWoman has enough trouble articulating her own needs in different situations that she can summon a measure of sympathy for Friend With... Ministry's inability toformulate that exact request at the time. Also RantWoman feels no inclination to apologize on behalf of everyone else who did not think of that solution either. Perhaps RantWoman can at least file the thought that Friends who raise such concerns can be asked what might help, something else which did not occur, though at least no obviously untenable or irrelevant alternatives to staying were proposed either.
RantWoman mentions irrelevant, hopelessly well-meant but clueless alternatives because of once at a public event being asked THREE TIMES whether she wanted to move closer to a screen to appreciate Powerpoint. RantWoman has a long and tumultuous, moderately dysfunctional relationship with Powerpoint anyway. In that situation RantWoman was stayed from full public vituperation by other considerations. The Powerpoint wound up not getting projected anyway and RantWoman once more demurred about any need to inspect things up close. Now RantWoman is trying to get someone's attention about the topic and trying NOT to line it up with TOO many other parts of patterns, or at least trying to have a conversation about one thing at a time.
But RantWoman digresses. The opening go-around at this Interest Group identified a number of conflicts in Friends' different Meetings. One point that struck RantWoman was that over the course of the workshop several of those present mentioned conflicts that could in some way or another boil down to ableism or how respectfully to relate to people with differing abilities, To be clear this is not merely appreciation of different gifts; this is situations that challenge even very, very centered Friends desiring to discern that of God in some or another situation.
Time ran out without opportunities to explore the point in any depth but it definitely stuck out to RantWoman. RantWoman regretably did not have a chance to follow up about her impressions with anyone present. Other themes arose as well as one might expect at a workshop about helping Friends talk more easily of conflicts among ourselves.
The previous RantWoman blog item addresses part of RantWoman's experience including RantWoman's perspective on her own issues, an area where RantWoman has no problem thinking exhorint herself about "room for improvement" and "roll with it," along with some generalized and still inchoate ranting about a desire to have more Quaker reading materials in formats accessible to RantWoman and a lack of enthusiasm for having to dig up the HOW of bringing that about herself. A couple more points specifically from the Interest Group stick out in RantWoman's mind.
First, at one point Problematic Mentor Figure made a comment in passing as part of a go-around calling out something about conflicts. The comment was about sexism sometimes being a factor in conflicts. MAYBE RantWoman is being oversensitive, but the way it was delivered came across to RantWoman not as an invitation to candid discussion but as a way of paying lip service and otherwise blowing off any further discussion of the topic.
To say the least, RantWoman finds this brush-off kind of problematic and, with an eye toward opportunities for different senses in the future, RantWoman is seasoning how first to get Problematic Mentor Figure's attention about the issue and second what might be done to make more space and openness for conversations that sometimes need to happen. Perversely, though RantWoman is hypersensitive about the topic, RantWoman is also unclear whether this exact concern registered with any of the other participants in the Interest Group. This point is important: it's not like RantWoman has NO expectations about further occasions to call out the issue. Rather, RantWoman's life is so overendowed with reasons to be outraged and opinionated that much just has to wait in line, the way an overabundance of messages during Meeting for Worship also gets filtered and tested and prioritized with RantWoman open to the possibility that shared discernment may go different directions in a given moment than what is urgently exercising RantWoman.
RantWoman may be seasoning ways to keep openings to talk about sexism for awhile because conversations with Problematic Mentor figure already got stuck for now on something else mentioned in RantWoman's previous blog post. Interestingly, at least some of the time Problematic Mentor Figure can admit that an interest in conflict resolution does not automatically mean that conflict resolution is always necessarily easy for him either.
As long as conversations are already stuck anyway, RantWoman has the following further comments: Problematic Mentor Figure is not the only person in RantWoman's experience who makes mistakes related to ableism and RantWoman is seasoning ways to have more discussions in community terms rather than necessarily singling out a specific individual. RantWoman also has a rich life beyond her Meeting and is amused to note many opportunities in these spheres to be vexed in presentations by "this one here and that one there." RantWoman would not mind in the least not having to accumulate so many spectacular holy and unholy examples of this mode of vexation.
(Presentation modes aside, RantWoman is also close to formulating the view that Problematic Mentor Figure could HIMSELF benefit from having an elder or two and / or a support and accountability committee to nurture his work. RantWoman is prepared for grumbles to the effect that she has a lot of dang nerve to be wanting to get in Problematic Mentor Figure's face about this, but tough! RantWoman thinks she may not only get in Problematic Mentor Figure's face but, horror of horrors, suggest that the term "elder" might be highly compatible with someone younger chronologically. Stay tuned.)
As long as RantWoman is trying to get Problematic Mentor Figure's attention anyway, RantWoman is going to TRY to talk to him about his practice of writing on boards in small letters. RantWoman of course is supposed to be exempt from any expectations that she will be able to read the board but RantWoman noticed enough about this to suspect that others in the room would also have trouble reading the board. Plus, RantWoman is so sensitized about the topic that she writes on whiteboards and chalk boards and flip charts in the largest preposterously large letters she can manage. That is RantWoman's experience though of course that does not imply that this must also be Problematic Mentor Figure's experience. RantWoman, when she manages to be fair or further to muddle matters also notes that depending on one's vision loss issues, bigger is not necessarily better, for instance if one has normal acuity but big holes in one's visual field. Siggggh. As noted in RantWoman's post cited above, RantWoman herself would be happy with slightly different explanatory notes in the oral presentation about the content of the white board, another theme she gets lots of practice articulating. Siggggh.
At the moment RantWoman finds herself simply having to breathe with another point: the practicalities of dealing with all our differing abilities are at least as complex as our theological diversity. Or, to paraphrase another Friend from RantWoman's meeting about "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," But what if I don't WANT the same things as you do?" Ask me what I like or what would help!
RantWoman: "I do not see well, so if I don't recognize you please don't take it personally. I am interested in getting to know you..."
RantWoman herself generally appreciates more personal space than average in group circles and hugs. RantWoman was next to someone in a circle this summer who, RantWoman realized, despite being considerably smaller than RantWoman would probably like at least as much personal space in the circle as RantWoman can take up. Recently RantWoman has heard a number of Friends express pain about musculoskeletal issues alongside FIRM requests not to hug without warning or to grab arms or hands.
"RantWoman, please do not be offended if my hearing loss means I need to move to avoid the audio distraction of your noise taking notes in Braille."
"Sure, please, RantWoman does not mind in the least exchanging opinions about your eyeglasses options. RantWoman is happy actually to know something about the issues behind your concerns and is not bothered in the least that your concerns are, at this point, irrelevant specifically to her. RantWoman finds she not only can but frequently must be quite self-centered about articulating her own concerns; RantWoman recommends that all around her really take advantage of those moments when RantWoman manages to be more broad-minded."
An old item on ableism just to recycle
Trespassing
RantWoman first learned the Lord's Prayer as "...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...." When RantWoman's family moved and started worshipping with Baptists instead of their old church, the operative version of the Lord's prayer substituted "debts" and debtors." If RantWoman wants to be really, really good at interfaith dialogue, she can add cataloguing which denominations use which version to her endless to-do list. Consider it added.
Meanwhile, accounts of nonviolent civil disobedience frequently include the terms "trespassing" and "international law" or "justification defense" in the same sentence. Judges frequently try not to have to hear such comvinations of terms; activists typically persist in demanding that these very words be heard together. Here is an item by Fr. John Dear from the National Catholic Reporter about a recent trial for activists arrested at Creech AFB in Nevada protesting the use of drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. RantWoman considers all that was heard a victory already.
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/09/a-peace-movement-victory-against-drone-warfare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29
At the start of the trial the judge stated that he would not allow testimony on international law, the necessity defense or the drones. He only wanted to hear about the charge of “criminal trespassing.”
While the defendant were expecting that the judge wouldn’t allow their expert witnesses to speak, the proceeded to call on Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and one of three former U.S. State Department officials who resigned on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and Bill Quigley, legal director for the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights to testify. To their surprise, the judge let them all speak, and their testimony went on for hours.
Here is an excerpt from a powerful, spontaneous closing statement made by Brian Terrell of the Des Moines Catholic Worker:
Several of our witnesses have employed the classic metaphor when talking of a necessity defense. There’s a house on fire, and a child crying from the window and there’s a no trespassing sign on the door. Can one ignore the sign, kick down the door and rescue the child?It was a great privilege for us to hear Ramsey Clark, a master of understatement, who put it best. “Letting a baby burn to death because of a no trespass sign would be poor public policy.”
I submit that the house is on fire and babies are burning in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan because of the activities at Creech AFB.
The baby is burning also in the persons of the young people who are operating the drones from Creech AFB, who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at rates that even exceed that of their comrades in combat on the ground.
[...]
RantWoman recognizes that there are some theological conundrums behind the two usages here. RantWoman feels no need to address those today.
Meanwhile, accounts of nonviolent civil disobedience frequently include the terms "trespassing" and "international law" or "justification defense" in the same sentence. Judges frequently try not to have to hear such comvinations of terms; activists typically persist in demanding that these very words be heard together. Here is an item by Fr. John Dear from the National Catholic Reporter about a recent trial for activists arrested at Creech AFB in Nevada protesting the use of drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. RantWoman considers all that was heard a victory already.
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/09/a-peace-movement-victory-against-drone-warfare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29
At the start of the trial the judge stated that he would not allow testimony on international law, the necessity defense or the drones. He only wanted to hear about the charge of “criminal trespassing.”
While the defendant were expecting that the judge wouldn’t allow their expert witnesses to speak, the proceeded to call on Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and one of three former U.S. State Department officials who resigned on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and Bill Quigley, legal director for the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights to testify. To their surprise, the judge let them all speak, and their testimony went on for hours.
Here is an excerpt from a powerful, spontaneous closing statement made by Brian Terrell of the Des Moines Catholic Worker:
Several of our witnesses have employed the classic metaphor when talking of a necessity defense. There’s a house on fire, and a child crying from the window and there’s a no trespassing sign on the door. Can one ignore the sign, kick down the door and rescue the child?It was a great privilege for us to hear Ramsey Clark, a master of understatement, who put it best. “Letting a baby burn to death because of a no trespass sign would be poor public policy.”
I submit that the house is on fire and babies are burning in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan because of the activities at Creech AFB.
The baby is burning also in the persons of the young people who are operating the drones from Creech AFB, who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at rates that even exceed that of their comrades in combat on the ground.
[...]
RantWoman recognizes that there are some theological conundrums behind the two usages here. RantWoman feels no need to address those today.
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