a terrible morning in gun happy America

This morning, after the deadliest shooting in US history I feel overwhelmed with sadness for the victims and with incredible anger at politicians and the gun lobby and all who make it so difficult to keep weapons of war out of the hands of people who have no business owning them.

Once again an assault rifle was used on innocent people out having a good time on a Saturday night. The police have called it domestic terrorism. It may also be a hate crime of huge proportions since the Pulse Club where the shooting took place was a gathering place for the LGBTQ community. The shooter was only 29 and an American born son of Afghani parents. Immediately some began to ask if the shooter was a radicalized young man… and what religion did he adhere to. He is Muslim. At the last minute before beginning his rampage he apparently called 911 to pledge allegiance to ISIS - almost I would say, like an afterthought. 

Yet, without a doubt the focus will turn to that one young man and his immigrant family.

I just want to know why he could own an assault rifle.  

Why do we allow it? Why is the gun lobby so powerful and who is making money off the sale of these weapons? It is time for reasonable people to demand change, to protect the innocent, to prevent chaos, to promote peaceful resolution to conflicts and assistance for young people struggling with purpose or identity. 

As I reflect on the incredible number of mass shootings am I the only one to see some common threads?

The shooters are for the most part young, male and angry. They are also US citizens.

There is no common religion although several have been Christian and several Muslim. How can anyone blame this on "radical" Islam without also looking at the "radical" Christians? Should we lock up all angry young men? Should we stop Muslims and Christians at the border or just deport them all? None of this makes any sense. We are looking for answers in the wrong places.  

50 people are dead today. 50 families in mourning. 

53 more are in the hospital. How long will we have to wait and how many more people will have to die in order for our nation to adopt reasonable gun control laws? 

No private citizen needs an assault rifle. 

No one.

Fire of the Spirit

All around the country, across the world even, wherever there are Christian Communities, the Feast of Pentecost will be marked by multicultural services, the honoring of diversity and a lifting up of the variety of people who have been called into unity by the power of the Holy Spirit. But Sunday morning is generally the most racially segregated hour of the week. Catholics are the most integrated because many Catholics go to Mass in their neighborhood. Integrated churches are found in integrated neighborhoods.

But in Portland Oregon, there are only a few racially mixed Catholic churches. Online I found a site that graphed the diversity of major cities in the United States. I was not too surprised to discover that the major city with the highest percentage of people who identified as “white” is Portland Oregon.

I grew up in southeast Portland. There was no diversity in my grade school. Of the 600 people in my freshmen class there were two African American students. I lived in a racist home, absorbing racist ideas without any conscious desire. I heard comments about the exceptionalism of the few people of color that my parents actually knew and had a lot of warnings about the others. How could I know any different? And my parents were raised the same way. 

Racism is invisible to people of the dominant race. 

I was 21 years old the first time I was invited to visit in an African American home. I was shy since I didn’t know anyone but not uncomfortable, nor was I conscious of race until someone turned on the TV and the contrast between all the white people on the TV and the people in the room became abundantly clear. It was then that I felt an enormous wave of discomfort – I had never thought about the fact that nearly all television actors of note were “white” at that time. I never had a reason to think about it before. The year was 1972.

Later we were transferred to Prineville, Oregon. Across the street from our house lived a Latino family. My oldest son liked to play with their grandson. One spoke English and the other spoke Spanish but it didn’t seem to matter. There were no public kindergartens in Prineville at the time. People with money paid for private kindergarten for their children. The Latino children were mostly children of poor farm workers. They started school without the advantage of kindergarten which meant that they were in the remedial first grade class. The system worked to keep the two populations segregated.

When my brother called me to announce his engagement to person to whom he has been married for the last 40 years, a Japanese American, I responded with congratulations and asked when they were planning to marry. My brother was quiet for a moment and then said that I was the only one in the family to say congratulations.

Later I lived in Yakima WA. I volunteered as a recruiter for the Girl Scouts. I had done that for a while before moving to Yakima and was excited to get started. I was told by the official organization not to recruit south of the railroad tracks because those families were “not stable.” Turns out they were mostly Latino and Native American.

Years later, I took a class in anti-racism. It was a powerful experience. One thing I learned was that as a white person – and I will offer a definition for white – I was enculturated to be racist, but, I also learned that with hard work and a willingness to try and face the issues, I could become an anti-racist -- a person who worked to recognize racist ideas and reactions within myself and then deliberately, consciously, work to resist them.

In Jim Wallis’ book, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America, he says that people of other races tend to view racism very differently than white people. He says “White people tend to see racism as an individual issue, about good and bad behavior by moral or immoral people. And because most white people don’t think we are “bad” or “immoral” and certainly not deliberately “racist,” racism can’t be applied to us. …“I am not a racist” is a regular response in the white community, either expressed or at least strongly felt. And defensiveness is a common reaction, as opposed to trying to really hear what black coworkers or fellow citizens are saying. For many whites, it’s all about me, or us, and we don’t believe we are responsible for racist behavior, even if we believe that some other white people— the bad or immoral ones— are.” (Jim Wallis, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, pg. 92)

Wallis refers to Robin DiAngelo who has written extensively about the defensiveness that white people feel when they are challenged regarding racism. DiAngelo who is a professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University, refers to the defensiveness as White Fragility. She notes that   "white privilege can be thought of as unstable racial equilibrium."(Robin DiAngelo, White Privilege, http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116)   And when this equilibrium is challenged, the resulting racial stress can become intolerable (for whites) and trigger a range of defensive moves.

Given today’s political discourse, I would say that there is a great deal of challenge to the “unstable racial equilibrium” that many people have grown up with in America – and the majority population is experiencing “white fragility”. The racial mix in the United States is shifting even if it is not as visible in our own city. The other morning I heard Pat Buchanan – former political commentator, and a Catholic who twice ran for the presidency-- react to the shifting racial equilibrium saying that he too, wanted America to be great again – it was great he said when he was a child in the 1950s and there was nothing wrong with wanting his country to be great again.

The question of course is great for who?

In 1950, which was the year that I was born, the sundown laws were still on the books in many towns across Oregon. Sundown laws stated very simply that no Black person was to be in town after dark. Oregon was one of the states that forbade slavery– while at the same time prevented free blacks from becoming permanent residents. 

In 1950 the LGBTQ community was still firmly locked in the closet. There was no talk of same sex marriage laws and there was certainly no concern in the media or State about anyone going into a restroom that didn’t match the sex of one’s birth certificate. It was a non-issue since there was no legal recognition that the community existed.

In 1950 women did not need any rights since they had their men to take care of them- unless of course, they happened to be women of color who worked for minimal wages in order to have enough money to care for their own families; or didn’t have a husband who could take care of them - which of course was their own fault.

In 1950 every public school had a Christmas pageant that featured Christmas carols, a nativity and Christmas Tree. I still remember my first kindergarten pageant… I held up a large cardboard picture of a cow and recited: “I am the cow all white and red, I gave Him my stable for to make His bed.” No one considered the sensitivities of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists --- or anyone else for that matter- this was America – and we were great—but completely blind.

Let’s be clear. The reactionary talk in political America today is immoral, deceitful and sinful. We say that we are one nation under God but what some people are really saying is that to be a real American is to be - a wealthy-white-straight-follower of a fair skinned Jesus – and honestly, for most of these voices being male gives you even more “greatness’. 

Around the nation people of faith are being challenged to speak out against racism, homophobia, sexism, fundamentalism, religious intolerance, and xenophobia.

Jim Wallis says that the Bible offers us the story of a pilgrimage of inclusion. “The movement toward inclusion starts at the beginning of biblical history when God addresses the most basic and root matter by creating human beings “in the image of God”— not some human beings, but all of them. (103-104)

Sin – he says “is the right word to use for racism – and I would add for the other isms as well, … because it’s something that seeks to undermine the very creation of human beings as being equally valued, loved, and cared for in the eyes of God. Our worth as men and women comes from all of us being the children of God, all human, all creatures, - and all other political affirmations of our equality derive not just from governments but directly from our identity as God’s equally valued children.” (103)

“The beginning of the church happened at the first Pentecost with a dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit, an exciting expression of many tongues and languages, and the call to spread this multicultural gospel throughout the world (Acts 2). The origin of the church occasioned a glorious multicultural display of unity and evangelism with three thousand converts that first day— clearly including many ethnicities and races. All this made the early churches quite radical.” (105)

To identify as white today is to ascribe to a racial class that is entirely made up. It began in the late 1700’s when there was a perceived need to justify and explain slavery based on race. White became the term that denoted the dominating race. White in short means prejudice with power.  Anyone can be prejudiced but only those with dominant power can turn their prejudice in laws that shape a culture.

When I look at my skin I know it is not "white" – and Jim Wallis says that those of us who have been categorized that way should resist accepting a term that comes out of and perpetuates racism. On any form that asks for race we should fill in the “other” box and where possible write “European American” if that is what we are – just as other people check Native American or Asian American or African American. We should not be excited if we are asked to denote our sex and there is more than male and female listed. People have a right to identify themselves. We need to read our history; get to know people who are not like ourselves and if we are of the dominating race, creed, or gender, allow others to tell us about the ways that we participate in racist behaviors without becoming angry or defensive. Only when we get to know others, listen well, and trust what others can teach us can we hope to overcome the systems we have been born in to.

I ask the forgiveness of the non-white community reading this if I have offended in anyway because I have not talked directly to you, but rather about and around you. Racism is a white issue. Please help us learn.

May the Holy Spirit infuse us all with the power to be inclusive and truly united into one human family.

Earth Day

Last night I attended a watershed film festival that was part of Earth Day activities.  The film that was shown was Return of the River and it shared the story of the Elwha Dam in Washington State, how it was built and the effect that damming the River had on the communities and the environment, and how it was eventually removed and came to life again.

It is a story that kept coming back to me today.

In many Christian Churches today Revelation 21:1-5 was read. It is the passage that speaks to a New Heaven and a New Earth -- and it has been for some the justification for NOT taking care of the Earth. I guess the thinking is that since God will create a whole new heaven and earth, taking care of this one is not a priority! I don't believe that is what the passage means, rather it speaks to a new way of living post empire. In the case of Revelation, the Empire was referred to as Babylon but was a veiled reference to the Roman Empire of the time. In our day we live in an empire and have imperial actions and domination to address. We too have the option of resisting empire, of living with values that reflect love, justice and inclusion. 

Today when I heard  the reading from Revelation regarding a new heaven and a new earth; and how the first heaven and earth that had disappeared … I thought of the Strong People of the River, the Klallam People, who had lived on the banks of the Elwha for thousands of years, with a culture that was in tune with the river, and with the salmon that spawned in the high clear waters; salmon that went down into the sea to grow big and strong and then returned bringing the nutrients of the sea back to the people, and also to the river and the other creatures that relied on it. I thought of the people's anguish as hundreds of thousands of pounds of concrete were dumped into the water to build the dam. Of their grief when the waters were backed up to create Lake Aldwell, a reservoir that covered places that were important to the lives of the people and to the fish, and their distress at the second dam that kept so many of the fish from returning home.

But I also thought of the people who had built the dam, the European Americans who had looked at the majestic river and the powerful falls and had had a vision of inexpensive and plentiful power that would make life easier for themselves and for their families. Both the City of Port Angeles and the Georgia Pacific Paper Mill that was the primary provider of jobs and industry came into being with the creation of the Elwha Dam. With the abundant power a new city was born – filled with people who marveled at the beauty and abundance of the Pacific Northwest, prospered because of the wealth of the forests and enjoyed fishing and relaxing around the Reservoir Lake. For these people, the dam had created a paradise. 

When it was first suggested that the dams come down, the people of the city reacted with astonishment, then anger and sometimes with more than a little racist behavior. They were very disconnected from the paradise in which they lived -- so disconnected that they believed that they had created a paradise out of the wild rather than participating in the destruction of a paradise that already existed.

When the Dams began to come down in 2011 and the river was fully free again in August of 2014, the People of the River believed that the divine protectors of the River had at last awoken from a slumber that was caused by the Trickster. Surely they felt that their tears were being wiped from their eyes, and that the death and mourning, crying and pain that had been part of their lives was finally ending -- as the words in Revelation might describe it. Indeed, for over 100 years they had held onto the hope that the dam that had destroyed their livelihood would one day be removed. 

A Klallam storyteller came to last night’s event. He said that for the Great Spirit, a hundred years is only a moment in time - something that we should all remember, but too often forget. 

The decision to bring down the dams was not easy. It took a long and sustained effort by the Klallam People and their allies – and it took city people willing to take a long hard look at the data that scientists had gathered over the years that the dam was in place.

 

The run of Salmon went from over 400,000 a year to 4,000 the first the first year that the dams were in place to almost zero in the succeeding years. But that was not the only destruction. The reservoir that some had referred to as a paradise, was slowly choking on the silt and debris that could no longer be washed down to the sea. The estuaries at the mouth of the River became rocky and void of life without the constant refreshment of the free flowing water. The native people suffered. The fish grown in hatcheries were not strong or healthy. The Native storyteller referred to the hatchery fish as "poodles instead of wolves". The once abundant wildlife suffered as their source of nourishment was depleted and the waters became murky and unclean. 

With all the evidence in place it became clear to those who were charged with making a decision, that that everything is connected. It is not possible to change a powerful river without collateral damage.    

In Laudato Si Pope Francis wrote that ‘Care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion. Jesus reminded us that we have God as our common (Parent) and that this makes us brothers and sisters. Fraternal love can only be gratuitous; it can never be a means of repaying others for what they have done or will do for us. That is why it is possible to love our enemies.’

Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. It was for them a challenge to care for one another as they might care for their own families. But we are also challenged to love those who are not part of our family, our clan or tribe; people who are outside of the boundaries of ethnic, racial or national groups that we identify with. This means looking for the common good and putting the needs of those we love -- which means all people -- ahead of individual gain.

 

The call to care for our common home is not simply a commitment to recycle and drive less; it is a call to consider the relationships that we have with all of creation. Pope Francis speaks of a universal fraternity; of the need to love and accept the wind, the sun and the clouds, even though we cannot control them.

To live in communion with nature, to view each person and each creature as precious and loved by God calls for a lifestyle conversion that is only possible if we work at it each day, not just Earth Day or on the Feast of St. Francis, but every day.We need our own sacred stories and the stories of other peoples as well to help us understand one another and learn to live in communion.

 
And we need a powerful hope that what we do for the Good of the Earth and for the Earth Community matters. Surely we can hold in our hearts a hope that is as strong and faithful as the hope that sustained the Klallam during the many years when their river was held captive.

Anyway, that is what, was thinking today. Maybe you have heard that story before, or another that is similar. I would welcome and thoughts or comments that you might have.  

Opportunity for Everyone

Yesterday was an exhausting day. On my way to work, walking as I do the last mile in order to get a little exercise into my day, I received a couple of curious texts. One about  "an interesting day ahead" and the other from a co-worker inquiring if I had "made it to work yet." I didn't know what the texts were about but within a couple of blocks I saw the flashing red lights and police barricade.
A man from the street community, living in a tent outside my place of work, had been shot in the back. He is in critical condition as I write today, stable but perhaps paralyzed as the bullet apparently hit or lodged near his spine. The perpetrator was not apprehended.

As an advocate for homeless campers, I am incredibly distressed. No one should have to sleep on the streets unprotected from violent people. Before Christmas two campsites were burned down in the same area, one right in front of my church. Public safety people, fire department etc., told us that camps had been burned in several different areas of town where homeless people congregate to sleep.

Generally the conversation around public camps has to do with unsightliness or the fears that local housed residents or business people have. These concerns need to be addressed but the fundamental issue is that people, human beings with all the needs of any other human being, are sleeping on concrete sidewalks in makeshift huts or in tents without sanitation, running water or garbage service. Theses shanty towns are smaller than the ones we see in the news outside large cities in the developing world, but for the people who live in them, life is anything but pleasant even though they are living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.


In the campsite that is currently being cleaned up - now that an incident has taken place- there were men and women, couples and a family with children. Likely they felt safer in a place with other people near a church and a school where people treat them with some dignity. But it is not a good place for campers. Along with the Director of a small school across the street we have been pushing for the last year for a protected zone around the school - a block or two around the school so that parents don't have to guide their children around tents and sleeping people to get them into school. Although we had been assured that our request was a good one and that the street would be kept clear while the city worked for longer term solutions, there was little follow through after the first few weeks.

What we need in our city is more housing that is affordable and accessible to families and individuals just starting out or for those who work in necessary service industries where the pay is not high enough to cover the cost of the market rate apartments that are springing up everywhere that a developer can manage to purchase the land. Long term thinking needs to include the needs of people at all levels of income or the creation of ghettos and shanty towns will continue to be the only option left for the poorest of the poor. When the low cost studio and one bedroom apartments are filled with working people who cannot afford to move into market rate housing or cannot find affordable housing near enough to their jobs, then there are no places left for the poorest people even when there are housing vouchers to assist them.

Other countries, other cities have figured out how to care for their citizens. We need to do the same.   

winter to spring/layers to skin

Yes. That is Yeeesssssss!!!
It was nearly 70 degrees today.
All during the wet cold months of late fall and winter Pacific North westerners bundle up in layers of sweaters and rain proof garments and vacate the streets as quickly as possible.
On my way to the light rail each wintry evening I passed a number of outdoor eating areas all tied down and abandoned for the rainy season. It was like walking through a twilight ghost town. The people you pass are shrouded in rain clothes, hats or hoodies and no one has a face.  Only a few offer a muffled hello in response to yours.
Then the sun comes out and people blossom like the desert after a rain storm. Spots of color and skin, yes, SKIN appears. People wearing shorts and halter tops, even those who might look better with a little more covering unbutton and remove a layer or two or three for the sunshine. The outdoor cafe chairs and tables are completely filled within minutes with colorful people all alive for the first time since the rains began.
Really it is an overnight transformation (sometimes only a few hours).
On the way into work I passed a man sitting with his face toward the sun. "I am soaking up every last bit of rays" he said, "since it won't last long."
How true. It is only March and we still have the April showers for May flowers to go until the rainy season officially ends (the day after the Rose Festival concludes is the usual first day of sun.)
But for the moment I can't help but feel good along with all of the other creatures of the area. My sinuses are clear. The moss between my toes has been shed. My overcast headache has lifted and my spirits are up in the blue skies of promise.

The first taste of Spring in the northwest. Nothing like it.

To My Children, with love.

We talked over the holiday about the presidential campaign. I always appreciate what my sons and daughters have to say. I am proud that they are thinking about what goes on in the world and coming to their own conclusions. I also like it when I am challenged by the next generation because it gives me hope that society is continuing to evolve. We talked in particular this weekend about the candidates in the Democratic Party, about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Like the younger generation I am inspired by Senator Sanders. I have followed his career for some time because I sincerely believe the country needs to adopt more people nurturing policies like universal healthcare and affordable education. I look at other industrialized nations and see that they are able to take care of these needs for their people and I wish we could. I have always appreciated Sander's recognition of the growing divide between those who have everything and those who have nothing.
I realize that our nation has taken on the role of defense for more that just our own nation and that is not all bad, but it is costly. I also think that this nation "defends" the American way of life even when it is unhealthy or unsustainable, and I think you agree with this. I am hopeful that change is coming, that people are moving slowly in the direction of universal care ... most of the time... albeit very slowly. Mostly I am encouraged by how your generation is willing to live differently, try harder to be sustainable and open to inclusive community.
Like you I am very worried by the political conversation on the other side that has edged so far to the right; anti-immigrant, protectionist, and xenophobic.
I am writing this however in response to your statement regarding whether or not I would vote for Secretary Clinton just because she is a woman. The answer is no since I didn't vote for McCain and Palin just because Palin is a woman. I do have some sense. But when it comes to Clinton I feel differently.
As much as I like Senator Sanders something different happens when I look closely at Hillary Clinton.
She is not perfect. I wish she held some Sander's views more overtly. I don't really believe in dynasties. I didn't like it when we had two Bush presidents from the same family. (There are millions of people in this country and at the minimum there are dozens who have held public office including Governors and Senators who should have background to be President so why would I want the wife of a former president?) Nonetheless, when I look at Hillary Clinton I see a woman who has done all the right things to be president (with the exception of being married to a president -- although that seems to work pretty well in other countries!) If she was a man I think the commentary would be very different.
In my own life and work I have experienced how women who move to the top are supposed to accomplish things like all the men who have gone before them while remaining overtly female and how they are criticized if they do things differently. I have also lived through the women's movement when it became clear that only the women who became as aggressive as men were able to knock down the doors or raise the ceiling for the women who came after them -- even though the personal toll was very high since no one liked pushy women.
But, back to Hillary Clinton. She has experience of her own, she is smart, she has moved through the system and she is in a position to knock down the door and suddenly the rules change. It is not that people don't want a woman, they just don't want an insider. They want someone who will change things -- someone like Senator Sanders or (yikes) Donald Trump. But when I look at them I see two old white men. What's different about that?
When I look at Hillary Clinton I see someone like myself. A wife and mother, and also a highly educated woman who has broken through barriers because she has learned how to play the game as the men want to play --- and done so with as much integrity as she can just as many men have done.
But now when she is in position to move forward... this is not what the nation wants.

How different from what we have always had would it be to have a woman as president? I don't know but I would really like the chance to find out.

President Obama could not provide all the change that he wanted. He was stopped at every point by those who simply did not want a Black President... especially one who was on the side of the middle class and the poor. What has changed however, is that there is now a model in the highest office of the land for every young black person. A good model too, since President Obama has not been riddled with scandal, always showing the nation a loving first couple and first family. He is articulate, educated and extremely thoughtful. Young people are the future and they need this good model - we all do.
 
When at last we have a woman president there will be a model in the highest office of the land for every young woman regardless of color. That is something my generation has never had -- nor any generation before us. I agree that it would be nice if Hillary was the perfect candidate... but has there ever been one? Are only women supposed to be perfect? I mean, isn't Bernie Sanders a little old... too old to be president for the next 4-8 years?
Maybe having a woman president shouldn't be so important to me.

But it is.
      

Menu for change

Six years ago my husband and I traveled to Washington D.C. by train. At the time we were both vegetarians. Neither of us ate any gluten either although my husband is the one who gets really sick pretty quickly when he consumes gluten. Eating in the Dining Car on Amtrak was very difficult. None of the waiters knew much about gluten intolerance and they were not interested in learning. We were told repeatedly that we had to order from the menu "as is" since the food was pre-packaged and no one was willing or able to take meat off the plate let alone offer something else, like a veggie burger in its place. It was not only difficult to eat, it was also kind of embarrassing since the waiters were prone to raising their voices and making us feel pretty bad. A couple of times were told to go "buy food from the snack bar" which, if you have ever ridden on the train, you will know is far more gluten and vegetarian unfriendly than the dining car menu.   
Nonetheless we love traveling by train so we always take food with us in case there is nothing on the menu we can eat. Now, six years later, we are both vegan as well as gluten free and we were quite aware when planning for our recent trip that it could be difficult to order food that we could eat on the train. I called the special services line ahead of time and was told that we could pre-order vegan food although there would be no way to know if the food would be gluten free or not. That was a pretty big issue for us since we do know that many vegan foods are packed with noodles or wheat or other gluten filled products and vomiting on the train from gluten consumption would be rather unpleasant.
I was assured by the Amtrak special services person that no one should make us feel bad and that it seemed perfectly reasonable to her that we would ask for the main entree without the meat. So we decided to take our chances on the regular menu and take food with us as well. Much to our delight the regular menu offered several items that were labeled 'certified vegan' and which came with no foods that would have gluten in them. There was also an option for soy milk on the menu.  So we had vegan Pad Thai with Rice Noodles several times. We ordered potatoes and grits - without the eggs and bacon -- for breakfast and had Gardein black bean veggie burgers without the buns for lunch after I looked up the brand name online and could see that they were gluten free.
The waiters in the dining car were cheerful and helpful. For our last dinner on the train we had the steak, baked potato, and veggies - without the steak and with a Gardein burger in exchange. After one meal the waiter remarked that "you two are so healthy you have the right to scold other diners for the next 20 minutes." We laughed and felt at ease in the dining car which was a very pleasant change from six years ago. We were also aware of several other diners who chose vegan, vegetarian or simple foods.
Sometimes it seems that change will never happen but when we look back through our own lives we can see where change is happening rather rapidly considering how long it took humans to evolve into carnivorous creatures unable to pass up meat or dairy even when it clearly is "not doing a body good."