6/3
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| street side |
As our “underground” gathered this morning, I said that on Sunday, Clyde had called me and reminded me of the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre). During my ten years there, it was not publicly acknowledged but I heard stories from survivors on both sides of town. I was happy when I returned last year to find it had finally been recognized with a John Hope Franklin commemorative park. I showed my Tulsa Drillers hat based on the new Tulsa flag in which the red explicitly stands for the black lives lost in 1921. And my Cain's ballroom t-shirt from the home of Bob Wills who with his Texas Playboys broadcast daily on KVOO (the Voice of Oklahoma.) Bob’s ‘Take Me Back to Tulsa” includes the lines :
“ Little bee sucks the blossom, big bee get the honey.
Black man pics the cotton, whit man gets the money.
Would I go back to Tulsa, you bet you boots I would.
Leave me off on Archer, I’ll walk down to Greenwood.”
After finishing up his gigs on the white side of town, Bob would go down to Greenwood, “the Negro Wall Street of America” and play all night long with friends like Bobby Blue Bland. Proving once again that music always brought us together across racial limes better than church.
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| Tulsa |
We begin our conversation with the quote from our Governor Cuomo that “we elected don’t lead, we follow,” along with Cuomo’s affirmation that marriage equality, $15 per hour minimum wage and New York State's gun control acts all came about because the electorate demanded it.
There are a number of policy points emerging as the protests continue and the national conversation goes deeper. These include:
* a national data base on police misconduct with a “3 strikes you’re out” provision
For example, Officer accused murderer Derek Chauvin had a record of 9 complaints
In New York City, Officer Pantaleo in the Eric Garner case had cost the city $7million dollars in complaints compensation.
We need more models for community policing. In New York City, police start in the “ghetto neighborhoods” and try to move up for there. I knew an Upper West Side officer who had been in the same precinct for 30 years with longterm relationships. Considered a real odd ball by his colleagues. My neighbors say that “if they knew us, ” they wouldn’t have to send 4 cars for minor incidents, usually misunderstandings. ‘We would help them.”
In Richmond, California, officers are rewarded for positive community interactions. In New York City, there is still an (unofficial) arrest quota system that police must fulfill.
In terms of clergy, we recall that in the last round of “Black Lives Matter” marches, organizer Linda Sarsour had the clergy on the periphery of the march, not the front, creating a protective shield between police and community marchers.
There is a basic need for people to understand the difference between living while an living black, perhaps best illustrated by the Central Park story. Amy Cooper knew exactly what her call about being attacked by an “African American male” could bring.
We talked abut the difference between empathy and sympathy, feeling with, feeling for. And compassion, deep feeling with. The sense of actually walking in another’s shoes.
We talked bout President Trump’s invasion of St. John’s Episcopal Church. His way cleared by tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets. And that our sense of moving towards fascism not as a rhetorical device but as an objective reality. How evil grows and evolves as it is allowed to.
And then there is Eduction Secretary Betty DeVos’ threat to remove funding from any states that allow competition by trans athletes.
Our friend Dre suggests that what we have is not so much a race war as a war of ideas. And how Cornell West has spoken about the parallel between US military’s responses to people of color in other lands and US police response to peoples of color here.
Joe points out the parallels between military and police. How people get drawn in in response to class issues, that it is as a way to better one’s socio-economic condition. There is a similarity in age between protestors, police and military. The violent reaction of police is built into the system. In this it is easy to underestimate the power of evil. That is how some conflict, violence is simply built into the system. Because of the systemic nature of what we are facing, there is simply no short cut to can’t we all get along.
And there is simply no ignoring the rise of Neo-fascist regimes across the globe.
We talk about how does one become an evil leader. And we see connection to viruses. As Steve P says, more homology than analogy. And then says, to make it simple, the one thing we all need to be about is voter registration. The conversation turns to the move from protest to organizing. There is much criticism of the Alinsky model of organizing, especial the demonization of the enemy. (An understanding I don’t agree with..) Leo describes my friends' work in the No Mas Muertos organization on the US-Mexico Arizona border as being an excellent example of grass roots organizing with horizontal leadership and consensus based decision making. They have succeeded in maintaining an effective humanitarian rescue operation and prophetic witness on the border since 2004. (www.nomasmuertos.org) He talks about how the Christian base communities in his home El Salvador had been able to resist the invasion of the gangs and drug cartels. ( The same as I had seen in both Salvador and Nicaragua and the indigenous highlands of Guatemala. The US has no real tradition of base communities let alone revolution tested cadres. But can we learn from them?
Steve H has been studying Mennonite theologian John Paul Lederach and his use of the “weaving webs” metaphor, moving for the center to the periphery and back again until the web is complete. (Some noted the webs are primarily used to trap other insects as food :) )
We finished by talking about the Wild Goose gathering of progressive and outlaw Christians every July in North Carolina. And the difference between the traditional dove symbol of the Holy Spirit and the Celtic wild goose symbol. The dove has a vertical up and down image while the goose goes far. And can be tough, even mean, when under attack.
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Our Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association team meets to catch up with each other in this current crisis.
* The business district of Santa Monica, California has been demolished.
* In Minneapolis, most of the damage has been to small family owned businesses. Ultimately, most of the violence did come from local sources, not so much out of town people. Though there was a “accelerationst” character to the violence. The site of George Floyd’s murder is being treated as a shrine. Thousand of people lying down in the street for 8 minutes and 48 seconds.
* In DC, there is a lot of organizing to keep people from violence. US Army units are patrolling and on the ready alert
* Thousands gathered in Nyack, New York in solidarity with Black Lives Matter
* There are daily events in New York City…and now a curfew..
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My friend Beppe and I walk into Riverside Park.
I’m pleasantly surprised to find the overlook promenade bar below 103rd open. We share French fries and drafts in calming late afternoon sunlight and late spring warmth.
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| Beppe and Lijljana |
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| in Riverside |
The day ends with another fine exploration with the Gluey Zoomy Show, featuring among others, the InHeiritance Project, an interactive listening and performance project of listening, storytelling and community building.(www.inHeiritance.org)
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No matter what conversation I’m in, my underground group, or PHEWA or my friend Beppe, it feels lie we’ve come to a critical point, a moment of change after which we will not be he same. The massive response to the recent murders is unprecedented. Every business, organization, public group feel they have they have to respond in some way. Finding our way, our call is the challenge.
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