6/17
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| Justice for Floyd. BLM |
(Todays entry is like the Gospel of Thomas, more sayings than narrative...)
The Underground has gathered again…..
In honor of the President’s ill-conceived trip to Tulsa the weekend, in the midst of a surprisingly growing consensus that Black Lives Matter, the President decides to come to Tulsa, the site of the nation’s worst race massacre in 1921, on Juneteenth, the day the news of emancipation finally made it to the Red River, the virus is spiking again, public health officials asking please do not come, for his first rally since the virus shut down the country, in honor of all that, I’m repping Tulsa this morning. My hat is from the local baseball team, the Drillers. And this time the logo is taken from the famous Tulsa icon the Golden Driller who stands like a colossus at the Fairgrounds in front of the International Petroleum Exposition Hall. The Expo was always a big event celebrating the oil and gas industry and brought people from around the world just as Tulsa U’s oil programs brought students and sometimes their families from oil producing countries giving Tulsa an unexpected multicultural flair.
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| Tulsa The matrix through which we see the world held us make sense of things. Out of our subjectivity. |
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| intersectional |
We talk about how identity politics is so limited. It often works that. If you get your own seat at the table as a woman or African American or gay, sometimes that's enough. Stop there. Without looking at the deeper dynamics of oppression, especially class.
Russ mentions Dr.Ruth William Peligreu and the concept of abolitonism, whereby we might create a new society not based violence and punishment.
Brother Phelps brings up Augustine vs. Pelegious. “Nature vs. nurture.” Are we just and society evil or are we evil and need control. The implication is wee need control either way, And how his fave Simone Weil said the revolution is the opiate of the people, not religion.
Russ recommends White Trash. The author speaks of being a disinherited victim of what it means to be human. We all struggle with what it means to be human.
Joel, as he often does, talks of a book, Flatland. and how when something looks like a paradox in the dimension you're in, maybe you nee do add a dimension. There may be a deeper reality at stake.
Much violence comes from valuing money more than humans. Steve H says that much in life is dealing with suffering. That .if I only had enough money, I’d be okay. So I’lll hire people to protect what I’ve got.
There goes the question, when do we put our shoulder to the wheel? And Russ’ inevitable, What is our job? To which Steve H says, the job of the faithful is to draw people into dignity in the midst suffering.
Our linguist Steve P points out that the root of the word cynic, is cunis, the Greek word for dog. Those who bite at each other Likewise worship, proskeneo, is “forward dog," the form of the worshipper bowing forward. Steve H reports that a child heard dog eat dog world as doggy dog world bot a bad alternative. Younger ones want to fight the police and there’s been a police riot. We argue about young vs. old. Anyone under 30 still believes they are immortal, in my view. I recall our carefully orchestrated demos and arrests worked out with the police in advance. Stick to your plan and no one gets hurt. Those days are gone.
Back to defundng police. Phelps again. It’s a world of we decide vs. I decide. We have to have the right to have common held values and means of insuring accountability to them. But what if there are different values? My middle son recalls that in response to a story of his bullying, I responded (as did his mom) we don’t do that in our family. And Joel says, yeah, like in your song We don't roll that way.
The biggest road block to police accountability in New York City is the Union, the Police Benevolent Society.
Joel points out you have to know the form of music before you can play jazz. (That's also a life metaphor…)
Modernity has reinterpreted Christendom’s divide between saved and unsaved. The Spanish Inquisition with its concept of Sangre pura brought an early concept of salvation by “blood.” Then came reason and you wind up with Darwin. The body of Christ turned into European Civilization. Nevertheless, Christianity’s gift, was a universalism.
I bring out my great-grandfather’s Swintons Complete Geography and read aloud it’s comparison of “civilization” in the races. We recalled during the age of “discovery” the debate in the Vatican as to whether natives had souls. And slave owners debate as to whether slaves cold be baptized. Because if they can, the whole slavery thing falls apart. You can only hold slaves if they are less than fully human.
Clyde speaks of the Eric Garner anti-chokehold rally at 125th and Adam Clayton Powell. Up my way.
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| vote |
The Republicans have become a post-policy party We are becoming a post policy nation.
And Steve H wants to know, are we a virus?
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My son tells me that language is changing. We should no longer use the word slave. They were not slaves, they were enslaved people. Adjective, not noun. Like our disabled activist friends taught us. Not the disabled Not the poor. Adjectives are not nouns. People first. Things are moving fast..in one day, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Butterworth all gone…I Actually remember going to an Aunt Jemima night event one time. …
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Our PHEWA group meets. Time before General Assembly grows short and I am anxious. But I leave with a clear idea of what my motion will be and now need know when and get my allies. We have to say something about Black Lives Matter.
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| he gets around |
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| ....and again..... |
I need my walk desperately. I find Tim the peripatetic trombone man on the edge of Morningside Park tonite. And the egret is back again.
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I also need Joel and Carrie’s (Hot Glue & the Gun’s) Gluey Zoomy Show. Yeah its just plain cool but more than that. They’ve very creatively made real a weltanschung if not a welt. I always feel like I can breathe again after I’v been through their show. I get it. If the show gets you to hit the streets, it’s out of decency and caring, not ideology. That’ s what we teach our kids. The first season is done. Back in September.
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I step outside. My neighbor offers to buy me a beer. Another neighbor goes for “loosies. ” Eric Garner was choked to death for selling loosies.
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The fireworks have started early. Every night now this week….
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