Living in coronavirusworld 203: At last, Church bells in Paris...

 

11/7

Into the streets

I want to remember this day.  

Morningside Park

bluegrass

It was bright and sunny and warm as I headed to the Farmers’ Market.  A perfect fall day. Even with the ongoing uncertainty, the desire to have it over, but over right.. The market the perfect place to spend some time. I’m cheered by a trio of bluegrass buskers come to play for the people.  I wander through  the market checking out produce, craft spirits, breads, pickles, art works, baked goods and fresh from the farm meat. Bought some bolognese, some weisswurst, a shepherd’s pie, fresh baked cookies and some Colombian coffee.

I stop to enjoy a cup of coffee and a cranberry walnut cookie on a park bench.  Then I hear it. Pots and pans being rattled reminding me of what we heard every night at 7 honoring our “heroes.” A sound from earlier in the pandemic. I wondered what was going on. Only from one window.  Could it be a family celebration of some kind? Then slowly the sound began to build as more people joined in. And  then the rising crescendo of a cheer and then a steady stream of car horns and even a big bass truck horn. I was almost afraid to hope.  What else could it be? But still hesitant to let myself believe.  So I nervously pulled out my phone and there it was. Joe Biden had been declared President and Kamala Harris Vice-President. And I felt a dam begin to break. 

red leaves

I almost broke when I heard a bike rider proclaim “We did it! We drove him out!” And more and more people cheering, “We did it. We did it.”  I look up and realize that some trees have  turned bright red. Almost like they had waited for the declaration to be made for  their colors  to come out. (And maybe wishing they could turn blue?)

I make my way to Fredrick Douglass Boulevard. It seems lie from every open car window I am hearing Kool & the Gang’s” Celebration…..” 

                                                           "Celebration"

People are pouring out of apartment buildings and into the street. 

Snapshots:

*A man  with a cup walks by, says, “Joe Biden’s President! Spare change? Joe Biden’s President!…”

* I see a couple walking with their little daughter. She is wearing a princess outfit and carrying a sign, “Kamala is my Vice President”. And I know that when she sees the Vice President, she will see someone who looks like her and not an old white man. Her idea of what she can be grows like her glowing smile. 

celebration

* The bars are sending servers out with trays of shots of celebration for the people 

*. The Mister Softee ice cream truck appears out of nowhere after weeks of absence.  its jingle jangling like it’s spring again. 

a toast to Joe and Kamala

I’m trying to take it all in. I’m hearing the voices. Seeing the faces.  This Harlem. The majority are black. And they truly feel they drove this man out of the Whitehouse. These are the people I saw lined up day after day waiting three hour or more to vote. Sometimes having to come back a second day. Sometimes standing in the cold and freezing rain.  Just to vote. And they feel it mattered. And they mattered. And truth be told, nationwide, they, especially black women, were the difference. An al time record number of people voted. And their voting, their participation rescued democracy from those who won do everything I their power  to suppress the vote. They still believed  it could  matter. And it did. And that counts do something. I hear the voices, see the faces, and I begin to choke up. This is special. Like Obama in 08. 

Throughout the afternoon, I keep getting texts and messages from people all around the world…Germany, Chile, Denmark…a friend I haven’t heart from in months calls me from Californa, because she has too…my boys report  the celebration in Brooklyn.  My journalist friend in Pittsburgh and I agree, its like a Mazeroski moment, a walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th, the scrappy Pirates beating the  mighty Yankees for the World Series title. 

Someone who knows me better than anyone else invites me over. We sit on a  balcony, share cheese and crackers and IPA, our accounts of the day, as the sun sets and darkness falls over Harlem. 

Look, I understand the proximate nature of this victory. The narrowness. The limitations of the vision of Joe Biden. His problematic history. But there is a decency there, a vulnerability, someone who understands loss. And I feel I can breathe again. Not wake up every morning with a sick headache, another offense of the day. That’s gone.  It will take a while to emotionally accept that. There I much work to be done.

I hear the voices again. We did it!  People who believe they have won one victory can believe they can win more. And they can.

Church bells are ringing in Paris.

    

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Living in coronavirusworld 143: the fruit of the prayer is not in the prayer

8/19

...and it does.....

Our Underground group gathers from New York City, the Berkshires, Catskills, Maine and the Jersey Coast.  Any of us who can be away are away. Typical New York August stretched out over months. 

A lot of time is spent today talking about contemplation and….like say action. How the depths of contemplation can lead to action. 

We talk about prayer. How true prayer is more listening than speaking.  How Jesus learned things through listening. To others. And to God. That the fruit of the prayer is not in the prayer. We talked about Thomas Merton. How through prayer we find ourselves, love ourselves. How he said the one who begins in contemplation will end in revolution.  And that prayer unleashes our power. Compassion and empathy as the fruits of prayer.

We talked about the difference between chanters and shouters. 

We talked about hope. How it is not objective, it has no object, it just is. And it is, as the Bible says, not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) 

Joel says we are living in a time of cold civil war. I describe my emotional state as quiet anxiety, not helped by our current system,  our crazy electoral system in which a voter on Wyoming has 4 times the voting power as one voter in California.  Hold onto hope.

We speak of the difference between meditation, emptying of all thought,  and contemplation, single minded reflection.  And what each leads to . And commit to following up on this conversation, deeper,  next week.

a reminder

trees

Walking through Central Park, there’s a new set of banners affirming the Park’s role in  our lives.

The Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association continues to explore the potential collaboration between our Disabilities Network and the Black Women and Girls working  group.  Our Reproductive Options group also sees collaboration as helping to move us past pro-choice, to reproductive justice, a perspective that explores the social economic and bias pressures that push abortion rates in communities of color. 

Tonight at the Democratic Convention is Kamala Harris’ night.  Fine points of ideology and change theory aside, her story is a quintessentially American story.  Immigrant parents from Jamaica and South Asia. Meeting in a march for justice. An extended family of various colors, cultures snd spices. An American story. Our story. That alone counts for something.  As does a Presidential candidate's wife who is a teacher and believes in public education, not ending it. People who know us. Yes, that counts. 

Living in coronavirusworld 137: A vice presidential candidate. Latin America and Covid. And a new trombone for Tim.

8/12

America

Obviously, the  first thing our “underground” group talks about is Biden’s choice of  Kamala Harris as running mate. Joel says voting against Biden -Harris would be like voting against Bilbo Baggins and Frodo.  The Eye of Sauron is raging in the land.  Steve P maintains  that our  country would never elect a true left progressive.       

We talk about voting versus building a movement. How it's not either/or, it’s both and. We have to deal with the moment.  Russ is convened that the student loans crisis was created to occupy students and keep  them out of the streets like they were in the ’60’s. Steve P feels this is at best half true.  In either event since 1970, the cost of an eduction has tripled. He sees this as a function  of a society committed to material expansion.

The issues we are concerned about: 

* health care

* prison reform

* Student debt 

* Deployment of troops overseas and military funding.

Russ quotes Erica Chenowith’s ‘Ted Talk” where she compares the success of  non-violent movements to violent revolutions, with more success on the  side of non-violence.(https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#search/russ%40commonsoul.com?projector=1)  For Joel this is like a kid who is given a protocol by a doctor who only half heartedly follows and then blames the doctor when it doesn’t work.  We have to compete the whole therapy. 

Steve P points out that since 1776, the US has had only 16 years without a war. The Peoples’ Republic of China, on the  other hand, has had no wars since 1949.  

Someone point out that turmoil is literally turning the soil, the moil. 

Our job requires nuance.  Much as we support the Poor Peoples’ Campaign, we realize that it has not had widespread awareness to date. We need to spread that further. (https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/)

Anyway we look at it, there’s work to be done,,,

                                                                                        ****

Our Central America work group gathers. 

In Honduras, a giant road sign reads ‘Where is the Money? Expressing the belief that international aid has been highjacked by those charge. International flights should begin again this weekend. The health system has collapsed. 

In Guatemala, it’s a bipolar  bounce  between tight restrictions and laissez faire. There’s a daily curfew. No public transportation. Hunger, no food. Again, here too, the question, where's the money? They speak of the pacto de corruptos, the pact of the corrupt.  Including even judicial corruption.  Covid19 as an excuse for remilitarization. States of siege declared to extend government control even where no protests are present.

In El Salvador, theres’a similar use of covid to justify military expansion. Only here, the Bukele government has less support from his supporters and the government.

In Nicaragua, the head of the Protestant Council (CEPAD) has died of Covid. There is  concern about the role of USAID as the 2021 election grows closer. Mass gatherings have finally stopped. The July  19th revolution celebration was a very circumscribed event with only  a few dignitaries invited. They try to continue as if all is normal with 70-80000 dead, many deaths listed pneumonia and not Covid 19. 

Cost Rica has does well with virus control but has growing xenophobia against people from other countries, especially Nicaraguans.  Visitors from the US are now banned. Only 500-600 cases and 11 deaths. Running out of tests. Nicaragua demands a test for those trying to return  to the country and charges $150 a test at the border. 

Dennis quickly covers South America. Brazil has 80000 deaths and 20 million infected. Chile’s privatized society has left many uncared for. Ban of transports is keeping oxygen tanks from reaching those who  need them. If you don’t have a job you're on your  own. 

In the meantime, lack of attention due to Covid has seen a return of tuberculosis. Drugs for HIV patients are deteriorating in quality and disappearing. Dengue and CICA returning.  

Somehow, with people afraid to leave the  US, remisas, dollars sent back have not drastically declined.  Deportatios have continued from the  US even with airports closed. 

Tim's new trombone

I have to go for a walk. What makes  my day, Tim has a new trombone. Praise the Lord.