Books on Both Ends

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Today I picked up several more books from the US Social Forum:

Beyond Hereos and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development - The introduction states that multicultural education “must be transformative; that is, encourage academic excellence that embraces critical skills for progressive social change.” This book is inspired by the work of Paulo Freire, who I’m interested in right now.
Winona LaDuke’s All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, an “in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental and cultural degradation.” One of the quiz questions during the AR/AO game show at General Assembly was about the average lifespan of Native Americans in the US. It’s 20 years lower than that of the national average - and only 46 years old for Native people living on reservations (and this is an improvement over a decade ago). I have a lot to learn about why this is happening, which is why I grabbed this book.
Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption - a collection of writings (poetry, essays, etc.) by transracially adopted folks that examine the personal, cultural and economic consequences of this growing phenomenon. The DH and I are strongly considering adoption, and although we’d probably adopt a US American kid, we’ll still be a multiracial family. I want to know more about this issue from the perspective of adoptees.
The last book I picked up was Murray Bookchin’s The Ecology of Freedom: The emergence and dissolution of hierarchy. This book is dense and academic, and I’ve already read the introduction twice. It will be a while before I can finish it, but this book neither romanticizes nor dismisses the way prehistorical folks managed their resources. I’m very interested in what Bookchin has to say about how “hierarchy is dissolved and human beings develop more sane, sustainable and egalitarian social structures.” And supposedly, Bookchin was very radical - not just a reformist.

Meanwhile, the DH is at home reading two Pat Buchanan texts: The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasians Imperil Our Country and Civilization and State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. When I get back, we’ll share what we’ve been reading. Both of us are slow readers, and as they say, two heads are better than one!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Jun

30

A Little Church-less

Filed Under uuism | 9 Comments

Ever since GA I’ve been having niggling thoughts about whether my church spiritually feeds me. Also, the DH and I have been talking a lot about children which prompts me to ask myself, when the time comes, will I want to take them to my church?

Several things I’m concerned about:

I attend about once a month, and can’t remember a single sermon from the past year. The two services I do recall with some amount of clarity were the annual youth-led service (which features homilies), and the service celebrating the New Year, in which several congregants (including myself) delivered homilies.
The separation of children and youth from adults during worship service. I’m increasingly of the opinion that weekly worship should NOT be age-segregated. This is an open question that I can’t even attempt to tidily wrap up for the rest of the world, but for me and my future family, intergenerational worships are what I desire. Certainly, there should be space for youth and young adults, and other subgroups to meet and organize, but I’d like to see worships for everyone that involve everyone. Not adult-led worships that kids have to “sit through.”
Not enough prayer or time for reflection in the worship. Out of a 70 minute service there is typically 3-5 minutes of actual prayer time, including the “silent” meditation piece.

So those are three things that are bugging me. I need to spend some time thinking about how to address these concerns. It’s important that I remain in my church and not switch to another, but this might require some creativity. Another incentive is that I’ve recently pledged to the capital campaign - for six years.

Additional note:

Once a month we have Together Time, when the kids and youth enter the main sanctuary for the first fifteen minutes of service. A pet peeve of mine is that the children’s educator asks everyone, “How are the children?” And the ADULTS respond, “The children are well.” I’ve seen this done in other UU churches, so I know it’s ‘normal’ - but what on earth is that about? It seems presumptuous - as if the adults are answering for the children. What is the meaning behind this exercise? After the children’s educator reads a story to us all, we sing to the children, instructing them to “go now in peace.” Unfortunately, we don’t really get to hear from the children and youth much at all. And then they are gone for the rest of the service. I just find this ODD. Does someone know the story behind this tradition; maybe if I had some understanding on this it would no longer bother me.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Jun

29

New Books

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Yesterday I made my first US Social Forum purchase: five books.

Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America by Ward Churchill with Mike Ryan. I think the thesis of this book is that pacifism is too often a philosophical exercise for those with the privilege to never really have to respond to violence being done against their communities. An examination of the non violence movements of MLK and Ghandi is also made here. Since I’ve long been on the fence about pacifism, I’m looking forward to reading this.
Howard Zinn’s latest book, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy
The only bell hooks book I didn’t already own: Feminism is For Everybody - because my understanding of feminism is so limited, despite the great advantages it’s given me.
And lastly, a book I’ve been hearing a lot about recently: The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-profit Industrial Complex - edited by incite: women of color against violence.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Jun

29

US Social Forum Day 2

Filed Under events, race, ussf, workshops | 1 Comment

Wow. Being here in Atlanta right now is like being around 10,000 of some of my favorite UUs. I actually have run into a number of UUs - some of whom I saw at GA! Small world. I love how I can talk to all of these people who understand things like the “gender binary” system, history of race and class in the USA, and current resistance movements.

I’m enjoying myself - there is so much to learn! And it warms my heart to see so many people of color here. There are many activist UUs and Portlanders, but they are mostly white. Sometimes I forget how many diverse groups of people of color are working together on issues. Even in the midst of typical, petty human dramas, there is solidarity here - the likes of which I have never personally witnessed.

This event has more workshops than GA - 975 programs!!! But there are really only 3 time slots per day (10:30, 1:00, 3:30). In the morning there is a daily opening (8:30) and at 6pm there is a plenary. It’s very different to be here with no role to play, as a total unknown, but it means I can just go to what purely interests me, stay up late, take breaks and maybe even sleep in a little.

Yesterday I attended the first half of plenary for the Social Forum. It was split into two sections: the first half addressing issues of the Gulf Coast, and the second half about the military and prison industrial complexes.

What is going on in New Orleans is absurd. One point a speaker made is that recovery is not “slow” as described in the media, but it is about the privatization of the area. Golf courses and expensive condos replacing public housing, etc. I could go on and on, but I want to keep this post of moderate length. UU congregations that want to send groups down to New Orleans need to be mindful of two things:

Mississippi needs work too!
If you are going to send anyone down to the Gulf Coast, you should be working in collaboration with existing, locally based groups that are approaching reconstruction in anti racist and anti classist ways. There are lots of resources (including within the UU community) for addressing both of these points. The UUSC has been working very hard to be accountable to the folks it seeks to serve.

Earlier in the day I attended a workshop put on by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (of NYC). We did a lot of work with imagery and using our bodies to express obstacles we have in relation to activist work. We used imagery again to be creative about ways to overcome those obstacles. It was hard for me to put myself out there in front of others, as I’m naturally reserved, but it was very joyful and loosened me up (emotionally).
The second workshop I attended was titled Teaching with Freire and the Feminists in the 21st Century, and I got some really good things out of it. There was a focus on adult literacy, and creating space for dialogue with humility and reflexivity. This event really underscored for me the challenge of teaching AS an act of radical liberation. So much of education is managerialism and - as many of the teachers in the room lamented - standardized testing. Which leads me to the third workshop I took which was called Teaching the People’s History to Kids through Fun and Play.

The instructor(s) didn’t show up (we have no idea what happened to them), so we attendees opted to facilitate the workshop ourselves, discussing education, history, and teaching techniques. I’m not a teacher, but as an unschooler, I’m very interested in theories of education. I’ve also done a lot of facilitating and volunteer teaching, from ESL tutoring to Muslim Sunday School, where I taught Islamic history to kids for years. Most of the other people in the room were educators, and it suddenly became even more apparent to me how oppressive parts of educational system is. One teacher in New York spoke about how recess and nap time had been taken out of the lower grades - including kindergarten. There were attempts to diagnose one five year old boy in her class with ADD - and she was fighting against this because all he wanted was to play! What the ?!* I felt badly for many of these teachers, who are striving to include radical ideas in a system that is so very, very conservative.

Okay, end of report from yesterday!

Popularity: 25% [?]

Jun

27

At the Social Forum

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Sitting here at opening ceremonies for the us social forum and I am reminded of how little I like political speeches. I understand their purpose - I am just not very susceptible to rallying cries; not in sports, not in politics and not in religion either. I would prefer to hear about concrete things instead of rhetoric.

That being said there is a lot of work being done by many of the people here. Too bad the world is more familiar with the undoings of Paris Hilton than with the unceasing organizing being done by ordinary folks in the US.

Ooh here is Hollis Walker and Tufara Williams. Time for a song. Tuffara made up the song in the car on the way here:

we gather together in 2007
to organize and politicize
to strategize and mobilize
get ready, world
get ready, world

Many of the folks here have to fight tooth and nail for so much - clean water, public schools that are even halfway decent and prepare their children for the realities of society, the preservation of their communities, and protection from police brutality. I see a lot of networking and collaboration taking place here.

okay now I am done posting as I am on a cell phone and this is time consuming. The day and a half mini institute I just completed on art and social justice was great, by the way. And the music here so far at the forum is great. Oh and I marched in the march earlier with ten thousand other people.

Popularity: 8% [?]