Thanksgiving in the 21st Century

I have several friends now who won't celebrate Thanksgiving, because they see it as a celebration of genocide.

I think gratitude in general is too important not to devote a holiday to, but I also believe we should look at the real history, not the mythology, as we celebrate each year. To that end, I was deeply grateful to find that the pastors of the Downtown Congregations who put on the Inter-Faith Thanksgiving Service in Minneapolis every year apparently agreed with me this year.

Yesterday's service was incredible and deeply moving. Rev. Bailey from the host church, Plymouth Congregational, named the issue in the welcome.  She invited us to reflect not only on what the Wampanoag did for the Pilgrims, but also the centuries of colonialism and genocide that followed. And used those words. She even included a reference to the water protectors & #NoDAPL.

Rev Tim Hart-Anderson, of Westminster Presbyterian, gave the sermon, and invited Rev Jim Bear Jacobs of Church of all Nations to join him to bring the Native perspective front & center. Telling to Thanksgiving story from the Wampanoag perspective was cool. They talked about the story of Jesus healing the lepers in Samaria & all the reasons we don't stop to give thanks - too busy, too afraid, too entitled. Indeed.

Rev. Lebens-Englund from St. Mark's Episcopal read President Obama's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and invited everyone to stand & hold hands for it. Seemed weird at first, but the proclamation was beautiful & worth it.

The service included scriptures from the Torah, the Qur'an, the Gospel and the Psalms. Passages were read in Hebrew and Arabic, in addition to English. The service also included Latin and Lenape. I loved it. The interfaith nature of the service has grown over 40 years from being Christian + Temple Israel, just sticking to the Old Testament, into a service that pulls in multiple faith traditions and finds the links among them all.

Most meaningful worship I've experienced in a while. I am thankful.

Segregation & The City

My friend Kirsten is a local historian, and she often has cool projects happening. This one is interesting - mapping Minneapolis by "restrictive deed covenants" - meaning the real redlining that happened in our fair city. Not enough to just know that it happened - Kirsten's group is showing exactly where & when.

http://www.startribune.com/mapping-prejudice-project-traces-history-of-discriminatory-deeds-in-minneapolis/402943496/

It's so easy for us to write off segregation in the 21st century as all about choice, but it's not. As Professor Ed Goetz of the U MN's Center for Urban & Regional Affairs put it: "It's important to understand how our cities came to look the way they are. We relegate them to natural market outcomes without reference to the very engineering and intrusive interventions that these things are."

Indeed.  

Wonder Woman

Recently found this fabulous Wonder Woman t-shirt:

It says so much in one image!

https://teechip.com/wwpnks#id=4&c=161616&sid=gildan-50-50-hoodie&s=front

20 Lessons from the 20th Century

Yale historian and Holocaust expert Timothy Snyder wrote: "Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so." Snyder's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (which includes former Secretaries of State), and consults on political situations around the globe.

He says, "Here are twenty lessons from the twentieth century, adapted to the circumstances of today.

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don't protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.

3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.

4. When listening to politicians, distinguish certain words. Look out for the expansive use of "terrorism" and "extremism." Be alive to the fatal notions of "exception" and "emergency." Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

5. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that all authoritarians at all times either await or plan such events in order to consolidate power. Think of the Reichstag fire. The sudden disaster that requires the end of the balance of power, the end of opposition parties, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Don't fall for it.

6. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. (Don't use the internet before bed. Charge your gadgets away from your bedroom, and read.) What to read? Perhaps "The Power of the Powerless" by Václav Havel, 1984 by George Orwell, The Captive Mind by Czesław Milosz, The Rebel by Albert Camus, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, or Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev.

7. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy, in words and deeds, to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. And the moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

8. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

9. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on your screen is there to harm you. Bookmark PropOrNot or other sites that investigate foreign propaganda pushes.

10. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

11. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down unnecessary social barriers, and come to understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

12. Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

13. Hinder the one-party state. The parties that took over states were once something else. They exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their rivals. Vote in local and state elections while you can.

14. Give regularly to good causes, if you can. Pick a charity and set up autopay. Then you will know that you have made a free choice that is supporting civil society helping others doing something good.

15. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Authoritarianism works as a blackmail state, looking for the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have too many hooks.

16. Learn from others in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends abroad. The present difficulties here are an element of a general trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Watch out for the paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-Leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the game is over.

18. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no. (If you do not know what this means, contact the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask about training in professional ethics.)

19. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.

20. Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it."

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I am reminded that the poet Maya Angelou said: "Courage is the most important virtue, because without it, it is impossible to practice any other virtue consistently."

Blogging in a new era

I let this blog go dormant a few years ago, but as we enter a new political era, I thought it made sense to have a place to store ideas more permanently than Facebook. So here we go!