Conversation Recap for July 6, 2008

We met on Tacoma’s Ruston waterfront, about 200 meters West of the Fireboat on display. A bit more than a dozen of us assembled with much good food, and the weather cooperated.

During check-in we were informed that the Washington State Historical Museum will open an exhibit on Civil Rights in Tacoma, on August 18.

The topic today was national identity, and two people brought flags to display, many of them hand made.

We saw several approaches to the idea of national identity. One frequently used was to conceive of where one’s ancestors are from, in terms of nation states. Some pointed out the shaky foundations of such concepts, as in the case of a Mexican-American whose family stayed in the same place while borders shifted.

We also visited, several times, the idea of whiteness as a blended construct which is part of US nationalism. At times, the “normal” category, as one participant referred to it, does not get marked out as an identity. Over time, whiteness has consisted of many things—color, religion, behavior, consumption patterns, and more.

More than one participant shared stories that suggested historical memory is not a strong suit in the US. Most folks, at one time or another, have run into reminders that we don’t know the history of various groups.

One participant offered a simile of ethnicity as a sort of cafeteria, where many people get to select which identification they prefer. And, some get the identification applied by others. We seemed to agree that the choice in the matter increased with degree to which one appears to be white.

And, there were tales of family secrets of identity, like German backgrounds in the mid 20th century.

One participant noted that nationalism is a modern and rather odd idea, that no one saw it coming, and that some recent scholarship describes it as essentially a religious affiliation.

We discussed components of national identity in the US. One participant speculated that many constructions of ancestry rely on questionable assumptions about their forbearers’ fidelity.

We witnessed a couple of examples of flag desecration in the garments worn by passers by.

We were reminded of the geneticist Spencer Wells, whose book The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey summarizes a widely shared conclusion—that all humans are descended from a person or persons who lived in Africa about 31,000 to 79,000 years ago, and that there is more genetic variation between individual members of a single “racial” group than there is across groups. The discussion moved to consider the differences we note between humans as largely ideological, yet primate biologists usually dispute this.

Several participants described a desire to deemphasize nationalism.

Several participants mentioned the Census, and for a time we discussed the use of “race” in this national account of who we are. We were reminded that the categories applied by the Census have changed over time—in the mid-19th century, people were classified as white, black or mulatto; in the later part of that century the Census added American Indians (those taxed—recall Article I Section 2 of the Constitution), Chinese and Japanese to the list. One census (1890) included “Quadroons and Octoroons.” One (1930) used “Mexican” as a racial category. (See a brief historical overview, from which much of the above was lifted, at http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056.html) The two questions in the 2000 census (the first asking if a person is “Spanish/Hispanic/Latino” and the second asking if a person is one of 14 categories, including “other.” In addition, our laws over the years have recognized different sets of rights based on such classifications. After the abolition of slavery, state laws mandated segregation, limited property ownership and political rights, and proscribed marriage between whites and others.

The Census categories reflected a national conflation of the concepts of race and ethnicity. In this regard one may consult the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) response to the categories used in the 2000 Census, which they generally approved of as a step in the direction of abandoning the use of “race” as a category in the 2010 census. (See it at http://www.aaanet.org/gvt/ombdraft.htm) The AAA regards race as an idea created as part of the wave of Western European encounters with other peoples beginning in the late 15th century, and which was part of an understanding of differences among humans as somehow essential and closely tied to racist interpretations of human morphology and behavior.

For a short time we discussed the Cherokee Freedmen controversy (see the wikipedia page on it, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Freedmen_Controversy).

Conversation Recap for June 15, 2008

Today was our First Summer Day Outdoors. Seventeen of us met at Owen Beach, in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park, and people brought loads of excellent food.

During check-in, one participant suggested a Conversation emblem we could adopt, a form of body ornamentation. Several participants evinced an interest.

Today we heard Crestina’s story.

In the ensuing discussion, we discussed stereotypes, the encounters with them during childhood, and the ways we make sense of them now. We came back to this several times. This is at the heart of the Conversation. At times one of us may bring up something that cuts at another member. As one participant said to the participant who uttered the phrase, If it were uttered in a context where I didn’t know you, I would have walked out.

But there was no walking out. Instead we talked about it. People said what was on their minds, and we listened to each other. As one participant told us, the Conversation is a place where we can deal with a little tough honesty.

Among the things said: It is very important to look at the history of stereotypes. What is conjured by the images. In the not-too-distant path it was common for products to be marketed with images of African Americans on the label, in advertising, or in the shape of the package. Examples include Aunt Jemimah Syrup, Uncle Ben’s Rice, and Cream of Wheat. These are historically transitory figures, people who are always depicted as servants, people who disappear once the consumer (say, a child) is past that stage of life when they eat a lot of syrup. One participant summarized such images as “one of the chains that hold us back.” Another participant said the stereotypes fix a limit or ceiling on African Americans.

A related topic: Participants reported numerous social situations where whites are not confronted about our relationships to stereotypes. Some reported a common response, when confronted, is to step back from the situation, as if attacked. It is almost as if there were unwritten rules that say whites do not have to examine these ideas, and their participation in their perpetuation.

Also in the ensuing discussion, we discussed constitutional rights, what they have signified, protected, and empowered over time. For example, in the US it is common to define the Bill of Rights as primarily protections for individuals against government power. At other times in our history they were constructed in more economic terms, such as in the many European immigrants who came here voluntarily seeking a better life. When we characterize the United States as a “we” story, the word “we” is problematic. Are we sure others see it the same way, and share in the story the same way?

One participant suggested a book to read at this point: Octavia Butler, Kindred.

We also discussed connections between the Conversation and social justice topics. A commitment to social justices means difficult topics will come up now and then, topics that ask us to engage in conversations about how we live. We considered generally some questions about how we see transformation of the community. One participant noted that in the current presidential contest there is “big time naiveté,” that the campaigns are avoiding the topic, and that the media are not at all interested in such story lines.

We discussed ways at reaching out to a wider community. One was a forum that focuses on mythologies in the USA, perhaps a series. There are myths that are perhaps properly addressed at the 4th of July, or in the lead-up to the presidential election. Other interesting myths deal with race, the founding, economic opportunity.

Many of the participants are, to use the phrase of one first-time participant, old heads. One possibility for linking up with and listening to not-yet-old heads is to have them invite us to show up in their neighborhood. Perhaps we will get invited to Manitou Park, and we could bring food, etc., and have an interesting conversation. Maybe this will happen July 27. More to come on this. Among the topics that might be discussed: drugs, gangs, pregnancy, and maybe racism (although we heard that younger folks don’t talk about it much).

We learned that, despite the wet and cool Spring so far, we are in a drought season.

This discussion, and going to a public park, was in pursuit of a goal of the Conversation. Get people, and mostly white people, to take the risk to get out and listen to, talk with some folks that are usually seen one-dimensionally.

Conversation Recap for June 7, 2008

Next week, June 15, we are optimistically projected to meet outside. We will meet at Owen Beach, which is in Point Defiance Park. The topic is checking in on where we are in our lives.

During check-in, we heard from Laurie, now in her last week at ESC before moving on to her new job. More on that later.

This week we heard Kathy’s story, part two. Imagine being in NYC 1964-8, the music, the theater, the politics, it was a place where many things happened. A central part of the story was the 1968 strike that began in April of 1968, and the recent 40th anniversary of those events.

The discussion drew out comparisons among the white, black and Asian students during that time, and contemporary accounts made it clear that this was a time when segregation was the norm, and the ways this affected life went largely unnoticed by the white students.

One of the reasons the police took a while to arrest the strikers was that they were worried about Harlem exploding, possibly as a reaction to any mistreatment of black students.

Another strand of conversation looked at student activism, and comparisons between now and those times. There is student activism today, largely focused on the Iraq war.

When asked about her own writing, Kathy described her interviews of members of mixed families. One feature of making sense of the interviews is the question of identity. This is in part a product of the context that defines the color line in America—recall the days of miscegenation laws, the ‘one-drop’ rule, and legalized segregation. She has five categories she asked her respondents about: ascribed identity (what people call a person), cultural identity (cultural features where people find strength, entertainment, etc.), self-identification (what people use when filling out forms, which is often not the same as the previous three categories), how people say they really identify, and a general question where she asked people to describe events or situations that make them feel more white or black or Asian. Identity is a complicated question.

The V-team will meet after today’s session to discuss and set an agenda for the next three or so months. We discussed topics for the V-team to take up. Next week they will present a proposed schedule.

Part of the V-team work may follow a call by Dexter to encourage more dynamic civic engagement on the part of the Conversation. We have subgroups that work on education and on peace issues. We also discussed the organization of small discussion groups within the larger Conversation. This is also connected to the possibilities of our growing, and how to handle larger groups. We also discussed possible topics: American exceptionalism, the links between race and class, the criminalization of immigration, health equity and disparities, a session on helping parents understand their rights and resources available to them in the education system (and elsewhere), public education, Obama’s use of the term ‘post-racial,’ contemporary civic engagement, economics and social justice, planning strategically for social and structural change, native Americans in the Northwest, sessions on Youth and Children. Another topic, perhaps in two weeks, is juveniles in the law and disproportionalities. Other topics are welcome. One thing to discuss is the time of our meetings—the issue we have discussed before that this is the church hour for lots of people, and there are consequences for who is able to be part of the Conversation.

Next week, June 15, we are optimistically projected to meet outside. We will meet at Owen Beach, which is in Point Defiance Park. It is also Sound-To-Narrows and Fathers Day, each which bring out lots of people.

Places to consider for the outdoor meetings.
• Somewhere along the Ruston Waterfront, like Dickman Mill Park
• Owens Beach
• Downtown Tacoma, at the History Museum
• Wright Park
• Peoples’ Park
• Titlow Beach
• There are park facilities or covered outdoor meeting areas at many of the schools, such as Lincoln Park.

If we commit to going outside for the summer, we are committed to potlucks. We will coordinate it through the folks now signed up for food. A couple of our number will check these out and propose a schedule for the next couple of months. One thing to consider: Perhaps instead of meeting at a different place each time, we meet at a couple of places. We will need to print something that everyone can have on their calendar, and in their pockets, to remind them and to help with invitations to people. We also need to put it front and center on the blog.

We express our profound thank you and appreciation to Laurie Arnold, for the many things she has done to organize and energize The Conversation. Several people offered testimonials.

We notice, we appreciate, that Laurie is our steady presence—here every week, here first, here to welcome us and make it happen. This rock steady person is also, as some of us know, rebellious. And we take from this a recognition of impeccable timing—when to be each.
In one testimonial, Laurie is called a fellow traveler in the fight against racism, in the struggle to help families in need, to make education possible for many for whom it was closed, she is the change we want to happen.

Laurie, “our butterfly,” who carries our presence through the internet. She creates stability in the communities she adopts, and we are grateful for doing that for us. She gives so generously to others. We love and honor her and her family of origin. She will now create support systems in new places.

In a tribute from a self-confessed odd person, thank you to Laurie for encouraging us in our oddities, to open Evergreen as a welcoming place for us.

Special thanks go out from Evergreen alumni, who have been welcomes, been taught through her role model as a caring person who fights racism, encourages students, and makes programs happen. The students love Laurie, several testified.

One participant reminded her there is life after change, and the wish for Laurie is for her to be able to experience these wonderful aspects of life in that new place, too.

Laurie is a pillar of the community, our community. Some etymology: pillar: One who occupies a central or responsible position, from the latin pila. The metaphor is architectural, of course, but pillar is the plural form of pilum, the javelin carried by Roman soldiers. For the Romans, pillars were seen as bundles of spears. Pillars don’t just stand there, they are fierce bundles of energy, ready to move and take action. And they are also not single things, but a gathering of the many parts that, together, hold the place up.

Conversation Recap for June 2, 2008

We met as a smallish group on this cloudy day.

Our topic today is race and gender in the current political contests. So we asked people to come up with the “most irritating moment” in the campaigns and the coverage during the last few weeks.

One participant recounted the tale of a superdelegate from our state who recently made a move in the direction of Clinton. An email barrage erupted urging people to berate this person, and to send her entreaties to change back. The level of enmity seems to make people forget that people get to make decisions.

One participant told a story that brought the themes together—it is a dead end to try to decide whether the race or gender features of the election are more important. Where would this go—if you vote for Obama you are sexist, and if you vote for Clinton you are racist? And people get to criticize candidates without being labeled as racist or sexist.

For example, the recent media coverage of the priest who spoke at a Chicago church (yes, that Chicago church) and accused Clinton of exercising white privilege. Interestingly, the same priest was interviewed at length on the topic of reverend Wright, and the tape of it sounds like a smart and perceptive person…. but then when he gets to Wright’s former congregation, he goes off. There is the possibility, one participant observed, that people lose a bit of their minds when the media cameras and microphones are pointed in their direction.

The media coverage focuses too much on candidate statements about minor matters not related to policy—Clinton finding hope in the possibilities of June, Obama examining links between class, guns and religion, and so on.

Does anyone trust the statements of people who say they will vote this way or that, especially in response to the bitter fight within the Democratic party. The media attention is on the infighting, not policy. How many remember the divisive coverage, encouraged by the campaigns, of how the conflict in the economy is between white women looking for jobs, African Americans looking for jobs, and white working class voters looking for jobs? The media and some campaigns frame issues as confrontations between such groups, rather than looking at shared interests.

We discussed media content for a bit. One participant subscribes to both the TNT and the New York Times, and the former often runs stories from the latter—the headline pitch and the placement are usually quite different.

Is party identification (one’s loyalty to one of the major political parties) really durable? Do other features, like color, gender and class, trump party identification? We told anecdotal stories about immigrant groups that have been defined in part with reference to the color line. And there are plenty of anecdotal stories about individual voters, of whatever background, saying they will stay home, undervote or cross to McCain if Obama is the nominee.

There is a whole lot we do not know about this situation, because we have never seen it before. What will a campaign do? We can not expect the mass media to understand what all is going on and listen to, and report, whatever new developments emerge because of the unusual choices we face.

One participant received emails from a group of people, mostly white men, who find all sorts of reasons to not like Obama. These are fairly cosmopolitan people of means who see the world, etc.—there is a segment of our society that can perhaps never be moved on such a question.

We discussed the way the media categorize people—recall the dustup in the media, fed by Clinton advisors, that Appalachian voters (called white, working class) will not support Obama. How does this play into the election? We never have had the discussion of a real choice—Chris Rock could joke about insincere statements of support for Colin Powell, but it was an idea that did not get tested. (One story: Powell finally decided to not run when his wife told him the risk of his assassination was too great.)

One participant reported feeling hopeful one day, and feeling set up for a big disappointment the next. Recall what Dexter said in an earlier meeting—that this country has to go through race, it can’t go around it. And so this election offers a chance to do some of that, if Obama is the nominee.

One participant shared how gardening is good, when the media coverage just gets to be too much.

One interesting part of this experiment—are younger people more open, or in a more interesting place on the color line, than is the average person? Will a youth effect be stronger along the Coasts, or the West Coast, compared to states like Colorado? Areas like Appalachia do have pockets, towns that defy the stereotypes.

One participant told us about a documentary, Kilowatt Ours (see the website at http://www.kilowattours.org/) that is another version of the Thomas Franks “What’s the Matter With Kansas” argument. The documentary includes the idea that people whose economic interests are not looked after by anyone will go toward culture issues when they vote. BTW, Franks missed some important features of Kansas politics—poorer Kansas voters have been going less and less for Republicans over the last quarter century, and Democrats are much more likely to have the state legislative seats in districts with larger proportions of poor residents.

One participant, while discussing the way class can figure in our politics, recalled the film Harlan County (see the description on IMDB at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074605/, which says this about the movie: “This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA.”). We do see in the media accounts of how distinct are poor, white Appalachian (or other area) voters, and connect that with racism. Perhaps one important piece of political identity in such areas is class. And it would be nice to have a good conversation about class in our politics.

One participant suggested that among the things that motivate people to vote, and to vote one way or another, is their judgment of whether a candidate is a person who will most likely look after my interests (as opposed to, for example, going down a list of issues and adding them up). BTW, there is pretty strong evidence this is true: Arthur H. Miller, et.al., “Schematic Assessment of Presidential Candidates,” The American Political Science Review 80 (1986) No. 2, pp. 521-40.

One participant noted that most young people do not know much about the history of the color line in America—for example, just the other evening one young person did not know about our history of marriage laws prohibiting whites and black from marrying, and defining who is white and black.

We talked a bit about the possibility of the Obama/Clinton ticket, at different times in the conversation. No one thought it was a good idea, or would work, or is likely.

Others have mentioned evidence that the rest of the world would see us very differently if Obama became president.

One participant raised the possibility that the country does not want to confront the idea that the USA is changing, and is not going to look at the way it has, or does not. An interesting comparison of this is Canada, which has made a conscious effort to have a discussion about diversity, has a government commission to study it, keep it in the news, and tweak its constitution with respect to issues that came up.

We discussed identity issues a bit, and one participant shared there are a lot of parts of our lives that serve as anchors of identity. People shared their perceptions of living in diverse neighborhoods, what things are like in the neighborhood surrounding our meeting place, visits to Canada, and Oakland. People shared stories about their observations of families, some suggesting there are trends here.

Announcements:

There is a possibility of having a “Courage and Renewal” retreat, say in September, at the Conversation. More to come about this.

Conversation Recap for May 25, 2008

As part of intros, at a member’s request, we gave some background on what each of us does for a living. We are a K-12 teacher, student service coordinator, fair housing administrator, university nursing faculty, consultant to FDA on health products, director of Pierce County Community Services who also sits on the TPU Board, director and staff of Maxine Mimms Academy, parent support for a gang intervention program at the Urban League, student at Evergreen and member of hip-hop group 2012.

A question was raised about why our utility bills are so high and why there are so few resources for low-income people. There was some explanation about the market forces that affect our power rates as well as the revenue generating sources that can help lower costs. There was also some discussion of programs designed to help the poor.

Another question was raised about why people haven’t been coming. Laurie will resend the member list and each of us will call a name or two under our own from the list to see why they haven’t been coming.

Tom talked with us about the political process around nominating the democratic presidential candidate. Though there’s a lot of excitement around it this year. There is a nominating process and a convention process. Lots of folk who are involved now are not really aware of the procedures around this process.

The party itself has control over the process. There is a difference between the popular process and the party nominating process. The Supreme Court has said that political party members are the ones who may be credentialed to participate in the nominating process.

Our state has a caucus process. Feb. 9th was the state caucus date. They try to have the party caucuses on the same day for “party purity” purposes. The caucuses have 2 purposes—nominating and policy making (party platform). There is a mathematical formula for apportioning delegates for each presidential candidate based on how many caucus attendees sign in for a particular candidate.

The stages are:

Precinct Caucus
Legislative District Caucus
District Caucus
State Convention
National Convention

Who gets to play--Those who can bring people in to support them. Those who can get themselves known, by working, for example in the process—i.e., signing people in at the caucus etc.

The 25th district caucus, held at Jason Lee was the largest ever since 1972. Over 1,000. Just over 850 people attended the convention which represents a significant drop off, based on a misunderstanding of the roles and significance of the convention process and the nominating process and some folks probably lost interest in the policy making process.

A quorum call was made to see if 40% of the delegates were present. It was felt that the call was made strategically by Clinton supporters because they were outnumbered and wanted to quell Obama supporters ability to get platform planks that would be supported by Obama into the platform.

It is possible for delegates for one candidate to change their minds and vote for another candidate.

Discussion

Question—what role does the general public have in this process? Might there not be a 3rd purpose beyond the nominating and the platform process, that progressives have? The 8-hour workday, civil rights, etc. came about because people went into the streets. We need to intervene in the political system in ways that nourish social movements.

One person asked what might be 3 ways progressives might organize?

Community-level
Specific issues
Elect our own local officials
Alliances between these other 3

A point was made about how little influence and power the average American feels s/he has in politics.

Another issue that was brought up was how much time was taken up at the County Convention with amendments from the floor on resolutions so that a lot of time was spent by delegates voting on amendments they had very little time to think about. This time around some thing were managed differently AND there were so many more people attending.

One person said she was glad it was messy and hoped it stayed messy because we are struggling with inclusion.

A question was asked about what is done with the platform? It becomes party policy and candidates can be challenged based upon their position(s) on the platform planks.

Another person asked about Florida and Michigan. These 2 states broke party rules in moving up their primaries. Both Obama and Clinton pledged not to campaign in states that broke the rules.

One person said what Clinton is doing for women is phenomenal. Women have never had such a strong public voice.

One person remarked that we live in a representative democracy but we have the technology to do direct democracy. If we had direct electoral voting then Instant Runoff Voting would get his support but until then, in his opinion, IRV will just complicate matters.

Another felt that when someone invests in a process they should get a say in it. A person responded that he would love to believe that it’s possible, but his experience in Oakland was that when there was a large campaign to get rid of some very bad City Council members but at the end of the day, when the New Council was operating, they were faced with all these special interests in their face every day, “now that I’m here I understand the dynamics better” and the New Council became the Old Council within a year.

Hopefully, people will stay involved in the political process after the election and not just feel that it’s ok to go home and watch Jeopardy.

Another person remarked that there is no magic wand for building things but there is one for destroying things. Building something like universal health care will take some time.

Final comments were that this has been an engaging discussion and hopefully folks will take from I that our presence in important.

Conversation Recap for May 18, 2008

We began at 9:15, and went around for our check-in. We were a small crew this morning, on a very sunny morning. It is supposed to be mid-70s today with rain coming in a couple of days. One wonders what else pulls folks away—a couple of people we know are traveling, someone is sick, and other things are just happening.

Today we heard part of Carl’s story.

One question that emerged from his story: How do you describe to a family standing on the front porch in an economically depressed former steel and coal town, that they have benefited from white privilege?

One participant suggested that it takes a relationship, over time, to work with someone on the idea. She recalled an MLK quote, roughly: yes there are poor whites, but poor whites are not poor because they are white.

Another response to the question—go to education. This is a nation with a deep anti-intellectual streak, a hate/love relationship with education and schooling. This is graduation weekend for many college people—and the question we hear at these gatherings is, ‘what are you going to do with that degree?’ Recall Lucius Outlaw’s speech at the Race & Pedagogy conference—that a big part of American education is educating for ignorance, of letting people have a free ride through life without having to confront the divisions among people. The rupture among analysts of the divisions in the US are along the color line. For example, note how we separate race and class—the struggle should be between the poor and the rich, but one can not say that.

We discussed the role of labor unions in doing the work of equality. In the US unions like many other groups, even the more progressive ones, still largely divided on the question of race. And we know what happened during the 1960s, with the Republican “Southern strategy” and the alliance with the rural counties in the United States.

In the discussion, more than one person has a relative who died from asthma and its complications. And, in at least one of the cases a major contribution was the rampant pollution back in the day.

We also noted the effects of class. One described a stark difference in how he was treated when he shifted from a traditional blue collar job to a white collar job.

One participant linked the discussion to institutions, both education and prisons. Some prison people he knows project their future population using dropout rates. And looking at schooling, in the districts with lots of minority students the teacher cadre tends to be overwhelmingly white, female, and young. And these in schools that fail to graduate anywhere between half and 70% of African American students. [This has an obvious connection to the reading today.]

One participant noted a parent’s voice, which several around the room echoed, that repeated the mantra: “if they would just try harder,” or “if they just work hard enough…” In high schools one version of this these days is, “if you study and keep your nose clean, you will get into college and get the scholarships to pay for it.” The mainstream narrative is to

Another answer to the union question—we have unions to thank for the weekend, decent hours and working conditions, living wage, the works. Taft-Hartley was an attempt to break the power of Unions, and it was Ronald Reagan who showed how the modern attack was to work. Why are the people in tough times not blaming Reagan for the assault on unions, and by extension, their opportunities in life.

An observation on American exceptionalism—the notion that the USA has something to offer that no other society has experienced. Plantation societies—much of the US, Barbados, Trinidad—are those that rely on the work of people who don’t have much power. And, of course, plantations are divided on the color line. This led to several observations on the Obama candidacy. The references to nationalism in his speeches are troubling to many of us.

What we do not see is politics framed through an ethic of universal respect for individuals. Politicians have offered a number of categories of who is on top and who is on the bottom. None yet has started with universal respect.

In June we will have a conversation about reading books in the future. One model is to pick one and do a chapter a week. Another is to take a topic, say, American exceptionalism, and read something that will be perhaps a collection of things. We will be having a conversation about it in June.

And we move to the book.

One of the passages we looked at is centered on p. 349, when Barbara was being put out of the apartment, and the description of the crowd-as-vultures waiting for the goods, and the guy with the gun saying “they can’t outrun this.”

A couple of folks who grew up in very different communities than the DC described by Suskind noted that the stability of their surroundings, in the face of poverty, would call up a very different response when one family was facing a crisis. It was “more like a family.” One interpretation offered to compare the situations is to look at the way mobility affects community ties. We have to add into it the availability of housing

It is likely that Suskind does not see the architecture of survival in poor communities, the degree to which cooperation is essential. Look at his stories about the church Barbara goes to—recall the early sections on asking people to give up their last dollar, and how Barbara was asked to put the $20, her last $20, into the plate. Then, about p. 350, Minister Borden shows up with the check that keeps Barbara from being evicted.

We went on to talk about the ways we do not step up to work on the tough systematic problems—note the stories about how Ballou High is doing. Suskind offers next to nothing outside the normal narrative of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. The dominant narrative that bothers to include poverty is about how hard-working, self-disciplined individuals struggle against the surrounding difficulties and rise above them. In that sense Suskind wrote a Horatio Alger book.

One participant noted that in our local schools there is a real reluctance to engage in discussion about race among the faculty, and yet students pick it up and seem willing to engage.
We discussed the underlying story in the book of Barbara, who works at the Dept. of Agriculture and, at the time of the book, made $20k after a good many years, which is not a living wage. Somewhere in the discussion we can get a lot further into jobs and employment policies.

A start of a conversation. We should have a discussion of what to do here, in Tacoma, about the systemic things we have noted about the book. Tacoma is where we live, and we know that the school district has enough difficulties for us to work on. Lots of students are being poorly served.

Here is an idea: There are 30 schools on the District improvement list, for several years now…. it is time to start talking about the possibility of taking those 30 schools and doing something. It might be possible, just musing here, to opt out of the District and to make another where some new things can be tried.

A parent group in Los Angeles, California, sued the school district over similar issues and actually won.

We also mentioned the importance of building a coalition that works on education in Tacoma, and discussed upcoming elections for Board positions. There actually are some efforts going on in that direction. Several people spoke to the importance of building alliances. “We can do this.”

Conversation Recap for May 11, 2008

We began with the check-in, and we are all in.

No story today, and we discussed the format. Stories are ten minutes in length, and the limit allows more questions and discussion We passed around a list to schedule story tellers.

This past week the Washington Coalition for Homelessness met in Yakima. See them at http://www.endhomelessnesswa.org/. One speaker at the meeting was Liz Murray, whose story was depicted in the movie, From Homeless to Harvard. Here is a description at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338109/.

We continued with our discussion of the book, A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind. We started talking for a bit about Suskind’s style. Among the observations: in his story, it is Ivy League that counts as real education, and the others don’t matter much (so the top student at Cedric’s high school, and his friend LaTisha, are lost in the story).

Take a look at p. 103, the story about Cedric and James, and their choices. “He and Cedric understand each other’s choices.” (middle of the page) It is another example of Suskind’s style, of having one central character that we care about, the others fall out—in this case, the story of what all is going on with James.

One member added this to Suskind, showing what an exceptional teacher or two at a school can do to the overall teacher experience. This has been the theme of movies like Stand and Deliver and The Principal.

The distinctions implied about quality among colleges leaves out of the story the places where just about all students are educated.

One interpretation of Cedric’s focus on MIT and the Ivies is also a sign of depending on external sources for measures of self-worth. He could perhaps get a lot out of other schools. But place it in a context of a couple of conversations in the book, in this case the appearance of Clarence Thomas. It opens a window on a tension faced by black people—Thomas tells a story of facing doubts and opportunities for failure, and the way to handle one’s self is always in a tension between taking opportunities and avoiding judgment and failure. As another participant mentioned, there are a lot of colleges around that top students look for, who understand that the grad

The Ivy campuses, and many others, are much more diverse than they used to be, observed one participant. And yet the very wealthy universities are picking the best test takers, and have the money to offer cheap or free rides to the students they want.

One member was recently able to see Thurgood, now playing in New York. And reading the Clarence Thomas episode in the book, what a comparison, that Clarence Thomas was the judge who replaced Thurgood Marshall. For Thurgood, get tickets at http://www.nytix.com/Links/Broadway/Shows/Current/thurgood.html.

We discussed the question of how Cedric got to Brown. SAT 960, and yet a top student. Brown has affirmative action admission policies for some seats, but as noted on p. 191 it does not do much to support such students once they get to campus. Suskind’s own explanation is on p. 197, and in the author’s afterword he says the Brown people did not know Cedric was the kid depicted in the earlier Wall Street Journal article.

Suskind’s explanation focuses on the things that helped Cedric navigate all the things that could have derailed him, or killed him. Mom and Church figure very large in this. But also, perhaps told in events but not explicitly noted by Suskind on p. 197, was the way he handled anger, the way he wanted himself to be on top (recall his experience on the church choir), and this too was part of the navigation tools he used to get through those dangers.

One participant reminded us of the laws passed in the last decade that outlaw affirmative action. The effects on who gets in to places like Berkeley was almost instant. (About the only place where state schools are still allowed to practice even minimal affirmative action is in professional graduate schools, such as the University of Michigan—which lost its court defense of undergraduate affirmative action, but won its defense of it in its law school.) This means it is places like the private schools, such as the Ivies, that can still practice undergraduate AA. Cedric got in just about the time those laws were passing.

We were asked to consider Cedric’s choices for ‘solid’ subjects, like math. They are tough classes. Suskind does not apparently get to the connection between the difficulties with historical references, such as not knowing about Winston Churchill. So maybe Cedric the solid subject student was neglecting social studies and history. But what Suskind really neglects, in that passage on 197 and generally, is an understanding of the cultural knowledge he does have, and that he did pick up in that place he was. True, Cedric has difficulty leveraging that at Brown. We see it crop up in some episodes in the book, such as when the Dorm students see him as cool, as the authority on some topics, and mark him off as the cool person to befriend. The story of how Cedric makes some of these choices, and how he emerges from it, can be much better told. The picture we get is that his background, his neighborhood, his entire social background, is all negative. In addition to 197, see p. 158.

Suskind presents us with a depiction of right and wrong that we might not to accept. A popular American value, its exceptionalism, is about how the country is right, and righteous in its rightness. Does Suskind buy into this, with his emphasis on the value of the Ivies, on the wrongness of all that is Cedric’s background? Hmmm, this might be insidiously joining the observations of the pathologies of black people and how an individual like Cedric can be helped so much by contact with whiteness. We don’t get much about the community strengths—the self-help mechanisms are probably there, but what do we read? Recall the scene where Barbara is getting put out, p. 346. Throughout the book where Cedric’s home and neighborhood are described, where are the helpful folks, the people who are good to each other?

How about we spend as much effort studying the pathologies of rich neighborhoods, of associating mostly with one’s class? One interesting idea—how a deep and rich education can lead to a “trained incapacity,” an inability to see important features of the world.

We can perhaps do some of this by looking at the limitations of the Ivies through the depictions of Cedric’s peers.

Conversation Recap for May 4, 2008

We went through introductions, during which we learned that the amputee support group is up and running. The activities during Fair Housing Month are now done, although every month is fair housing month. We also heard the Pierce County Department of Community Services released its 2008 Homeless Survey, which is linked from within the Department’s web site, at http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/abtus/ourorg/comsvcs/homeless.htm.

For many people, this is the storm before the calm….

We discussed some additional pieces of our documents, the introductory paragraph to the longer document, and the one-page “Welcome to the Conversation” piece. The group read through and suggested several changes.

Today we heard Sol’s story. The ensuing discussion crossed paths with many themes in the book we are reading—for example, the Prince Georges County public schools were closed for a decade after the Brown ruling in 1954.

To begin the book, A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind, we are looking at the first four chapters (100 pages). In chapter one Suskind describes a tough, intimidating situation for students, open hostility toward achievement in school. In chapter two the focus moves more to family life, the streets, and prison. In chapter three we get a more detailed introduction to many characters at school, particularly Cedric’s peers. Then in chapter four, we get the story of Cedric getting into the summer program at MIT.

Dexter started with a couple of excerpts. First, bottom of p. 20 to top of p. 21, where Cedric is talking with LaTisha. In this passage, the chapter theme is repeated, Ballou is a school where academic achievement has no social currency, and social status is withheld from the best students. We are reminded of Jonathan Kozol’s many books, including his Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (2005), where he reports this is the norm in poorly financed schools. [Here is a favorite passage from Kozol’s book: “One parent from a wealthy district observed of the funding inequalities, “We wouldn’t play Little League this way…. We’d be embarrassed. We would feel ashamed.”” (p. 55)] One dimension of this is about the standards applied to personal worth, who gets to set and enforce the standards, who gets defined as admirable and less admirable. Someone with experience in our local schools says this squares with local reports—the popular students in some schools are the mean students, not the students doing well in classes. Being smart is constructed as the albatross from The Ancient Mariner. Someone brought up Kozol’s book from 1992, Savage Inequalities, which reports the trends we are discussing and that form the backdrop for much of Suskind’s book. One person contested the notion of the mean students being the leaders—there is something else going on in the social order of schools.

To the question, Does this passage reflect what really happens, people in the room reported they have seen things like it. One of the features of stories we have heard is this: we hear characterizations of the people in these neighborhoods and schools as somehow toxic. We might want to watch the ways we jump to conclusions about what causes all of this. One person reported hearing a teacher say it would be better if a bomb was dropped on a certain section of a city with similar schools…. Kozol, in contrast, offers a very different explanation of the causes—we apply scary labels to people in part as a way to keep us at a distance, so we don’t have to ask whether individuals get real opportunities, whether the financing of schools supports a fair distribution of opportunities, and so on. [See below, the point called the ‘two-step.’]

One person described the culture of fear we see described in the schools as pervasive in the culture. It is not just in the schools, it is in the neighborhoods. Note one thing it supports—that distance may be reported obliquely in the book, something Suskind lets happen—that our attention latches on to the small number of students who might make it, and ignore the rest. Kozol won’t let that go, and keeps bringing it up. So far (we are only looking at the first four chapters) Suskind is not directly pointing this out.

On to chapter two. Some insights into parenting, a bit on working, church, the streets, the prison system, and we are left to reconsider the chapter one material—how does school function in this wider world? The place of school, the book seems to suggest, is the education of the young within this world…. and we have some clear tensions between the reality described and our sense of how it ought to be. So we are invited to draw out these relationships, and consider that schools can’t do this well if the surrounding institutions do not support it.

We look at the passage starting on the bottom of p. 30, going on to p. 31, the one that includes “by this reckoning, Cedric Lavar Jennings wasn’t so lucky,” and young men being left with “a hardened exterior masking deep insecurities.” Dexter offered this as Suskind’s account of how young boys turn in to black men in America.

One idea about how we take stories that seem to sum it up for us, and we use it to apply an answer to the problems described in Suskind’s book—beware of the ‘two step,’ of idealizing part of our own younger days and explaining the troubles of the present as due to the absence of those things we remember. We all might have memories of teachers to made a big difference in our lives—I sure do. I wonder where Mr. Best is now.

What Suskind has to offer is this: parenting, jobs, housing, church, neighborhoods, and prison are institutions that surround schools, and the troubles of the schools will not be fully explained by looking at things found in the schools.

If we ask, what would schools look like if we designed them for the society we have now, we get a long list of things that schools could be that addressed those many things mentioned in the previous paragraph.

We looked at Barbara, Cedric’s mom, and the school. She is in important ways walled off from the school. The forces she was working with require a huge effort to set up a number of things—child care, getting the necessary bills paid, lining up other forms of support her child needed—there are so many high risk intersections, where if things go in a slightly different direction so much can go wrong. So much time is required to just keep things from falling apart. Barbara turns out to be amazing, resourceful, and indefatigable.

We discussed some of Suskind’s depictions of low income life. Someone with experience with a foster care system said child abuse is endemic. Things just cost a lot more—recall the rent-to-own story that had the Jennings TV cost $1500. The safety net just isn’t there the way it was, it makes those small things we read Barbara doing all that much harder. (The story of Cedric going to college ends about the same time the 1996 ‘end welfare as we know it’ law was passed.

We were reminded several times that the element of fear is a huge part of the situation—kids trying to be intimidating so as ward off danger, forced to find strategies to find security. And we heard a story, from last night, of how it is possible to defuse the fear, change is possible. One of the things schools needs to do is to spread skills in defusing the skills.

We talked about the idea of system design. Look where we can go with this. Poverty might not be necessary. But it is part of the design of how we do things. So, for example, our levels of support—income support that is 60% of an adequate existence, a shelter system where people are allowed to sleep on a cot and not know if the cot will be available tomorrow, and other examples—choices that we make that guarantees some will live that way. We design poverty in. Different informed choices are possible. A shelter system can choose to house people permanently. We can make similar observations about changes in schools—how have we designed in these things, how can we design it differently?

Suskind does show there are a lot of schools that do produce well educated people who expect to learn, who expect to do well, the works. So we will want to see how the subsequent parts of the book is how the differences are treated. That is, can the good schools be reproduced in the toughest case neighborhoods? Jonathan Kozol likes to include such counterexamples in his books—if he describes a dysfunctional school, and explains the ways the dysfunctions are produced, and then gives an example of a school nearby where things work.

For our part, we also want to connect the discussions to how we can do something here where we live, and do something about Tacoma schools.

Next time, please have read chapters 5 through 10, pages 101-161.

Conversation Recap for April 27, 2008

Today we are going to look at the values and mission statements, hear a story from Keith, and begin talking about Ron Suskind’s book, A Hope in the Unseen.

We heard Keith James’ story. The ensuing discussion touched on the gift of resourceful parents and neighbors. We also talked about developing alternatives to the standard model of dealing with juvenile justice. Given the lack of public pressure on the legislature to develop anything else, programs have to be added on that work with the situations of kids poorly served. It turns out that infusing cultural competencies into an administrative system require leadership that has diverse perspectives—and this means not just hiring, for example, people of color, but also who understand and work to cultivate diverse perspectives. To get the state legislature to make changes will require a lot more public pressure.

The discussion turned to a comparison between Trinidad and US police system—the US was much later in applying the idea of community policing, and some of this may have been related to the comparatively late development of US police openness to women and diversity in leadership.

This brought up some of the ways that people developed understandings of colonialism in the period after WWII up to, say, 1970. For example, there was Mighty Sparrow’s song, Jean and Dinah, as a social protest art form. Some parts of the song were initially written as a store jingle, but it was adapted as commentary on the consequences of having a US military base on Trinidad. Some of its lyrics were quoted (this quotation lifted off of Wickipedia):

Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clemontina
Round de corner posin'
Bet your life is something dey sellin'
But when you catch them broken [="broke"] you could get dem all for nuttin'
Doh make no row
De Yankee gone and Sparrow take over now

The discussion turned to a comparison of politics and social dynamics in Trinidad and in the US. We will no doubt be returning to this in the future. Several key figures in the development of our contemporary

We touched on Ron Suskind’s book, A Hope in the Unseen. We want to discuss it over the next three weeks. For those who may need to deal with a shortened version of the book, a file is available that is a collection of Suskind stories in newspapers that told parts of the story.

We turned to discuss the values and mission document, and thanked Callista for her work on it. We made some small changes, and discussed at some length the leadership issues, page 6. We characterized the document as “our social contract,” and as “made of clay, that we will periodically water.” It is a grounding for discussions of where we might go in the future. We might need an opening paragraph about what this document represents.
Something like this?

This document is the product of many discussions, and is offered in the spirit of a social contract that describes what we are and how we operate. The Conversation is an organic and fluid entity, and this document will evolve along with it. We will refer to it in discussions of where we might go in the future.

A suggestion to add something to the document was discussed and illustrated the ways it can serve as a grounding for discussions. Several people referred to the overall purposes of The Conversation, and at the same time how complicated are the connections among marginalized groups and the society. We also noted that one way of acknowledging our acceptance of the document, when that does happen, is to go around the room and each read part of the introduction describing our values.

Conversation Recap for March 23, 2008

Intros- 2 new participants who met Eve over the weekend and invited them to The Conversation.

Keith’s sister, Brandy’s Story

Girard, founded in 1848 by Stephen Girard who came to US in 1776. Gave all his money to found the school. The school was originally meant for white orphan males. In the 80s the school opened to females. Now the school is for low-income students from single parent families. Funded through the original trust funds. Located right in the middle of the city surrounded by an 8-foot wall, tuition is $36,000 per year. Students apply, much like a college application process. More about Girard here.

Story of Easter is a story of an itinerant prophet who challenged the status quo and died as a result. Those who followed him went to look for his body and couldn’t find it. It's the story of a person who gives sharp criticism of a society and that society tries to kill him and out of that ignites a movement.

Act II of When the Levees Broke

One participant remarked that alluded to in the film is the notion that the city of “sin” brought the tragedy on itself.

Another reiterated the reality of “on your own-ness”.

Our guest went to NO from Feb. 15-20. Something had told her not to believe the news reports from 2005. She got in touch with a community service group and traveled there to see for herself. She found that 3 years later, 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish etc. it’s just as bad. People are still trying to survive in areas that no one should be living in. FEMA villages are depressing. Now that there are reports of toxics in these FEMA trailers, people have to move out and have nowhere to go.

Dexter picked up on the religious theme of God’s wrath cleaning up a city full of evil. Some of us might be surprised at how prevalent that thinking is.

America sees itself as the chosen nation in the world. The “Shining City on the Hill”. If you go into evangelical churches you will hear that God is doing a “new thing” and we (America) are the new thing. We are the new Israelites. When “we” introduced smallpox into the native communities, that was God “clearing the way.” The Christians viewed the “New World” as wilderness rather than as a group of nations because they brought that perspective from the Bible. Rev. Wright, when he says God damn America, he is following the tradition of the prophet Ezekiel by saying that God blesses America when it does right and God damns America when it does wrong. It’s hypocritical the outrage about Rev. Wright’s damning America because this happens in pulpits all across the country every Sunday.

We ascribe motives to God when we don’t want to take responsibility. When Europeans wanted to justify their wiping out of the Native people, they went to the Bible. The strong Europeans came and tamed this wild land.

One participant wondered if religious justification comes after the political action in a cynical fashion. But the response is that in America you cannot separate politics from religion.

Another participant said that she’s still not sure if religion is a tool of politics or vice versa.

Also mentioned was the danger of fundamentalism, whether it be Christian or Muslim. Our foreign policy is immoral—over a million Iraqis dead and our president telling us that the surge is a success and democracy is flourishing in Iraq.

One person said that a big part of the problem is in ascribing centrality to one’s self, either as an individual or a country or a political/economic system. A sign of maturity is to see one’s self outside of one’s self and see another’s perspective.

Another reminded us of the question asked in the beginning today—can we operate in truth with one another? There is an anatomy, a science and a politics around Katrina and nobody has it right. Therefore we ought to start with respect otherwise we devalue my perspective or your perspective.

Another’s thoughts were that she is a complex jumble. As a young girl she began to question religion because of how she saw her father attending church and smiling and being friendly and then being an angry tyrant at home. She’s now learning how to deal with the complexities, contradictions, hypocrisies, goods and evils embodied within her and that’s a personal journey of internal work.

Another talked about the Bible being a kind of psychic projection of all of humanity’s contradictions. She would like some direct instruction in Liberation Theology. A LT person might think about the people on the rooftops “walking on water” forsaken by the rest of the country might be a reminder about the evils of our government rather than the evils of New Orleans.

One person talked about viewing the Bible in layers rather than literally. Fear keeps us from being honest.

Another talked about the Old Testament versus the New Testament. If there were just one law of God it would be to love. That includes holding people up to being their best selves, of course who decides what that best self is? Some try to simplify it by going to the Bible (page 143, verse 2, King James version).

Dexter brought us to a close by making several general observations.

When we say that some people take the Bible too seriously by taking it literally, we are giving ground. A Liberation Theologian might say we take the Bible seriously because we take up the fundamental question of Jesus which is what do we do about poverty? What we should say is “you have a particular interpretation of the Bible and I have a particular interpretation.”

Liberation theology begins with the context and the Bible may inform you on that reality rather than those who say begin with the text and interpret life from there. Also it focuses on spirituality as an everyday material reality not an ethereal reality.

Liberation Theology says that liberation is from systems and structures of domination. Liberation theology believes that from the voices and experiences of the poor comes our own liberation. Everyday we bring with us our paradoxes and complexities and seek clarification together fro today.

Announcements:

April 12th Seeds of Compassion on behalf of the Conversation, Tom has made a request of 30 tickets

Thursday, March 27th at 6pm SoJust meeting at 414 S. Division Ln. (near 38th & Pacific)

Next Sunday at 1pm at the Mandolin, meet about 501c3

April 26th at 8pm Ebony Fashion Fair at Mt. Tahoma.

Friday May 2nd 7:30pm at Theater on the Square - Luke has co-written a series of pieces called Voices of the Americas. He is also creating a sponsorship fund to help pay for tickets.

Conversation Recap for March 16, 2008

Emma and Abigail’s Stories

We watched “When the Levees Broke”

Katrina exposed problems.

Some struck by contrast between news coverage and reality. Overtly racist news coverage.

Frustration about inability of Americans to see how economic and political interests have no trouble sacrificing people.

One person who has participated in disaster planning is not surprised in some ways about how things went because disaster planning starts with a presumption of on your own-ness. You must survive on your own for at least a few days to a week and also, there are no disaster plans for beyond 90 days. There is no disaster planning that conforms to the expectations we have in our minds about help.

One member wondered about a comparison between the flood in Chehalis and New Orleans and the response.

Another wondered, when will we ever see achieve what we say about ourselves as being “one people?” Why didn’t we see more stories on the news about the heroism of everyday people?

Dexter’s closing thoughts:

The most significant question is what does it mean to live in what we call a society? What’s the role of gov’t, neighbors, elected officials, military? When you see commercials about the military, they can put up a city in a matter of days, they can land and put up a hospital in a matter of hours.

Successive administrations have reduced the role of gov’t. People always talk about how generous Americans are, our churches and charitable organizations give so much. But in Europe, they say “We don’t organize our society that way.” There is not the abject poverty there. We allow the poverty and then praise ourselves about how charitable we are.

In thinking about the expectation that individuals are on their own, the militia types have the argument that you are foolish if you don’t have a gun because you are on your own and you have to take care of yourself.

The way our society is structured creates situations like Katrina. We have to think about restructuring society and there are examples. A first step is divesting ourselves of the notion that our society is the best structured in the world. It’s not just because George Bush is incompetent that this happened but there is a structural problem.

We are not hapless victims. We can choose to think differently, act differently and challenge the news that leaves out stories that they don’t want to tell us.

Announcements

School Board will have some public presentations of 7 finalists for TPS Superintendent. They will publish their schedule on Tuesday.

The School Board meeting format has changed. Now devote 2 meetings per month for study sessions. For these they do not have comment cards and do not take public comment. This means the opportunity for public participation at meetings has been cut in half.

March 20th WA History Museum “War Made Easy - How Presidents and Pundits Spin

March 22nd Harry Todd Park GI Rights Rally Speakers, music, family friendly

Mar. 28th UWT Carwein Auditorium - Health Equity Summit begins with a PBS video called Unnatural Causes-Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

Shiloh Baptist Community Forum at 7:30 parents speaking out about how they and their children are treated in schools

Dates for MLK 09 planning have been booked first Wed. of each month, the first meeting will be in April.

Dexter brought up that we have talked repeatedly in the past about getting back to reading a book. He has several copies of “Hope in the Unseen.” Race & Pedagogy used it and agreed to pass it on to another group. We may decide to pass it along to the Maxine Mimms Academy when we finish.

Next 3 weeks continue watching “When the Levees Broke”

April 13- we will meet Temple Beth El. Special guest Rabbi who will talk about issues related to the multiracial coalition for civil rights.

April 20th finish Conversation document and V-Team assignments

April 26th Ebony Fashion Fair at Mt. Tahoma 8pm

April 27th discuss the book “A Hope in the Unseen”. It’s very inspirational about one individual’s grit in overcoming odds. Let’s not overlook the inspiration but let’s look at the structure that makes this kind of heroism necessary.

We now have the MLK event keynote posted on the Conversation blog and we also have copies on DVD.

We need a volunteer to take the lead on looking into a 501c3 study group. It was suggested that some of us meet with someone from the Non-Profit Center to get some preliminary info.

Conversation Recap for February 24, 2008

Good morning. About 30 of us entered the Evergreen building under a thinly overcast sky, a pleasant 48 degrees Fahrenheit, a gentle breeze. Yet most of the gathering could tell something was up. Perhaps the more sensitive souls could tell the barometric pressure was rising (29.72 in. as we started). We welcomed some new participants who shared.

Some announcements:
• A PBS special, “Unnatural Causes,” a 4 hour series about the connection between health and inequality. It is scheduled to be broadcast on March 27, April 3, 10, and 17. BUT our local PBS broadcasters have not yet scheduled it. Hmmmm. Contact them at http://www.kcts.org/inside/contact/index.asp.
• The Fair Housing Center of Washington needs volunteers to do research into civil rights cases. Contact them at 253-274-9523, or at info@fhcwashington.org.
• The Rev. James Lawson will be in Tacoma. Here him speak Monday, Feb. 25, 7 pm at Shiloh Baptist Church; Tues. Feb. 26 12-1:30 at St. John’s Baptist Church; and Wed. Feb. 27 7 pm in the BHS room, above the University of Washington book store, 19th and Pacific.
• The second community forum for parents of kids who have issues with the way they have been treated by Tacoma Public Schools, will be March 17, 6:30 pm, at Shiloh Baptist Church. If you know parents of Tacoma schools students, please tell them.
• United for Peace of Pierce County has some speakers coming up: Friday Feb. 29, 7 pm, go to Kings Books to see David Smith-Ferri, who will be speaking about his encounters with people in Iraq. On Monday March 10, also at 7pm at Kings Books, hear David Bacon describe how the world economy “creates migration and criminalizes immigrants.” The whole UFPPC schedule of events is found at www.ufppc.org.
• Check out tacomafoodcoop.blogspot.com for a description of efforts to start a food coop here. A member of the organizing group, who among other things works at an organic farm in Puyallup, told us about the efforts.
• People doing work with nonprofit organizations, take note: Professor Callista Brown is teaching a course on Writing in Professional Settings, and during April and May the students will be working on projects from some local organizations. If you have some writing projects coming up, please come to the Conversation, or contact her directly at carltosb@plu.edu.
• One first time participant showed us a book he just published, You May Kiss the Bride: Now What? See it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/You-May-Kiss-Bride-What/dp/1600373380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203875759&sr=8-1.

A couple of weeks ago the Conversation discussed the use of the N-word. One impetus for discussing it was a participant, a teacher, assigning a book (Bodega Dreams, by Ernesto Quinonez) in her class that used the word repeatedly. Michael Dyson spoke at Pierce College a few months ago, and included a section on the topic. Part of his talk was also a response to the Bill Cosby/Alvin Poussaint. We watched a tape of part of his talk. As one participant said afterwards, “That was some performance.”

Among the topics we focused on, is his use of the N-word. As his talk demonstrated, its use taps quickly into many charged topics. Many of the comments were descriptions of experience with using and hearing the word, and their own rules about using it. Nearly all of those who spoke referred to feelings and reactions that raised contradictions. Just about everyone has their own set of rules about use, and understand rules are needed due to the ways the word affects others. Most people referred to the importance of not losing sight of the historical and critical dimensions of its use.

Some of the comments were about Dyson’s use of the N-word, and objections that he may have violated some rules that are there to protect black people. An interview with Michael Eric Dyson about several things, including his use of the N-word, is available online from the DemocracyNow site, from July of 2007.

The word is part of the construction of reality—so we will see words and their use change, just like the rest of reality. The rules surrounding this will be contested. We were given some demonstrations of similar changing rules. Sorry, no film on this, you had to be there.

As part of wrapping up the discussion, we were invited to reopen the question of whether we want to share what goes on here more widely—such as on YouTube. Last week’s discussion with Dr. Maxine Mimms, for example, was a big deal, and 28 people were able to be part of it. So one issue is whether we want to offer some of the discussions we have as models for a wider audience. So we need to think about this.

Conversation Recap for February 17, 2008

First we checked –in in the style of ALF (American Leadership Forum)

New jobs, artistic endeavors (music recording, screenplay readings), family health challenges, etc.

Noah’s Story

Themes that came out were about love of nature, colonialism (beginning with colonization of nature and then people) and teaching about both.

Maxine Mimms and members of her staff, Darlene Hilyard and Vanessa Brown, from the Maxine Mimms Academy were present.

Dexter asked Maxine to tell some of her story. She told many humorous and poignant anecdotes about her childhood, her formal and informal education and how she came to found Evergreen-Tacoma. These notes could never do justice to all that she shared with us.

Growing up in the segregated South she never heard anything about white people, never learned that white people were superior because her parents made sure that the stories of white supremacy insignificant.

She told of how Evergreen-Tacoma started. How she had to de-program herself to get rid of the “standard” in order to see and develop the genius in her urban adult students.

Her advice—live a life of applause, celebrate the indigenous genius in every person. Know yourself and stay exotic to self. Something about you is great; bring that greatness into the classroom. She tells her students, stop being absent. With your presence you challenge the paradigm of schooling that thrives without your presence.

Teachers are trained to be hostile, to see education as a commodity so as early as third grade, we begin to rank, sort and eliminate.

A participant asked, how do we carve out a place and a space to create something like what was created in Evergreen-Tacoma at the K-12 level?

The key in the K12 system is we have to talk with the unions as well as parents and teachers about how to applaud differences, and not just those defined by skin color, but differences in thinking and behavior. Love that which is unpredictable.

We should ask those whom we’ve failed what we could do differently, but we always only deal with those who’ve succeeded.

A comment was made that while our society is so based on “instant everything”, everyone, we should remember that this school was started in a kitchen. Maxine said that even though some have asked her not to say she started the school in a kitchen anymore because that brings to mind the image of Aunt Jemima, she says it had to start in the kitchen, that’s where the love is; that’s where the pots get stirred; where the experimentation with ingredients and spices occurs.

The question was asked about Maxine’s relationship with the churches throughout her work. She talked about the support and dialogue that’s been there because people have known each other a long time. One of the things that is problematic in the church today is the disconnect between church and intellect. Think about it: there are 12 grades, 12 months, 12 disciples, 12 gates of heaven. Our pastors need to be here in this Conversation. They need a place where they can think and share and heal.

Dexter mentioned that we’ve been in discussion with public radio (KXOT). He asked Maxine about developing a program of some set conversations on the radio and Maxine being the first person to be in conversation with him on the air.

Maxine said she would be happy to but also cautioned that she remembers what happened with Columbia when the architecture and MBA students began studying the “problems” of Harlem. Now UWT is here and it’s a 4-year school and it’s studying the Hilltop. Now the Hilltop is changing.

Tom asked for a bite-sized commitment of something we each could commit to helping the MMA kids.

Come visit after 1pm, or for lunch between 12-1pm, give compliments, emails & letters. Email address is vbrown@maxinemimmsacademy.org. They also need bus passes.

Announcements:

March 8th Maxine Mimms birthday party at Evergreen-Tacoma

UFPPC Speaker Series (see link on right)

Courage & Renewal – upcoming education/training opportunities (see link on right)

We went around and each gave a final word. They were:

Commitment
Received
Extravagant
Marvelous
Healing
Assistance
Awareness
Enjoyment
Diligence
Enrichment
Courage
Love
Faith
Divine-Church-Today
Enlightenment
Courage
Synergy
Can
Do

Recap for February 10, 2008

Carl’s Story

Themes discussed had to do with the issue of tracking. The notion of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps was mentioned as being a term that is infused with hope and possibility and tracking strips people of that. The idea that success breeds and feeds hope is an important one.

Dexter and Amy talked about their experience in her class talking about the “N” Word. Dexter took the students to 1837 to establish a concentrated intense discussion about naming in the free Black community in terms of what Black people should call themselves. Many argued to stop calling themselves African because that calls up images of people who are savage and who belong back in Africa.

Dexter wanted to let the students know that this debate is not new and that the “N” word has a history and further that names matter. Once we accept a name it begins to influence our identity. Samuel Cornish bemoaned, that despite what these blacks called themselves, “their FRIENDS and their FOES, in the convention, in the Assembly and in the Senate; through the pulpit and the press, call them nothing else but NEGROES.” (Colored American (New York) 15 March 1838; rpt. in Black Abolitionist Papers 3: 263). (Dexter B. Gordon, Black Identity 109).

Then jumped to the Kramer YouTube video. We watched it also. When asked for reactions, one participant said that she fully expects at any given time to be called that word by a white person each time she goes out the door.

Another talked about how frightening it is to realize that all one has to be is black to elicit that rage and where does that rage come from?

Some were astonished that no one took the mike away from him. Another participant mentioned that young people are often quick to justify their use of the word as an endearment, but never talk about the rage in their use of the word when they commit violence against one another.

Dexter observed that inside the classroom all the girls and most of the guys thought the word was not ok to use. There were only a few that said it was not a problem. One of the girls said that she didn’t like the word and she used to say something each time but it got worse, so now she doesn’t say anything anymore, but she still doesn’t like it.

Another reaction was how the video shows the whole history coming up right through him and was also struck by the way “Kramer” said at the end “That’s what happens when you interrupt a white man.”

Amy mentioned that even though the kids “said” that the word didn’t bother them, she pointed out to them that they all reacted when hearing the word on the videos she and Dexter showed.

Another participant talked about the first time he publicly heard the word used and it was when he was a kid and with a friend of his who was black.

We watched another clip, this time form the show “Boston Public” in which two friends, one white and one black, who are overheard by another black student to engage in calling each other the “N” word. When he objects, a fight ensues.

There was a question about whether the discussion in the high school classroom turned at all to how to deal with interrupting use of the “N” word. Another brought up how sometimes it’s relatively easy and other times very difficult to interrupt use of racial slurs.

One member talked about a huge problem of teachers using the “N” word against their students at Cleveland High School in Seattle. It would be very interesting if students from around the Puget Sound came together to discuss this.

Another person mentioned that he thinks white people have a fascination with the word and even though they say they don’t use it, they often do, but “only in educational settings” where the use of the word is being discussed or for context of a story. He said we should question whether white people have the right to use it, even in an educational setting and still say that it should not be used.

Some participants talked about how communication can be misconstrued, where another person said that, yes—but, we all know what respect is.

Another person said he wasn’t sure that people were all that clear on basic respect—taking the “F” word as an example, which he is very offended by and that seemingly everyone uses.

Finally a participant talked about even when people know what not to say and use code words. She also talked about Beverly Tatum’s of the moving walkway at the airport as an analogy for racism. To be an ally against racism is to turn around and walk against the direction.

Dexter suggested finally that we all take a look at language. He would also like to invite us to interact with those we might feel a little uncomfortable. And if we are going to be people of justice, we must intervene, especially when it’s not about us. And we’ve got to interrupt injustice anywhere we see it.

Social relationships are developed by people and they can be changed by people.

Announcements:

Feb. 23rd and March 2nd New Orleans Monologues at Theatre on the Square to purchase tickets, click here.

Feb 24th WA History Museum Panel Discussion on Minority Health Disparities

March 10th King’s Books Speaker Series David Bacon

Feb. 26th 7pm Pierce College-Puyallup Langston Hughes Project-Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz-Live Music. Spoken Word. Visual Images

Feb 29th United for Peace Pierce County & King's Books present Davis Smith Ferri and his multimedia presentation on his encounters with Iraqi people. Poetry reading and slide show included. For info in this and more UFPPC events at King's Books, click here.

Mar. 5th 7pm also, at Pierce-Puyallup Ngugi Wa Thiongo Details

Monday Nights from 7-8:30pm, United for Peace and Justice hosts a book discussion series at Mandolin Cafe at the Mandolin Café

March UWT is having a panel on Health disparities.

For a multicultural experience-Blue Mouse Theater's International Sister City Film Festival, going on now, every Thurs. a film from one our sister cities, plus food. For details, click here.

April 26 4pm at Mt. Tahoma H.S. Ebony Fashion Fair-Sponsored by the Tacoma Urban League Guild and is the main revenue generator of the Guild. With tickets you also get subscription to Ebony or Jet.

Conversation Recap for February 3, 2008

During introductions we welcomed some new participants.

This morning we heard Cathy’s story.

Watch for her book, working title “Standing on Both Feet.” Some of the stories in the book were parts of the story today.

The discussion of her story brought up the views people have of personal identity. Some of us grew up in an era which emphasizes assimilation, and when I was illegal in many states for people classified as different races to marry (the Supreme Court case overturning such laws, Loving v. Virginia, was in 1967—at the time 16 states had such laws).

Two kinds of stories that caught the imagination of the group—stories about kids recognizing features of personal identity, and how couples meet. The working title of the book project, ‘standing on both feet,’ resonated strongly. It came from a man’s story about identity, when he finally felt it was clear, and acceptable, to be from two different backgrounds.

The patterns of the stories told and briefly described were many, but one constant seemed to emerge—we are still living with the “one drop rule,” in which people find identity imposed on them and, when things go wrong, is the focus of social judgment. Several stories featured the reaction of families when told about an intention to date or to marry. One participant commented that the USA is seems to be hard wired to prejudice. Start discussing the gene pool, see what happens. Thinking of race as a biological category has many assumptions that quickly dissolve upon examination. Readers may want to see Joseph L. Graves, Jr., The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America (NY: Dutton, 2005). On the history of natural scientists using the concept of race, continuing to the present use by social scientists, see John P., Jr. Jackson and Nadine M. Weidman, Race, Racism, And Science: Social Impact And Interaction (Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005).

Another focus: the people who appear in advertising, especially the use of couples in advertising. Watch for the patterns.

One feature of the book is about how these patterns are not set in stone, that they are linked to who has power. They shift over time. If Obama receives the Democratic nomination, wait and see how this is publicly discussed. He will be a vehicle for carrying many visions of race in America.


Susan led a presentation on the documents that describe the Conversation’s content, operating protocols, and messages to the public. She distributed copies of the documents. We broke up into groups to discuss them. Remember this is a revision of an earlier draft which we discussed in groups, and this draft was edited to incorporate the comments from the earlier group suggestions.

We met in groups for more than a half hour, and reported a number of suggested changes. These will be incorporated into the document.

One suggestion that emerged was for The Conversation to produce a descriptive list of valuable resources—books, videos and other things that Really Made A Difference for participants.

One announcement was that Group 6 was the best.

A rabbi at Temple Beth El will be inviting Conversation members to join in a discussion this coming March, probably on a Sunday.

The V-team has discussed the possibility of the Conversation making itself a 501(c)(3) group, and has decided it is time to do that. This status makes the group tax exempt (the term ‘501(c)(3) is a reference to the US Code dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, 26 USC sec. 501(c)), makes it possible for donations to be tax deductible for donors, and enables us to handle financial matters ourselves. The rules require such groups to have articles of incorporation, complete with bylaws governing their conduct, and an application for that to the Internal Revenue Service. They make the decision as to whether 501(c)(3) status is granted.

The main restriction on 501(c)(3) organizations is that they are not to influence elections to public office. Some lobbying is permitted, as is education of individuals about issues. If we get Really Big we will be allowed to spend as much as a million dollars on lobbying….

Recap for January 27, 2008

2 New members welcomed.

We heard Kristi as she read 3 short, poignant and humorous stories recounting events while vigiling against the war.

Feedback on RtV event:

Program went off particularly well; the timing of performances. Wish we had more sophisticated coverage. Some things weren’t highlighted that could have been. It’s too bad there weren’t more people. We need to find ways to take control of our message and figure out how we want to disseminate it.

Suggestion: We have some good footage now and could use that to make a 30 second commercial for next year.

One member talked about being very impressed. It was evident that people worked very hard on the program and no one abused their time on the stage. It was a really phenomenal mix of types of performances and images. 2 minor details: The fund pitch could have been a little better thought out, such as people might have written checks if they knew they could and who to make them out to. Second thing is, it would have been good to have a way for people to keep in touch, like a sign-in with emails.

One person noticed that people didn’t want to leave afterwards—perhaps the little room could have been used for a coffee and mingle session as a way for people to connect.

At one point we had projected mobilizing the business district of downtown such that we get support from the cafes and restaurants and after the event folks attending could spread out and continue the conversation in these cafes and restaurants. The Varsity Grill, where many of us went this past Sunday, expressed being very warm to the idea. We could have 2012 perform afterward at One Heart and the youth could follow them there.

We should consider doing a mini version in some of the high schools. One Wilson high school student in attendance mentioned that Wilson is very isolated and cut off. There weren’t even any MLK programs there.

The keynote may be aired on Rainier cable TV and possibly Comcast as well.

We should produce a dvd that we each can have a copy of that we can them share with our circles as well has make it available for purchase for a contribution.

The Broadway Center has a connection allows them to meet with 4 principals from school districts in the Pierce County area. Perhaps an excerpt could be shown at one of these meetings with someone from the Conversation could be there. Another suggestion would be to send our contributors a copy. One of our members has a friend who does dvd duplication. Our resident multimedia expert suggested that there be a committee to make some decisions about these different projects—30 second commercial, 20-minute presentation for the high school principals, etc. The RtV program could really be a piece in a curriculum for the schools.

Another suggestion would be to put it up on the web, i.e. youtube.

One person asked if the Race & Pedagogy Institute might be a clearinghouse for this kind of material.

We watched about 25 min. of Dexter’s keynote so we could see the video and sound quality. This brought out some questions about how it is to watch and hear oneself speaking and when is the moment that you feel that the “spirit” or the audience is with you.

The question was asked what if we’re refused in the high schools? Dr. King told the truth and we have been elevated because he told the truth, not because he was successful. We have to tell the truth also.

In terms of the issue of who is going to love the children enough to have high expectations, a point was brought up about the challenges for white teachers who challenge their black and brown students who sometimes face criticism, whether it’s from the internalized racism of colleagues of color or situations in which people hear half of the story and then the white teacher is accused of racism.

The answer is that you must show all that you care about the students and then when you make demands of them it is clear that it’s from love and care. You must tell the truth to students but with the support behind it or it’s pretty close to meanness and serves only to salve your own conscience.

One of our younger members mentioned that the message of popular culture is that going to college is to get a good job, going to church is to pray for success and money. We need to find ways to make the message of education and justice and equality as large as that message about material gain. That education should be about learning about who we are and how we should be with each other

Dexter responds that that is the agenda for us right now. He invites us to take this moment to dream again.

Production of inequality in schools is just like planned obsolescence is with electronics. The system says there are some people who are not supposed to make it and that is what keeps this particular economy going.

Announcements:

Courage & Renewal

Focus the Nation

Race & Pedagogy mtg.

2012 Feb. 16th opening for Saul Williams “Why Africa Matters”

Steve Nebel playing at Rhapsody in Bloom 7pm Wednesday Jan 30

May 2nd “Voice of the Americas: A Post 911 Millennial”

Sen Franklin proposing a bill re energy usage and understanding that involves POC and youth in the area of sustainability. SB 6605

Education group will be meeting at Cherlyn’s at 4022 N. 27th until the end of May. We need to continue to challenge the notion that the superintendent search criteria which resulted in the last superintendent is not sufficient for the the search again.

Reminder about the Ebony Fashion Fair.

Korbett would like information to put into the Message Magazine.

Redeeming the Prophetic Vision

Click poster for a larger view

Recap for December 23, 2007

We began with introductions, and an announcement that the magazine Color Lines has a section called “The Innovators,” in its January/February issue. It features Rosalind Bell. Subscribe, information at colorlines.com.

Dexter announced he is going on sabbatical leave from the University, starting in May. One of his topics is a group of Rastafarians who call themselves the Nazarites, who were in the town where he grew up. He told part of his story today.

We discussed Jamaican words and phrases, the odd twists and turns we make in our working lives, the world of air-traffic controllers. We also noted the meeting of moral commitment and social action found in liberation theology—asking questions like, if the church is so rich, why are the people so poor? We went on for some time learning many detailed features of Dexter’s life. This note taker, keeping with our common practice, does not write down the details of the story teller—but let me say the Members were fascinated and the story-teller was good natured in sharing those details. One feature Members commented on and asked about: ‘blue streak’ language was part of several of the stories, but Dexter doesn’t curse. So the challenge was to convey the flavor and impact of the words without saying them. Well done.

Callista spoke to us about a Tibetan Buddhist holiday, Losar, which is the celebration of the new year. The holiday predates the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet, part of the Bön (focused on nature). The founding story for the holiday is about a woman who discovered the passage of time marked by the cycle of a fruit tree—many cultural features have something to do with the rhythms of agriculture, or management of water. The ancient practice of linking the new year to forces of nature is at the center of Losar. Among the way Tibetans adopted Buddhism—the local deities, or spirits that acts as place protectors, had to be converted to Buddhism before they would allow monasteries to be built and for people to practice it. The holiday is thus a Buddhist appropriation of an earlier tradition.

Preparation for the holiday begins with weeks of purifying chants, and is marked by a central celebration at the Potala in Lhasa. For the last few hundred years this central celebration was officiated by the Dalai Lama. People petition enlightened beings like the Dalai Lama, who is said to be a reincarnated version of an earlier realized being, to stick around in samsara (the limited and ignorant world in which we live) to encourage us in the right direction. It continues for more than one day.

Buddhism is transmitted in lineages, and the one Callista shared with us is a form of the Shambhala tradition. In that tradition Losar is called ‘Shambhala Day.’ Their way of celebrating the holiday includes a chant added to daily practice. The tradition is rather precise about numerical expectations for the chants, so the more the merrier in celebrations (100 people each saying a chant 10 times produces 1,000 chants). The chants are a path to transforming negativity—the chant itself is not a magical incantation, it is a way to get the chanter out of their usual tendencies and circumstances. One way to put it: clean up your life. Start with the house, and do it with the internal stuff as well, such as grudges. The path will lead, hopefully, to kind and direct conduct, to openness to your own awareness, transform one’s personal energy, and to paying attention to the details of our lives.

Some questions were about the “kind and direct conduct,” and how some folks who claim to be direct are actually being damaging or aggressive. One teacher (Trungpa Rinpoche) described this way of being direct with the phrase “idiot compassion.” The notion is, one is being direct for themselves, not really doing it for the other person.
In Callista’s Shambhala tradition, they perform a purification ritual (which includes the burning of juniper leaves and working with the smoke), meant to dispel negativity and encourage wisdom, a liturgy about overcoming materialism, and a feast ceremony that explicitly encourages people to not seek anything for themselves (it is not an opportunity for networking). Some of us has read an account of how a Navaho use of ritual and art was astonishingly close to Tibetan practices, so much so that a group of Tibetans encountering a group of Navaho thought the latter were Tibetan.

One question was about the term ‘spiritual materialism.’ One of her teachers believed Americans are too often drawn to Buddhism as a Thing To Be, as in “I am a Buddhist.” The search for personal aggrandizement, or seeking things in one’s life as part of a yearning to be separate and special, is entirely missing the point. So, spiritual materialism is a warning about that.

One question noted the account of Buddhism sounds a lot like leading a healthy life. The response included the idea that the Buddha was not a god, he was a human being—and so being Buddhist is about learning to become a human being. One early attraction to Buddhism—the notion that when someone is pursuing you, challenging you, is seen as a teacher, because it shows you how you encounter the world (the story of the monks being chased after the invasion by China).

A member asked about how that story is connected to what we try to do here in the Conversation. That response, seeing challenges as teachers, is called ‘sacred world.’ If we find an unsacred part of the world, say, features of the color line in the USA, we try to find the places we can work with. And when we acknowledge we have not yet found the point we can work with, we look for people who seem to have found it, and learn from them.

In response to one question, Callista noted that all the things we find in Christianity—bureaucracy, turf battles, doctrinal disputes, corruption, and so on—you would find all of it somewhere in Buddhism as well. One nice phrase: “the center of trade is also the center of plunder.” There is wealth that accumulates when things get institutionalized, and issues arise around what to do with it.

Several members spoke to the notion of knowing, or becoming aware of, self. This is connected to the way institutions channel our energies, and make some outcomes more likely. Another feature of it is the connection to social action—what is the point of pursuing personal enlightenment without some kind of social reverberation?

Martin Luther King’s notion of redemptive suffering is a similar challenge to the self—one part is understanding how you encounter the world, and one part of it is a call to live in the world and attempt to reduce the causes and conditions of suffering.

Announcements:

April 26 is the Ebony Fashion Fair.

January 15th 7 pm at Pierce college, , Michael Chabon, author of “Yiddish Policeman’s Union.”

March will be the Dine Out for Life to support the PC AIDS foundation.

The 2012 CD goes great in the automobile stereo. Awesome. We got ours from Keith.

Tacoma Art Museum, Threads that Bind,

December 26, 10 am, School Board will have a study session on the Superintendent search.

Second Sunday Salon will meet January 13. See the website at www.ufppc.org. That website also has notices of other speakers about local war resistance efforts and Iraq refugees, on January 18 and January 24.

January 9, a panel discussion on contemporary issues with a civil rights coalition, flyer passed around. This emerged out of an examination of progressive white and communities of color, noting a separation that arose a long time ago. This is an initial step in an effort to find constructive steps to take here in Tacoma.

The YWCA sends thanks for the support and gifts the group gave in previous weeks.

Anyone with ideas for who to ask for financial support for the MLK Jr. event on January 20, let the organizing committee know. Make out a check to Associated Ministries, with the memo line note “MLK 2008” to make a tax deductible contribution.

Friday December 28, at Mandolin Café, on 12th, Record Hop/Sock Hop MLK Fundraiser. 7:30-midnight,
Rosalind has tickets.

See http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/default.html to see the notice for the PBS show that will look at the connections between inequality and health.

Reza Aslan, the internationally acclaimed author and scholar, will deliver the first lecture of the 2008 Swope Endowed Lectureship on Ethics, Religion, Faith, and Values at University of Puget Sound. The talk is scheduled for Thurs., Jan. 31, 7 pm, free tickets from the info desk in the UPS student center.