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OUR APARTHEID NATION
When Toby spoke Sunday about David Korten coming back here in 2009, and how we really needed to be spending our time getting ready for that conference. I felt a need to do what I could to promote David Korten and his various points of view.
So understand that as you begin reading my comments.
David Said; Empire maintains its power in part by controlling the prosperity, security, and meaning stories that frame the dominant cultural, and in part by keeping us fragmented by race, gender, age, and class to keep popular social movements fragmented and thereby impotent.
He went on to say; of these divisions, division by race remains in our nation the most intractable. We are an apartheid nation. This apartheid plays out in our progressive social movements and ultimately incapacitates them.
Now this is a very important part of what he is saying. He said I believe it is not a consequence of intent of anyone in these social movements, yet there are all too few initiative specifically devoted to multiracial dialogue on progressive issue and agendas.
As I was writing that, I kept thinking of the kind of comments I have seen us making regarding this minutemen concern. While I was writing the e-mail that is on our Google account, I kept thinking of how we were all personalizing our opinions and comments. My purpose was to discuss the true meaning of solidarity, but as I sit here now and see for myself what Korten was saying. I see all of us as not believing him when he says we are living in an Apartheid nation, and we offend others unintentionally. Not the consequence of intent.
This concept makes this issue larger than any of us, yet we think we can give an opinion, which has only offended. Keep in mind we are the good guys.....
SOLIDARITY:
Unity arising from common purpose, sympathy, or interest: fellowship
I decided to use Solidarity as the purpose of our coalition (it was my decision) after walking in the Labor Day parade. After singing the solidarity song, I asked John Wright to give me his definition of Solidarity He and his wife had just gotten back from a two year stay in Europe, where solidarity movements has moved mountains.
He said Solidarity is you support me when I am doing something of interest to me, and I will support you when you are doing something of interest to you. Once I heard that definition, I have been sold on the word usage every since.
I was so intrigue; I started saying Solidarity would have been a better way to desegregate, than the use of integration. I rather know you were standing by me for support, than because you had to.
When I first told Anne I was going to support her by calling everyday at noon. She said, don't do it to support me, do it because it what you believe.
That is where the "Declaration of Interdependence and Universal Responsibility” becomes an issue. In order for us to react as an Earth Community, we will need multi-years of a collaborative process. Because of our conditioning, taking sides is all we know how to do. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I am going to condition myself to do, until I learn to respect someone else's right to feel. I am going to remember what Korten said, and wait for great turning moments. In the meantime, I will support others, and expect others to support me.
Diversity
My mom grew up in KCK on 7th Street. Her family was German Catholic. In the community where they lived, there was a German Catholic church, an Irish Catholic church, an Italian one, a Croation one and a Polish one. All within a few blocks of each other. They all had their own schools too. When the kids were old enough for high school, they all went to Ward and that was the first time many of them were exposed to a different ethnic group.
My mom said when she was a little girl, they bought their baked goods from her uncle who had a bakery at 18th and Central. He was German. And they got their produce from another man who owned a produce store (I think he was Italian) and their meat from another man who was a butcher. I can't remember what nationality he was. But my point is that their community was boxed into ethnic neighborhoods and everyone had their role. My mom's brother married a Croation girl and there was this special bread she would bake for our family dinners. And my mom and grandmother would just drool over this bread, it was so good. They had never tasted it before since they had for many years bought all their baked goods at Uncle Pete's German bakery. It was like they had their own little version of empire going, with ethnic groups defining the role you played and the food you ate. And for them, rejecting their empire meant they ate Croation bread. Or maybe they would go to the Italian church for mass every once in awhile.
And all of those people at all of those churches and all of those bakeries and butchers and produce stores from all those different neighborhoods were white. Yet they divided themselves into ethnic groups. My mother used to tell about a divorced woman who moved in down the street from them when she was little and her dad told her to stay away from that house. So my mom snuck down the street and hid and watched the divorced woman work in her garden. She was dying to know what was so different about this woman that her father warned her to stay away from her. She said she was shocked to see that this divorced woman didn't have horns and looked a lot like her own mother.
There was a black man who came door to door selling something in their neighborhood every couple weeks and my mom's dad would always invite him in for a cup of coffee. That black man always thanked my grandfather and often reminded my mom and her brothers and sisters that they had a wonderful father, and he was the only man on the block who not only bought from him but also invited him into their house. My mom was still amazed by this many years later, that her father didn't want her to even look at a divorced woman but welcomed a black man into their house.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother would come over and go to church with us at our suburban Catholic church in Prairie Village and comment about how wonderful it was to see so many ethnic groups all worshipping together in one church. That was diversity to her. And she loved it. She always wanted to know the first and last names of all my friends and she would then identify their nationality. We had a plumber who was Italian and my grandmother would say she didn't even realize Italians were plumbers. I thought that was such a strange comment when I was a kid but I understand it today. I also can see how someone hearing my grandmother say this might have though she was being a bigot. But she really wasn't; she was just marveling at the diversity in my childhood world that had been nonexistent in hers.
That was only 40 years ago. And in that time, we have moved from an empire that separated white people into ethnic neighborhoods and occupations to an empire that separates us by race. When I look at this historically, I see that we still have a ways to go.
"What noble cause?" - Cindy Sheehan
Solidarity
I am with Anne. I made the phone calls Anne requested for a week straight. I called as many offices at the Uptown as I could to let them know that we stand in solidarity against hate groups. To me this is akin to Richard's idea of the solidarity we must exhibit to form an effective Local Economic Alliance and it is imperative to sustainable peace. All those phone calls took me about five minutes of my day. If I didn't have five minutes of my day to spend protesting unsustainable practices within our local culture then I would just be supporting the hatred among our community through apathy.
It is the same as buying products from big box stores like Wal Mart. We all know that these companies have a history of outsourcing American jobs, exploiting foreign workers, human rights abuses, child labor practices, sexual harassment, the rape of natural resources, and the plunder of communities around the world. Yet by spending our dollars there we support such activities. They won't change until there is a critical mass of educated people who refuse to support exploitation. Those who are not apart of that critical mass, in one way or another, are still supporting unsustainable business practices.
People who truly wish to be apart of a sustainable society must make conscientious value based decisions and we must educate others at all times as to why we make such choices. Sustainability, peace, and solidarity are a paradigm shift from empire mentality to understanding the nature of Earth Community and acting in such a way that reflects those values.
Yours in Sustainable Peace,
Kaedden Michael Landy
Earth Peace Systems is a social ideology and philosophy founded on the principles of respect for life, love, and learning. We help create economical, ecological, and socially sustainable development systems for homes, businesses & transportation.
Thank you Kaedden
Wow we are so lucky to have your voice here.
I am having a hard time understanding why we reject Walmart for their business practices yet we want to allow The Uptown to do business with whomever they choose.
At our DFA meeting the other night they announced an event sponsored by a good progressive local politician. At The Uptown. So we clearly have our work cut out for us.
The only person I have any power over is me. I can only make choices for myself. I love the solidarity viewpoint but that doesn't mean we all march to the same drummer. And should that be our goal? The Republicans have solidarity - lots of it. And they use it to defend their empire.
My Camp Casey family has lots of solidarity but we come from so many different places. Some of us have been lifelong peace activists, some only reject the war on Iraq. Some are Democrats, some are Greens, some are Republicans. And do we ever have interesting discussions on our list serve! (Especially about Ron Paul! LOL) But the solidarity of the group binds us to our purpose - ending the war on Iraq.
The minutemen issue for this group is not the glue that holds us together. I really think it is just that simple. But maybe we can educate a few members of our BSEC family. That would truly be a great outcome of this discussion.
"What noble cause?" - Cindy Sheehan
Life is a journey and we are all at different points on the road
Maybe I am on a different path than the rest of you. I work with the children of undocumented immigrants and I see every day how racism and hate affect them. Last year, I heard a story that the minutemen here in KC went to grocery stores in Hispanic communities wearing what looked like official uniforms and asked Hispanics to see their Green cards as they entered the store. No it wasn't on live late breaking and investigative channel 5. One of the kids at my school told me. So maybe it is just a rumor. But when this 10 year old kid told me they didn't have any groceries in their house because his mom was afraid to go to the store, he said the people asking for Green cards were not ICE, they were 'minutemen'. Even a 10 year old kid who barely speaks English has already figured out that his people should fear the 'minutemen'.
Some of us who are concerned about this hate group have been monitoring their websites and are alarmed by what they are posting in their forums. The local group here has been picketing construction sites and labor centers and asking Hispanics for their Green cards. In California, the minutemen assault Hispanics and videotape themselves while they do this. The leadership encourages its members to carry guns (they usually call them "sidearms", like in the wild west) and there are many stories of minutemen shooting immigrants as they crossed the border or walked across the desert in Arizona. Can all of these stories be verified? No, but there is no doubt that fear of the minutemen is prominent in the Hispanic community.
I don't want this violent vigilante group in Kansas City. Their right to assemble and their rights to free speech ended when they began assaulting human beings. I would defend Fred Phelps right to free speech even though I detest his message. Phelps doesn't engage in vigilantism (at least not that I am aware of).
I abhor their behavior far more than their message.
As for this BSEC group's response, I am blown away. I still don't see how a group of progressives can defend violence. I don't know the owner of The Uptown but his 'progressive' image disappeared when he agreed to host the minutemen. I also find it hypocritical to not speak out now but plan a rally to protest the minutemen when they are here.
Now about this protest - let's look at the attendance history of our local protests. In October, we sponsored an SCHIP rally at 63 and Ward Parkway. 109 people came. That was a record. In the 5 years there has been a group of protesters at that corner every Tuesday, there had never been a crowd that large. 109 people in the KC area cared enough about children's health care to come. In September and again in November, we held marches at 95th and Quivira to protest the war on Iraq. There were about 200 people at each of these marches. And we were thrilled to see that many people come. 200 people in the KC area cared enough about ending the war on Iraq to come to one or both of these marches.
Those are the most recent examples. So for anyone in this group to suggest we organize a protest against the minutemen where "thousands" show up is just a pipe dream. For the SCHIP rally, over 2000 emails were sent out. And 109 people showed up. There is no way we will get thousands to come on a cold weekend in February and protest against the minutemen.
All of you know that every Sunday there is a group at the Plaza protesting the war. I believe I can safely assume that all of the members of this group are opposed to the war (or at least the majority of us). But be honest, how many of you have attended one of these Sunday rallies? Even once? Yes I know a few of you have come. But even in this group of committed and active progressives, a group that came together and pulled off that wonderful and successful BSEC conference in November, only a handful have ever bothered to stand on the street and protest the war on Iraq. And if we can't get a significant number of people from THIS group to join us on Sundays on the Plaza, how can we expect thousands of Kansas Citians to protest against the minutemen?
I understand there are indeed other ways to protest against this war or for or against any cause. I am not angry that more of you don't come on Sundays. Even I don't go every Sunday. I am just trying to help you all understand that getting people to come to public protests is not as easy as it sounds. That is one more reason I prefer working to PREVENT the minutemen from coming at all. If our usual crowd of 20 or 30 (or less) show up outside the Uptown on that cold weekend in February, what kind of a message are we sending?
I believe very strongly in rejecting hate. If you are in solidarity with that message, please contact the Uptown and let Larry Sells know you don't want hate brought to Kansas City. My wish is that we don't have to plan a protest for a cold weekend in February.
"What noble cause?" - Cindy Sheehan
Reinforcing their frame
After September 11 2001 the War frame took on emense power for the Chicken Hawks with breasts as big as balls. When you stand on a corner and repeat this frame I don' t believe you are helping bring home our men and women in harms way. I believe you are reinforcing the very immoral thing you seek to end.
You imply in your post that those who are not literaly standing beside you in your effort are hypocrits. I don't think thats how soladarity works either.
Some of us use diffrent means to accomplish the goal. Here is one of my efforts Publishd in the Kansas City Star:
February 28, 2007
Editor Kansas City Star,
My grandpa told me to expect to get stung if I beat on a hornets nest with a stick. President Bush is beating on the Middle East hornets nest with his occupation of Iraq. He declared the mission accomplished.
We won the War. So why is he keeping our men and women in harms way?
Why did he ship billions of our tax dollars on pallets to Iraq? Where did all the shrink wrapped bundles of $100 bills go? When will there be an accounting? It is plain to me that this occupation is about the money. It a moral disgrace to spill the blood of patriots so that moneyed interests can reap a windfall. War profiteering was considered 'treasons' by Harry Truman who my grandpa was proud to have voted for.
Steve Mann
Kansas City Missouri
Changing the frame
I don't understand how standing on a corner holding a sign opposing the war reinforces the war. NOT standing there, NOT speaking out, NOT doing anything to end it - that reinforces it. Letters to the editor are terrific. I have written several. So have most of us who regularly protest the war here in KC. None have been published. How is that helpful? I have signed petitions, I have called my congressman regularly for years now, yet the war rages on. So yes, to me, merely opposing it isn't enough. Standing on the street with a message gets people's attention. I like to think we are educating the public. How many of those people driving by have even spent a moment that day thinking about our troops and the Iraqis who die EVERY DAY? Maybe by seeing us, we have planted a seed and started a thought process. That is why I do it.
In August, a group of us met with a reporter from The Star to ask why our actions were ignored. We send out press releases for our events yet the media ignores the growing sentiment against the war here in KC. So Kaedden contacted a reporter and we had a lovely chat. Sadly, I think that reporter learned more from us than we did from him. At one point in the discussion, I mentioned the Downing Street Minutes. This 'journalist' said "What's that?" Yes, a man who makes his living writing news stories and reporting to the public (for over 30 years!) had never heard of the Downing Street Minutes.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:sT_dQzo0CIQJ:www.downingstreetmemo....
We cannot depend on our media to tell the public about the war and the lies that led up to it. Have you noticed how Iraq is NOT in the news lately? For at least a month, our media has been in hyperdrive on this presidential election (and Britney and her sister) and the war is being ignored. How many soldiers have died in Iraq? If you don't know, I have proven my point.
I am not the one who brought up solidarity so I will leave that topic alone. I can only control myself and I would have said nothing on this topic had it not been for the numerous people in this group who spoke up and disagreed with our efforts to persuade The Uptown to refuse to host a hate group. Like I said, that just blew me away.
And I will repeat that anyone who thinks we can get 2000 people to attend ANY rally here in KC, but especially one for a cause as divisive as this, is just being naive. So I will focus MY efforts on preventing this hate group from coming here at all. I am really not looking forward to a rally where we are outnumbered by the group we are protesting.
"What noble cause?" - Cindy Sheehan
Are we to become group mind?
"we were all personalizing our opinions and comments"
When we speek of our values we speek from the ego the 'me' of our core being. Are we to become group mind? I'm a bit confused as to what your point is.
Steve
To become a group
To become a group (coalition, we must first learn to unlearn what the empire has conditioned us to feel. When we reach a point of understanding that, then we can begin to heal. We are giving out advice as if we really know, and offending while we do so, and are clueless because we feel we really know how to say things to benefit others.
Based on what I have personally experienced as a result of what the empire has done to me and to people who try to lead and guide me, I have chosen to give solidarity and peace a chance. There is nothing other than that for you to understand. Trying too is a waste of time. You and I can spend our time better, searching for way to create sustainable examples. The coalition building will require multi-years of collaborative processing. (Page 33 in the Great Turning book)
PASSION
Regardless of how you may feel, you have to respect the passion the minutemen have created in this country. As Annie speaks about her concerns, I can't help but think of the 1964 civil rights days. There were people back then who were trying to prevent mishaps, while other were trying to point them out. To point them out mean they exist, to prevent means they don't.
What if the Minutemen were the KKK?
If it was the KKK coming to town to have a conference at the Uptown, would you "respect the passion" that they bring? Just curious if you would offer the same leniency, or "freedom of speech", if it was a group saying that we need to ship all these Africans back to Africa where they came from, instead of a group saying that we need to ship all these Mexicans back to Mexico where they came from.
Think about it and answer that question.