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[Oh, Lesley Anne Numbers... if I could wallpaper my entire house with your stunning prints, I would... 💚]
So, it is indeed Feel Good Friday. It is also Juneteenth, a historical milestone which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. in 1965, which I knew about, but not as well as I should have. As is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week. Enjoy!
~ Stonehenge livestream of summer solstice tomorrow (Saturday, June 20)
~ The Supreme Court is rockin' it this week. 6-3, 5-4... both decisions have come out in favor of human rights. The Notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsberg) will always be my first love ("smells like justice and bubble gum... but mostly bubble gum") but I might have a bit of a crush on Chief Justice John Roberts now as well... ;-)
Supreme Court Delivers Major Victory To LGBTQ Employees: In a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. The ruling was 6-3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's first appointee to the court, writing the majority opinion. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four liberal justices.
Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA in big win for Dreamers: Chief Justice John Roberts was the swing vote in the 5-4 decision, dealing a big legal defeat to President Trump on the issue of immigration.
~ Celebrating Life's Milestone Moments While Trying To Stay Safe: Drive-by birthday parties. Passover Seder on Zoom. Even weddings livestreamed on YouTube.
~ Social Distance: A Randy Rainbow Song Parody
~ 28 Books That Talk About Race: With heart and unflinching honesty, these titles celebrate the power of diversity, freedom, and truth.
SONG: Don't Let The Sunshine Fool Ya by Guy Clark
BOOK: I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
POEM: Emancipation by Priscilla Jane Thompson
‘Tis a time for much rejoicing;
Let each heart be lured away;
Let each tongue, its thanks be voicing
For Emancipation Day.
Day of victory, day of glory,
For thee, many a field was gory!
Many a time in days now ended,
Hath our fathers’ courage failed,
Patiently their tears they blended;
Ne’er they to their, Maker, railed,
Well we know their groans, He numbered,
When dominions fell, asundered.
As of old the Red Sea parted,
And oppressed passed safely through,
Back from the North, the bold South, started,
And a fissure wide she drew;
Drew a cleft of Liberty,
Through it, marched our people free.
And, in memory, ever grateful,
Of the day they reached the shore,
Meet we now, with hearts e’er faithful,
Joyous that the storm is o’er.
Storm of Torture! May grim Past,
Hurl thee down his torrents fast.
Bring your harpers, bring your sages,
Bid each one the story tell;
Waft it on to future ages,
Bid descendants learn it well.
Kept it bright in minds now tender,
Teach the young their thanks to render.
Come with hearts all firm united,
In the union of a race;
With your loyalty well plighted,
Look your brother in the face,
Stand by him, forsake him never,
God is with us now, forever.
QUOTE: “This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.” ~ James Baldwin
[thanks to MegHS for always keeping me apprised of Mrs. Mallard and family's (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack) connection to the political climate... 💗 ]
I have no doubt you all were devastated... devastated, I tell you... that I did not offer up my usual Wednesday post yesterday... ;-) "Where is she? Is she okay? What else is going on to cause this blip in her like-clockwork M-W-F blog schedule?!?" Ha ha ha ha ha! I actually already had something planned, and ready on Tuesday afternoon to hit Publish on Wednesday morning, when Tuesday night found me logged into Grant Peeples' (a gravel-voiced, singer-songwriter/poet/provocateur in the best possible way, who I was lucky to present four times at our UU church Labyrinth Cafe concert series) Clay Tablets, a monthly online streaming show: "art, music, poetry, guests, prose, viewer mail, video, photography, philosophy"... :-)
The guest interview was with Carrie Elkin (via Grant's cell phone); May was Steve Poltz. It was a wonderful hour of cheer as well as thoughtfulness... and I loved the chat aspect, with many music-loving friends in attendance: BrianW, RobbyG, BeckyA, Sparky, LouiseB, AmiliaS, even Carrie's mom Donna. I was so inspired by Grant's song and shared poem (below) that I completely recalibrated my offering, which took a bit more time and effort. Also invited Nancy on a short road trip for a patio visit with Reba, bringing her romaine and raisin bread (hmmm, title for a song or memoir?). Then stopped at Parlour Vegan on my way home to pick up a previously-placed order of tamales, empanadas... and guava pastellitos for my husband. Home by 3 p.m. Out of steam, tired, done. Leftover Sicilian Supper for dinner, finished my book (Shrill by Lindy West), then capped off the evening with two episodes of The Durrells in Corfu. I've gotten very attached to this family and their various escapades of life on a Greek Island, and will be sad when I get to the end of Season 4... 😢
And that's why I was a day late in posting!
SONG: Nigger Lover by Grant Peeples (lyrics below)
“You're a nigger lover and I don't like your looks
Just you wait till the school bell rings
I'm gonna whip your little nigger loving ass
Can't wait to smash your stupid face in
I hate your guts, nigger lover”
Yea, that's what they called me
on the playground at school. But that was a lotta
years ago, and those kids have all grown up and
they don't use those words any more
– hardly
No, these days they use other words
They say other things, thing like
“You're a liberal socialist, a Communist activist
And you're gonna see in the next election
We're gonna snatch our country back for real Americans
We'll be proud again, stand tall again
Gonna put an end to all you bleeding heart liberals”
Yea, that's what they say NOW days
That's what you hear
But they haven't changed, and I know they still mean:
“You're a nigger lover and I don't like your look
Just you wait till the school bell rings
I'm gonna whip your little nigger loving ass
Can't wait to smash your stupid face in
I hate your guts, nigger lover”
I hate your guts...”
~ words and music, copyright Grant Peeples - LeftNeck Music - SESAC
BOOK: How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
POEM: by Haroon Rashid
We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another.
Suddenly Disney is out of magic,
Paris is no longer romantic,
New York doesn’t stand up anymore,
the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress, and Mecca is empty.
Hugs & kisses suddenly become weapons, and not visiting parents friends
becomes an act of love.
Suddenly you realise that power, beauty & money are worthless, and can’t
get you the oxygen you’re fighting for.
The world continues its life and it is beautiful. It only puts humans in
cages. I think it’s sending us a message:
“You are not necessary. The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine.
When you come back, remember that you are my guests. Not my masters."
QUOTE: “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~ James Baldwin
I have been a fan/follower of Penzeys for quite a while now. I not only love the freshness and tastiness of their spices, but also their e-mails, full of promotional details as well as political commentary. I have long been a proponent of the boycott, and the *buycott*. I avoid spending money with companies I am not ideologically aligned with, preferring instead to support businesses who promote good values and fair practices. Who can resist dishtowels that sport the messages of Love People. Cook Them Tasty Food. and Heal the World. Cook Dinner Tonight? When we moved from the house to the condo two years ago, two different friends sent/gave me Gift Boxes as housewarming presents! If you don't already, I urge you sign up for their e-mail list, order some spices, watch the video from their last missive (reprinted below) and, oh yes, change the world... 💖
I just placed an order (to get that cool Embrace Hope pin), and included this comment: "I love the smell of justice in the morning, and appreciate everything your company does to make this a better, brighter world!"
From Penzeys' 6/13/20 e-newsletter (yellow highlighting is mine... 😊):
I hope you watched the news video we linked to in Wednesday’s email. Based on the heartfelt thanks I received from so many of you it holds a great deal of hope for our times. Our Minneapolis store, like others in the Uptown area, suffered broken windows in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. This led to stores being boarded up with a whole lot of plywood which was bleak. Then something kind of wonderful happened. As some pretty outstanding graffiti started showing up the Uptown Association quickly encouraged a bunch more by handing out $100 for supplies to local artists. The results have been stunning. Stop now and watch the video, you will be glad you did.
The artist who did our window boards, in addition to an emotional When Doves Cry-inspired piece, incorporated our Embrace Hope image in his work as well. I found seeing the art that Jeri and our kids created at our kitchen table (where I’m writing this) taking on a new life as part of a community coming together to heal from the pain of police racial violence overwhelming. From your comments after our last email the tears from seeing this in the video are not only in my eyes. For Cooks, this really is what it is all about.
Our thanks to Anton and the rest of the artists, The Uptown community association and the local Fox affiliate that did brilliant work on their news video. Local Foxes aren’t national Fox; they really aren’t.
The efforts of everyone here to reimagine the way we pick and ship orders in the time of the Coronavirus and the huge surge in online ordering it has set in motion are now paying off. Orders have been just flowing out our doors these past few weeks to the point where we are actually almost all caught up. With us still a week behind our plan was to hold off on promotions until next weekend. But with the impact Embrace Hope is having it seems to make sense to get more of these out in the world as soon as possible. So, through Tuesday, free $9.95 value Embrace Hope pins with any $10 purchase!
To get your free pin just visit penzeys.com and enter your order for touchless store pickup or for direct shipping to you. After you’ve reached $10 in spending enter the code America at checkout. It’s easy. And no need to place the pin in your basket, the code will do that for you and for free.
And sorry about the “with $10 purchase.” Back in the before-times of early January we would have just given out the pins for free to anyone who showed up because this is one of those things that shouldn’t be about money. But with us only doing touchless pickup orders in the stores and all the stores closed on Sundays, I fear a flat-out free offer would have instantly gridlocked the stores' pickup slots and would have almost certainly guaranteed a lack of social distancing. Sorry.
But then there is that $10 and the thought of what we could do with that. I am so gladdened by so many business leaders speaking out against racial injustice even if some seem a little late getting on the field. If NASCAR wants to be shocked, SHOCKED! to find they’ve been promoting a wee spot of Confederacy I will gladly be shocked right with them. And if the NFL wants to do a victory dance for being the one sport brave enough to give Colin Kaepernick the platform to start all this I won’t throw a flag for excessive celebration. America is all about redemption. It’s not who you were, it’s who you are. Let’s help and encourage every business to become a force for good.
Still, in seeing the new arrivals standing in support of those facing racism, and some even brave enough to risk losing sales to the less than one percent of Americans who openly identify as white supremacists, I have to say this alone will not be enough to bring the change we need. Donations to those facing racism are great and welcome, but as long as only those on the receiving end of racism pay its costs it will be with us forever. It’s only when those actively creating racism feel the pressure of being called out for their cruelty that there can be any honest hope for change. It is here where I think Penzeys can make a difference.
At the heart of cooking is the truth that when we care about others the future becomes a better place. There is little more uncaring and more damaging to all our futures than racism. Many who once voted for our president no longer support him and hooray for that. But the fact we have to live with is that the majority of the sixty-three million Americans who voted for an openly “textbook” racist candidate for president want to pretend that there is nothing racist in their actions. As long as we let them pretend, racism isn’t going anywhere.
So long story short. For every Embrace Hope pin we give away with a $10 purchase we are pledging to spend $10 on social media calling out the racism of those supporting this president. We won’t be saying who to vote for or against because that would be campaigning and we don’t do that. All we will be saying is that your vote for this president is an act of racism and that you are doing a very-very un-American thing by doing so. America is dedicated more than any other nation to the notion that all are created equal. It’s time for us to call out all who would undermine this most American of all American values. Please help us in this.
At some point some version of this will be a Facebook post, but for now can you just forward this email to those who might like to see it and possibly put a few more Hamiltons in the pot (he’s on the $10 bill)? Someone in the last week emailed me that as long as Penzeys is still on Facebook we are part of the problem. I get that, I do. Penzeys could be so much better a social media site if we could just find the time. You people sharing your values back and forth? That would change the world. But for now there is Facebook and if you are going to take on racism sometimes you have to go to where it hides in plain sight. Please wish us luck.
And if you have an Embrace Hope pin and have a story of its impact or maybe of a conversation it set in motion please share it to editor@penzeys.com. You've sent a few of these since Wednesday and I would love to share them with our larger audience. Thanks.
And once again please go to penzeys.com, place your order for store pickup or home delivery and with $10 in spending get your free pin of Hope. Just use the code America because that is what this is all about. And if you haven’t yet, watch the Minneapolis news video. It is the hope we all need.
Thanks!
Bill
bill@penzeys.com
SONG: Wherever Is Your Heart by Brandi Carlile
BOOK: On Spice: Advice, Wisdom, and History with a Grain of Saltiness by Caitlin PenzeyMoog
POEM: Praise by Angelo Geter
Today I will praise.
I will praise the sun
For showering its light
On this darkened vessel.
I will praise its shine.
Praise the way it wraps
My skin in ultraviolet ultimatums
Demanding to be seen.
I will lift my hands in adoration
Of how something so bright
Could be so heavy.
I will praise the ground
That did not make feast of these bones.
Praise the casket
That did not become a shelter for flesh.
Praise the bullets
That called in sick to work.
Praise the trigger
That went on vacation.
Praise the chalk
That did not outline a body today.
Praise the body
For still being a body
And not a headstone.
Praise the body,
For being a body and not a police report
Praise the body
For being a body and not a memory
No one wants to forget.
Praise the memories.
Praise the laughs and smiles
You thought had been evicted from your jawline
Praise the eyes
For seeing and still believing.
For being blinded from faith
But never losing their vision
Praise the visions.
Praise the prophets
Who don’t profit off of those visions.
Praise the heart
For housing this living room of emotions
Praise the trophy that is my name
Praise the gift that is my name.
Praise the name that is my name
Which no one can plagiarize or gentrify
Praise the praise.
How the throat sounds like a choir.
The harmony in your tongue lifts
Into a song of adoration.
Praise yourself
For being able to praise.
For waking up,
When you had every reason not to.
QUOTE: "Variety is the spice of love." ~ Helen Rowland
8 Minutes and 46 Seconds: How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody:
The Times has reconstructed the death of George Floyd on May 25. Security footage, witness videos and official documents show how a series of actions by officers turned fatal.
My sister Mari initiated a thoughtful conversation, via text, with me and my daughter Sarah a few days ago, which allowed me to state my feelings on the George Floyd situation in particular, and racism in general. I disagree with the vandalism, arson, and looting but, to quote Leonard (below), "Enough!". If this is what it takes to be heard, I understand. It is crazy that we live in a world in which Jogging While Black and Driving While Black and even Breathing While Black are reasons for murder, by police or anyone else. I can't fathom why people are more outraged by the destruction of property than they are by the senseless killings of People of Color, for decades... centuries.
Why are blacks’ anguished cries of “Enough!” never enough to stop the brutality? | Opinion by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
My new favorite word, as used in Leonard's column:
quiescent [ kwee-es-uhnt, kwahy- ]
adjective
being at rest; quiet; still; inactive or motionless:
a quiescent mind.
It is a matter of being aware of the injustice in the world, and how we, from our entitled place, can help but never truly empathize. I felt helpless as well as enraged watching that video. thankyoujesus for cell phones recording the truth. At this point the officers have been charged, and we will wait to see if they are convicted (as many are not).
And, from Glennon Doyle's recently-published book Untamed, p. 206-210 (thanks to my daughter Sarah for reminding me of these passages):
" “No, listen—this feels to me like we’ve hit rock bottom! Maybe that means we’re finally ready for the steps. Maybe we’ll admit that our country has become unmanageable. Maybe we’ll take a moral inventory and face our open family secret: that this nation—founded upon ‘liberty and justice for all’—was built while murdering, enslaving, raping, and subjugating millions. Maybe we’ll admit that liberty and justice for all has always meant liberty for white straight wealthy men. Then maybe we’ll gather the entire family at the table—the women and the gay and black and brown folks and those in power—so that we can begin the long, hard work of making amends. I’ve seen this process heal people and families. Maybe our nation can heal this way, too.”
I was adamant and righteous. But I’d forgotten that sick systems are made up of sick people. People like me. In order to get healthy, everybody has to stay in the room and turn themselves inside out. No family recovers until each member recovers.
Soon after that conversation with my friend, I sat on my family room couch and patted a spot to my left and one to my right. I said to my daughters, “Come here, girls.” They sat down and looked up at me. I told them that while they were asleep, a man who was white had walked into a church and shot and killed nine people who were black.
Then I told my daughters about a black boy their brother’s age, who was walking home and was chased down and murdered. I told them that the killer said he thought the boy had a gun, but what the boy really had was a bag of Skittles. Amma said, “Why did that man think Trayvon’s candy was a gun?” I said, “I don’t think he really did. I think he just needed an excuse to kill.”
We sat with all of this for a while. They asked more questions. I did my best. Then I decided that we had talked about villains for long enough. We needed to talk about heroes.
I went to my office to find a particular book. I pulled it down from the shelf, came back to the couch, and sat between them again. I opened the book, and we read about Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, and Daisy Bates. We looked at pictures of civil rights marches, and we talked about why people march. “Someone once said that marching is praying with your feet,” I told them.
Amma pointed to a white woman holding a sign, marching in a sea of black and brown people. Her eyes popped and she said, “Mama, look! Would we have been marching with them? Like her?”
I fixed my mouth to say, “Of course. Of course we would have, baby.”
But before I could say it, Tish said, “No, Amma. We wouldn’t have been marching with them back then. I mean, we’re not marching now.”
I stared at my girls as they looked up at me. I thought of my dad in that therapist’s office all those years ago. It was as if my girls had turned to me and asked, “Mama, how do you imagine we might be inadvertently contributing to our country’s sickness?”
A week later, I was reading Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, famous essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and I came across this:
"I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.”
This was the first time I had encountered language that defined the kind of person I was in the world. I was a white person who imagined herself to be on the side of civil rights, because I was a good person who strongly believed in equality as the right idea. But the white woman Amma had pointed to in that photograph wasn’t staying home and believing. She was showing up. When I looked at her face, she didn’t look nice at all. She looked radical. Angry. Brave. Afraid. Tired. Passionate. Resolute. Regal. And a little bit scary.
I imagined myself to be the kind of white person who would have stood with Dr. King because I respect him now. Close to 90 percent of white Americans approve of Dr. King today. Yet while he was alive and demanding change, only about 30 percent approved of him—the same rate of white Americans who approve of Colin Kaepernick today.
So, if I want to know how I’d have felt about Dr. King back then, I can’t ask myself how I feel about him now; instead I have to ask myself: How do I feel about Kaepernick now? If I want to know how I’d have felt about the Freedom Riders back then, I can’t ask myself how I feel about them now; instead, I have to ask myself: How do I feel about Black Lives Matter now?
If I want to know how I’d have shown up in the last civil rights era, I have to ask myself: How am I showing up today, in this civil rights era?
I decided to read every book I could get my hands on about race in America. I filled my social media feeds with writers and activists of color. It became very clear very quickly how strongly my social media feeds shaped my worldview. With a feed filled with white voices, faces that looked like my own, and articles that reflected experiences like mine, it was easy to believe that, for the most part, things were fine. Once I committed myself to beginning each day by reading the perspectives of black and brown people, I learned that everything was, and always has been, quite far from fine. I learned about rampant police brutality, the preschool-to-prison pipeline, the subhuman conditions of immigrant detainment centers, the pillaging of native lands. I began to widen. I was unlearning the whitewashed version of American history I’d been indoctrinated into believing. I was discovering that I was not who I imagined myself to be. I was learning that my country was not what I had been taught it was.
This experience of learning and unlearning reminded me of getting sober from addiction. When I started to really listen and think more deeply about the experiences of people of color and other marginalized people in our country, I felt like I did when I first quit drinking: increasingly uncomfortable as the truth agitated my comfortable numbness. I felt ashamed as I began to learn all the ways my ignorance and silence had hurt other people. I felt exhausted because there was so much more to unlearn, so many amends to be made, and so much work to do. Just like in my early days of sobriety from booze, in my early days of waking up to white supremacy, I felt shaky, jumpy, and agitated as I slowly surrendered the privilege of not knowing. It was a painful unbecoming.
Eventually it became time to speak up. I started sharing the voices I was reading, and speaking out against the racism of America’s past and the bigotry and strategic divisiveness of the current administration. Every time I did this, people got pissed off. I felt okay about this because I seemed to be pissing off the right people. "
So, what can WE do to effect positive change?
RevAmy mentioned this in our "lovestreaming" UU church service yesterday: 26 Ways to Be in the Struggle
Now is definitely a time for growth opportunity for those whose hearts are in the right place. I am a long-time peaceful protester (mostly feminist- and environmentally-related) but, much as I want to get out there, I will not risk my health by taking to the streets. Because of my decimated social life, I have extra money, and have decided to donate to Together Rising, Glennon's organization. She speaks her truth, which also happens to be mine. I trust her judgment as to where she allocates the money.
SONG: I'm On Your Side by Michael Franti and Spearhead
BOOK: Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by Barbara Ransby
POEM: Choke by Karim Eltawansy
A tattoo of birds
in the cage
of my throat.
I can’t breathe.
The world
is an eye
open to the
sun.
How many poems
do you have
by dreaming
of fire? of water
too late, too little
of breath
on the feathers
a naked cat
is sculpted into a
sphinx.
Tell me: the sculptor
was using his
fingers as
a ruler: his palm
a throne. I hold
all of life in
my throat. I hold
the 7th heaven
on my devil’s whisper. A genie says:
what a genie says:
I’m not available right now
get in the car.
The lamp holds
nothing to the candle
wish of tongue, holds
a shadow in the corner
of my eye: blink
thrice if a baton chops
because someone says, gravity. I’ve heard
a lot of songs about misery, but
never felt a bullet
slash through my body’s
grass limbs. Had I
to describe this membrane
what its body looked
like in breath
in its lover’s casket: I say,
brave, one syllable drops
at the speed of exhale: one
Marlboro tastes like
a carcass: if you ask
me about Africa I’ll
point my thumb down
the chamber, stick my
head in the camera
lens, fall into
black, black, black
everything—birds
included.
QUOTE: “Breathe. Breathe deep and pure and smooth. Concentrate on it. Breathing is the pace you set your life at. It’s the rhythm of the song of you. It’s how to get back to the centre of things. The centre of yourself. When the world wants to take you in every other direction. It was the first thing you learned to do. The most essential and simple thing you do. To be aware of breath is to remember you are alive.” ~ Matt Haig
