Quakers, social justice and revolution

Last First Day at North Meadow Friends (for the time being)

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

Early Friends used to refer to the days of the week by number, Sunday being First day. Yesterday was the last First day I will be attending North Meadow Circle of Friends Meeting for a while, since I am moving to Iowa at the end of the week.

I really enjoyed being with Friends on Friday and Saturday (Sixth and Seventh Day), as North Meadow Friends participated in the marriage of North Meadow Friends Shannon Effler and Matt Holdzkom, which was officially performed under the care of the meeting.

During and after meeting for worship Sunday, many Friends and friends shared wonderful thoughts, memories and well wishes. Gilbert used the occasion, which he and I had previously discussed, to try to get more people to participate in the weekly peace vigil (i.e. to fill in for my regular participation in that).

jeff_blm1

Pat and Jenny had a book for people to write messages in, which I will value forever. Additionally, Friends from the meeting, and my friends from the Kheprw Institute (KI), who I was so happy could also join us, generously donated money to help me buy a new bicycle, since I have been sharing my plans to use a bicycle as my transportation in Iowa.

Evalyn and JT have offered me a place to stay with them on my visits to Indianapolis, which will be happening. I will continue to be connected to the Infant Pulmonary Function Laboratory as a consultant, which will involve some visits to the lab to do hands on work. I am really looking forward to those visits, when I can be with North Meadow Friends, and my friends from KI, and my friends at Riley Hospital for Children again.

Online album of retirement photos from Riley Hospital for Children.

Imhotep and JT

Leah

Evalyn Kellum and Diop Adisa

North Meadow Friends Indianapolis

North Meadow Friends Indianapolis

Weekly peace vigil Indianapolis

North Meadow Friends

North Meadow Friends

Benches at North Meadow Friends

Benches at North Meadow Friends, Jeff and Alvin

Posted in bicycles, Kheprw Institute, Quaker Meetings, Uncategorized | Tagged North Meadow Friends | Leave a comment

Renewal

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

As the days seem to get darker and darker in so many ways, it is easy to despair, and tempting to give up and retreat into ourselves.

So I wondered about the following, “the Universe is going to help Warriors of the Light and hinder the prejudiced”, and why I think, or at least hope, that to be true. Most of us were seduced by an economic system based upon materialism, rooted in monetary wealth. The system was originally designed as a way to make trade easier, by replacing the bartering system. As long as most people had an adequate source of income to purchase necessities, this worked fairly well.

But some people began to exploit the system for their own profit and greed, which was done by taking money from the rest of us. A rapid and dramatic economic imbalance occurred, resulting in our current situation where millions of people live in abject poverty, and the rest are struggling economically. The rich overplayed their hand, and more and more are seeing and reacting to the injustices that have resulted.

Where I find hope is in communities like the Kheprw Institute (KI) that I have been fortunate to be involved with in Indianapolis. For over a decade they have been slowly building community with almost no money. They have developed several enterprises such as Express Yourself Rain Barrels, KI NuMedia (Design for Empowerment), KI Aquaponics, and Community Controlled Food Initiative (food coop). While these do help provide a revenue stream to help survive in our current economic system, every one of these enterprises has a social justice and/or environmental, empowerment and community building purpose.

I think our hope for the future lies with more and more of us creating similar enterprises in our communities.

In a similar manner, the rising power and influence of Indigenous peoples around the world, as highlighted by the global support for the water protectors working to stop the Dakota Access and other pipelines, are other examples of the Universe helping us, and helping “the Earth’s energy” be renewed.

From now on— and for the next few hundred years— the Universe is going to help Warriors of the Light and hinder the prejudiced. The Earth’s energy needs to be renewed. New ideas need space. Body and soul need new challenges. The future has become the present, and every dream— except those dreams that involve preconceived ideas— will have a chance to be heard. Anything of importance will remain. Anything useless will disappear. It is not the Warrior’s responsibility, however, to judge the dreams of others, and he does not waste time criticizing other people’s decisions. In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else’s path is wrong.

Coelho, Paulo. Warrior of the Light: A Manual (p. 17). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Rasul, Diop and Imhotep

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial, Washington, DC

FCNL

Jpeg

#NoDAPL

Martin Luther King Memorial

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Decisions

Posted on June 22, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

I am feeling challenged about bicycle journeys I am feeling led to begin. My biggest concern is whether I am still physically fit enough. About two years ago I was suddenly no longer able to run as I had all my life. Despite several diagnostic test, no cause was found. It was interesting to be a subject of those tests, that are similar to the ones my work involves, i.e. pulmonary function and cardiac stress tests.

But the idea of using bicycles for long distance transportation in rural settings is a continuation of my life long journey to use as little fossil fuel as possible, and especially to try to point out the tremendous environmental damage done by personal automobiles. The extreme weather, with extreme heat and precipitation patterns we are beginning to see, will only get worse, quickly.

A Warrior of the Light does not postpone making decisions. He thinks a great deal before taking action. He considers his training, as well as his responsibilities and duties as a teacher. He tries to remain calm and to analyze each step as if it were of supreme importance. However, as soon as he has made a decision, the Warrior proceeds: He has no doubts about his chosen action, nor does he change direction if circumstances turn out differently from how he had imagined them. If his decision is correct, he will win the battle, even if it lasts longer than expected. If his decision is wrong, he will be defeated and he will have to start all over again— only this time with more wisdom. But once he has started, a Warrior of the Light perseveres until the end.

Coelho, Paulo. Warrior of the Light: A Manual (p. 23). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Pipeline fighter

Old friends

Jeff running Mini Marathon

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Excellent Description of Quaker Meeting

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

I was amazed at how well this describes Quaker meeting for worship, from my experience, anyway.

The Warrior of the Light meditates.

He sits in a quiet place in his tent and surrenders himself to the divine light. When he does this, he tries not to think about anything; he shuts himself off from the search for pleasure, from challenges and revelations, and allows his gifts and powers to reveal themselves.

Even if he does not recognize them then, these gifts and powers will take care of his life and will influence his day-to-day existence.

While he meditates, the Warrior is not himself, but a spark from the Soul of the World. Meditation gives him an understanding of his responsibilities and of how he should behave accordingly.

A Warrior of the Light knows that in the silence of his heart he will hear an order that will guide him.

Coelho, Paulo. Warrior of the Light: A Manual (pp. 26-27). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

North Meadow Friends Indianapolis

Bear Creek meeting

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Auto Temptation

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

As those who know me probably guess, auto in this case refers to automobile. That just brought an epiphany–maybe I’m Don Quixote and cars are my windmills? I hope so.

For those who don’t know me, living without a car for the past forty years has been one of the main things I’ve been working on related to environmental activism. https://kislingjeff.wordpress.com/?s=automobiles

Through a series of unfortunate events, I ended up being the lease holder for a car for one of my godsons. I can’t bring myself to say ‘owner’.

When he began to stay with me several months ago, he brought the car. Although it was no surprise to him, since he’s heard me go on and on about this his whole life, he was not happy when I would “make us walk” instead of use the car.

I was surprised at how seductive it is to have access to instant transportation.

Soon it changed to “usually make us walk” instead of use the car.

My justification was “he would be going even if I didn’t”. Not very original.

Then I didn’t even have that justification when he was no longer around, but the car was. I found myself driving to the grocery store! I couldn’t believe it. And felt pretty guilty. But that didn’t stop me.

I didn’t appreciate how very strong the addiction to personal automobiles is. So seductive!

I did have a couple of used cars. But I’m glad the experience I was led through so many years ago resulted in abruptly no longer have a car. The temptation was removed.

I’m glad I’ve had some time for this process to play out, and to consider the spiritual implications. It had become pretty clear that I could not take that car to Iowa when I move there in a couple of weeks, if I wanted to stay on the path of getting us off fossil fuels. I just don’t think, based on recent experience, that I would have the discipline to never use the car if it was parked near me.

The only alternative is to continue to not have a car at all.

So, what do I do with the car, if I’m intent on not having it around? Storage was one suggestion.

I kept going back to the idea of letting my friends at KI (the Kheprw Institute) use it while I figured out a longer term solution (and I continued to make payments).

It really saddened me to realize I was afraid they might be hassled or harmed if they were stopped in the car, with the registration in my name.

We’ve begun to discuss this, and it seems they are interested, and want to contribute somehow. This seems like a good solution, even though I feel a little like a car pimp or something like that. I’m a bad influence.

This isn’t the first time KI has helped me regarding cars. Last year Joey Giffen-Hunter called me when his son’s car broke down in Indianapolis. It would be too costly to repair, so he asked if I knew of a non-profit that might be willing to pick it up and get a little money for salvaging it. I think he had KI in mind. The folks at KI helped us help with this, too.

Posted in Kheprw Institute, Uncategorized | Tagged cars, temptation | 2 Comments

Pick Your Battles

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

This morning I read Sheila Kennedy’s blog post, “Wisdom from RuPaul”, that talks about an issue that has also been bothering me. I would ask your indulgence here, because the discussion runs the risk of offending the very people who are working very hard to address issues of injustice.

She writes:
Time Magazine recently published an interview with RuPaul, the celebrated drag star, and one exchange in that interview struck me as particularly perceptive and politically relevant.
The interviewer had noted that millennials “take a harder line on issues of identity” and are “a bit more affronted by the sort of wordplay and free-associative identity play central to drag.” RuPaul’s response wasn’t only wise and adult, it also put into words the proper approach to an issue that has been increasingly nagging at me.

I think the Trump era will wipe that out. To be that particular about words, you have to be in a place where you’re not under attack. I believe that those same people, right now, are so under attack that ain’t nobody got time to be dealing with “Did you call me a he or a she?” That is going to change real fast. When it gets down to survival, you have to pick your battles, and you don’t pick battles with your allies. And I think, as the Trump era moves on, your allies and your enemies will become more and more evident. The people who are mulling over certain words will have to ask themselves, “Is that word coming from a place of love, or coming from a place of hate?” That’s how you differentiate. That’s the real thing.

Pick your battles. When you fight everything, you win nothing.

If I had failed to differentiate between behaviors and attitudes that were a result of ignorance or insensitivity and those motivated by misogyny or prejudice, I wouldn’t have been a very effective lawyer–or member of society. More importantly, I wouldn’t have been able to educate people who inadvertently gave offense–to explain, nicely, just why that phrase or that stereotype might be sending a message that I knew they really didn’t intend.

We need to listen to RuPaul: When you’re under attack, when it gets down to survival, you have to pick your battles, and you don’t pick battles with your allies.

http://www.sheilakennedy.net/2017/06/wisdom-from-rupaul/

This is something I’ve often thought about over the years related to environmental concerns. I realized early on (40 years ago) that I was offending people I respect very much when I would talk and write about giving up personal automobiles. This was especially problematic in rural settings, where there are very few transportation alternatives. And it was mainly Quakers in my Yearly Meeting, many of whom live in rural settings, that I was saying this to. I am grateful for the many, many times Friends would patiently engage with me regarding their situation. And, after many, many years, I came to accept this.

I wish I had begun to think of different approaches earlier. Now I think about how farming practices can help with greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering carbon dioxide in the soil, for example.

I also hope to raise awareness that it is possible to travel long distances by bicycle when I return to Iowa soon.

So I think we do have to pick our battles. My battle continues to be related to getting off fossil fuels immediately–that is the one I was led to work on. Fortunately, the renewable energy sector is growing much more rapidly than anticipated, and many, many people are turning their attention to creative ways to address this.

IYMC Peace and Social Concerns meets at Bear Creek

Posted in bicycles, climate change, Quaker Meetings, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Federal Judge Orders Environmental Review of DAPL

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

Yesterday U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.”

The judge stopped short of halting oil-pumping operations, pending further hearings beginning June 21. Energy Transfer Partners had begun pumping oil through the pipeline several weeks ago.

This was triggered by an executive order from President Trump directing the corps to expedite approval, which they did by saying the environmental review ordered by President Obama was not necessary.

In a speech in Cincinnati last week Trump said “Nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg. I just closed my eyes, and I said, ‘Do it.’ ”

This is an excellent example of the importance of checks and balances in our Federal government.

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#noKXL

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#NoDAPL Chase bank Indianapolis

Joshua Taflinger and Brandi Heron

Joshua Taflinger

North Meadow Friends

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#noDAPL

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Amanda Shepherd

Brandi Herron

#noDAPL Joshua Taflinger

Brandi Herron and Joshua Taflinger and others

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Quaker Biker

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

As I wrote yesterday, I’m beginning to work on plans to promote bicycling. Since links to this blog appear in several places, many readers don’t know me, so here is a brief history.

When I arrived in Indianapolis in 1971, an Iowa farm boy, I was appalled by the clouds of auto exhaust I had to ride through on my bicycle (this was before catalytic converters). Although I did have a couple of used cars, I was never comfortable with that. When one was involved in an accident nearly forty years ago, I decided to see if I could return to a carless life. That has worked out very well for me, and I haven’t had a personal automobile since. Environmental causes have been a focus of my environmental/social justice work as a Quaker. I was an Action Leader in the Keystone Pledge of Resistance, and very involved with our local efforts to try to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

I am retiring at the end of this month, and have been listening to the Spirit, to discern what I am being led to do next. My home Quaker meeting, Bear Creek, is in the country, two miles north of the small town of Earlham, Iowa. Over the years Bear Creek Friends have worked to reduce their fossil fuel use. But there are obviously greater challenges in a rural environment, with no public transportation available.

I will now be facing my own challenges related to this. But it is also an opportunity to experiment, and try different things. I’m being led see what I can do, and the first ideas are related to bicycles, as I began to explain yesterday.

This is also related to the ideas of Integral Nonviolence. One of the ideas is we need to make radical changes to get off fossil fuels very quickly if we are to have any chance of avoiding a death spiral of environmental destruction. The following talks about turning off the lights, but refers more broadly to stopping the use of fossil fuels immediately:

The last true revolutionary act left to human beings in the twenty-first century is to turn out the lights. Other acts are possible—acts we may call revolutionary—but they do not meet the criteria of the word as it must necessarily be interpreted today. Nothing short of turning out the lights will lead to an overturning of the endgame global system that now has us in its thrall…

Turn out the lights—and leave them off—and we will experience a consciousness our minds have never known but our bodies still remember. Leave them on, and it scarcely matters what else we do or leave undone. We will not significantly alter our path through time. Nor will we alter the path of our species, which has taken a collective detour leading nowhere but oblivion and extinction. We persist perpetually in making all of this seem more complicated than it is…

Let there be darkness

Chris Moore-Backman
The Gandhian Iceberg
A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning

North Meadow Friends

Amanda Shepherd

Jeff running Mini Marathon

Keystone Pipeline Fighter

Posted in #NDAPL, bicycles, climate change, integral nonviolence, Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Quaker Meetings, revolution, Uncategorized | Tagged cars | 1 Comment

Beginning Bicycle Plans

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Jeff Kisling

I’ve been thinking more about bicycling around the Midwest, mainly between Quaker meeting communities. I’ve been thinking about hot temperatures (its 90 degrees here now), wind, and dusty, gravel roads. Or drenching downpours. I’m thinking I could use some advice from those of you who have experience with this.

Also, as Jon Krieg (AFSC Des Moines) suggested, I think it would be great if others would like to join me for parts of these journeys. Do you remember when Iowa Friends would meet in state parks to camp together when we were growing up? Maybe this could develop into something like that.

Obviously part of the idea is to focus on getting off fossil fuels. We’ll have to spend some time at the Indigenous Iowa camp near Williamsburg. The more bicycles, the more attention we’d likely attract. Even if people just wanted to join me at the edge of town, and ride through town together. This should be something kids could get behind.

There is no schedule, yet. But I have begun to look at some distances. Just getting to Bear Creek from Indianola is about 44 miles and should take just under 4 hours, according to Google Maps.
IndianolaBearCreek

The moment that he Begins to walk along it, the Warrior of the Light recognizes the Path. Each stone, each bend cries welcome to him. He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field. Then, accepting the help of God and of God’s Signs, he allows his Personal Legend to guide him toward the tasks that life has reserved for him. On some nights, he has nowhere to sleep, on others, he suffers from insomnia. “That’s just how it is,” thinks the Warrior. “I was the one who chose to walk this path.” In these words lies all his power: He chose the path along which he is walking and so has no complaints.

Coelho, Paulo. Warrior of the Light: A Manual (p. 16). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.