Quakers, social justice and revolution

Once again Sheila Kennedy explores an issue that is puzzling and concerning to me.  Her blog post today is titled Lying with Impunity.  Her key point is “We have these embarrassingly unqualified candidates because we have large numbers of civically-illiterate citizens.”

This has been apparent time and again.  The debate around Indiana’s so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Governor’s illegal attempts to reject Syrian refugees, among many others, reveal that many Hoosiers have no understanding of the principles this country was founded on and how our government is supposed to work.

Lack of education is definitely part of the problem, and addressing that is crucial if we are to correct the problem, and be able to continue to try to operate as a democracy.  The importance of this is why Friends often chose to maintain their own schools.

But I think this climate of accepting lies from candidates points to a deeper and more sinister problem.   Many people who consider themselves white feel threatened and scared now.  Our economic system has failed the vast majority of us, and most of us are struggling with a dramatically declining standard of living.    These conditions usually result in the search for a scapegoat to blame for the things that have spun out of our control.

At the same time, the demographics of the country are rapidly changing, and soon people who consider themselves white will no longer be in the majority.

Unexpressed is how those who consider themselves white know they have been privileged in many ways, and are beginning to learn how many other ways they have had advantages they have taken for granted.  And knowing, and learning more about how the burden of those privileges have been borne by people of color and the poor.

Which leads to the fear of how people in positions of privilege now will be treated when they no longer are in control.  Which leads to desperate hopes that the slogans of politicians promising to fix these problems and protect them might be true (despite the actual facts).  And also leads to continued marginalization of anyone who isn’t considered white.

We can rise above this, but only with education and by finding ways to deal with these fears.   The only way I know to do that is to get people who usually don’t spend time together to change that, and get to know each other.  Anytime we spend time with other people, we discover our shared humanity.  I encourage you to seek out and create opportunities for people to connect to each other.

KI community discussion

KI community discussion

I recently wrote about moving into a smaller apartment.  Although the reason was to reduce my carbon/environmental footprint, one could wonder why it took so long to make the move, especially since it was nearly 40 years ago that I gave up cars.

Each time I moved the criteria were (1) to move into a small apartment for the environmental reasons, (2) to live within running distance of Riley Hospital for Children, and (3) live near Randy and other friends.  The running distance was important because without a car I would usually take the city bus to work, then run home.  At one time the one way distance was 7 miles, which was pushing the limit of daily runs for me.

Indianapolis Mini Marathon

Old friends

Jeff running Mini Marathon

Inertia was the main reason for the delay for this latest move.  I’m still trying to figure out how to be in the world without Randy Porter.  Memories of our time in that apartment made it hard to think about leaving.

But God helped me out.  My old building was one of 16 downtown apartment buildings that Zender Properties had owned and managed for many years.  This year they sold their properties to an investment group that is going to turn many of the over 800 units into affordable housing.  I think that is great and applaud the decision.  Many other cities are experiencing exploding rental prices in their downtown apartments as people return there.   I exceeded the income limit for what will be the newly renovated apartment I was in, and thus had to move.  Fortunately the new company worked with me and made the move as painless as possible, into one of their buildings that doesn’t have an income limit.

One thing I’m getting used to is living on the fifth floor.  I’ve never wanted to live so far above the ground that I couldn’t jump out the window in case of a fire, but there weren’t many options.  Another leap of faith–oops, not a good analogy 🙂

I do enjoy the view and being above the street noise.  Live and learn.

I’ll be interested to learn more about the agreement reached at the Paris Climate talks (COP21).  Several friends were able to attend.  It appears that the temperature change target limit was increased, and that the agreements to reduce emissions are voluntary, neither of which are welcome news.

In any case, it is increasingly urgent that we are significantly more aggressive in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving our energy conservation efforts.  It is also increasingly urgent that we address the injustices of our current fossil fuel based economies, which among other things feed the immoral imbalance of the distribution of wealth and resources.  Which has led to militarized police abuse to protect that wealth.  Which has led to millions of children and adults living in poverty and without adequate food, shelter, clothing, education and health care.  This has led to an extreme and divisive political environment promoting fear and marginalizing others, to protect the wealthy and privileged.  Which has led our leaders to betray our ideals before the entire world.

It is a colossal failure of government when social safety nets, already a small fraction of the military budget, face continued cuts, while military spending continues to expand.  

Key to this will be addressing the resources and mission of nations’ militaries, and their military-industrial complexes.  One of the reasons the United States is the world’s second leading polluter is because of our huge military and its operations.  This animated website  and this Facebook page express the idea of No War! No Warming!

It is time for the peace movement to change the conversation about the military.   What we really need are to (1) stop wasting money on weapons, (2) invest the money in public works,  and (3) change the mission of the military to help us all respond to climate change and the disasters that are coming as a result.  We need to develop military-style specialists and units to protect and enhance the quality of our water, land and air, to facilitate research into environmentally friendly modes of transportation, buildings, and energy production and distribution.  The focus needs to change to a nonviolent National Guard-type of domestic operations model.

Peace Vigil

Weekly Peace Vigil at Federal Building, Indianapolis

Indiana Moral Mondays

Entire Scattergood Friends School marching 12 miles to Iowa City to protest Vietnam War

Delivering petitions to support Iran deal to Sen. Donnely

For some time, and for several reasons, I’ve been thinking about finding a smaller place to live in, and reduce my material possessions.

One of the main reasons is to reduce my carbon footprint.  At the Indiana Moral Mondays meeting this morning, I was talking with John Gibson of Sustainable Indiana 2016, and he told me 450 square feet of living space is considered carbon neutral for one person.  450 sq ft is the size of the efficiency apartment I just moved into.  I’ve worked to reduce my transportation carbon footprint by not owning a car, and now this move will help reduce my housing carbon footprint.

I also wanted to be more agile, since I am at retirement age.  I wanted to be more able to move easily to other places in order to participate in new experiences when I retire.  Although recently we received a significant new grant from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to do a study involving the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Neonatology, and Pediatric Pulmonology here at Indiana University Medical Center.  This study will follow the course of babies born to mothers with preeclampsia to try to evaluate how that vascular disease affects lung development.  This is personally interesting because Mom had preeclampsia which developed into full blown toxemia with my birth.  Thus it would be preferable for all of us involved to remain at the University for the next several years.

I owe a BIG THANKS to my godson Shawn for spending a lot of time and effort helping me move.  (some of you may not know that my other godson Brandon moved to Florida recently).

Here are some photos (of course) of the new place.

“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me danger is very real but fear is a choice.”
From the movie After Earth

Fear is a choice, and we must not only refuse fear ourselves, but must help others see they don’t need to fear either.
Our social hot button issues are driven by making people fearful. People fear what they don’t understand. People often fear those who are different than they are, simply because they don’t know them and their lifestyles. Politicians in particular prey on people’s fears in order to manipulate people to support their fear-based policies.
Education and experience of being together in community are how to combat fear. When those who are fearful get to know those they don’t know, or gain an understanding of what they don’t understand, there is no longer any basis for the (choice of) fear.

So be fearless yourself, and strive to show others they don’t need to choose fear, either.

“All it requires is that our generation be willing to do what those who came before us have done: to rise above the cynicism and rise above the fear, to hold fast to our values, to see ourselves in each other, to cherish dignity and opportunity not just for our own children but for somebody else’s child. To remember that our freedom is bound up with the freedom of others — regardless of what they look like or where they come from or what their last name is or what faith they practice…”   President Barack Obama, on the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, December 9, 2015

Delivering petitions to support Iran deal to Sen. Donnely

Martin Luther King memorial event

Indiana Moral Mondays

Congressman Andre Carson greets Indiana Moral Mondays

Terrorism is dominating our news.  Unfortunately proposed solutions related to increasing military attacks will only increase the numbers of people joining terrorist organizations because joining ISIS is seen as the way for Middle Easterners to react to the military attacks by Western nations.

The following is from a letter former drone pilots sent to the President:

“We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a
fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors
have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and
destabilization around the world. ”

Peace Vigil

Weekly Peace Vigil at Federal Building, Indianapolis

An attempt at democratic government requires mechanisms for citizens to participate in the decisions that affect them.   These decisions are primarily related to crafting legislation and regulations that serve the common good.  That should involve vigorous and respectful discussion and debate about ideas and public policies to reflect them.  This process requires all the parties involved to listen to others ideas, and make compromises.

The behavior of the Republican Presidential candidates is just the opposite.  Where is the discussion of ideas and policy?  Instead the presidency is seen as a contest to be won by manipulating peoples fears, and demonizing opponents.  Unfortunately this fear mongering has real consequences, like the killings at the Colorado Planned Parenthood.

Military policies are supposed to be subject to these same processes, but recent decades have seen various presidents erode Congressional powers regarding military engagement and the declaration of war.  For the first time in the history of our country, the United States, unprovoked, invaded another country.  We now have an unchallenged policy of assassinating anyone deemed to be a terrorist, without any legal review or justification, either in the individual circumstances or as a policy.  Our government has decided it can carry out these military operations wherever it discovers “terrorist” activity.  The consequences of these uncontrolled and illegal activities have been to turn civilian populations against the United States and feed the terror networks.  It reflects a profound ignorance for politicians to call for further drone and military attacks, since that will just continue to contribute to the growth of terrorism, as we clearly see.

Sadly but not surprisingly, the terrorist label is now being applied to our fellow citizens who dare to speak out against injustices.  The shock of Ferguson was not only the occasion of the killing of another unarmed black youth, but also the display of how far the militarization of our own police departments had gone.   Police somehow became soldiers, and war came to our streets.

These deeply entrenched practices will only change when we say “No”.  We can’t leave this to others.  Each one of us has to speak out, and engage with our friends and neighbors, so they will feel empowered to speak out as well.  The mainstream media has failed us in this regard.  Social media is one of the most unfiltered (for now) ways to do this.  Write a blog, write on Facebook, use Twitter, speak out now…

Entire Scattergood Friends School marching 12 miles to Iowa City to protest Vietnam War

Indiana Moral Mondays

Congressman Andre Carson flashes me the Peace Sign

Congressman Andre Carson greets Indiana Moral Mondays

Peace Vigil

Black Lives Matter

Sheila Kennedy once again gets to the heart of the problems of personal belief versus public policy and access to public services:

“As the ACLU’s Reproductive Rights project newsletter noted:

We know, for example, that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which sets the rules for all Catholic hospitals, has said that its hospitals should let a woman die rather provide an emergency abortion. The bishops made their policy crystal-clear when a Catholic hospital in Phoenix defied the bishops’ rules and saved a woman’s life by providing an abortion. The bishops excommunicated a nun who was on the committee that approved the abortion, and the hospital was stripped of its Catholic status.

There are plenty of doctrinal questions raised by such examples, but those are matters for internal Catholic debate. The question for the rest of us is the same question that is raised in other conflicts pitting civic equality and access to public services against the religious beliefs of people claiming their faith exempts them from treating others as they would wish to be treated–as autonomous persons entitled to make their own moral decisions.

That question is: at what point do the obligations of citizenship in a diverse nation that celebrates civic equality override the “sincerely held religious beliefs” of those who believe they are entitled to be more equal than others?

Sheila Kennedy

Kheprw Institute’s (KI) Saving Lives Campaign

KI community discussion

KI community discussion

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) announced today that Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo have taken steps to stop financing fossil fuel development.

Recently we delivered a petition signed by over 11,000 people to the Indianapolis Morgan Stanley offices, asking them to do this.  It is surprising when people actually listen sometimes.  But I am very grateful for this news.  There are a number of factors that make this the right decision for these companies besides the environmental reasons, but I still appreciate very much that they are doing this.

UPDATED 12/1/2015:  I called the Indianapolis Morgan Stanley offices and left a message for Joseph Kelley, the branch manager who met with us, thanking him for meeting with us, and Morgan Stanley for changing their policy.