I’ve written recently about the connections between Bear Creek Friends Meeting, in the countryside north of Earlham, Iowa, and the Monteverde Friends community in Costa Rica.
A recent email conversation began when I expressed my appreciation for the hand drawn picture on the envelope I received from the Monteverde Friends School.
Drawn by student at Monteverde Friends School
Yesterday at Bear Creek Friends Meeting, our clerk, Jackie Leckband, brought another envelope to meeting that had a student’s hand drawn picture on it.
Hand drawn envelope sent to Bear Creek
We spent a lot of time sharing stories about our connections with Monteverde Friends. Some present had visited Montverde. Others know people who have lived, or continue to live there.
Bear Creek Friends
Midyear Meeting Bear Creek
Scattergood Friends School Class of 1970
Monteverde
Burt and Alberta Kisling with Lucky and Wolf Guindon 1950 Bear Creek
Burt and Alberta Kisling with Lucky and Wolf Guindon 2010 Monteverde
Below is a video of Bill Deutsch interviewing Mary Mendenhall, an Iowa Friend who taught at the Monteverde Friends School, describing how Quakers had settled in Costa Rica and what life was like there.
As we shared these stories yesterday, we thought it would be nice to reply to the drawings from the children at Monteverde, by sending back drawings from us. Some Friends were reluctant artists but I really appreciate how everyone joined in anyway. This may be one of those cases where it’s the thought that counts 🙂
December 16, 2018, Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) Meeting discussed the Green New Deal, as part of the Peace and Social Concerns Report (below) that was also approved.
Minute Approved: Bear Creek Friends Meeting supports the idea of a Green New Deal, including the establishment of a House Select Committee for a Green New Deal.
Peace and Social Concerns Committee Report, Bear Creek Friends Meeting, Approved December 16, 2018.
Like the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Green New Deal is a visionary plan to transition to 100% renewable energy. We will need to build the infrastructure, including renewable energy systems, a smart power grid, renewable energy driven mass transit systems, and upgrade existing buildings to be well insulated and energy efficient. To do this will require thousands of new jobs and re-prioritizing of our governmental budgets.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proposing the establishment of a House Select Committee for a Green New Deal that would be charged with “developing a detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan for the transition of the United States economy to become carbon neutral and to significantly draw down and capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality.” Currently 36 members of Congress and Senators Cory Booker, Jeff Merkley and Bernie Sanders support this idea.
“The proposal states that a Green New Deal is a “historic opportunity to virtually eliminate poverty in the United States and to make prosperity, wealth and economic security available to everyone participating in the transformation.” The proposal lays out a number of policies to “mitigate deeply entrenched racial, regional and gender-based inequalities in income and wealth,” including a federal jobs guarantee, universal healthcare, and a universal basic income.”More than 300 local officials from 40 states are calling for a Green New Deal.
On December 10th over 1,000 young people of the Sunrise Movement which supports the Green New Deal appeared on the U.S. Capitol grounds and in Congressional offices. 150 were arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience actions to bring attention to the Green New Deal. On that day Ed Fallon and I talked about the Green New Deal on his radio program, The Fallon Forum.
Indigenous people, because of their intimate knowledge of sustainable living and care for Mother Earth would be ideally suited to lead the implementation of the Green New Deal. The coalition of Native and non-native people that developed during the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March is looking into how to support the Green New Deal (GND). I will be meeting with others from Bold Iowa and Indigenous Iowa about this on December18th. I’ve also been discussing this with Christine Asley who says FCNL is working out how to support the Green New Deal and should have a statement soon.
Jeff Kisling, Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Bear Creek Friends Meeting
The next step for Bear Creek Friends will be to decide whether the Meeting wants to become a Sunrise Movement Hub, which is described below from the Sunrise Plan. We have not decided to do this, yet.
We’ll start Sunrise “hubs” in schools, houses of worship, small towns, and big cities across the country. The basic work of a Sunrise hub is simple: talk to people about climate change, and tell them about our plan to stop it. We’ll go to youth groups, high school classes, university clubs, and anywhere else where we’ll find young people who are looking for a way to make a difference.
Every couple months, our hubs across the country will work together to organize a wave of creative moral protest. Through protest, we can get our message into the media, increase public urgency around climate change, and invite even more people into our movement.
This video is about some of the ways faith played a role during the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, a 94 mile March along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline in central Iowa. The transcript of the video is shown below.
Faith and the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March
I’d like to share some of the ways we marchers were supported by my friends and Quaker faith community. Although I write from a Quaker faith perspective, I don’t intend to imply that Quakers are any more faithful than others. It’s just that is my faith community and experience. That community (Iowa Quakers) gets tired of hearing me saying we have to stop using fossil fuels, but that’s been one of my main areas of concern for most of my life. And Friends have worked find ways to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
It became clear to me as I went out into the world on my own that we could not continue to keep burning fossil fuels, especially from our personal automobiles, without causing severe environmental damage. So although I did have a couple of cars early in life, in the mid 1970’s I was led to believe that I had to give up having a car myself.
During this March, Quakers in my local meeting, Bear Creek, often sent email messages of encouragement, and held us in their prayers.
One of my Quaker friends, Liz Oppenheimer, who lives in Minneapolis, invited people to offer spiritual support for our March in a couple of ways. One was via a telephone conference call every morning we were marching, from 8:30 to 9:00 am. The other way Liz created for others to support us was by creating a Facebook group called “Meeting for Worship: Iowa’s Climate Unity March”. Following are a few of the messages shared on that Facebook page:
I see that Jeff has posted some of his recent writing about the march and its issues. My request is that we return to Jeff’s initial questions— sharing our reactions to the idea behind this march, as well as to the issues of pipelines, indigenous rights, misuse of eminent domain, etc.
As we share our own wonderings, questions, and struggle, I hope we can better accompany Jeff, Peter Clay, and other marchers.
George Fox suggested to us that if we answer that of god in others that we can then walk cheerfully over the earth. As I think about Jeff and Peter and the new sisters and brothers they will meet as they march, I realize that this sentiment works the other way also. As they walk over the earth they will then be able to answer to that of god in others.
This morning on the conference call for worship, we heard a vocal prayer of gratitude to Peter Clay, Jeff Kisling, and the other marchers and organizers of the march. We also heard the joyous hymn “Trees of the Field.” After other Friends had left the call, and literally as my finger was about to hit the Hang Up button on my phone just past 9:00 am, another Friend joined the call. It was Jeff!! He wants us to know that the marchers and organizers know we are holding them all in prayer and they are very appreciative of our support in this way. When I replied “It’s such a small thing we do,” Jeff reminded me “No, no it’s not.” We are so blessed to be connected this way, no matter what form our march and our journey takes. And to those of you who are carving out time each day to hold the Climate Unity March in prayer, regardless of when, where, or how, all of us thank you.
Each morning of the March we gathered in a circle to hear about the route and address any questions. I shared this Quaker support with my fellow Marchers during our circle gathering, who expressed appreciation for this.
How we live our lives reflects (or should reflect) our beliefs. Quakers try to be attentive to what the Spirit is saying to them at all times, though we often lose our focus. But one of the reasons I treasured my early experiences with Native Americans in Indianapolis as we worked to raise awareness about, and to defund the Dakota Access Pipeline, was because I felt an immediate, deep spiritual connection. And from what I could see and learn, Native Americans’ lives do reflect their beliefs. There were occasions when I was able to experience how Indigenous people around the world support the water protectors.
Some of the most powerful experiences I had during the March were times when prayers were offered. Besides those blessings that were given at the beginning of the March, we also stopped for prayers every time we crossed the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The path of the March was plotted for us to travel along the pipeline route from Des Moines to Fort Dodge. I was always impressed with Donnielle Wanatee’s prayers during our journey. And the songs Manape LaMere sang. And the prayer Ako Abdul-Samad offered at the beginning of the March. I was honored to be given the opportunity to give prayers at the pipeline crossing just before we reached Pilot Mound. I briefly described Quaker worship, then our circle, holding hands, worshiped in silence for a little while.
One of the most difficult things I have learned, and that I have to keep re-learning, is that faith is not hoping what you want will occur, rather seeking what the Spirit is asking of you. The Spirit asked me to begin this journey, so I did. What happened next was in God’s hands. Perhaps I might have been given a message, likely through my aching, physical body, that I might not finish the March. I am grateful that in the end I was able to finish. Not only to physically complete the March, but also to have had all that time to participate in the close community we built together during the March.
We grow physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually when we push our limits. I believe we all have a lot of untapped potential. We don’t know what a limit is until we push up against it. If we push past it, all the better. It wasn’t a limit after all. How many times do we mistakenly believe in untested limits? How often do those turn out not to be limits at all?
These are guidelines of our movement which we all commit to uphold. Any action that does not embody these principles is not a Sunrise action.
We are a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process. We unite to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
We grow our power through talking to our communities. We talk to our neighbors, families, religious leaders, classmates, and teachers, in order to spread our word. Our strength and work is rooted in our local communities, and we are always growing in number.
We are Americans from all walks of life. We are of many colors and creeds, from the plains, mountains, and coasts. A wealthy few want to divide us, but we value each other in our differences and we are united in a shared fight to make real the promise of a society that works for all of us.
We are nonviolent in word and deed. Remaining nonviolent allows us to win the hearts of the public and welcomes the most people to participate. We need maximum participation in order to achieve our goals.
We tell our stories and we honor each other’s stories. We all have something to lose to climate change, and something to gain in coming together. We tell our individual stories to connect with each other and understand the many different ways this crisis impacts us.
We ask for help and we give what we can. We all have something to offer to the movement. Some of us give time through volunteering anywhere from 1 to 50 hours per week. Some of us give money. Some of us donate housing or meeting space. We invite our community into the movement by asking for the help we need.
We take initiative. Any group of 3 people can take action in the name of Sunrise. We ask for advice — not permission — from each other to make this happen. To make decisions, we ask ourselves, “does this bring us closer to our goal?” If yes, we simply do the work that is exciting and makes sense.
We embrace experimentation and we learn together. We welcome imperfection, share innovations, and learn through honest mistakes followed by honest conversations that help us move forward together. If we see something we don’t like, we contribute with something we do like, modeling an alternative.
We take care of ourselves, each other, and our shared home. We maintain our health of body, mind, spirit, and environment to the best of our ability so that we can maintain a strong movement together. We respect that for each of us this looks different.
We stand with other movements for change. Stopping climate change requires winning and holding power at every level of government. This is a huge job and we can’t do it alone. When it makes sense, we work with other movements who share our values and are also working to win political power.
We shine bright. There are hard and sad days, to be sure. This isn’t easy work. But we strive to bring a spirit of positivity and hope to everything we do. Changing the world is a fulfilling and joyful process, and we let that show.
Besides over 30 House members, more Senators are embracing the Green New Deal, including Bernie Sander, Jeff Merkley, and Corey Booker. “We must take bold action on climate change & create a green economy that benefits all Americans,” Booker tweeted. “Excited to support a #GreenNewDeal.”
Yesterday I tried to provide an introduction to the Sunrise Movement, which is currently the organizing force behind the Green New Deal. What I didn’t do was convey why I feel such hope and interest in this movement.
I’ve spent a lot of time and energy for years with a number of organizing efforts, including the Keystone Pledge of Resistance, Indiana Moral Mondays, Black Lives Matter, Kheprw Institute, peace efforts, American Friends Service Committee work related to North Korea, Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Dakota Access Pipeline, Poor People’s Campaign, First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, and most recently beginning to be involved with Bold Iowa. Some of these efforts were more effective than others.
One of the things that impresses me is the scope of the Sunrise Movement’s Plan (see here). The plan recognizes the magnitude and urgency of what needs to be done now if we are to have any hope of survival. It recognizes that we have to move to 100% renewable energy within the next 10 years.
The plan also recognizes that our social fabric is in tatters. Millions don’t feel connected to any community. Far too many turn to drugs, too many to suicide. Millions are hopeless because they don’t see how to lift themselves out of poverty, even when working 2 or 3 jobs and don’t see things improving for their children.
The Sunrise Movement at its core addresses diversity, poverty and equity. Key to achieving that is the millions of good jobs the will have to be created to transform our energy, transportation and food systems to be powered by 100% renewable energy.
Many organizations have had good sounding plans that didn’t work out in the end. My experiences are that one key to success is to build a community of people who get to know each other well, who support each other over the long haul. So many people today have no sense of belonging to anything. It takes good organizing skills to build such communities across the country and world. The Keystone Pledge of Resistance excelled at that. Experienced activists traveled to 25 cities in the U.S. to provide training for people who would become local organizers. Locally we not only received excellent training in how to design and create nonviolent direct actions, but we also got to spend time with the leaders of the Resistance that we would be communicating with via monthly national conference calls after our local training. Those of us who received the training became good friends as we worked together, and learned how to pull others into the resistance. It was comforting to know these people would support us, including if we were arrested.
One of the things that was often missing, though, were young people. All of this organizing and training takes a lot of time, often more than young people have, or feel they can give. The difference with the Sunrise Movement is that it is being led by young people. Youth are showing up because they know it is their future on the line.
The Sunrise Movement has organizing plans similar to the Keystone Pledge of Resistance. Local groups will learn about nonviolent direct action as one tool that might be needed to capture attention. Sunrise response teams will go to every environmental disaster, not only to help, but to bring attention to why the disaster occurred. Plans also call for the formation of literally thousands of local activist communities, Sunrise Hubs. There will be hubs in neighborhoods, schools, and churches.
Those who are in the Sunrise Movement have already demonstrated how they can be in touch with each other using Internet apps and social media. Last night’s conference call was via Zoom, an app that allows everyone to see and hear each other. And that’s what really made me believe in this Movement, seeing these excited young people. Hearing the wonder and passion in their voices. It gave an old organizer such joy to hear several kids tell their stories. You could hear it in their voices, talking about how scared they were to start taking on responsibilities and doing things they never thought they could do. “I was freaked out!” And then to hear their voices change as they began to have success, and have other people look to them for leadership. Finding they could provide that. How much it means to them to have these new experiences and skills. And wanting to do even more.
Just because the Sunrise Movement is led by youth, it is going to take all of us to accomplish this massive re-tooling to achieving 100% renewable energy within 10 years. We don’t have a choice if there is going to be a future.
I urge you to learn more about the Sunrise Movement https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ and the New Green Deal, and teach others what you learn. Write letters to the editor. Talk about this in your school and church. Talk to your Congressional, state and local politicians.
Ed Fallon and I talked a little about this on the Fallon Forum this week (below).
I am beginning to believe we might actually be moving toward solutions for our environmental crisis and dysfunctional economy, education, healthcare and political systems. That is a remarkable thing to say. I’ve been working to stop the explosion of the burning of fossil fuels for over 40 years (when I stopped owning a car), with pretty much no success. Since then I haven’t convinced anyone else to do so. Now it has become increasingly clear that we are moving more deeply into a planetary environmental disaster.
For years, The Climate Mobilization has been trying to convince people what is needed is a complete re-tooling of our policies and manufacturing, as happened when we entered the World Wars. A little progress has been made, but not on the scale necessary.
“If you have put a windmill in your yard or some solar panels on your roof, bless your heart. But we will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid — moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables. And that is a huge industrial project — much bigger than anyone has told you. Finally, like the New Deal, if we undertake the green version, it has the potential to create a whole new clean power industry to spur our economy into the 21st century.” Thomas L. Friedman: A Warning From The Garden, The New York Times. January 19, 2007.
The Sunrise Movement is a rapidly growing group of young people who understand the depth of our environmental chaos and how quickly we need to stop using fossil fuels. That will require (1) Federal, state and local legislation and (2) engaging vast numbers of people.
The legislative part of this would be the creation of a House Select Committee on a Green New Deal, which is being introduced by Representative-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. More than 35 members of Congress are supporting this at the moment. She explains the need for this in the following video.
Who We Are
Sunrise is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
We’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
We are ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are gathering in classrooms, living rooms, and worship halls across the country. Everyone has a role to play. Public opinion is already with us – if we unite by the millions we can turn this into political power and reclaim our democracy.
We are not looking to the right or left. We look forward. Together, we will change this country and this world, sure as the sun rises each morning.
The people part of this will involve community organizing and actions on a massive scale. As an example, this past Monday, December 10th, over 1,000 young people, representing the Sunrise Movement, flooded the U.S. Capitol to bring attention to the New Green Deal. 150 were arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience as they sat outside Congressional offices. That is just the beginning. Last night I was on the conference call of the Sunrise Movement, where an evaluation of what happened in Washington, DC, and California this week, and the plans for next steps were discussed. Your help is needed. I encourage you to visit the Sunrise Movement website, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/
As I wrote yesterday, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is participating with others across the country for a week of action as we stand in solidarity with the migrant caravan and all who seek refuge in the U.S. Together, we are calling on the U.S. to respect the human right to migrate, end the militarization of border communities, and end the detention and deportation of immigrants, calling this week a “moral call for migrant justice.”
Our action here in Des Moines occurred this afternoon, as a group of about 30 faith leaders met with the staff of Senators Grassley and Ernst about the treatment of migrants at our southern border, border security, and better ways to treat and refer to those seeking refuge in our country.
The Senators’ staff listened, and tried to respond to our concerns as well as they could. People in the group seemed frustrated at the negative way migrants are portrayed, and how members of Congress don’t seem to care.
Sheila Kennedy wrote about the “wall” this morning, sharing this poem by Robert Frost.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.
She goes on to say, “It might not keep determined immigrants out, but it would be a powerful symbol of America’s retreat–not just from much of the rest of the world, but from who we are. It would symbolize rejection of values we may not always have lived up to, but have persistently worked toward. It would be a lasting symbol of small-mindedness, of fearfulness. It would send the world a signal that the high-minded experiment that was the United States had ignominiously failed.”
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is participating with others across the country for a week of action as we stand in solidarity with the migrant caravan and all who seek refuge in the U.S. Together, we are calling on the U.S. to respect the human right to migrate, end the militarization of border communities, and end the detention and deportation of immigrants, calling this week a “moral call for migrant justice.”
Our “Love Knows No Borders” week of action begins on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, and ends on Dec. 18, International Migrants’ Day.
This video is from the action at the border Monday, when thirty people were arrested in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, among them my friend (and Quaker who works at the AFSC) Lucy Duncan.
Today the American Friends Service Committee will be participating in this moral call for migrant justice by meeting at 4:00 pm at the Des Moines offices of our Senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, 733 Federal Building, 210 Walnut Street.
Quakers, social justice and revolution 