It’s hot. “The news flattens one spirits,” is one way to put it. A neighbor uses chalk to #saytheirnames
She inspires me.
It is hot enough for the season’s first batch of gazpacho.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, a random act of kindness.
And a kitty looking Finn over as we pass.
Your post today says it all ..
Hi Tina. We all must keep plodding on the path of justice. I know you’re in.
The sidewalk long enough …?
Sad times
I know. On and on…
This is just what I said to J…why haven’t I seen the news do this yet, list their names? Maybe I missed it, but it says SO much! Such an outrage!
Yes. I only recognized eight or ten of the names.
I’m so glad you documented it. I’m appalled that I stop recalling the names way too early in the list. Botham Shem Jean was just last October. Shot dead in his own apartment by the Houston policewoman.
I had not heard of MOST of the names.
What a beautiful post dear Dee
https://youtu.be/U6Uus–gFrc
just read this on Deb Gorr’s blog …
“turn me into song; sing me awake”
from here … one year ago … https://onbeing.org/programs/gregory-orr-shaping-grief-with-language/#transcript
and I think of the Hearts for Charleston … how long, how long must we sing their names?
Thank you for the link. I’ll have time to listen tomorrow. While we were making the Charleston quilt it became painfully clear to me that the pace of quilting could never keep up with the carnage.
(((Dee))) such deep sadness
Yes.
Going to look for some chalk, for when it stops raining, and the sidewalk dries. Thank you, Dee.
We found another list in Newton. On the road.
I’m wishing I had a sidewalk where people walked. I am a dead end street. In one of the only states not protesting.
Well at least you can support Susan Collins’ opponent.
Today, June 1, over the weekend, several days of protest in Albuquerque, began quietly then escalated into violence, setting of fires and shots fired at officers last night. The anger is so palpable, the grief and dismay flies in the wind , 27 miles to my home here in Rio Rancho, the rage flies in the wind, all over the world.
Oftentimes the sense of helplessness threatens to overwhelm, so to retain balance, I created a ritual this morning. Rosemary cut from my plant, sprinkled in and among my rock circle out in our front yard, candle lit, I sat on the ground, touching each rock, holding prayer for all those who have died so needlessly. Rosemary is the herb of remembrance and we must never forget…and I wonder, are there enough rosemary plants in the world but that is only my despair talking.
My rock circle has been used for solace as well as to contain my anger on those times when it all seemed so wrong as in last September when the great Evil one visited Rio Rancho, my home.
When it all seems to overwhelm, the participation and comfort of rituals, holds and centers AND one of the most basic rituals of being a citizen in America comes every 4 years in November, the simple ritual and action of VOTING… We have never needed to do this more so than now…
I can always rely on you Marti to bring in ritual and wonder and the landscape. The idea of rock and herb serving as tools for prayer is just
Lovely. Tomorrow for me.
Today, voting in our state for our primary:
4 yrs ago, 26,000 absentee ballots were sent in…
As of last week, 91,000 absentee ballots have been sent in.
Yes, this is due to the virus BUT look at the numbers, there is more to this; a flash point of finally recognizing what is at stake, a sense of standing up and recognizing that we must use our citizen rights…It is why in so many of my comments here, on grace’s blog, on Liz’s blog, I say to VOTE:
Posted on Liz’s blog yesterday by me: “We can hold vigils, we can march in solidarity, we can perform rituals of remembrance and prayer but we can never know how it is to go through life, targeted because of the color of our skin…the old saying walk a mile in our shoes, well we can’t do that, not really. What we can do is to try to open our hearts, open our eyes and most of all, exercise our rights as citizens to VOTE.”
I also added these words from Barack Obama who wrote an essay that was posted yesterday:: “So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.”
I somehow missed this long comment. Sorry. Your impassioned plea to vote I think might be more effectively aimed at young people. Is any reader here someone who passes on voting? I don’t know. Maybe. I so agree with you and Obama that it’s not binary. We can post and protest and write letters to the editor and give to the NAACP and bail fund groups and read books by Black analysts …. AND vote.
in the face of systemic (and institutional) racism I feel helpless, powerless…I want to be part of the positive change, for a personal insight I am reading Saeed Jones’ ‘How we fight for our lives’ after your review here a while back…as I see it ‘all lives matter’.
we – the human race – are not moving in sync, I sense that is part of the reason it is so difficult to move away from racism, gender discrimination, violence towards everyone who does not conform to ‘a norm’
my two cents
I read Jones’ memoir too, as you know, and gave two copies for Christmas gifts. FYI He is fun to follow on Instagram.
In this country the phrase “all lives matter” has been used as a way to discount and dismiss the push for racial justice. “Blue lives matter,” too.
It is up to us to deal with our sense of hopelessness and educate ourselves and to become accountable. It sounds like you’re working on it.
I didn’t know this about ‘all lives matter’
I don’t know what it means to be black, I do know what it is to be a woman and to have to live by different rules than a man; that’s where I find within myself an inkling of how it must feel to be black, not white and therefore privileged
I figured you didn’t know about the all lives matter thing. It’s a live wire here.
I heard a black man on the news say “no lives matter until black lives matter”…which as I understood him to be saying that you can’t treat one group as less than human and say all these other folks do matter. This history goes so deep, so far back. I understand what you are saying Saskia, for I have all of my label that make me less than in the eyes of some others, woman, older age, Jewish…
But systematic ‘keeping down’ of blacks in America is a whole different story. Years ago I heard it said, related to this, (I’m paraphrasing here) how I can go in my home and just live my life…I can choose to turn off the tv or disengage and my life goes on as usual…but for black America they do not have that luxury, that privilege, that choice for abuses are always and everywhere. I have never forgotten that, perhaps just a part of the reason I continue to watch the hard news. I also recall a gay couple talking about the way they had to look around first before holding hands in public and in some places, absolutely feeling unsafe to do so. Lastly, I can barely allow myself to think of what some of the actions of this president mean in relation to my Jewishness. That is too scary. We must do better.
Sorry so wordy Dee.
Our ability to “take a vacation” from politics says it all when it comes to privilege, doesn’t it?
A moving gathering and vigil was held in our little city Sunday night. We left our house thinking no one would show up – there was very little posted on the FB page that is the only source of local news – and we walked right into a stream of people heading for the corner designated as the meeting place at 7pm. There were speakers (elected officials, clergy, and neighborhood leaders) there were police, there were a couple of hundred people of all ages, colors and faiths and persuasions. All wearing masks, many with candles. “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts, even on white people. People came as families, even with little kids. The repeated message was: let this be the beginning of action, of building bridges and standing together. Yet, it is hard to think that we will really find a way through this given the circumstances of the pandemic and the discouragement. How long can we endure not knowing whether this is the end or the beginning of something better? I keep planning for a normal future and making masks (though fewer and more slowly). Please stay in touch here. Peace and Hope to all. Thanks, Dee, for continuing to provide and maintain this precious multi-dimensional gathering place.
I watched it. It was so beautiful and so different from what they’re showing on TV. I kept looking for you but didn’t find you in the crowd.
cry me a river…
(((Mo)))