[My foundational stories are related to the intersections between my Quaker faith, protecting Mother Earth, and photography. My faith led me to try to share my spiritual experiences and show my love for the beauty of Mother Earth through photography.]
Having finally written about where things stand now, I’ve been led to see the process doesn’t end there.
What’s next?
Photography
As mentioned, photography is one part of my foundational stories. Photography is usually a Spiritual exercise for me. Something that soothes my spirit. And a way to share beauty with others. I’m about to go out into the pouring rain this morning. I like to capture raindrops on plants. Not so much getting cold and wet, but that’s part of it.
There are so many things to discuss and do about where to go from here. What follows is just one example of something that can be done now. Doing is the significant part.
Faith
Only the Creator knows what’s next. Faith has been and continues to be where I seek guidance. What role does faith play in the lives of others? How do we make Spiritual connections, build Spiritual communities?
What (more) can we do to acknowledge past and/or current injustices? What are we called to do about these injustices?
Mother Earth
Mother Earth is severely damaged and the many, severe consequences are increasingly widespread and catastrophic.
We cannot achieve a sustainable and just society unless we change to
Simpler lifestyles, much less production and consumption, much less concern with luxury, affluence, possessions and wealth.
Small, highly self-sufficient local economies, largely independent of the global economy.
More cooperative and participatory ways, enabling people in small communities to take control of their own development.
A new economy, one that has no growth, is not driven by profit or market forces, produces much less than the present economy, and is provides sufficient for satisfactory lifestyles for all.
Some very different values, especially frugality, self-sufficiency, giving, sharing and cooperating, and the rejection of acquisitiveness and competition.
The Simpler Way: Working for transition from consumer society to a simpler, more cooperative, just and ecologically sustainable society. https://thesimplerway.info/
Now?
Most of the world is overwhelmed by so many pressing problems. Rather than working on solutions, there seems to be a global malaise. My experience and Spiritual guidance have been to focus on a specific problem. One thing you can actually do.
As an example, I’ve been led to support the Wet’suwet’en peoples’ call for international acts of solidarity on February 5th as they continue their years long work to stop the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through their pristine lands. Armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police have provided protection for the construction, and much of the pipeline is complete. There is great urgency now because drilling under the river has begun.
You can learn more about the Wet’suwet’en from this eBook I just completed: https://designrr.site?i=gzmf&t=2bb0c9 To be an ally you must understand the history and issues.
[My foundational stories are related to the intersections between my Quaker faith, protecting Mother Earth, and photography. My faith led me to try to share my spiritual experiences and show my love for the beauty of Mother Earth through photography.]
I’ve been praying and struggling for many days to discern how to express the state of my Quaker faith today. Quakerism is the faith community I was born into and have remained in. I was raised in a White Quaker family and community. I had a Spiritual experience at the Bear Creek Meetinghouse when I was about ten years old, an experience that I have drawn upon for the rest of my life. I attended Scattergood Friends School, a Quaker high school, and Earlham College, a Quaker institution.
One of the reasons I accepted the challenge of reflecting on my foundational stories is because of my crisis of faith now.
I think it is common for people to be disappointed by their faith community at various times, for a variety of reasons. That has been true for me. Coming of age during the Vietnam War I wished more young men had resisted the draft. I wish we all had done more to reign in the use of fossil fuels. And that White people like myself had worked, harder to acknowledge our complicity in the oppression of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), of various gender identities, and certain social and economic classes. I wish we were working harder now on acknowledging and trying to heal these injustices.
This country was built on the historical injustices of the institution of slavery, and the genocide and removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands. And the forced assimilation of native children in institutions where they were often physically and sexually abused, where thousands of children were killed or died.
Many people, including Quakers today question how complicit our ancestors were in these injustices. There were White Quakers who were involved in the slave trade, and who enslaved Black men, women, and children. Our ancestors were settler colonists. As are we who are now living on these lands. Quakers were involved in the Indian residential schools.
being involved with others in wrongdoing
complicity
These issues often generate significant emotional responses. I don’t have all the answers. But I have had spiritual and community experiences that I am led to speak and work from today. Many of these experiences have led me to understand we are living in a country, a society of structural racism and white superiority. As much as many of us White Quakers wish it weren’t so, our skin color automatically gives us many significant advantages in this country.
Our mainstream social, economic, and political systems are predicated on White superiority and dominance. I say mainstream because many people, including myself, are building alternative systems today. I’ve been deeply involved in Mutual Aid for a couple of years and believe this to be part of the answer. Mutual Aid is included in the following graphics.
NOTE: White supremacy is different from white superiority. “White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them.”
I’ve also seen in the lives of my friends what I once thought of as isolated historical traumas have been passed from generation to generation. They profoundly affect the lives of people today. What does that mean for White Quakers now?
“…capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous.”
Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) (Kindle Locations 111-121). Verso
Following is another way of looking at the relationships between White settler colonists and Indigenous peoples. White Quakers need to acknowledge that when our ancestors came to these Indigenous lands, they were settler colonists. And since we are still occupying these lands, we are settler colonists, too. Some White Quakers were involved in the forced assimilation of Indigenous children. We are implicated in most of the “negative” things listed below.
Acknowledgement of wrongs is the necessary first step in the healing process.
On the positive side are Mutual Aid, the Buffalo Rebellion, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). I’ve written a lot about my experiences with Mutual Aid https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/
I’m fortunate to be part of the Buffalo Rebellion, a newly formed Green New Deal coalition in Iowa formed to protect the planet by demanding change from politicians and convincing the public that climate should be a priority. Buffalo Rebellion, is a coalition of grassroots, labor, and climate justice organizations growing a movement to pass local, state, and national policies that create millions of family-sustaining union jobs—ensuring racial and gender equity and taking action on climate at the scale and scope the crisis demands. It was formed in November 2021 and consists of:
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has years of experience advocating for legislation related to Native American affairs. Recently FCNL has been supporting legislation to form a Truth and Healing Commission related to the Indian Boarding Schools. I’ve been blessed to have many years of experience with FCNL and have been working with my native friends in creating connections with FCNL, including several visits to our US Senators.
[My foundational stories are related to the intersections between my Quaker faith, protecting Mother Earth, and photography. My faith led me to try to share my spiritual experiences and show my love for the beauty of Mother Earth through photography.]
Yesterday I described where my story related to photography is at this time. Today I write about where I am regarding protecting Mother Earth. The beginning of my stories about protecting Mother Earth and the water can be found here: Foundational stories about care for Mother Earth.
Concern for Mother Earth has been a constant in my life. I was 20 years old when I moved to Indianapolis and was horrified by the thick, noxious exhaust from cars. I couldn’t be part of that and have lived without a car since then (1970).
My foundational stories now
Protecting Mother Earth
It took a while for me to become comfortable with the term Mother Earth. But vocabulary can affect how you feel about something. Having Earth as your Mother describes a living relationship. This is one of the many things I’ve learned from my Indigenous friends.
It is a dichotomy that today, despite knowing the many ways our environment and so many other things are collapsing, I have more hope than I’ve had for years. That’s because of the coalitions of people coming together to heal each other and Mother Earth. We can’t be so paralyzed with fear about what may be coming that we don’t enjoy the beauty all around us.
Following are some ways I’m involved in protecting Mother Earth now.
Last night I participated in a meeting of the Buffalo Rebellion, which I’m proud to be a part of. This coalition of environmental activists is one of the things that gives me hope. Realizing we are all working on similar things, this coalition is being built to empower our work and support one another. Last night someone remarked that we’ve all suffered trauma and are all in need of healing.
Following is a description of the Buffalo Rebellion, including a link to a recording of my friend Sikowis Nobiss describing it.
The topic this month is on a newly formed Green New Deal coalition in Iowa called Buffalo Rebellion formed to protect the planet by demanding change from politicians and convincing the public that climate should be a priority. Buffalo Rebellion, is a coalition of grassroots, labor, and climate justice organizations growing a movement to pass local, state, and national policies that create millions of family-sustaining union jobs—ensuring racial and gender equity and taking action on climate at the scale and scope the crisis demands. It was formed in November 2021 and consists of:
The root causes of what we are fighting against are capitalism and colonialism
The subject of last night’s gathering (at Iowa CCI and via Zoom) was CO2 (carbon) pipelines, the latest man-made environmental threat. Iowa is at the center of this problem because most of the ethanol plants are located here, because ethanol is produced from corn, and releases carbon emissions in the process. The carbon dioxide in the carbon pipelines is a hazardous material and could cause deaths if there is a rupture. A CO2 pipeline in Satartia, Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people. First responders’ vehicles could not run because of the absence of oxygen. READ: “The Gassing Of Satartia” (Huffington Post, August 2021)
Sikowis talked about what is below the crust of the earth also being a sacred space, and we don’t know what disturbing that with pipelines and fracking will cause.
The only way to address fossil fuel emissions is to stop burning fossil fuels.
Des Moines Mutual Aid has been the focus of my work for the past couple of years. How is this related to the protection of Mother Earth?
Being in a Mutual Aid community, we support each other and help each other heal.
Mutual Aid members are encouraged to use critical thinking to anticipate and solve problems. And immediately implement solutions, not waiting for permission from anyone.
Mutual Aid is about eliminating vertical hierarchies and the damage those hierarches do to a community. And how they harm Mother Earth.
Mutual Aid communities are explicitly local. There is no need for fossil fuel transportation and energy production. Our Mutual Aid communities are or will be “walkable”.
Our Mutual Aid communities are an example to others of how we can escape capitalism and colonialism that are the root causes of injustice
Our Mutual Aid practices are about sustainability and protection of Mother Earth
“These spaces become intergenerational, diverse places of Indigenous joy, care and conversation, and these conversations can be affirming, naming, critiquing, as well as rejecting and pushing back against the current systems of oppression”. Maynard, Robyn; Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake.
“…capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous.”Dean Spade
Ronnie James, Des Moines Mutual Aid
…in Nishnaabeg thinking, knowledge is mobilized, generated, and shared by collectively doing. It’s more than that, though. There is an aspect of self-determination and ethical engagement in organizing to meet our peoples’ material needs. There is a collective emotional lift in doing something worthwhile for our peoples’ benefit, however short-lived that benefit might be. These spaces become intergenerational, diverse places of Indigenous joy, care and conversation, and these conversations can be affirming, naming, critiquing, as well as rejecting and pushing back against the current systems of oppression. This for me seems like the practice of movement-building that our respective radical practices have been engaged with for centuries.
Maynard, Robyn; Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. Rehearsals for Living (Abolitionist Papers) (p. 39). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.
In another example of how our work is interrelated, my Mutual Aid friends support the Wet’suwet’en.
The Wet’suwet’en peoples have been struggling for years to prevent the construction of the Coastal GasLink liquified natural gas pipeline from being built through their pristine, unceded lands.
There was one particularly significant Spirit-led event in my life related to the Wet’suwet’en. When I first became involved with the Wet’suwet’en peoples was when they were asking allies to spread the news about their struggles, since there was no mainstream media coverage.
In February 2020, some of us were already planning to be at Friends House in Des Moines. We decided to hold a vigil for the Wet’suwet’en on the street in front of Friends House prior to that meeting. I created an event announcement on Facebook, that was shared by my friend Ed Fallon or Bold Iowa, an Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
As anticipated just those few of us who were planning to attend the meeting at Friends House anyway showed up. But the Spirit-led part of this is that Ronnie James, who I didn’t know at the time, joined us. Ronnie is an Indigenous organizer with twenty years of experience. He was surprised anyone in Iowa knew about the Wet’suwet’en peoples, so he came to see who was attending, a good organizing technique.
Ronnie and I began to exchange messages over the next couple of months. I was intrigued with the stories he was telling me about Des Moines Mutual Aid community he was involved with. When I felt we had begun to know each other well enough, I tentatively asked if I could attend the food giveaway that Ronnie/Des Moines Mutual Aid held every Saturday morning. This was a continuation of a variation of the Black Panther Party’s free school breakfast program in Des Moines from the 1970’s.
I thought I would just attend a time or two to see how that worked. Instead, I’ve been there almost every Saturday morning for over two years now, and Ronnie is one of my best friends. One of the many good things about Mutual Aid is how it attracts and keeps people engaged.
I continue to do what I can to support the Wet’suwet’en. We are presently organizing another gathering at Chase bank to call attention to their funding fossil fuel projects. Some others from the Buffalo Rebellion will be involved.
Bear Creek Friends Meeting
The small, rural Quaker meeting I’m a member of continues today to try to find ways we can help protect Mother Earth. This is one way to bring a Spiritual approach to these problems which I believe is very important.
Members of the meeting have supported the annual Prairie Awakening/Prairie Awoke ceremony that takes place at the Kuehn Conservation Area, just a few miles from the meetinghouse.
Bear Creek Friends Meeting
It is difficult to reduce fossil fuel use in rural areas.
One thing we realized we could do was encourage more use of bicycles, since many members lived close to the meetinghouse just north of Earlham, Iowa. And encourage Friends in urban meetings to use bicycles when possible.
The Minute we wrote, and that was approved by Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative) was referred to as a Minute on “Ethical Transportation”.
Radically reducing fossil fuel use has long been a concern of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). A previously approved Minute urged us to reduce our use of personal automobiles. We have continued to be challenged by the design of our communities that makes this difficult. This is even more challenging in rural areas. But our environmental crisis means we must find ways to address this issue quickly.
Friends are encouraged to challenge themselves and to simplify their lives in ways that can enhance their spiritual environmental integrity. One of our meetings uses the term “ethical transportation,” which is a helpful way to be mindful of this.
Long term, we need to encourage ways to make our communities “walkable”, and to expand public transportation systems. These will require major changes in infrastructure and urban planning.
Carpooling and community shared vehicles would help. We can develop ways to coordinate neighbors needing to travel to shop for food, attend meetings, visit doctors, etc. We could explore using existing school buses or shared vehicles to provide intercity transportation.
One immediately available step would be to promote the use of bicycles as a visible witness for non-fossil fuel transportation. Friends may forget how easy and fun it can be to travel miles on bicycles. Neighbors seeing families riding their bicycles to Quaker meetings would have an impact on community awareness. This is a way for our children to be involved in this shared witness. We should encourage the expansion of bicycle lanes and paths. We can repair and recycle unused bicycles, and make them available to those who have the need.
Minute approved by Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) 2017
At this summer’s annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), held at Scattergood School and Farm, we were challenged to examine our foundational stories. How they began, how they evolved, and what they are now. I was led to accept that challenge, especially because I had been sensing spiritual leadings that suggested I might change not the stories themselves, but a change in focus.
My foundational stories are related to the intersections between my Quaker faith, protecting Mother Earth, and photography. My faith led me to try to share my spiritual experiences and show my love for the beauty of Mother Earth through photography.
The path of my foundational stories was not a straight line. Which is the reason for the many stories I wrote about the path of my stories. My grandmother, Lorene Standing, told me the will of God is often revealed in a series of steps. That has been the case for me.
Many things I’ve read and my own experiences have shown me that stories are perhaps the most effective way to engage in discussions, especially when there are disagreements. And stories, of the past and present, are going to be important as we all try to find our way through the coming challenges.
If we are to find a new kind of good life amid the catastrophes these myths have spawned, then we need to radically rethink the stories we tell ourselves. We need to dig deep into old stories and reveal their wisdom, as well as lovingly nurture the emergence of new stories into being.
Long’s Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, ColoradoLong’s Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado 2017
We’re all aware of the revolution of digital photography. Besides being glad I no longer have to use a darkroom, digital photography has made me a much better photographer. Having the freedom to capture many images, not limited to 12 or 36 exposures, and such control with digital editing, I learn so much.
In the past I used photography in a lot of justice types of activities, but that has changed recently. I no longer take many photos at demonstrations and rallies because law enforcement uses such photos posted online to identify people to arrest.
There are demonstrations where there is no concern about the police. My new friends since I’ve moved back to Iowa have found out about my love of photography and I’m glad to be invited to take photos for them.
I still carry my camera everywhere. Now that I’m retired, I have a new daily routine. First thing in the morning I spend about two hours writing, while my mind is still “fresh”. Then I walk about three miles with my camera. For the exercise of my body and photographic eye. For some reason I usually end up with about seventy photos each day. Some days I have to force myself to stop.
After lunch I look forward to spending about two hours editing the photos I took that day. I really enjoy that. So all this fills about six hours a day.
One of the reasons I was led to accept the challenge of reflecting on my foundational stories was because I had noticed some changes. It is difficult to know, even with statistics provided, how many people read my blog posts. Or look at my photos.
The numbers aren’t important, other than making me wonder how I can most effectively tell my stories. Whether I should do more work related to writing, or photography. Facebook especially makes it possible to get an idea of how many people look at photos. And makes it easy for people to comment on them.
I’m comfortable with the current mix of this.
But there is something sad about one aspect of this. I love the photographs of Ansel Adams and others from his day that helped people appreciate nature and sometimes affected government policies. I just learned he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
I had hoped in some small way the photos I was sharing would make people pay attention to the beauty all around us and sensitize them to advocate for protection of Mother Earth.
It makes me sad to think the photographs we’ve taken over the past several decades might be what people in the (near) future look at to see the beauty that once was and is no more. That is one reason I take so many photos today.
I’ve been so blessed to have made a number of Indigenous friends since returning to Iowa in 2017. One of the things I’ve learned from them is to recognize the spirit in all things, human and non-human. This has changed the relationship between myself and what I am photographing.
(Barry) Lopez could not have known the effect he was having on one impressionable member of the audience. Yet I believe he established a connection with me that evening—a thin strand in the elaborate web that is community—by describing a path that was utterly new to me, and by suggesting that, as others had walked that path, it was safe for me to do so as well. This all happened in the space of a few seconds, as he mulled over the central question plaguing the men and women at the conference, namely: How could we convince lawmakers to pass laws to protect wilderness? Lopez argued that wilderness activists will never achieve the success they seek until they can go before a panel of legislators and testify that a certain river or butterfly or mountain or tree must be saved, not because of its economic importance, not because it has recreational or historical or scientific value, but because it is so beautiful.
His words struck a chord in me. I left the room a changed person, one who suddenly knew exactly what he wanted to do and how to do it. I had known that love is a powerful weapon, but until that moment I had not understood how to use it. What I learned on that long-ago evening, and what I have counted on ever since, is that to save a wilderness, or to be a writer or a cab driver or a homemaker—to live one’s life—one must reach deep into one’s heart and find what is there, then speak it plainly and without shame.
Reid, Robert Leonard. Because It Is So Beautiful: Unraveling the Mystique of the American West . Counterpoint. Kindle Edition.
As often happens, when I sat down to write this morning, I wasn’t sure what the subject would be. I’m aware of looking forward to being with my Mutual Aid friends this morning. I know they feel the same from comments I’ve heard over the past couple of years. I’ve heard my friends say this is the best part of their week.
In contrast, I sense so many people don’t have much joy in their lives. So many things are going wrong, things we could once rely on, we no longer can. We are entering a time of collapse. There is a general malaise, a fear for our future, the feeling we have no control, a spiritual poverty.
What’s the most effective way to voluntarily get billions of people to the point they are capable of exercising the skills below?
How do we get the timing right: Not so early that there’s not yet a sense of urgency, but not so late that we’re trying to do it in an environment of chaos?
How might we begin to identify, improve the competencies of, and empower the right people to do the mentoring, teaching, training, demonstrating, connecting, modelling, and other hands-on imparting of knowledge and skills needed to make it happen?
How can we make this new, crucial learning easier, and fun?
What caught my attention is how can we make this new learning fun? I think of endless committee meetings related to justice work, for example, and how they were not fun. And usually not effective. My friend Alvin at the Kheprw Institute always asks, “what actually changed as a result of what was done?”
Those of us who have organized rallies and marches know how difficult it is to get people to participate. If participating in something isn’t fun in the sense of being enjoyable, exciting, fulfilling, and meaningful, there will be little enthusiasm for people to participate and they won’t.
Our Mutual Aid work is fun and effective. We enjoy working together to put boxes of food together and enjoy our interactions with those who come for food. We are meeting an immediate survival need. But it does require a commitment to be present as often as possible. And it is very physical work. I remember when Ronnie was explaining this to me, he said at the end of the food distribution you were tired, sweaty, and feeling good. And so it was.
That is captured in this quote. “There is an aspect of self-determination and ethical engagement in organizing to meet our peoples’ material needs. There is a collective emotional lift in doing something worthwhile for our peoples’ benefit, however short-lived that benefit might be.“
You and your relations, my friend, are (still) busy building a different world at the end of this one. This is something I’ve emphasized over and over again in my own work. I cherish the belief and practice that it is never enough to just critique the system and name our oppression. We also have to create the alternative, on the ground and in real time. In part, for me, because Nishnaabeg ethics and theory demand no less. In part because in Nishnaabeg thinking, knowledge is mobilized, generated, and shared by collectively doing. It’s more than that, though. There is an aspect of self-determination and ethical engagement in organizing to meet our peoples’ material needs. There is a collective emotional lift in doing something worthwhile for our peoples’ benefit, however short-lived that benefit might be. These spaces become intergenerational, diverse places of Indigenous joy, care and conversation, and these conversations can be affirming, naming, critiquing, as well as rejecting and pushing back against the current systems of oppression. This for me seems like the practice of movement-building that our respective radical practices have been engaged with for centuries.
Maynard, Robyn; Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. Rehearsals for Living (Abolitionist Papers) (p. 39). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.
I imagine you have experienced this. As I think of this in my life, I remember how significant it was at Scattergood Friends School when we did our assigned, rotating crews together. Such as preparing meals, baking bread, pruning trees in the orchard, even laundry crew that did the laundry for the entire student body. We had to have name tags sewn into every piece of our clothing so the laundry crew could separate everything out when the clothes were dry.
We experience this when we respond to community needs, such as weather disasters.
This is why I urge us to create our own, local Mutual Aid communities. Perhaps as important as providing essential resources to people is the experience of doing something meaningful. People have a desperate yearning to feel they are doing something worthwhile, something that fulfills their need to feel appreciated.
Collapse is coming at us far more quickly than we had anticipated.
In response to Pollard’s questions (above), the right timing is now. The way to get billions of volunteers to engage is to build Mutual Aid communities everywhere now, in part because Mutual Aid work is fun, meaningful, satisfying.
Soft skills
Critical thinking
Group facilitation
Helping people cope
Preparing healthy food
Caring for the young, old, and sick
Imaginative, reflective and creative skills
Mentoring
Listening, noticing and attention skills
Conversation
Community-building
Hard skills (that require some specific technical knowledge/experience
Growing and harvesting food
Making and repairing clothing and shelter from the elements
Accessing clean, safe water
Weaving, fabric-making, pottery and other crafting skills tha that make life much more pleasant and comfortable
Medical, medicinal, and injury-healing knowledge and skills
Food preservation
Bicycle construction and repair
Basic engineering skills
Ecological skills
Decommissioning-nuclear reactors and petrochemical sites
I’m reading a book about the lives of people in the most polluted, least educated, most disadvantaged, and most dangerously toxic (and most conservative) part of Louisiana (more about that in an upcoming article). What emerges from the author’s study is that (1) these people are living in a ‘world’ that is already in a very advanced state of economic and ecological collapse, one that may foretell what the rest of us in ‘affluent’ nations will soon face; (2) they are far more of a ‘community’ than most people living in cities could claim; and (3) they are not particularly interested in paternalistic ‘grief professionals’ ‘coaching’ them on how to manage the massive grief and other emotions they and their families have been dealing with for generations.
But capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous. Today, many of us live in the most atomized societies in human history, which makes our lives less secure and undermines our ability to organize together to change unjust conditions on a large scale. We are put in competition with each other for survival, and we are forced to rely on hostile systems— like health care systems designed around profit, not keeping people healthy, or food and transportation systems that pollute the earth and poison people— for the things we need. More and more people report that they have no one they can confide in when they are in trouble. This means many of us do not get help with mental health, drug use, family violence, or abuse until the police or courts are involved, which tends to escalate rather than resolve harm. In this context of social isolation and forced dependency on hostile systems, mutual aid— where we choose to help each other out, share things, and put time and resources into caring for the most vulnerable— is a radical act.
Dean Spade. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) (Kindle Locations 111-121). Verso.
I’m glad to have two friends from Afghanistan, Reza Mohammadi and Leo Ko. They both attended Scattergood Friends School and Farm near West Branch, Iowa. I attended Scattergood in the late 1960’s.
I was glad that Reza attended Simpson College here in Indianola so we could spend time together. While at Simpson Reza was involved in social justice work, including supporting Black Lives Matter.
Since graduation, Reza moved to Minneapolis.
A new resource center for Afghan refugees recently opened its doors in Minneapolis that will serve as a resettlement support space for Afghan refugees in the Twin Cities.
The Afghan Cultural Society and other area organizations, helped make the center possible.
Reza reached out via social media to connect with other Afghans living in Minnesota. That’s when he met Afghan Cultural Society co-founders Nasreen Sajady and Amina Baha.
Now Mohammadi works as the Afghan Cultural Society’s family coach, where he helps newly arrived Afghans chart a path toward achieving educational and career goals.
Rezadad Mohammadi, family coach at the Afghan Cultural Society, hopes the new support center in Minneapolis can be a healing space for Afghan refugees.Ben Hovland | MPR News
He said his biggest hope for the new center is that it provides a healing space for Afghans.
On Sept. 30, a suicide bomber killed more than 50 people in a Hazara neighborhood in Kabul. Mohammadi, who is a member of the Hazara ethnic minority, quickly sprang into action to organize a local candlelight vigil.
“It was really powerful,” he said. “Within three days’ notice, nearly 200 people showed up.”
I’ve been heavily involved in the struggles against the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. While continuing to do research about those pipelines, I was led to this amazing YouTube video documenting the eviction of the Coastal GasLink construction workers from Wet’suwet’en territory in January, 2020. I can still remember how I felt then, asking myself “are you kidding me?” I had never heard of the Wet’suwet’en peoples or the Coastal GasLink pipeline. But this became one of my main projects since that day.
Now, almost three years later, despite heroic, prayerful, sustained, peaceful work, much of the pipeline has been built. There has been relentless harassment from armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
There is great urgency now to stand in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en because drilling has begun under Wedzwin Kwa, the river running through Wet’suwet’en territory. Many salmon are present for spawning.
During the call, Chief Na’Moks emphasized what was happening affects us all because of the global nature of greenhouse emissions, and the global struggle for Indigenous sovereignty. Saying the nation (Canada) needs a moral shakeup.
When Chief Na’Moks was finally able to visit the site of the drilling at the river he said the sounds and vibrations of the construction could be heard kilometers away.
Please watch Wet'suwet'en Chief Na'Moks as he finally is allowed to view a gigantic pipeline hole gouged illegally out of the Indigenous territory where he and his people have lived for thousands of years.
He said our ancestors were outlaws. We are grateful to them now. We have to act now. Organize yourselves to protect the future of us all. “When you see something wrong, you must say something about it. If not, you are guilty by association. You must go to your politicians for the benefit of the children, of everyone. I was taught to stand up for my children and future generations.”
We are reaching the point of no return. If the water is ruined, there will be a ripple effect. On farming, cattle, food, etc.
This is happening now.
You guys are good people. So is anyone who stands up. People cannot sit on the fence. I appreciate your ears, your brains. I hope your intelligence will help us out.
We’re in the process of seeing what might be done in support here in Iowa. Here are links about our rally at a Chase bank in Des Moines. Chase also funds the Coastal GasLink and other pipelines.
Yesterday, over an emotional hour-long webinar, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have called upon you to stand up in solidarity with them by mobilizing and organizing long term in support of them.
Now is the time to act. If you are already taking action in any way, we look forward to standing in solidarity together. If you want to take action but aren’t already planning to or don’t know how, we are here to support you.
“I was taught to stand up … I was taught to earn my own way … I need to move forward with this. I’m hoping that I am making sense to all those that are listening. I appreciate your ears. I appreciate your brain. And hopefully your intelligence will help us out in a way that is a good way. Misiyh,” said Chief Woos last night.
“We never never allowed this project to go through. There has been no consent from any of the hereditary chiefs or our people. We have villages that signed on, but villages only have jurisdiction within their reserve,” added Chief Na’Moks.
For Molly Wickham, “(t)he ‘Memorandum of Understanding in 2020’ was meant to put an end to Shutdown Canada… Shutdown Canada impacted their pocketbook… it brought into question the viability of the way they’re treating Indigenous Peoples, of the way they were treating the Wet’suwet’en by bringing in militarized raids into our territories. Because of this they came to the table… and this was supposed to be .. the implementation of what our ancestors … had been fighting for.”
Memorandum of Understanding Between Canada, British Columbia and Wet’suwet’en as agreed on February 29, 2020
Immediate
Canada and British Columbia (B.C.) recognize that Wet’suwet’en rights and title are held by Wet’suwet’en Houses under their system of governance.
Canada and B.C. recognize Wet’suwet’en aboriginal rights and title throughout the Yintah.
Canada, B.C. and the Wet’suwet’en commit to the negotiations described below (commencing immediately).
B.C. commits to engage in these negotiations consistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
Canada and B.C. will provide the necessary resources to Wet’suwet’en for these negotiations.
The parties agree these negotiations are to be intensively mediated by an agreed upon mediator.
Agreement to be negotiated over the next 3 months
Legal recognition that the Wet’suwet’en Houses are the Indigenous governing body holding the Wet’suwet’en Aboriginal rights and title in accordance with our Inuk Nuatden.
Legal recognition of Wet’suwet’en title as a legal interest in land by Canada and B.C.
There will be no impact on existing rights and interests pertaining to land until jurisdiction is transferred to the Wet’suwet’en.
Jurisdiction that flows from Wet’suwet’en Aboriginal rights and title will be transferred to Wet’suwet’en over time based on an agreed upon timetable (with the objective for transition of some areas within 6 months and a schedule for the remaining areas of jurisdiction thereafter).
In some cases the jurisdiction that is transferred to the Wet’suwet’en will be exclusive and in some cases it will be shared with Canada or B.C.
The areas of jurisdiction that will need to be addressed include the following (without limitation):
revenue sharing, fair and just compensation, economic component of Aboriginal title
informed decision making
such other areas as the Wet’suwet’en propose
Title will be implemented and jurisdiction (exclusive or shared) will be transferred once specifics on how Aboriginal and crown titles interface have been addressed; this includes the following:
transparency, accountability, and administrative fairness mechanisms including clear process and remedies to address grievances of any person, pertaining to all areas of shared and exclusive jurisdiction
clarity on the Wet’suwet’en governance structures, systems, and laws, that will be ratified by the Wet’suwet’en and will be used to implement their title to the extent required to understand the interface between the Crown and Wet’suwet’en jurisdiction
This agreement is to be ratified by Canada, B.C. and Wet’suwet’en under their respective systems of governance.
The agreement will be binding on Canada, B.C. and the Wet’suwet’en and all of their agencies, departments and officials as they conduct their business together as governments.
Agreement to be negotiated over the next 12 months
The specifics of how Aboriginal and Crown titles interface.
The agreement recognizing Wet’suwet’en rights and title will be protected by Section 35 of the Constitution, 1982.
Signed on the 14th day of May 2020. Signed on behalf of the WET’SUWET’EN nation by the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs
In the face of these perilous times, I’m seeing references to what Abraham Lincoln did in the times of crisis in his day.
Some of the photos that mean the most to me are of the Lincoln Memorial. I was blessed to take a number of trips to Washington, DC, for meetings of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Because of my beliefs about fossil fuels, that meant 20-hour train trips between Indianapolis and Washington, DC. Longer if we had to wait for freight traffic.
This is a continuation of an article I recently wrote about critical skills to prepare for collapse. It is telling that the idea of collapse is more widely accepted, but not surprising as the signs are appearing in so many ways. Rather than being something environmentalists just talk about, the actual damage is occurring everywhere.
But simply applying critical thinking to a problem or situation doesn’t necessarily mean you arrive at the best solution. The more you know about the situation you are facing, the better. Which is why banning books and all the other restrictions being placed on education is so tragic. It also explains why that is being done. Those working to control us don’t want us to have that knowledge. They want us to be dependent on what they want and say.
The point of critical thinking is that as you learn more, you can integrate that into your knowledge base and make better decisions. Which is going to be crucial in the face of the rapid and dramatic changes that will be, already are occurring.
And there are many situations that involve our values, which are not subject to critical thinking.
Several people have asked me why I put ‘critical thinking’ on this list. My sense, from reading works like the Davids’ The Dawn of Everything and Peter Brody’s The Other Side of Eden is that what most distinguishes our civilization from most prehistoric and indigenous ones is that, before education became something that we ‘did’ to people, most people naturally acquired this essential skill, by facing the many existential challenges that life outside our synthetic, infantilizing, prosthetic, standardized culture presented to them every day. In short, they learned how to learn because they had to; they didn’t have to be ‘taught’.
My experience has been that, given that it is no longer a prerequisite for survival, critical thinking is now something that has to be specifically nurtured in people, which probably happens most often by parents’ encouragement. Lacking that, there’s a natural propensity, I think, for simplification and uncritical reaction. But if you’re taught the value and importance of critical thinking, I think you figure out this process of weighing and assessing and challenging what the world throws at you.
But I’m not so sure about this. Maybe, just as we can learn to make our own clothes and grow much of our own food if and when we have to (as millions discovered during the Great Depression), we can also learn to learn, to think critically, to challenge unsupported rhetoric, to think for ourselves instead of relying on increasingly-incompetent media to tell us what we should and should not believe.
When it begins to dawn on us, in five years or twenty-five, that we are going to have to quickly instill the above (see the article) currently rare skills in many or even most of our people, how might we go about it? As pessimistic as I am, I just can’t believe it’s already too late to do so.
So I’m thinking about these questions:
What’s the most effective way to voluntarily get billions of people to the point they are capable of exercising the above skills?
How do we get the timing right: Not so early that there’s not yet a sense of urgency, but not so late that we’re trying to do it in an environment of chaos?
How might we begin to identify, improve the competencies of, and empower the right people to do the mentoring, teaching, training, demonstrating, connecting, modelling, and other hands-on imparting of knowledge and skills needed to make it happen?
How can we make this new, crucial learning easier, and fun?
‘How Do We Teach the Critical Skills Needed to Face Collapse?” by Dave Pollard, How To save the world, September 10, 2022.
So I don’t see any top-down ‘professional’ answer to developing the above essential skills in the coming decades, not even the skill of ‘helping people cope’ with collapse. I think the answer has to emerge bottom up, from within each community as that community establishes itself.
‘How Do We Teach the Critical Skills Needed to Face Collapse?” by Dave Pollard, How To save the world, September 10, 2022.
So, we arrive at my experience with Mutual Aid. A future article will discuss how Mutual Aid is providing skills and developing communities to face collapse.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has dominated the news for six months now. There is news about two new developments.
The Russian draft to force men into the military
The use of weaponized drones
Russian conscription brings back memories of the draft in this country for the Vietnam War.
I came of age during the Vietnam War years. Organized a draft conference, walked with the entire student body of Scattergood Friends School (all sixty of us) fourteen miles into Iowa City during the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, became a draft resister. The entire country was in an uproar. Young men and their families lived in fear of induction based on a lottery system. Over 58,000 Americans were killed.
A key component to the sustenance of the permanent war state was the creation of the All-Volunteer Force. Without conscripts, the burden of fighting wars falls to the poor, the working class, and military families. This All-Volunteer Force allows the children of the middle class, who led the Vietnam anti-war movement, to avoid service. It protects the military from internal revolts, carried out by troops during the Vietnam War, which jeopardized the cohesion of the armed forces.
NO WAY OUT BUT WAR By Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. May 23, 2022. Permanent War Has Cannibalized The Country. It Has Created A Social, Political, And Economic Morass.
I’ve often despaired at the absence of an antiwar movement since our plunge into a ‘war on terror’ that is an excuse to have military presence and conflict in any place politicians define a threat.
There were three restraints to the avarice and bloodlust of the permanent war economy that no longer exist. The first was the old liberal wing of the Democratic Party, led by politicians such as Senator George McGovern, Senator Eugene McCarthy, and Senator J. William Fulbright, who wrote The Pentagon Propaganda Machine. The self-identified progressives, a pitiful minority, in Congress today, from Barbara Lee, who was the single vote in the House and the Senate opposing a broad, open-ended authorization allowing the president to wage war in Afghanistan or anywhere else, to Ilhan Omar now dutifully line up to fund the latest proxy war. The second restraint was an independent media and academia, including journalists such as I.F Stone and Neil Sheehan along with scholars such as Seymour Melman, author of The Permanent War Economy and Pentagon Capitalism: The Political Economy of War. Third, and perhaps most important, was an organized anti-war movement, led by religious leaders such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr. and Phil and Dan Berrigan as well as groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They understood that unchecked militarism was a fatal disease.
NO WAY OUT BUT WAR By Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. May 23, 2022. Permanent War Has Cannibalized The Country. It Has Created A Social, Political, And Economic Morass.
An anti-war demonstration against Israeli militarism
This photo was taken during a demonstration to bring attention to Israeli militarism. Christine Ashley, then head of Scattergood Friends School, offered to take the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Peace and Social Concerns Committee to Iowa City for this demonstration in 2014. This occurred at the time when we were holding our annual sessions at the school. The sign I’m holding is from an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) campaign to call attention of military spending and its consequences. That is a picture of a drone on the sign. You can see a War Is Not the Answer sign in the background, as well as a button on my camera strap, which I have been wearing for many years.
The peace and social concerns committee asks the clerk of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) to mail the following letter to our Congressional delegations.
Jeff Kisling and Sherry Hutchison, co-clerks [Note: the photo below is of Sherry Hutchison]
The Israeli government, with U.S. aid, now has the most powerful military in the Middle East. In 2008 Israel attacked Gaza, with 1400 civilian casualties. In 2013 Israel attacked Lebanon, with 750 civilian casualties. Currently Israel is engaging in a massive military siege of Palestine, with over 800 civilian deaths so far. All three of these Israel assaults have involved devastating destruction of schools, hospitals, power plants, and other infrastructure.
Tragically, we the American taxpayers are paying for this human rights travesty. Israel receives 9.9 million U.S. dollars each day in military aid from us. This makes it our largest aid recipient in the world. While Americans are struggling to make ends meet and our government struggles to maintain our own infrastructure, we are subsidizing Israel to conduct activities in direct opposition to international law.
We ask that no more military aid be given to the Israeli government.
Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) 2014
Sherry Hutchison
Drone terrorism
Recently Russia has begun to use weaponized drones against Ukraine. I remember how devastated I was when I learned of how people, how the children in Iraq and Afghanistan were terrorized by the sounds of drones circling overhead. Knowing an attack could be triggered at any moment, with untold numbers of civilian casualties. Death by remote control.
In a recent news story, a reporter from NBC News spoke about this, about how unnerving it was to hear the sounds of the drones overhead.
It was fascinating to learn how a drone strike helped trigger the formation of Des Moines Mutual Aid, which has been the focus of my work for the past two years.
One year ago today (January 2021) Des Moines Mutual Aid participated in a march protesting the potential for war or increased hostilities with Iran that followed the fallout of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by drone strike in Baghdad.
This was our first “public” event since adopting the name Des Moines Mutual Aid, a name we gave our crew during our growing work with our relatives at the houseless camps throughout the city and our help with coordinating a weekly free grocery store that has a 50 year history, founded by the Des Moines Chapter of The Black Panther Party For Self Defense.
A year ago we started laying the foundation for work we had no idea what was coming. As we were adjusting our work with the camps and grocery re-distribution in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, both that continued to grow in need and importance, the police continued their jobs and legacy of brutality and murder.
This nation exploded in righteous rage in response to the pig murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. DMMA realized we were in a position to organize a bail fund to keep our fighters out of jail, both to keep the streets alive as a new phase of The Movement was being born, and because jails are a hotspot of Covid-19 spread. Not to mention the racial and economic oppression that is the cash bail system.
In the past year DMMA has expanded its work in multiple directions and gained many partners and allies.
We partnered with the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement to create the DSM BLM Rent Relief initiative to help keep families in their homes in the midst of a pandemic and the winter.
The camp work has grown exponentially, but is being managed with our collaboration with Edna Griffin Mutual Aid, DSM Black Liberation Movement, and The Great Plains Action Society.
The bail fund remains successful because of desire from the public and a partnership with Prairielands Freedom Fund (formerly The Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project).
The weekly free food store has maintained itself, carrying on the legacy it inherited.
Every one of our accomplishments are directly tied to the support of so many people donating time, talent, and funds to the work. We are overwhelmed with all of your support and hope you feel we are honoring what we promised.
All of these Mutual Aid projects are just a few of many that this city has created in the last year in response to the many crises we face, not only confronting the problems and fulfilling the needs directly in front of us, but creating a sustainable movement that will be capable of responding to what’s next and shaping our collective futures as we replace the systems that fail us.
These last 12 months have been wild and a real test of all of our capabilities to collectively organize. But it is clear that we as a city have what it takes to do what is needed in 2021, no matter what crisis is next.
Quakers and Mutual Aid 