Dear all,
Well, here is a glimpse of our trip to Uganda. There may be no way to fully invite people in, but I’ve given it my best shot. And, after a not-so-easy transition and a too-quick pivot to holidays and holiday travel, I’m very glad to be home, without plans to go anywhere for a while.
I was pleased to be at the Philadelphia women’s march today with a sign that reads: “TAKE HEART — We are more POWERFUL than we know!” It got lots of attention and appreciation, and was a wonderful way to offer a little of my perspective to a lot of people.
I just saw the first tiniest sickle of moon this evening. There is something about that cycle that I love being part of.
Love,
Pamela
Stories
Home from two intense and rich weeks in Uganda, I wonder what is my story to tell about that time? We are often encouraged to support safety in groups by maintaining confidentiality, ensuring that nobody’s story leaves that space. Yet I’ve been helped by a friend’s reframing of that advice—to tell only your own story. You don’t just repeat another person’s story—which is basically gossip—but if it has changed you in some way, you may have something new of your own to share.
Somehow that advice seems relevant here. I am pulled to describe the poverty I saw, but telling the story of someone else’s poverty is a poor substitute for grieving that injustice, claiming my role in it, and acting to make a difference. The countless stories of resilience in the face of that poverty are not mine either, though the hope they bring me shapes my experience. So I’ll just mention that I love the creativity with which people name their businesses, and their readiness to include God in the mix. “God is Able Food Market” is a place I’d like to shop.
It could be argued that the story of the school that we have been supporting for decades is mine to tell. It has been reeling from the death of its beloved and charismatic founder, and we came with her son whom we’ve known for decades in Philadelphia. He has taken over the school’s leadership at his mother’s request, valiantly trying to solve thorny and systematic problems from a distance in the hours around his more-than-full-time regular job here.
But the details of family members’ complex relationship to the school, of the efforts to sort through multi-layered relationships and probe for solid ground on which to rebuild, are not really mine. I can say that I loved how hard and well we worked together. Day in and day out we met with members of the school community, listened hard, strategized together, prioritized tasks, followed up. We were in such good communication that it was like functioning as one larger organism, three hearts and minds working as one. I was inspired to suggest that, at the end of each day before dropping exhausted into bed, we take a few minutes to appreciate each other. This turned out to be a precious time together. And slowly, slowly, we saw the shape of a new and healthier culture beginning to emerge.
We were staying in the compound where many of Abitimo’s grandchildren still live. The complexities of their lives are not my story, but I can say that one evening after dinner, we hosted a family dance party out under the stars. There were probably twenty of us, ages 6 to 69, and we let loose together, moved our bodies, and laughed and laughed and laughed.
Of course we know that it is people, and our connections with each other, that make up our ultimate resource and wealth. And there are so many people there to respect. I loved how Abitimo’s driver has become a near and trusted friend, how, as we drove north from the airport the first day, we asked for his advice on approaching the school project, and then how we followed it. We left with many things undone, but there are also many very competent people there who can move the project forward.
When we weren’t working on the school project, we were leading two peer counseling workshops, one in our Northern Uganda home of Gulu, and the other in the capital in the south. After being with loved ones in the north, I wasn’t anxious to get to know a whole new group of people, but of course I fell in love. In our little support group, women told stories of incredible hardship growing up as girls, but we rejoiced together in our strength as women. Then, when the children showed up in the middle of the weekend, Chuck and I got to demonstrate the kind of active play that can get a whole group of little ones running and squealing with delight—opening up a whole new world of possibility for everyone there.
I organized a breakfast table where teachers told wonderful stories about how they are sharing their understanding of listening for healing at their schools. I had to remember that my role of gathering them together and encouraging them to share those stories more widely had its own value.
We thought hard about where outside money could help, and where it might just muddy the waters. The nursery teachers’ request for wall charts, however, was a straightforward one. Following a young driver we had just met, we ventured deep into the maze of Kampala, through a warren of tiny stationery shops, to find a business with four square feet of floor space and great rolls of charts, and emerged with fourteen for less than ten dollars! Then, at a craft market, we found balls made of banana leaves, and this young man got excited by the idea of making more himself, and has promised to send a photo of his first effort.
The last day and a half I had time to be with two of the young adults I’ve grown closest to in Uganda over the ten years we’ve been coming. Again, their stories are not mine, but my love is, and I try to remember that love can make a difference. My heart aches for the hands they’ve been dealt, I want more than anything to have things be right for them, and I know that’s beyond my powers. So I’m stuck loving in the midst of heartbreak—not assuming that I have solutions for anybody else, but not withholding—and maybe that’s exactly where I need to be, for their sake and for mine.
Tech match
I can bring the paper goods by bike—
plates in the basket
cups and plastic ware in the big blue pack.
Without a car, it’s awkward
but I’m glad to make it work.
The guys at the farm are busy
prepping for the festival.
Errand run, I turn to go,
much lighter now.
One young man with food
to carry home to cook
prepares to bike. No car for him.
And I can help!
My big blue pack is perfect for this task.
I pedal home in gratitude
that, car-less, my tech level was a match
for his.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Fair Food Program
In 2005, after the Coalition of Immokalee Workers boycotted Taco Bell for almost four years, the company agreed to sign a Fair Food Agreement, committing to pay a “penny more per pound” on its tomatoes, to be passed on as wage bonus to tomato harvesters, and to work with CIW to improve conditions in the fields. The CIW then targeted McDonald’s for two years; in 2007, McDonald's signed a Fair Food Agreement with CIW, and other fast-food chains and food retailers soon followed suit.
Despite the Florida Tomato Growers threat to fine farmers if they passed through "penny per pound" monies, two of the nation’s largest producers signed on to the program in 2010, effectively ending the industry boycott. The Fair Food Program has now expanded to tomato growers’ operations in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.
The Fair Food Program has six major components: a wage increase supported by the “penny per pound” price premium that participating buyers pay for their tomatoes; compliance with a code of conduct, including zero tolerance for forced labor, child labor and sexual assault; worker-to-worker education sessions; a worker-triggered complaint resolution mechanism, with potential suspension of a farm’s Participating Grower status; health and safety committees on every farm; specific changes in harvesting operations to improve workers’ wages and working conditions; and ongoing auditing of the farms by the Fair Food Standards Council to insure compliance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Food_Program
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
New York City is taking on the oil industry on two fronts, announcing a lawsuit against the top five oil companies for contributing to global warming and saying they will sell off billions in fossil fuel investments from the city's pension funds.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/01/10/us/ap-us-fossil-fuel-divestment.html
The city of Los Angeles has moved beyond legalizing marijuana to supporting those who were criminalized by drug laws in the past to have a role in new marijuana businesses.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/with-marijuana-now-legal-la-goes-further-to-make-amends-for-the-war-on-drugs-20180118
In a growing wave of sentiment against gerrymandering, an all-volunteer group of activists in Michigan has defied the odds by collecting hundreds of thousands of voter signatures for a 2018 initiative to overhaul redistricting.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/articles/2017-11-20/anti-gerrymandering-group-defies-odds-with-2018-ballot-drive
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has delivered a decision that offers a chance to fully empower the state Constitution’s long-suppressed Environmental Rights clause:
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
http://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commentary-life-liberty-and-environmentalism/
Money and Soul
A transcript of a keynote address I delivered at a Quaker conference in New Mexico, June 2017
https://westernfriend.org/media/money-and-soul-unabridged
Toward a Right Relationship with Finance
Check out this new book that I co-authored on Debt, Interest, Growth and Security.
The growth economy is failing to provide equitable well-being for humanity and a life-sustaining future for Earth. However our institutional endowments and individual retirement are dependent on that same growth economy. This book:
• offers background on our current economic system--how it is based on unearned income on the one hand and debt on the other, with a built-in momentum toward economy inequality and ecological overshoot;
• frames the conversation within the context of our deepest values and beliefs;
• suggests plausible and historically grounded alternatives to the current system, particularly with regard to financing retirement; and
• invites everyone to imagine new forms of durable economic and social security, and to help create the relationships and institutions that will make them a reality.
With many people now counting as never before on the performance of Wall Street for retirement security, how can this system be challenged with integrity and effectiveness? Can we break with our dependence on financial speculation and build up new structures of security in a transformed, life-centered economy?
To order the book, or read it on line, go to http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=5 and scroll down.
More resources
www.findingsteadyground.org
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: https://www.trainingforchange.org/publications/muscle-building-peace-and-justice-nonviolent-workout-routine-21st-century (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
