Dear all,
I’m very pleased to announce the publication of my new book, Money and Soul ("If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.") It’s available on internet sites and at the FGC Bookstore in Philadelphia, and the formal launch will be on Sunday, September 15 at Friends Center. What a journey!
Having a few things slow down over the summer has given space for growing some lovely new friendships, preserving food, and bringing others to the local farmer’s market to gather signatures for a city public bank—all very satisfying and fruitful endeavors.
And what a stunning full moon the other night!
Love,
Pamela
Connect
On our fourth year with the Two Row paddle down the Grand River in southern Ontario—natives and allies joining together to honor the treaties and protect the earth—we had teachings every evening. These were rich invitations to deeper understanding in many areas: native foods and medicine, river bed ecology, the roots of the Two Row experience, traditional social dances, the role of men and women in the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, culture, to name just a few. One that continues to reverberate in my brain was a reflection by two women—one indigenous and one settler—on their joint research on the impact of participating in the Two Row paddle. In their analysis of survey comments, they found that the overarching theme for indigenous participants was about change, while that of the settler group was about connection. Eager to connect, we non-indigenous folks were learning that there is work to do first, around reconnection and disconnection.
We need to reconnect to ourselves, to the natural world around us, and to our own roots. At the same time, we need work on disconnecting from the lures and traps of materialism and individualism in our culture, and from all the points at which we’re attached, often unawarely, to a system of privileges in an oppressive society. It’s only when we are actively engaged in this process of reconnection and disconnection that we are able to connect deeply across the divisions that racism and colonialism have created.
If we are fastened securely within the structures and assumptions of privilege, there is a way in which our world is closed. Enjoying the comfort of the status quo, deep connection with those who suffer from it can only be disruptive. The surface is too smooth for the kind of connection that gets in deep and changes lives. Our hearts have not broken open wide enough to make space for the other.
On the other hand, if we respond to heartbreak about injustice by distancing ourselves as far as possible from our heritage and people in order to join with the oppressed, we are limited in other ways. By fleeing, what we have left to offer tends to be thin, insubstantial and ultimately not of much use. If we are not rooted we lean, leaving us dependent on the strength of others.
So in this paddle down the river as allies, we get to reconnect: To the land and the water, the clouds and the sun. To our bodies, and our capacity to move, to our muscles and skin and beating hearts. To our own goodness as we see the goodness of other allies like us. To our ancestors, who once knew and loved some bit of land as intimately as indigenous people have known and loved theirs. And we get to disconnect from the comfortable narratives that have reassured us: that injustice to native people is safely in the past; that racism is in a steady decline; that we, personally, are not complicit in oppressive institutions.
Reconnecting to our goodness and our people, disconnecting from false narratives that serve to protect privilege, we are both rooted and opened up. Thus, as we paddle down the river together, we build our capacity to take in all the connections for which our hearts yearn.
In crowd
A long stretch of
wet sidewalk cement
had proven irresistible.
Now when I walk
that way I pass
first Nick
then Bob
then a chicken (boldly drawn)
and finally
the Cleveland Cool Kids.
My step lightens (every time)
I have to smile.
I’m part of the crowd
they’ve invited me in—
Nick
Bob
that perky chicken
and all the cool kids
from Cleveland.
Dare to imagine: A new economy is possible!
Rural Electric Cooperatives
During the New Deal, electric cooperatives sprang up all over rural America. Today there are more than 850 cooperatives in 47 states providing service to 56 percent of the nation’s landmass, While RECs aren’t perfect, by replacing private shareholders with cooperative members they can be more than just energy companies: leading in renewable energy development, providing internet services, investing in revitalization and infrastructure projects as part of a Green New Deal. Examples include:
Roanoke Electric Cooperative in North Carolina: Nearly 50 years of active engagement and organizing by majority Black membership has resulted in one of the most inclusive and impactful RECs in the country, one that is explicitly committed to creating a customer-centric utility of the future.
Pedernales Cooperative in Texas: Member-owners of the largest REC in the US overturned corruption, reformed their co-op, and set aggressive targets for renewable energy, but still must defend against fossil-fuel-backed attacks.
Ouachita Electric Cooperative in Arkansas: Success at this REC includes offering broadband, energy efficiency, and solar.
https://www.electric.coop/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Co-op_Facts_and_Figures_4-2019.pdf
https://www.electriccooporganizing.org/toolkit
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
A Pennsylvania group that raised $16,000 to absolve over $1,600,000 of medical debt of families struggling in Western PA.
https://www.facebook.com/PutPeopleFirstPA/posts/3085291038162568?
https://www.wpxi.com/news/church-eliminates-6-million-of-medical-debt-for-community/966321540 (a similar campaign)
California’s deal with four major auto dealers that made an end run around the Trump emissions rollback plan.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/25/20727261/trump-emissions-rollback-ford-volkswagon-honda-bmw-california-deal
A court ruling in Arizona blocking construction of a giant copper mine, a victory for environmental groups and native tribes.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/08/01/hudbay-minerals-appeal-court-decision-blocking-rosemont-mine/1891386001/
The announcement by six Wall Street banks, after intense multi-year pressure, that they were severing ties with private prison companies, which stand to lose around $1.9 billion, 72% of their current financing.
https://populardemocracy.org/news/publications/wall-street-banks-sever-ties-private-prison-companies-stand-lose-over-19b-future
Resources
Money and Soul
My new book (based on a talk and a pamphlet of the same name) available via on-line distributors.
Money, Debt and Liberation
A video of a talk I gave at Pendle Hill in January, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7nP8eJ5vy8
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
A 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
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)
