Monday, November 19, 2018

Communities Make Police Obsolete

"12 THINGS TO DO INSTEAD OF CALLING THE COPS:

1. Don't feel obligated to defend property—especially corporate "private" property. Before confronting someone or contacting the police, ask yourself if anyone is being hurt or endangered by property theft or damage. If the answer is "no," then let it be.

2. If something of yours is stolen and you need to file a report for insurance or other purposes, consider going to the police station instead of bringing cops into your community. You may inadvertently be putting someone in your neighborhood at risk.

3. If you observe someone exhibiting behavior that seems odd to you, don't assume that they are publicly intoxicated. A traumatic brain
injury or similar medical episode may be occurring. Ask if they are OK, if they have a medical condition, and if they need assistance.

4. If you see someone pulled over with car trouble, stop and ask if they need help or if you can call a tow truck for them. If the police are
introduced to such a situation, they may give punishments and unnecessary tickets to people with car issues, target those without papers, or worse.

5. Keep a contact list of community resources like suicide hotlines. When police are contacted to "manage" such situations, people with mental illness are sixteen times more likely to be killed by cops than those without mental health challenges. [Note: Some suicide hotlines call police and rely heavily on law enforcement. Check local hotlines and make sure you ask about their protocols.]

6. Check your impulse to call the police on someone you believe looks or is acting "'suspicious.” Is their race, gender, ethnicity, class, or housing situation influencing your choice? Such calls can be death sentences for many people.

7. Encourage teachers, coworkers, and organizers to avoid inviting police into classrooms, workplaces, and public spaces. Instead create a culture of taking care of each other and not unwittingly putting people in harm's way. If you're part of a group that's holding a rally or demonstration, DON’T get a permit or otherwise cooperate with the police.

8. If your neighbor is having a party and the noise is bothering you, go over and talk to them. Getting to know your neighbors with community events like block parties is a good way to make asking them to quiet down a little less uncomfortable. Or find another neighbor who is willing to do so.

9. If you see someone peeing in public, just look away! Remember, for example, that many homeless people do not have reliable access to bathrooms.

10. Hold and attend de-escalation, conflict resolution, first-aid, volunteer medic, and self-defense workshops in your neighborhood, school, workplace, or community organization. When possible, donate to these initiatives so they remain recurring.

11. Don't report graffiti and other street artists. If you see work that includes fascistic or hate speech, paint over it with friends.

12. Remember that police can escalate domestic violence situations—especially those involving people of color. You can support friends and neighbors who are being victimized by abusers by offering them a place to stay, a ride to a safe location, or to watch their children. Utilize community resources like safe houses and hotlines.

👍🏾Calling the police often escalates situations, puts people at risk, and leads to violence. Anytime you seek help from the police, you're inviting them into your community and putting people who may already be vulnerable into dangerous situations. Sometimes people feel that calling the police is the only way to deal with problems. But we can build trusted networks of mutual aid that allow us to
better resolve conflicts ourselves and move towards forms of transformative justice, while keeping police away from our neighborhoods."

Source: May Day Collective, Washtenaw Solidarity and Defense, & PLOT

RSVP: PLOT: Bystander Intervention Training

PDF: https://drive.google.com/…/1BZhBZu1oN3VdbVz23lQga2DCyT6y5V…/

Note: These are (intentionally) not "one-size-fits-all" solutions. Looking for one-size-fits-all solutions is (in part) how we ended up with excessive reliance on the police. How we intervene or respond to harm is dictated by each specific situation, risk assessment, what resources and privilege are at our disposal, and the community. Community building requires nuance, open-mindedness, and work. This resource is merely one, non-conclusive tool among many.

In solidarity,

PLOT

--Joe

Friday, June 29, 2018

You Get The Government You Deserve

How many times have you heard that in your lifetime, "You get the government you deserve" or "you get the police you deserve"? Not many, I'll bet.

Funny how great minds work. I catch hell every time I post this in a comment on the Internet. I wondered who else had come to the same conclusion, so I did a search. It seems a Frenchman by the name, Joseph de Maistre (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, writer, and philosopher, beat me to it by more than 200 years.

He also said, something else close to my heart: "False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing." So attributed to a majority of Liberal Type Americans today.

And his premonition of America's future, providing there is no accountability brought to bear upon the Democrats and their Media accomplices for their assaults on the Law and the end of Democracy. "All grandeur, all power, all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears."

Here is a good example of what he is talking about that I got from Facebook.

Maxine Waters is Crazy:

ALERT: Maxine Waters fires up Leftist mob to attack Trump Administration officials, one year after Leftist activist attempted to assassinate Republican lawmakers during Congressional baseball game.

This is what happens just before neighbors start killing one another. Everyone has the legal right to defend their family from these kinds of threats and assaults. This woman is fomenting insurrection, plain and simple. A few are beginning to see the light.

What's on TV is a political tactic but something else terrifying is going on. Formerly responsible ppl suddenly sound like extremists. Left's no longer working to convince those who disagree. They’re trying to destroy those in the way. It’s not a pose. They're sincere. It's war.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 20, 2018 on Facebook.

Another:

I really truly hope this is just a horrible joke. Sick sick stuff. https://pic.twitter.com/VggjNhkYbw
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 29, 2018

More than sick. This is the ultimate of evil. America is on the cusp and needs to decide: Live by the Law, defend, protect and honor the U.S. Constitution - Stop at stop signs - Full Stop. Or die by lawless corruption, anarchy and chaos. We are in the midst of the most deadly assault on Democracy since its inception and it comes in the guise of a harpy.

You Really Do Get The Government You Deserve.

FOURTH OF JULY UPPDATE
We should all understand, I would think, that our American Constitutional Democracy is predicated upon three legs, Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Destroy one leg or branch and the legal system of government fails. Yet a few days ago tens of thousands of well-intentioned, ill-informed and misguided people were doing just that all over the country: Demanding the Executive (President Trump) stop enforcing the law. These so-called demonstrations were a direct seditious assault on American Democracy. Here is a link to one of a local demonstrator's website posting: Some shots from today’s Keep Families Together march in Eureka.

The Founding Fathers may have formulated the Revolution's successful government on an idea, I'll guarantee you that idea was not the corrupt, wanton idea of freedom we see enforced today in all facets of our lives with absolutely no accountability. Neither the law nor the Constitution gives anyone the freedom or right to harass, intimidate or threaten by act or voice. We do have the right to defend ourselves and our families. We can start by complying with and demanding every law be enforced. -- A good way to celebrate the Fourth. Even though, the truth be known, we're in the throes of a civil war right now.

--Joe

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Name Them One By One

By ronniemcbrayer August 21, 2017

Dr. Robert Emmons of the University of California and Dr. Michael McCullough of the University of Miami, asked participants in a months-long experiment to write down a few sentences each week. A third of the group was told to write about things for which they were grateful. A third of the group wrote about daily irritations, the things that made them mad. The last one-third wrote about general events with no emphasis on the negative or positive.

After a few months, those who catalogued their gratitude were more optimistic and generally felt better about their lives and the world than the other participants. And the “thankful” group exercised more, had fewer visits to physicians, and experienced less anxiety. Active gratitude, the researchers learned, is good for people: Spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and physically.

There’s an old hymn we sang in the churches of my youth that could serve as supplemental material to the above research. It is entitled, “Count Your Blessings,” and a stanza of it goes: “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost. Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

You have so much for which to be thankful, and while naming these blessings “one by one” might prove to be a list impossibly long, it would do you good to make a start of it. Consider your restful night of sleep and a good mattress; the roof over your head; for strong coffee in the early morning – and even the easy access to cream and sugar – to make that coffee the way you want it.

If you have clean clothes and transportation; for safe travels along the way when so much could go wrong; for a welcoming house of worship; for close friends with whom you share life; for the people who serve you at restaurants, change the oil in your car, teach your children, keep your lights on, and who look after your safety on so many levels.

There is the technology to easily communicate with your loved ones; for air conditioning, bug repellant, and cold beer; for home-cooked meals, music that moves your soul and speaks to your heart; for the beauty of art, the sustaining rain, and the glorious sunsets.

And I haven’t even gotten to “the biggies” yet! Your spouse; children and grandchildren; your health; your ability to make a living; for the unconditional love of a child or a dog; for the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch; for having this chance – this one marvelous chance – to be fearfully and wonderfully made.

Meister Eckhart, a German mystic from seven centuries ago, said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘Thank you,’ it will be enough.” I think that is right, for gratitude is the truest act of worship. That, and it is good for you in almost every other way conceivable, as well.

--Joe

Monday, November 7, 2016

Voting as "a Citizen of the Kingdom of God"

The value of being a real citizen is not your worthless vote. How many time have I been down this road in my lifetime?

I Can’t Vote For Him And Won’t Vote For Her

By ronniemcbrayer November 7, 2016

I have never made a political endorsement, not in the conventional sense. This is because Christendom has committed a great many sins in its insatiable thirst for power over the centuries. In fact, the quest for power is the church’s most heinous sin. So officially aligning a congregation with any political party – left, right, or populist – only perpetuates this transgression. However, as this unprecedented election season comes to a merciful close, I am making my first endorsement: I can’t vote for “him,” and I won’t vote for “her.” Neither will I vote for any of the half-dozen candidates on the presidential ballot.

My faith, shaped as it is by Quakerism, the Anabaptists, and what historians call the “Radical Reformation,” leads me to live life based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This “manifesto,” found in Matthew 5-7, describes how Jesus’ followers are to live as citizens in what he called, “The Kingdom of God.” Per the Sermon, those in this Kingdom value humility, meekness, mercy, justice-seeking, and peace-making. Jesus’ followers are to be wary of lust, dishonesty, and anger. He instructs us to love our enemies, to do good to those who don’t deserve it, to resist violence and its escalation, and “to turn the other cheek.”

He warns us of unbridled greed and how chasing after more wealth only leads to greater anxiety. Then he sums it all up with what could be called an Oath of Citizenship: “Treat everybody the way you would want to be treated, love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

It’s not inaccurate to conclude that our political candidates and national leaders have intentionally modeled and organized themselves in the opposite fashion of Jesus’ instructions. Our entire political-societal complex is constructed on dishonesty, arrogance, violence, indignity, rage, vengeance, and getting ahead at someone else’s expense. I can’t achieve the cognitive dissonance required to reconcile these inconsistencies.

“Believe me,” I know the objections: “You have to choose the lesser of the evils!” But what if I consider the whole nationalistic system as evil? “People died to give you the privilege to vote!” Did Jesus not die for the principles he taught and lived? “It’s irresponsible not to participate!” Can faithfulness to conscious ever be considered irresponsible? “If you don’t love it, leave it!” Do you now see why the language of exile, wandering, and being “strangers in a strange land,” was so common among Jesus’ earliest followers? “But if you aren’t involved nothing will ever change for the better!” Why can’t I be involved on the margins, as Jesus and the prophets of old were, pointing to how life could be if only we would have it?

Simply put, the American Way and the Jesus Way are not always compatible. And when they are not, I must aspire – failing as I often will – to show my primary allegiance to Christ. For I am an expatriate: A resident of the United States, but a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

Ronnie McBrayer

--Joe

Monday, October 10, 2016

An Old Zen Story - An Apt Lesson For Donald Trump

Unwanted Gifts

There is a Zen story about a young, impetuous warrior who sought to defeat a great Master in battle. The young man was certain he could dispatch the old sensei with great fanfare and boost his reputation. The Master’s students begged the old man not to accept the challenge, but he resolutely agreed to the fight. The entire village gathered as the young warrior began the contest by striking at the Master with a staff. Skillfully, the Master deflected every blow, and every kick or punch that followed. Yet, the Master never made an offensive move. Frustrated by this, the young warrior resorted to nasty tactics.

Throwing rocks, spitting in the Master’s face, shrieking insults, and defaming the great teacher’s ancestors: After hours of such provocation, the young warrior finally gave up and left. The Master’s students hurried to him, confused. “How could you not retaliate?” they asked, and “Why did you allow him to insult your honor without consequence?”

The old Master answered, “If someone offers you a gift but you refuse its acceptance, then to whom does that gift belong?” One of the students answered, “To the one who tried to offer it.” The Master smiled. “Yes,” he said. “And the same goes for anger, misery, and insults. If you refuse to accept these, they will be carried away by the one who tried to burden you with them.”

There could hardly be a more truthful lesson than this; and there could hardly be a more timely lesson for our own day. We are so eager to blame the words, actions, and emotions of others for our own behaviors. We readily accept the “gifts” of anger, insult, and disrespect that are dished out, and are then forced to unload their heavy burden. We are made miserable, and thus, mete out misery. We take the hatefulness spewed in our direction, internalize and personalize it, and in turn become hateful. We accept, rather than deflect, hurt and conversely become hurtful people. Paraphrasing Father Richard Rohr, he believes more pain is inflicted in this world by those who TAKE offense rather than those who GIVE offense. We are enthusiastic acceptors, taking whatever is directed at us.

As old as this Zen story is the Hebrew proverb, a proverb with the same lesson: “Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me;’ no, wait for the Lord.” This is picked up multiple times in the New Testament: “Repay no one evil for evil, but so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all,” the Apostles said. And no less than Jesus told his disciples, “Do not try to get even with a person who has done something to you.”

A bumpersticker may sum up this lesson best: “No one can drive you crazy unless you give them the keys.” Amen. You – and only you – are the one responsible for your own feelings, actions, and reactions. Otherwise, you are bearing the weight of an unwanted gift.

[Unwanted Gifts] - By ronniemcbrayer October 10, 2016

--Joe

An Old Zen Story - An Apt Lesson For Donald Trump

Unwanted Gifts

By ronniemcbrayer October 10, 2016

--Joe

Thursday, August 18, 2016

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make your dreams your master
If you can think - and not make your thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Not many of these kind of people around.

-Joe