Author: Wesley White

I have just published a new book: Struggling with (Non)violence, by Julie Marie Todd.

 

Julie is the John Wesley Iliff Senior Lecturer in Justice and Peace Studies at the Iliff School of Theology and was one of the three founders of Love Prevails. As a scholar-activist, Julie grounds her studies in the real world and reflects and analyzes situations, actions, and effects to guide actions. This book is particularly pertinent in today’s United States as violence is escalating on a personal level as well as structurally (legally, politically, and economically) and culturally with the rise of militia groups.

(Non)violence is one of many ways to address the reality and presence of violence. Sometimes it is used as a moral rule that informs personal responses. It is sometimes just a bumper-sticker that lets structural and cultural violence continue unchecked. The book asks if (non)violence is the only way to “love an enemy” or if it is “effective” in the specifics of a given violence.

By ignoring the complexity of what constitutes violence, the (non)violent thought and praxis represented by white, liberal Christians in the United States falls short. In this book, twelve scholar-activist interviewees share perspectives and effective practices that destabilize traditional rationalizations of violence, including those from the institutions and practices of a dominant Christian theology.  

The author calls on communities committed to (non)violence to invest in a model for social change which:

1) ROOTS ITSELF IN CONTEXTUAL, HISTORICAL ANALYSIS;

2) INCLUDES OTHER-THAN-HUMAN LIVES AS NECESSARY PARTNERS;

3) VALUES PRACTICES THAT DISMANTLE VIOLENCE OVER THEOLOGICAL ABSTRACTIONS; 

4) EMPHASIZES CREATIVE COMMUNITIES OF ACTIVE, COUNTER-CULTURAL RESISTANCE OVER INDIVIDUALISM;

5) EXPERIMENTS WITH DIVERSE, DISRUPTIVE TACTICS; AND

6) URGES A SELF-CRITICAL SOLIDARITY THAT WELCOMES DIFFERENCES REGARDING VARIOUS MEANS OF SOCIAL CHANGE.

The Interviewees: Rita “Bo” Brown (B♀), Ward Churchill, John Dear, Vincent Harding, Dolores Huerta, Derrick Jensen, Kathy Kelly, Alice Lynd, Staughton Lynd, Katherine Power, Sarah Schulman, Akinyele Umoja.

I hope you will join in the discussion of (non)violence with Julie and the interviewees.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

The book is currently available through Julie’s website [https://justjulie.me/publications]. It is working its way through the internet and will be available through other providers at a later time.

 

Pendulums in physics present some interesting questions and formulas. Adjusting them in clocks is more an art than a science. If done without gloves, a little extra weight is added and modifies the prescription. There is a time commitment involved with adjusting time.

In politics, other communal efforts, and conversations—pendulums are problematic. At issue here is not adjustment toward an agreed-upon recording of time past. Power over others has now raised its head.

Elections and appointments tend toward being zero-sum games. There is no analysis of where we are in relation to what makes for long-term sustainability. When an opportunity comes to make a next series of decisions, there is only knee-jerk reversal.

Rarely does such a reversal come when the pendulum is at its limit and ready to begin another cycle—slowing down and slowly beginning to revisit its path. This translates into shorter and shorter periodicity. Eventually, there is nothing left to reverse. Stasis arrives, and books are written to explain the great fall or whimpering-away of another unit of attempted civilization.

Pendulums have their work to do but utterly fail at being translated out of their milieu.

In human terms, pendulums do not measure time regularly but are a sign of a shortening of time left to get an act together, get over the hubris of having the right answer to any relational question, or attempt to apply Newtonian physics in a quantum context.

A pendulum effect in governance will turn a supposed Supreme Court into a mediocre mouthpiece of a deservedly bygone time.

it used to be
ever so easy
one little box
alongside another
check this one
and that one too
any box will do
so so easy
until it isn’t
a thought a hunch
will no longer do
from seeming nowhere
so well documented
autogenic massacre
between and within
the smallest boxes
no you can’t
you’re not even you
gaslighting abuse
a handmaid’s tale
crushes every fantasy
routine has failed
no spare courage
will get us
half-a-league onward
guns surround
little empty boxes
rubble is but
a matter of time
so learn to play
in the dirt
there is no past
to be great again
and yet
such sweet words
meaning can be made
even added together
until there are
no more untils
bless yourself
with yourself
until all are blessed
until
so great
a sweetness
flows

it used to be
heads I win
tails you lose

now winning is
heads you lose
tails you lose

division
is the new
unity

it is not
number of votes
but rounds per clip

two passionate followers
will run roughshod
over dozens of nice guys

no telling how much
exile and enslavement
loser winners will wreak

This bloggy thing is frustrating. I do due diligence, and still typos and just plain wrong words and syntax show up in the final product that goes out to a MailChimp audience of a very select few. I suppose I should be grateful so few receive the errors.

I jot these notes by hand with one or another of my daily carry fountain pens—sometimes even two if the ink runs out of one. I then enter those bespoke words into an everyday word processor, sprucing them up as I go. From there, Grammarly is called upon for a first go to suggest a more effective way to present such thoughts. The results are printed and shared with the house grammarian. Finally, adjustments are made, and the post is scheduled to be released at 5 AM of some weekday. At 9 AM, MailChimp looks in to see if there is a posting or postings since 9 AM of the previous day. Shortly after 9 AM, the posting shows up in people’s inbox.

Sometime in the course of the day, it is brought to my attention by a reader that some fubar snafu (with an emphasis upon the “f” in each descriptor) has occurred and some letter has been dropped, or a word misapplied that I cannot account for but is less than was intended.

Anyone who has a hint about how to better monitor my process so my frustration is lowered without leading to a lack of caring about such details … —Do tell.

Flags come in combinations of color and patterns. Those are symbols that people define in the grandest of terms that put themselves in their best light. My current dream of a flag to use as a standard revealing my allegiance shifts in the other direction.

The flag of my dreams is square instead of a rectangle. It won’t wave as well in a wind as a rectangle, but if desired, it could be placed in the center of a humble white rectangle of truce.

In the center of the square is a blue circle, one-third the area of the largest circle available on a square. It represents the “pale blue dot” of a planet of water—our only Indigenous home. Water—as the largest component of our bodies—reminds us to be humble.

Around such a starting point is a transparent circle (or as fine a grid as is just barely noticeable to distinguish it from any busy background against which it might be displayed). This is reminiscent of the air around us that we swim in and keep forgetting it is present until a derecho flattens us. Our imaginations need the invisible.

The remaining space contains a third circle touching the side of the square. It is green for the chlorophyll that is representative of the food that sustains us. No plants : no animals ∴ no food.

A rainbow’s remaining colors frame the circles of life—red, orange, yellow, and violet.

Any quilters or seamsters among the readers here who would give this a try?

There’s a hole
in our bucket
we sing in excuse
for not participating
in activities
for the common good

there’s no hole
in my bucket
we sing to defend
our non-participation
in activities
for the common good

for the common good
to be active
participating
In a community song
welcoming the bucketless
to lead the whole

Supremacy is always a temporary state. Every one and every thing eats and is eaten, begins and ends. It doesn’t matter how much heritage one builds on—it, too, will fall. Whether the standard is the birth and death of stars or earth’s continents, worms or bacteria—something and nothing, rising and falling, reveal the larger background of stuff and process.

The U.S. is again reminded that it’s self-proclaimed “city of light built on a hill” is only as bright as its connections—internally and externally—and even then will only have its day, not a forever.

The “Supreme” Court does not rise above the ordinariness of all things. The Dread Scott decision failed to protect slavery. The Citizen’s United will fail to protect corporations and their ability to control politics through profits. Decisions about elections have not and will not protect democracy.

Even Brown v. Board of Education or Roe v. Wade will not avoid subversion, sabotage, and stupidity. People seem not to live long without feeling they control someone else’s opportunities and choices.

Whether our language is that of supremacy, entitlement, or privilege—we are always attempting to finalize the current status quo and protect current structural and cultural power.

Only occasionally does this word game of “supreme” or “perfect as is” get exposed for the charade it is. Even then, naked kings double down on strutting their stuff and grabbing the tender parts of others to defend their particular mountain—only one out of a whole range of mountains eroding away and on their way to being subsumed under a tectonic plate.

Supremacy continues to haunt dreams of community and visions of mutual care, common good, and general welfare.

when an equator
crosses the center
of a system’s star
the balance
is temporary

those born but a day after
an autumnal equinox
are a winter conceived
descendant of darkness
carried through spring and summer

knowing all too well
life’s end
and its own
while sensing
more than enough

blessings to you
little one
still carrying
a heart of warmth
into settling cold

There are anti-social crimes. “Social” here means under the power and control of the group currently in authority. Those who most benefit from the already established economy get to set the limits on what does not benefit them. Such limitations take place at every level of granularity, which appears in instances where the same “crime” may be committed, but it is defined in one way for those inside the system and differently for those on the outside. Those who steal by way of the pen and legislation (white/white-collar) are judged and sentenced less harshly than those who do not have the levers of power available to them (Black/blue-collar).

We have few examples of pro-social activity until the above becomes egregious enough for sufficient numbers to gather in complaint. Those pro-social activists participate in one form of protest or another—usually a multi-generational movement. “Social,” in this context, means a rebalancing of what common good or general welfare might mean for all in the society. Social becomes another word for justice.

By the time protest becomes labeled as anti-social, it is recognized by those in power positions as dangerous to their continuing to live in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

It is very difficult for a culture to build-in pro-social safeguards for such retard the kinds of division that entitle one group over another—losing track of individual gifts, in favor of one perceived advantage, such as racism, or another.

An easy attack on pro-social activity is to label it “socialist.” If you can think of a pro-social activity beyond protest, it will aid future generations if that is enacted today, and again tomorrow, and again…. Boldness to you.