Racism Made America a Failed State, Just Like Its Greatest Mind Predicted. Americans Don’t Understand What Violence Really Is — And So They’re Stuck in a Vicious Cycle of It is the title of an article, published on Martin Luther King Day, by umair haque, an author I follow. I often wonder to myself onContinue reading “Americans Don’t Understand What Violence Really Is”
Category Archives: community
Not Only Food
I would normally be going to Des Moines this morning to help put together boxes of food with my Des Moines Mutual Aid friends. I won’t because predictions for heavy snow overnight would make travel hazardous. The predictions were accurate. And my brother is visiting. The Des Moines Mutual Aid’s (DMMA) Points of Unity expressesContinue reading “Not Only Food”
A matter of faith
There are two definitions of faith. complete trust or confidence in someone or something. strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. I wasn’t familiar with the use of apprehension above. I found one definition is “understanding or grasp”. I spent a lot of timeContinue reading “A matter of faith”
Mutual Aid is the Quaker way of being in the world
This week I’ve been writing to help refine what I hope will happen when we discuss Mutual Aid at my Quaker meeting this weekend. Quakers have a practice of using questions (queries) to help focus and stimulate participation in consideration of topics such as peace, Quaker education, etc. In the tables below I’ve extracted queriesContinue reading “Mutual Aid is the Quaker way of being in the world”
Does Mutual Aid speak to your condition?
For the past week I’ve been writing daily to prepare for a discussion at my Quaker meeting this Sunday. (See the table at the end listing those posts). Yesterday’s post is an example of why I need to prepare. I went a bit off track. There is a lot to Mutual Aid, and we can’tContinue reading “Does Mutual Aid speak to your condition?”
More notes on Mutual Aid
I’ve been preparing for a discussion my Quaker meeting will have this weekend about Mutual Aid. At the end of this is a table of posts I’ve been writing to help me organize my thoughts. I am not satisfied with how this post has turned out, but these are notes, not a finished document. SteppingContinue reading “More notes on Mutual Aid”
Spirituality and Mutual Aid
This continues my preparation for a discussion about Mutual Aid at my Quaker meeting this weekend. A couple of days ago I wrote about using queries (questions) to invite people to participate in the discussion. And began to come up with some queries. It occurred to me that some of the queries we already haveContinue reading “Spirituality and Mutual Aid”
What I don’t know about Mutual Aid
Disclaimer: Before getting to that, I think I should make a disclaimer, especially since I shared the 2021 Peace and Social Concerns report of my yearly meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). I included that because Mutual Aid is mentioned in the report. “These injustices are some of the effects of systems of white supremacy. TheContinue reading “What I don’t know about Mutual Aid”
A Call for Quakers to Embrace Mutual Aid
I am writing to make the case for the adoption of Mutual Aid as a framework for Quaker justice work. This comes from my perspective of a White, Quaker, male (he/him), settler on Ioway land, in the country called the United States. When I refer to Quakers here, I mean White Quakers. Black, Indigenous, andContinue reading “A Call for Quakers to Embrace Mutual Aid”
New Year 2022
I’m concerned to see little progress toward solutions for the myriad of problems we face. Especially with accelerating environmental chaos. We’re paralyzed in the face of so many complex problems. Disheartened because nothing makes progress. I contend that is because, as Albert Einstein said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we usedContinue reading “New Year 2022”
LANDBACK Friends 