Day 29: Reflection and Feedback

Dear Family! 


Today we’re reflecting.  Reflecting on the 29 days we’ve spent in community with you.  Thinking of each of you everyday as we navigate putting together your actions and resources for each day’s follow up.  Basking in your support and offering you ours.  


This has been a life changing experience for us and we hope it has been for you too.  Thanks for engaging with us on this sprint.  We have definitely been thinking about how much Black lives matter each day for the past 29 and look forward to how this habit manifests itself in all aspects or our lives as we continue on the marathon.  We don’t believe this work will be over in our lifetimes but we do believe in change and we’re here for it.  We’re committed to doing this work for the long haul and we know that is made easier and more possible when we’re in community with you.  So we hope you’ll continue to make ripples with us until those ripples combine into waves.  Let’s make waves!  


Beyond reflecting we’re making plans.  We’re asking ourselves how we will continue this work in a sustainable way (that doesn’t mean us staying up until all hours of the morning to get these emails out :-) over time.  We hope you are also investigating this yourself and we look forward to hearing what you come up with.  


On our second to last day, we want to hear from you.  We want to know how this journey has been for you.  We also want to know if you want to continue.  We’ve committed to doing an email once a week for July and August, we’ll re-evaluate after that.  Please fill out this survey, it can be thoughtful and time committing or quick and easy, we’ll take whatever you want to share.  


Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGDFt_LT95hiH5OTYzes_yRsJpTrZTo8wOvtArQZa1CQdSwg/viewform?usp=sf_link 


We hope you’ll join us tomorrow night on ZOOM to reflect on our 30 days face to face (sort of) and encourage one another to keep on keeping on.  Tomorrow (Tues. 6/30) @6:30pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83120454923?pwd=QlpxTUt6a0FwNjZubFhuMGY4TVhNZz09) 


Peace,

Camerin and Beth



Upcoming Virtual Events: 


Reading/ Watch/Listen List: 


Resources: 

 

Yesterday's Actions and Reflections from the group: 

  • Camerin’s Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RwKR2OUuIZIzrBQ1UUgXI?si=Ds-kSqzrRq6C4blCUkS8WQ 

  • Hardin’s 4th of July Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Crq1usLRP6MnvMqjjmpOy?si=LAVK3CC-SBupkskrT6F1WA 

  • All have to do with stepping through the Portal of Appreciation
     Yes we must fight the Good Fight; yes we must work hard to see through the pain, suffering, anger; yes we must rise up together against inequality.
     But at some point we must embrace the Joy of revelations shared; we must realize that there will be fantastic rewards to breaking through

  •  We must find ways to laugh while we take it seriously, dance while we struggle to understand, sing while we chant.

  • I read “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body is a Confederate Monument,” by  Caroline Randall Williams in the NYTimes. It’s probably one of the most powerful things I’ve ever read about the long history of racial injustice and violence in this country. Here’s a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html?referringSource=articleShare

  • I wrote a letter supporting the renaming of the street surrounding Bde Maka Ska, formerly Lake Calhoun, named after a white suprematist, pro-slave John C Calhoun, VP who championed native removal. Apparently he had never even set foot in our state but the lake was renamed for him in the 1880s. The park board here changed the name back to Bde Maka Ska 5 years ago but GOP senators and some local residents sued to go back to Calhoun. They lost the suit just a few weeks ago so now the streets and other properties named after the lake are getting renamed too. Hard won progress! 

  • I finished reading White Fragility.  I so appreciate understanding that racism is not discrete acts by individual people; rather, it’s a system into which I was socialized.  Since authentic anti-racism is rarely comfortable, I need to prepare myself for discomfort...which will particularly challenge me as I have a conflict-averse temperament.  But I share the author’s resolve: “I am eager...even excited... to identify my inevitable collusion [with our racist culture] so that I can figure out how to stop colluding!”

  • I watched the powerful May 17 sermon “The Cross and the Lynching Tree:  A Requiem for Ahmaud Arbery,” by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.  This was noted early on in our initiative, and I’m so grateful to finally have watched it.  Despite all the horrors visited on Black people that Dr. Moss reviewed in his sermon, I continue to have hope. 23 minutes.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6985UG0Z3k

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