Thoughts...

Back

2009-12-04T19:03:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back! I'll hopefully be blogging here once a week or so about a justice issue that I care about.

I don't really know how to describe my experiences on the reservation, I learned a lot, thought a lot, felt a lot, and will never have quite the same outlook or worldview. I know, more than ever, that justice for the indigenous people of my country must be served; and that when we talk of justice, it can't just be about the past frauds that we have committed, but about the things we still do to harm and steal from the native people of this land. Even this year, there have been continued instances of the United States government taking trust land out of trust and selling it as their own. Even this month, there are people being taken advantage of because they live on a reservation or because of the color of their skin. Even today, victims of sexual, physical, and mental abuse struggle to find both basic help and further justice because of the complicated, broken systems of tribal and state & local governing bodies and the interactions between them. Right now, there are people suffering of hunger and cold- under the jurisdiction of the United States of America. There are second world conditions in this country, and that can be changed: if we open our eyes and the eyes of those around us to see what needs to be done- and if we do it.

Next few Months

2009-08-25T21:18:00.002-04:00

Hello whoever reads this, for the next 3 months I will be living and working on the Lower Brule Reservation in central South Dakota, learning with the Lakota people. I will not be blogging here, but will be blogging at http://rcnlakota09.blogspot.com/ about my experiences and thoughts. I'll begin blogging here again in November (possibly doing a few posts here and there through out the semester).

My story? No Problem.

2009-08-12T19:07:00.005-04:00

crossposted to Goodsoil Central

Every time I open my journal (yes, though I blog, I am an avid journal keeper as well) I am greeted by a flyer I taped there months ago that says "Change the world? No problem" it's cut from the newsletter of Interfaith Youth Core (ifyc.org). IFYC reminds me multiple times a day that I have the power to change minds and hearts through my actions and words- even though (or maybe because I am a 19 year old college student who doesn't know what I'm doing in a month, much less for the rest of my life). I am reminded daily by this flyer that I am a WITNESS- just as Bishop Hanson has reminded us many times thus far in the last 18 hours at Churchwide Assembly, reminded that we all have hearts and hands to witness, to change the world.

I enter this assembly with some trepidation. I'm at the time in my life where I have to be thinking about what I'm doing next- grad school, career, etc. Since I was very small I've tried to listen to God; about in the moment decisions like how to treat my neighbor, but also about longer term decisions like a career. I've heard a call to serve God as an ordained rostered leader in the past, and am currently discerning that more, but in the past few months I've decided to try to put that on hold. Let me share why;

Two years ago I attended my first Churchwide Assembly, August 2007. In July 2007 I had begun to come out as a queer person.

Needless to say, CWA '07 was an overwhelming experience. In the weeks leading up to the event, I had struggled with the idea of even being involved in the church anymore, because I felt as though the call that I had been feeling my whole life- the call to ordination in word and sacrament- was not possible in the church I had called home for 17 years. I felt lost and as though I needed to start all over.

While waiting in the airport for several other youth members of assembly, the staff person who was sent to pick me up began a conversation with me about call and vocation. It was through this conversation that I began to regain hope for my call to serve God as a pastor- he was the first person to affirm that I could follow that call, I just had to change the world (okay, church, but for the sake of this blog- world) first. He also was the first to remind me- out loud- that I didn't have to change the world on my own, there were a whole bunch of people who had been and would continue working for full inclusion for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities already, and I could join in the movement.

That day and week, Ted was a witness to me. He changed my world with words, actions, and just through his life as an active ally for full inclusion in the ELCA.

Now, two years later, I am in Minneapolis, praying, gracefully engaging, sharing my story, and yes, blogging to share my witness and hopefully through this active sharing and vigiling bring the church to an awareness of the Holy Spirit and Zir's call to love, regardless- or maybe because of- who we are or who we love. Bishop Hanson asked me to witness, right? No problem.

2009-07-28T13:11:00.002-04:00

POSTED FROM feministing.com

"The Land Where Rapists Go Free"
Crossposted at AMPLIFY.
Trigger warning.

"The Land Where Rapists Go Free" is part of a series called Global Diaries that the journalist Mariane Pearl does for Glamour magazine. (Marianne Pearl is the wife of Daniel Pearl who was killed in 2003 by terrorists in Pakistan, she wrote the book A Mighty Heart that was later adapted into film). Global Diaires are amazing peieces written profiling women in the US and around the world. In the series Pearl usually focuses her attention on a problem that is disproportionately affecting women and then profiles a local female leader trying to make a difference.

When I first read the title for the piece, "The Land Where Rapists Go Free", I thought the piece would be on the topic of victims of rape in a low-income country such as the Congo but instead found myself reading about this horrible injustice here in the US:

But I've come here to report on another tragedy that gets far too little attention: According to U.S. Justice Department figures, more than one in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and they are two and a half times more likely to be sexually assaulted or raped than non-Native women. And these estimates are widely assumed to be low because so many rapes go unreported. "We found anecdotally that the rates could be much, much higher," says Trine Christensen, a senior researcher with Amnesty International, which published a groundbreaking report on Native women and sexual violence last year. As Charon Asetoyer, an activist on the Yankton Sioux reservation, puts it, "The bottom line is that it's open season on Native women. Nearly every woman on the reservation has been affected."

Because of underfunded health services, inadequate law enforcement response and jurisdictional confusion between tribal and U.S. courts, few of these rapes are even investigated, much less prosecuted. No data exists on how many cases go to trial, but Amnesty International and other activists agree: Perpetrators are walking free. "This place is heaven for serial rapists," Charon says. "Our daughters' lives are being taken from us."

In her piece, Pearl goes on to describe the dire situation of violence against Native American women. She profiles several victims but her main focus is on Charon Asetoyer and her organization, The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center , that has provided help to countless women suffering from interpersonal violence or sexual violence.

It was so amazing to me while reading this post, that such breaches of justice were occuring in this very country and I had no clue that they even existed. Pearl documented a real problem that has been the focus of the New York Times, The US Department of Health and Human Services, Amnesty International and The National Organization of Women. According to US DHHS Statistics,

" American Indian/Alaska Native women have the highest rates of intimate partner violence compared to all other groups."

"According to the National Violence Against Women survey, at least one out of every three American Indian/Alaska Native females has been subject to intimate partner violence. Intimate partner violence includes rape, physical assault, or stalking."

The enormity of those statistics is astonishing. I can not imagine what it would be like to grow up in that environment or live in an environment where so many of the women I know would have been victims of intimate partner violence or sexual assault. It is also so unfortunately to know that when Native women do speak out against these injustices they are so often ignored and their crimes go unreported and unfiled.

It is appalling to think that in 21st century America we still live in a society where ethnicity can be such a determinant of health outcomes. Even more appalling is to think of the racism that leads to crimes against Native women going unpunished. Native Americans have been a very resilient people, withstanding the many abuses by the US government to achieve so much. However, that does not mean that we should overlook the insidious racism,poverty and health disparities that they face. We can no longer be innocent bystanders while our sisters are being so brutally oppressed and violated, we must stand with them by acknowledging and fighting this issue.

TAKE ACTION:
1. Suppport the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Centerthat provides desperately needed services to many Native women seeking refuge from violence
2. Read and circulate the articles about this problem to your social networks. Raising awareness is crucial to tackling this problem:
-the Global Diaries article in Glamour magazine
-the New York Times article
-the Amnesty International article
-the National Organization of Women (NOW) article
3. The US Department of Health and Human Services has several resourcesdedicated to this issue
4. Most importantly, if you or someone you know is a victim of intimate personal violence please get help:

To get immediate help and support
call the National Domestic Violence Hotline
at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

or the National Sexual Assault Hotline
at 1-800-656-4673.
You can also visit the
National Sexual Assault Online Hotline.

Community Supported Agriculture as justice

2009-05-13T22:47:00.002-04:00

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a form of economic, sustainable, and world justice. From the education aspect of CSAs- families work a certain number of hours each season on the farm- to the part of the farm which directly supports the immediate, local community which it is in- many CSAs serve as a community gathering place for like-minded folks- to the sustainable agriculture that CSAs provide to the community, CSAs are just good for the world.

The current industrial food system fails at helping the world. Sure, it gives food to people, but at what cost to the world? We are stuck in this system and it won't let us out. It has failed rural communities, small farms and farmers, farm workers on farms of all sizes, indigenous peoples, and the general consumer public.

The fundamental problem is the separation between the consumer and their food. This separation creates economic issues, contributes to global warming, does not allow lower-earning people to get healthy, nutritious food, so creating health issues. Traditional farming practices also have a large effect on the ecology of the land, over use, non-rotation, and lack of a sabbath season cause an increase in run-off and make the land less fertile. I don't think I even need to mention the pollution ick that goes on in trational farming practices and what that can do to the whole world.

So, sustainable farming is a justice issue- social, ecological, and economic. Support it. For more information, visit http://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/

It looks like I'm going to be interning at a CSA near Rochester this summer, it's not in stone, but there's a really good chance, and I'm really excited to get back into farming, get into sustainable farming (as an adult- we did that when I was a kid, but I was 10 when mom and I moved to Gettysburg), and I'll be close to Cyrus and Irena, living on my own, and near the Fingerlakes!

The Maze of Injustice

2009-05-03T10:52:00.003-04:00

American Indian women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the United States. It is also less likely to be reported, and even if it is reported, abuse is less likely to be prosecuted when it occurs on a reservation.

"Crooked Braid" from Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues

Violence, especially sexual violence, on Reservations is harder to stop than in the rest of the country; mostly because of the circle of the justice system and the complicated intersection between tribal justice systems and the United States judicial system.

This NPR report is a wonderful summery of what this cycle is and how it obfuscates the evidence and truth of Sexual offenses among American Indian people.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103717296

In August I am going out to South Dakota to participate in a Service-Learning semester with the Lakota Nation. My first choice for my service organization placement is a woman's safe space. Needless to say, I'm half really hopeful I'll get placed there, half really nervous and not sure I could do it.

I would also encourage you to look at Amnesty International's report on sexual violence among Native American people, The Maze of Injustice:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/maze-of-injustice/page.do?id=1021163
There is also information on the site about how to take action on these issues.

time to start this thing up again

2009-04-20T12:04:00.003-04:00

I've decided that this summer I'm going to blog in this blog again.
I'm going to be at my parent's house- which will be strange in it self- and working some random job while doing research for one of my professors.

But, it's been a year since I first left for Holden- exactly a year ago tonight I was getting on a train for my first solo-worldschool adventure. Now I'm an independent young person who is more scared of going back to my parent's house for the summer than going to South Dakota on my own for the fall. I've changed. A lot. And I've felt it. And I love it.

Stay tuned for summer shenanigans and observations. Hopefully with pictures if I ever get my camera back from Helen.

Reflections on Age

2008-08-18T18:11:00.003-04:00

While I was at Holden one of my best friends was in her 50s. That isn't "normal" in our society. And that disappoints me. I feel like I could learn from Wanda, she has lived much more life than I and figured out for sure things that I can only guess at. She told me, from experience, to jump at opportunities that you may not get again- not to worry about what you may miss in the meantime, your life will be fuller for the new experience you had.
Throughout our growing-up years we are told, directly or not, that we can only spend time with those our own age and in our year in school. No wonder kids are so immature. When we are socialized by those who have no more experience than us, how can we grow?
When I work with kids, I can immediately tell who has older siblings that spend time with them, who is an only child, and who is the oldest- they have distinct signs. Of course, if a child has an older sibling who ignores the younger sister, she tends to act more as an only child. We, as humans, need interaction with people of all demographics to be well rounded people- age included. I feel that ageism is one of the most ignored, but still most problematic "isms" of our time; people are discriminated against constantly because of their age, yet it is not seen as a huge problem. And we wonder why there is such a misunderstanding of both younger and older adults and their needs.

2008-06-02T21:24:00.002-04:00

I wrote this poem on the way home, I think I was in either Montana or North Dakota-they kind of look the same. The poem was spurred by how much I've grown in the past few months, from a teenager to a young adult, and the realization that the next few years are going to include so much more growth and change in my life. My dear friend Angela kept saying how excited she was for me to experience the next few years of my life, and, while I'm awfully excited too, I'm also terrified at times as well.

A New Life
Stretching across the mountains and plains
Back to what I supposedly know
Traveling tracks back over again
But on paths never yet taken
Beginning anew
like that foal
trying out his legs over there
like that calf
finding out that mud is nice and cool
feeling out the world on our own
setting out
on ventures where the end cannot be seen
learning, exploring
Learning from mistakes and missteps
of my own and of others
going through cities and over canyons
Unknown
New
Life.

I may not have kept up...

2008-06-01T19:53:00.004-04:00

...with the blog, but I did have an amazing time at Holden.
There was lots of hiking, music making, bread baking, cooking, and friend-making to be had.

One of the best things I think I did was pick up a fiddle again. It had been 3 years, so I kind of (ok, really) sucked, but it just felt so good and so right. One of my favorite days of the whole time was a Saturday or Sunday at the beginning of May; it was the first (or one of the first) truly nice days of spiring and people were just coming outside in droves- the painters with paint, knitters with yarn, readers with books, musicians with instruments, kids playing in the dirt and water, everyone doing something that made them happy. I think that morning summed up my time pretty well, too, always doing something wonderful and important, but not stressed to the max or too overwhelmed for an extensive amount of time.

Kitchen work was stressful, but not too much so. It was also very satisfying to realize how much I was learning, and to know that there would never be a day of boredom in my job.

I miss making bread everyday. Looking with wonder at yeast farts and gluten strands. Showing new kitchen-folk those things.

I have lots of random stories- that's what I should have been blogging the entire time- from the beginning of my journey to this morning. I met and had conversations with several really neat people on the train.
On the way out it was a hour late getting into Buffalo, and I ended up spending much of that hour listening with Peter, a 50-something man who had received a phone call the day before at his office in Chicago from his wife saying that he needed to come to Buffalo. (From what I gathered, they've been doing the commuter marriage thing for a few years.) Upon his arrival in Buffalo he is told to meet her at her attorney's office- she was asking for a divorce. Peter made it seem as though this was out of the blue. He went on to tell me more about himself and his wife and family; that conversation was my realization that train-culture is completely different from anywhere else.

...I'm going to try to post more about this past trip before I leave again on Friday (for Synod Assembly then off to camp for the summer.)

Before the first

2008-04-20T17:42:00.000-04:00

Tonight, at about midnight, I am heading off on my first solo world-schooling adventure- I am taking the train across most of the country from Buffalo to Holden Village (www.holdenvillage.org ), spending 6 weeks volunteering in the kitchen there, then train-ing home. 'T shall be a blast of an adventure. I am planning on having internet- I most likely will have access- so I'm going to try to blog my experiences, but I may find life too boring and give up. Anyway, check back every week-ish to see if I've posted anything new!