Eddie and Dorothy, Senators Warnock, Stabenow, and Booker

By now, many of you know that the Senate has passed President Biden's COVID-19 recovery act, or The American Recovery Plan. The vote was split along partisan lines, 50/49 with one senator leaving to attend a family funeral which saved Vice President Harris from casting the deciding vote.

Within the bill there are numerous things that impact many of us which have to do with children and economics of our families. The items that are most crucial to me these days has to do with debt relief and supports for minority farmers who have experienced much discrimination from the USDA. Of the total sum of $5 billion, $4 billion is dedicated to debt relief to Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and other minority farmers.

No, Senator Graham is absolutely wrong. This is not a reparations act. And, the 120%, Mr. Graham, amount has to do with taxes that are placed upon farmers when debt is forgiven. The best way I can describe this is this: a Black farmer borrows some money, but it is too little and too late, and there may or may not be a disaster from which he or she gets no relief, but when the crop comes in, or doesn't come in, the loan is due and payable. In most instances, that debt can be restructured or written off, but not so with minority farmers. For white farmers, yes, but others, no. So, much of the indebtedness is from interest on top of interest on top of interest on top of interest. A small loan turns into an overwhelming debt with the passage of time. And, along the way, many have lost their farms to foreclosure. They will not be getting those back.

Or, when the farm home plan is to be submitted to the county office, the FSA officer demands that the plan be submitted in pencil, and then a plan that "cash flows" no longer cash flows because he changed the numbers. These are only a few of what I've heard and seen.

At this link, you can read the entire debate in The Congressional Record, but save yourself some time, and go to page 40 where Senator Stabenow speaks, or to page 49 where Senator Booker speaks. There is much substantive information there that most of us do not know. At the end of Senator Booker's testimony, he tells the story of Eddie and Dorothy Wise. I am honored to have written their story for this effort. I hope Mr. Wise and his family are pleased with my efforts in telling the brutal stories of mistreatment at the hands of the USDA from the top in DC to the bottom at the county level.

Home for Dorothy and Eddie

This morning I am prompted to ponder home and a homeland. What is home but that place and space where you put your feet and your lay your head and you find your stuff that you find meaningful and you can breathe.  What is a homeland but a larger space and place where the ebb and flow and the people and the symbols and the language and its history connect with you in a deep sense and you say something or say maybe nothing at all that this is my homeland and these are my people and what I value most is found here.

Forever and a day I have had these yearnings for a home and a homeland. Even when we were away from our homeland, I found myself feeling most secure and at peace when we owned the brick and the mortar and the grass and the trees and found a place to come home to at the end of a long sojourn elsewhere.  Home necessarily included the people inside the house which was a home which was grounded in space and time.  Familiarity and predictability of the coming and the going and who was there and when they were not there things were all out of sync and had no rhythm or rhyme.

I think that is why amongst other things the story of Eddie and Dorothy Wise moves me so.  They met on the campus of Howard. Their connection was almost immediate. He yearned for home with chickens and dogs and pigs, lots of pigs. His home became her home and his homeland became their homeland.

Their story of struggle is well chronicled in a large document over in my filing cabinet. Edward and I wrote about them in 2008, and now here in 2017, we are hearing about them again and again because their story is so compelling that we cannot ignore it. It is told in all of its brutality on national radio. The interviewer with his penetrating questions, Eddie with his strong voice, and eventually Eddie with his gentle voice in the nursing home where Dorothy with her weak voice accepts the cookie and drink that Eddie has brought for his “Brown Sugar.”

You can listen to it here.

You can learn more about their circumstances here. 

Not their home. In a place of not their home. She died in a place not their home.

Their home had been taken away by the misdeeds of people with agendas that were clear to them and clear to Eddie and Dorothy. Eddie and Dorothy did not have the power or the place to change the course of those events. Those people who made those decisions had the power and the pen and the position and the system to make things work for those folks but not for those folks.

And then their home was no more. They were driven from it by a large group of uniformed and armed men. Uniformed and armed men who have no claim to the land and home driving people from the land and their home who have a legitimate claim to the land and the home.

Yes. Today I am pondering home and its meanings and why it is so important to me. I am also pondering such for people who have to fight and scratch and claw to hold on to their home and homeland.

I do not know of such deeper things.  Such matters are beyond my experience.  They are not beyond my ability to imagine and to empathize.  And when I do move into that space, my blood runs cold, my heart is ripped out, and my beliefs in justice and its righteous causes confirmed, and my conviction that there are people in power who have darkness in their hearts and they play the cold cruel songs of systemic racism.

And people are driven from their homes.

And then it was taken away.  The big boys with big guns and big pieces of paper came and drove them away.  They asserted themselves into a home that was not their own but they had the power of the paper and the writing on the paper to usher the folks who were at home out of their home and into a cheap motel, one which they could afford. Four walls, close quarters, concrete parking lot. A place to stay but not a home. A place to lay the head for some indeterminable length of time until things changed. Not their home but a place they stayed until they stayed there no more.

Then Dorothy died.

What does Eddie call home now? 

Collaboration: Join Up with Others!

This morning the notion of collaboration is both in my head and on my heart. From these two personal directions and from two arenas, the message is a personal one to me, and likewise it is to many of you.

Politically, partnering and collaborating is a must, in my opinion. As with you, I have my personal opinions about the nature of politics past, present, and future. While I will never abdicate my personal stances on things, and you will find some of those here on this page, I believe that we live in a time where we must join up with others who know how to create movements and mobilize people. So, please comment about that, and if you have joined any movements that advocate for causes important to you, please list them in the comments section. I will list several. I follow Dara Cooper and HEAL Food Alliance. You can find more information about Dara here. I am also prompted by her to pay attention to the Equal Justice Initiative. You can find it here.  She likes some folks who are near and dear to Charla and me. That counts in our book. 

Those friends of Dara's who are friends of mine are found with the Black Farmers Agriculturalists & Association. You can find them here.  One of their causes that is important to me you can find here. JUSTICE FOR MATTHEW & FLORENZA is as near our hearts as you can get. Another you can find here. We have known Eddie and Dorothy for a long time, since probably 2005. Their cause breaks for my heart. Both of these causes are important. Please consider contributing to them.

Charla and I also have much interest this group and its concern for Syrian immigrants. See their important work here on FB and their home page. The SARA organization seems to be doing it right. Please check them out.

On a larger stage, I am following politically another group that is shaking things up out there.  It is moveon.org.  Check them out here.  Another group that I follow is Color of Change.  Check them out here.

Charla and I follow friends on FB who stir us to do well in our corners of the world. Some do wonderful photography, attend events, summarize the latest themes in our world, repost them, and all make me want to do better.

This post has gone on long enough.  So, I'll stop here. It goes without saying that we live in perilous times. Whether we are to the left, right, or middle, we tend to agree on that one. We all love things that matter, including our country.  We love it in different ways. We let our love show in different ways. It also goes without saying that those who know me, know that I am not prone to vitriolic explosions of whatever at whatever. I do what I do and I do it the way I have generally always done things.  I read, ponder, decide, write, and advocate.  It has dawned on me that I cannot do everything but I can do some thing(s). I will not fall into the morass of "my vote doesn't count" or "just get over it" or "give him/them a chance." When things matter, things matter, and I will not be left ten years from now, in my older age, wondering what I could have done differently.

My small voice can be heart amongst the chorus of other voices.

My small vote can be noted via the gathering of other voters.

My few words can be read when people choose, here on this page.

If you live, and you do, you matter; if you breathe, and you do, you matter; if you think, and you do, you matter; if you feel, and you do, you matter; if you are a lover of God and people, you matter; if you matter, then you can voice, vote, march, write, read, scatter seeds of goodness abroad, in whatever fields you choose to sew.

That I believe.  That is where I stand.

Eddie and Dorothy Wise, Black Farmers, Americans, Justice for Some

One of my tasks with the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association is to serve occasionally as fundraiser. Until we get more proficient at this, we use www.gofundme.com.

A couple of years ago we raised some needed funds for a Black Farmers Summit at Howard University, Washington, DC. That event was a success. Contributors were told about their meaningful contributions before that page was taken down.

Now, we have been engaged in another fundraising cause since January of this year. It is a different sort of campaign. It has gotten personal, very personal.

I first met Eddie and Dorothy Wise back in 2005 or so when I first began what has been an amazing relationship with BFAA. At that time Eddie was actively involved in growing sweet potatoes and raising hogs in an environmentally safe manner. All he wanted to do was farm. My respect for him also is based upon his service in the US Army. I have a soldier grandson who is in the US Army. War is more real than ever before.

Their story of mistreatment at the hands of the USDA came next. I was given a copy of the document, "Wise v. Glickman, 2000."  There were multiple failures on the part of the USDA: "the failure to provide loan applications when requested, technical support and assistance in the application process, submission of applications in a timely fashion, information and assistance relative to guaranteed load opportunities, and timely processing of loan applications. The USDA denied loan applications purposefully, and retaliatory actions were taken by the county supervisor. Options for socially disadvantaged farmers in keeping with USDA policy were not offered. The USDA failed to investigate the county supervisor. The couple experienced loss of land, credit, mental and physical health, and public humiliation" (Hinson & Robinson, 2008, page 293.).

They have been removed from their land at gun point, lived in a motel for several months, and, now, she has had her legs amputated.

These and more details are found at https://www.gofundme.com/39m8623g.

Just read the updates. They tell the story.

You'll even see photos of guns held by men in black.

This is America. Land of the free. Justice for some.