Thoughts and Prayers.........More Thoughts and Prayers.......Enough with Thoughts and Prayers

It is not lost on me that most people do not know what to do during times of brutality like Uvalde or Charleston or Buffalo. We see the carnage on the television or on our computers and we feel overwhelmed and stuck. We wring our hands and do not know what to do. We feel deep empathy of those who have lost their loved ones, or rather for those who have had the lives of their loved ones taken away in senseless acts of gun violence. 

So, I think it is the natural human response to say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them." Even today, at the end of a telehealth consult for my vision, my provider said something to the effect of praying for someone who had just gotten out of the hospital. I'm not opposed to praying at all. I am, in fact, a keen fan of praying. I pray a lot, and I think and study about praying a lot, and, in fact, the Jesus who prayed often and in various settings is someone that I am studying these days. 

However, when I hear politicians offer their "thoughts and prayers," my immediate response is revulsion and my internal thoughts, you probably don't want to hear that internal dialogue or monlogue or whatever you want to call it. You and I both know that "thoughts and prayers" is a way of deflecting and postponing any meaningful discourse and/or change around things that matter to us. 

I get it that it takes time for things to change. That is coming from me, a guy who has been advocating for justice for Black farmers since 1994. No one has to tell me how slowly the wheels of justice roll and how along the way, those wheels grind good people into the very ground that they are living upon. 

But, then, on occasion there will come people like Senator Elizabeth Warren who offered her plan for justice for Black farmers, and then there are others like Senator Booker, Senator Warnock, or Senator Sanders, and Senator Stabenow, and others who offer up policies for change. Then, there are people like Secretary Thomas Vilsack who stands in the way of debt cancellation for Black farmers and it takes other activities of other entities in Washington to challenge him. 

So, when politicians on the right offer up "thoughts and prayers," then I watch what they do and where they go and what they say. When they comment about those on the left being guilty of politicizing tragedy, and then they do the same thing, my emotions boil over. Then, look at where they go to speak. In fact, look at the names of those who are on the speaking agenda for the NRA this weekend in Houston. After the murders in Uvalde, this meeting being held is tone deaf. 

No, they are not serious about creating change in America. Too many votes ride on it. To win in some elections, you have to be sold out to the NRA. The NRA would not be friendly to anyone who advocates for change on the American stage. 

One the other hand, I was proud to see our President stand up in the White House, not too many hours after he had returned from his overseas trip, and grieve over America and its children. While he may not be the Consoler in Chief nor sing Amazing Grace at a memorial service like President Obama, still he is a good man who knows grief and tragedy personally. 

Still, however, it is up to you and me to do something beyond wring our hands. We must vote. Vote for persons who see the gun crisis for what it is, a senseless crisis that kills our children and vulnerable adults. Vote for those people who see the issue as a growing public health crisis. Vote for them, and arm yourself with information about gun violence as a public health crisis.   Vote for those people who will take your agenda to Washington or to the statehouse in whatever state you live. 

If someone is serious about the gun crisis, they will suspend their loyalty to the NRA and to the heinous interpretation of the 2nd amendment and to all things guns. They will change policies about who can get what guns and how they can get them. No 18 year old needs two AR-15s. Deer do not wear kevlar on their bodies. If you can't kill a deer in one, maybe two shots, you need to do something else. 

There has been a feverish debate over the origins of the 2nd amendment for eons. Here's one history of it.  If you are willing to venture into new territory, I'd recommend Carolyn Anderson's work on the history of guns and the second amendment here. 

Either way, America loves its guns. Despite the carnage over the last few decades, we still maintain that owning is our right, and owning how much and how many and for what reasons are our rights. We love them, and our individual freedoms too much, and at times this at the expense of the most vulnerable. 

So, take your "thoughts and prayers" and put them into action. Vote for people who will carry your convictions that enough is enough, enough of our children and others have died, and, no, the NRA does not need to own our souls here in America. 

Let our thoughts and prayers be mobilized for action. Expect public policy to take a long time to develop and for it to be shaped into laws. It will never happen as long as we sit and wait and offer up our thoughts and prayers. 

And, on that note, this is a guy who has it right. He said it well. I can't improve it. He says it well here. Click on his picture of all of the Uvalde children and then read his words. Well worth it. Posted here with his permission. 

Thoughts and prayers did not save the saints in Charleston, nor at the grocery store in Buffalo, nor the children at the schools in Uvalde or Sandy Hook, and they will not save us. 

Pray, preach, write, march, and vote. Work for change. Put your feet into it. Put your heart into it. Put your soul into it. Put your words into it. 

Do something. 

Do something. 

Just do something. 

The persons you help to save may be those you love. 

Black History Month and Me

I have to admit that I have little patience for people who ignore or dismiss with benign neglect the significance of Black History Month. Yes, nail me for being judgmental, or nail me for my attitude toward people who are dismissive of Black people and the history and depth and breadth of the contributions of Black America upon America. 

Several years ago, an official in the USDA approached me at a land loss summit, pulled me aside, and encouraged me to tell the farmers to "get over it," to move on with their lives and to let this thing drop. I actually ran across his page over on Facebook, the "people you may know" app, and low and behold, yes, I did "know" him, if a weekend makes for knowing.  I wonder what he thinks of things now.  Does he even remember that inflammatory conversation. 

That same weekend, another USDA employee was distant and "in his head" about these matters of injustices, but another USDA employee was not. Through her tears she had us turn off our recording devices and she spoke the truth to us, the truth that we knew to be THE TRUTH. I am still deeply grateful for her and have sought her advice on several occasions. 

The truth is that this country was built on the backs of Black people. Their bodies were the commodity that was worth so much that we'd choose to fight a civil war over it, but then, once that was over, and reconstruction was gone, and the Black Codes, and then separate but equal, and Jim Crow were in place, we promptly forgot, or we never knew because teachers were forbidden or afraid to teach the truth in our history classes. 

I consider myself to be more than an ally these days.  Early on I was an outside observer. Over the course of time, I was invited in to participate. Now, though I have not put it up for vote, I consider myself a fully engaged member of the movement. Stories of Black America, from Africa through the Middle Passage, to the auction block, to plantation life, Freedom, Reconstruction, Jim Crow South, and up to now, I have heard stories. Numerous farmers have chronicled their genealogies all the way back to slave days. Their ancestor's name, on a specific plantation, and how things rolled from them to now. 

So, don't tell me that enslavement was then and there but this is here and now. I do not ask for forgiveness when I get angry at people who stick their heads in the sand and ignore or disregard the stories of the ancestors and their survival against insurmountable odds. 

In theological terms, "Black farmers" is a particular. Racism is the universal. Racism that has undergirded our country invaded the halls of the USDA from DC down to the county committee level. So, you talk about Black farmers, you'll be talking about them, and you'll be making inferences for racism in America.

Thirty years ago, I had not heard of "Black farmers," and now, the term is in my every day vernacular. I read, research, write, advocate, and tell stories of Black farmers. I sit in on teleconference or Zoom meetings with senators' offices in DC, crafting The Justice for Black  Farmers Act of 2021, introduced in the Senate by Booker, Warren, Warnock, and Gillibrand, or finding out the current status of things, or asking why a particular phrase was there in the text rather than another phrase. 

I am encouraged by Senator Reverend Warnock's bill, "Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act," which has been written into President Biden's COVID-19 Relief Act," a bill that will relieve the indebtedness of Black farmers, and other minority farmers, where interest is piled on top of interest on top of interest, initially created by USDA officials who discriminated against them. Otherwise, the debt would not be there.

We have it on good record that 20,000 Black farmers are on the verge of foreclosure. In 1920, there were 950,000 Black farmers who farmed on 22,000 farms, who in 1910 farmed 47,000,000 acres. In 1910, Black farmers owned 19,100,000 acres, which was down to 16,700,000 acres in 1920.

In 2017, there were 35,470 Black-owned farms with total acreage of 4,673,140 acres and an average farm size of 132 acres. In this same year, the percentage of Black-owned farms was 1.7%. 

According to Stucki and Rosenberg (2019) and Lloyd Wright (2021), the numbers of loans to Black farmers is incredibly low by comparison to white farmers. They estimate that in terms of the loss of generational wealth to Black families given the horrendous loss of farms and acres is close to $1 trillion dollars. Here is what that looks like: $1,000,000,000,000. 

Now, on the one hand, we have a redo Secretary at the USDA. He failed the first time, but we are watching him now. On the other hand, we have hope in The Act of 2021, authored primarily by Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, and we have the bill for emergency relief that will offer $5 billion in debt relief and services. 

No sum of money will make Black farmers whole. After all, what is a pair of eyes, a pair of kidneys, a brain, or a marriage and family worth? There is no price.

So, don't tell me that there is no need any longer for Black History Month. 

I Am Guilty

I have borrowed a phrase from Thomas Merton's book and shaped it into these words. The context of this poem is that of the days between Jesus' entry into the city and the resurrection. I wonder how many were bystanders during that fateful week? I also wonder how we are impacted when we stand on the sidelines while horrific things are happening in front of us whether those are disenfranchised people here in our country, children in another country, or back in the days of Jim Crow South. There could be many applications.

I am a guilty bystander
            Inching along on the fringes
            Hoping not to be seen or
            Pulled into the fray.

I am a guilty bystander

            As he rides up the narrow street
            On top of a donkey as we yell and
            Holler as if a king has come to town

I am a guilty bystander

            As he teaches in the Temple area
            People listening and arguing
            As he comes and goes into the night.

 I am a guilty bystander

            Pain I do not want to feel
            And at a distance I can
            Intellectualize and depersonalize.

I am a guilty bystander

            Feeling the crowd nudge against me
            Sensing our detachment and voyeurism
            While someone is suffering.

I am a guilty bystander

            My hands are clean of fault
            No stain upon my detached heart
            Watching the spectacle from afar.

I am a guilty bystander

            And watching I will stay
            While blood flows down and
            Pools on the hillside or into the street.

Yes, I am a guilty bystander
            On the roads of Jerusalem
            In the woods during that lynching
            While those children died.

I am a guilty bystander
            And someday sooner or later
            I’ll see the error of my way
            And the truth will crash in on me.

And then what?

 

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.