PRESBYTERIAN SALT
Helping to add savor to Presbyterians’ recollections of the Covid/racial justice/ democracy crisis of 2020.
Bulletin #4 (30 July 2020)
Editors: Michael Anderson <michael.a249@gmail.com>
John Weiss <jhw4@cornell.edu>
Introduction
This bulletin hopes to:
1. Provide a place where recipients of the bulletin and their family members can share reflections about their experiences during the period from January 1, 2020 to the present.
2. Assist the construction of these reflections by providing timelines of dates for what happened in the church, in Ithaca, in the nation, and in the world as well as essays intended to put the events of the COVID epidemic, including the rethinking and reforming of the relations between white and non-white people and the country’s political and cultural institutions, in historical perspective.
3. Provide a place to extend and augment discussions and group learning that have been going on since January 1st.
4. By carrying out 1.-3., multiply the impact of the church’s worship activities and pastoral leadership.
5. Assist those recording their experiences during the crises.
Why Sharing and Expanding Our Recollections Is Important
The renowned Presbyterian essayist and theologian Frederick Buechner discusses the memory mission to which this project hopes to give support:
WHEN THE EVENING NEWS comes on, hundreds of thousands of people all over the earth are watching it on their TV screens or listening to it on their radios. Disasters and scandals, scientific breakthroughs and crimes of passion, perpetual wars and the perpetual search for peace—people sit there by the million’s half dazed by the things that go to create each particular day. Maybe they even try to make some kind of sense of it or, if they’re not up to that, at least try to come to some sort of terms with it, try to figure out how it’s apt to affect them for good or ill.
There is also, of course, the news that rarely if ever gets into the media at all, and that is the news of each particular day of each particular one of us. That is the news we’re so busy making that we seldom get around to sitting down and thinking it over. If it takes some extraordinary turn we might, but the unextraordinary, commonplace events of each day as they come along, we tend to let slip by almost unnoticed. That is, to put it mildly, a pity. What we are letting slip by almost unnoticed are the only lives on this planet we’re presumably ever going to get.
We’re all of us caught up in our own small wars, both hot and cold. We have our crimes and passions, our failures and successes. We make our occasional breakthroughs. God knows we are searching for peace. It’s all apt to happen so quietly and on so small a scale we hardly realize it’s happening. Only an unanswered letter. A phone conversation. A tone of voice. A chance meeting at the post office. An unexpected lump in the throat. Laughing till we cry. But these things are what it’s all about. These things are what we are all about.
Maybe there’s nothing on earth more important for us to do than sit down every evening or so and think it over, try to figure it out if we can, at least try to come to terms with it. The news of our day. Where it is taking us. Where it is taking the people we love. It is, if nothing else, a way of saying our prayers.
-Originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words
Sharing the Experience: Messages from Our Church Community about Living in 2020
We hope you will continue to give us the impressive harvest of essays, reports, recipes, poems and photos that has made this attempt to assist and inform the church community’s record of living in the crises of 2020 so rewarding.
We will publish the poems at all levels of profundity and humorousness, adhering as closely as possible to the original spacing and illustration.
We welcome book reviews, remembrances [such as those from friends of our beloved Florence Finch], recipes, and additions to the Timeline and the Ways to Learn and Ways to Serve sections as well as comments on the comparative history sections.
We would also be happy to interview you by phone about your experience since January 2020 at our earliest mutually convenient date.
Essays and Rep0rts
Sara Schaffzin
It is the middle of July, four months since the shutdown in New York State, and I am ready to be OVER with this pandemic. But it’s not ready to be over with us, no thanks to our bumbling national leadership and the science-denying governors and Congresspersons of a number of states.
This experience falls into the category of “you couldn’t make this up if you tried,” except that scientists and public health officials have been warning about this kind of scourge for years. Still, what with racism, income inequality, and catastrophic climate change, most of us have directed our worries elsewhere.
Although the weather is good and people are out and about, the world still feels two-dimensional to me. Seeing neighbors in their yards or entertaining one or two people on our front porch has been refreshing, but these limited interactions do not take the place of the communal gatherings that are so important to our social lives. No choral singing, no public worship, no live concerts, no dinner parties. . .it’s that third dimension that makes our lives feel real.
That said, I have tried to make this time meaningful, despite a general lack of energy. I am a very active volunteer for Open Doors English, the ESL school supported by First Presbyterian Church. I have written grants and fundraising letters and am now coordinating ODE’s conversation partner program. During the cold weather I was madly baking cookies and other treats for neighbors and for the nurses and other staff at Cayuga Medical Center. More recently I have dragged my sewing machine out of hibernation and joined a collective that is sewing cloth masks for area farmworkers. I’ve even managed to create some “new” mask designs (well, who knows if they are new, since there are a zillion YouTube videos on how to make various types of masks and I’ve watched only a small fraction of them).
I continue to play my piano and harpsichord, although not with the regularity that comes from taking lessons. I took up the flute fairly recently and had a few lessons under my belt before COVID-19 struck so I am limping along with that instrument on my own. I read a lot, probably more escapist novels than I normally would, but I figure a book is cheaper than a session with a therapist, and better for me than too much ice cream. (But no, I WON’T give up ice cream!)
We have a sweet, energetic dog who needs exercise, so she has gotten me off my butt even on mornings when I’d rather not go out, so that’s a good thing.
And I have a husband who takes care of so many things for me–companionship, household repairs, sharing the dog walking, creating an incredible vegetable garden, dealing with a rental property that we are on the verge of selling (he is much better than I am at legal details). We are financially OK–both retired–so that’s been a relief.
I have to have faith that this crisis will abate–that effective treatments for COVID-19 will be found, that at least one of the vaccines under development will work, that we will find a way out of the cesspool that our executive branch has become. For today, I’ll be working on some masks, picking some veggies, and reading some murder mysteries.
Sara Schaffzin
_____________________________________________________
Herbert Hartwig
July 14, 2020
First Pres Covid Memory Project
I am writing from the perspective of a senior, living in a local long-term care facility. Here at Longview, we normally had a weekly shopping trip for food and a shopping trip for items such as clothing. These were cancelled in early March.
Our doors are closed to visitors, including family members. We are urged to use face masks, as do all employees. Most activities are limited to ten persons in most areas.
We are entitled to one or more meal. In our dining room, only one person is seated per table. Tables are sanitized after each person leaves. Dining hours are extended.
Hand sanitizer lotion dispensers are located almost too abundantly everywhere you look.
One very praiseworthy action; One area has been prepared in the event we do have any Covid-infected persons. It can be isolated and still deliver all necessary services!
I do miss the monthly church newsletter. I don’t use any of the virtual gadgets, but still would like to know what is going on. We still have people in the hospital. Birthdays, I am told, work at the old library building.
Herbert Hartwig
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Six Months of Crisis Expressed in Poetry
Elizabeth Stuelke
Insulation, what keeps you insulated What keeps you turning, why aren’t we burning?
Centered on the concentration, make the words work double time Seed the empty roar of thunder, you can’t make it rain today. Blaming all the usual suspect, I can’t see you in the line Leaving room for blinded puppets, who can make you dance.
Something about yearning, I don’t see you returning, And the rain just adds some blurring.
Splash the ripples, break the tide Cool breeze over the scratchy collared shirt What is to much, what is make believe Is it the burn from the razor or the weathering within?
But you can’t get it through your head. Shades under pines, crisp green and brown Warm yeasty, earth and sky.
History shows the way to progress, all the avenues You took all the short cuts offered, you are now the chosen few. How do you signify, why do you magnify, I always end up crying But I always try again.
How many expectations How does the space get large enough What is the roughness of the skin Is that the razor from within.
Elizabeth Stuelke
__________________________________________________________________
Renee Anderson
My Mask
My mask is an intricate spiral of colors, not unlike Jacob’s cloak
Do you see me?
My mask is of autumn hues, as if a leaf tumbling down my nose
Did you see me?
My mask is not my face, but without it, I cannot be seen
Am I visible?
My mask perceives the approaching storm, a twisted kaleidoscope of grays and blues
Do you hear it?
My mask is sky on fire, but does not burn of ashes and soot
Did you sense it?
My mask filters my spoken words, but my speech cannot be stopped
Did you hear it?
My mask will not muffle my cries, against injustice I shout out
I am seen, I am heard
07.16. 2020. Renee Anderson
______________________________________
John Yao
Sonnets by John Yao
For use in Covid Memory Project
1.
My mother in a lone hospital room,
Sealed up like she’s already in a tomb.
My brother walking Minnesota streets,
His skin a death-mark on patrol cars’ beats.
No visitors, no loved ones by her side
To comfort her while inward rolled death’s tide.
Some strangers gathered when cops pulled around,
But still he felt alone as death pushed down
She called out for her daughter at the last,
He cried out for his mother as he gasped.
Machines kept pumping; still she couldn’t breathe.
The knee kept thumping; still he couldn’t breathe.
Above, the blue skies bristled, warm and fair.
Why must it be we can’t all breathe this air?
2.
The bright blue sky, white clouds, proclaim this June:
The perfect month to sing a prideful tune.
Red roses, purple irises and green
Leaves wavering in the breeze prolong the theme.
This flag of rainbow colors hums along
Throughout me as I celebrate the song.
And yet, here all around me, others cower
At violent expressions of blue power.
My coworker, afraid to go outside,
Afraid to demonstrate her brown-skin pride.
She wished to join the march. She wished. But she
Had seen the clubs and teargas on TV.
Much has changed so I can be who I am.
Now let’s keep up the work so others can.
3.
Eight minutes, forty-six was all it took.
Pressed down on asphalt, George Floyd gasped and shook.
The knee upon his throat could not be shoved.
In his last words he pleaded: “I can’t breathe!”
He died there, murdered by a system broke,
A system that would rather shoot and choke
The folks it should protect, it should have loved.
The canyoned streets repeated: “I can’t breathe!”
Both family and strangers gathered there
And in one voice they chanted in the air.
Just like trees by the river, they’ll not be moved.
The skies sang, unimpeded: “I can’t breathe!”
And as they laid out his memorial wreath,
We call for justice. We say, “I can’t breathe!”
4.
The old colossus stared down from on high,
A long dark shadow cast out from his stand.
The hero of some bygone time and land,
Poised, as before his doomed assault, to die.
They propped him up and hence always he’s stood
There christened with a good ol’ boyish pride.
But the real reason he was built: to hide
The impotence of their closed brotherhood.
No lamp; instead he held upright a sword,
And spoke to some, “You are not welcomed here.
I guard the golden door, but don’t come near.”
Those whom he turned away sneered at his words.
Know what they did, those who got his rejection?
They rose on up, and down came this erection.
5.
Through holy tendrils I could feel her heart,
Could hear the monitor pound out its beat.
Its rhythm bounced through walls, over the street
And into my room, many blocks apart.
They say the universe is made of strings
That strum and hum and buzz and oscillate
Within the atoms that pronounce our fate
And make the grand celestial orbs to sing.
These mystic harmonies of heavenly spheres
Ring out and bounce off galaxies like a drum.
They span both space and time from you to me.
And pound the sacred pulse within our ears:
Bah-bum, bah-bum, bah-bum, bah-bum, bah-bum,
Bah-bum, bah-bum, ba-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
John Yao
________________________
The Crises in the Camera’s Eye
Our pets: family members, but we don’t let them come to church.
The Shackell-Dowell family introduces their new addition to the family, Luna!
_________________________
Introducing Toffee, Lorraine Maxwell’s latest pet.
__________________________
John & Elaine’s Cat Lily
__________________________________
Send us a portrait of your pet and some discussion about what they have meant to your family during the crises of 2020.
Suzanne Scholten’s Chalk Art
(More about her sidewalk messaging in the next issue of Presbyterian Salt)
________________________
Catching Up: Access to Past Worship and Meditation
When you type <firstpresithaca.org > into your browser you will see:
Click Here to join our Fellowship Time
and Adult Education — “How to Be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi — after Worship
Join us for morning prayer
Monday through Friday at 9am
by clicking here
(password = 315)
or by dialing 929-205-6099
Meeting ID: 2430614191#
Meeting password: 315#
We have started to publish
Midweek Email Devotionals
(MEDs for short)
each week. Here is the most recent one, and you can find the rest on our youtube channel below!
Most Recent MEDs
Visit our YouTube channel for current and past worship videos and more!
News, Ways to Learn, Ways to Witness, Ways to Serve
News
Just published: The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs
by Robert J. Mrazek Available from Barnes and Noble online and in local bookstores.
Florence Finch was a longtime member of our church, who enriched our lives in many ways. A later issue of Presbyterian Salt will discuss the book, but we welcome recollections of what Florence meant to each of you. We will publish them in their entirety.
_________________________
The New York Times of 30 July 2020 carried an important article about research on the spread of Covid-19 through droplets and aerosols. The sections on holding meetings outdoors, social distancing –6 feet is not really enough– and the differential effectiveness of various types of masks may cause some readers to modify their actions.
__________________________
Listeners to National Public Radio this were offered an opportunity to make their memories of the triple crisis a part of the raw material for a national history:
WHAT IS STORYCORPS CONNECT?
Developed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, StoryCorps Connect is a first-of-its-kind platform that enables you to record a StoryCorps interview with a loved one remotely using video conference technology. The audio and a still photo from each interview goes into our archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Your interview becomes part of American history, and hundreds of years from now, future generations will listen in. We think of StoryCorps as an ever-growing archive of the wisdom of humanity.
____________________________________
Ways to Learn
The first months of stay-at-home saw a burst of cooking experiments in the congregation, especially baking.
Learning about each other’s recipes, after all, is a centuries-old tradition among church communities. In response to the expected August zucchini tsunami, Stella Martz passes along these five champions:
Zucchini Crab Cakes
2 cups grated zucchini with shell on
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1 TBSP mayo
1 TBSP Old Bay (taste test because this is what gives it the taste)
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
I lay the grated zucchini on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and set aside for at least 10 minutes and blot excess moisture with paper towels. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked.
Mix all ingredients together and shape into cakes, an ice cream scoop works well. Frying tastes better than baking.
Zucchini Pie
1 ½ cups grated zucchini with shell on
1 can of evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
⅔ stick of butter (this is about 5 TBSP of butter)
½ cup flour
1 TSP vanilla
4 eggs beaten
1 TSP baking powder
Top with cinnamon
Cream butter and sugar, then add all other ingredients and mix. Pour Zucchini in last. Grease 10” pie plate and pour in. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 for 30-35 minutes. Insert knife it pulls out clean when done.
Pina Colada Zucchini Muffins/ Bread
3 cups grated zucchini with shell on
3 cups sugar
1 ½ cups oil
4 eggs
1 TSP vanilla
2 TSP rum flavoring
Mix these ingredients together and beat for 2 minutes. Combine and mix dry ingredients together.
4 cups flour
2 TSP baking powder
1 ½ TSP salt
1 TSP baking soda
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir in,
2 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup coconut
Bake in a greased pan at 350. This makes 3 loaves or about 3 dozen muffins. I usually cut the recipe in half and make muffins.
Zucchini Lasagna
1 lb hamburger
1 – 28 oz jar of marinara sauce or make your own (sauce should be thick)
3 medium zucchini, sliced ⅛ inch thick, lengthwise
15 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz mozzarella shredded cheese
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 large egg
Lay the sliced zucchini on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and set aside for at least 10 minutes and blot excess moisture with a paper towel. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked.
Meanwhile in a saucepan, brown the meat and seasoned with salt. When cooked drain to remove fat. Continue to make your own sauce or add the jar marinara sauce. Remember your sauce should be thick.
In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and egg.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a 9×12 casserole spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover. Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture, then top with mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all the ingredients are used up. Top with sauce and mozzarella and cover with foil.
Bake 45 minutes covered a 375 degree, then uncover bake 15 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.
And don’t miss Morgan Stuelke’s Curry Puff Pastry recipe in the latest First Pres Newsletter.
Send us the recipes you have used since January 2020 and tell us about the meal where it was eaten.
Ways to Witness
- How to find “Black Lives Matter” signs:
Margaret Shackell writes:
From what I can tell, there is nowhere to purchase them locally. They can be ordered online at various places. The default is usually no stakes, so if you need the metal stakes, be sure to add that.
Here are some options:
- Peace Supplies https://peacesupplies.org/
- Syracuse Cultural Workers, for a more local option. https://www.syracuseculturalworkers.com/ (cheaper, but not the classic design).
- Amazon Smile (can benefit FPC a tiny bit) https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=black+lives+yard+sign&crid=1HSC0TLF1B0U9&sprefix=black+lives+%2Caps%2C190&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_12
- Signs of Justice (10 packs) https://www.signsofjustice.com/products/black-lives-matter-yard-sign
- Etsy https://www.etsy.com/search?q=black%20lives%20matter%20yard%20sign&ref=auto-1
One of the national distributors of “Black Lives Matter” Signs is SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice). In Ithaca they are a key source for information about local actions, teaching events, lobbying, and demonstrations addressing the campaign for racial justice. Find info by writing to <tcsurj@gmail.com>. A leading member of Ithaca’s SURJ chapter, John Suter, spoke to Roy Colle’s First Pres Men’s Breakfast in the fall of 2019. He is eager to recruit members: <jsuter1@twcny.rr.com>
2.How to witness against nuclear war:
Ithaca Catholic Worker writes:
Friends,
Here are a number of events and initiatives that we are a part of commemorating the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Japan where many thousands of people were killed in a rush to demonstrate to the world our nuclear power. 75 years later we are in a dire situation resulting from the ensuing 75 years of nuclear expansion despite our treaty obligations to begin disarming…now eight nuclear weapons’ nations and two more developing them.
- Join the peace walk lead by Jun Yasuda this Saturday August 1st. gathering at the pavilion north of the Cass Park Children’s Garden at noon with the walk to begin after a sharing circle. A map of the planned walk is attached; join wherever you can during the 5- 6-mile walk. A previously mentioned gathering at Washington Square Park in the evening will not be happening.
- Join our regular weekly peace vigil at the corner of Meadow and Clinton St. near the CVS on Saturday August 8th. This will be from 10-11am. We will have a number of signs; please bring others if you wish. We can spread out along the four corners.
- We would like to encourage faith communities to make this remembrance part of their worship services on the weekend of August 7-9. They could also be invited to either of these gatherings. Please take a look at the attach list of faith communities and see if you are willing to contact any of them or others that you are connected to.
Please be in touch with any questions or if you’re able to help with the organizing work.
3.Thanking the Frontline Pandemic Heroes: An Attempt That Largely Failed.
Six miles out Coddington Road on the edge of Brooktondale, the houses are widely separated. There are more neighboring cows than people:21 Belted Galloways and Carl Crispell’s 30+ Holsteins. If we just clapped hands to applaud the frontline health workers as was being done in cities, nobody would hear anybody else just clapping hands.
So, Elaine Weiss decided she would try a noise that would carry better: howling. She distributed flyers announcing the gesture to all mailboxes within a quarter mile.
Then at 1148 Coddington Road at 7 PM on a calm June evening we started howling. At our house? Only the two of us. Our dog died twelve years ago and our cat whines insistently but fairly softly. Elsewhere in the Banks Road-Coddington Road neighborhood? Only our next-door neighbors, the five-member Biondi family. They howled up a 15-minute storm, moving skillfully from hound to coyote to wolf. Everyone else [n the Coddington and Banks area stayed inside……. silent, safe, unmoved.
Ways to Serve
Local/National: The Covid pandemic challenged our church’s service operations.
The First Pres First Saturday Friendship Center Meal mission started by Janet Mara seven years ago could no longer serve the donated dishes in person, so it shifted to the delivery of meals to people resident at the Center or in motels in town. The donated dishes are brought to the church early in the afternoon of the first Saturday of the month, then assembled into individual takeout boxes and delivered by car to the above-mentioned locations serving the homeless.
Unfortunately, the epidemic shut down the interactive, just-hanging- together side of the First Saturday dinners, which had only just begun to attain their full potential.
Loaves and Fishes, our local soup kitchen which served suppers on Tuesdays and Thursdays and lunches on MWF, where First Pres members volunteer, has reacted in a similar way. Still preparing the meals at St. John’s kitchen, they partner with the Salvation Army to deliver one meal each day. This includes deliveries to the Jungle.
But not, of course, to the important group of service-oriented volunteers who ate at Loaves and Fishes, especially on Thursday nights, just to get to know the diners better and to deliver Christian friendship.
Loaves and Fishes is looking for volunteers under age 65 to help with the preparation of meals
Donating food to the Kitchen Cupboard, 150 N. Albany St, remains an important service of First Pres members. The need for food that the hungry can prepare themselves has increased with the economic upheaval brought by the virus. Donations, which can be made directly to:
The Ithaca Kitchen Cupboard food pantry is open Monday through Thursday 1:30 – 3 pm and Friday 1 to 2:30 pm. If you need food, you can contact the pantry from 10 am at 273-2400 to request food and set up a time to pick it up. You can also show up at the building during the hours the pantry is open. Someone will take your order by phone or in person. Food will be picked up in the rear of the building.
Local/National/International
Asked during the multiple crises of 2020 if they had anything to say or show to a wider audience, most members of the First Pres community would probably answer in the negative. The editors hope that the essays, reports, poetry, photos, songs, and worship service messages published or linked to in Presbyterian Salt demonstrate that in fact sustained beams of light can be found under the First Pres Covid bushel. It’s time to take inspiration from Matthew 5:15-16 and let your light shine before the world. One way to do it is through a podcast.
To learn how to make a podcast, see one of these websites, selected at random from a Google search:
International
Three ways to serve God internationally:
1. Donate to a broad-based humanitarian relief organization that has a proven track record.
2. Donate to an organization whose principal goal is to bring humanitarian relief to a particular set of victims, those affected by state-led actions targeting them as a group and designed to kill, expel, or otherwise radically diminish them. That is, an organization that works to feed, shelter, medically assist, or educate a group whose diminution would reduce the diversity within humankind. Become an informed advocate for that group.
3. Donate and become an informed member of a group that conducts public information and advocacy to combat the political root causes of genocide. These groups often also allocate resources to humanitarian relief for the victim groups. They are especially concerned to give voice and agency to the victims and to partner with victim groups.
There are ten thousand non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who work in these areas. Thirty years of working with a very small number of these groups, mainly the larger, more active, genocide-concerned or refugee-focused ones, produces a list of recommendations, to be augmented in later issues of Presbyterian Salt:
- Humanitarian relief only:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. (PDA) Funded by member churches’ contributions to PCUSA and by individual contributions. Gail Farnham is First Pres Ithaca’s contact person. Internationally, partners with other organizations such as the highly regarded Norwegian Church Aid.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The flagship of international
medical aid. Founded in 1968. National chapters sometimes differ on policy. Funded exclusively by individuals, which gives it unparalleled independence. Unique feature: an independent, internal research team which examines leading-edge issues in humanitarianism.
- Humanitarian relief for genocide victims:
Operation Broken Silence. Based in Memphis. Faith-based, highly regarded founder, Mark Hackett. Projects to assist teachers of refugees from Nuba Mountains in South Sudanese refugee camps. Valuable weekly Bulletin on Sudanese and South Sudanese politics. Hosts the Rescue James Madut website.
Restless Beings. Based in London. Founder Mabrur Ahmed has joined First Pres at times for morning prayers. First organization to get Covid aid inside Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Insider knowledge of refugee situation based on 10 years of working and listening inside the camps. Partners with Bangladeshi groups. Currently seeking funds to continue to supply PPE to key medical personnel.
3.Root cause anti-genocide victim work, political actions
Darfur Women Action Group. Based in Washington. Highly regarded Darfuri founder Niemat Ahmadi. Watching with alarm as genocide continues against Darfur population, even under post-Bashir, ‘transitional” military-civilian government. Membership entails staying informed, lobbying, advocacy.
Free Rohingya Coaliton. Intellectually adept, Burmese co- founder Maung Zarni has assembled worldwide coalition, organized conferences in Europe, America, Southeast Asia. Latest project is a podcast series with international expert commentary. Worst enemy of the genocidal Burmese/Myanmar military and unrelenting critic of the universally discredited ‘State counselor” Aung San Suu Kyi. Membership includes staying informed, advocacy, participation in public education projects.
In a special category: Rachel Chuang/Mofidul Hoque reconciliation, resolution through art: www.threadexhibit.com
(See Bulletin #3)
The Covid/Racial Justice/Democracy Crisis in Historical Context
Michael Anderson
Racial injustice and a global pandemic, two headlines that have dominated 2019 and 2020. The tragic and completely avoidable death of George Floyd caused the entire world to focus on the systemic racism that has been in place in the United States long before our Revolutionary beginnings. But as protests around the world break out, it is important to look at how systemic racism has remained embedded in U.S. society, and how lessons from the past could help us begin to make strides in true equality and justice.
1919 was the year of the Chicago Race Riot, in which 38 people died in Chicago alone and over 500 people were injured. Why all the violence? A 17-year-old black kid by the name of Eugene Williams swam into a section of Lake Michigan that was considered a “whites only” swimming area. Outraged, a mob of white people started to throw stones at the kid, which led to his drowning.[1] As a result, riots broke out across the country, with black communities pushing for justice for those who had been killed due to racial discrimination and violence.
A few years later, similar events unfolded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which a massacre took the lives of up to 300 Black Americans. The events unfolded after a paper wrongfully published an article regarding a Black male who was falsely accused of attacking a white girl in an elevator. Eyewitness accounts in the police report instead showed that he either accidentally stepped on her foot, or lost balance and grabbed her arm for support.[2] The systemic racism that shaped the article resulted in what was known as the “Black Wall Street” burning to the ground.
These events in U.S. history should serve as painful reminders that systemic racism still lies within America’s society. With the recent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, every community must look at their own local history to begin to answer why systemic racism still exists. When comparing the 1919 Chicago Race Riots and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 to the growing Black Lives Matter movement in recent years, it is truly disappointing to see how little has actually changed in the 100 years where our society still struggles to answer the issues of racial injustice.
Although these situations differ in how they were triggered, they all have one common origin: systemic racism. These systems in which systemic racism lies range from police forces, political organizations, schools and everyday language, topics that will be examined in essays in future bulletins. To tackle this issue, communities of different types must look at their own history and understand that this systemic racism is deeply embedded in American society. Schools in particular must take up this role. To do this, historical lessons for students about events that have occurred across the country and within their own neighborhoods must be created so they can draw connections between the past and current events.
Eve Ewing, a sociologist, poet, author, granddaughter of Elmer and Marilyn Ewing, in a recent interview on NPR’s Fresh Air described some ways in which cities such as Chicago have attempted to address their community’s history of systematic racism towards Black communities and minorities.[3] Ewing used the example of Reparation Ordinances, in which Chicago students are required to learn about the police torture that has taken place in Chicago against Black Communities, another topic that will be examined in future editions of SALT. Reading the eyewitness accounts, interviews and opinions of the past allows students to paint a historical perspective themselves and obtain a deeper understanding of history that allows them to understand how past events have led to what they see in the news today. It is imperative that curriculums start to reflect these issues more accurately, and to show that the struggles that Black Communities faced 100 years ago are still being fought well into 2020. Eve Ewing said it best when asked about reparations…
“So yes, I am absolutely, 120% talking about material reparations. And I also think we need to think about what systems and structures we put into place to actually transform society and not only repair what is broken but build something new and better.”
1. Madeline Fitzgerald, “A New Effort to Remember Chicago’s 1919 Red Summer Race Riots,” Time https://time.com/5636039/chicago-race-riots-art-project/. (Accessed July 23, 2020)
2. Gretchen Frazee, “What Happened 99 Years Ago in the Tulsa Race Massacre,” PBS https://www.pbs.org /newshour/nation/what-happened-99-years-ago-in-the-tulsa-race-massacre. (Accessed July 24, 2020)
3. Terry Gross, “Poet Eve Ewing Connects 1919 Chicago To Today’s Racial Unrest,” NPR, https://www.npr. org/2020/06/15/877108426/poet-eve-ewing-connects-1919-chicago-to-todays-racial-unrest. (Accessed July 23, 2020)
Michael Anderson
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Book Recommendations
Michael Anderson
Sociologist and Poet Eve Ewing is the author of two outstanding books that tackles Chicago’s complex race relations and the events that led to the Chicago Race Riots of 1919. The first book titled, “Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side” dives into failing schools in Black communities due to the lack of funding and enrollment, and the fight to keep them open. Her research looks at the issue beyond the school system, revealing how Chicago’s history of systemic racism and general white population has made targets of these failing school systems.
In her most recent book titled “1919”, Ewing takes a creative approach to educating people on the events of the Chicago Race Riots of 1919 through the powerful use of poetry. To include snippets of texts from some of her poems does no justice to how powerful they are when read by Eve Ewing herself. You can access a recent interview with Ewing on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in which she reads a few of the poems and discusses her experiences in Chicago and her research on Chicago’s complex history of race relations. Both books are must reads for anyone who is interested in the current Black Lives Matter protests and interested in learning more about systemic racism in cities such as Chicago.
Eve Ewing: Ghosts in the Schoolyard: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chica go/G/bo27506579.html
Eve Ewing: 1919: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1919-eve-l-ewing/1129784098
If you have any book recommendations or comments on books that you may have read since January 2020, feel free to submit them to us!
Timeline: An updated Timeline will appear in a special issue and on our website
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