Our next meeting is next week on Tuesday February 9th at 7 PM at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. We will be meeting downstairs in the Youth Lounge this month.

Won't you please join us!.

Political Decision Making in the Future

This month we will cycle back to the visioning process we started in November and focus on making political decisions in the context of emerging norms. One of the themes that came out of our discussions in November was a desire to improve the way decisions are made in groups, at local levels, and even nationally.

Most people will observe that the current process is not working for the vast majority of citizens regardless of their political persuasions. This process is a consequence of and supportive of values that revolve around separation, hierarchy, and achieving dominant power.

We will explore your ideas of what decision making could look like in the future as the norms shift to an awareness of interdependence and a celebration of a diverse population. An important task we have is to identify concrete steps that we can take to start or continue this kind of shift.

The Second Tuesday Race Forum meets on the second Tuesday of most months at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. Here is a link to a map on Google: http://goo.gl/maps/sSc86

 

Our next meeting is next week on Tuesday January 12th at 7 PM at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. We will be meeting downstairs in the Youth Lounge this month.

Won't you please join us!.

 What is the Potential for an American Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

Several countries have used a truth and reconciliation process as a tool in promoting healing and achieving justice for state-sanctioned violence committed on its citizens. The January meeting will explore whether a TRC can work in the United States. A report from Human Rights Watch on the need for truth and reconciliation said this about South Africa:

“If a country is to come to terms with its past and successfully turn its attention to the future, it is essential that the truth of the past be officially established. It is impossible to expect ‘reconciliation’ if part of the population refuses to accept that anything was ever wrong, and the other part has never received any acknowledgment of the suffering it has undergone or of the ultimate responsibility for that suffering.”

So there are many issues to consider. Is America ready for such a movement? What are the preconditions necessary for it to be effective? What model would particularly fit this culture? How can it make a difference to the financial and emotional lives of those who have been oppressed?

We will open the meeting with several panelists who will address critical components of a truth and reconciliation process. Then engage everyone with your thoughts on how to move forward. To stimulate your thinking, please take a look at this article by Fania Davis (sister of Angela Davis) that was originally published in Yes! Magazine:

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27806-the-us-needs-a-truth-and-reconciliation-process-on-violence-against-african-americans

Note: this posting did not go up until after the event.

Regrets!

Our next meeting is in 3 weeks on Tuesday December 8th at 7 PM at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. We will be meeting in the Santuary Parlor this month, on the left just inside the door from the parking lot.

Won't you please join us!.

 

Review of Ideas from “Between the World and Me”

Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a memoir directed to his teenage son with the title, Between the World and Me. It has become a best-seller and lots of people are reading and talking about it. In our December conversation we will explore several themes from his book.

Coates frequently uses the phrase “people who believe they are white,” highlighting the invention of race and whiteness and the impact it has on society. He also explores the significance of the Dream held so dearly by Americans, how it was built on the backs of Black bodies, genocide, and conquered land, and how this Dream has become toxic to everyone.

I hope you will be able to read some or all of Between the World and Me and notice which parts you have to wrestle with. I read it in a single weekend. (the Tattered Cover has 53 copies in stock at the Colfax Store as I write)

There are numerous online interviews and talks with Coates. You will find a March 2015 video at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbT6s8OX_EQ

 

Our next meeting is coming up next week on Tuesday November 10th at 7 PM at the Park Hill United Methodist Church at Montview Blvd and Glencoe St. in Denver. We will be meeting downstairs (basement) in the Youth Lounge this month. In case you are not familiar, take the stairs just to the right inside the door from the parking lot.

Won't you please join us!.

Creating the World We Want

History has demonstrated that the racial disparities and separation we experience today are all the result of deliberate decisions made over and over again, resulting in institutions and structures that reinforce the domination/subordination paradigm. Different decisions can create a new set of outcomes. The November meeting will be the first in a series of discussions to explore new visions of how we can create the world we want instead of defaulting to how things are.

We will begin with a look at the Deep Values that shape the current age and the Emerging Values that are becoming increasingly evident. Then we will get encouragement from the words of activist Grace Lee Boggs. And finally, using small groups, we will explore our own personal visions of transformation.

I have neglected to post the announcement for our new Fall season -- now almost a month late. Here below is that announcement:

Welcome back to our 2015 - 2016 season! Our first meeting of the Fall was held on Tuesday September 8th.

  Racial Illiteracy

The September meeting will give us a chance to review some of the recent developments around race and racial awareness since we met last spring.  Former Attorney General Eric Holder said a few years ago that we were a nation of cowards when it comes to talking about race.  Perhaps it is also true that most Americans are illiterate about race, without a vocabulary that goes beyond blame and shame, or lacking an education that can identify and analyze the pervasiveness of oppression that is built into so many structures.

 

To explore this concept more deeply please read Robin DiAngelo’s essay, “White America’s racial illiteracy: Why our national conversation is poisoned from the start,” at

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/10/white_americas_racial_illiteracy_why_our_national_conversation_is_poisoned_from_the_start_partner/