June 1, 1921

It was an awful day in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A day of pain and sorrow.

A day of race riots.

The day "Black Wall Street" burned.


There are many theories as to why the Greenwood Area of Tulsa was firebombed from the air and why shots were fired on the ground. But whatever the answer, it was a tragedy of large proportions.


And one I first hear of only a few weeks ago.

Why is this history hidden?


For more information:

http://tulsahistory.org/learn/online-exhibits/the-tulsa-race-riot/

http://sfbayview.com/2011/02/what-happened-to-black-wall-street-on-june-1-1921/

http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2013/jun/03/black-wall-street-on-fire-remembering-the-tulsa/


May God grant us peace with justice.

Song for Sunday: Uptown Girl

Song for Sunday is back!!  And I'm going with Billy Joel, cause I just love his music. You know the lyrics to a few of his songs are a bit iffy, but he's got some others that are just amazing. Not quite sure where this one falls.

The song is sung by Billy, probably in character. He sings as a "downtown man" or "backstreet boy" going for an "uptown girl." A snippet:

I'm gonna try for an uptown girlShe's been living in her white bread worldAs long as anyone with hot blood canAnd now she's looking for a downtown manThat's what I am

As I listen to this song, I think of a brash man, driving a motorcycle, in a  leather jacket. He's loud, he drinks too much, he might do drugs. A bad boy.

Going for a pretty, well dressed rich girl. A girl who's been good, but wants to sow wild oats, maybe get at her parents.

I suppose I am partially influenced by a novel I have been reading in which a boy form a "trashy trailer park" falls for a girl from the other side of the tracks after they reconnect at meetings for recovering addicts. She uses him to get at her rich father. Eventually the boy discovers she is not really interested and kills her, goes to prison, meets Christ, get executed, yada, yada.


But what makes me think a backstreet boy is "bad" and an uptown girl is "good"? Good and bad folks live on both sides of the tracks, right? I mean, it's silly to think otherwise. But many of us do. Inherent bias, reinforced by years of media images and social conditioning.

I am reading the book Waking Up White and attended a workshop by the author, Debby Irving. These resources have helped me begin to see more deeply into my own biases and the way they were formed.


So, I see Billy Joel's song Uptown Girl in a new light. Still enjoy the music though.  Here's a link for you?

What inherent biases do you see in yourself?

(Belated) Song for Sunday: Sister Suffragettes

I almost forgot to write this blog post and I haven't written in so long I am not sure I have any readers left, but anyway, here goes.


We watched Mary Poppins as a family not too long ago and I was struck by this song. It hopefully sings out:

"Our daughter's daughters will adore us
as they sing in grateful chorus
'Well done, Sister Suffragettes'"

Alas, I think in general it's wrong. Not about women voting, about their granddaughters being thankful...or even remembering.

It's election day here in the US and many women are wearing white as a sign of thankfulness for women's right to vote and run for political office. We have, for the first time, a female candidate from a major political party running for president. (We have actually had women candidates for years and, by the way, this doesn't indicate how I voted. I am not going there here.)  But most of the time I think we forget that gaining the right to vote was the hard won struggle of women who worked for nearly century to gain suffrage. And it hasn't even been a century since they succeeded.

This is a fun song. It's also humorous, contrasting a wife's progressive views with her husband's staunchly traditional ones.

The women's suffrage movement had a bit of a checkered history, making alliances with racists and advocating violent action. I don't condone either of those tactics.

I am, however, grateful to be able to vote...and enjoy Mary Poppins.

Check out this link on the history of the Suffragette Movement in the US.
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
And in England:
http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/startsuffragette-/



Did you vote?

Meme-ic Monday: Micah 6:8

So much violence. Gays are targeted, blacks are targeted, police officers are targeted. And that's just from what made the national news in one country over a short period of time.

If we think globally, it's even easier to be "daunted."

The devil wants to stir up chaos and division, to make the Church a target of hate and suspicion.

The answer to that is to follow Micah 6:8, as described in this meme, and to pray. Always to pray.


Go to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. That is what is required of us.



Be a blessing! And have a blessed day.





Micah 6:8 in context



I have learned much about doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God in my years with the Christian Youth Conference at Ocean Park. It's a fabulous experience for high school teens. Two weeks in August, in southern Maine. Still slots available for 2016!

Song for Sunday: Ebony and Ivory

Black lives matter.

That statment should be so self-evident that it doesn't need to be said, but that is not the case in our hurting and broken world.  I am not qualified or knowledgeable enough to comment on any specific case, but the overall picture is one of separation, fear and hostility. It's not supposed to be that way.

Today is the third Sunday in Advent and has also been declared "Black Lives Matter Sunday" by some churches and denominations:

Rev. Debora Jackson of the American Baptist Minister's Council says this on the Council's Facebook page

 

I want to share this note that churches are coming together to participate in "Black Lives Matter" Sunday on this Sunday, December 14....It seems so appropriate on this 3rd Sunday of Advent that our somber spirits would be lifted through solidarity. We pray that our "purple" of mourning could be turned to the "rose" of joy, united as the body of Christ to proclaim the good news, to release the captives, to help others see, and to liberate the oppressed. Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." I encourage you to acknowledge this coming together in your houses of worship. We as people of faith are called to lead. As Executive Minister Dwight Stinnett noted in his update from the Great Rivers Region meeting with pastors in St. Louis, "...We are in for the long haul and not for the media moment."

Back in 1982, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney sang a song begging for racial harmony. The lyrics are simple but it was a major hit when it first came out. McCartney wrote the song,  planning from the beginning to peform it with Stevie Wonder, a musician he greatly admired.

McCartney had seen a skit in which English Comedian Spike Milligan tried to play a song on a piano with the black and white keys separated...which of course didn't work. He got the idea for the song there.

The songs simple plea for all of us to live together in harmony resonates today. May it be our prayer as well.

God bless!

Song for Sunday: Jesus Loves the Little Children

Today is Children's Sunday in our church and in many other Baptist churches in the U.S. As part of our worship celebration this morning we sang this updated version of a traditional children's hymn. This song reminds children -- all children -- that Jesus loves them. It was written in the post Civil War years when slavery was still within living memory. The authors clearly wanted to make a statement of racial equality in Jesus' sight. (The recent negative reaction to the Cheerios ad featuring an interracial family is  proof that we, unfortunately, still need reminders of that.)

Beyond that, this newer version calls us all to pray for and help children, not to overlook them as we reach out to nations and cultures.


Here is a link to the traditional version of this song.

Here are the words to the newer version:


Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus died for all the children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children of the world.

We must pray for all the children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight
We must pray for all the children of the world.

We must help the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight
We must help the little children of the world.

The authors of this hymn were C. H. Woolston and Joseph Barlowe. The musical composition is attributed to George F. Root. The scriptural foundation for this hymn comes from Matthew 19:14. "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me." These (new) lyrics were copyrighted in 1996 by Integrity Music 
Inc.

I coudn't find a really satisfactory video of this song being sung, but here is a a very sweet medley featuring it performed by The Children of the World Choir. Adorable!!  

What's your favorite children's hymn or song?

Encounter with Racial Profiling

At CYC I expected to come face to face with a lot of things. New people, new challenges, opinions and beliefs that differ from my own. All that happened and I am better for it. One thing I never expected to come face to face with was racism. But I did.

It wasn’t from within the community. We are pretty diverse and we all seem to get along well. At least I haven’t witnessed anything untoward. I suppose we’d have to poll the wider community to find out if there’s anything amiss that might be subtle enough to be below my radar screen.

Anyway, this is what happened. I drove students – two girls and two boys, who both happened to be black—to one of our annual field trips. We got pulled over. As soon as they saw the blue lights the boys, who come from different states, looked at each other. Their hats and sunglasses came off and they sat up straight.

When the police officer approached, he said I’d been speeding and requested my license and registration – and also identification from the kids. The girls didn’t have any – one said she didn’t have a license and the officer asked “Suspended?” “No, I just don’t have it yet.” The officer then left them alone, not even asking their names. One of the boys handed over a school ID. The other said he didn’t have his license on him and the officer had him write down his information – and then questioned his address. I told the officer my license was in the trunk. He didn’t have me get it. He just asked my name. Then, he went back to his car.

We chatted while we waited. Some of the kids were nervous. “Why did he want our IDs?” “I don’t like policemen. They are mean.” I tried to calm them. “This one’s not mean. He’s nice enough, He’s just doing his job.” I didn’t get it yet – though I was finding it odd that he wanted everyone else’s information. The only explanation I came up with was he didn’t want me driving for some reason and I was trying to figure out what to do in that case. (At least one of the boys had a license but campers aren’t allowed to drive. CYC isn’t insured for it and it’s against policy. Another car was waiting for us, though, and they had an extra adult.) But that wasn’t in the officer’s plans.

In the end, the officer didn’t even issue me a ticket. He warned me to keep to the speed limit, gave me directions to our destination and sent us on our way.

I apologized to the kids, but they said it was OK they’d at least get a story out of it. We talked some more. One of the boys had been pulled over for no reason before – he and his brother and a CYC alum who was also black. I must admit it took me a minute. “Well, he couldn’t get anything on you, right?” “No, I hold myself in check. But why should we get pulled over for nothing?” We talked about the IDs the officer requested. I still wasn’t quite understanding the boys’ point of view, -- I was rather slow on the uptake-- but suddenly, I got it. “You’re right. You know, he never even looked at my license and I was driving.”

One of the boys said, “You said he was just doing his job. I said to myself, ‘yea, Melinda he’s doing his job badly’.” That camper was right and I am glad he respectfully challenged me on my thinking.

We arrived and I spoke to other CYC staff. A couple thought it might not be racism since they asked the girls for identification, too, but mostly I heard, “Are you serious? You need to file a complaint.” “Are they OK?” “It’s sad that in this day and age that can be true – and that they are used to it.” “You know why that happened, don’t you? Yeah, you know why.”

I have sent emails to the police department complaint line and to the chief of police. I have not yet heard back from them but I learned that it is not uncommon in Maine for an officer to request IDs from adult passengers in a car. I may have no grounds for an official complaint because of that, combined with the fact that I was not issued a ticket, but at least I will call attention to what happened. Maybe the officer thought the teens were older than they were. Maybe. But I think not. I think this was a case of racial profiling and I am saddened by my encounter with it. And a bit wiser about what a segment of the population goes through. I'd heard about racial profiling before and believed it happened, but I never expected to witness it. Maybe God has a purpose in making me aware of this in such a sharp and definite way. We’ll see.

At any rate, I am praying for change. Change so that good kids like these (one of them was presented with CYC’s highest award the very next day) won’t have to worry about being pulled over for no reason. Change so they don’t have to be concerned if they see a police officer. Change so that we are all treated as we should be.

What have been your experiences in this area? What can we do to bring about change?






“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)