link to a scene that made me cry

but a good one

screen shot from video beginning

video of detained Dulles passengers finally allowed to reunite with family

countering the insanity + contact info links for politicians

This has been an incredible week. The post I started earlier in the week to express my outrage has gotten left in the dust as one event succeeds the next.

This ban preventing people - permanent residents of the US, refugees, and everyone in between - from entering the US - even people in transit - is one of the most appalling things I've heard of. And the stories... Holding a woman and children for 20 hours at Dulles, cuffed and without food, is the least of the stories I've seen. I can't watch a video; it's too much. Yes, we have a right to protect our borders. This, however, is insanity on a number of levels.

Here's a good summary from yesterday - good information in it, even if it's a bit behind the news now.

Washington Post on Twitter: "Annotated: The Trump administration’s executive order on refugees and immigrants https://t.co/tncUtUy7Yp" or https://mobile.twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/825353247011569665

I just read an update saying that green card holders would no longer be affected by this, but the backtracking isn't more than a start. I almost wonder if they did an overkill declaration at first in order to make us more willing to accept the lesser version thereof.

backpedaling a bit? but most still in place...

It is time to act in whatever way we can.
Call. Write. Email. 
It makes a difference.

Here is contact information for the US Senate and House of Representatives.

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf

http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Here is what those from the Northeast have had to say so far:
Here’s what all 33 N.E. members of Congress think about Trump’s immigration order (Boston Globe)


To write or sign petitions addressed directly to the White House:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

By (top)Cezary p(bottom)UpstateNYer - here and here, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37794073 

And pray. 

I haven't been much for praying for our government till this year. I never imagined it would become a focus of intercession in this way. But I find myself asking just how much more we can take of this - and it's been just over a week.

Fr James Martin, SJ, has a good reflection on praying with this anger.

Prayer and other forms of action will be essential in the days to come, one flowing from the other and back again.

Ora et labora.

I'm off to an interfaith rally in Boston on Tuesday. It's through a group with which I'm not familiar - MCAN - but I learned of it from an Episcopal priest of this diocese, as it's being held at the Episcopal cathedral.
"MCAN (Massachusetts Communities Action Network) is a a federation of community improvement organizations across Massachusetts working for social and economic justice by putting our religious faith values and our democratic values into action."

Description: People of all faiths and shared values are welcome to join a press conference this Tuesday condemning the hate filled Presidential Orders of the past week. The faith community of Massachusetts is standing together calling for the state to be a place of sanctuary and solidarity. We applaud our Mayors who have come out in support of all of our neighbors and will be calling on the Governor to stand with us as well.

It's a small thing, but small things add up.

yes, indeed
Boston Common Women's March 1-21-17

morning meditation with sharpies

can't keep quiet - mission and music for the women's march

About that march... Several people have wondered what it was all about. Here's the official mission statement.

OUR MISSION

The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us - immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault - and our communities are hurting and scared. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.

In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.

We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.

HEAR OUR VOICE.

And, via NPR, some music for the mission:  http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/01/23/511186649/a-flash-mob-choir-at-the-womens-march-turned-this-unknown-song-into-an-anthem

why I marched: baptism, compassion, and justice

Women's March, Boston Common 1-21-17

From our baptismal service:

Celebrant	Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People	I will, with God's help.
Celebrant	Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People	I will, with God's help.

-- Book of Common Prayer p. 305 (or http://www.bcponline.org/)

This looks different over time - indeed, day by day. This year brings me a new way of living it out.

I made a few hats, too. (None of these, though.)

When was I last in a march, I wonder?

I recall a candlelight vigil with the sisters in 2003 in hopes of staving off another invasion of Iraq.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1

I recall a demonstration against apartheid when I was in college. I skipped psych class (and I wasn't a class skipper) to stand with others near the shanty town built next to the Beinecke Library. We were so excited when Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent us a word! I found some old pictures online, as a matter of fact, and am grateful to the alum who shared them:

https://yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1649

I recall a Take Back the Night march in Ann Arbor, MI a year or two earlier. Looked online and found that the organization still exists (http://tbtnannarbor.org/). As a signboard I read this weekend phrased it, "I can't believe I'm still protesting this ----." OK, I can believe it. I just wish I couldn't.

Mostly, however, I've written and called my representatives, signed petitions, and learned - too slowly - to speak up instead of smoothing things over that really needed not to be smoothed over at all.

Sometimes you need to make noise.
Boston Public Garden 1-21-17

I wonder if that is changing.

Yes. Yes, it is.
Let's make it better.
Boston Common 1-21-17

What will this year bring?

more of this? more than this, certainly

Yes, we can. Together. All of us.

Snowflakes, unite!

If I am going to live the promises I made in my baptism alongside my community's historical concern for women and children, it seems to me that more may be required in the days ahead.

I might note that there were quite a few concerns expressed Saturday, climate change among them. I am beginning to learn more about that, too.

Talk about something that will affect us all, or at least anyone who is going to live a while longer. I plan to.

Marching. Praying. Writing. Calling. Networking. Listening. More listening. Reading. More praying. Work I can't yet envision. Prayer that is listening and listening that is prayer moving into action.

Jesus may be calling me out of my sycamore tree.
(A sycamore tree would have been very handy on the Common on Saturday. Some of us are too short to see over 175,000 people. However, all the good trees were taken, as you can see.)

I will, with God's help.

Join me?

a Bach love song to coffee

Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,
more delicious than a thousand kisses,
milder than muscatel wine.
  Coffee, I have to have coffee,
  and, if someone wants to pamper me,
  ah, then bring me coffee as a gift!

http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/translations_cantata/t_bwv211.htm



Who knew Bach wrote a cantata/comic opera about coffee?

Via Wikipedia, an outline:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweigt_stille,_plaudert_nicht,_BWV_211 

Better yet, however, are the lyrics to the previous song, which the father berates his coffee-addicted daughter, and she responds:

3. Recitative B S

Schlendrian (which apparently translates "stick in the mud")

     You naughty child, you wild girl,

     ah! When will I achieve my goal:

     get rid of the coffee for my sake!

Liesgen

     Father sir, but do not be so harsh!

     If I couldn't, three times a day,

     be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee,

     in my anguish I will turn into

     a shriveled-up roast goat.

http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/notes_translations/translations_cantata/t_bwv211.htm - Lyrics via Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston, I kid you not (no pun intended). However, most sadly, this particular cantata is not on their performance list this year. 

Fortunately for Liesgen, Happy Goat Coffee is a thing.

http://www.happygoatcoffee.com/

https://twitter.com/happygoatcoffee

NPR: How can you tell if your goat is happy? (original photo source)

You're welcome.