I Had a Dream: Teaching via Hidden Race Riots and Community

After reading the excellent: Snow-Storm in August: The Struggle for American Freedom and Washington’s Race Riot of 1835 on history and community,I was, for some odd reason, facilitating a workshop at the YMCA, which I get the impression was in an upstairs room at the historic 12th Street (aka Anthony Bowen) Y, with a group of kids of color, and they seemed to regard me as an abstract expert in something for they had little interest, with the exception of a few who paid rapt attention. I was called downstairs in the midst of my talk, after I seemed to have placed the teens in work groups to solve some problems, and down in the office I was told that a pair whom I had separated for fighting were the cause of the Police having been called, and met the police lady who was to come upstairs with me. I asked her to wait at the doorway while I introduced her as our Friendly local Police Lady who was there to ask if anyone had any questions about community policing and how she could be of help to them. A pair of boys around 15 years old or so began to fight, a latino and black kid, and I stepped in, breaking it up half in Spanish and half in my childhood DC accent to remind them that I am part of both worlds, and they stepped back and listened to me, surprisingly, as the police lady edged into the room. Maybe it was her gun they were actually listening to, but the kids behaved better, and seemed to enjoy the friendly spin I tried to put on our visitor´s presence. Some girls did go talk with her, to my relief, and it seemed to go well. I wish I could recall what the topic was. I am sure it was not mathematics, but I think it was some amalgamation similar to what I wrote up in 2003 about using historical incidents, like the Snow Riots, to pick a part of the incident to use to teach every different subject, from right angles and shooting
azimuths up 7th Street, to writing an essay on the implications of the unemployed “mechanics” targetting of men of color who were unrelated to the actual trigger of the riots. Different kids seemed drawn to different stations I had set up around the room, but there was a spider web like set of strings connecting each station to the center, where the main topic was outlined in red and blue. There were other colors at different stations, but I do not know why or for what. I love connecting history with writing with mathematics (when my superior teachers were not prohibiting me from assigning math journal homework to my HS students!! Note that this actually earned me praise on my Community College Alebra teaching evaluation, so go figure. I guess I was teaching at the wrong place, or the wrong time -2002 vs. 2011…)

Well, I hope that someone else finds this dream useful or interesting, and perhaps I will work it into one of my writings.
Peace, Love, and Song,
Shira Destinie
Gregorian Date: Monday, 1 September, 2014
MEOW Date : Friday, 1 September, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era, aka Human Era)

https://network23.org/communitycoop/2014/09/01/i-had-a-dream-teaching-via-hidden-race-riots-and-community/

The Answer is 73! Community Marriage Cooperative Project: The Community Alternative to Dating

Even if you Fall in Love for Life , marriage takes work and committment.

After talking with some friends, I think I should try again to explain my idea for a community Marriage Cooperative (fka the Arranged Marriage Cooperative), a project which would create a coop, a MarriageCoop, like any coop (Cooperative), but with the goal of arranging marriages for its members. Each single person would

1. ) agree to eventually take a turn or rotation as the Matchmaker for the group,
and

2.) Choose 4 people whom he or she would trust to ‘vet’ potential dates, if those 4 people, agreeing to be that person’s Marriage Panel, further agree to help support and work out any problems with the couple, as a supportive community or family would do.

Each single person would meet with the Matchmaker, describing the kind of person he or she is looking to marry. The Matchmaker then picks several potential matches and shows them to the single person and that person’s Marriage Panel, who agree on a person to meet for a date. The Marriage panel then meets with the Marriage panel of the other single, and if both Panels and the Matchmaker agree, then the two singles should meet, then talk to their panels, and see if they want to continue getting to know one another. After a certain period of time, they get married, and there are automatically at least 8 people who have agreed to take on the role of close community members in supporting this couple.

That way both the single person and the community get voice and committment in the process of creating healthy sustainable marriages, which strengthen both the individual and the community.

This is meant to be fully inclusive of the entire community, as even the Village Idiot has an important role in every community. Even people who were formerly abusive, or formerly abused, can and should form part of the Cooperative, given strong supervision and support from their Marriage Panel members. Some singles will have to be vetted and supervised, taught and coached, perhaps monitored, to ensure compliance with non-abusive norms, so that they learn to both give and ask for their needs to be met in healthy ways. This strengthens both them and the community, and forms a more inclusive and reslient society which can channel and help the flowering of each person´s gifts and potential, through fostering healthy contributive cooperative relationships both personal and communal. This is what community is all about.

Thoughts?
Community Cooperation Shira,
Gregorian Date: Monday, 1 September, 2014
MEOW Date : Friday, September 1, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era, aka Human Era)

https://network23.org/communitycoop/2014/09/01/the-answer-is-73-community-marriage-cooperative-project-the-community-alternative-to-dating/

“Delight, respect, and compassion” in the City of Sorrows: Christian-Jewish Deut.4:24 views via shar

“Delight, respect, and compassion” in the City of Sorrows: Christian-Jewish Deut.4:24 views via shared struggle, as portrayed using Minbari and ‘Earth’ religions, and analysed via your FaceBook Autobiography?


(Thanks to Tammy for the phone call that inspired this post in 2011...)

Well, I woke up this morning with my mind… pondering To Dream in the City of Sorrows. A good friend called me regarding the strange story of how Ziporah rescues either Moses or their son on the way to see Pharoah in Egypt. She asked my point of view on this “Bridegroom of Blood” story, and I happened to have an Etz Chaim handy, which agrees on the strangeness of this story, so I pulled it out and agreed -it is odd! Looking at those three verses that tell this story, I was struck by how differently her commentary (a Christian commentator whose name I do not recall at the moment) approached this question. While the Etz Chaim commentary (a commentary by committee, I believe) focused on analyzing the words which connect this story to others, and the symbolism of blood in various Ancient Near Eastern societies, her commentator focused on symbolisms leading to a more other-worldly set of focii. Not surprising, but rather different from other conversations she and I have had, where we both brought our own personal perspectives to the story more strongly. Both of us were members of the Jr. ROTC at an inner city DC high school famous for many reasons, historically and in the 80´s, when we attended, and both of us have fought through struggles in our lives. How interesting that while both strongly committed to our respective faiths, we were able to enjoy discussing our common books from the different perspectives of those two faiths, yet perhaps due to our shared backgrounds, we understand these books in ways that most other people seem not to be able to do. Much like Valen synthesizing Jesuit and Minbari religious thought.

I have had only one other good friend who was such a devout Christian and yet able to share so intently (this time the medium was Babylon 5, to which Ros introduced me, ok, after Rich did, but she re-introduced the show to me from a faith-based perspective that simply blew me away with the difference that that new perspective made…). Ros too has fought through stunning adversity, and presents another example of committment and cooperation with other points of view. We love discussing the differences in our faiths, but seen through the lens of a shared core perspective, Community Cooperation, that allows us to find the meaningful interlocking peices which bring beauty to those differences.

Since so many of these conversations find their way onto FaceBook, I wonder if one day FaceBook will be used to aggregate and publish as autobiographies, the lives of ordinary people?
Peace,
Community Cooperation Shira,
Gregorian Date: Monday, 1 September, 2014
MEOW Date : Friday, 1 September, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era, aka Human Era)

https://network23.org/communitycoop/2014/09/01/delight-respect-and-compassion-in-the-city-of-sorrows-christian-jewish-deut-424-views-via-shared-struggle-as-portrayed-using-minbari-and-earth-religions-and-analysed-via-your-faceb/