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60 Degrees and Sunny
November 09, 2006
I’ve returned from some travels; Chicago/Kentucky/St.Louis.
I had a delightful time almost two weeks ago with the folks at Hope CRC in Oak Forest, IL discussing fair trade coffee and delighting in fair trade chocolate and more. It was very exciting to go to a church and see people so open to change. Often times if someone waltz’s in and tells you that the way you’ve been doing something for the last 20 years is harmful to people and destructive we push back. Even if it is something as little as where we buy our coffee no one likes to be told that they have been supporting a market that has been crippling farmers and effecting the livlihoods of 125 million people. However, the folks at Hope CRC did not push back, in fact they were eager to push forward as fast as they could and make the switch to fairly traded coffee. I belive they sold out of the coffee they were selling in just that one day. It was so encouraging to spend the day with them and learn from their eagerness and openness.
I left for Kentucky Nov.3 and was there through the 5th. The conference, Engaging our World, was equally as encouraging as my time at Hope CRC. Engaging our world is a student run conference for students in the southeastern united states, and it travels from campus to campus beginning last year at Berea College and spending this year at the University of Louisville. I presented on foreign aid and the international debt crisis. Other topics included everything from the millenium development goals to Buddhist monks explaining the links between spiritual unrest and physical stress…plus everything in between. I got to hear workshops on:
- Art Therapy and Activism
- Community organizing for change
- Animal Rights
- …and more…
Paul shared a lot of interesting things with us, but I want to just mention one of them. He was talking about history and how history has been written to take amazing events and isolate them. Example: Rosa Parks “starting” the civil rights movement by refusing to go to the back of the bus on day cause her feet hurt and she was tired. Paul stressed how important it is that we teach the full history, the fact that she was had been the secretary for the NAACP for many years, and that she was already an active member of the existing civil rights movement, and this was not an isolated incident of inspired greatness, but part of a larger river of activism and inspiration and persistence. Within this point he mentioned how we never know who we will impact. Rosa Parks became involve because her husband, Raymond, was a part of the movement. But one thing we don’t know is who Raymond involved? Could it have been a man whose hair he cuts (he was a barber), or a neighbor, or a pastor. Whoever did, Rosa and Raymond Parks were part of an interconnected web of activists and committed people who stand for justice, who may never get credit. I felt inspired by this, do I know the next Mandela or King? Or even more likely, do I know the next Raymond Parks who will inspire someone to be a figure head for a movement? Thanks Paul. I encourage you to check out his website and hear him speak if you get a chance.
Finally, after Engaging our world I hopped over to St. Louis to see good friends Scott and Heidi McPheeters. I’ll post some pictures from our adventures there, but wanted to say thanks to them for letting me stay with them and showing me their fabulous city.
Till tomorrow,
-jasonPosted by filetaj on November 9, 2006 11:09 AM
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