A River Between

Recently, two other friends and I have started a venture we call “Hats for Honduras” - http://www.hatsforhonduras.org/ I want to give special props to Tiger Technologies for donating the hosting for our website. They are the best hosting company, hands down, that I’ve ever worked with, and I’m so thrilled that they were touched by this project as well.

Hats for Honduras is a venture in keeping a friendship alive, and for hopefully sparking new ones. Over the past year-and-a-half, the Loaves and Fishes Community, which I volunteer with, hosted a man named Henry, from Honduras. After a long recovery from a near-death auto accident, he finally returned home last month.

Henry became part of our family, and we’ve been invited to visit any time. Hats for Honduras is our fundraising project to fly 3-4 of us to Tegucigalpa, Honduras by 2010 to visit Henry in his native land. We’re looking for donations, of yarn, looms, knitted hats, and money. We’ll send a hand-made knitted hat to anyone who donates. Henry adored the knitted hat made for him by our friend Kristina, and took it with him everywhere - even to West Palm Beach, before boarding a flight from Miami to Honduras.

Our loftiest goals are also to start a friendship exchange program between Duluth, MN and Henry’s community between Tegucigalpa and Juticalpa.

Knitting has been easier on the circular looms for this newbie, but I’m learning a lot, and having fun. I have now made 8 hats!

Read all about our adventures in knitting at the Hats for Honduras Web Site.

This weekend I am in Madison, WI, where I attended the 2nd annual Unschooling Conference, sponsored by H.O.M.E. All I can say is “What a conference!” Coming to meet so many wonderful people has been a great re-charge of my spirit. Unschooling has many forms, but can generally be characterized as the development of complete autodidactic, or self-directed learning. Unschoolers reject “schools” and imposed curriculum and structures, to allow students and people to learn from their own interests, goals, and passions.

The Village School of Northfield was an “unschool” where children were free to study what they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted. Here’s a link to a previous posting about The Village School.

At the Unschooling Conference I was able to meet some very wonderfully creative and passionate people - many of whom were parents who unschool their own children.

Here is a general summary of my experience:
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(6.9 MB Quicktime Movie)

The area in this video is Hiawatha Avenue (Highway 55) in Minneapolis. In 2002, this was the site of protest, as sacred trees in four directions once stood as a sacred site. After much political wrangling, controversy, and the eventual eviction of activists, and the bulldozing of trees, highway 55 was expanded in this area. I found a row of trees for sale along the bike path, which I found very ironic. Enjoy the movie.

Click here to download movie (7.1 MB - requires Quicktime)

Michael and I decided at the last minute to join the Veterans for Peace bus trip to once again attend the School of the Americas Protest and mass funeral march at Fort Benning, GA this weekend.

For those joining late, or who need a refresher, the Army School of the Americas (SOA) is a military training camp for latin american soldiers, paid for by US tax dollars, located at Fort Benning, GA. In the mid-1990s through the freedom of information act, the SOA was ordered to release training manuals to the public. Outlined in those manuals were tactics of torture, kidnapping, sniper tactics, and a slew of others. Graduates of the SOA have been linked to the murders of countless civilians in their own countries, many of whom organize for rights of people and workers.

Every year, between 15-20 thousand people gather at the gates of Fort Benning for the largest ongoing non-violent protest. Every year, dozens of protesters “cross the line” into Fort Benning, and commit federal trespass onto the grounds as an act of civil disobedience.

This place needs to close. Our tax money can no longer go to this kind of a place.

I took some time today to order all the books I needed for classes for which I’m registered. Being in a very non-traditional graduate program, I’m really enjoying the freedom I have to explore a range of topics, and then synthesize them into learning projects and experiences.

In all, I think I’m on an interesting and evolving path with my graduate program in Human Development at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. I’m beginning to see how I would like to integrate the “whole” of my studies. A large part of me wishes to teach, and to “plant seeds” within our current educational structures. So much of the Self-Discovery and finding of our unique purpose in this life is missing from education at all levels. I feel that we’re relegated to questions as “What kind of job can I get with this training?” , when the bigger questions of “How can I find my abundant and fulfilling purpose in this world?” are never considered.

Anyway, here’s a peek for you all at my “Reading List” for the next 8 months.

Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming, by Winona LaDuke

Permaculure: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, by David Holmgren

Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894
by Daniel James Brown

Teaching Toward Freedom, by William Ayers

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don’t Go to School Tell Their Stories, by Grace Llewellyn

The Teenage Liberation Handbook, by Grace Llewellyn

Teacher, by Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

The Spirit’s Terrain by Christopher Childs

The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill

Loaves and Fishes by Dorothy Day

Standing in line. Hall passes. Study hall. Detention. Small desks. Running to your locker so you aren’t late for your next class.These are just some of the memories I have of school growing up. After graduating from high school nineteen years ago, it’s difficult to come up with a list of ways that school prepared me for the real world. Maybe the one Home Economics class I took my freshman year, or perhaps one of my Psychology courses were the ones that I took with me into the “real world”.

On Thursday, February 2, I joined many others for an open discussion about democracy in education and the mission of The Village School of Northfield. While I had been to the school before, this time showed more of the deep need for true democratic education in our school systems today. The Village School is about self-directed education. Students from grades K – 12 learn what they want, when they want, and how they want. Teachers act as partners and guides for students in their education. As the evening unfolded, I felt I had learned more in two hours than I had in years.
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Michael and I attended an “Introduction to Buddhist Meditation” class at the Northfield Buddhist Meditation Center Thursday night. We’ve both been interested in concepts of “creating your day”, consciousness, quieting the mind, etc. for a while. I think that a lot of times, those of us who spend our lives trying to be Peacemakers ™, often neglect the simple truth that peace has to also dwell within oneself. I’ll come back to that thought.

There were eleven of us sitting in a circle, learning good ways to sit, good ways to hold our hands, ways to quiet our mind or “dance” with the thoughts that come and go. The mind is a very busy place! We finally got to meditate and focus on only our breath for about five to seven minutes, which actually seemed to go very quickly. I remember focusing on a spot on the floor in our circle, and having an incredible visual experience where my breath would change my vision, and I would see shimmering color changes and light changes as I inhaled and exhaled. Not wanting to let my mind focus on the experience much more, I ended up closing my eyes once again. But it was just really cool!

I need to return to this place soon, as even afterward, I felt like life seemed to slow its pace and was quieter. I struggle, like many people in our culture, to be mindful as much as I can be. I so desire things like peace, joy, love, justice, and compassion, to come to the forefront in our world. I do think that peace has to come from within, from every one of us. I guess it all begins with me as well.

Namaste!
Peace be with you!

The holiday season can be both stressful and joyous for anyone - sometimes at the same time. One of the big stresses can be holiday shopping for everyone in your life. Every year I feel a small twinge of cynicism when I become attached to the rampant commercialism of the season when I shop for gifts. How were they made? Who benefits from my purchase of this item? Am I buying into the crazy cycle of consumerism when I do my holiday shopping?

This year I plan to buy at least half of my gifts from sources that are “fair trade” in their philosophy.

So what is meant by Fair Trade?

According to the International Fair Trade Association, Fair Trade means:

• Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged workers to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development.
• Accountability and transparency in the trading of goods.
• Gender Equity - Women are empowered and paid for their work.
• A fair price is charged to pass on a liveable profit to the workers, artisans, or producers of goods.
• Healthy Working Conditions that also respect human rights and do not exploit children in the manufacture of goods.
• Responsible environmental practices.

Have you ever stopped to think about those holiday purchases you make, and where your money goes when you buy a gift? One would hope that money could go to workers who make the goods we consume and that they are supported and provided a living wage and adequate working conditions. Unfortunately this just isn’t always so.

Here are a few good places to do your holiday shopping this season that I’ve collected.

Ten Thousand Villages - They have an all volunteer retail staff at a location in St. Paul, at Grand Ave and Victoria!

Global Exchange

Rawganique - Organic hemp cloting!

Real Goods - Environmentally Sustainable gifts here!

Conference of Catholic Bishops - Shopping links galore!

Happy shopping!!

This weekend I will be traveling to Fort Benning, Georgia to take part in the annual Close the School of the Americas (SOA) mass vigil and protest. This will be my first time at SOA, and my first major national protest. I’m both nervous and excited! I will have more information for you when I get back on my experience at Fort Benning. Stay tuned.

A little bit of background for you..

The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. 

Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. 

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

More information is at School of the Americas Watch homepage.

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Originally uploaded by michaelthesecond.

Michael and I went to the “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul this past Saturday. The lawn was filled with boots, each representing a U.S. soldier who has been killed in the Iraq war. This was an incredibly moving experience for me.

One of the most memorable moments at the exhibit was reading about a soldier who committed suicide after coming home. It’s not been unusual for soldiers to commit suicide, either during their stay in Iraq, or after they come back. We use these men and women up. When they come home, do they truly “come home”? My grandfather was a WWII vet, and he had flashbacks and anxiety attacks due to the war, up to the day he died. He was never at peace with this part of his past.

On Sunday, we went to a silent auction and fundraiser for Women Against Military Madness (WAMM). We bid on a bunch of things that I hope we won! A gift certificate to one of my favorite coffee shops, a voice lesson, tickets to the Lagoon Theatre, a case of rootbeer, a May Day poster, and a wine and cheese night out in St. Paul at the Black Dog Cafe. Good stuff! Wish me luck!