Keeping the Overcome Promise (the “missing” Wednesday post) March 16, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 19-Day Fast, Baha'i, Changing Perspectives, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Lent, Life, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Twin Cities, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Amelia Boynton Robinson, Bill Moyers, Chad Mitchell Trio, Civil Rights, Clark Olsen, Dick Goodwin, Frankie Laine, Fred Shuttlesworth, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos, Harry Belafonte, Harry McPherson, Henri Nouwen, Hosea Williams, James Reeb, Joan Baez, John Lewis, John McCormack, Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Maurice Davis, Nina Simone, Orloff Miller, Peter Paul & Mary, Richard Goodwin, Richard Quinn, Sammy Davis Jr., Season for Nonviolence, Season of Non-violence, Sullivan Jackson, Tony Bennett, Viola Fauver Liuzzo
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Peace and blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent, Great Lent, and the Baháʼí 19-Day Fast during this “Season for Non-violence” and all other seasons!

This is the “missing” post for Wednesday, March 15^th. NOTE: I have maintained the language of the quotes. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

“Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and colors, from every section of this country to join me in that cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

Other than some legal action, Monday, March 8,1965, was a relatively peaceful day in Selma, Alabama. I say “relatively,” because the day before was what is now known as “Sunday Blood Sunday” – when non-violent protestors, like future Congressman John Lewis, Reverend Hosea Williams, and Amelia Boynton, were beaten as attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge – and the following day, March 9^th, would become known as “Turnaround (or Turnback) Tuesday” – when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led Civil Rights activists to the middle of the bridge for a moment of prayer. After the second march, three white Unitarian Universalist ministers, Reverends Clark Olsen, Orloff Miller, and James Reeb were attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan, and Reverend James Reeb was killed.

Two days after Reverend Reeb was murdered, on Thursday, March 11^th, students staged the first sit-in at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Six Black students and six white students entered the White House during regular visitor hours and sat down near the Library and Vermeil Room about 45 minutes before the White House was closed to visitors. Soon after they arrived, President Lyndon B. Johnson was notified of their presence and, around the same time, the Chief of the White House Police told them they would need to move or be arrested for unlawful entry. The students stated their position and most refused to leave.

The last few minutes of tours were cancelled and, about two hours after they arrived, the student protestors were moved to East Garden Room. Aware of the sensitivity of the situation, President Johnson waited several hours before instructing white and Black police officers (in street clothes) to remove the students to different police stations and charge them with “illegal entry.” As the president left and then, later, as the police officers removed the remaining 10 students, more protestors gathered at Lafayette Park. For days, Civil Rights activists would hold protest rallies and vigils in full view of the White House – and there is no doubt that the president was watching. In fact, on Monday, March 15, 1965, he told the world that he was watching and some of what he thought about what was happening all over the country.

“Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.

For with a country as with a person, ‘What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

In an effort to unify the country, President Johnson unequivocally said, “There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans to solve that problem.” Yet, he knew he had to do more than point out what should have been obvious. He knew he had to break it down and spell it out. He also knew that the conflict in the country was a reflection of conflict in the capital and that some people did not want him to weigh in on the issue at all.

Some congressional leaders did not think it was appropriate for President Johnson to order Congress to pass legislation. Sure, President Abraham Lincoln did it (in person) with regards to the issue of slavery and President; President Dwight D. Eisenhower did it (in writing) with regard to funding the interstate highway system; and, on a certain level, presidents did it all the time. However, the president’s job is to approve or veto legislation passed by Congress and then to ensure the enforcement of said laws – and some people saw (and see) that in very limited terms. In 1965, Speaker of the House John McCormack thought it was important for the president to speak, publicly and unequivocally about the issue of civil rights and, so, President Johnson prepared to do so. Several people were initially tasked with writing the speech, but none of those people (or their speeches) were approved by the president. In fact, he was reportedly quite upset that his favorite speechwriter, Richard “Dick” Goodwin, wasn’t initially given the task.

On the morning of March 15, 1965, however, Dick Goodwin arrived at the White House to the news that he had a few hours to draft (and then revise) a speech that the president would deliver that same evening to the joint sessions of Congress. Mr. Goodwin drew from his own experiences of facing racism, in the form of anti-Semitism, and President Johnson made sure that his experiences as a teacher of young Mexican-American in Texas was included. The President and his aides reviewed the first draft and offered revisions. Bill Moyers and Harry McPherson suggested revisions that the president did not appreciate. Lady Bird Johnson made a note in her diary that the president, Mr. Goodwin, and the staff worked on the speech all the way up until 7 o’clock PM. The speech was at 9, which meant only half of the speech was loaded into the teleprompter. President Johnson had to read the last half of the speech from a notebook.

“This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: ‘All men are created equal’—‘government by consent of the governed’—‘give me liberty or give me death.’ Those are not just clever words. Those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

To apply any other test–to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth–is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

As a former teacher, and as a Southerner, President Johnson knew that some people might not understand the challenges and obstacles faced by African Americans. So he pointed out the importance of the right to vote and then said, “Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right.” Then, he laid out the “systematic and ingenious discrimination” in explicit detail – pointing out that “[The] fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin.” – and stated that he was going to send a law to Congress (that Wednesday) “designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote.” He even spelled out line items he intended to be included.

Of course, being from the South, LBJ was very clear about the kind of reaction his words would bring up from his kinsmen. So, he spoke directly to people who would end up on the wrong side of history, people who believed that states rights’ include the right to disenfranchise American citizens and people legally within the country’s borders and/or to dehumanize anyone (regardless of the status of their citizenship).

“To those who seek to avoid action by their national government in their own communities; who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple:

Open your polling places to all your people.

Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin.

Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land.

There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain.

There is no moral issue. It is wrong to deny any of our fellow Americans the right to vote.

There is no issue of states rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

“This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation and no compromise with out purpose.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

“But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of the American Negro to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.

Their cause must be our cause too. it is not just Negroes, but it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

[pause]

And we shall overcome.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

While the speech is official known as “The American Promise” speech, four words forever changed the way people remember the speech: “And we shall overcome.”

When President Lyndon B. Johnson uttered what was essential the battle cry of the Civil Rights Movement, people were shocked. First there was silence; then there was cheering and applause. There were also tears and, at least from the Southern contingent, there were curses. Remember, though, that people all over the country (and all of the world) were watching – and were equally stunned. It was one thing for a president to indicate he supported the citizens he represented. It was another thing all together for a president to so closely align himself with a cause.

Some of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. King and John Lewis, were at the home of Sullivan Jackson, the only Black dentist in Selma, Alabama. When they heard what followed President Johnson’s dramatic pause, they couldn’t believe it. Dr. King reportedly wept; knowing that LBJ’s words were a sign of things to come. The president had previously told the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement that they had to be patient; but, with this speech he made it clear (at least publicly) that the time for patience was over. It was time to get to work and solidify change.

Which brings me to the questions I asked at the beginning of today’s practice: Where does change begin? In particular, where does societal change begin? There are two obvious answers. Some people – mostly politicians – say that change begins with policy and legislation. But, time and time again, history has shown us that people break unjust laws and protest against inhuman policies. The other answer is that change begins in the hearts and minds of the people within the society. So, President Johnson appealed to the hearts and the minds of the people in the United States.

“As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of society.

But a century has passed, more than a hundred years, since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight.”

“A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal.

A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is still unkept.

The time of justice has now come. I tell you I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

President Johnson spoke longer than planned or expected. He pointed out that all of the time, energy, and resources dedicated to “maintain the barriers of hatred and terror” could be put to better use; that not doing so actually hurt white children and families in poverty-stricken areas. He made the effort to put people in different situations on equal footing, noting that poverty, disease, and ignorance were the true enemies. Then, for anyone who missed it, he said, “And these enemies too, poverty, disease, and ignorance, we shall overcome.”

By the time he finished speaking, even some of the people who disagreed with him understood the need and urgency for change. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 would be a bipartisan bill that passed both houses of Congress and that the president would sign into law on August 6, 1965. But, there was a lot more that happened between March and August. For instance, two days later, on Wednesday, March 17^th – the same day President Johnson planned to submit a bill to Congress – Judge Frank Minis Johnson (no known relation to the president) issued a judgement in Williams v. Wallace, 240 F. Supp. 100 (M.D. Ala. 1965).

On that relatively peaceful Monday, March 8^th (as I described it before), plaintiffs Reverend Hosea Williams, John Lewis and Amelia Boynton, (“on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated”) were joined by the United States (s plaintiff-intervenor) in a suit filed against George C. Wallace, as Governor of the State of Alabama; Al Lingo, as Director of Public Safety for the State of Alabama; and James G. Clark, as Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, Defendants. The case was in direct response to violence of March 7, 1965 and was an appeal to the courts on the grounds of the First Amendment. Judge Johnson, who served as a judge for the U. S. District Court of the Middle District of Alabama from October 1955 until June 1979, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. A few days later, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a press release stating that he was ordering the Alabama National Guard to supervise and protect the protestors planning to march from Selma to Montgomery.

“The law is clear that the right to petition one’s government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups. Indeed, where, as here, minorities have been harassed, coerced and intimidated, group association may be the only realistic way of exercising such rights.”

“This Court recognizes, of course, that government authorities have the duty and responsibility of keeping their streets and highways open and available for their regular uses. Government authorities are authorized to impose regulations in order to assure the safety and convenience of the people in the use of public streets and highways provided these regulations are reasonable and designed to accomplish that end.”

“As has been demonstrated above, the law in this country constitutionally guarantees that a citizen or group of citizens may assemble and petition their government, or their governmental authorities, for redress of their grievances even by mass demonstrations as long as the exercise of these rights is peaceful. These rights may also be exercised by marching, even along public highways, as long as it is done in an orderly and peaceful manner; and these rights to assemble, demonstrate and march are not to be abridged by arrest or other interference so long as the rights are asserted within the limits of not unreasonably interfering with the exercise of the rights by other citizens to use the sidewalks, streets and highways, and where the protestors and demonstrators are conducting their activities in such a manner as not to deprive the other citizenry of their police protection.”

– quoted from Williams v. Wallace, 240 F. Supp. 100 (M.D. Ala. 1965), March 17, 1965. Order March 19, 1965.

Four days after Judge Johnson’s ruling, on March 21, 1965, approximately 8,000 people gathered at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, and began the march that would take them across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; through counties where there were no Black people registered to vote (even though the population was overwhelmingly Black); and all the way up to (but not on) the steps of the capital in Montgomery, Alabama. By the time the movement reached the City of St. Jude, on March 24^th, approximately 25,000 people were participating in the protest. While most of the marchers were African American (and Protestant Christian), like Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, there were some notable exceptions. There were white Americans like Richard Quinn (from the Twin Cities); Asian Americans and Latino Americans; Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos; Rabbis Maurice Davis and Abraham Joshua Heschel; and several Catholic nuns, including some from the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People (now known as Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament [SBS]). The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen joined the march on the the 24^th.

There were also celebrities that joined at various points along the way. Harry Belafonte; Tony Bennett; Frankie Laine; Peter, Paul, & Mary; Sammy Davis Jr.; Joan Baez; Nina Simone; and the Chad Mitchell Trio all performed on the evening of Wednesday, March 24^th, during the Stars of Freedom rally. The next morning, on March 24^th, approximately 25,000 people marched from St. Jude to the capital in Montgomery. Once, there, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “How Long? Not Long” speech in front of (but not on) the steps of the capital.

While the national guard ensured the safety of the participants during the days of the march, this moment of nonviolent protest also ended in violence. Viola Fauver Liuzzo (née Gregg) was a white mother of five, from Detroit, who participated in the march and then volunteered to drive other protestors to the airport. During one of those shuttle trips, Mrs. Liuzzo was shot and killed by members of the Klan. Later, her character would be assassinated by the FBI, in an effort to distract from the fact that one of the four people involved in her murder was an FBI informant.

“Let none of us look with proudful righteousness on the trouble in another section, or on the problems of our neighbors. There is no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept. In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as in Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom.

This is one nation. What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us out our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “03152022 The Overcome Promise”]

“In Selma as elsewhere we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of suppressed rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.

In Selma tonight, as in every city, we are working for just and peaceful settlement.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

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Keeping the Overcome Promise (mostly the music) March 15, 2023

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 19-Day Fast, Baha'i, Changing Perspectives, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Lent, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Civil Rights, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Goodwin, Season for Nonviolence, Season of Non-violence, Voting Rights Act
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Peace and blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent, Great Lent, and the Baháʼí 19-Day Fast during this “Season for Non-violence” and all other seasons!

“This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: ‘All men are created equal’—‘government by consent of the governed’—‘give me liberty or give me death.’ Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

To apply any other test–to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth–is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.”

– quoted from “Special Message to the Congress on Voting Rights and the American Promise,” original draft by Richard Goodwin; delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

Please join me today (Wednesday, March 15^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “03152022 The Overcome Promise”]

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

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FTWMI: The Impossible Cornerstones of Liberty August 5, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Poetry, Super Heroes, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Civil Rights, Civil War, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, Gertrude Rush, Gustave Eiffel, inspiration, Jessie Carney Smith, Joseph Pulitzer, Judith Weisenfeld, National Bar Association, Richard Morris Hunt, Richard Newman, slavery, Statue of Liberty, Thurgood Marshall, yoga
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A portion of the following was originally posted in 2020. Class details and links have been added.

“‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she

With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”

– from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Today (August 5^th) in 1844, when the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was placed on a rainy Bedloe’s Island, it seemed impossible to complete the project meant to be a testament to freedom, friendship, and the spirit of the people. People in France provided the funds for the statue designed by the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (with scaffolding created by Gustave Eiffel), while people in the United States were meant to pay for the base and pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt. The only problem was that the Americans were short…about $100,000 short.

Hunt’s design for the pedestal and base incorporated the eleven-point star foundation of the army fort (Fort Wood) which had been built in 1807 and abandoned during the Civil War. He always intended his design to be simple, so as not to take away from the statue itself, but raising money for his design turned out to be such a challenge that he scrapped twenty-five feet from the height of his original design. He also cut back on materials so that instead of the pedestal and base being constructed entirely out of granite, he had to make do with concrete walls covered with a granite-block face. His cost cutting measures still might not have been enough if a certain newspaper man hadn’t decided to tap into the spirit of the people and, in doing so, overcame what some viewed as an impossible obstacle. That newspaper man was Joseph Pulitzer and on March 16, 1885 he implored people in the United States to give what they could, even if it was a penny, in order to pay for the base and pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Starting with an ad and a series of front page editorials, he was able to crowd fund over $100,000 in about 5 months.

“We must raise the money! The World is the people’s paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money. The $250,000 that the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people – by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans – by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.

Take this appeal to yourself personally. It is meant for every reader of The World. Give something, however little. Send it to us. We will receive it and see that it is properly applied.”

– quoted from The New York World editorial by Joseph Pulitzer, 1885

Joseph Pulitzer offered people a six inch metal replica of Lady Liberty (described as a “perfect fac-simile”) if they donated a dollar to the “Pedestal Fund” established by Pulitzer’s paper the New York World and a twelve inch replica if they donated $5. While that may not seem like a lot today, keep in mind that this was after the Financial Panic of 1873 (which created a depression in the United States and Europe). Also, interest seemed to be in short supply since the United States was still trying to recover from the Civil War – which left many Americans desiring heroic public art rather than allegorical public art. But, Joseph Pulitzer had a way with words and there were a group of people – immigrants – who were inspired to donate specifically because of the symbolism of the statue. Ultimately, over 125,000 people donated – most donating a dollar or less. They not only donated to receive the replicas, they donated via auctions, lotteries, and boxing matches. They donated by depriving themselves of things they needed or things they wanted. Some kids donated by pooling their “circus” and candy money. Some adults donated what they would normally spend on drinks. At the end of the fundraising, Joseph Pulitzer printed every donor’s name in the New York World – regardless of how little or how much they donated.

The cornerstone is the first stone set in the foundation of a building or structure. All other stones are set in reference to the cornerstone; thereby making it the very foundation of the foundation. It determines the overall position of the structure and is often placed with a certain amount of pomp and circumstance. It is usually inscribed with the date of its placement and often includes a time capsule, which includes some clues as to what was important to the people who attended the ceremony. Such was the case with Lady Liberty’s pedestal cornerstone, which was placed over a square hole dug for a copper time capsule. The time capsule contained a number of articles, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States – both documents considered to be the cornerstones of the United States and the ultimate law of the land.

Although we don’t always think of it this way, one of the cornerstones of the legal system in a commonwealth is a bar. It might be wooden railing, it might be metal railing; however, historically, this bar separated those within the legal profession (specifically the judge and those who had business with the court) from everyone else. In particular, “everyone else” referred to law students whose aspirations were to “pass the bar” – meaning they would be on the other side of the symbolic railing. This symbolic railing is also used to refer to professional organizations, membership in which is sometimes required in order for an attorney to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. Let’s skip “state bars” for a second and just focus on “voluntary” bar associations – which, in the United States are private organizations which serve as social, educational, and lobbying organizations. Legal professionals can not only use these bar associations to network with other professionals and the general public (hence expanding their practice), they can also advocate for law reform. I place “voluntary” in quotes, because I’m not sure how possible it is to practice law in the United States without being a member of a “bar association” (not to be confused with a state bar).

Even if it’s possible to practice without being a member of a bar association – and I trust one of you lawyer yogis will educate me with a comment below – I imagine it would be quite challenging (maybe even impossible) to successfully practice. Especially, back when there was only one major bar association in the United States. And, especially back in the 1920’s when your race and gender prevented you from joining said association. Such was the plight of Gertrude Rush (née Durden), born today (August 5^th) in 1880 in Navasota, Texas. Ms. Rush not only became the first African-American woman to be admitted to the Iowa (state) bar, for about 32 years she was (sometimes) the ONLY female attorney practicing in the state of Iowa (1918 – 1950). She placed a particular emphasis on women’s (legal) rights in estate cases and had a passion for religion, extensively studying the 240 women whose stories are featured in the Bible. Many within the local court referred to her as the “Sunday school lawyer.” She took over her husband’s law practice and, in 1921 (just a year after women’s right to vote was ratified by the United States Congress) she was elected the president of the Colored Bar Association; however, it was impossible for her to be admitted to the American Bar Association. She tried. So, did several other African-American lawyers. They tried because the ABA had one Black lawyer and was, therefore “integrated.” Eventually, however, they stopped trying to join an organization that didn’t want them and started their own organization.

“…a very worn Bible is almost as prominent as the well-thumbed Iowa code on the desk of Mrs. Gertrude E. Rush.”

– quoted from “Iowa’s Only Negro Woman Lawyer Firmly on the Golden Rule” article about Gertrude Rush, located in Iowa Public Library (excerpt printed in Notable Black American Women, Book 2 by Jessie Carney Smith

Gertrude Rush was one of the founding members of the Negro Bar Association, which was incorporated on August 1, 1925 with 120 members (which was about 11 – 12% of the Black lawyers in the US at the time). Eventually renamed, the National Bar Association, the NBA ” addressed issues such as professional ethics, legal education, and uniform state laws, as well as questions concerning the civil rights movement in transportation discrimination, residential segregation, and voting rights.” The NBA supported civil rights groups by providing legal information, filing outside legal briefs (amicus curiae), and blocking federal court nominees who opposed racial equality. As a bar association, however, the NBA did not directly participate in civil rights activities. Instead, NBA members like Gertrude Rush and (eventual) Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall became members of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

It was as part of the NAACP’s legal team that Justice Marshall argued cases like Donald Gaines Murray in Murray v. Pearson, 169 Md. 478, 182 A. 590 (1936) and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Raymond Pace Alexander founded the National Bar Journal (1941), which became a way for Black lawyers to challenge legal principles which conflicted with the interest of African-Americans. The Rev. W. Harold Flowers, a co-founder with Ms. Rush and a former president of the NBA (who would eventually be appointed as an associate justice of the state Court of Appeals), was the attorney whose motions in 1947 resulted in a reconfigured jury after he pointed out that the Arkansas court had not had a Black juror in 50 years. Additionally, the NBA established free legal clinics in 12 states, thereby creating the foundational cornerstone for the poverty law and legal clinics of today.

Gertrude Rush was also one of the organizers of the Charity League, which coordinated the hiring of a Black probation officer for the Des Moines Juvenile Court; created the Protection Home for Negro Girls, a shelter; and served on the boards of a host of other women’s organizations. She also served as a delegate to the Women’s Convention (WC), which was a political auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention (NBC).

“In 1919 Mrs. Gertrude Rush, a prominent black lawyer and [WC] delegate from a Baptist church in Des Moines, Iowa, posited that the vote would enable women to fight for better working conditions, higher wages, and greater opportunities in business. Through suffrage, Rush maintained, women could better regulate moral and sanitary conditions, end discrimination and lynch law, obtain better educational opportunities, and secure greater legal justice.”

– quoted from “Religion, Politics, and Gender: The Leadership of Nannie Helen Burroughs” by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Chapter 8 of This Far By Faith: Readings in African-American Women’s Religious Biography, edited by Judith Weisenfeld & Richard Newman)

Please join me on Zoom (tonight), Friday, August 5, 2022, 7:15 PM – 8:20 PM (CST), for “The Impossible Cornerstones of Lady Liberty and Lady Justice” (a “restorative” practice featuring pawanmuktasana and gentle movement inspired by Somatic Yoga and Universal Yoga).

Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Prop wise, you will mostly need something that allows you to be comfortable when seated, prone, and/or supine. There may also be some kneeling. [NOTE: You can always practice without props or use “studio” props and/or “householder” props. Example of Commercial props: 1 – 2 blankets,2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of Householder props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.]

You may want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice). Having a wall, chair, sofa, or coffee table may be handy for this practice.

Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

NOTE: If you interested in a more active practice related to this date, check out the “Lady Liberty” post and playlists from June 17^th.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

### OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTHI OM ###

The Powerful Possibilities That Come From “A Brother’s Love” (an expanded and “renewed” Tuesday post) August 2, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Confessions, Healing Stories, Hope, James Baldwin, Life, Love, Maya Angelou, Men, Music, Pain, Science, Suffering, Super Heroes, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Aimee Lehto, America, Beau Lotto, being present, Boyd Croyner, Civil Rights, Emily Dickinson, inspiration, James Baldwin, Justin Timberlake, Maria Mitchell, Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, PRIDE, samskāras, truth, vasanas, yoga
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“This also, then, leads on to the idea of whether or not the brain ever does big jumps – or does it only ever do small steps? And the answer is that the brain only ever does small steps. I can only get from here to the other side of the room by passing through the space in between. I can’t teleport myself to the other side. Right? Similarly, your brain can only ever make small steps in its ideas. So, whenever you’re in a moment, it can only actually shift itself to the next most likely possible. And the next and most likely possible is determined by its assumptions. We call it ‘the space of possibility.’ Right. You can’t do just anything. Some things are just impossible for you in terms of your perception or in terms of your conception of the world. What’s possible is based on your history.”

– quoted from the 2017 Big Think video entitled, “The Neuroscience of Creativity, Perception, and Confirmation Bias by Beau Lotto

My idea to spend part of August focusing on “impossible people” – and by that I mean people who do things others believe to be impossible – started long before I had ever heard of neuroscientist Beau Lotto or his work with the Lab of Misfits. In some ways it started with an awareness of certain people’s lives and accomplishments and a curiosity about how they got from A (“impossible”) to Z (“possible”). I mean, on some level I knew about “the space of possibility” and I definitely understood the theory that we live in the past. It is, after all, the science of samskāras (“mental impressions”) and vasanas (the “dwelling places” of habits). I also understood the power of imagination and visualization; often referenced the idea that an epiphany (“striking appearance” or “manifestation”) happens because the mind-intellect is prepared for the revelation; and frequently highlighted how we can be like Emily Dickinson and “dwell in Possibility.”

All of that is backed up by Western science and the Yoga Philosophy. As Dr. Lotto pointed out in his book Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently, and also in many of his talks and lectures, “We don’t see reality – we only see what was useful to see in the past. But the nature of the brain’s delusional past is this: The past that determines how you see isn’t just constituted by your lived perceptions but by your imagined ones as well. As such, you can influence what you see in the future just by thinking.” And that’s what I hadn’t really used as a point of focus: why some people’s imaginations allow them to think differently and know the baby steps that, to the rest of us, look like giant leaps.

If I were going to pinpoint a single starting point for my change in focus, it would be around July 31, 2016. It was the Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the eve of the anniversary of the birth of Miss Maria Mitchell (and Mr. Herman Melville), and while listening to Justin Timberlake (ostensibly) quote Muhammad Ali to a bunch of teens, I thought, “What combination of things in someone’s past makes their will and determination so strong? What makes someone recognize that “Impossible is just a word…?”

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.

Impossible is nothing.”

– quoted from a 2004 Adidas ad campaign written by Aimee Lehto (with final tag line credited to Boyd Croyner), often attributed to Muhammad Ali

A version of the following was originally posted as “A Brother’s Love” on August 2, 2020.

“Given the conditions in this country to be a black writer was impossible. When I was young, people thought you were not so much wicked as sick, they gave up on you. My father didn’t think it was possible—he thought I’d get killed, get murdered. He said I was contesting the white man’s definitions, which was quite right.”

– James Baldwin, quoted from the interview “James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78” by Jordan Elgrably (printed in The Paris Review, Issue 91, Spring 1984)

Born today in Harlem, New York, in 1924, the author James Baldwin was – by his own words – an impossible person. His life (and career) were, in so many ways, shaped by a combination of history and opinions. First, there was the history of the United States. Then there were the opinions of his stepfather David Baldwin (who he referred to as his father) about life in general plus his stepfather’s opinion of how the world would view him, how the world actually viewed him, and his own ideas about what was possible – or, what was necessary. He spent the ages of 14 – 17 following his father’s footsteps into the ministry and then, when his father died, he took a giant leap. He said, “Those were three years [preaching] which probably turned me to writing.”

Leaping into writing was not Mr. Baldwin’s only leap. He leapt across the pond to Paris, France, twice, even as his writing challenged Western society’s conceptions about race, class, gender, and sexuality. His essays, novels, and plays include Giovanni’s Room, Notes of a Native Son, The Fire Next Time, If Beale Street Could Talk (which was recently made into a movie) and the unfinished manuscript Remember This House (which was adapted to create the 2016 Academy Award-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro). Mr. Baldwin first went to Paris with $40 and not a lick of French. He was 24 years old, coming to grips with his sexuality, and escaping what he viewed – what he had witnessed – was a death sentence at the hands of American society.

“Not so metaphorically. Looking for a place to live. Looking for a job. You begin to doubt your judgment, you begin to doubt everything. You become imprecise. And that’s when you’re beginning to go under. You’ve been beaten, and it’s been deliberate. The whole society has decided to make you nothing. And they don’t even know they’re doing it.”

– James Baldwin, quoted from the interview “James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78” by Jordan Elgrably (printed in The Paris Review, Issue 91, Spring 1984)

From Paris, he was able to not only gain perspective about his experiences of being Black in America (and of being Black and Gay in America), but also to offer those experience back to the United States – in the form of a literary mirror. In words that very much echo Miss Maria Mitchell’s words, he said wanted to see himself, and be seen as, more than “merely a Negro; or, merely a Negro writer.”

In his late 30’s/early 40’s, Mr. Baldwin briefly returned to the United States and physically participated in the Civil Rights Movement and Gay Liberation Movement that he had (from Paris) helped to literally inspire. He became friends with Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Lorraine Hansberry, Nikki Giovanni, and Nina Simone (who he and Mr. Hughes convinced to become active in the Civil Rights Movement). He worked with Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark, as well as Lena Horne and Miss Hansberry, to discuss the importance of civil rights legislation with President John F. Kennedy.

His friendships, however, were not only with Black artists and activists. He worked with his childhood friend Richard Avedon, marched with Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston, collaborated with Margaret Mead and Sol Stein, and also knew Rip Torn, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Dorothea Tanning. In fact, to read a biography or autobiography of James Baldwin is to read a Who’s Who of activism and artistry in the 20^th century. But, you don’t have to settle for a reading a measly biography. If you can get your hands on the 1,884 pages of documents compiled by the FBI, you would be in for quite a treat.

Yes, you read that correctly. For a little over a decade, the FBI collected nearly two thousand pages worth of documents on a man that many Americans may not realize helped convince President Kennedy to send federal troops to defend the civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery. True, it’s not the well-over 17,000 pages they compiled on Martin Luther King (not including the wire-tap documents). Here, however, is some perspective: the FBI only collected 276 pages on authors like Richard Wright (Native Son) and 110 pages on authors like Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer). Additionally, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover showed a particular interest in Mr. Baldwin and actually worked with agents to figure out ways they could ban Mr. Baldwin’s 1962 novel Another Country.

Perhaps Director Hoover was concerned about the fact that James Baldwin started the novel while living in Greenwich Village and continued as he moved back to Paris and then back to the States again, before ultimately finishing the book in Istanbul, Turkey. Perhaps he was concerned about the novels depictions of bisexuality, interracial relationships, and extramarital affairs. It’s just as likely that J. Edgar Hoover was concerned about James Baldwin’s persistent efforts to depict a deep, abiding, almost Divine, brotherly love; a universal experience of grace and growth that would make more things possible for more people. Whatever the FBI Director’s objections might have been, the report of the Justice Department’s General Crimes Section “concluded that the book contains literary merit and may be of value to students of psychology and social behavior.”

“The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through. Most people had not lived — nor could it, for that matter, be said that they had died– through any of their terrible events. They had simply been stunned by the hammer. They passed their lives thereafter in a kind of limbo of denied and unexamined pain. The great question that faced him this morning was whether or not had had ever, really, been present at his life.”

– quoted from Another Country by James Baldwin

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

– quoted from The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

When so many of his friends, who were also the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, were killed, Mr. Baldwin made his second leap back to Paris. Again, it was a leap made out of fear and the basic desire to survive. His grief, anger, horror, and disappointment are all on full display in later works like If Beale Street Could Talk, Just Above My Head, and the 1985 non-fiction book Evidence of Things Not Seen (about the Atlanta child murders). Yet, until his dying day he wrote about love and hope – even using a portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from the Christian New Testament, as the title of his book about the Atlanta child murders.

Another place where you can see Mr. Baldwin’s devotion to love, life, and humanity is in the words of his friends; people, who actually knew him, were inspired by him, and some of whom called him Jim or Jimmy. When he died in 1987, Maya Angelou wrote a tribute for The New York Times, entitled “James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered; Life In His Language.” In addition to describing how Mr. Baldwin introduced her to his family as his mother’s newest daughter, she explained that he “opened the [unusual] door” and encouraged her to tell her story.

“Well, the season was always Christmas with you there and, like one aspect of that scenario, you did not neglect to bring at least three gifts. You gave me a language to dwell in, a gift so perfect it seems my own invention….

The second gift was your courage, which you let us share: the courage of one who would go as a stranger in the village and transform the distances between people into intimacy with the whole world; courage to understand that experience in ways that made it a personal revelation for each of us…. Yours was the courage to live life in and from its belly as well as beyond its edges, to see and say what was, to recognize and identify evil, but never fear or stand in awe of it….

The third gift was hard to fathom and even harder to accept. It was your tenderness – a tenderness so delicate that I thought it could not last, but last it did and envelop me it did. In the midst of anger it tapped me lightly like the child in Tish’s womb…. Yours was a tenderness, of vulnerability, that asked everything, expected everything and, like the world’s own Merlin, provided us with the ways and means to deliver. I suppose that was why I was always a bit better behaved around you, smarter, more capable, wanting to be worth the love you lavished, and wanting to be steady enough to bear while it broke your heart, wanting to be generous enough to join your smile with one of my own, and reckless enough to jump on in that laugh you laughed. Because our joy and our laughter were not only all right, they were necessary.”

– quoted from “James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered; Life In His Language” by Maya Angelou (printed in The New York Times Book Review December 20, 1987)

Please join me today (Tuesday, August 2^nd) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “Langston’s Theme for Jimmy 2022”]

NOTE: In 2020, I had to cancel some of this week’s practices and, therefore, did not post the variation of my “Langston Hughes” playlist that I normally use on this date. However, I did encouraged people to practice (with those aforementioned gifts and especially the second and third gifts – with courage and tenderness that has you lifting the corners of your mouth up to your ears and laughing out loud). Last year, today fell on a Monday and so, again, I did not post a playlist.

While I have now posted a variation of what I’ve used in the past, you are still welcome to use my “Selma to Montgomery” playlist, which is available on YouTube and Spotify or, as I mentioned in 2020, you could grab some Nina Simone, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte (“Merci Bon Dieu” comes to mind, of course), Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joan Baez – and then mix in some of the jazz from today’s playlist.

“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word love here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being or a state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth….Love is a growing up.”

– James Baldwin

### OPEN THE DOOR, & LET ME IN (OR OUT)! ###

Remembering the shortest walk (just the music) March 9, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 19-Day Fast, Baha'i, Faith, Hope, Lent, Music, Pain, Religion, Suffering, Yoga.
Tags: Civil Rights, Selma to Montgomery
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Many blessings to all, and especially to those observing Lent, the Baháʼí 19-Day Fast, and/or Great Lent!

Please join me today (Wednesday, March 9^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “03092021 Turnaround Turnback Tues”]

[NOTE: The YouTube title includes the word “Alabama” and includes the Neil Young tracks that are no longer available on Spotify. If you are using Spotify you will (musically) end up slightly ahead after the first part of the practice.]

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

*

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Words One Lives By (the “missing” Wednesday post) February 22, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, First Nations, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Love, Men, Movies, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Suffering, Super Heroes, Tragedy, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Alaska, Alaska Native Brotherhood, Alaska Native Sisterhood, Alberta Schenck, Allen Shattuck, Anita Lafferty, Annie Boochever, Anti-Discrimination, Bessie Colley, Bomani Jones, Civil Rights, Crystal Echo Hawk, David Katzeek, Dawes Act, Elizabeth Peratrovich, equality, Ernest Gruening, Fred White, freedom, George W. Bush, Glenna Goodacre, Helen Sarabia, IllumiNative, Jeff Leer, Jim Crow, John Marks, June Pegues, Keri Edwards, Leslie Logan, liberation, Mag 7, Nammy's, Native American Music Awards, Randy'L He-dow Teton, Roy Peratrovich Jr., Roy Peratrovich Sr., Roy Wood Jr., Sacagawea, Steve Cowper, Susan B. Anthony, Taboo, Thomas D. Rogers Sr., Tlingit, U. S. Mint, William Paul Sr.
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This is the “missing” post for Wednesday, February 16^th, which was Elizabeth Peratrovich Day! You can request an audio recording of this practices via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.)

“a káa ñududziteeyi yoo ý’atánk (noun) law, words one lives by

Tléil oowaa wé aan káa ñududziteeyi yoo ý’atánk géide

ñudunoogú. It is wrong to act against the law of the land“

*

– quoted from Dictionary of Tlingit by Keri Edwards, Anita Lafferty, John Marks, June Pegues, Helen Sarabia, Bessie Colley, David Katzeek, Fred White, Jeff Leer

Some of the best themes, in my opinion, come from conversations. Take Wednesday’s theme, for instance. I could go into any number of reasons why it hasn’t come up before – and go back to several conversations over the years as to how and why it could have come up. Ultimately, however, I was primed to notice certain things this year – when there was an opening in my calendar.

First, there was a February 10th text message from a friend (A), kind of wondering why I hadn’t mentioned that the Dawes Act (also known as the General Allotment Act) passed on February 8, 1887. The legislation allowed the United States government to seize and break up tribal land and, honestly, I would much rather spend the 8th focused on how we can come together. Then, a couple of days later, after a practice where the weekly sūtra lined up perfectly with the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, one of my yoga buddies (J) mentioned that some languages don’t have words for “freedom” and “liberation.” I thought that was interesting, but didn’t agree that that meant those communities didn’t value freedom – just, perhaps, that the didn’t think of freedom and liberation in a legal sense, as we do in the United States. After all, why would so many ancient texts (like the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sūtras, the Upanishads, the Ashtavakra Gita, the Torah, and so many Buddhist texts) spend so much time on the subject of freedom and liberation if the concepts weren’t important? But, I got my friends meaning – especially, because (as I’ve mentioned several times this month) some words just don’t translate into English.

Then, I pseudo-randomly decided to watch a discussion related to the fact that the team previously known as “The Washington Football Team” changed their name to the “Washington Commanders” [insert your favorite pun here]. The discussion was between Roy Wood Jr. (of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah); sports journalist Bomani Jones, and Crystal Echo Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative and a Pawnee citizen. After watching the slightly over 48 minutes of conversation, I probably spent twice that amount of time ranting (via text) to my brother about how there could possibly be (as statistics indicate) people in this country that don’t know Native people exist… like still exist. It was just hard to wrap my brain around the idea that just by virtue of the places I’ve lived, I’ve known more people than others. (Note, this is not the first time such statistics have flabbergasted me.) Finally, as I was thinking about what I would do for Wednesday’s practice, I came across this 1945 civil rights anniversary – and I thought it was going to be a story we all (already) knew.

“moksha (mokṣa), mokkho, mōkṣa, moksh, mōkṣaṁ, mōkaśa, mokhya, mokshamu,

vimoksha, vimukti, vīdupēru,

kaivalya, apavarga, mukti,

nihsreyasa, and/or nirvana”

*

– words related to the end of suffering, the end of ignorance, and the end of the reincarnation cycle that are often translated into English as “freedom,” “emancipation,” “enlightenment,” “liberation,” “release,” and/or “enlightenment”

Wednesday’s class was another “answer” to the Tuesday riddle (Always old, sometimes new…). It was based on a story that I thought I knew – a story, maybe, that you think you know too. It’s a story about the “beginning” of the civil rights movement in the United States and the story about the beginning of the end of segregation and “Jim Crow” laws. It’s a story about the first anti-discrimination law in the United States (and its territories).

Knowing that, just that, you may be scrambling through your knowledge of history (and law) and thinking about what came first in the timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement. But, I’m going to ask you to set aside most of what you know – just for a moment. I’m going to ask you to set aside what immediately comes to most people’s minds when they think about discrimination and Jim Crow laws. Because, this is a story that (probably) predates what most of us learned in school. It’s a story that dates back to the early 1900’s, not the 1950’s or 60’s – and really has nothing to do with the South, or African-Americans. It’s a story about people who, to this day, are still fighting for their rights: Indigenous and aboriginal people.

That’s right, the first (20th century) state or territorial anti-discrimination law in the United States was specifically intended to criminalize discrimination against indigenous people. Specifically, the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945 (also known as the Anti-Discrimination Law of 1945) banned discrimination against individuals in public spaces based on race. It was signed into law on Friday, February 16, 1945, by then Governor Ernest Gruening. Prior to the enactment of the new law, many white-owned Alaskan businesses segregated Alaska Natives and/or completely denied them service. People were told they could not live and/or work in some areas of the city. Some even went so far as to deny employment based on race and would advertise “All White Help.” Just like in the South, there were lots of others signs that explicitly stated that some people had the same status as dogs.

Although he supported the bill, the governor – who would become one of the first Alaskan senators (1959-1969) – was not a resident of the territory nor someone being directly affected by the discrimination that the law eventually criminalized. But when those affected spoke, he listened. One of the people to whom he listened was Roy Peratrovich, then president of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB). Another person the governor not only heard, and also echoed, was Elizabeth Peratrovich, then president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS). Both Mr. and Mrs. Peratrovich were members of the Tlingit nation and, by all accounts, Elizabeth Peratrovich was someone whose very presence commanded everyone’s attention.

But, let me not get ahead of the story.

“With measured composure, [Elizabeth Peratrovich] flawlessly articulated the extent of discrimination against Alaska Natives. ‘There are three kinds of persons who practice discrimination. First, the politician who wants to maintain an inferior minority group so that he can always promise them something. Second, the Mr. and Mrs. Jones who aren’t quite sure of their social position and who are nice to you on one occasion and can’t see you on others, depending on who they are with. Third, the great Superman who believes in the superiority of the white race.'”

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– quoted from the February 16, 2019 Indian Country Today article entitled “February 16 in Alaska honors Tlingit activist on ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day’: Anchorage School District, ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day provides an opportunity to remind the public of the invaluable contribution of this Native Alaskan leader.'” by Leslie Logan

Similar to what happened in the Lower 48, the first part of the battle around civil rights in Alaska was related to education. The Nelson Act of 1905 established funding and guidelines for segregated schools in Alaska (as well as for “the care and maintenance of insane persons in said district… [and] the construction and maintenance of wagon roads, bridges, and trails in said district”). It explicitly stated that the schools would be established and supervised by a board “elected annually by the vote of all adults who are citizens of the United States or who have declared their intention to become such and who are residents of the school district.” The problem, of course, was that many of the affected parents were not considered citizens even though they had lived in the area prior to the government being established. So, they couldn’t vote and the couldn’t be on the board. In other words, they had no say over the education of their children. A “path to citizenship” would eventually open up in 1915, but it would require a person to obtain the endorsement of 5 white citizens – which was challenging, given segregation – and to cut “all tribal relationships and adapted the habits of a civilized life[,]” which people were (understandably) reluctant to do.

In 1908, William Paul, who was the first Tlingit attorney in Alaska, won a case in Ketchikan (Tlingit: Kichx̱áan) that allowed mixed heritage children to attend regular public school. Despite the victory, there was still segregation in most public spaces and so the fight continued. In 1912, thirteen men from a private college in Sitka (Tlingit: Sheetʼká; Russian: Ситка) founded the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), which pushed wider access to education, voting rights, desegregation, social services, and land rights. In 1915, the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANB), joined the fight. By the 1920’s, Mr. Paul and his older brother Louis were active ANB members. In 1929, the ANB and ANS successful boycotted a segregated movie theatre in Juneau (Tlingit: Dzánti K’ihéeni) and got the establishment to desegregate.

Other theatre’s followed suit; however, even when the buildings were desegregated, the seating areas were still segregated. In 1944, Alberta Schenck, a sixteen-year old mixed-heritage member of the Inupiat nation, had a part-time job as an usher at the Alaska Dream Theatre in Nome (Inupiaq: Sitŋasuaq). Part of her job was to make sure non-white customers sat in the designated / segregated area. When she complained about the segregation, she was fired. After she was fired, the determined teenager did two things: she wrote an essay that appeared in the op-ed section of the newspaper and she showed up at her former place of employment with a white army sergeant as her date. Naturally, they sat in the “Whites Only” section. When the couple refused to move, the police were called to arrest Alberta Schenck. Her arrest fired up the people and, once she was released, she wrote a letter to Governor Ernest Gruening – whose response included the reintroduction of anti-discrimination legislation.

“Section 2. Any person who shall violate or aid or incite a violation of said full and equal enjoyment; or any person who shall display any printed or written sign indicating a discrimination on racial grounds of said full and equal enjoyment, for each day for which said sign is displayed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than thirty (30) days or fined not more than two hundred fifty ($250.00) dollars, or both.”

*

– quoted from the “Penalties” section of Chapter 2 of Anti-Discrimination Act, House Bill 14, from Session Laws of Alaska, 1945

Around the same time the activists started the boycott in Juneau, the Peratrovich’s were getting married – and encountering racism. Of course, the young couple had dealt with racism throughout their young lives. Roy, after all, was born in 1908 – the same year William Paul won his landmark desegregation case – and Elizabeth was born in 1911 – the year before the formation of the ANB. Both were of mixed heritage and initially met, as children, in Klawock (Tlingit: Láwaak), a small town on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. In some ways, they had similar schooling experiences. For her part, though, Elizabeth was surprised to find, when she first started school, that there were no Native Alaska teachers and “speaking Tlingit was not allowed.” In fact, students speaking Native languages were often punished. Eventually, she would go to her father’s alma mater and Roy went away to a boarding school in Oregon. It would be several years before they reconnected and, of course, they would be different versions of themselves.

Many people make a point to emphasize Elizabeth Peratrovich’s birth date, July 4th, as it seems she was destined to bring people more liberation and freedom. It was not only her birth date, however, that made her memorable. There was also the combination of her demeanor and her efforts. Born under problematic circumstances, in Petersburg (Tlingit: Séet Ká or Gantiyaakw Séedi “Steamboat Channel”), Alaska, she was mixed heritage and taken to the Salvation Army, where she was adopted by Andrew and Jean Wanamaker (née Williams). The Wanamakers were also members of the Tlingit nation and Mr. Wanamaker, who had attended the aforementioned private school in Sitka, was a charter member of the ANB and a lay minister of the Presbyterian Church. The Wanamaker’s gave their daughter an English name (Elizabeth Jean) and a Tlingit name (Ḵaax̲gal.aat).

“Understanding the meanings of Tlingit names can be difficult. Lance Twitchell, assistant professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, says Andrew’s Tlingit name, Chalyee Éesh, means ‘the father of Chalyee,’ which may mean ‘beneath the halibut.’ Jeans’s name, Shaax̲aatk’í, means ‘root of all women.’ Elizabeth’s Tlingit names was Ḵaax̲gal.aat, which may mean ‘person who packs for themselves.'”

*

– quoted from “2. Growing Up the Alaska Native Way” in Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever with Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Roy Peratrovich’s Tlingit name was Lk’uteen.

The Peratrovich’s were very active in their community. They had three children (Loretta Montgomery, Roy Jr., and Frank); Elizabeth attended the Presbyterian Church; and Roy was repeatedly elected mayor of Klawock. They moved to Juneau, in part, to be more involved in the movement and became the first Indigenous people to live in a neighborhood that was not specifically designated as “Native.” Eventually, their second child (Roy Jr,) would be one of the first Indigenous children to attend a public school. (He would also write parts of a book about his mother’s story.)

After she and her husband helped to draft the anti-discrimination bill, Elizabeth Peratrovich had the opportunity to testify in front of the Alaskan legislature. Her efforts had already earned her a great ally in the governor. However, they also drew the attention of her own personal “master teacher / precious jewel” in the form of a territorial senator named Allen Shattuck, who opposed the anti-discrimination legislation from start to finish. Throughout the public hearing in 1945, the senator challenged Mrs. Peratrovich and questioned her authority to speak to the legislature. I can only imagine that she found him infuriating and annoying, but her responses to him were rational and measured. Her words convince me that underneath those velvet gloves, she had an iron fist.

“Shattuck is on the record as having stated: ‘The races should be kept further apart. Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?’

Peratrovich was not daunted by the derision and responded to Shattuck in her testimony, famously stating: ‘I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.’”

*

– quoted from the February 16, 2019 Indian Country Today article entitled “February 16 in Alaska honors Tlingit activist on ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day’: Anchorage School District, ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day provides an opportunity to remind the public of the invaluable contribution of this Native Alaskan leader.'” by Leslie Logan

Media and eyewitness accounts of the senate hearing indicated that pretty much everyone was moved by the words of Elizabeth Peratrovich. There were descriptions of people cheering, applauding, and even crying. When the anti-discrimination bill passed, with a vote of 11 to 5, on February 8, 1945, I can only imagine that Allen Shattuck looked like he was tasting something bitter. My guess is that he was further chagrined by Governor Gruening’s statement that “Although we cannot by legislation eliminate racial prejudice in public places from the minds of men, legislation is useful to stop acts of discrimination.” Those words, as you will see, mirrored the closing statements of Mrs. Peratrovich.

Many people in Alaska credit Elizabeth Peratrovich with ending (legal) school segregation and discrimination in public places. Note, this was nineteen years before similar legislation would be signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson – and, in both cases, many people participated in the process. In April of 1988, then Alaska Governor Steve Cowper established April 21 as “Elizabeth Peratrovich Day.” The date was later changed to February 16th, so that it would coincide with the anniversary of the signing of the anti-discrimination legislation. The civil rights activist has been honored in many other ways including with a Google Doodle designed by Tlingit artist Michaela Goade (who is also a member of Haida). The doodle appeared in the United States and Canada on December 30, 2020, the anniversary of the date in 1941 when Roy and Elizabeth Peratrovich decided to petition the governor because they were sick of the “No Natives Allowed” signs. Earlier in 2020, Mrs. Peratrovich was also depicted on the reverse of the revised Sacagawea dollar coin.

The “golden dollar” coin was first issued by the United States Mint in 2000, and then minted for general circulation in 2002. General circulation was briefly halted, in 2008, and then reinstated in 2012. The coin was intended as a replacement for the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin and there was a lot of debate about who (or what) would appear on the face of the coin. One fairly popular idea was that it should be a Statue of Liberty coin, but the Dollar Coin Design Advisory Committee recommended a coin to honor the Shoshone guide Sacagawea, essentially making her the first mother – and the first working mom – depicted on U. S. currency. With the assistance of a Shoshone-Bannock/Cree model named Randy’L He-dow Teton, the sculptor Glenna Goodacre designed the obverse picture of Sacagawea and her son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Thomas D. Rogers Sr., a U. S. mint sculptor-engraver designed the original reverse picture of a soaring eagle.

On September 20, 2007, President George W. Bush signed what is known as the Native American $1 Coin Act, which allowed for changes in the original design of the Sacagawea dollar coin. Those changes included provisions for the reverse design to be changed every year, beginning in 2009. The United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the Native American Caucus and the National Congress of American Indians appoint a liaison (to the U. S. Mint), who works with the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee to select potential ideas and the ultimate design. Since 2009, the reverse has depicted:

the “Three Sisters” (winter squash, maize, and climbing beans);
the “Great Tree of Peace” (symbolized by the Hiawatha Belt wrapped around five arrows, above the words “HAUDENOSAUNEE*” and “GREAT LAW OF PEACE”);
the hands of the Supreme Sachem Ousamequin Massasoit and Governor John Carver, symbolically passing the ceremonial peace pipe after the initiation of the first formal written peace alliance between the Wampanoag tribe and the European settlers (in 1621);
a Native man and horses to symbolize trade;
a turkey, a howling wolf, a turtle, and thirteen stars to symbolize the 1778 treaty between the Delaware Nations** and the colonies;
a Native couple offering hospitality, in the form of a peace pipe and provisions, with a stylized image of a compass pointing NW to symbolize the Lewis and Clark Expedition;
a steelworker over the New York City skyline to honor the Kahnawake Mohawk and Mohawk Akwesasne communities whose “high iron” construction work helped build of New York City bridges and skyscrapers, beginning in the 19th century;
a World War I era helmet and a World War II era helmet laid over two feathers in the shape of a “V” to honor the over 12,000 World War I code talkers who served during World War I and the over 44,000 who served during World War II***;
Sequoyah writing, “Sequoyah from Cherokee Nation” in Cherokee syllabary, the written language he devised – which created the opportunity for a new form of journalism and diplomacy;
three images of Jim Thorpe, the Olympian and professional athlete who was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation and whose given name was Wa-Tho-Huk (“Bright Path”);
symbols of Native contributions to space exploration, including depictions of the 2002 space walks of Captain John Herrington, of the Chickasaw Nation, and Mary Golda Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, who is recognized as the first female engineer at Lockheed Corporation and the first Native female engineer in the United States;
civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich depicted with a stylized raven, a symbol of the Tlingit Raven moiety;
two eagle feathers and five stars, surrounded by a hoop, to honor “distinguished military service since 1775;”
Brevet brigadier general Ely Samuel Parker, born Hasanoanda (Tonawanda Seneca), later known as Donehogawa, with writing utensil and book in hand – as if he were writing the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox, as he did while serving as adjutant and secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant

All of the coins listed above are legal U. S. tender, however, they are produced as collectibles and often only available online. While you could use them for your next purchase, it is most likely that the person at the register has never seen anything other than the original Sacagawea.

“Senator Shattuck asked, in what was described as combative in tone, if she thought the proposed bill would eliminate discrimination. Peratrovich responded, ‘Do your laws against larceny and even murder prevent those crimes? No law will eliminate crimes but at least you as legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the evil of the present situation and speak your intent to help us overcome discrimination.'”

*

– quoted from the February 16, 2019 Indian Country Today article entitled “February 16 in Alaska honors Tlingit activist on ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day’: Anchorage School District, ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day provides an opportunity to remind the public of the invaluable contribution of this Native Alaskan leader.'” by Leslie Logan

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

Musical Note: With the exception of the fourteenth and twenty-first tracks, all the music on the playlist features musicians and/or groups recognized by the Native American Music Awards (NAMA), which awards “Nammy’s” for styles of music associated with Native Americans and First Nations and to nominees who are Native American or when at least one member in a group or band is from a State for Federally recognized tribe. Most of the songs feature people who have been inducted into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame or have been awarded NAMA Lifetime Achievement Awards. Some songs simply won a Nammy (or two). To my knowledge, I only covered ten (maybe eleven) nations. I wanted to include “One World (We Are One)” – which is the result of a collaboration between Taboo, IllumiNative and Mag 7 – but the song was not available on Spotify.

*NOTE: Haudenosaunee literally means “people who build a house” or “people of the longhouse” and refers to the Iroquois confederacy, which is comprised of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca people and, as of 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people. The indigenous confederacy was initially known to the English as “The Five Nations” – hence the five arrows on the coin – and later as “The Six Nations.”

**NOTE: The Delaware Nation are sometimes known as the three Clans of the Lenape: the Monsi (Munsee) or Wolf, the Unami or Turtle, and the Unilactigo or Turkey. Today the clans are known as the Tùkwsit (Wolf Clan), Pùkuwànko (Turtle Clan), and Pële (Turkey Clan) – with the Delaware Nation being the Pùkuwànko (Turtle Clan).

*** NOTE: Approximately 9% of the overall U. S. population was actively serving in the U. S. military by September 1945. On the flip side, over 12% of the First Nations population, from a variety of communities, served as code talkers.

“According to the Anchorage School District, ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day provides an opportunity to remind the public of the invaluable contribution of this Native Alaskan leader who was an advocate for Native citizens and their rights. This courageous woman could not remain silent about injustice, prejudice, and discrimination.’ A 2012 school district board resolution stated: ‘Because of her eloquent and courageous fight for justice for all, today’s Alaskans do not tolerate the blatant discrimination that once existed in our state.’”

*

– quoted from the February 16, 2019 Indian Country Today article entitled “February 16 in Alaska honors Tlingit activist on ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day’: Anchorage School District, ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day provides an opportunity to remind the public of the invaluable contribution of this Native Alaskan leader.'” by Leslie Logan

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### breath is daséikw is life ###

Words One Lives By (mostly the music) February 16, 2022

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Changing Perspectives, First Nations, Music, One Hoop.
Tags: Alaska, Anti-Discrimination, Civil Rights, Elizabeth Peratrovich, Jeff Leer, Tlingit
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It’s Elizabeth Peratrovich Day!

“a káa ñududziteeyi yoo ý’atánk (noun) law, words one lives by

Tléil oowaa wé aan káa ñududziteeyi yoo ý’atánk géide

ñudunoogú. It is wrong to act against the law of the land“

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– quoted from Dictionary of Tlingit by Keri Edwards, Anita Lafferty, John Marks, June Pegues, Helen Sarabia, Bessie Colley, David Katzeek, Fred White, Jeff Leer

Please join me today (Wednesday, February 16^th) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify.

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### breath is daséikw is life ###

How Do You Shine? (Stories For the Living, redux) December 1, 2021

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Chanukah, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Loss, Men, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: AIDS, Bobby McFerrin, Charlie Harary, Civil Rights, Claudette Colvin, HIV, Larry Kramer, Laura Barcella, Phillip Hoose, Rosa Parks, World AIDS Day
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“Happy Chanukah!” to all who are celebrating.

“The more they target our spirit, the brighter we let our souls shine.”

*

– quoted from a Charlie Harary presentation about Chanukah and lessons he learned from his grandparents

So far this week I have centered classes around a series of interrelated, light-related questions: 1. When do you shine the brightest? 2. Why so much focus on light? Of course, these questions are inspired by the fact that it is Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights. When I tell the story of Chanukah, I endeavor to highlight the different “miracles” within the story, the little things that turn into big things, and to also show that each and every one of us, is the light. People – and the way they shine – are every day miracles. I consider the Maccabees the shamash of the story; the way they show up, keep their faith, and inspire others when faced with oppression is one example of how people can shine in the world. That people still observe Chanukah is another example of people shining in the world.

Additionally, as I said mentioned to a friend yesterday, there are plenty of other stories in the world about people who show up and shine despite tragedy and oppression. There are several stories associated with today that feature people who are, in their own rights, the attendants, caretakers, and light workers of the world. People who helped make the world better, because they showed up and shined. As you read or hear today’s stories (or even take another look at the Chanukah story) consider how each person was in a unique position to make a difference, to shine. Then, consider your unique position and how you can shine.

Most of the following was originally posted on December 1, 2020. Dates and playlists have been updated. Some supplemental information has been added.

“If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, [we] may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.”

*

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

*

“‘Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. I made it so that our own adult leaders couldn’t just be nice anymore. Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adults around here just say something?’”

*

– quoted from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Today I have two stories for you. Both are fables, in that they are stories with a moral. Both are also true – in that they actually happened. Finally, both stories are open ended… in that we are still living with the ramifications of the stories and their lessons. There are some other overlaps; however, ultimately, one of the stories is a dark and twisted fairy tale, while the other is a bit of a horror story. You can decide which is which.

In the first story, a 15-year old student, coming home from school, was told she was in a place where she didn’t belong. For the record, she was in a place specifically designated for “her kind,” but that was neither here nor there when someone designated as her “better” was going to be in the area. This student, let’s call her Claudette (because that is her name) and an older pregnant woman (let’s call her Ruth) decide they were going to stay put. Of course (I say with a lot of sarcasm), the police were called. Ruth moved. Claudette did not. Eventually she was (re)moved, by the police and arrested. On the way to the police station, she was sexually harassed by the officers and she feared that one would take the harassment farther. A minister bailed her out of jail; she was convicted (in juvenile court) of three charges; and two of the charges were eventually dropped on appeal. Ironically, the charge that stuck – assaulting an officer – might not have even happened.

The events described above happened in the Montgomery, Alabama in the Spring of 1955. Claudette Colvin was not the first Black person to refuse to make room for a white person on a bus, or anywhere else, and she would not be the last. But, her story is one that many people forgot or didn’t know; because, nine months later – today in 1955 – Rosa Parks sat in the “white section” of a bus and didn’t get up.

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.”

*

– Rosa Parks, as quoted in Fight Like A Girl: 50 Feminists Who Changed the World by Laura Barcella

Some people referred to Mrs. Parks as a tired seamstress, a 42-year old “Colored” woman; but, more importantly to the story, she was an activist who had worked as a secretary for the NAACP and she made for good optics. Unlike, Claudette Colvin, who was a pretty, dark skinned teenager who was pregnant and unmarried, Rosa Parks was a pretty, fair skinned, established married woman – who also practiced yoga and was trained in civil disobedience.

There are lots of different lessons and morals to that story. Some of the big ones (to paraphrase Claudette Colvin) are the importance of knowing your rights, taking a stand, and saying when something isn’t right. Another big lesson: optics and messaging matter. Which leads me to the next story that is relevant to today.

Once upon a time some people got sick and, because of their illness, some children were born prematurely. Doctors thought the illness was a form of pneumonia. While there were some studies around the illness, it didn’t affect enough people in the right places to become a priority on any one’s radar. After all, optics and messaging matter – and it was believed that the adults who got sick did so because of their behavior. Fast forward 69 years and an African-American teenager in Saint Louis, Missouri (let’s call him Robert R) died of this pneumonia with weird symptoms. 7 years later a Norwegian sailor (with ties to Africa) died, 4 months after the death of his daughter and 8 months before the death of his wife. The next year a Danish doctor, also with ties to Africa, also died – as did several other people of various ages, genders, ethnicities, races, and (in the case of the adults) occupations.

By the late 70’s, children were being born with this pneumonia that some doctors then thought was a form of cancer. By the 1980’s, researchers and major American news outlets were publishing news about a “gay cancer” – which it is not – and people without any medical knowledge were guessing at how the disease is spread. And it was spreading, globally.

“If all of this had been happening to any other community for two long years, there would have been, long ago, such an outcry from that community and all its members that the government of this city and this country would not know what had hit them.”

*

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

It took a playwright and activist – that some people called “the angriest man in the world” and others considered to be a man “with a golden heart” – to really sound the alarm and lead the charge. Lawrence “Larry” Kramer started consolidating information, resources, and people. He started organizing. Mr. Kramer held a meeting in New York City with over 80 gay men and a doctor. In addition to gaining critical information from the doctor, the group raised over $6k towards research and efforts to raise awareness about the growing pandemic. That first meeting was the impetus for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (now known as GMHC Health Services), whose mission is to “end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected.” Mr. Kramer, who died in May of 2020, was also one of the co-founders of Act Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

Because yes, we’re talking about AIDS which, along with HIV, currently affects over 38 million people (including over 1 million children) worldwide. Yes, we’re talking about AIDS, because today is World AIDS Day. Designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), today is simultaneously an international day of mourning and remembrance as well as a day to raise awareness. As is the case with other epidemics and pandemics, fact-based awareness and testing are essential to prevention, treatment, and support. About 81% of people with HIV (worldwide) have been tested and know their status. Unfortunately, that means 19% (approximately 7.1 million people) have not been tested, do not know their status, and therefore risk infecting others. (In the United States that statistic translates to 1 in 7 people.) Additionally, HIV and AIDS still disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities, people designated as “male” at birth, and gay and bisexual men.

One critical thing to remember about HIV and AIDS is that a diagnosis is not a death sentence. There are now life-saving treatments which make it possible for people to live a long and healthy life. It is also possible to go about your life without a high risk of sexually transmitting HIV to others.

The 2020 theme for World AIDS Day was “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact.” The 2021 theme for World AIDS Day was “End Inequalities, End AIDS” (in the US, the National Institutes of Health used “Ending the HIV Epidemic: Equitable Access, Everyone’s Voices”). This year’s theme(s), in particular, highlight(s) the fact that there is still a social stigma associated with AIDS and HIV – a stigma that magnifies the toll of the disease and makes it harder to combat the spread of the disease. That stigma can result in people not getting the support they need, not getting the treatment they need, and (in some cases) facing additional trauma. Here again, there’s something about the optics.

World AIDS Day was marked with virtual displays of memorial quilts (in places that are still actively battling the COVID-19 pandemic), symposiums, access to rapid self testing kits, and information about how the disease is transmitted and how it is treated. That last part is a key element of the story and it’s moral, because when we look at the timeline of COVID-19 in other countries, we find that countries that learned from their response to previous epidemics – like AIDS and Ebola – have had better success rates of containing COVID-19. You may wonder why everyone in the world isn’t publicizing those facts…. Sadly, again, it may have something to do with optics.

“I am sick of everyone in this community who tells me to stop creating a panic. How many of us have to die before you get scared off your ass and into action? Aren’t 195 dead New Yorkers enough?”

*

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

Please join me today (Wednesday, December 1^st) at 4:30 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You will need to register for the 7:15 PM class if you have not already done so. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

Wednesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “Chanukah (Day 3-4) & World AIDS Day 2021”]

A beautiful version of the “23^rd Psalm,” which Claudette Colvin prayed in her head during her arrest.

“‘I know that segregation isn’t dead – just look at schools and neighborhoods and workplaces, and you can see that it’s still all over America. And yes, we are still at the very beginning economically. But at least those degrading signs, “White” and “Colored,” are gone. We destroyed them. There are laws now that make segregation illegal. We forced white people to take a different view. They had to change their attitudes toward blacks. The civil rights movement cleared the way legally so we could progress.’”

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– quoted from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

For anyone interested, last year’s World AIDS Day is also available on YouTube and Spotify.

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### DO YOU REMEMBER? ###

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Stories For the Living December 1, 2020

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Life, Loss, Men, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: AIDS, Bobby McFerrin, Civil Rights, Claudette Colvin, HIV, Larry Kramer, Laura Barcella, Phillip Hoose, Rosa Parks, World AIDS Day
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“If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, [we] may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.”

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

“‘Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. I made it so that our own adult leaders couldn’t just be nice anymore. Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adults around here just say something?’”

– quoted from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.”

– Rosa Parks, as quoted in Fight Like A Girl: 50 Feminists Who Changed the World by Laura Barcella

“If all of this had been happening to any other community for two long years, there would have been, long ago, such an outcry from that community and all its members that the government of this city and this country would not know what had hit them.”

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

It took a playwright and activist – that some people called “the angriest man in the world” and others considered to be a man “with a golden heart” – to really sound the alarm and lead the charge. Lawrence “Larry” Kramer started consolidating information, resources, and people. He started organizing. Mr. Kramer held a meeting in New York City with over 80 gay men and a doctor. In addition to gaining critical information from the doctor, the group raised over $6k towards research and efforts to raise awareness about the growing pandemic. That first meeting was the impetus for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (now known as GMHC Health Services), whose mission is to “end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected.” Mr. Kramer, who died in May of this year, was also one of the co-founders of Act Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

The 2020 theme for World AIDS Day is “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact.” There will be virtual displays of memorial quilts (in places that are still actively battling the COVID-19 pandemic), symposiums, access to rapid self testing kits, and information about how the disease is transmitted and how it is treated. That last part is a key element of the story and it’s moral, because when we look at the timeline of COVID-19 in other countries, we find that countries that learned from their response to previous epidemics – like AIDS and Ebola – have had better success rates of containing COVID-19. You may wonder why everyone in the world isn’t publicizing those facts…. Sadly, again, it may have something to do with optics.

“I am sick of everyone in this community who tells me to stop creating a panic. How many of us have to die before you get scared off your ass and into action? Aren’t 195 dead New Yorkers enough?”

– quoted from “1,112 and Counting” by Larry Kramer, printed in the New York Native (Issue 59, March 14 – 27, 1983)

Please join me today (Tuesday, December 1^st) at 12 Noon or 7:15 PM for a virtual yoga practice on Zoom, where we will see how the practice “evolves.” Use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. Give yourself extra time to log in if you have not upgraded to Zoom 5.0. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below.

Tuesday’s playlist (revised at 2:30 PM) is available on YouTube and Spotify.

A beautiful version of the “23^rd Psalm,” which Claudette Colvin prayed in her head during her arrest.

“‘I know that segregation isn’t dead – just look at schools and neighborhoods and workplaces, and you can see that it’s still all over America. And yes, we are still at the very beginning economically. But at least those degrading signs, “White” and “Colored,” are gone. We destroyed them. There are laws now that make segregation illegal. We forced white people to take a different view. They had to change their attitudes toward blacks. The civil rights movement cleared the way legally so we could progress.’”

– quoted from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

### DO YOU REMEMBER? ###

The Impossible Cornerstones of Liberty August 6, 2020

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in "Impossible" People, Art, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Poetry, Super Heroes, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Civil Rights, Civil War, Confiscation Acts, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, Gertrude Rush, Gustave Eiffel, Hiroshima, inspiration, Jessie Carney Smith, Joseph Pulitzer, Nagasaki, National Bar Association, Richard Morris Hunt, slavery, Statue of Liberty, Thurgood Marshall, Voting Rights Act, yoga
2 comments

[This is the post for Wednesday, August 5, 2020.]

“‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she

With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”

– from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Today (August 5^th) in 1844, when the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was placed on a rainy Bedloe’s Island, it seemed impossible to complete the project meant to be a testament to freedom, friendship, and the spirit of the people. People in France provided the funds for the statue designed by the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (with scaffolding created by Gustave Eiffel), while people in the United States were meant to pay for the base and pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt. The only problem was that the Americans were short…about $100,000 short.

“We must raise the money! The World is the people’s paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money. The $250,000 that the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people – by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans – by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.

Take this appeal to yourself personally. It is meant for every reader of The World. Give something, however little. Send it to us. We will receive it and see that it is properly applied.”

– quoted from The New York World editorial by Joseph Pulitzer, 1885

“…a very worn Bible is almost as prominent as the well-thumbed Iowa code on the desk of Mrs. Gertrude E. Rush.”

– quoted from “Iowa’s Only Negro Woman Lawyer Firmly on the Golden Rule” article about Gertrude Rush, located in Iowa Public Library (excerpt printed in Notable Black American Women, Book 2 by Jessie Carney Smith

Gertrude Rush was one of the founding members of the Negro Bar Association, which was incorporated on August 1, 1925 with 120 members (which was about 11 – 12% of the Black lawyers in the US at the time). Eventually renamed, the National Bar Association, the NBA ” addressed issues such as professional ethics, legal education, and uniform state laws, as well as questions concerning the civil rights movement in transportation discrimination, residential segregation, and voting rights.” The NBA supported civil rights groups by providing legal information, filing outside legal briefs (amicus curiae), and blocking federal court nominees who opposed racial equality. As a bar association, however, the NBA did not directly participate in civil rights activities. Instead, NBA members like Gertrude Rush and (eventual) Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall became members of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Stay tuned for news about when I will resume classes. If you want to practice with one of the previously recorded classes, I would suggest June 17^th (a Lady Liberty class with a lot of arm movement, good for the brain and shoulders – some of you call it a “sobriety test”). The playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. (The playlist starts with instrumental music. If your Spotify is on shuffle, you will want your music volume low at the beginning of the practice.)

Feel free to email me at Myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com if you would like a copy of the recordings from Wednesday, June 17^th.

As I running late, this August 5th post is actually being published on August 6^th, which the anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The act has been amended at least five times, to close legal loopholes and reinforce the rule of law.

Today, August 6^th, is also the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln signing the Confiscation Act of 1861 and the U. S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. President Lincoln wasn’t sure of the legality and effects of the Confiscations Acts of 1861 and 1862, he signed them into law anyway. To this day, people are still debating the effects of the bombings on August 6^th and 9^th (Nagasaki), both of which clearly broke the Golden Rule (and the not then established Geneva Convention).

As you practice today, hold a neighbor in your hearts and minds with friendship and kindness. Offer your efforts, no matter how small, as a token of that friendship and kindness. As so many people suffer due to current events, may we take a moment to remember those who are still suffering due to our shared past. Let us not forget those who are still grieving and healing from past wounds. May our efforts bring us all closer to peace, harmony, and benevolence.

### OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTHI OM ###

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