The community table

I get to work often with groups who want to bring others to the table, wherever that table might be and whatever the people around that table might be doing.  Usually the folks they want at the table are different from them in some notable way.  They're often younger.  Maybe they have a smaller income.  Many times the people with the table have pale skin and the people they'd like at the table have some shade of brown skin. 

Increasingly, I'm challenged by that idea of bringing people to the table.  I see a couple problems with it.  First,  it presumes that the people being invited don't already have their own table that is just as good that you've just never seen.  Secondly, it keeps the host in the host role.  There's no marriage of equals here.  One person/group owns the table.  The other is a guest. 

We live in a world filled with unhealthy power dynamics around class, race and ethnicity, age, gender, and the list goes on.  If we want our organizations and our organizing to not be a reflection of the sickness of the world,  we have to do something different. 

Step away from the table.  Meet the people that you want to work with on shared turf.  What are your shared needs and concerns?  Know that you may be turned away for a myriad of reasons.  Some of those reasons will have to do with your personal actions and some with all the stories of histories of oppression.  Show respect. Show a willingness to learn. Show a willingness to fall and get back up again.  Know that it will take a long time, maybe forever to build a trust.

Get a new table,  one that isn't yours or theirs, but instead that you fashioned together out of shared dreams.  Know that this table will look different than your old one.  Maybe it will be stronger and maybe it will be a little off balance. Who knows? It will be larger and have many carvings of great stories hard and beautiful.

How do you step away from your table?  Here's just a couple quick pointers that I've found helpful over the years:
1.  Diversity of whatever sort isn't a side issue.  It is THE ISSUE.  Being welcoming, supportive, and representative of all people that you want to be together at the table has to be central to everything you do.
2. Look at whatever you are working on from many angles.  Why might others care about this same thing? Why do you care about it?  What do you share with others?
3.  Keep looking at yourself and your own actions.  We are all products of history.  We all need to hold ourselves accountable to act in ways the future can be proud of
4. We are all learners, teachers, and leaders.  Allow yourself to be each of these with everyone.
5.  Be there.  When you are called to be supportive to those you want to work with and who are struggling in whatever way do so in whatever way you are able.

That's a short clip, no where near the whole story.  But, maybe there's something there to consider.  Mull it over and share.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Why sing a song?

Song is a scary thing you know.  I don't know what it is, but there is something powerful there.  I think of freedom songs that were used to carry codes and free people.  I remember the union songs that told the stories of struggle of working people who won and those who died.  There are the folk songs that tell the stories of mountains and forests, people and lives, war and the path to peace. There's that demon rock and roll.  And, of course, we cannot forget how song provided the framework for the civil rights movement or how it has continued to grow and tell the stories of our lives in so many ways, reggae, rap, the blues, and the list goes on.

People ask why we are singing in Wisconsin.  Why haven't we gotten a permit to sing our songs?  The answer, in my mind, is simple.  People have had the right to gather, without a permit, in the capitol rotunda to petition their government in Wisconsin since the capitol was built.  The current administration trying to limit that right and that's not ok.  Rights are easier lost than won.  We cannot insult the legacy of all those before us who have fought and too often died for the right to petition their government by becoming silent.

People say we should be doing public service instead of singing.  Well, amongst our singers we have nurses, teachers, pastors, people who work in nonprofits, volunteer for food pantries, people leading efforts to build homes for the homeless, tutors and mentors for area youth, volunteers for area museums and community centers, and the list just goes on.  We work every day to care for the world we live in for today and for the long term. 

We aren't there for political parties.  We are there for deeper ideals; freedom of speech, a fair and just society in which the government works for the people not the corporation, a government that stands up for what is right and just, a democracy for, of, and by the people.

I think that if we really had the choice a lot of us would rather take that hour to go grab some lunch.  We don't have that choice anymore.  We love Wisconsin too much to give it away to the highest bidder.

Come, sing a song.  Don't worry if you've been told you can't sing well.  Look back at that list of all the others who sang before us in the fields and the factories and everywhere else in between.  They didn't all sing in tune.  If you can't sing well, sing loud.

For our friends around the world who wish to support by helping out the more than 100 people who have been cited for singing you can make a contribution here http://solidaritysingalong.org/