#NeverAgain 75 Years Later

 On this date 75 years ago, the Allied forces in Europe liberated the Auschwitz death camp . It was here, that the Nazi official and soldiers systematically murdered 6 million European Jews, countless Romani people, disabled individuals, and LGBTQ persons. 

 Each year, people say " never again". Yet as our society gets further divided along lines of race, creed, sexuality, ect. I feel called to be an agent of change for the better, but am unsure how to start this work of reconciliation.  While I am proud of the work that has been done towards reconciliation 

It breaks my heart that my Jewish, LGBTQ+, Latinx, and Black friends & family are targets of blatant hate crimes. It hurts me that decision-makers at all levels constantly choose to ignore the pleas of marginalized groups. I cannot speak for all people who are marginalized, but I can and I shall speak as someone with Jewish heritage. The stories of the horrors of the Nazi regime in Europe

As a person of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, I feel both infuriated as frightened when I learn that many American adults either do not know what occurred in these death facilities or { even worse deny that the Holocaust happened.} The Holocaust is a part of the collective story of Jewish people in all nations-- even in those of us who do not practice Judaism nor " look Jewish". I am fully aware that my appearance favors that of my father's Celtic heritage, and it pains my heart when I think about how my blonde appearance might have allowed me to hide my Jewishness.  In recent months I made a conscious choice to identify with my Jewish half-- and not hide. 

It angers me that  when I worship with my Jewish friends at the Reform Synagogue here in town, that everyone is looking around the corner & behind our backs for anything that seems threatening.  I hate that my own Episcopal parish community is looking at practices and policies that will make our own campus safer. 

This is the reality of life in these United States for Jews, Black people, Brown people, LGBTQ+ people and others. We need to stand up to the cultural bullying that is behind anti-Semitism and other " isms" and show everyone the beauty that is a diverse America.

   No one should feel the need to hide.

~Sarah

College: The First Attempt

 Yesterday, I found myself at home and at " loose ends" with way too much time on my hands. Bored, and thinking about my first attempt at college long ago, I dug out some old yearbooks{ are yearbooks even a thing nowadays?}  from West Liberty State College & posted some fun photos of my gang from the English department  during the years 1994-97. One of our former professors had just died, and thinking about her took me down a pleasant walk on Memory Lane. 

Those first three years at West Liberty State College { now known as West Liberty University} were formative for me. It wasn't until I got away from the hellish restraints of high school that I met my own friend, and started to grow into the person I've always been.  High  school was hellish for me--- although I played sports & participated in chorus & other activities, I really did not enjoy a social life. In spite of my status as an athlete, other girls bullied me while most boys ignored me. I did not attend either prom. No one asked me to go, and I was way too bashful to even entertain the idea of asking out my crush. In the Dark ages of 1994, groups of students without dates absolutely did not attend dances alone or with same-gender friends-- I am grateful that today's dateless young people have that option. 

Anyway, bottom line is-- I HATED high school.  I could not wait to get away from people who had known me as " shy , mousy Sarah" and start to live my life on my own terms.  At West Liberty I found not one but TWO groups of friends-- people on whom this day still make me smile or cry with their Facebook posts. Social media, for all its many pitfalls, has brought my motley crew of English majors  & my " Lunch Bunch"  friends together. 

In the twenty-five years since I first set foot on the beautiful mountaintop campus, I have changed a lot. However, I see in myself bits & pieces of the Sarah who started to thrive during my first three years of college. As I continue to live and grow, the spirited Sarah whom my Pensacola people know thanks my West Liberty crews for loving me into being. 

Part of my soul will always be connected to the Hilltop. 

~Sarah

" Life Is A Team Sport..."A reflection on the meaning of life...

  My priest has this phrase as her tag line for e-mail.

  LIFE IS A TEAM SPORT 

She is someone who lives her life as a member of community, and shows me how I can be my best self by cultivating relationships with others. She teaches me that life is not meant to be a solo gig.

 Indeed, LIFE IS A TEAM SPORT. 

 These past few days, I've thought a lot about life , and how we humans are meant to live in community with one another.

  Early Thursday morning, my husband and I were awakened by a phone call from the Pensacola police. My brother-in-law was found dead in his bedroom--- apparently of natural causes. These past few days have been a hellish flurry of discovering what we need to do to put the deceased affairs to rest.

 My brother-in-law was a good man, but he preferred to keep to himself. Other than his colleagues, one good yet long-distance friend, and scattered nephews and nieces, BIL spent life alone.  Although my husband will tell anyone that he and his siblings were raised as " independent cusses" { his term, not mine}, I cannot help but feel sorry for people who choose to live isolated from others.

Over the course of the past ten years, I've learned how essential community is for healthy emotional and spiritual development. As I slide into middle age, I realize that memories made with loved ones are far more valuable.

Even the most introverted among us crave connections with other people.

 The reality is, when we die, we cannot take " stuff" to the grave . Furthermore, I am learning through this experience that even the most " alone" soul still will leave behind people who love them. It has been difficult to see what had been my BIL's life on Earth become reduced to paperwork and a houseful of " stuff".

I wish more people in Pensacola had a chance to know my brother-in-law. Yet I cannot beat myself up over his choices. I can only life my life in community with those nearest to me.

Each of us is given a finite amount of time to grace others with our lives. None of us are meant to exist in a social vacuum .

Life is, indeed a team sport.

Sarah

Marching Moderate Middle

   On one day in January, I , along with other Pensacola-area people who otherwise are quiet around here, will peacefully assemble on the steps of City Hall and show solidarity and pledge to work for a better society for ALL persons.

  I'll march with other women { women of every type} and men who seek to preserve " liberty and justice for all"

 I love my nation. Because I love my nation, I want equality for all her people.

  I march because I want safe, well-funded public schools where children with heritage like my nephew and niece don't feel ashamed of their rich multicultural heritage.

  I march because, contrary to popular belief, if people with different ideas on solving pressing social issues of today talk together, we can meet in the middle.

  I'm not so much " far left" as I am " moderate middle" I think there is value in listening to others' experiences-- realizing that not all of us grew up in the same way. I understand about the need to protect our borders. To me, fiscal responsibility is essential. I want our tax dollars to go to government programs that are organized, proven to help people, and do not line pockets of corporate CEOS. 

  I march because as a White cisgender woman married to a man, I know I have privilege that many other Americans lack. Each day, I pledge to use that privilege to work towards equality for all.   Although I resent being called a " white feminist" by some who just see me as " a White woman" , I remain open to learning about the concerns of the Black , Latinx and Indigenous communities.

   Please don't judge me  I may take after my Celtic lily-White father's family, but I do my best to understand others' experiences. . Also, since I am half Ashkenazi Jewish in my gene pool, I might have my own stories of bigotry and oppression to add to the conversation.

   I march because every person deserves to live as they are created--  in support of transgender people everywhere.

  I march because I value religious freedom and hope some day to feel safe in church.  No one should feel unsafe in any house of worship-- and I fully support the right for every person to worship as they choose.

 I march because I am an American who loves her country enough to want to be in honest conversation with others about how to  live in unity in all our diversity.

Peace { some day}

Sarah

Review of _Just Mercy_ The Movie

    "Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument. " 

 My spouse and I, along with several of our parish community, went to see the movie Just Mercy, the fictionalized story of the work of civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson.  

     It was brilliantly scripted , acted, and set. I hope that the Oscar Awards do not snub this excellent biopic. 

   However, it is not a movie for the faint-of-heart. There are some scenes that are so well-acted that I had a visceral reaction to what I saw & heard in the story. There is one prison scene that is so disturbing that I'll not forget the bile that rose in my stomach as it came across the screen. 

The South that young, Harvard-educated lawyer , Bryan Stevenson meets when he moves to small-town Alabama is not our South at its finest. It is a south that, within the course of my own four decades on Earth, still practiced horrendous racially-based injustice within the police departments, courts and media. To be born Black in this version of Alabama is to live life looking over one's shoulder. I am familiar with the racial tensions of the 1960's but was shocked to discover that such injustices remained within the Alabama law-enforcement and court system well into my growing-up years. 

The story follows Stevenson's case with a client who was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair. The wrongly convicted, a Black man of working-class background, was framed and wrongly convicted for murdering a white teenaged girl in Monroeville, Alabama. 

  Monroeville, Alabama, home of author Harper Lee, is a town in my part of the South. As a matter of fact, the little Episcopal church there is a part of my Diocese . I know some{ white} people who live in that town. Furthermore, some of the story takes place in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama--- two places that are familiar to people in Pensacola. 

This movie is sad, scary, rage-inducing yet at the same time hope-full. In spite of odds stacked against him, a young lawyer from Delaware has dedicated his life to righting injustices within the criminal justice system. The work, of Equal Justice Initiative, started and maintained by Stevenson, has so far assisted many prisoners who were wrongly convicted and placed on Death Row, advocated for poor people, and challenged biases in the criminal justice system that are designed to work against poor and Black people. 

I am glad that I saw this important movie with people in my life whom I love. 

Bryan Stevenson inspires me to continue with doing justice work here in Pensacola. 

Amen...

Sarah

#RedForEd Day of Activism in Tally

On January 13 2020, thousands of teachers, other school personnel, parents, students, professors and concerned citizens traveled by the busload to Tallahassee to stand in front of the Capitol building and rally for more funding for Florida's public schools.

I was there among them. My husband dropped me off early to catch a bus across Northwest Florida to Pensacola. Dressed in red, we peacefully marched towards the Old Capitol Building, carrying signs calling for more funding for Florida's public schools.

I was privileged to stand with Floridians from every corner of the state. People traveled by bus or carpool for hours to help the cause for funding public education. People of every race, age, sexuality, religion , gender and political leaning came together to support  Florida's public schools. It was a beautiful, rare showing of unity in these divisive times in which we live.

 Most of Florida's school-aged children attend public schools, and there is a teacher shortage.  In order to train and retain gifted educators, Florida's legislature needs to pass funding that supports the education of Florida's future generations.

 Our state is currently 47th in the US in teacher's pay. Fewer and fewer college students are majoring in education, and stress due to lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms , and increasing extra-curricular duties.  Some teachers in our state need to work another job to pay household bills and support staff { cafeteria workers, custodians, front office staff} are also payed shamefully low wages.

Florida's children deserve a quality, publicly- funded education. It is time for Florida's taxpayers to stand up and demand that our tax dollars be allotted for schools.  Call or write the state senators and representatives and let them know  that Florida needs to fund our future in 2020.

 This morning I am tired and drained of physical and emotional energy. nearly eight hours on a bus { to the Capitol and back home to Pensacola} is hard on my titanium-filled back and neck. Yet it was worth every minute to use my voice to let lawmakers know that Florida's children deserve a well-funded education.

Sarah

" Living Wet" , Baptism , and marching on Tallahhassee

Today, liturgical Christians celebrated the baptism of Our Lord. At my church, we had two children-- brothers -- receive the sacrament of Holy Baptism this morning.

In her homily, our priest reminded us that baptism, the official entrance into the Christian faith community, prepares us for a life-long  way of intentionally " living wet".  By this , I think that we  are to live our lives fully aware that we are "marked as Christ's own forever".  God loves us, and will always love us as we are: we are the recipients of God's grace.

As my priest said, Baptism gets we Christians ready to learn, grown in faith, and to heal the world.

As a Christian with Jewish ethnicity-- I take God's Commandment to heal the world very seriously.

Wow.  Apparently, " living wet" is not for the weak-of-heart

To me, " living wet" means that I seek out opportunities to do justice work. 

Tomorrow, January 13, 2020 I will travel to the state capital with 50 other educators, former educators, and concerned citizens to rally at the State Capitol to make our elected officials aware of the need for more state funding for public schools.  Honestly, I am not looking at our rally as the only solution to the problem of underfunded public schools, it is my hope that  the elected officials listen to the pleas of teachers, former teachers and school personnel, parents, and concerned taxpayers who have a real need for more funding, smaller class sizes, and a list of other items. 

We want to peacefully assemble on the Capitol grounds in hope that we attract the attention of state-level policy-makers. There is power in large numbers of people-- and citizens of Florida's 67 counties are concerned about public education.

In recent months, I've learned the difference between justice and mercy.  I see my participation in the Tallahassee trip tomorrow as part of my justice work.  I , along with every other person on this trip-- hope to influence our state lawmakers to allocate more money for public schools.  Fifty people from one Florida county cannot influence those with power . However, fifty people from every county in the state can at least make enough noise that the powers-that-be in the Capitol  cannot ignore.

We are called to BE THE CHURCH.  Sometimes, being Church in the world means working with others to change unfair and/or unjust policies that affect people's lives.

Tomorrow, I will wear red and walk with God as I stand with others who share my passion for  public education.

Peace and Light,
Sarah

Hi

I am not sure what happened, but suddenly WordPress shut me out of my blog. However, since it IS a new year and a new DECADE, I will start a new writing endeavor.  Since my Instagram handle is : Pensacola_hippie, I decide to make that moniker my " brand" .

To be honest, I am not sure how I feel about " beginning again" with the blogging. I spent a lot of time at the other blog-- and it hurts me to lose all those good writings.

As St Benedict of Nursia said" Always we begin again"

Peace

Sarah