We are at an inflection point in history.  It almost feels like that moment when Joni Mitchell sang Woodstock in 1967.  Hearts and minds are open and standing on the cusp of something big.  Maybe we don't even understand how big.  And inflection points call for choices and sometimes sacrifices. Please listen to and read the lyrics 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3SjqGfe-yM

WOODSTOCK 
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

This is an anti-war song, but the refrain of "getting back to the garden" and "caught in the devil's bargain" is just as prescient now as it was then. 

Today's "garden" is equality.  Let's be clear, we were not ALL promised equality in our founding documents-- that privilege was just for landed white men.  Yet- the simple phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" rings true as a basic desire for all human beings. The promise that each of us can strive and reach our full potential (without the fear that the boot of the state will be on our neck).

The economy that the 1% prospers from, and that most upper and middle class people greatly benefit from, was founded on the theft and genocide of other peoples and built on the stolen labor of human beings. This was our Faustian deal, our original sin.  We, as people of white privilege, traded the highest moral and spiritual value of human freedom for material riches.  A sin this country has never atoned for -- not with truth and reconciliation, nor with the kind of social programs that allow for the uplift of those who were exploited, oppressed, and left behind.

America seems to specialize in boots, theft, and genocide.  We've kept so many categories of people down (BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, People of Color; Women; Poor people; LGBTQ; and plenty of ethnicities).  Over time, we've torn down some of those barriers only to replace them with subtler ones-- such as slavery morphing into the Jim Crow era and then the war on drugs, which was a fancy way to racially profile people of color.  Maybe it is time to live up to the creed we seem to hold so valuable and extend that creed and include everyone. 

We marched today with the Black Lives Matter protest in Chatham.  At the end, people of color shared their experiences.  No one should have to experience racial slurs and walk through life feeling "less than" and "degraded" because of the amount of melanin in their skin.  That very idea is clearly insane and absurd on its face.  

Quakers have been a devoted presence for good for so long.  Not a perfect presence, but a steady one.  Some Quakers held slaves. Some Quakers separated Indigenous children from their parents to "civilize" them.  The thing is, we have engaged in self-reflection and have and are seeing the mistakes.  Today, Quakers are holding the vessel for equality.  We stand in a powerful place at this time in history -- as witnesses to the truth of equality.  The place we stand gives light and courage to others.  It also bends our nation toward justice. 

Queries we are considering in this moment are: 

• What can we each do to bend the US toward justice? 
• What personal sacrifices might I make to bring about equality? 
• What resources do I have to lend to the cause of justice? 
• What can we each do to create "a more perfect union" -- for real-- that actually includes everyone now?

Joseph Olejak with Phoenix Grace 

Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

From Extravagaria : A Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda, Alastair Reid (Translator)
(Noonday Press 2001)
Submitted by Rebecca McBride