I interviewed Sean Daly at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia. From Nyack, New York, he was here with his wife Patti to do some volunteer work. Sean is retired from the drug and alcohol field, which he worked in for some 30 years. He said the “economics” of drug and alcohol abuse are staggering. That is, there are all the medical costs associated with treating alcoholics and drug addicts. Then there are all the medical costs (mental health problems, stress related physical diseases…) of treating the spouse and children of an alcoholic/addict. The burden on society then continues with incarceration costs (drugs or alcohol play a part in a majority of major crimes); diminished productivity in the work place; drunk driving offenses… Daly said he is a big proponent of the relatively new “Drug Courts,” which have been starting up all over the country. (We researched one in Needles, California, several years ago and found the dynamics of the program to be excellent.) In lieu of jail time for first offenders with drug or alchol problems, people are referred to intensive outpatient treatment that includes regular individual and group counseling, involvement with AA or NA, regular drug screens… As a former drug and alcohol counselor myself, it’s my opinion the more comprehensive a program is, the better the chance for long-term clean time… Later in the day, I interviewed Nashua Chantal, 53. He was 19-years-old when he committed a first degree felony that landed him in prison in California. Among other things, he said a precipitating factor was drugs and alcohol. The Rehabilitation Act was in effect in California at the time. The cutting edge Act provided for a tremendous amount of rehabilitation options for prisoners. Nashua said got his high school GED in prison and completed lengthy trade courses in cabinetry, upholstery, drafting and sheet metal. What’s more, he opted for six years of extensive mental health counseling in prison to work on issues that, not only may have helped lead to the crime, but issues that were keeping him from leading a relatively normal life in general. In addition, he became quite an accomplished pitcher in the prison baseball league… After 14 years, Nashua was released. While the transition to the outside was difficult, he worked as a pipe fitter, a woodworker, and after a time, started his own upholstery business. He also played semi-pro baseball for a number of summers. And he eventually came to Koinonia Farm, where he is now living and working in this “intentional Christian community.” And from everything we’ve observed here, Nashua is a tremendous assett, no only to fellow community members, but to many of the visitors who come to Koinonia. In addition, Nashua regularly writes to some 50 prisoners. And he has helped start the organization “Peace Knows,” which advocates for peace and non-violence… The amount of lives Nashua has touched in a postive way since he’s gotten out of prison has been, well, many. However, without California’s Rehabilitation Act and Nashua’s desire to apply himself, I couldn’t help but wonder what the odds of this story coming out the same would have been? Note: A Koinonia Community member told me she had recently come from a story telling session with some area seniors. She said one of the men said back in “his day” there used to be quite a drug problem in the area. “Yeah, we was always getting ‘drugged’ to the wood shed for this, or that,” he smiled.
I interviewed Ann Karp who is a Koinonia Farm (Americus, Georgia) community member and graduate of Ohio’s Oberlin College, class of 2001. She said at Oberlin, there were a good number of co-ops. There were bicycle co-ops, pottery co-ops, photography co-ops, food co-ops… In each of these, students would share bicycles, cameras and other stuff, to cut costs. They also had co-ops to pool money to purchase food in bulk. This, too, saved money. (For instance, Ms. Karp was involved with a vegetarian co-op in a resident hall she lived in at the college and they would purchace, primarily, from local farms.) She said many of the students at Oberlin were quite environmentally aware and social justice oriented. That is, it takes the burning of polluting fossil fuels to make bicycles, cameras, and so on. So sharing these products only makes sense, environmentally. Also, by several people going in on buying one bicycle in America — there is more money left for social justice causes to help the poor worldwide. Note: The current issue of Sojourners Magazine has a story about “Play-Pumps” that are being installed near schools all over South Africa — where there is significant water shortages. The Play-Pump is a playground toy similar to a simple merry-go-round. But as the children turn the merry-go-round, it also turns a pump that fills a 30-foot high tank with ground water. Ingenious. Each pump costs approximately $5,000 to $10,000 and provides safe drinking water for villages of up to 400 people. Funding sources have included foundation grants, partners such as the World Bank and Unicef, and in the future… maybe some American people who have chosen to share bicycles, cameras and other stuff. Note 2: As co-ops work at Oberlin College, they could work in practically any neighborhood. In addition, several years ago we looked at the dynamics of a “Lending List” at First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Ohio. Church members came up with a rather extensive list of kitchen appliances, lawn equipment, camping gear… they were willing to lend to other members of the church. Excellent idea.
America has just sent a $700 million space probe on a 3 billion-mile journey to Pluto, according to a Jan. 20, 2006 edition of USA Today. In the same edition was a story about a fight among nomads in Kenya that killed 38 people. It was a “battle for livestock” between Ethiopian and Kenyan nomads in drought stricken northern Kenya, “where tribes are desperately searching for food and water to survive.” Later in the day, I read in the A Common Place Mennonite magazine that water scarcity is a “crushing problem” in northern Africa. And much of the water that is there is not pure. This causes scores of deadly diseases, especially among children… So to juxtapose this: We’ve just spent $700 million on a space probe to Pluto (and billions of dollars on NASA missions to Mars to, among other things, see if there has ever been water on that planet); while meanwhile on this planet people are so desperate that they are killing each other over food and water and parents are watching their children die by the scores because they have no alternative than to give them impure water. This would beg the question: How far would the billions of dollars America is spending on space exploration go toward providing more food, cistern systems to collect clean rain water, solar ovens to boil water, whole village water filtration systems… for the Third World? Note: Our platform calls for ending the Space Program at this time because we think that the money could be much better spent on humanitarian causes. What’s more, right next to the article on the Pluto Probe, there was a story about space clutter making a mess of the Earth’s orbit. Part of the article reads: “More than 9,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting the Earth, a hazard that can only be expected to get worse in the next few years, according to NASA scientists.” Our paradigm with the space in the Earth’s orbit, I’d have to assume, is that its “huge.” So what’s a little “junk?” Probably the same way we percieved the vastness of the oceans — when we first started dumping “junk” in them.
At St. Mary’s Church in Americus, Georgia, at Mass Sunday, Fr. Clif Marquis said there was a fellow priest at his first assignment in Cleveland a couple years ago who was so concerned with the poor in the inner city that he would regularly: give the furniture in the rectory away. One of the readings this day was about the prophet Jonah and his message to Nineveh to repent, or else… After Communion at St. Mary’s, there was a time for introducing new families. I stood, introduced the family and then said I believed America was, indeed, “a Nineveh.” I explained that this day (Sunday) 24,000 people would starve to death in the Third World while we lived in relative comfort here. I also said 4,400 babies would be killed in their mothers’ wombs tomorrow (Monday) at abortion clinics all over America. I ended by saying it was time to “sell the furniture” here to keep people from starving over there. And it was time to go to the street corners of America and “scream out” as loudly and collectively as possible about abortion — so it ends. Note: The NFL Championship games were on later that afternoon. Children starving, babies being killed daily… and we’re more wrapped up in whether the Steelers are going to win or not.
I interviewed Chandler Thomasson who came to Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, with his wife Alice. Alice is vice-president of Habitat for Humanity in Morgan County, Ohio. (Koinonia is the birthplace for Habitat for Humanity and it’s national headquarters is several miles away from here.) Alice was here for a Habitat conference and Chandler did some volunteer work on the Koinonia Farm. He is a retired school pyshcologist and a U.S. Navy veteran who was on the USS Shangrala aircraft carrier in the waters around Cuba during the “Cuban Missile Crisis” during the Kennedy Administration. He said at the time he believed the patriotic addage: “Our country right or wrong.” And he said: “Hopefully you were never asked to kill, but if you were — you were willing to do that.” He said, however, since then his thinking has changed. He’s had children of his own and now has grandchildren. “I don’t think investing children in war is a good idea (now),” Chandler said. What’s more, he said of the innocent people that are killed that they can never be considered “collateral damage.” He said over the years, he has become much more inclined toward “peaceful resolution.” Note: With Chandler’s background as a counselor, he has worked for the organization “Passionate Friends,” which is for parents who have lost a child. And Chandler said he is convinced unless someone has lost a child themselves, there is no way they can truly empathize with a parent who has.
I interviewed Felix Lohitai who was at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, to look at part of the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. Lohitai is in the Peace Studies Program at Manchester College in Indiana. (Koinonia was at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement when a group of Whites and Blacks started living and working together in Christian Community — in the mid 1940s in a highly segragated South.) Lohitai said he has experienced his own segregation. He’s from South Sudan. And he said the Arab Muslims in North Sudan were quite prejudiced toward the Africans living in the South. As a result, there was a good deal of oppression that led to a lot of poverty in the South and little access to higher education, said Lohitai. In turn, a rebel army (SBLA) started up in the South to fight the oppression, and to fight for the basic rights of those in the South. Lohitai joined the SBLA, became a Second Lieutenant Platoon Commander and fought for eight years. And up until last year, the conditions were so horrendous that world bodies and humanitarian aid agencies were starting to call what was going on in Sudan: “genocide.” Lohitai, his wife and six children fled the country several years ago and have refugee status in the U.S. Lohitai is in both the Peace Studies and Sociology streams at Manchester College. At the end of his studies, his plan is to take what he’s learned back to his country to help build as solid a base as possible: in peace. Note: We propose a U.S. Department of Peace that would help subsidize many ‘Felix Lohitais’ (from any country) to get as much education as possible in building peace at institutions like Manchester College. As I listened to Lohitai, I also couldn’t help but think if more Americans had helped finance modest “Habitat for Humanity” homes in South Sudan, for instance , more humanitarian aid in the form of food, clothing, medicine in South Sudan, more education opportunities in South Sudan… we not only could have maybe averted a war (and attendant genocide); but we could have also helped a society become a lot more sustainable. And that would be another proactive world-wide thrust of the Department of Peace we propose.
The Koinonia Farm experience continues… I was interviewed for Koinonia’s newsletter the “Cotton Patch News.” One of the questions: What are your views on politics and religion? Answer: “Politics should be an extension of one’s spirituality. That is, I take my spiriutality into my family, into my work place, into my politics… For instance, I am Catholic and believe strongly in church teaching about proactive social justice and environmental stewardship. As a result, we volunteer with Catholic Workers in Clevleand to help the poor, and we cut back considerably on water, heat and air conditioning to help the environment. And my political platform reflects this as well. As just one example, we’d turn the White House into a homeless shelter and create a permacutlure (organic garden, free range chickens, wildlife habitat area, wind turbine…) throughout the White House grounds. [Wouldn’t that be fun?]
I interviewed Bren Dubay who is the Director of Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia. Koinonia is an “Intentional Christian Community,” with people living and working together on a 573-acre pecan farm. (Koinonia was started by the late author Clarence Jordan, who had Blacks and Whites living and working together on the farm as early as the mid-1940s in a highly segregated South. It became the “backwater version of Montgomery, Alabama” in the height of the Civil Rights Movement. And Jordan went on to write the “Cotton Patch” series, a collection of modern day gritty, southern interpretations of the Bible.) Bren Dubay, a writer herself, was the “Playwrite in Residence” at Rice University. Several years ago, she came to Koinonia for a visit and got hooked on the spiritual ethos of the place. “There’s a sacredness here,” she said… And there is a rythm. Each day Koinonia members meet for morning devotional in an old chapel on the grounds, then disperse for various jobs around the farm. A bell sounds for 10:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. prayer. The community eats noon meal together, followed by another devotional as one of the members (it rotates) shares some of their own personal takes on spirituality (a reading, some personal thoughts, a prayer). The work and prayer, for the most part, are at a slow, steady pace — with members taking the time to regularly stop, chat. By contrast, Bren notes that society at large these days seems tremendously accelerated as we “fill up on consumerism, work, activities…” Bren said to live in community is to live part of the gospel message. “God is in community,” she said. Bren, who also is a trained spiritual advisor, spends her days in prayer, talking to community members about spiritual matters, helping formulate ongoing vision for the community, handling business matters, with, again, one eye always on the spiritual mission of Koinonia… Conversely, she said often her CEO counterparts out in the world, if they have a spiritual life, will often practice it in a sort of “extra-curricular” fashion. That is, they’ll (for instance) go to church on Sunday, but not take much, if any, spirituality into the work place on Monday. Bren said that Koinonia’s over-arching vision is to “live Christianity as oulined by Jesus.” And she added to live it that way is inherently to be: “radical.”
For Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, my family and I road in a Koinonia Farm float in a parade through downtown Americus, Georgia, in the heart of the “Deep South.” As mentioned in an earlier journal entry, Koinonia Farm was the “backwater” Montgomery, Alabama of the Civil Rights Movement — starting in 1942. It was that year Clarence Jordan, his wife and another couple started Koinonia Farm as an “Intentional Christ Community” where Whites and Blacks would live and work together as equals — in a highly segregated South. The backlash was volatile (intimidating protests by the KKK, economic boycotts of the farm, regular drive-by shootings…). Yet Jordan didn’t back down through it all, and eventually things changed. Sort of… During the parade today in Americus, Blacks lined the city streets. There were, at best, only a handful of whites. Koinonia’s parade vehicle was the only one that had a mix of Blacks and Whites. The other parade vehicles had all Blacks. While the parade was festive, the lack of White participants and spectators was more than a bit conspicuous. And representative, I believe, of how far we haven’t come. That is, we still have so many almost “all White” neighborhoods and almost “all Black” neighborhoods thread throughout the country. As there are so many almost “all White” churches and “all Black” churches… Just look around, objectively. We’re still, on a lot of levels, tremendously segregated in the South — and in the North. For instance, significant numbers of Blacks are stuck [read: segregated] in inner city and rural poverty loops… So, how do we integrate more? One answer: More suburban Whites need to take the initiative to move back into the cities and live side by side with Blacks. In Lima, Ohio, we learned about a church that’s members were moving into the heart of a poorer area of the city to be more involved there. In Cleveland, Ohio, an enclave of White “Catholic Workers” have moved to W. 38th Street, near the heart of the city, to become “neighbors” with Blacks, Hispanics, Whites…(in a physical and spiritual sense). Note: Most of us look back on “official” racial segregation with disgust, even repugnancy. Yet if we look into our often homogenous neighborhoods, or for that matter our oten relatively homogenous lives (no real Black friends, an all White church…), many of us haven’t come all that far in really realizing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “dream.” Or maybe even God’s, huh. Koinonia Farm here is an “Intentional Christian Community” with a good mix of Blacks and Whites. Intentional being the operative word. That is, they have continually “worked” at community, “worked” at integration. And for more integration, more racial equality, to happen in American society, we (both White and Black) have to “work” at it in our own lives. Maybe celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day could include, not only the parade, but “intentionally” inviting someone of another race out to lunch — as the beginning to developing a new friendship. Or better yet, after the parade you could: move into another neighborhood. Note 2: Yesterday, the Americus Times Record reported that in Sumter County here, which is split about 50/50 when it comes to Black and White population, 74% of the students in the public school system are Black, and 22% are White. This means a significant number of White students are either in private school, or are going out of Sumter County to primarily Schley County’s public school system (at $1,250 a year). Incidentally, if you haven’t guessed, Schley county is decidedly more White, as are the private schools.
More from the last week at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia: Koinonia community member Ann Karp reported on a trip she took to the “Open Door” in Atlanta. This is a home for the homeless run by, for the most part, former homeless people. Ms. Karp said she was most moved by a “foot washing” night meant to emulate when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Because it was the year 2006, however, this foot washing included pumice, nail clippers, an electric device to break down callouses (“Homeless people are on their feet a lot,” said Ms. Karp), an electric vibrating foot massager… Later in the night it turned cold and started to rain. Some of the people whose feet were done this evening, were now sleeping under a makeshift, cardboard awning in the back of the “Open Door” because there was no more room inside. Ms. Karp said the scene really impacted her. [A spiritual irony: We house cars in this country, while people sleep on city streets.]… I gave a talk to a youth group at St. Mary’s Church, several miles from Koinonia. I talked about the tremendous disparity in lifestyles between most of us in America and most of those in the Third World. One girl said her parents bought her a $200 coat for Christmas. I said that amount would feed a relatively large family in most Third World villages — for a year. She then said she felt “embarassed.” I said: “good.” What’s more, I suggested she explain to her parents, in detail, what we’d talked about this evening as well. Including the fact that some 24,000 people starve to death (U.N. figure) every day in the Third World. Note: With the world the way it is these days, this is no time for soft placating messages.