Vote for Joe

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.

Recap: We have spent the week at the Koinonia Community in Southwest Georgia. It is a group of Christians living in intentional community on a pecan farm here. They are trying to model how the early Christians were inspired to live… For us, it has been a whirlwind of experiences and stimulating thought. Koinonia community member Tom Monaham showed me the tape of a lecture by author Noam Chomsky, who writes extensively on American foreign policy. In a lecture at Stanford University, Chomsky said America often blocks the “democratization” of other countries who have dictators (no matter how ruthless), if that dictator is friendly to American interersts — especially in respect to access to oil reserves… I then gave a talk to Koinonia members and some people who were here from Manchester College’s (in Indiana) Peace Studies Program. At one point in the talk, I said many in this country complain about President Bush’s decision not to sign the Kyoto Protocol to help curb greenhouse gasses in this country. But I wondered how many of those complaining had made personal lifestyle choices to, in effect, create “Kyoto Protocol Home Zones.” That is, how many of these same people are cutting back significantly on their driving, air conditioning, heating, length of showers? (All these contribute to the burning of fossil fuels — a lot of that being oil — that cause global warming.) And for that matter, how many people have considered house sharing in order to share items (often made by buring fossil fuels), share heated air, and the like? The point: By the average person in the U.S. continuing on in our gluttonous energy ways in the U.S., not only are we contributing tremendously to environmental degradation; but we are also contributing tremendously to the continuation of human rights violations in the countries with the cruel dictators who are friendly to U.S. oil (and other natural resource) interests. Note: Many a theologian would say foreign human rights violations caused, ultimately, by our gluttonous lifestyles here would simply be considered: “unintended consequences.” And they would assign little, if any, spiritual culpability. Yet if someone has ‘connected the international dots’ for us, and we’ve learned that these are, in fact, some of the consequences…

We have come to the Koinonia Community on the outskirts of Americus, Georgia. Established in 1942, this is a group of Christians living together in community around a pecan farm. Former President Jimmy Carter, who lives 10 miles away in Plains, Georgia, called Koinonia: “…a beacon for Civil Rights for those who believed in racial equality.” Koinonia was started by the late Reverend Clarence Jordan, his wife and another couple. Soon, they were doing the unheard of in the south. Blacks and Whites were living and working together in community on the farm. Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta (and first major city Black mayor), called Koinonia the “backwater” Montgomery (Alabama) of the Civil Rights Movement. Koinonia quickly became a lightening rod for protests, boycotts and violence (scores of drive by shootings, as an example), as many rallied, including the KKK, to shut Koinonia down. Yet through it all, Jordan remained firm in his beliefs and would not back down. And eventually, the climate changed. Note: Clarence Jordan has been described as being on “the cutting edge of the prophetic.” And in his life, Jordan also wrote a series of books (Cotton Patch Gospel, The Substance of Faith & Other Cotton Patch Sermons, etc…) that were modern-day, common sense translations of the Bible. Books that have been read by many across the country.

Coming out of Rome, Georgia, we stopped in nearby Lindale where I sat in on a Church of God “Road to Recovery” group to do some research. The facilitator, Tod Stansell, said this group was for people who had an addiction or emotional problem of any kind. Based on the 12 Steps (“…and their Biblical comparison”), Stansell said issues in the group run the gamut from drugs, to alcoholism, to pornography, compulsive overeating, depression, high anxiety… As a former counselor, I’ve seen — time and again — how these issues can lead to tremendously dysfunctional families, and a constellation of attendant social problems. As an example: A child grows up with a father who is alcoholic and emotionally absent, and/or physically abusive. As a result, the child grows up angry and externalizes it in the form of his own domestic violence later, and/or violence on the street.

New Years day I talked with Kingsport, Tennessee’s John Andrivilli about an idea we propose about taxes. That is, we believe each citizen should be able to designate where at least 25% of their tax money should go (to environmental programs, or social programs, or the military…). Andrivilli then proposed that one contingency in being able to do this is that the person has to demonstrate they voted in the last election for their area. This, he believed, would increase voter turn out, which of late in the U.S., is often not more than 50% in a given precinct… In Dayton, Tennessee the next day, I sat in on a talk by an Army Lieutenant who was recently back from Afghanistan. He said in the first democratic election for president of that country, some 80% of the voters — amidst threats of violence, and so on — came out to vote. The lieutenant said one man who was paralyzed, was carried by his two sons in a mile long line to vote. Also, the lieutenant (who asked his name not be used) said some Provincional Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan would go up into the rural villages with doctors. “For some people, this will be the only time they see a doctor (in their lifetime),” said the lieutenant… In Dalton, Georgia on our next stop, I told The Daily Citizen reporter Charles Robert that we wanted to see equal access to quality health care for all in this country. (And we want the same for all in the Third World.)… Then in Rome, Georgia, we met with Tom and Shana Farmer, both doctors out of Duke University’s Medical School. In somewhat of a ‘think tank’ session with the Farmers, an idea emerged that we’ve decided to plug into our position paper on Health Care. That is under a new Health Care Plan, the Federal Government would uniformally pay for the cost of: X-Ray machines, vaccines, lab equipment, etc. in each region of the country– so there would be parity between the poorer and richer states. Likewise, a regional tax would subsidize some of the costs for doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. And in addition, we propose more quality, volunteer-staffed Free Clinics, “Community Pharmacies,” and so on, to help those without health insurance in an area. Why we don’t propose a National Health Care System across the board, like in Canada, is because this system would take away a lot of the incentive and opportunity for people to volunteer. And in this volunteer scenario, not only do the poor get help, but conversely, those volunteering benefit as much, if not more — spiritually. Note: Tom Farmer has been an ardent supporter of our campaign. He said when people ask him about us, he smiles and replies: “It’s the kind of campaign where I had to have the (“Joe Schriner for President 2008″) bumper stickers made up myself.” (Yes, we continue to be unfettered by big money.)