©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

I love these guys at the shop!  They always do me right:  John, Phil, Steven, & Justin.  I’m the one you’re always looking at when I roll in on my single speed!  So, Phil, when are you going to give me back my t-shirt [designed for women]?  I’m kind of in need of it for Chicago Bike Winter cuz it goes so well with my smartwool!

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

America’s Hidden Role in Hamas’s Rise to Power
By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet
No one in the mainstream media or government is willing to acknowledge America’s sordid role interfering in Palestinian politics. Read more »

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

“Why am I compelled to write?… Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger… To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit… Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing.”

My all-time favorite author is Gloria Anzaldúa.  This is her, and she certainly transcends the labels!

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve never ever been into labels.  EVER!  I use social labels to be hospitable.  White, Black, Brown, Red, Mexican, etc, I never did get it!  Gay, Lesbian, WTF?  I never did fit into those binaries!  EVER.  I was much more of a fluid thinker.  In fact, my teacher in grad school would tell me:  ”Robyn, you have these moments of brilliance!”  Texans always love it when their egos are stroked!  How I wish I could see Tumbleweeds roll, perhaps from my tent?

It’s the narrative of life that waxes and wanes when labels find ways to make sense to those in a world that is formulated and crafted in binaries.  But, for those whose minds naturally transcends the binaries wishing to braid together the fluidity of life finding paths of liberation for those who are bound to the Labels, I am that one.

I didn’t get to have this conversation with Wieden & Kennedy, but perhaps 2009 will yield some conversations?  It’s too soon to tell!

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

 Free Minds, Free People is a national conference that brings together teachers, high school and college students, researchers, parents and community-based activists/educators from across the country to build a movement to develop and promote Education for Liberation.  Education for Liberation prepares the most excluded, under-served members of our society, in particular low-income youth and youth of color, to fight for a more just world by:  

• Teaching students the causes of inequalities and injustices in society and how communities have fought against them.
• Helping them develop both the belief in themselves that they can challenge those injustices and the skills necessary to do that.
• Supporting them in taking action that leads to disenfranchised communities having more power. 
• The goal of Free Minds, Free People is to provide a forum for sharing knowledge, experiences and strategies that support the use of education as a tool for liberation by: 
• Connecting local community efforts to national education for liberation
• activities.
• Expanding our network of education liberators by building relationships that cross barriers of geography, race, age, class, gender, sexual orientation, profession and other identities.
• Showcasing a broad spectrum of strategies, including arts, popular education, organizing, dialogue and scholarship, and their related impacts. 
• Acting as a catalyst for the continued development of a social movement
• around education for liberation. 

We invite K-12 teachers, community-based educators, high school and college students, activists/organizers artists, parents and academic researchers to submit proposals for workshops, panels, poster sessions and other activities.
 
Please download proposal guidelines at www.freemindsfreepeople.org
 
If you have any questions please contact: 

Tara Mack (tara@edliberation.org)
Education for Liberation Network, Brooklyn, NY
 
Alex Poeter (alexpoeter@gmail.com)
Chicago Freedom School, Chicago, IL
 
Robin Owens (robinowens@sbcglobal.net)
Local Planning Committee, Houston, TX

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

There’s a certain beauty to life that will for sure produce harmony. As a theologian/social ethicist, though I ask questions and am curious, I look for this harmony.  I look for the balance and the goodness in life.  I’m looking forward to the drive.

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

Let’s Honor the Separation of Church and State.  

My response, via Twitter was:  

As a theologian, I say AMEN!  Yes, let’s please celebrate & actualize the separation of the church & state!

This is a problem, quite honestly, for “U.S. Americans.”  Yet, as an honest theologian/social ethicist who lives in the U.S., we as a community have not actualized the separation of the Church and State.  All of us!  We must work together, regardless of our religious affiliation [or our lack of religious affiliation].  The U.S. community has continued to combine State principles with a very particular “Church” identity, thereby creating assumptions which are correlating into a very narrow understanding of community, religious understanding and state identity.  Below is Marcia’s article.  Please give it a read!

The Huffington Post DECEMBER 26, 2008  Marcia G. Yerman Posted this article on December 25, 2008 Merry Christmas, she says! 

Let’s Honor the Separation of Church and State

It happens every year, right on schedule. As the Thanksgiving leftovers get eaten and the remnants of Fall disappear, the Christmas rollout begins. With it come the ads for shopping bargains, the decorations, and the attendant questions about what is appropriate and legal in terms of public religious displays.

The conversations get louder as Bill O’Reilly weighs in, pontificating about the “War on Christmas.” This week, MSNBC had two guests on to discuss why merchants should have their employees say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” Their reasoning was based on the economic factor that most American shoppers were Christian, and therefore retailers should be targeting the Christian consumer.

Sen. Chris Buttars of Utah received media face-time for his legislative proposal urging stores to greet consumers with “Merry Christmas” in lieu of the nonspecific “Happy Holidays.” His motivation…he wants to “end the war on Christmas” as the United States is a “Christian Nation.” (The state of Utah isn’t as insular. They were the second state to elect a Jewish governor.)

A governmental action that quietly slipped by under the radar on December 11th, 2007, was the passage of House Resolution 847. Congressman Steve King of Iowa introduced the resolution that was titled, “Recognizing the Importance of Christmas and The Christian Faith.” Only nine members voted no. Ten voted present, which in essence is an abstention.

At the time, Paul Kurtz, Chair of the Council for Secular Humanism stated, “How does this bode for Americans who do not identify themselves as Christians, or as non-believers in God? At a time when candidates are tripping over each other to discuss and affirm their ‘personal faith,’ is the separation of Church and State in America under serious threat?”

This year’s news included the story about Gov. Christine Gregoire, who was at the center of a brouhaha when she allowed a sign described as an “atheist’s placard” to be displayed in tandem with a crèche at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington.

For every group such as The Freedom From Religion Foundation, there are alternative organizations. The National Clergy Council and The Christian Defense Coalition are co-sponsoring “The Nativity Project,” which has been encouraging people to “secure permits and permission to place [religious] displays on public property.” The National Clergy Council defines its mission as being “to introduce classical Christian moral instruction into the conversation and debate surrounding public policy.” For a primer in the litigation surrounding these issues, including the Establishment Clause, check out Dahlia Lithwick’s Slate article of 2001, “Crèche Test Dummies.”

In a related vein is the issue of the participation of religious figures in the Obama inauguration. (During a press conference with members of the foreign press corps dating back to January 2005, reporters had asked about the role of clergy in “the inauguration ceremonies.”) Moving to open the tent and welcome in different points of view, Obama has invited Pastor Rick Warren to give the Invocation. Obama, who had to work hard during the campaign to dispel rumors that he was a Muslim — to the extent of sharing with the voting public that he “prayed to Jesus every night” — has also tapped Rev. Joseph E. Lowry to deliver the Benediction. In response to critics on his choice of Warren, Obama has stated that the long-time civil rights activist, Lowry, will create a balance.

But where is everybody else that is part of the religious mosaic of America? Where is the Catholic priest, the Jewish rabbi, the Muslim imam? Where will the Buddhist, Greek Orthodox, or Hindu observers see themselves, not to mention the agnostic, atheist, or secular humanist. Shouldn’t they all be up on stage as a group presence? If that seems too unwieldy, not to mention far-fetched, maybe there should be no religious invocation or benediction at all. It’s hard not to wonder why we look at other countries’ connections to religion as fanatical or misplaced theocracy, but don’t see any aspects of it in our own culture.

Perhaps putting Christ back into Christmas would be more truly fulfilled by extending compassion and understanding to those we feel are the most different from us and our way of thinking. Too bad Gandhi isn’t alive. He would have been perfect to deliver “comments” at the inauguration. A man with a strong faith in God, he said, “God has no religion.”

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©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.

From the following site:  The Founder’s Welcome

Dr. Maulana Karenga

©2009 iRobyn|iWitness Culture|iWrite. All Rights Reserved.