Monday, September 16, 2019

Confronting Evil


Summary of Vocal Ministry, September 15, 2019
Scott Holmes

I have been wrestling with what it means to confront evil for many months now. This is not a message I want to give, but it has persistently returned, and now it is easier to try to give it than to remain silent.

Like many of you I came to Quakerism and silent worship to escape harmful doctrines and theologies. It is so healing to be silent in a community focused so completely on love. As Quakers we are always asking to see “what love can do?” (William Penn) Our beliefs in the possibility of perfection and in continuing revelation help me become a better person and aim at an unfolding and loving relationship with the Divine. This faith pushes back against doctrines of human depravity and legalistic truths set in stone millennia ago. Our practice of silent waiting worship has felt like a spiritual refugee camp where I am welcomed in a loving community and learn who I am.

As Quakers we lift up examples of people “walking cheerfully over the earth, answering that of God” in those we encounter. (George Fox) We believe that “only Light can drive out darkness.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) We are introspective and self-critical – looking to remove those things in our life that distract us from the Divine. “May we look upon our treasure, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try to discover whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions.” (John Woolman) Our commitment to “simplicity” is a theology of subtraction. Historically Friends have stood against many evils such as slavery and racial inequality. We protest against evil, and we try to uproot it in our lives. We “speak Truth to Power” to name and dissolve evil.

But what are we really protesting against? We are we trying to remove from our lives? What do we do when we are “walking cheerfully over the earth” and encounter evil? What is evil and how do we confront it?



I have encountered pure evil: behavior aimed at destroying and demeaning human life. I have seen deliberate, unadulterated, unapologetic evil. In my experience, this kind of evil is rare. More often, evil is allied with good. It is not just day or night, it is twilight. We live in the mixture of good and evil, and the light does not drive out darkness in twilight. Most of my life is lived in twilight. Good aims are advanced by evil means. Evil aims are wrapped in the language of goodness.

As I have wrestled with this question two stories have kept coming back to me. The first is the story of Jesus’s encounter with evil before he began his ministry. (Matthew 4, Luke 4:1-13). In this story Jesus encounters the Devil in the wilderness where Jesus was fasting and hungry. The devil offered bread and material comfort. The devil offered power over the kingdoms of the world. And, the devil tempted Jesus to call upon God to save him from harm. Jesus rejected material comfort, political power, and the temptation to call upon God like a Genie in a bottle. Our relationship with the divine is a radical act of loving obedience to the Divine. And so it is evil to command the Divine for our benefit. 

The other story comes from the story of the “Grand Inquisitor” written by Dostoyevsky in his novel the Brothers Karamazov. In that story, Jesus returns during the time of the great inquisition when the church was killing heretics. The institution of the Church gave the people material comfort and assumed complete political power. Before executing Jesus, the Grand Inquisitor explained that people were burdened by the freedom of creating their own loving relationship with the Divine, and preferred to follow rules that felt like they created a divine relationship – instead of following the suffering path of love on their own. The people laid down their freedom before the Inquisitor and traded it for bread. The Inquisitor took political power and power over the divine and “corrected” the radical idea of living free relationship with the Divine. This kind of evil is totalitarian. It gives people material comfort and some power, and confuses ideology with the Divine.

I can see these evils working themselves out in my life, in my community, and our society. My striving for material comfort separates me from other suffering human beings. The power of my privilege increases my material comfort, insulates me from the truth of the suffering I cause, and gives me a false sense of control. I fall into a doctrinal or ideological view of the Divine that creates a self-justification for these other evils rather than following a radical path of freedom and love. I give up this freedom and bind myself to systems, institutions, corporations that increase my power and material comfort while distancing between me from the harm these entities cause to other members of the human family. I also see this totalitarian impulse in our destruction of the environment, the violent inequality caused by our malignant capitalism, and in our politics of hatred.

So what do we do about this Evil? I don’t know. I still have a lot of learning to do about this. But I have learned a few things which may be helpful. First, I need to be careful when fighting evil not to become evil. It is so easy to vilify people, demonize them, and cast them as less than human – less worthy of love. It is easy to believe that the tactics of evil are effective and are justified in the pursuit of goodness. The way of truth and love can look like a silly, ineffective detour and waste of time. Second, I don’t want to act from a place of fear. Fear is a useful feeling. There is a lot of wisdom in fear. But it is not the basis of right action. When it comes time to make a decision and act, I should not act from a place of fear. And finally, when faced with evil it is important for me to name it and stand against it fiercely, militantly, without yielding. All the various evil efforts to dehumanize and destroy our human family must be named and opposed unrelentingly.

When Jesus sent his disciples out to heal and teach about the radical power of unconditional love, he told them he was sending them out as “sheep among the wolves,” and told them to be as “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” As a Quaker I feel like I have the “innocent as a dove” part down, and I need a lot more of work on how to be as wise as a serpent without becoming the evil I resist.

Scott Holmes
September 15, 2019

Monday, January 15, 2018

The Confederate Monuments at the Court House Steps Must Come Down

These remarks were given in substantial part to a gathering of law students at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina on August 14, 2017. They are inspired by and adapted in large part from the Eulogy given by Dr. Martin Luther at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September 18, 1963 at the service for three children who were killed as a result of a racially motivated bombing. Other inspiration came from the Eulogy given by President Barack Obama on June 17, 2015 for Senator Clementa Pinckney and the eight other victims of the attack on Emanuel AME Church. Both speeches are worthy of our attention during this time of racial violence. Immediately after these remarks, I joined protesters at the Durham Old Court House where they eventually removed the confederate monument.
Since then I have come to see that Confederate Monuments at the Court House Steps are government sponsored speech glorifying the history of white supremacy, and constitute unconstitutional government hate speech.
                                                                     ~

I am honored to be asked to give remarks about peace today, and remarks about racism and the violence of white supremacy.  I am sensitive to the fact that I am white, a beneficiary of the legacy of white supremacy, still wrestling with my own internalized racism. It is a testament to this fine institution North Carolina Central University School of Law that you would ask for my perspective during such a painful time in our racial history.
My colleague, friend, and inspiration, attorney Satana Deberry, wrote today “I have had enough of white people explaining to my fully grown black ass how things work. I am weary of false equivalencies. I tire of the “in my opinions.” I chafe at the arguments that “both sides” need to calm down – as if those who would see my children dead are simply arguing over sugar versus cheese grits. I resent every single post that declares “this Is not us,” or “love wins.” Or any of the other bull shit substitutes for real, concrete action to dismantle the system of oppression that keeps us all (even white people) from reaching our full potential. I am sick unto death.
In honor of Satana’s wise words, I will try not to be just another white person telling you how things work.
We gather in the Great Hall of this law school, born itself of the civil rights movement, lead at times by the great civil rights lawyers of that generation, to speak of peace during violent times, and inclusion during times of vulgar and violent racism.
Heather Heyer was only 32 years old when she was run down in a vehicle by a racist while she was protesting. At least 35 other people were seriously injured.  They have entered the stage of history in the crusade for freedom of dignity and their sacrifice has something to teach each of us.
They have something to say to every politician who has fed constituents the dangerous bread of hatred and the vicious red meat of racism. I am thinking of the bill passed in our North Caroling House of Representatives in April 2017 which would provide immunity from civil liability for anyone who hits a protester with a car.  That kind of reckless legislation is exactly the kind of political act which gives unbalanced and racist people the impression they can maliciously run over activists with impunity. That legislation passed 67 to 48 in the House of our legislature. I am thinking of the myriad number of bills, including the racially gerrymandered voting districts and voting restrictions, which have been stricken down as unconstitutional by our courts.
I am thinking of the bill, signed into law by then Governor McCrory in July 2015 protecting confederate memorials from removal by local governments. Remember that the KKK and Nazis organized in Charlottesville in response to a local effort to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee.  Our State legislature has pre-empted important local discussion over the legacy of racism by codifying into law the protection for the blood soaked legacy of slavery, civil war, and racial terror by the militarized force.
     These confederate monuments no longer have a place in the center of our public squares. There are no statues of Hitler in Germany because even though it history marks that moment in time, there are dark moments in our history that are not worthy to lift up a public shared values and public celebration. The enslavement of Africans, the use of bloody militarized force to protect that enslavement, and the genocide of Native Americans are such chapters in our own history unworthy of public commemoration. This is particularly true as we face a time in the course of our own current events when politicians are feeding the red meat of racism to citizens willing to act violently on this political provocation. The confederate monuments at the steps of our Court house celebrate the traitorous violent defense of racialized human enslavement. They warn every person of color who must walk beneath their shadow that the promise of the equal protection of the law within the Court house is another false hope, another bad check returned for insufficient funds. How can a person of color expect the equal protection of the law when there is a monument to the Confederacy at the court house steps?
Now is a good time to uniformly and resoundingly denounce these values and remove these confederate monuments. We should replace these monuments celebrating militarism in defense of racism, with those who resisted institutional racism – Frederick Douglas, Bayard Rustin, Ida B. Wells, and workers on the underground railroad.
I am thinking of the way police have supported and emboldened white supremacy. I remember watching video of the Durham Police arrive in riot gear, shields, helmets, guns, to a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest. And I watched as sheriff deputies in Graham, North Carolina practically welcome the confederate memorial day celebration with no riot gear or show of violence. I watched horrified as the police in Charlottesville failed to create a barrier between protesters and counter-protesters and thereby invited the violence to occur.
In addition to these specific issues, I also think of the current assault on the UNC Center for Civil rights, the legacy of Julius Chambers, champion of Civil Rights, and graduate of this university. The current majority of politicians would not only end protections for civil rights and poor people, but also prohibit the training of the future civil rights lawyers and advocates for the poor. The current political climate is not just cowardly in the face of resurgent racism, our leaders are actively promoting policies which dismantle the civil rights era protections and rob us of the advocates to enforce those protections. The assault on programs for poor people and the defunding of legal aid are aimed at depriving people of basic needs, including the access to justice.
In addition to the politicians who are feeding our people the red meat of racism, I think of good willed, well meaning, affluent liberal folks who are standing on the sidelines of the struggle watching events unfold and not getting involved. These folks are focused on their jobs and their families, and will not act until these changes touch their lives personally. Their silence and inaction is also reprehensible and morally indefensible.  Those who are silent about the celebration of the Confederacy are complicit in the white supremacy it continues to purvey.
The lost life of this protester and those injured along with her tell us who have stood on the sidelines of this mighty struggle for justice, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say we must be concerned not merely with the misguided soul who committed murder, but with the system, the way of life, the philosophy, ideology, economics, politics, and culture which produced the murderer. They say we must work passionately and un relentingly for the realization of a community of equality and inclusion.
I think of the place where this attack occurred. A public space where people were protesting against racism and white supremacy. In a democracy founded on the freedom of speech and assembly, the bloody sidewalk where this attack occurred is the closest thing our secular society can have to holy ground.  These people were putting their lives on the line to resist an ideology and way of the thinking abhorrent to human dignity and moral decency.
I think of the white supremacists who gathered to assert their own first amendment rights. Armed with torches. Some of home beat and attacked non-violent protesters, another who killed a nonviolent counter protester.  It is no understatement to call these people what they are – terrorists.  For all the resources we place in seeking out and destroying radical Islamic terrorism, we have suffered the death of more people in our country to radical white supremacy than any other sick ideology in our history. 
And even as I call these people terrorists, I am mindful of the need to use caution, and resist the urge to dehumanize people.  As Dr. Martin Luther King said in his eulogy for the four children killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, “somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and worth of all human personality.”
I am also reminded to resist the temptation to boil or problem of racism down to a few bad apples, to simply the problem of race to a mere moral failing. That would ignore the centuries of laws, policies, and institutions which have encoded racism into the fabric of economics, politics, and culture. The systemic nature of racism in our society means that institutes create racial disparities without any overt racist intent.
And so we must resist both the tragic large macro attacks of racism on our society in the form of these acts of violence. And we must also resist the innumerable micro-aggressions of racism in the systems of care – the justice system, housing, health care, employment, and education.
It is important to pay attention to our feelings at a time like this. To learn what they have to teach us as messengers. Grief can teach us tenderness and empathy. Fear can teach us alertness. Anger and Righteous outrage can give us energy to act. But each of these feelings when taken too far can lead us into darkness. We must be careful when fighting monsters, not to become a monster. Or means and ends must be consistent with our values of human dignity, inclusion, and equality.

Finally, I think of Julius Chambers, a graduate and former chancellor of this university who argued and won some of the most important civil rights cases of his time before the United States Supreme Court. His car was bombed, his office was bombed, and still he continued to use his skills and intellect in service of civil rights. So I charge you to go forth, study the law, hone your skills, and put yourself in the position to resist racism, militarism, and economic oppression in our community. 

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Dear White Friends:

This letter was written in reaction to a Meeting for Worship With Attention to Business  at Upper Dublin Monthly Meeting as they considered a "sabbatical" in Business Meetings to avoid considering difficult relationships in the Meeting and conflict with  Quaker Friend of color, Avis McClinton
------
Dear White Friends,

Grace to you and peace from they great Spirit which unites us all in Love, connecting our hearts and weaving us together in one fabric as a human family.

I write to you with a great of tenderness of heart, having prayed with you and for you during your last Meeting for Worship with attention to business, last First Day - 20th day, 9th Month 2015. You labored with a minute for a sabbatical, suspending your business meetings until January 2017.

The reason for your fourteen month break is a conflict with your only African American member, Avis Wanda McClinton. You have expressed exhaustion in struggling with Friend Avis arising from your differences which you describe as "irreconcilable."

In your "Minute to Request a Sabbatical" you say the following:

"We the undersigned members of the Upper Dublin Monthly Meeting of Friends after more than three years of listening, struggling, and praying for the conflict with Avis Wanda McClinton and her support group to be resolved, request that Upper Dublin Friends Meeting undertake a sabbatical from Monthly Meeting for Business for a fourteen month period. This sabbatical would begin November 2015 and Monthly Meeting for Business would resume again in January 2017."

 "We believe, despite long term pastoral oversight from Jada Jackson, Presiding Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Amelia Diamond, Clerk of Abington Quarterly Meeting, that our differences with Avis remain irreconcilable."

We have met in retreat, we have labored for many extended hours in Meeting for business and we have made many changes to our practices as requested by Avis and members of her support committee. None of these efforts have brought peace or reconciliation to use faith community. Instead we find ourselves going over the same ground and same issues over and over again."

"Our Business Meetings have become a forum for demand for action, dictation of the meaning and accuracy of minutes, request for funds, direct accusations, and venting hostility. This contempt for us and hostility toward us has taken a huge toll on our members. We are a very small Meeting. We have suffered though aggressive outbursts, name calling, lying, hijacking of our a meeting for Worship for Business. A faith community is supposed to be a place for spiritual growth and nurture. We feel that we are on the precipice of losing that. Several members have grown so weary and frustrated  that they have stopped attending or are contemplating such."

"We see this sabbatical as a time away from business of the Meeting. We envision it to be a time of healing, reflection, study, spiritual growth and nurture. We are heart sick and weary from the prolonged conflict with Avis Wanda McClinton and her support group. "

"We know in our hearts that there is structural racism with the Religious Society of Friends. It is, after all, a predominantly white religious organization. But we also know deep in our hearts that "racial hatred" is not present among us. We are and want to continue to be an open and caring religious community. We feel the need this time to think, reflect, pray, love, and support one another."

"We also want to be able to get the spiritual support and guidance we need, as individuals, to continue to participate in the important work in our communities, and with each other."

During consideration of this minute there were several comments which expressed exhaustion with dealing with the conflict with Friend Avis.

Friend Avis has experienced this conflict in terms of racial exclusion. (http://www.friendsjournal.org/experience-african-american-quaker/ ) When asked what she thought of this minute, Friend Avis replied "it is a gag order."

One older gentleman who came to the Meeting late interjected during the consideration that the Meeting could just vote her out of membership. Other members interceded and said that was not the issue before us. As the Meeting for Business entered the third hour, this same gentlemen joked with another White Male about needing to end the Meeting so they could make it to watch the Eagles football game.

Members said they were tired of "wasting time" on these issues raised by Friend Avis, and we're bogged down in "minutiae of details" over and over.

One member said that if we were in the "business world," Friend Avis could just "walk away." This friend asked "why do you keep coming?" Shouldn't you go somewhere you "feel more comfortable?" Basically suggesting Friend Avis should vote with her feet and leave.

I watched Friend Avis tremble as members expressed their open hostility personally to her face, as they spoke from the Silence. It was a chilling Meeting for worship with Attention to Business.

There was some consideration of the possibility of a reconciliation committee to continue this work during the sabbatical, but it was expressed as a possibility that no one seemed interested in undertaking.

As I sat among you, my heart became very tender for all of you - these suffering White Friends and this solitary, fearful and defiant Friend of Color.

The first Bible Verse that came to me was "Jesus Wept." (John 11:35)  It was so sad. Jesus wept with a group of mourners. Then Jesus raised the dead Lazarus. This verse reminds me that the Divine is with us as we suffer, and just before we can expect a miracle.

Then I thought of the letter to the Ephesians dealing with the division within their community between Jewish and Gentile Christians. "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling." (Ephesians 4:1-5)

This minute you accepted, and the lengthy comments of many frustrated, angry white members in your business meeting fell short of this guidance on how we should bear with one another in love. They perspective of the minute and the language of white members of the Meeting does not include Friend Avis as a part of your "body." The all white members who drafted and signed this Minute did not make any effort to include Friend Avis and her perspective. in fact, members did not give Friend Avis a copy of the minute until it was time to consider it. You spring this minute of Friend Avis at the last possible minute. Is that acting as one body with love, in the Spirit of Unity, in peace?

Friend Isaac Pennington echoed the sentiment of Ephesians 4 in a letter to Amersham Friends in1 667: 

"Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand, if there has been any slip or fall; and waiting till the Lord gives sense and repentance, if sense and repentance in any be wanting. Oh! wait to feel this spirit, and to be guided to walk in this spirit, that ye may enjoy the Lord in sweetness, and walk sweetly, meekly, tenderly, peaceably, and lovingly one with another. "

I witnessed no effort at love, no expressions of kindness or care or concern during this 3 hour meeting.

When I read in the minute that the conflict was "irreconcilable" it made me think this was more of a legal document asking for a separation in marriage than a minute from a religious society committed to living in the present Kingdom of God in the present moment.  No conflict is "irreconcilable" when we are one in the Spirit. Conflicts become irreconcilable when we are living from a place of our own wounded egos. We are called to live by virtue of that life and power that makes every conflict an opportunity for loving forgiveness.  

When I hear your frustration with "going over the same ground and the same issues over and over again," I am led to think of the time Jesus asked how many times do we forgive?  "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:22) When we are in religious community together there is no end to our willingness and effort to find forgiveness.

I sensed a strong sense of feeling persecuted among both Friend Avis and the White Friends. The minute expressed a feeling of being a victim of hostility and contempt, suffering from outbursts, lying, and hijacking. We know from our history of early Friends that the suffering you express in your minute pales in comparison with the loss of liberty and property early Friends experienced. It also in no way approaches the risks of your fore bearers who risked their safety and privilege by assisting escaping slaves seeking freedom. It is also noteworthy that your minute only describes the suffering of the White members, and neglects to include the suffering of Friend Avis.

Your suffering has made my heart feel so tender to you. I sense you are all a kind and loving group of Friends. You have been handed a difficult piece of spiritual work that is important to Friends within your Meeting and outside. You have become a focal point. You've been called to wrestle with trauma that goes back for centuries. I am inspired by your courage, your effort. And, I have no judgment about your exhaustion. I don't know how I would feel if I were in the shoes of white members, Friend Avis, or her support group. You are intertwined in a grand spiritual mess. I write to you just to remind you of our highest values and encourage you along that way.

I hope it encourages you that Jesus said, "blessed are you when you feel persecuted." (Matthew 5:11) The path of Christian love is marked by wounds and persecutions.

I wonder what you mean by "a faith community is supposed to be a place for spiritual growth and nurture." Are you trying to retreat from the world? Is the gathering of Friends for their own benefit? Certainly spiritual growth and nurture is what happens when we are Spirit led in community. But, what you are experiencing and teaching us is that growth and nurture is often difficult, painful, and messy when it is authenticated deals directly with the Truths of our failures. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace, but "division" (Luke 12:52) 
 
Spiritual Peace is not the artificial or enforced absence of conflict. Spirit draws us into conflicts that seem deep and impossible and shows us how to let the Spirit transform us. There is no Easter and reconciliation without crucifixion. An authentic faith community is not a vacation, its a place where we are working out our sad feeble selves in a Spirit of love transformed by grace.  It was a poor analogy to compare Meeting to  a "business" where people can vote with their feet. First because our community is "one body" in Christ, (Ephesians 4) and we amputation harms the whole body. Second, the Kingdom of God does not follow the rules of the competitive material world, ("My Kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36)

Your minute shares your understanding of structural racism, and says you do not have "racial hatred" in your hearts. I believe that you do not have racial hatred. I have been working on issues of race in the South all my life and I know racial hatred. I sensed no racial hatred. However, your minute shows that you do not understand structural racism, white supremacy, or white privilege.

Who is "We?"

One example, you refer to "we" more than fifteen times. And you make it clear that "we" does not include your only member of color, Friend Avis. One member spoke and said, "we are a white meeting." But you are not. You have Avis. When you describe how "we have suffered," you really mean the majority of our white members have suffered. You did not include Friend Avis, her suffering, or her perspective in your a minute. When you say you want a sabbatical from "business meeting" you mean the white members want a break from dealing with the issues raised by your only African-American member. The ubiquitous white "we" is a symptom of white supremacy- failing to make an effort to include the perspective of your only member of color.

"We" need a break

Second, one of the privileges of white supremacy is to only deal with the trauma of our racial history when white people want to deal with it. White people can be willfully blind to the continual and persistent trauma of racial disparities whenever they choose. The a white males joking about getting to the Eagles game are exercising this privilege. While they drive home to make popcorn, Friend Avis drives home alone and risks being stopped and searched because of the color of her skin. For a person of color, There is no sabbatical from being black in a society still suffering the racial disparities of our history. The impulse to run away and not deal with it is typical of structural racism. How many of you called, emailed or texted Friend Avis to make sure she was okay?

If "we" make you uncomfortable, just leave.

Third, the sentiment that Friend Avis should stop coming if she does not "feel comfortable" gives priority to the culture of the "all white meeting" and signals that the power of that white community refuses to try to change to accommodate this voice of color. The message sounds like "if you don't like our white meeting, and don't feel comfortable, it's not our job to change or become a  more inclusive community, and make you feel comfortable. You can just leave."  The unyielding primacy of the white majority, and the refusal to consider how the white culture must change to make people of color comfortable is a hallmark of structural white supremacy.

I don't know how the Spirit will work among you, and what you are planning in terms of study and reflection. I recommend some in depth racial equity training. I also recommend that each of you make some time to have coffee, share a meal, I r show some love to a Friend Avis. Having decided to set particular issues aside, do not set Friend Avis aside. Have coffee. Find out what she is struggling with in your life. Share your struggles, one on one. In short, bear with each other in love.

In Peace, With Love

Scott Holmes
 
 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Three Prayer Poems

A Living Prayer
 
I do not kneel
or talk out loud
lifting my words, upward
my sanctimonious monologue
is a laughing loneliness
No, it's more like
reaching for a Gift
with my heart
A Wordless bending
of my full self
Like a dancer's stretch
toward a warm current of divine energy
trying to reconnect with
the Source
recharging
Sometimes it is movement, a dance
a word, a song
a visit to jail or the garden
I feel it,
like the Old Monk,
cleaning dishes, washing toilets
watch closely
the saints, the monks, the small children
and see how
to make life, itself, our prayer
  
The Rhythm of Prayer
 
beyond the wireless Babel
the assembly line of frenetic
double minded multi-tasking
the icloud storage, almost full
the race of time
accelerated by Empire
anxious and ambitious accumulation
what priceless our minutes make
our rush renders worthless
Prayer is dying to Time
living in Eternity
the glacial pace of monastic solitude
Hours stretch into a lifetime
of slow reading, and re-reading
the smell of books waiting like old friends
room enough to stretch and breathe
and leap wildly into the
rejoicing air
Where there is no Time
there is the Rhythm of Prayer
 
Freedom's Prayer
 
As I stand in Court
next to this suffering soul
awaiting judgment, I pray:
Let me feel his fear,
Let me own his suffering as mine own,
Let me hold his anxious hand,
like a my own child,
Let me take his place,
and feel the full weight
of his punishment
Let him go free, and walk
in Sunlight and Mercy
As I take his chains
upon my wrists and around my ankles
For this is my only path
to Freedom.



Scott Holmes, 2015

Friday, February 27, 2015

End the War on Drugs, Imagine the Exit Strategy - A Speech before the Durham Human Relations Commission


Speech before the Durham Human Relations Commission

February 27, 2015

Introduction by Commissioner Foster

Scott Holmes is presently professor of law at North Carolina Central University where he teaches appellate advocacy, trial advocacy, criminal procedure and supervises the Civil Litigation Clinic. The North Carolina Civil Litigation Clinic handles a variety of cases including housing, unemployment benefits, and police misconduct cases. He is also an adjunct professor of Restorative Justice at Guilford College in Greensboro, where he teaches a class on diverting people from the prison pipeline with restorative justice. He is concerned with the way our justice system harms poor and vulnerable members of our community including children, immigrants, and the mentally ill. He also works to challenge racial disparities in housing practices and in the justice system. Having represented protesters, preachers, and panhandlers, Scott works to empower and amplify marginalized voices in our community. He lives in Durham with his wife, Kerry, his four kids, and three dogs.
 

Introduction

Commissioner Foster, Councilman Moffit, esteemed Commissioners and members of the Durham Human Relations Commission, honored friends and fellow guests,

I am thankful for this invitation to share some thoughts on human relations in Durham on this auspicious occasion awarding some of Durham finest leaders in the area of human relations. When they asked me to speak, I asked them multiple times if they were sure because you never know what you are going to get. Also, at this time when law professors at public law schools are being targeted for their speech, I have to say that I am not speaking on behalf of NCCU law school, or any other group. Tonight I speak for myself. I am so honored to come before you and share some thoughts on human relations in this important historical venue, the Hayti Heritage Center.

Tonight we will have the opportunity to honor Wanda Boone, founder of Durham Together for Resilient Youth, for her work helping steer our children away from drugs, alcohol, and other challenges which sabotage young lives. We honor the Genesis Home, for his work helping families out of homelessness with technical assistance, individualized case management, and circles of support.  We also honor, Brenda Howerton, Vice Chairman of the Durham County Commission, who will receive the human rights award for her tireless service in a variety of human rights areas. We will also honor our young leaders, Sary Martinez for her amazing individual journey and her work welcoming immigrant youth, and Vernodo Garcia-Carrol for his community work promoting civil engagement.

          In addition to these specific awards, our own Durham Human Relations Commission deserves an award for their remarkable work in the last year conducting hearings on racial profiling in our police department and issuing their thoughtful report.  Even a cursory glance at human relations in Durham reveals a wealth of rich leadership, movements, personalities, and people dedicated to improving human lives. There are so many people in Durham working hard for human relations that you can hardly throw a stone in public without hitting one of them.

The Story of Written Consent and the FADE Coalition

This richness is illustrated by the role our Human Relations Commission played in the City Council’s consideration of racial disparities in policing. A coalition of Durham organizations came together around the issue of racial profiling in Durham. These organizations included, but were not limited to, SpiritHouse, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the Durham NAACP, Neighborhood Allies of Durham, Durham Congregations in Action, Durham CAN, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, Durham People’s Alliance, George H. White Bar Association, Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Action NC, North Carolina Public Defender’s Committee on Racial Equity, and the Rutba House. Friends and colleagues such as Commissioner Diane Standaert, Daryl Atkinson, Ian Mance, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Nia Wilson, Tia Hall, Dave Hall, Rafiq Zaidi, Candace Rashad,  Omar Beasley, and others who came together to develop a strategy for changing police practice in Durham. They gathered under the umbrella of a coalition called FADE, Fostering Alternatives to Drug Enforcement. FADE issued recommendations. Five of their most important recommendations included: mandated written consent forms for all vehicle consent searches; de-prioritization of misdemeanor marijuana enforcement; periodic review of racial disparities in officer stop data; reformation and strengthening of the Durham Civilian Police Review board; and formal racial equity training.

          The local FADE coalition collected statistical analysis clearly demonstrating racial disparities in consent searches at traffic stops. We learned that police have requested people of color for consent to search at traffic stops at rates far higher than traffic stops involving white people. The statistics also showed a very lot hit rate for drugs or contraband. This means that many innocent people of color were targeted for searches with no results. We represented victims of police misconduct in court, collected evidence of misconduct, and told individual stories of people who are victims of racial profiling and excessive force. Ministers, organizers, statistical and policy analysts, and lawyers brought their skills together to make racial profiling visible and offer concrete solutions. In our public discussion we heard from our Chief of Police, from our City Manager, and from our concerned citizens. We engaged in contested and difficult conversations about race, police practice, and our values in Durham which resulted in the adoption of a police policy requiring written consent to search. We are now receiving regular reports from our Police Department on the racial disparities in our police practices. I am proud to be a part of this courageous community facing directly the issue of race in our justice system, engaging in difficult conversations which are resulting in concrete, innovative policies. Our work here is an example for other communities facing the same problems.  The way our community brought the issue of racial profiling to the leaders on the City Council, and the way the Human Relations framed the difficult discussion, leading to specific and concrete advancements, serves a model to the rest of North Carolina and the rest of the Country as we all struggle with these racial disparities.

Where do we go from here? End the War on Drugs

          So where do we go from here? I say, we should call an immediate end to the “War on Drugs” in Durham. We have lost this self-defeating War on Drugs and we must begin imagining an exit strategy. This War has not made us safer. This War has not reduced the amount of drugs on our streets. And yet, it has inflicted numerous casualties against our own citizens. This War was ill conceived and misguided from the start. For, there is really no such thing as a “War on Drugs.” There is only War against people. Drugs are things, inanimate objects. This War is against human beings. War involves the destruction of human lives. And that is what we have witnessed in the War on Drugs - the destruction of human lives.

          Our first mistake in the war on drugs was concentrating the War in poor communities of color. While studies showed that two thirds of all crack users were white, not one white person had been prosecuted for crack in Los Angeles as of 1995. The War on Drugs was really a War on poor communities of color. Declared as we were exiting from the segregation battles of Jim Crow, the War on Drugs became the new form of racialized coercion and social control – a New Jim Crow. (Many of us are reading that excellent book by Michelle Alexander in Durham this month) The media campaign against drugs portrayed the stereotypical drug user as a black crack addict when studies showed the demand for drugs came primarily from the white majority. Our police have therefore targeted people of color more often for drug investigations. For example, our police set up undercover drug transactions in more often in poor communities of color, and not on Duke’s campus or other more affluent parts of our community. Our City police have recently reported that 86% of their marijuana arrests were for people of color.

Not only are people of color targeted at a higher rate for drug investigations, their sentences are disproportionately longer than white offenders. Because crack appeared to be prevalent in communities of color we passed harsh mandatory sentencing laws which punished crack at a rate of 100 times when compared with powder cocaine.  Powder cocaine was viewed as the drug of choice for affluent whites, and crack was viewed as the drug of choice for poor people of color. This means that a black teenager with crack weighing about as much as a candy bar would face a ten year mandatory minimum sentence.  To get the same sentence, a white person would have to possess about 12 pounds of powder cocaine.  Scientifically there was no difference in the addictiveness or harmfulness of the two, the only difference was baking powder. Our federal law allows for mandatory life sentences for some non-violent drug offenses depending on the amount of drugs. As a result more people of color were not only unfairly targeted for prosecution at higher rates, and they also faced disproportionately longer sentences. More black people go to jail for drugs, and black people face longer jail sentences than similarly situated white people. Our racial history permeated the investigation, prosecution, and sentencing of black people, tilting the scales of justice irrevocably against people of color.

Our second mistake in the War on Drugs was the militarization of this war. In one generation the image of the ideal law enforcement officer shifted from the Andy Griffith who used personal relationships to work out community problems, to the SWAT team. Armored vests, armored vehicles, flash grenades, bullet proof vests, assault rifles became a normal part of communities that felt more like occupied territories than local neighborhoods.  For every high capacity magazine on the street, the police needed greater capacity. For every armor piercing bullet, the police needed better armor. We have watched our inability to regulate guns lead to an arms race on the streets.

As an aside, how is it that we can regulate motor vehicles requiring a driver’s test, a license, accident insurance, and an entire regulatory scheme of motor vehicle laws to insure safe operation, but we cannot do the same for guns? It makes no sense that I can get a gun without a license, insurance, test, or strict regulations for its use? And yet, we are asking our police to face these risks on the street. 

Our third mistake was to turn the War on Drugs was turning it into a profit making endeavor - War profiteering on the War on Drugs. We took advantage of federal grants to arm our officers in the war on drugs, and needed to generate drug arrests to justify the grant money. We reported drug arrests in order to justify more federal money to get more drug arrests. We applied forfeiture laws to seize cars, houses, cash from poor folks arrested in tough neighborhoods as part of the spoils of War. As a result the Prisoners of the War on Drugs feed a billion dollar Prison Industrial Complex which regards these poor people of color as a “Revenue stream.” This Billion dollar prison industry employs lobbyists to lower the age of adulthood and lengthen criminal sentences in order to increase their profits and pad their bottom line by increasing the number of prisoners around the country. It is a fact, made more painful by our history of slavery, that the War on Drugs has become yet another way for rich people to profit on black flesh in chains.  The War on drugs is a three headed monster, yet another manifestation of the intertwined horrors of racism, materialism, and militarism in our midst.

The Battle of Cheek Road

I encountered this three headed monster in all its ferocity on February15, 2002 when I was a new public defender here in Durham. I was watching the nightly news when I saw reporters live at the scene of a drug raid at Cheek Road apartments. Mayor Bell was there at the scene, talking about the need to rid our community of drugs. The Police Chief was there. Officer Green made arrangements for the local ABC affiliate to stand alongside of police as the busted into homes, entering the homes of residents as police raided apartments.  There were 111 apartments at Cheek Road. The police showed up with hundreds of officers from Durham City Police, Durham County Police, and the State Bureau of Investigation.  There were two National Guard helicopters spot lighting people on the ground. There were also media helicopters in the air. At eight o’clock the police sealed all the entrances to the apartment complex, conducting traffic stops of everyone who tried to leave. No one was free to go. The City Government called it “ TAPS” – “The Aggressive Police Strategy.” They battered down doors, threw “flash bangs” into apartments where they knew small children were living. They only executed 3 search warrants, entering many other homes without warrants. The chased a thirteen year old boy into this apartment where they searched him at gun point in front of his mother.  It was a military operation, an invasion of a poor community of color.

I was horrified the next night, February 16, 2002, when they returned to the same complex and did it again. They invaded 4 more apartments with search warrants using the selective enforcement team (SET team), riding in an unmarked black van, wearing unmarked black body armor, helmets, masks, and pointing semi-automatic weapons and shot guns.  Once again they chased the same thirteen year old child back into his apartment and held him at gunpoint. This time he was hospitalized for shock. By the end of the two night invasion, the police had entered each one of the 111 apartments even though they only had 7 search warrants. They claimed that all the residents gave “consent” to search their homes.  A Judge later held that any consent was “coerced” and that the entire invasion was unconstitutional. The minor drug charges arising from this invasion were dismissed. The invasion of Cheek road embodied everything that was wrong with our militarized war on drugs.

The Consequence of the War on Drugs

The consequence of this misguided War on Drugs is that certain parts of our community live in fear of the police. The children of Cheek road are ten years older. What do they think of our police? Because of the War on Drugs, the number of people in prison nationally has escalated from five hundred thousand to 2.3 million. The Prisoners of the War on drugs outnumber the entire population of some small countries. As a country that represents five percent of the world’s population, we house twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners.  More than sixty percent of Prisoners of the War Drugs are from poor communities of color.  The Prisoners of the War on Drugs are never completely free because their felony convictions follow them the rest of their lives, restricting their vote and keeping them unemployed.  The Prisoners of the War on Drugs are forever marginalized in our society. We have more black people under Government supervision today than there were slaves at the height of slavery, and more black men who cannot vote now than at the height of Jim Crow.  Our poor communities of color have been decimated by taking young black men out of our communities and making them criminals. Parents are divided from children, which only perpetuates the cycle of poverty. We have suffered immeasurable social and economic cost for making people convicted felons: the social marginalization, the loss of economic opportunity and labor productivity, the harm to the social fabric of families and communities.  Our police departments are built to aggressively search for drugs and are less well equipped to solve murders, property crimes - the historical and traditional role of law enforcement.

It’s not the fault of the police. How can we turn our police into drug soldiers and then complain that they use too much force? How can we order our drug soldiers into communities of color and then complain there are racial disparities in their arrests? It is our fault for allowing this self-defeating War on Drugs to continue for so long. We must find another way, or we are sentencing our community to more shame and destruction.

The Giant Triplets: Racism, Militarism, Materialism

In his speech at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., identified the “giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism” as the greatest threats to justice in our society. Dr. King most famously grappled with racism in his movement for equality for people of color and the dismantling of American Apartheid. He spoke often of the way racism dehumanizes people of color.  Racism excludes some residents from the basic hallmarks of human dignity, while allowing other residents to enjoy the unearned advantages of these patterns of discrimination, whether we consciously discriminate or not. Racism is an insidious social disease infecting us all because we live in a post-Apartheid society that has never faced directly our racial divide. We have never looked in the mirror of a Truth and Reconciliation process the way South Africa did.

Dr. King also marched against poverty. He spoke incisively against the greed and materialism of our malignant capitalism which refuses to pay a living wage to poor people in order to line the pockets of the rich. At the end of his life, Dr. King was leading a poor people’s campaign to block streets in Washington and demonstrate that poor lives matter.

Also, as a gospel minister of non-violence, Dr. King taught us that militarism, the use of massive doses of force of violence to solve problems, only creates more problems. He saw our own government as the greatest purveyor of violence in our society. The social and economic resources need to cure the social disease of racism and lift us out of poverty with an annual minimum wage were being squandered in the nightmare of war and organized mass killing. He spoke clearly against war, showing its connection to both poverty and racism.

We see in this misguided and self-defeating War on Drugs the same malignant and monstrous giant triplets of Materialism, Militarism, and Racism. This three headed monster lurks the streets of Durham under the name of the War on Drugs. We see clearly now the racial aims of this war, the militarized nature of this war, and the profits of this war from the lives of poor people of color. It is time to declare defeat and imagine an exit strategy.

But how do we end this war, without leaving in its place yet another new monster of social control and decimation?

A Radical Revolution of Values

Dr. King called us to a “radical revolution of values.” He said “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”  A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.” He said that it is not enough to toss a coin to a beggar on the road to Jericho, but “the whole Jericho road must be transformed”  True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.” We cannot watch capitalists profiting on the black flesh from our neighborhoods and remain silent. “With righteous indignation,” we must look at the malignant capitalists profiting off our poor children of color, with “no concern for the social betterment” of our neighborhoods and say: "This is not just." This revolution of values will look at our police breaking into homes of people of color in riot gear and say "This is not just." It will look upon our City Police using a TASER gun against a minor and his father and say, “This is not making us more safe.” “A true revolution of values will lay hands on” the war on drugs and say of this war: "This violent and exploitative way of handling what is truly a mental health problem is not just." This business of throwing smoke bombs at citizens, taking hundreds of thousands poor black prisoners of war, filling our nation's homes with children orphaned by Prisoners of the War on Drugs, of sending men home from prison mentally handicapped, psychologically deranged, and forever marked by the scarlet letter of a felony conviction cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A local government which continues year after year to spend more money on drug investigation, detention officers than educators, on armored vehicles than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Do we pay federal detention officers more than we pay elementary school educators? How can we spend 30,000 a year to house an inmate instead of investing in their employment, education, and mental health?

The Exit Strategy

Let Durham become the first city in America to officially declare the end of the war on drugs. Let's begin to imagine and implement the exit strategy. What I have in mind is not surrender to open air drug markets, or acquiescence to the infestation of drugs in our community. No, what I am imaging is a way of dealing with drugs as a public health problem rather than a criminal problem.  Arresting a 16 year old for possessing less than half an ounce of marihuana is like punishing a sick person for being ill. As other States legalize marijuana it becomes increasingly absurd to impose long sentences for drug trafficking here while companies are getting rich in Colorado for the same conduct. And, the long term economic effect of imposing a criminal record on our child is catastrophic to our struggling communities. Let's invest in treatment.  Let's provide restorative circles of support and accountability. Let's provide jobs. A summer jobs program for youth in high risk neighborhoods in Chicago provided a 25 hour a week job at minimum wage, resulting in a 43% drop in violent crime. When white people were suffering massive unemployment during the depression our government invested in public works programs to put them to work. Let's invest in our youth and provide meaningful, living wage jobs.  When Portugal decriminalized all drugs more than a decade ago, drug use was reduced in half. According to many sources, including Forbes magazine, Portugal’s experiment shifting from penalties to treatment has been an overwhelming success. Drug treatment is cheaper and more humane than prison.

In addition to investing in the health and economics of our struggling communities, let’s re-purpose and de-militarize our police department. Look at our police budget. We pay more for drug investigators than we do homicide investigators. Let’s shift most of the money we are paying for drug investigation to violent crime, property crimes, and white collar crime.  Let’s have our police trained as community mediators and ask them to resolve conflicts instead of making drug arrests.  The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has found international consensus around the idea that drugs are a matter of public health, and that police should focus on community policing, mediation, deferral programs, and restorative conferencing.  Imagine our police as positive role models, mediators.   

Think about the thousands of dollars our Durham Police Department spends paying addicts in our community to set up undercover drug transactions.  Let’s imagine that instead of giving that “snitch” a couple of hundred dollars to make a drug arrest, we gave her a job with a living wage and health care to help treat depression and addiction. Right now, we give an addict a few hundred dollars to help us arrest another addict. Let’s stop treating these folks as means to an end, and embrace and support their full humanity.

One of the areas of greatest hope in my work is in the area of Restorative Justice. This is an international movement that imagines the resolution of conflicts and crime in a way that is more healing and less harmful. Our retributive system of crime and punishment should be restricted to our most serious violent crimes. Our court system is a hammer. And when all we have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Let's put away the hammer, and reserve its use for violent crime and stop prosecuting low level drug offenses. People should not go to Durham County Jail for less than half an ounce of marijuana, or failure to have insurance on their car, or having no operator’s license. People with mental illness need treatment, not jail. Children in trouble at school need guidance and support, not jail. We should move toward a system which asks the victim how they have been harmed and what they need for healing. We should ask the community what are the underlying causes of these crimes and how can we work together toward solutions for the root causes. We should ask offenders how they can heal the harm and best reintegrate into our community. At every stage of our criminal process from pre-arrest, to pre-guilt determination, to sentencing, post-conviction, and re-entry from prison – there is a more restorative process that heals the victim, involves the community, and holds the offender more accountable. Let’s imagine ways to replace our adversarial system of guilt and punishment, hammer and nail, with a more therapeutic and healing method.

Instead of suspending or expelling children, let’s use positive behavior interventions and supports and restorative justice and keep them in school.  One of the greatest risk factors for failure in our society is dropping out of school. We complain about the number of kids who are dropping out, and wring our hands to find solutions to the dropout rate.  I have a brilliant and time tested method of keeping kids in school – stop kicking them out! Let's work together to make Durham a place where every child gets three healthy meals for their body, and exemplary education for their mind, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their souls. Let’s begin by ending the war on drugs, and developing a humane exit strategy.

 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Please stop arresting people for non-violent crimes of poverty


Dear Prosecutor, Magistrate Judge, and District Judge:

I write to you as a concerned citizen reviewing the arrest list and recent occupants of the Durham County Jail for the last thirty days.

I think jail is on the whole and destructive and ineffective way of dealing with crime for minor, nonviolent crimes. I wish our police would not arrest people for such crimes and would issue citations instead. However, when they bring these cases to you I hope you will think about other ways of dealing with these problems rather than incarceration. Most people who commit crimes are victims of crimes, individual and social, that have led to hard circumstances.

In reviewing the list for the last thirty days, I’ve noted the following cases that seem to illustrate this problem:
·         It is horrible that people should go to jail for minor traffic offenses, particularly driving while license revoked. Jessie and Edwar spent 2 days in jail. Terry spent 9 days in jail. Deonte, Kelly, Keith, Chester, Tracy were arrested for driving while license revoked. Jessie spent time in jail for having no vehicle insurance.

·         Several people were charged with possessing less than half an ounce of marijuana: Maurice, William, Mark, Cortez, Phillip, and Craig.  Terrell spent 4 days in jail for less than half an ounce of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

·         Lamar and David were arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, but no other drugs.

·         Some people were arrested for resisting arrest, but no other charge. This is often a sign of police misconduct and abuse of authority. Christopher spent 3 days in jail, and Terri spent 5 days in jail for resisting. Others were arrested for resisting arrest, but no other charge including Dereese, Raymond, Benjamin, and Artezra.

·         Some people were arrested for minor theft or shoplifting including, Alvin, Richard, Deon, Malik,    Denise, Hiram, Jase, Dottie, and Wayne. Jerome spent 3 days in jail for shoplifting, and Otha spent 2 days for misdemeanor larceny.

·         Some people were arrested for minor trespass when they could have been given a citation, including James, Lydia, Toriko, Dominic, and May.

·         Joey spent 2 days in jail for consuming a malt beverage on city property

·         Michelle spent 5 days in jail for possession of marijuana and shop lifting

·         It also appears that Christian, a minor, was arrested for disorderly conduct at school. Court referrals from school have increased significantly in the last few years and represent a criminalization of children. We can do better with our kids, and don’t need jail to help them learn and grow into our community.

It is hard to calculate the social cost of sending someone to jail because we do not ask or document whether the person lost a job, lost custody of their kids, failed to make rent, didn’t get a job, got kicked out of school or training. The collateral consequences of incarceration do far more harm than good for these minor-nonviolent offenses.  Also, many of them are related to poverty which suggests that we are criminalizing poverty.

Please encourage police to issue citations if they must bring these cases to court, that is a less harmful and more restorative approach to these kinds of social problems.

Thank you
Scott Holmes