FREE BURMA

- Justice for the Jena 6

… and peaceful resolution to the racist violence still too real today.

- The Multitude and Peace Week

The Multitude and Peace Week

by Robyn Morrison

Peace Week at PSR has just ended and I am left to ponder the complexity of the intersection between academics and activism; or intellectual activity and praxis. As one of four women who sat around a table in July brainstorming a vision of how a small group of committed student peace activists at Pacific School of Religion should participate in the International Day of Prayer for Peace (September 21, 2007), today I am awe-struck with the end result. Being a typical human meaning making machine, I assume that there are no insignificant synchronicities. Everything that happens has significance and often the Spirit/God (or a power beyond the human-being) is actively at work within the context of what is happening. Therefore, I praise God for working within and through us in our Peace Week activities.

When we met to plan Peace Week, we also discussed a book that the group is reading, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. I agreed to write a brief essay on the middle section of that book; the chapters describing their concept of the ‘multitude’. By its nature ‘multitude’ defies concise definition. Hardt and Negri describe the concept with these words, “A multitude is an irreducible multiplicity; the singular social differences that constitute the multitude must always be expressed and can never be flattened into sameness, unity, identity, or indifference.”[1] It is less a concept than a creative vision of the web of humanity as a powerfully complex tapestry of singular identities woven together through commonalities.

Hardt and Negri contend that the “multitude is the only social subject capable of realizing democracy, that is, the rule of everyone by everyone.” Part two of the book elaborates on the concept primarily from the socioeconomic perspective; the area that also intersects most closely with my experience working for economic justice. As they deconstruct older notions of dangerous concepts of economic class, they move beyond Adam Smith versus Marx polarities. Based upon my experience working with struggling small businesses and social entrepreneurs in rural areas, I found it refreshing that the discussion has moved beyond the ‘us versus them’ language of labor versus management. Instead we are invited to break open the box and think in terms of “human creative capacity.”

Neither capitalists nor Marxists have given adequate consideration to the poor of the world. The voices and creative capacity of indigenous people, rural agrarian communities, and migrant workers have not been adequately respected. Transnational capitalism has espoused the myth that industrial development and large scale production is the ideal for all people; a myth that we are now seeing as a life threathening farce. Hardt and Negri introduce the idea of the biopolitical and remind us that we share the earth and a common physiology; we are one body. As a person who struggles to address the complexities of dismantling the negative impacts of global capitalism while acknowledging that transnational corporate economic activity is both destructive and beneficial, I was particularly intrigued with their discussion of international debt and global financial institutions. Synchronistically as I read Part two of the Multitude, I was also deeply engaged in planning the PSR Chapel service for Peace week, and the Biblical text (Luke 16: 1-13) drew me towards the concept of the Lord’s Jubilee and the elimination of unjust and oppressive debt.

As I worked to pull together the liturgical pieces that would ground the Peace Week at PSR, I experienced first hand the concept of the multitude. My individual contributions to the communal project felt integral to my creative capacity. Three of the pieces I brought to the project were my knowledge of the connection between economic justice and peace-building, a passion for liturgies (the rituals that form and strengthen communities), and experience developing and deploying the leadership gifts of others. Other students would bring their unique gifts to the Peace Week community project; thereby allowing me to joyously contribute my creative capacity. That is exactly what I experienced, the power and creativity of the multitude.

Some of you reading this essay experienced the end result of the multitude of students coming together to create Peace Week at Pacific School of Religion. You are the fortunate ones. If you did not, you will simply be left to imagine or create your own manifestation of multitude. What occurred was a hap-hazard loosely connected diverse multi-cultural and powerful five days of activities focused on how people of faith (primarly but not exclusively Christians) can work collaboratively to lead peace and justice building ministries.

In a particularly divine moment for me PSR’s Chorale Director, Aeri Lee suggested a last minute addition to the music for the Tuesday service. The song, For One Great Peace, would be sung as a chorus of solos threaded together and eventually merging into a common voice. The following quote from Bishop Desmond Tutu was projected on the screen. “One of the wonderful things is how God depends on all of us… Each one of us has a contribution, each and every one of us.”

 

And that for me is the meaning of the multitude.

 

For One Great Peace[2]

This thread I weave,
this step I dance,
this stone I carve,
this ball I bounce,
this nail I drive,
this pearl I string,
this flag I wave,
this note I sing,

REFRAIN
One small part;
one small place;
one heart’s beat;
one great Peace.

This pot I shape,
this fire I light,
this fence I leap,
this bone I knit,
this seed I nurse,
this rift I mend,
this child I raise,
this earth I tend,

REFRAIN

This cheque I write,
this march I join,
this faith I state,
this truth I sign,
this is small part,
in one small place,
of one heart’s beat,
for one great Peace.

 

 

 

 

---

[1] Hardt and Negri, Multitude, 105.

[2] Music by Ron Klusmeier. Words by Shirley Erena Murray. Words Copyright © 1992 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188

- Peace Week Events!

Peace Week at the Pacific School of Religion
September 17-21, 2007

Coordinated by PSR students and PSR Peace Particles
(Seminarians to End War and Sow Peace, a.k.a. SEW Peace)
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact sewpeace <at> gmail.com.

Schedule of Events for Education, Witness, and Action

All Week Growing Art Piece on PSR Quad

Monday

12:30 pm – Mudd Building Consecration of the Art, with music and free peace T-shirts

Tuesday
PSR Chapel Service 11:10 am, PSR Chapel — Luke 16:1-13, “Drop the Debt, not Bombs” – Robyn Morrison, preaching

Wednesday
Taize Worship 7:30 pm, PSR Chapel

Thursday
Healing Prayer Worship Service 6:30 pm, PSR Chapel — Psalm 79

Thursday-Friday
24-Hour Peace Pray-in Buckham Chapel – 6:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Friday – International Day of Prayer for Peace
Peace Teach-in – all workshops take place in the Mudd Building
10:30 am – Workshops:
1. Pastoral Care for Veterans, with VA Hospital Chaplain Carolyn Talmadge
2. Peace for Israel and Palestine, with the Network of Spiritual Progressives’ Nichola Torbett
3. Rebecca Ann Parker sermon, “Theological Education in a Time of Wars,” podcast and discussion
1:30 pm – Workshops:
1. Veterans for Peace, with Ted Arrindal and other PSR veterans
2. Creative Writing for Peace, led by Christina Hutchins
3. ENGAGE Training, with Pace e Bene trainers Ryan Baum and Robyn Morrison (session runs 1:30-4:30 pm)
3:00 pm – Workshops:
1. Peace Pilgrim – movies and discussion, led by Sheryl Butler
2. “Ground Truth” – movie about the Iraq war, hosted by James Leveque

Public Panel 6:30 pm – PSR Bade Museum, “Resisting Imperial Peace: Theological Reflections”

Worship Service 8:30 pm – PSR Quad, Preaching by Lynice Pinkard of First Congregational Church of Oakland, “There is a Balm in Gilead”
Party for the Peaceful 9:30 pm – Mudd 100

+ H i P – H o P 4 Peace +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjVT-SKAxUs

K-OS

“Love Song” (lyrics below)

Contrary to popular belief, know what yo
This is not a lovesong
It’s a sonnett
Damn it feels good to have people up on it bu
I’m just a fool playing with the masters tools
Learning how to break the rules of this record company tool
Hallucination – I see with my eyes
But my heart’s telling me lies
Why do I fantisize?
Why am I telling lies to the people from the stage
Pretending it’s all good when inside it’s fire and rage
Cuz I can’t understand how a man lives off the life of another man
Tryin to pimp the universe – that’s a joke
I stay rockin the boat down on my last note
It’s murder she wrote
Assassination vocabulary
I see your termination is heavily necessary
I should have known – they do it for Forbes alone
I do it to break the walls if I fall off then let me know people

CHORUS
It’s funny how life can go
First you ride high then you might lay low
Don’t get high off your own supply
Someone said first before a fall comes pride
This is my message to the world
Just tryin to reach every boy and girl
Not tryin to say if it’s right or wrong
This is just a love song

Lyrical optometrists with 20/20 vision
Are serving rhymes like my granny used to serve provisions
Chaotical amneotical fluid
The rap druid is fluent in the art of onomatopoeia
Metaphysical microscopic topic dropper
When I was a kid I wanted rollerskates and a bike chopper
But alas, pop, pop never thought to keep me in style
Thats why I’m schizophrenic now
So God bless the child that has his own
The harvest we reap is what we sow
Chrome microphone – shoot it
Towards a dome of computer digital clones that mimic philosopher stones
Sayin a style’s their own when they bite like Mike Furounsville
The sounds ill
Relationship is a mirror
That you see yourself up in and the picture is clearer
Thats why I’m on the scene with a mike like Ernesto Guevara
Why I may exploit with lights like Geraldo Rivera, they just.

CHORUS(again)

It’s easy not to care what people say
It’s harder to pretend and try
Cuz they can only love you from yesterday
I’m looking at them now they pose high
I’m just a man who’s walking
They stand around and keep talking
They tried to clip my wings
But wisdom fills so many things
Say it again
I’m just a man who’s walking
They stand around and keep talking
They tried to clip my wings
But wisdom fills so many things
In LOVE (Fading)
It’s funny how life can go
Dont get high off your own supply
This is my message to the world…

- Reflection on Memorial Day

Written Monday 28 May 2007

Berkeley, CA

Memorial Day.
It is a sunny, moderately tempured day with a slight breeze in the East Bay, and here I am sitting in front of a computer screen typing away my depression hoping that perhaps this act of public bloging will get out the negativity before I go be social at somebody’s house where there will be merry-making. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I am cranky…you know how you sometimes push feelings to the back of your mind or just make yourself feel numb so that you don’t have to think about what it is that is really upsetting you? Well, I get that from time to time.
Memorial Day.
This whole weekend I have been listening to NPR and there have numerous programs about this day in the life of our civic religion. And, it is a religious event…we remember people who have died for a particluar reason and we do rituals with flags and music and processions and parades and get-togethers and what-have-you. It happens every year since just after the Civil War. That’s when this first started. NPR told me so. NPR also said that it used to be called something else, like Decoration Day or something. I wonder if the name will change again someday. I wonder what the new name will/could be? If the name changes, will the event change?
Memorial Day.
What are we memorializing when we celebrate and participate in this day? To whom do we give memory? For what, pray tell, do we give remembrance on this day that we consecrate (make holy) the deaths of millions of soldiers since 1861. Did you know that over 650,000 soldiers died in the Civil War? I can scarcely imagine such a figure. And that was out of a total population of just a few millions, much much less than the total population of the U.S. today.
Memorial Day.
Such sadness. On this day, it seems to me that I instinctively desire to be away from people, because I am not excited, nor glad, nor jubilant for those who have “given their lives for this country.” I am sad that those people died. I am sad for all the people who have died in war, in violence. The sadness is overwhelming and sometimes I feel it so terribly that I want nothing to happen…just nothingness. …. …. Then I remember the people in this life that I am about to visit. There will be hamburgers (and veggie burgers) and chips. And beer! Beer makes everything better. Right? Maybe not.
Memorial Day.
What’s it mean to you?