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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Occupy! Occupy?


Occupy!  Occupy?
Sermon by Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo
Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead, MA

Every time I go through a security line at the airport, I think of my friend, Suzi.  As I take off belt and shoes and place them in a grey bins, I think of her.  As I remember, invariably at the last minute,  my barrette sets off the scanner, I think of her.  And from time to time when I find myself standing just so while a stranger’s hands pat me down, I think of her so I don’t think of how invasive it feels to be touched so intimately by that stranger.
The reason I think of Suzi is she has found a way to avoid that moment!  Completely avoid it!  She simply strips down to a bikini!  She told me that she wears a bikini “because I don't believe in giving up my right to privacy by going through the scanner and do not want people touching/groping my body without my permission which I wouldn’t give unless we had an intimate relationship. So, I did a little research and a bathing suit is considered "outerwear" so I go through the line in a bikini so they can clearly see there is nothing concealed and therefore no reason to grope me.”
The Oakland airport security folks know her pretty well.  They call her ………. Bikini girl! The Phoenix security folks know her well too.  She was our videographer during the 2010 protests about human rights violations.  When she stripped to her bikini leaving Phoenix, they held her for 18 hours.  Probably less to do with the bikini than being on a special list created by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
When I say that ‘I think of Suzi’ when I’m at the airport, I’m not picturing myself in a bikini!  Even with a tan and a drop of thirty pounds!  But not because of the weight or the lack of tan.  Because I have conflicted feelings about the issue and her message.  On one hand I know I feel more secure getting on that plane knowing screening for weapons and things that can turn planes into weapons and make them go poof in the air.  AND I’m also aware that those processes are not failsafe AND I know the processes that make me feel secure are used to profile and harass people of color and particularly Mid-Eastern descent AND I know how miserable the processes can be for people with disabilities AND I was bothered by clear abuses of the processes AND I know in my heart I want some system in place before I get on that plane AND I know that Suzi’s choice will never by mine AND I know she has my respect and admiration for being so thoroughly authentic and so darn edgy in her message. She puts it right out …. There!  Truly out there!!!
The power of her message is that everytime I’m in an airport, I think of her, of the issues and about my own place in our flawed, oppressive system.  That’s the power of an act so counter cultural.  It’s a power that has been harnessed time after time throughout history.  It’s a power of the people.  It’s a power that alters our world.  
When we think of countercultural, those of us of a certain age may think we owned that power.  Images of people putting flowers in the ends of guns, free love at Woodstock, flower power as ‘the people’ came out in increasingly huge numbers to say no to war, yes to personal freedom and no to ‘the establishment.  Images of burning bras, the creation of Women-only spaces, communal living, sexuality education, messaging through music, exploration of the body, mind and spirit, at times through hallucinogenic drugs.  The phrase counter cultural seems synonymous with ‘the 60s’ doesn’t it?  And it had that same power.  It was so counter cultural it had people thinking even if they weren’t wearing beads in their hair, pasting flower power decals on their Volkswagon vans and bugs or actively protesting anything.  Those who led that cultural clash had an entire country reacting, thinking about the issues and about their own place in our flawed, oppressive system.  In my lifetime counter culturalism was at it’s peak.
But we really weren’t the first.  We have limited time so I won’t go decade by decade.  Instead let me offer up just one.  A hippie-ish sort of guy, but well before the 60s and 70s.  Sandals, robe sort of clothing, long hair, anti-establishment, all about community, cares for the poor, values the marginalized, trusts the authority within, a lightening rod of sorts for the local authorities, some of them may have even called him a rabble rouser.  Any guesses?
That’s right – Jesus.  One of our finest counter cultural activists.  A man who believed he had a voice, we all have a voice, that we are all called to follow a doctrine of love for one another and that we can change the world!  Just like when I think of Suzi, when I think of Jesus, I think of the issues and about my own place in our flawed, oppressive system.  The power of counter cultural activism. 
And now, zip ahead to right now – and there’s another voice looking to be heard.   Who here has been down to Occupy Wall Street or Boston?  Who here has heard about it?  This recent and growing counter cultural movement.
I’ve been ‘Occupying’ and I’ll ‘Occupy’ some more.  It took me spending some time down there to better understand ‘what’ Occupy was and then to see ‘who’ I was in relationship to Occupy and ‘whether’ I belonged.  I left after the first day a believer.  Three things claimed me
1.      the understanding that the gathering of people itself is a powerful message
2.      the institutional response
3.      the linkage between Occupy and the attacks on human rights we’re seeing all over this country under the guise of immigration issues
The Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street inspired by the Arab Spring, has now spread across the country and world.  While some see chaos, a lack of messaging and a lack of appreciation for how the real world works, I see beauty in community seeking to use shared leadership, addressing communal concerns around internal oppression and exploring how to be heard.  Too often our mainstream culture requires we receive information and change in an orderly top down fashion.  This is anything but and it’s frightening and messy mostly because it doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen.  I see beauty in people from all over Massachusetts bringing blankets and food to people who are willing to say ‘Hello – we too are the people and we’ve got some concerns!’  I see beauty in clergy offering chaplain services in a little tent that invites spiritual reflection and meditation.  I see beauty in chefs stepping forward to coordinate meals and I see beauty in an organic human microphone system which ensures that each voice is heard.  Although as I write that I think of the non-hearing but see beauty in knowing the Occupy movement is such that accessibility concerns are being addressed as well.  The gathering itself has a beauty that is so powerful it in itself says loudly and clearly ‘We the people.’  What frustrates our mainstream culture is we aren’t comfortable with incomplete sentences.  And we are not long on patience.  The gathering is the message.
Then there’s the response.  The movement has been ignored, trivialized, demonized, admired, found it’s way into presidential campaign speeches and hailed as a new tomorrow. Law enforcement and governmental reactions has ranged from support and engagement to instant, forceful suppression.  Some have garnered both.  A recent check-in from mostly UUs report the following:
·        Occupy Tuscon has arrests, every night. But it’s casual.  Protestors in the park after 10:30 form a line, receive their citation from the officers and then head back to their tents.  They’ve had somewhere around 400 arrests.
·       Occupy LA includes a children's village and a buddhist meditation tent.
·       Occupy Wall Street is bringing in hardy weather tents. The police presence is getting larger and is well armed.
·        Occupy Boston has calmed some but the earlier arrests were harsh. Pat Scanlon from Veterans from Peace reported an abusive arrest.
·        In West Virginia three locations are working on better communication between one another regarding events and are committed to non-violence.  In Charleston they report a good relationship with the mayor.
·        In Hendersonville, NC, they’re working on a mission statement and doing outreach to include greater diversity in age, economic status and race and ethinicity
·        In Portland, OR, interfaith prayer vigils
·        Midland,  Michigan, peaceful protest outside of Bank of America.  In Saginaw, they occupy on Fridays.
·        In Indiana, multiple small local towns are seeing Occupy gatherings
·       In Pasadena there is movement out to the smaller communities,
·        In Augusta, ME, a positive relationship with the Governor, visits from State Senators and a good relationship with local law enforcement.
·       In Philly, peaceful arrests ,no violence. Interfaith spirituality tent has been erected by the Quakers
·       In Minneapolis, MN concerns about the cold weather.
·       In Rochester, NY some arrests, some Catholic nuns bringing food. And this comment
“We are in an area/county of high unemployment and this is giving many people a means by which to address that and express frustration, collectively.”

There is so much in that one line ?  A way to be heard.  This movement, like other counter cultural efforts – seeking a way to be heard. 

Get us out of Vietnam!
End Jim Crow Laws!
Give Women Equal Rights! 
Stop Nuclear Power!
Save Our Planet!
And remember Julia Butterfly Hill?  The woman who lived in a 1500 year old Redwood Tree for 738 days to stop it from being cut down?

Hear us now!
See us!
Make decision that represent all of us. 

I often say what a sermon is NOT about and I do so again now.  This is not about the outcome.  This is not about the outcome in the sense that a list of demands will not likely be presented and shuffled here or there and maybe some bank or corporate regulation will change or suddenly the top tier will be taxed differently.  This is about the process.  Just as with every other counter cultural engagement we’ve seen the ask may look messy but at it’s core it’s quite simple, not about us, without us.  A phrase long used by the disabilities community.  Not about us, without us.  Here are some of the voices that want to be heard.  They were shared in an add for OWS:

·        I want to see more serious political conversation starting to happen
·        I want corporations out of the government and I want people back in
·        I want peace rather than militarization
·        I want the top  wealthiest Americans to be taxed higher and I want that money to go to education
·        I want economic justice
·        I want to be able to speak my voice without jeopardizing my job
·        I want a greater regulation of the banks and the markets
·        I want my kids to have jobs and health care
·        I want true democracy for the 99% of us who don’t have it anymore
Some will say, everyone here has a voice. This is a democracy after all.  Having spent time down in Dewey Square, I am sympathetic to those who say it’s not true.  Remembering back to the 60s and early 70s I am sympathetic to those who say it’s not true.  And I believe the Occupy Movement has found a way back into the conversation. And it matters.  The voice of this movement is being heard. 
I said, three things that grabbed me – the beauty of the movement, the institutional response and this third thing.  This thing I know for certain here in my gut and heart but am struggling to to put words up here in my mind.  But I’ll try.
There is a storm brewing in our country that has been quietly building steam for some time.  The storm is about ‘othering’ people who threaten that mainstream cultural majority.  The demographics of this country are changing rapidly. A report this year from Congressional Research Service named Hispanics the largest minority and rapidly growing.  They projected a change from one in seven persons in 2002 to nearly one in three by 2050.  Add to this, projections from the pew forum that see the number of Muslims more than doubling over the next two decades, rising from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030, making Muslims roughly as numerous as Jews or Episcopalians are in the United States today.
I don’t doubt for a moment that the change in demographics is linked the increase in hate crimes and legislation targeting all other.  Not just immigrants and Muslims but people who are transgender, people living with disabilities, people who are living at poverty level or below poverty level.  And this is where the intersection of the storm and Occupy Movement intersect.
Throughout history, peoples have been manipulated through fear.  While distracted, horrid, hideous things have taken place.  Genocide, financial rape, corruption, the destruction of environment.  We are living in a system rooted in corporate profits but currently at the expense of our working class and potentially at the expense of our future.  There is everything in it for the system to have the focus of the multitude on ‘those immigrants,’ ‘those terrorists,’ ‘those people.’  There is everything in it for us to remember that we are the system and we have the power to insist on being heard, to take back the decisions by electing representation accountable to our voices and to pay attention.  Always and in all ways.
Just like when I think about Suzi, and just like when I think about Jesus, when I think of this new counter cultural movement, I think of the issues and about my own place in our flawed, oppressive system.  The power of counter cultural activism is alive and well and currently Occupying Dewey Square in Boston.  ~
I began with a story about ‘Bikini Girl’ and I will close with one too.  On Wednesday night Suzi went to Occupy Oakland.  She didn’t strip down but did wear her faith and her beliefs,  There, wearing her bright yellow Standing on the Side of Love T-shirt, she told them she was a seminarian.  And she told them she loved them. They didn’t pat her down or arrest her.  They   tossed two flash grenades between her legs and a teargas canister just past my head.  I note that she was nowhere near the violent protesters and it would be ten minutes before the order to disperse would be given. Her ears are still ringing.
And so she is with me today as she is in the airport.  Just as she and I differ on airport security, and here we may have each differed on every situation that has received strong counter cultural responses -  feminist movement, war, free love, race relations, and the respective roles of individuals, institutions and government, accessibilities,  each of us may differ on how we understand the issues the Occupy movement is calling out.  But I hope we will each open ourselves to think of the Occupiers, think of the issues and about our own place in a flawed, oppressive system.
I thank you for listening ~

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