Easily Amazed – Page 11 – This is a weblog that I, Ashley Cooper, began writing in 2003. In 2019 the site crashed. All of the content was saved, but the formatting lost. Please forgive the appearance! You can find current content at www.AshleyPCooper.com

Historical Election Results

“The analysis that yesterday’s wins were just wins for the democratic party (dp) are lazy at best (really no analysis at all). We can go deeper. What’s real is a whole bunch of regular people created informed people’s platforms and demands for transformative public policy, and real people ran, and people power won seats (some supported by the dp and many if not most, I’d bet, who weren’t). People power won yesterday.

Y’all also know in many of these places it’s hard if not impossible to get on the ballot if you don’t run on one of the two parties’ tickets right? So don’t let the D fool you. Sometimes it’s simply a tactic and the actual dp don’t show up to support at all-ask just about any Black woman or marginalized person running. For serious.”
~ Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson

This is what allows democracy to actually work, when the government is made up of all different types of people who represent all the different types of people living on this land. This is what it looks like to have publicly elected officials that are not just white men, folks who will ideally be more prepared to look out for the best interests, the humane interests, of a broader spectrum of the public. AND… now that the elections are done for the moment in many of our towns, it’s time for us, THE PEOPLE, to pay attention to what they are doing and keep holding our elected officials accountable for moving towards more fairness, justice, and opportunities for all people to live humane lives.

New to Being an Informed Voter

I am part of the masses who are JUST STARTING TO WAKE UP in regards to actively participating in the United States experiment in democracy. I believe democracy is a worthy experiment and thus I’m willing to play. I’ve always voted, usually in primaries and definitely in major elections. However I’ve not always been informed about who and what I’m voting for. I’m making a strong effort to change that. I believe if there is any hope in this country surviving in a way that is fair and respectful of all people who live on this land, it is going to take all of us with good hearts to PARTICIPATE (either in this current democratic system or in creating a new experiment).

ASHEVILLE — Early voting until Saturday. Election day November 7th.

What-if we all got involved in both voting and holding the elected officials accountable. What if we actually cared enough about where we live, who our neighbors are, and how those with power are yielding or not yielding their power. Are you willing to be part of this process? Both the voting and the after the vote?

As for who I’m voting for, I’m still not clear. I’m considering what combination of 3 people I think might work best together in ways that I think will be effective in our city. I know I’m voting for Sheneika Smith and most likely Kim Roney. I know I’m not voting for Gwen Wisler. There are aspects of Vijay Kapoor, Rich Lee and Dee Williams that I think our city needs. I’m voting no on the redistricting.

Restorative Justice with Juvenile Cases

“Our system has proven woefully inadequate, so we can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Said Jimmy Hung Chief Prosecutor for Juvenile courts in King County (Seattle, Washington). He doesn’t see evidence that jailing them changes anything. He’s most concerned about a system that funnels teenagers through detention and sees most leave no better than when they arrived — sometimes far worse.”

Last week I got to catch up with an old friend and someone whom I deeply respect and am honored to learn from and with, Saroeum Phoung. Honestly, he blew my mind as he shared about the incredible work they are doing in King county… on a systemic level and impacting the lives of thousands of people. Below is more from the articles:

Prosecutor Hung and his colleagues in King County took a risk and began implementing Peacemaking Circles, a form of restorative justice, for both misdemeanor and felony juvenile cases, working with lead consultant (and phenomenal human being) Saroeum Phoung from Pointonenorth Consulting LLC.

“The peacemaking process promises a clean start in return for hard conversations, intensive self-reflection, empathy-building and public amends.

“What people don’t realize is that this restorative justice work is harder than going to jail!” – Saroeum Phoung.

Getting the teen to connect his victim’s experience with his own feelings for family had been an essential goal for peace-circle leader Saroeum Phoung.

“There’s a solid amount of kids that this won’t work for — kids who think ‘I’m a gangbanger, and that’s all,’ ” said Vincente, now 18, who was a senior at Ingraham High School when he threatened another student, over social media, with a semi-automatic weapon.

Vincente met with the mother of his victim.

“I saw a lot of my mom in her, and I really began to understand what my actions had done to their whole family,” he said. “I thought it was just going to be why I’m a bad kid, but it turned out to be about fixing my family, too, getting at the root of why I was struggling. That’s really what it’s about.”

“If we can see kids enter the system and actually come out better on the other end,” Hung said. “That’s what we should be striving for.”

Equity Cafe @ Center for Nonprofit Excellence

Last week I also had the opportunity to work, play and learn with Sarah Nuñez. Sarah walks her talk — a compassionate, strategic, heart-centered intersectional organizer, healer and divine human being who is living the future now! The Center for Nonprofit Excellence asked Sarah to give a keynote speech. Rather than saying yes and taking the stage, she helped the conference organizers see that more value could come from the people present being in conversation around the importance and relevance of equity in their work. She pulled together an intergenerational, interracial team including Marcos Morales and Lettie Johnson and we hosted a World Café on the theme of Being Bold. Being Equitable. I am so grateful to have these role models and co-consipritors in my life.

Sarah Nuñez shared: Thanks for being a part of all the design, process, and execution of the program, AC!!! We needed you with us and are super grateful for your wisdom, guidance, and reminders of all the ways we are brilliant! You brought many moments of mindful transitions and creativity to the day! Thanks for being our anchor to the roots of love, connections, and visions we are living through! #itstime #wedeserveeachother

Staying Engaged in Local Politics

I’m at fault. For the majority of my 8 years of living in Asheville, I was not involved in government politics. I was absorbed in my own life and work and field of perceptions and not paying attention to the laws and policies being passed, enforced or not enforced locally. I paid my taxes, but paid little attention to how city officials voted or how city staff performed their jobs. I trusted that other people were paying attention while I was paying attention to other things. And here we are.

Now I wake up at 5am imagining how hotels could be transformed into affordable housing and staffed with the healers so prolific in asheville, folks providing services to those living in financial poverty instead of just financial wealth. I think about all these hotels that don’t pay a living wage. I think about the rapidly decreasing numbers of people of color in the city and the rapidly increasing numbers of white folks flooding in. And reading an article like this one, how our city manager and police chief wouldn’t step in to help when their help was requested, I have to reckon with the fact that I, and people like me, are at fault. We who are comfortable enough in our life bubbles rationalize not paying attention. That said, while I will take some of the blame. I won’t stop there. I won’t get stuck in my emotions, feel ashamed of my inaction, overwhelmed by the truth, and thus continue not to act, not pay attention, or not be involved.

I invite you to join me in paying attention and placing our hearts upon these issues in our city, if you aren’t already. We could really be a remarkable, model city for innovative solutions to some of the toughest challenges cities across the country are facing. Or we can be a beer, tourist city for white folks while increasing the numbers of children living in poverty and families living on the streets and move from the #2 most gentrified city into first place. The choice is made in each of our actions and inactions. My vote is for innovative, radical change that is rooted in moral actions that further the wellbeing of all humans, that looks at the nuances of our history and makes decisions about the future that take into consideration that history… and much more to this vision of what could be, but this post is long enough.

Article that inspired some of this sharing and reflection: Mt. Zion says hotel encroaching on church property

Because we are wiser together…

Last week, 80 leaders in Chicago opened my heart and inspired me to dream a new dream about how organizing is possible in a city. The majority of these folks use conversation as a tool for invoking the wisdom of the people, and supporting the people in organizing themselves to see the change and action they know is necessary in their communities — creating safer and more just communities, creating opportunities for healing. This group of people included folks using the World Café, Peacemaking Circles, and Art of Hosting practices in school districts, classrooms, with law enforcement and youth, to increase child protective rights and trauma-informed behaviors, to bring about social and emotional learning and restorative justice.

Midway through the day, I offered a woven poem, streaming together quotes that had been said throughout the day into one collective expression. You will hear snippets from these leaders sharing stories of their work, Juanita Brown offering insight into the roots of The World Cafe, and meaningful conversations about what we are all learning and what we hear these times calling for.

Deep gratitude to Lina Cramer and Renee Jackson and all of your mates who have been building the capacity for this inspiring network of leaders over the last 10 years.

The workshop was: We Were Made for These Times: Becoming Wiser Together (invitation here).

Here’s an audio of the woven poem.

Reflections on White Supremacy on the Rise

So many feelings around this…

Nazi’s and White Supremacists are willing to be violent and kill people. Period. They also feel emboldened right now.

This feels like an instance where police acted fast and used their resources to stop actual violent perpetrators (With the partnership of a community member that knew to remember the license plate in a time of crisis). I’m grateful for that.

I was traveling last week. One of the things that I noticed and mentioned to my white male friend was that I kept noticing myself being suspicious of a certain type of white men (clean cut, polished and pointy ones) when I passed them in the hotel. Many times I caught myself wondering what was under their suit? Is he one of the alt-right folks? My friend encouraged me to continue listening to that thought, let it warn and protect, and at the same time, to also hold the awareness that my mind is recognizing patterns and making generalizations.

In writing this post, I kept deleting my thought that — their sunburns feel symbolic. Then I went to learn more about the conference and read the NYtimes article that quoted Richard Spencer, a leader amongst the alt-right and the keynote of their conference:

“But now his tone changed as he began to tell the audience of more than 200 people, mostly young men, what they had been waiting to hear. He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”

As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. Mr. Spencer called out: “Hail Trump! Hail our people!” and then, “Hail victory!” — the English translation of the Nazi exhortation “Sieg Heil!” The room shouted back.

And from the article about the 3 men arrested:

“In a coincidence, two of the men who were arrested spoke to the Gainesville Sun before the shooting. Said William Fears to the newspaper: “Us coming in and saying we’re taking over your town, we’re starting to push back, we’re starting to want to intimidate back. We want to show our teeth a little bit because, you know, we’re not to be taken lightly. We don’t want violence; we don’t want harm. But at the end of the day, we’re not opposed to defending ourselves.”

I wonder about all the men who are trying to show their teeth right now, what is the healing that they need? All the white people who feel threatened by changing power structures and are also trying to show their teeth or actually firing bullets at people, actual bullets or the ones dressed as laws and policies. What do they need to start acting differently?

And always, I wonder what we do to shift this. In this case, I can only look to all the other white folks I share this planet with. These are our people. These are our fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, sons and neighbors. It is also many of our ancestors who did, in fact, create an America that was initially only for white, wealthy people. In that way, I think the first part of what Richard Spencer says has truth:

“America was, until this last generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity,” Mr. Spencer thundered. “It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.”

American governance is indeed the creation of white people. In most other ways, America was nourished and built by people of color.

I think that the rest of us white folks have a responsibility to help the future of America be one that is created by the vast diversity of people who inhabit this land, to share what we have inherited with those who are not white, and together, to recognize that this land actually belongs to Mother Earth.

Phew… so many feelings…