Meeting and crafting

Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship met at Sue's house Wednesday evening to decide how to deal with yet another Alt Right march (hyped as a "peaceful march") and another Antifa response to that one. We decided not to have a public meditation this time because we resist allowing the Alt Right to set the agenda for when we do our public meditations. Instead we are offering a public meditation on June 21 in support of Extinction Rebellion. Here's the statement we crafted together about why we won't do a public meditation on June 29:

Rose City Antifa has identified a call for a so-called “peaceful march" sponsored by the Portland chapter of the Proud Boys on Sunday, June 29, at 1p.m. in downtown Portland and has asked for a gathering in Chapman Square at noon on that day “to defend their community against this incursion of racist political violence.” 

Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship has often offered public meditations at times of conflict between fascists and antifascists, but we resist responding to the desire of the Alt Right to demand attention and to glorify itself in the name of “love” while broadcasting hate, and bullying and harming innocent people. We resist allowing the Alt Right to set the date, place, and time of our response to this violence. Therefore WE ARE NOT OFFERING A PUBLIC MEDITATION on this occasion.

We call on our friends to hold the Proud Boys accountable to their stated purpose of “peacefulness” and “love” and, in the words of Rose City Antifa, to “unite against fascism creeping into our streets.” 

We are choosing to demonstrate in a variety of ways: 1) by sitting in our own homes and sending metta; 2) by showing up (with a buddy, on our own recognizance) to bear silent witness to the event and its participants; 3) by going downtown to accompany friends who are vulnerable to violence, including people of color, people of Muslim and Jewish faith/culture, and small-bodied people and children in the downtown area; and 3) by populating businesses owned by racial and religious minorities throughout the day. Others may have other ways of demonstrating. We support each of us finding the response that qualifies as Right Action on this occasion.

The Peace Roses are in Sue's garden, photographed immediately after a summer rain shower.