Sue's event went well

About a hundred people showed up for the second anniversary of the Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship's monthly "Thawing ICE" meditative walk. Usually we just meet, circumambulate the building three times, meet again, and go home. This time Sue had created an activity. She passed out wooden beads, one for each meditator, and then she asked people to hold the bead and think of a child they know and love, and their intentions, wishes, or prayers for that child; and then to extend that thought to the children who have been taken from their parents and incarcerated, some in cages, many in filthy conditions, some subject to rape and torment. Then each bead was dropped onto a cord and made into a chain of prayer beads that will accompany us on our walks for the coming year. After that we did the circumambulation, but only once, because the Portland Raging Grannies were ready with a lullaby for the children (first extra), and after the lullaby one of them announced (second extra) that they have committed to fast for a day each week until the children are all reunited with their families or entrustred to their sponsors. Finally, we had announcements (there are so many events going on to protest this whole nightmare that the handout with a list of actions people can take was four pages long). Then Sue left the beads on top of the cage created by Aimee Sitarz to hold a pair of her bronze shoes (last extra). 

A police car drove up, watched us for a while, and left. Fortunately no one was interrogated or threatened. 

I hope the event tomorrow goes as well as this one did. I am a little anxious about it. There have been rumors of possible attacks by police or by fascists of the so-called Alt Right. At the moment 611 people have said they are coming, and another 2000 are "Interested." There is another vigil at the same time, in a different part of town, and 1000 say they are going to that one, with another 2500 "interested." Usually we have about half the number that say they are coming to anything, but today Sue had twice the number who said they would come. So it's impossible to predict. 

We do know that people are experiencing what's called "moral suffering." It's when you see harm being done and you can't stop it. May we all have the moral nerve to sit with our moral suffering and to stand up for justice, for compassion, for humanity. 

I am on the laptop or the phone all the time, but soon this phase of the effort will be over. Compared with people in New Orleans, who may lose their homes and all they have in the floods; and compared with people coming across the border, fleeing climate change and violence, our anxiety is nothing. All we're doing is having a vigil. When it's over, we still have our homes to go to, our grandchildren to hug, and our friends. We cannot even imagine what it means to lose everything we know.