Gordon Cosby (1918-2013)
We departed Baltimore on Monday after lunch and 45 minutes later we were settled in the Northeast section of Washington DC. We stayed at the 8-room Nelson Good House thanks to Sheldon Good (see this for an archive of Sheldon's postings on Huff Post), the associate director of Eastern Mennonite University's Washington Scholar's Program. Tom has had an internet relationship with Sheldon for about 3 years now. They first connected when Sheldon was the editor of Menno Weekly Review's blog site (see this for an archive of Tom's work on MWR) and heard from someone(?) about Tom's EasyYolk blog. They clicked over the substance of theological & political engagement, but eventually they found themselves connecting on topics of everyday life as well.
We had never met Sheldon face-to-face, so this was something we were really looking forward to this week in the Capital City. On Monday night, we shared dinner and beers with Sheldon and his friend Aaron Wheldon, who we quickly discovered, was a fellow classmate of ours at Fuller Seminary. Aaron, and his wife Lindsay, have since gone from the world of Anabaptism to Catholicism after they both have continued theological education beyond their Masters of Divinity.
On Tuesday, we slept in and rested during the day, catching up on some reading, writing and eating. For dinner, we gathered at the home of Rose Berger and Heidi Thompson, a couple who met at Sojourners Magazine more than a decade ago. Their "first date" was at a dive bar just a couple of blocks from the Sojo office. They were deep in conversation when a group of young men in ski masks robbed the joint at gunpoint. Heidi was facing the thieves while Rose continued her monologue despite the look of horror on Heidi's face. When Rose clued in, she immediately shifted her words to the ski masks, reasoning with them to leave the crowd alone to their beverages.
Rose, born and bred in Sacramento, has been working at Sojourners since the mid-80s and, for the past decade, has been on the editorial staff. She is a well-known figure at the intersection of faith and activism. In fact, we found out just a few days ago that she got arrested for civil disobedience at an action at a lobbying firm that apparently declared the Keystone Pipeline to be safe for the environment. Rose is a widely published journalist and poet, but doesn't take herself too seriously. Her warm presence is accented by a hearty laugh and a consistently verbal listening pattern that ensures you that she's on your team.
Heidi, from Youngstown, Ohio, transitioned out of Sojo and has been working with PICO, a faith-rooted activist organization committed to ensuring the dignity and equal rights of all people, the immigrant community being their most current focus. She prepared the meal for us and during her "tour of the table" before we ate, she made sure to point out the "complete protein" made available from the combination of bean salad and quinoa. The woman knows the way to our heart. Heidi possesses a curious spirit, a great question-asker who takes the truth seriously and certainly isn't afraid to take the conversation to the next level.
On Wednesday morning, we awoke early and joined Sheldon for a 6-mile run around the DC Mall. We parked at the Smithsonian and beelined it around the Capitol and then beyond the Supreme Court building and then back past the Air & Space Museum and The Washington Monument all the way to the
After a quick shower and breakfast, we hustled over to the Potter's House Cafe & Bookstore to meet Tim Kumfer of The Servant Leadership School. The very first creative non-profit ministry of Church of the Saviour, Potter's started back in 1960 to minister to the needs of the neighborhood of Northwest DC. CofS has since added more than 3 dozen other non-profits and the church, at the legendary leadership of her late founder, Gordon Cosby, has remained small, branching out into 8 different cells of various brands and blends around the city.
Kumfer, a graduate of Duke Divinity School and a former intern at Sojo, is passionate about popular theological education--a space for ordinary people to learn and grow in their pursuit of a more radical faith and praxis. A participant with the CofS community 8th Day (which meets in the Potter's House every Sunday evening), he has just recently been recruited to usher Potter's into a new phase of outreach as the neighborhood rapidly changes. Potter's is set to temporarily close in just a few weeks, or as Tim so eloquently put it, take some needed time of "sabbath rest." In fact, all their books were 75% off when we were there. This set off an orgy of consumerism, mostly from Tom.
On Thursday, we drove 40 miles to Fort Meade, Maryland for the closing arguments of the Bradley Manning trial. Here's how Sheldon described the scene:
I will not forget this place: the most innocently nondescript "hall of power" one could imagine, tucked away two miles into the Fort Meade military base (a stark contrast to the pristine "halls of power" flaunted across the National Mall). And I will not forget sitting, listening, agonizing through 6 hours of the proceeding, and, with exhaustion setting in, deciding to leave early -- knowing, however, that Manning could not leave, that he may never experience freedom again, wondering if that is fair and just, wondering if we'll ever know the truth.
We joined 32 other spectators in the courtroom and three dozen others in an overflow portable with closed-circuit TV coverage of the trial. Most of these folks were curious activists who wore black shirts with TRUTH scrawled on the front. On the day we attended the festivities, the lead attorney for the prosecution took up 6 hours for his closing remarks (in contrast, the next day, the defense took 3 hours). Much of it was technical mumbo-jumbo but some of the rather disturbing moments that stood out were calling Manning an "informational anarchist" and his repeatedly ironic claim that Manning was only motivated by his quest for notoriety while methodically doing whatever it took to cover up his misdeeds.
This was a very difficult day for us, but we are truly grateful to have participated in it. We'll NEVER forget it. The whole scene was depressingly ironic. Manning is being tried for disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the public. These documents horrifically indict the US government as an Empire spreading violent death all over the world in the names of "peace" and "security." Manning, a bullied gay soldier stationed in Iraq, witnessed plenty of these atrocities and plotted to unveil it to the world by leaking just some of it to Wikileaks. He was arrested and relegated to long days in solitary confinement in a small cell. Now, he is being tried by a military court, largely out of view of the American Public. He will remain in prison for a long, long time. And the US government will be off the hook.
On our way back to DC on Thursday, we talked about the meaning of our time at Fort Meade and what we might do to make Manning's actions a more powerful Reality in our own lives and in the world. It's easy to become apathetic, cynical, indifferent or just overwhelmed with a story like Bradley Manning. Like the response to the unjust violent death of Jesus, many folks get by one more day by casting the significance into the future, when Redemption might magically come at the hands of Triumphal Divinity. The death of Jesus (and the life of Manning) can become Real when we witness the corruption and terror of the Powers (exposed by Jesus and Manning) and find the courage to nonviolently & creatively confront the manifold injustices routinely displayed by governments, corporations, families and faith communities. This is a Task worthy of our lives. At the very least, this day reminded us of that.
On Thursday night, we dined at Busboys & Poets, a coffeehouse, bookstore and cafe well-known to activists in DC. We got to finally meet Jenn, Sheldon's girlfriend (we weren't sure she really existed). We shared our stories over paninis and veggie burgers.
On Friday, we joined the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house for their weekly protest and rally at noon on Friday in front of the White House. Art Laffin led us in word and song as we dressed up as Gitmo prisoners, many of whom are engaged in a daring hunger strike protesting their own maltreatment & torture. A powerful experience of "sitting shiva" with these prisoners, one which penetrated us to the core.
We digested the action with a walk to the Lincoln Memorial (which had been vandalized that morning) and the newly inaugurated Martin Luther King Memorial.
We found ourselves between the Capitol and Washington Monument communing with Kelly Nau, an old friend of Lindsay's from college. Kelly has been a nurse at a children's hospital in DC for the past year, after spending the last 2 years working at a Sudanese refugee camp. Our time with Kelly was short but sweet, as we shared in a time of mutual encouragement about our respective journeys since our last meeting (sometime back in 2010). We hope to reconnect with her again soon.
On Saturday morning, we participated in a march and rally against climate change with a group of ordinary activists called Summer Heat, who spent the week marching from Camp David all the way to DC.
Sounds like an amazing week! Glad that you got to move Sheldon into the world of real relationships beyond the internet realm. Thanks for writing graciously and reporting from the road for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteWOW...you guys must be EXHAUSTED!!! HOW AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteSteve, lol, yes! It was wonderful to move our relationship with Sheldon into real time. ;) Such a gift to get to spend such quality Time together. We miss him already!
ReplyDeleteStac, though D.C. was chalk full of some pretty inspiring and impactful things, overall it gave us a lot of opportunity to get some needed rest. We agreed it was a very well-balanced week for two introverts like us! ;) And yes....amazing. The Bradley Manning trial will stick with us (and hopefully keep working on us!) for a long time..... (same with Guantanamo...) So grateful for these experiences.