[Danielle Balocca]: Hey Medford Bites listeners. Many of you are aware of the anti-Semitic materials used at a recent holiday celebration at City Hall. This event is a serious one that caused significant pain for many Medford residents. Since these types of incidents should be addressed with immediacy and care, it feels important to state that there is a future episode in the works to respond to this event that is hopefully representative of the people this incident impacted. After this intro, you will hear some recorded comments submitted by Medford residents in response to the Menorah incident. Thank you to the folks that have spoken up about this issue. It's a type of bravery that you shouldn't still need, and I'm hopeful we can move through this in a way that can feel healing. A brief content message about the rest of this intro. I'm going to talk about themes related to sexual violence. If you prefer not to listen to this intro, please fast forward to the interview. In my full-time profession, I work as a Councilor to support survivors of sexual violence and their loved ones. As many of you know, a violent sexual assault was recently perpetrated in the Middlesex Fells. Some coverage of this event talked about the victim being targeted for being small and attractive. It's important to be clear that this is not a reason or a cause of sexual assault, nor is walking alone in the trails that many of us find peaceful, beautiful, and calming. It is a true shame that the person who perpetrated this crime not only directly harmed their victim, but also shook the sense of safety for us all. This never should have happened. I say this with the understanding of the importance of doing what we can to increase our sense of safety in the world. It's not fair to feel like we need to be on guard or be able to defend ourselves in a place that should be safe. We should not be made to feel that if we are unable to fight or flee from an attacker that we are somehow at fault, or for the harm that was caused to us, or that we should have done more. This attack should never have happened. In the wake of such a shocking event, there are many normal ways for secondary survivors those who are not present at the event but inevitably experience a traumatic impact by learning of an event to respond. Fear, anger, and denial are some of these expected reactions. In response to these unwanted and unpleasant ways of feeling, you might notice yourself being more intentional about the choices that you make for your own personal safety. You might feel less safe walking alone. You might be more mindful of the way you dress or the time of day you go out. You might also notice yourself comparing your choices to those of survivors as a way to access a sense of safety and control. These are all very normal ways to try to combat the negative feelings and impacts that you get when learning about or experiencing sexual violence in our community. Since sexual violence is a way of exercising power and control, It is normal to think about ways to take back a sense of power and control. This desire to have some control over your personnel safety is completely separate from blame. The only people or persons to blame for sexual assault are the perpetrators of sexual assault. If you feel safer going out with people, carrying pepper spray, taking a self-defense course, that is also normal, and you should feel empowered to do what you need to do for your own sense of safety. but no one is ever attacked because they didn't do these things. They're attacked because someone makes a decision to attack them. My hope for us all is that we can come together as a community, take care of each other, and feel empowered to reclaim the fellows as a place we can continue to enjoy. If you're searching for more support around the emotional impact of this event or other incidents of sexual violence, I've put some links in the show notes to local and national resources. to support survivors. I know that this event, the antisemitic menorah, and other recent incidents of violence in our city are a lot to hold. The theme of the conversation in our interview today is that of darkness and light in the holiday season. We have had lots of darkness, both literally and metaphorically, and my hope is that we can find connection and community and movement out of the darkness. Up next, you'll hear statements from a few Medford residents in response to the menorah display during the City Hall event. Thank you for listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, this is Shira Cohen-Goldberg, and I'm just sending you a little message about my response to the display of the Not Manohara at the City Hall mayor-sponsored holiday celebration. And so I think that what I wanted to say just initially is that it's easy for me as a Jew with my Jewish family to really feel invisible during this period of, you know, between Thanksgiving through Christmas. And it's something that I've lived with my entire life and, you know, grow up from the age of five having to tell random people who are just trying to be friendly that I don't celebrate Christmas that Santa Claus isn't coming to my house, that no, I don't have a Christmas tree. And so this time of year is a, it's a very sensitive time of year for myself and I would say for many Jewish people. And so here we are, right after Thanksgiving, we began celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. And it was very early this year. And this year, because we're sort of coming out of isolation, my husband and I decided to really make this special for our three children and really live it up and celebrate in all ways. And we got together with other families for four out of the eight nights, which was pretty tiring, but also pretty amazing. Um, and so then to see advertised this, um, this quote unquote holiday celebration sponsored by the mayor, um, on the fourth night of Hanukkah, I thought, oh, well, that's, um, that could be a fun thing to go to. Well, we determined not to go because I did not see in any of the, um, in any of the advertisements or any of the publicity, any acknowledgement that Hanukkah was actually currently happening at the moment. And you know, and obviously Christmas is over three weeks away. And so ultimately, My husband and I decided to stay back from this celebration, did not really feel like it was going to be inclusive of Hanukkah, felt very annoyed that here is this mayor sponsored quote unquote holiday celebration with everything having to do with Christmas, no acknowledgement that that there are other people who don't celebrate Christmas who might be also welcome. And so I was getting all set to compose a letter to the mayor about my dismay and my feelings of invisibility as a Jew in Medford at this time, and then come to find out this diagram of a so-called menorah was on display as like, a little acknowledgement of the fact that Jewish people might be celebrating Hanukkah at this point. And so I have so much more to say about this. But this is all I'm going to say right now. And, and just in some, what happened at the City Hall holiday celebration, just serves to underscore my feeling of my observance being completely invisible at this time of year. And having lived with this feeling since I was at least five, if not younger, that's been upwards of 40 years. And it's a long time to be feeling that way and to be raising children in the same climate. So that said, Hope to speak to you, Danielle, at some point later and have a good day.
[Melanie Raelin]: I was shocked. I didn't go to the event. I saw the image afterwards on online discussions and at first I just couldn't even comprehend what I was looking at as a Jewish person my entire life. I never saw those images before and then it was explained to me as part of a messianic Jewish kind of cult or subsect that it really has nothing to do with the Jewish religion. And it just felt completely offensive, completely exclusionary. And it really made me relate so much more to the members of our black and brown Asian communities, Muslim communities, all the communities that are always othered. I just assumed that the Jewish community was understood. And it just made it very clear that Nobody of our background was in the room at all when this was discussed or researched. And even when it was consulted, the advice from the person who was consulted, who was a Jewish individual, was ignored.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you to MJ and Shira, as well as others who have expressed support and solidarity. Now on to today's interview. All right, thank you all for being here and joining me today. I wonder if we could start by introducing yourselves with your name, pronouns, and your role in the community.
[Terry Carter]: I'm Terry. I use E for Eugene. That's my middle name, Cotter. And I'm born and raised in West Medford, not too far from here. And I'm the poet laureate of Medford. I work at the West Medford Community Center managing elder services. Been there for almost 12 years now. And, you know, I don't live in Medford anymore. I live on the South Shore. But I love the city, all that it represents, good, bad, and indifferent. And I'm happy to be here this morning. Awesome.
[Danielle Balocca]: Terry, could you share your pronouns with us?
[Terry Carter]: Oh, him, his, and her. Him, his, and him, and his. Him, him, him, and his. I mean, I'm still getting used to that. I've been doing it for very long. So him and his. Awesome. Thank you.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Well, Terry, I just have to say, if you didn't tell people you didn't live here, nobody would know. I'm Wendy Miller Olapade. I'm the pastor at Sanctuary UCC. And I also happen to be the chairperson president of the Medford Interfaith Clergy Association. and the board president of Medford Health Matters. And an activist and our church model is such that I'm very focused on civic engagement and equity and justice and just being out in the community helping make community and spread love around. So my pronouns are she, her, and hers. I live in Medford in the church's parsonage up on Brooke Street in West Medford, and I'm there with my two adult sons, Alex and Aaron, about whom I'm very proud. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Bruce Taylor, and I'm the minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Medford, and I'm into my second year. We're just starting again to meet in person, which is like starting all over again for me. And I live in Nashua, New Hampshire. My pronouns are he, him, his.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you for introducing yourselves. So to start, there's a question that is sort of a common thread through all the episodes, which is your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[Terry Carter]: I guess it's probably the place where I last ate out. And I didn't have a full meal there, but I had some really good appetizers. And that's Salvatores down in Medford Square.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: That's a tough question, Danielle. But I gotta go with Snappy Patty's because it's my neighbor and it's my friend and my kiddo works there when he's not in college. And it's just a great neighborhood spot. And my favorite thing to eat there is the Salmon, the grilled salmon, and often I have that on the fabulous Caesar salad. There's something about Nick's Caesar dressing that's pretty fabulous.
[SPEAKER_04]: So one of the side benefits of being working in Medford is to be able to eat at Nappy's Italian restaurant. Oh, yeah. And can go from the simplest thing like lasagna to something, some fancy seafood, but it's all good. It's all good.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right, well, we're kind of gathered here today to talk about the current sort of holiday season. And you are sort of here representing different parts of the Medford community. And I think we're looking to kind of talk about what the season means to you, how you relate to it in your different traditions, and how you sort of think about it as a community or how the impact on the Medford community. It's a big question, so whoever would like to start.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Well, maybe I'll start since we are since, you know, Christmas is such an overwhelming energy in our society and in our culture. And I just want to acknowledge we talked about this before we got started. I want to acknowledge that we're having this conversation in the context of, you know, a really hard time for our city around the experience of our Jewish neighbors and what happened a couple of weeks ago. At the city extravaganza and you know I think it's, that's just such a microcosm for how much tension there is in this time of year for people there's tension because the society wants us to spend money and buy things. There's tension because of, you know, diversity and overwhelming perspective of Christian culture in our society, the supremacy of Christianity. And so I just want to name that as part of the conversation, because it's a lot. It's a lot, right? And I think Terry's going to talk about Kwanzaa, and that partly that's bringing out the other cultures that are in our country and in our city. And Bruce is going to talk about some of the other traditions that his faith represents at this time of year. You know, when you first called me, I was excited by the question that you asked, which was, you know, isn't Jesus kind of about equity and justice? And from my perspective, that's it. Like, that's it. That's what this season really lands in. It's about love. love came down in the body of Jesus is how we think about it in my tradition. God slipped in beside us on that holy night. In order to change everything and turn our attention to love for everyone and everything, including the earth, right? So for me, this idea of light coming into the dark, which kind of aligns with all of the other traditions we're gonna hear about today, that light coming into the dark is the light of love. So let me stop there for a minute and let my colleagues say something too.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'd like to continue that thought about light coming into the dark. It seems that everybody is sensitive in this part of the world to what time of year it is. The days are getting shorter, and the cold is coming. And we're warmed up with the image of a candle and a window, for example. We're looking forward to, even though winter is just starting, we're already trying to see through to the other side. But we end up having these celebrations which allow us to to experience warmth. And we reach out for the closeness of families or people that we haven't seen for a long time. And that's the context in which we celebrate our different religious holidays.
[Terry Carter]: Nice. Well, you know, it's interesting. I speak on and write about, you know, kind of the cultural experience of of African-Americans, and a lot actually about that in conjunction with being born and raised in West Medford, Massachusetts. And one of the things that I think I was asked to reflect on was the nature of the Kwanzaa holiday. So I'll maybe give a little bit of a backdrop. Late 60s, Professor Milena Ron-Karenga, was thinking about ways to kind of get the African American community more closely knit. And based on some East African, West African, Central African traditions, many of which are actually replicated in the Caribbean, came up with this notion of a holiday observance around Christmas, but not interfering with or replacing or supplanting Christmas in any way. And it came to be known as Kwanzaa, which is loosely translated from the Kiswahili, first fruits. And basically it was a celebration of gathering, of harvest, of people coming back together in community. And it was focused on seven principles. which, again, Kiswahili are known as the Nguzo Saba. And I'm probably not going to be able to remember all of them, but Imani is faith, and Kujichagulia is creativity. And I may get one of these wrong. There's Kuumba. There's Nia, which is purpose. And there's Ujimaa, which is self-worth and cooperative economics. And then there's two others. In any case, The notion was to get people to kind of coalesce around these principles and then have a celebration in which the principles could be talked about and could be embodied. A seven day celebration with a lot of symbolism. There is, similar to the menorah in the Jewish culture, there is a candelabra, which is called a canara. The canara has seven candles, three red, three green, and one black. The black is in the center, representing the red, the blood of the people, green, the land, and its primacy in the community. And the black representing skin and being a black race. So this whole notion of bringing folks together around Legacy around community, around self-preservation and self-celebration is what Kwanzaa is all about. The idea is that it would be celebrated from December 26th, the day after Christmas, and then it would go to January 1st. On each of the seven days, they would light a candle. starting from the outside and working their way into the black candle in the center. And the notion was that it would celebrate the children because they would be the ones who would light the candles, recite the principles, because each principle actually has, you know, phrasing that Karenka created, you know, to go with it. At the end of the celebration there would be gifts for the children and they would be primarily educational gifts. The gifts are called zawadi. There would be ears of corn laid on a straw mat. straw mat is the mkeka or the foundation, and then there would be almost like a horn, a horn of plenty, and then there would be fruits and nuts on that. There would be a kikombe or unity cup, and it would be passed around as a celebration of the elders, and everybody would take a sip from the cup. Folks would reflect on what they were thankful for during the course of the year, and that would be kind of the nature of the celebration. Now, I'll be honest with you, I don't know a lot of folks in Medford proper who celebrated end to end, but I know a lot of folks who may, like our family, who may, on one day, kind of bring the whole thing together. So when we have our Christmas celebration, which is usually a family Christmas celebration, which is usually on Christmas Eve, the last part of it will be a celebration of Kwanzaa. And you know, the children will, you know, in some cases they'll perform, you know, they'll read and they'll reflect. And so we kind of, you know, get it all done in one fell swoop. But, you know, that in a nutshell is kind of Kwanzaa in it. There are many communities, African American communities, where it's a very, very big deal. And then there are some communities, and I would dare say that West Medford is probably one of them, Well, not so much anymore. I think when it first began in the late 60s and 70s, there was a lot of energy and there was a lot of movement in that direction. I think people are beginning to reflect on it again because of the, you know, kind of the ills of society right now. It's kind of a good time with Black Lives Matter and the social context that we're in. It's kind of a good time. for the African American community to start to reflect on the good and not be so focused on all of the bad. you know, the evil and madness that we're dealing with right now. So it's probably a good time for Kwanzaa.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that with us and I think, you know, I think reflecting on, you know, Wendy, what you said about sort of what's missing here, you know, there's definitely lots of things that are not being represented in this conversation, lots of beliefs, lots of spiritual practices. And I think it's really useful to hear this and to understand I think like when we make efforts to be inclusive it's important to actually do that and to understand what folks are celebrating and I learned a lot from what you just said. And so I really appreciate that. And, you know, I think, you know, that's, that's what I hear sort of is missing from some of these other. like acknowledgments of like, yes, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, but like, what do these all mean? We don't just say what they are and just expect everyone to understand. So, appreciate that.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: I love, Terry, the idea of integrating ritual and intention and culture. You know, I think that, Bruce, I'd love to hear from you a little bit more about like, how do you, I'm always fascinated, like how do the Unitarian Universalists actually pull off this season when there are Jewish folk and Christian folk and atheists and agnostics and pagans and Wiccans? How does that, because I love the way you describe the energy, bringing family together around warmth, around the candles, this image of candle for Christians You know, we do candle lighting too, right? But it happens before Christmas in the season called Advent, where we light a candle for hope, we light a candle for peace, we light a candle for joy, and we light a candle for love in those four Sundays leading up to the Christmas holiday or Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. And it's all about the same stuff, right? I mean, hope peace, love, and joy. What else is there that matters? Maybe a little kindness, right? That's one, isn't that one of the, isn't that one of the, but again, those rituals around which we gather build, you know, our kids have these feelings of tradition and capacity when they get to do that. And you guys have, I mean, the longest night thing that we're doing a service of longest night this year, again, around recognizing that darkness and how tough that is on the human spirit, and that there's light that's coming, right? So I'd love to hear, Bruce, from you, like, how do you integrate all those things? Because I love this idea of taking Kwanzaa and making it be a part of whatever faith tradition you practice otherwise, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I was interested to hear Terry talk about seven principles. The Unitarian Universalists, as you may know, we don't have a single creed, but we tend to organize our practice around seven ethical principles. The three that stand out for me are the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, the interdependent web of which we all are a part. And Wendy, as you point out, we, the members of our, I can only speak for my congregation, every UU congregation is different, but we tend to come from different backgrounds. One thing that we do have, the denomination as a whole has Christian roots. It's named Unitarian because it was a branch of progressive Christianity that believed that the truth is one. Universalism meaning that all people will be saved, no exceptions. When the holiday season is upon us, I think that individuals celebrate it in their own way. The more humanist or atheist will treat it as a secular holiday, albeit shot through with spirituality. Jewish people or pagans would have their own home celebrations. Together, we inherit some things, I think. One is the idea of a Christmas pageant. Some years this has to do with the nativity story. This year it actually takes the theme of a candle and shows how it's used among Jewish people. and among in the Kwanzaa setting, and also Saint Lucia's Day, which is a girl in the family has candles on her head. It has to do with the spirit of giving. We have a Christmas Eve celebration, which has a lot of candles. And very often we read from scripture, specifically from the book of Luke, which has the kind of definitive nativity story. And one thing that I'd mention in that, it touches on the social justice aspect of the season, because you have Mary singing her hymn about, I magnify the Lord, talks about rising up, raising up the poor and the humble. You have the story of a little baby being born in a stable, so how good things come out of humble beginnings. A royal birth, but it's surrounded not by pomp and circumstance, but by shepherds and animals.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: And a little bit of dung.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, a lot of funky reality. And then you have the wonderful trope of the wise men who come from a different part of the world and a different faith tradition. This year we did not have a solstice celebration, it had to do with so much work doing both in-person and Zoom-based services, but generally what we do, we have a ceremony that's inherited from Starhawk, a pagan religious leader. It involves lighting candles for the four cardinal directions, casting a sacred circle, and that at one point of the ceremony they so-called de-voke, they unload or they set aside things that are struggles, pain, evils like war or racism, put aside things that are to be gotten rid of. Then a time of silent reflection and then invoking the good, the blessings that we want to be to the world in the coming year. Beautiful. So hopefully we'll be doing that next year. But the celebrating in the darkness is very important to us. Interesting.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Very interesting. You know, one of the things that you talked about, Bruce, about the sacredness of all things brings to mind for me where I sort of started this conversation around the tension between what the secular or let's call it, call it what it is the, the, you know, the economic system in which we operate right which has so much. You know, it desecrates so much in our world, our earth, our humanity, and the tension between the intention of our economic system at this time of year, and the sacredness of all of these spiritual practices is, you know, we, I mean, God forbid that I lift this up in this conversation, but you know, Evangelical Christians have a tendency to always proclaim the war on Christmas at this time of year. And I don't think that there's a war on Christmas, or there's not a war on Christians. There is this desire to make sacred all of our humanity, all of our traditions, all of the people and the processes. But there is this awful tension that desecrates the real meaning of this time of year, and that's a challenge for us all, whether we are humanists or Christians or Jews. to proclaim, you know, part of what the story with the shepherds, you know, the angels are out there saying, there's good news, there's good news, there's hope and there's peace coming, you know. And there is good news when we gather, you know, when we gather around the table, when we gather around the light, when we gather around each other and make the world different because we care about each other. when we gather and energize saving our planet, when we gather and work towards becoming anti-racist as a community, that's the sacred work of this time of year. That's the sacred work.
[Terry Carter]: Absolutely. I think, you know, to your point, Reverend Wendy, is one of the things that I believe Karanga was looking to do in establishing Kwanzaa as a celebration was to generate energy around that organic thinking of what community really should be like. how the black community could work to preserve itself in the face of all of the, you know, the injustices and in the face of, you know, kind of the economic disparities and in the face of, you know, kind of racism and all that it represented as an external force constantly weighing down on the neighborhood. And so when you look at the seven principles, you'll note that there are ones that are specifically concerned with keeping black dollars in the black community. There are ones that are specifically concerned with establishing self-worth and legacy and preserving legacy. And there are ones that are specifically related to how you relate to your neighbors, how you relate to your families. and how you maintain faith in the face of so much faithlessness. So I think the thing that it did is it didn't counter Christianity in any way, it amplified Christianity. So for folks who were looking at it in a right-minded way, All of this really, really is very resonant because I'm a Christmas kid. I mean, I have two brothers, two sisters, a hardworking dad who's gone on to be with the Lord, and a wonderful, faithful, spiritually guided mother who has unfortunately also gone on to be with the Lord and my father, so she's happy. We were raised with the anticipation of you know, the secular coming down, seeing the tree, getting the gifts, all of that, but also with the notion of this is the Lord's day, you know, the Lord's day of days, so to speak. And with the exception of Easter, you know, this is the biggest deal on the faith calendar, and we need to, you know, we need to do all the Christmas stuff, and we did. And so I love all that that tradition represents rightly, And you know I'm not too crazy about as you are not obviously all of the secular stuff which drag us away From all that it represents to us as creatures of faith, so I'm I You know I love Kwanzaa as an integration of things that you talked about and And again, I don't think that if you do it kind of the right way, if you observe it kind of the right way, that it takes away from anybody else's traditions, that it in fact is a way of getting folks to coalesce around some ideas that are universal and that are Catholic in universality. So yeah. And I wrote about it in my last book, the last couple of pages, about the celebration of Kwanzaa in kind of a poetry way. And I didn't bring anything with me. I came very much empty-handed. I wish we had time for that. Maybe you can put a link to it. But yeah, maybe so. But at the end of the day, what it said was, let's be about this stuff, these seven principles, these great ideas of how humankind can, not just the black community, but how humankind can respond to each other in a better and fuller way. and with love as its nexus.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: I mean, there it is. You know, I want to say out loud, you know, if Jesus was, I mean, there's really only one thing that Jesus is really about. Love God, love your neighbor. Period. It all comes down to that. All the words, all the rituals, all the, and the truth is, if we had, you know, if Imam Waris was here if, you know, if we had some Buddhists in the room, right? There would be, it would still be about that. Love that power outside of yourself because the alternative is to be focused on yourself, which is what all the spending and all the buying is about, right? So love God, love your neighbor, and loving your neighbor is the starting point for equity and justice. It's the place from which we must make change happen in our community. And that's what Jesus was all about.
[Terry Carter]: He was a revolutionary. The greatest gift of all. Any gift that we could possibly give to one another, the gift of love, the gift of a retreat from all of the noise and all of the kind of dissonance and all of the disintegrity that we're dealing with right now.
[Danielle Balocca]: You know you're making you all are mentioning like gathering community and it which I think is something something that we've been missing for the past 21 well there's that yeah and I think you know when do you brought up this point of like this idea of like a war on Christmas and other people's traditions taking away from those of Christmas and it reminds me of just how we think about equity and I think how we've thought about maybe equity over the last 21 months of like well if somebody else is being spotlighted or somebody else is being uplifted and that's taking away from me and like really like thinking about how that's not true right that there is no such thing as a zero-sum game and that and it was the economic system that preached that that made us think that that was what was going on
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Because if you look at every one of these faith traditions, that's so not true. That there is enough. There's enough love, there's enough stuff, there's enough grace, there's enough capacity, there's enough forgiveness, there's enough connection. There is enough. We just have to believe it and show it to each other.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, and so I wonder if maybe a way to start to close out today is to think about, now that hopefully we're able to, gathering is becoming more of a possibility, hopefully, what you all have as hopes for Medford and the community as we move through this darkness and hopefully towards some light.
[Terry Carter]: Well, I'll deliver at the inauguration an inaugural poem. And my whole emphasis is going to be on, you know, on reconciliation and, you know, coming back together in, you know, kind of a more global community way and getting away from all of, you know, the things that are dividing us. And, you know, certainly trying to find ways to, to declare common ground, to find it, and to declare it. And then when a new library opens, and this is all Poet Laureate stuff, again, and then it will be about how a library brings a community together because of the stuff inside of it, and you know, what it represents as a people-focused entity as opposed to the stuff inside of it. It's an interesting contradiction. So that's my hope. is that we just continue, you know, and I know this is something that Reverend Mundy and Bruce Hill focused on as well, is to continue to find ways to get people to talk to one another. You know, continue to find ways to get people to sit in a room like we're sitting in right now, with very different traditions and viewpoints and experiences, and put them on the table and say, here's my stuff, if you see something that you like, you're welcome to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I would echo some of the things you've said, Terry. What I would like to see is to somehow reverse the trend. Over the past several years, there have been so many efforts to put people into opposing camps. The mechanisms for respectful dialogue have been dismantled. We've seen some of this happening right in Medford and so I'd like to see there be opening new channels for people to treat one another as human beings rather than the other that need not be respected and to, as you say, Terry, find common ground, find a place we can stand. Yeah, absolutely. So good, so good.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Well, so amen to all that. You know, this conversation actually has really inspired me. And I wish that everybody could have a chance to sit around a table with each other with a cup of coffee. We have coffee in our hands. With a cup of coffee in a warm space, in a safe space, and share. the things that matter to them, the things that move them, the things that are sacred to them. And it doesn't have to be faith-oriented. It could be your kids or your garden. I mean, everybody has things that are sacred to them. And that is the centerpiece of the human experience, right? The things that matter to us that we can say to another, this matters to me. Will you listen to me about this? Will you learn from me? I mean, I think just, you know, having Terry teach us today, for instance, having Bruce teach me today, that puts me on a level ground. And we know that part of the challenge of the division is that we all think that we know, and those of us who are white and privileged and Christian and hetero and cisgendered think that we're, you know, all that, you know, and then we don't listen, we don't see, we can't see each other as we are. And so, yeah, I think that that is the way forward. And I just want to say, this is a little plug, Medford Health Matters is in the process. We are the holders of the Medford Conversation Project and the big table projects that we have run for the last number of years. we're in the process of trying to raise some money to be able to have some outside support around not only anti-racist development, but having these very conversations that Terry and Bruce have just mentioned to be able to be facilitated in reconciling, healing, you know, and healing doesn't happen just because you say you want it to happen. You have to have some hard conversations to be able to actually get to healing. And that means, that those of us who are in the dominant position need to keep our mouths shut so I'm going to almost stop here in a minute, as one of those people, you know, we need to shut our mouths and listen, create space for and listen to the experience of those who we've oppressed for all this generations right so So we're trying to raise some money. You want to help out, call me and I'll point you to the link. There's a fundraiser to try to create the resource to have some guided facilitation that would be citywide, that would actually teach us how to do the very thing that we're hoping for. So I'm really glad to be able to talk about that.
[Terry Carter]: Yeah, and I think the thing that at the end of the day, you were just speaking about it without maybe mentioning, the word is it has to be intentional. There'll be no success in this that will be accidentally gained. So if we're not real specific about actions and real intentional about doing the hard work, and it is, as you said, Reverend Wendy, hard work, We just it's not gonna be easy. You can't get there.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: You just can't get there There's a parable in our text that says something like, you know where your heart is there your treasure lies right and what this really means is if we want to be intentional and if we really want to create a community where we listen to each other and and love each other anyway. There's going to have to be some money put at it. We've got to put some treasure at it. We've got to put some time in it. We've got to put some heart and soul in it, because it will hurt those of us who are in the dominant position. We're going to have to give up power, right? So there's my little sermon for the day. Hey, hey, hey. That's your story. Stick to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: If we're getting towards closing, I brought a little poem by Howard Thurman.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Oh, lovely. Is that the Christmas one? Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's a Christmas poem.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: That's a great ending.
[SPEAKER_04]: When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoners, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.
[Terry Carter]: Hallelujah. Another one of those things I wish I had written. Well, that's it.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: That's it.
[Terry Carter]: That's a good one.
[7G1mRGUN6Dk_SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: This feels like a good place to end for today. And I really appreciate you all making the time. And thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you so much to Reverend Wendy. Reverend Bruce and Terry for coming on the podcast and sharing your light. In the show notes, you'll find links for more information about all three guests on today's episode, including some of their upcoming events. You'll also find a link to the Zoom meeting for the charter review meeting, which will take place on Wednesday, December 15th at 7.30 PM. If you have any questions or feedback about the podcast, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening.