Thanks Sarah, for this important reminder! We all need to stick together, and remember that there are many many many ways to act positively in this unprecedented situation.
Here in Maine, we have all sorts of wackiness going on, including vigilantes who are tailing out of state cars for "bringing Covid-19" here, and people who are angry at privileged summer residents for coming here earlier than usual, from NYC and CT and other
high-community-spread places. And wackiness of people like me who are enraged that access to all Maine beaches is banned -- since seeing that water and sand and rock is a necessary balm for the soul. (Yes, I ignored that edict, but it still troubles me more
than I'd have imagined.)
And Bread and Roses is the perfect song for today* As the song goes, "Our lives shall not be sweated, from birth until life closes. Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses." and "Small art and love and beauty their trudging spirits
knew
Yes, it is Bread we fight forbut we fight for Roses, too."
Things I'm especially worried about are these:
-small businesses failing because they are not "essential" (including ones that are in the "roses" category)
-workers in "essential" businesses being put at risk and paid poorly to boot (grocery clerks, Amazon workers, mail delivery folks at US Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, etc)
-dance and music and song organizers watching their volunteer organizations crumble with crippling financial losses and the stigmatizing of all activities that are based in positive human contact
-at risk children living at home in unsafe conditions when they typically would have some sort of respite at school
-the politics of oppression marching onward, continuing its dirty work of dismantling environmental protections, eroding human rights, codifying the control of women's bodies, legislating unequal distribution of wealth.
I could go on and on.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who's working hard, in whatever ways they can, to keep a positive attitude and to work for the common good.
With all good wishes,
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME
*April 6, 1882 is the birth date of Rose Schneiderman in Sawin, Poland. She was a US labor leader who dramatized the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Noted for phrase "Bread and Roses" associated with 1912 textile strike of immigrant women workers.
From: Sarah Gowan via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 7:25 AM
To: organizers@lists.sharedweight.net <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Organizers] Re: Maintaining contact with our communities
Might I suggest that there is no right or wrong way to pandemic - there is
only taking care of ourselves and each other in the best ways we can. The
quarantines are likely to last longer than most of us ever imagined and I
think those of us who have been sidelined from our regular activities will
find the time for both creative and useful crafting. At this moment Iım
gazing at a mountain of scraps left over from making masks and mentally
arranging the pieces into quilt designs. Oh my, maybe thatıs the project -
Quaranquilts? Quiltantines? Mask-arade?
As the saying goes, "Bread for all, and roses too².
Sarah G.