Archive | July 2023

For Crying Out Loud

For Crying Out Loud
David R. Weiss – July 15, 2023

I am in favor. (Of crying out loud.) As the title declares, I am for crying out loud. I’d almost go so far as to say, in this moment of ecological crisis / climate breakdown, that if anything can save us now, it’s tears.

It’s more complicated than that though. And “save us,” seems like overreach. We’re in this for keeps. And by “keeps,” I mean collapse. There is no turning back at this point. You could make the case that back around 1970, had we dared to throw the emergency brake on fossil fuel burning—and also on our rapacious consumption—we might have averted the catastrophe that now passes for our children’s and grandchildren’s trust fund. But it’s at least equally possible that by 1970 the forces at play—industrial, technological, economic, political, and not least cultural and religious—had achieved so much interlocking inertia, that the emergency brake wouldn’t have budged, even if someone had tried to throw it. No, we’re in this for keeps.

There is no green tech coming along fast enough (or without its own nightmarish ecological costs) to save us—not to mention no coalescence of political will anywhere on the horizon. And, to date, every great green hope paraded in front of us, promises to sustain unfettered growth on a finite planet, the single biggest lie in all of Earth’s 4.6-billion-year history. Hence, by “keeps,” I mean collapse.

There is no saving us—if by that you mean the restoration of some semblance of the bright future we imagined in our youth. And there is no saving us—if by that you mean the smooth orderly transition to a simpler way of life that aligns with the planet’s abundant but oh so finite capacity. Oh, we will transition to that “simpler” way of life, because ultimately Earth will align us with its capacity. But it will not be smooth or orderly.

Like ill-tempered toddlers we will be dragged kicking and screaming (and dying) into alignment. Indeed, the kicking and screaming has already started. But it will get worse. The dying, too—already started … and to get worse. No doubt there will be tears aplenty spilled along the way. But that weeping, while it may be momentarily cathartic, will not save us.

The tears that might save us will be of a different sort. These will be tears not for what is happening to us (or to those nearest), but for what is happening to the world around us. Tears for others. For all others.

We long for a magical solution to our ecological peril. Let me tell you, this is as close to magic as it gets. Gut-wrenching magic, though. Here is the supreme truth of our lives: we are one. Every shimmering wave, every twinkling star, every quivering quark, and every creeping critter—ONE. Interwoven. Pulsing. Breathing. Kin.

And we—humans as a whole, though, of course, it is hardly the whole of us—have unleashed a system that is DESIGNED to rip apart the interwoven-pulsing-breathing fabric of creation. To position us as “above”—meaning against all others. To extract, exploit, extinguish life-beauty in the name of accumulative progress as though death-making is our noble purpose in life. Global human civilization is built on the notion that we can kill the planet without killing ourselves. The superficial truth—the low-hanging fruit so to speak—is that we can’t. Our way of life is wrecking (has wrecked!) the support system needed for the very life we cherish most: our own. Oops.

Munch recalled that he had been out for a walk at sunset when suddenly the setting sun’s light turned the clouds “a blood red.” He sensed an “infinite scream passing through nature.” Wikipedia

But the supreme truth—the priceless pearl—that may yet help us tend to the wreckage left in the wake of our death-making civilization is this: all that we have exploited-extracted-extinguished … all that we have reckoned “other,” so as to set our lives against it … all this is interwoven-pulsing-breathing-dying KIN. We are one. And if we dare open ourselves to that truth, the tears will come from a very different place. No longer born of self-interest, we will weep for kin-interest, all-interest, one-interest: for the entire gamut of life-beauty that is under assault from the inertia of our empires.

Such tears will threaten to undo us. How do you weep “in moderation” for the loss of so much? The loss of so much finally known as kin? It will be gut-wrenching. And it will be magic. Because the deepest power accessible to us in the universe, the ground of authentic human agency, the womb of holiness if you wish, is to live from the awareness that we—all—are ONE. Interwoven. Pulsing. Breathing. Kin.

That awareness—should we choose to avail ourselves of it—will dawn with tears. In another age, perhaps it could arise from blissful reflection or immersion in the natural world. In this age of ecological wreckage wrought by us, it will dawn with tears … or it will not dawn at all. And yet, behind-beneath-beyond those tears is the power of the universe beckoning-begging-empowering us to act with empathy-outrage-love-care.

There will be need for more than tears in the days to come. Awe and gratitude, laughter and joy, skills-sharing and community-building, and loads of hard work, too. But we fool ourselves—it’s actually much worse than foolery; it’s a deadly delusion—when we think we will do and do and do some more and save the tears for later. The tears are the saving. They are the echo of ONEness in our soul, the opening of empathy, the ground of our power, and the roots of our resolve. Right now EVERYTHING hinges on our willingness to weep. And I’ll keep saying that until you join me in declaring yourself—

For crying out loud.

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David Weiss is a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist, doing “public theology” around climate crisis, sexuality, justice, diversity, and peace. Reach him at drw59mn@gmail.com. Read more at www.davidrweiss.com where he blogs under the theme, “Full Frontal Faith: Erring on the Edge of Honest.” Support him in writing Community Supported Theology at www.patreon.com/fullfrontalfaith.

Family Secrets – More than a Matter of Degree

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Family Secrets – More than a Matter of Degree
David R. Weiss – July 8, 2023

I suppose all families harbor secrets in their distant or recent past. The family member whose attitudes or actions are cause for scandal. Poor (embarrassing, unethical, disastrous) choices we’d rather not be reminded of or let others know about. Facets of ourselves we haven’t yet figured out how to be honest about with ourselves or others. Scattered vignettes or whole chapters of our familial past get covered over with silence. Skip that initial “I suppose.” All families harbor secrets. It’s just a matter of degree.

And the truth is, we negate our own potential wholeness so long as we allow the secrets to hold sway. (See my June post, “Unsealing Family Secrets … with Grace,” for some reflections on that.) But today I’m writing about family secrets of a different sort—an altogether different tense, in fact. There are also family secrets in our future. These secrets, too, are a matter of degree—but also, much more, as I will explain. And these secrets, too, negate our own wholeness so long as we allow them to hold sway.

Monday (July 3, 2023) brought the planet its hottest day on record since global air temperature record-keeping began in 1884. It lasted just one day, as if July 4 was already whispering, “Hold my beer,” as the sun rose. And then July 5 did the same. We won’t set a new global temperature record every day this month. But historically July is Earth’s hottest month—and there’s an El Niño in effect right now (a cyclical ocean-driven warming pattern)—which makes it very likely that July will become the hottest month since 1884. Except—

Except the past 75 years of industrial-driven warming have already made us such an outlier compared to the centuries before records were kept. And science has shown us the broad temperature ranges of earlier eras. Which is why, numerous atmospheric scientists have said that this year’s July will likely be the hottest month ever—by a long stretch. Since the Eemian period. About 125,000 years ago.

How’s that for a family secret? We have now so altered the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere that my kids and grandkids are heading into a future more like a past 125,000 years ago than anything in my childhood.

My son, Ben, just turned 36 years old to my 63. In the next 27 years, as he “flips” his age and reaches 63 for himself, every single heat record for every single day, week, month, and year will have been broken multiple times. By his 63rd birthday in 2050 (when my other kids will be: Susanna, 54; Meredith, 64; Megan, 66; Leah, 68; Laura, 69), if Ben is “fortunate,” the planet will have inched its way upward to 1.7^o C (3^o F) above the pre-industrial era, effectively ushering him and all his siblings into a whole new world. If he’s less fortunate, the planet will have stepped right past 1.7^o C and moved on toward 2^o C (3.6^o F). A mere fraction of a degree, but with catastrophic effects rippling across ecosystems, economies, societies … and, of course, across the lives of my kids (and yours.)

But, family secret—really? Well, how often have I discussed this “inheritance” with Ben (or my other children). Not never. But not often. And not at length. And not with anything close to the seriousness these few degrees will bear on their lives. No, this is truly a family secret hiding in their future. Surely not easy or comfortable to discuss. But just as surely, their ability to find wholeness in that future rests on their ability to wrestle with this secret with honesty and wisdom. If that isn’t the business of family, I don’t know what is.

And, of course, family secrets traverse generations—impacting more than just kids. I have nine grandkids. The youngest, also named Benjamin, will match my 63 in July 2080. By then the other grandkids will be: John (66), Eli (66), Gretchen (67), Nora (68), Landon (69), Waverly, Kaleb (71), Tomas (73). Hard to imagine these children older than me. Harder still to imagine their world in 2080. Painfully hard. These are children I’ve doted on. And by 2080 they will have grown into their adult years through decades more daunting than any I have lived.

Nothing can be said with exact certainty about that future. The details remain secret to all of us. But what we know is not encouraging. The Paris Agreement originally hoped to achieve a 1.5^o C (2.7^o F) limit in temperature rise but settled for aiming at anything less than 2.0^o C (3.6^o F). Yet the net effect of policies in place since the Paris Agreement have us on a trajectory to 2.7^o C (4.9^o F) by 2100. And the actual practices of fossil fuel corporations and government deals to build new pipelines and develop new projects continue to pretend like these targets don’t really matter. While all the science tells us they matter more than ever.

But, as I indicate in the title, this family secret is more than a matter of degree. Because it isn’t just about the numbers on a thermometer. Ultimately, this is about whole systems that teeter on the edge of collapse. Ecological systems. Economic systems. Political systems. Social systems. And they won’t wait until 2080 or even 2050 to start teetering—they already are.

The smoke from Canadian wildfires that played havoc with your breathing recently? That’s the smell of collapse. A symptom of a hotter planet (drier soil, more bark beetles, higher winds), but even as the wildfires burn, the carbon-laden smoke set up the atmosphere to trap yet more heat to drive the cycle further, harder, hotter, the next time. And this dynamic plays out in a whole host of interconnected planetary systems. So much so, that once whole systems begin to irreversibly tip (they are already teetering!) all those “degree” targets will become wistful projections for some bygone world—no longer our world at all.

Those stock market jitters that just won’t go away? That’s the rattle of a growth economy feeling the inexorable pressure of a finite world where finally there is no such thing as an externalized cost. Our economy, like OceanGate’s Titan submersible, is held together by hubris (rampant pride). Within decades the pressure of our finite world will leave our economy looking like that submersible does today: twisted wreckage.

That nearly unimaginable rightward lurch of the Republican party and the Supreme Court? That’s the instinctive human reaction to ecological and existential anxiety. This desperate political maneuvering, intimately tied to the preservation of white supremacy, is also a textbook scenario of how privilege responds to the mounting pressure of collapsing ecosystems and economies. And those polarized views, flavored by xenophobia and manifest in rampant violence and other wholesale fraying of our social fabric? That, too, is the evidence of ecologically-driven societal collapse—already well underway. It is what has always happened when civilizations outgrow their fit in the world.

We are on the cusp of a societal collapse never seen in the lifetime of anyone alive today. Not a downward turn in the economy. Not a conservative swing in politics. Not an era of social discontent. And least of all a brief interlude of warmer than usual temperatures. Collapse. And it is entirely inevitable at this point. There is no technological breakthrough or government regulation that can stop it. Because it is linked to an ecological collapse the likes of which no human being has EVER experienced in all of human history. Our future is literally unthinkable.

Well, not so much mine, which will run another 20-30 years or so. That future is bleak. Hard to imagine. But the future my children and grandchildren will face, that future is unthinkable. And that is a family secret—an uncomfortable truth kept in the shadows by consensual silence. And it threatens to leave them wholly unprepared for what is to come. There is nothing I can do to stave off collapse, but there are a whole set of insights, appetites, skills, habits, that I might bequeath to them … that might better equip them for this inheritance. But to do so, I need to break the silence of this most hidden of family secrets about their future. Hidden not least by the desperate hope it might not be true. And the fearful knowledge that it is.

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Philip Vance: Freedom is Calling

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Philip Vance: Freedom is Calling
David R. Weiss – July 1, 2023

Find the website with further information about Philip’s case HERE.

After twenty years in prison, it’s time for Philip Vance to be free.

Actually, almost two decades ago it was time for Philip Vance to be free. He’s in prison for a murder he had nothing to do with. He shouldn’t have been arrested for it, tried for it, sentenced for it, let alone imprisoned for it. The whole thing has been a grotesque miscarriage of justice—except even those words fall short of describing what it’s meant for Philip to have been torn from his family and freedom for all those years. “Miscarriage of justice” doesn’t even come close.

Worse, despite its name, the “justice system” is set-up to protect convictions—even if wrongly decided—rather than pursue justice for human beings. Occasionally wrongful convictions do get overturned, but only with great effort and good fortune. So far, despite the great efforts of many (not least Philip himself!), good fortune hasn’t yet visited Philip Vance. That’s not entirely true. Philip would tell you he’s been blessed in many ways. But those blessings don’t yet include freedom. This is his story.

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Shortly before Christmas 2002, a South St. Paul store clerk, Khaled Al-Bakri, was shot and killed during an apparent robbery. That much is clear. And criminal. Someone killed Al-Bakri. Witnesses reported seeing two persons fleeing the scene, but they were wearing masks; neither their faces, nor even their skin color was seen.

Soon after this Philip Vance was identified as a primary suspect in the case by the Minnesota Gang Strike Force. He was subsequently charged with murder in March 2004, found guilty by a jury in September 2004, and sentenced to life in prison in October 2004. Today, he’s serving that sentence at the Stillwater Minnesota Correctional Facility.

Philip has asserted his innocence vigorously from Day One … and for the next 7400+ days since then. Unwaveringly. He was so much innocent that he actively cooperated when police initially questioned him. Why wouldn’t he? He had nothing to hide. Indeed, he had an alibi: he was with a friend at her place that evening—a fact she confirmed to police during the investigation. (More recently, cell phone records have proven that she used Philip’s phone to call her sister that night.) And unflinchingly. He was so much innocent that he refused to accept any plea deal. Why would he plead to a lesser charge? That would be to acknowledge even a lesser guilt that was never his—at all. Indeed, at the trial there was no physical evidence that linked him to the crime. No gun. No fingerprints. No footprints. No DNA. No tire tracks. No eyewitness identification. No physical evidence at all.

But somehow neither his innocence nor his persistent assertion of it, neither his alibi nor the complete absence of physical evidence carried the day. How did an “enthusiastically” innocent young man wind up sentenced to life in prison for a crime that he swears—for seven-thousand-four-hundred days and counting—he had nothing to do with?

The uncomfortably short answer is that Philip Vance found himself caught in a tangle of lies—none of them his own—all of them orchestrated by the Minnesota Gang Strike Force (renamed the Metro Gang Strike Force in 2005), a police unit comprised of officers from across the metro area. If the name of that unit rings a bell, it’s likely because it was disbanded in disgrace in 2008, after a state panel found it was riddled with corruption and misconduct. But in 2003-2004, during the investigation of Al-Bakri’s murder and the subsequent prosecution of Philip Vance, the Strike Force was still in full-out rogue mode, featuring “high-performing” officers determined to get results by any means necessary.

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In Philip’s case, the Strike Force first pressured an outside informant to set up Philip so they could arrest him on an unrelated gun charge (the gun he sold was not the weapon used to kill Al-Bakri). Police had this informant wear a wire; then claimed she had elicited a confession from Philip. But that recording was later described by police as having such poor audio that it was unintelligible; in fact, it was never produced—perhaps it was never even made. In any case, that informant later recanted her testimony, alleging she was told by police to make false statements about Philip, which she did to avoid being brought up on charges herself related to her own chemical dependency.

Then, once he was in jail, the Strike Force bribed and threatened six jailhouse informants to testify against Philip. Some were offered reduced sentences of their own, others financial rewards; in at least one case officers threatened to go after an informant’s brother if he refused to cooperate. Ultimately, all six implicated Philip in the murder.

It should have been a red flag from the start. By now it’s well-documented that using jailhouse informants to secure convictions is so problematic as to be immoral. As of 2020, at least 197 wrongful convictions (nationwide) have been overturned because of issues with such testimony. In fact, a report by a Harvard professor specializing in this area concludes that the use of multiple jailhouse informants (as in Philip’s case) ought to immediately call into question their reliability. Unlike corroborating testimony from multiple “disinterested witness,” jailhouse informants have an inherent incentive to bargain their words against another inmate to secure better deals for themselves. Moreover, they’re likely to collaborate (align their stories) in jail to make their testimony as “valuable” to police as possible, regardless of its connection to the truth.

However—lest we presume this suggests jailhouse informants lack a moral compass, it’s important to remember incarcerated persons exist in a matrix of oppression, usually with roots running deep into their past, present, and future. The choices they make are shaped by forces unknown to many of us but driven also by their own desire to be free. Although these persons are hardly saints, the real villains in this scenario are the officers who leverage power and vulnerability to achieve goals quite disconnected from justice.

As a result, between pressure from Strike Force officers and informants’ own self-interest, a whole series of crafted falsehoods were joined to a set of innuendos (circumstantial evidence suggestive of nothing except when framed by lies) to convince a jury of Philip’s guilt.

How do we know this? One of the truths about lies is that they inevitably unravel. Unfortunately for Philip, that unraveling didn’t begin until after he was sent to prison. But all told, at least eight of those whose testimony was used to convict Philip Vance have since signed affidavits recanting that testimony—admitting that it was false and made at the behest of Strike Force officers intent on securing a conviction regardless of guilt—or, in Philip’s case, innocence.

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That alibi Philip provided? It was never shared with the jury; Philip’s friend was never called to testify. In fact, the prosecutor told the jury that Philip could not account for his whereabouts the night of the murder—despite police having confirmed his alibi. And the only witness who was (momentarily) in the store at the time of the shooting—she had just entered the store and backed out when she realized a robbery was in progress—besides seeing two persons, fully masked, of unknown skin color, fleeing—also described hearing the person who shot Al-Bakri shouting to his accomplice in a language she knew was not English and believed was Spanish. This also was never shared with the jury.

Other witness testimony has also been called into question. And the credibility of the Strike Force’s integrity has been shattered. More to the point, because a human life is at stake, the credibility of Philip Vance’s conviction is in shreds. So, of course, the system is quick to correct itself in such cases, right? WRONG. We want to believe that courts administer justice. And I suppose sometimes they do. (Although in an adversarial- and punitive-based legal system, whatever justice is rendered is thin at best.) But when they administer injustice, they are loathe to acknowledge that. The system is designed to cover its own mistakes whenever possible, by prizing procedure above all else. Including truth.

Despite filing multiple appeals seeking to have his conviction reversed, each appeal has been denied, largely for procedural reasons. Meaning that none of these courts has seriously engaged Philip’s claim of a wrongful conviction. None of them has asked the question, “Was justice done to this man?” They’ve been content to inquire only, “Were the i’s properly dotted? Were the t’s correctly crossed?” Never mind whether those dotted i’s and crossed t’s … put an innocent man away—for life.

Finally, how innocent is Philip Vance? Well, character doesn’t “prove” innocence; it really only proves character. But Philip Vance’s character is, by now, beyond question. Sent away from children, other family, and friends for life, Philip had every reason to grant rage and despair free rein in his soul. Instead, he’s chosen education, exercise, personal improvement, and service to others (mentoring fellow inmates) as his purpose while behind bars—some of the blessings he acknowledges. For a man 7400+ days into proclaiming his innocence, Philip Vance’s character adds one more bit of compelling evidence. If it doesn’t prove his innocence, it ought at least to compel someone to hear him out.

In 2004 an innocent man was put away—for life. But today freedom is calling. Sometimes, in the still of the night in his prison cell, Philip Vance can almost hear it calling his name. Let’s hope that one day soon, it does.

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PLEASE SHARE THIS POST. Philip and a team of his supporters have been working diligently and passionately to right this injustice and secure Philip’s freedom. Thus far, to no avail. It’s time for Philip’s story to become WIDELY known. At some point Philip and his team may ask more of you. Right now they’re asking you to learn his story and share it. You can share this post by its URL or as a pdf file. You can print out and post this flyer at your favorite coffee shop, bookstore, water cooler, or other community place. The flyer includes a QR code that takes people to the pdf of this post. PLEASE AMPLIFY PHILIP’S STORY.

FREEDOM IS CALLING

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David Weiss is a a Twin Cities-based writer, activist, theologian, and poet, doing “public theology” around climate crisis, sexuality, justice, diversity, and peace. Reach him at drw59mn@gmail.com. Read more at www.davidrweiss.com where he blogs under the theme, “Full Frontal Faith: Erring on the Edge of Honest.” Support him in writing Community Supported Theology at www.patreon.com/fullfrontalfaith.

This essay relies heavily—and gratefully—on the “Vance Research Narrative” drafted by the University of St. Thomas Legal Services Clinic and revised June 21, 2021; authors: Kathryn Quinlan, Sophia Maietta, Christiane Dos Santos, Sara Hunemiller.