THE ASBURY VOICE - MAY, 2020 #9

‌

THE ASBURY VOICE

Journal of the People

You are not voiceless but are often unheard

We can change that together

May 2020 # 9

In This Issue:

Introduction and Purpose

*Be Kind to Mother Nature - by Sid Bernstein

* Kokopelli - Charles Trott

*Helpful Sources to help us deal with COVID-19 Pandemic

*Release Non-Violent Offenders from NJ State Prisons with the Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project by Derek Minno-Bloom

*Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network

*COVID-19 and BlackAmericans: The Healing of America by

Rev. Gil Caldwell

Introduction and Purpose of The Asbury Voice

CLICK HERE

Be Kind

Mother Nature

by Sid Bernstein

I’m inspired by Human Nature’s gifts of knowledge, its various innate talents to delight, express, make use of the power to reason, to feel emotions, and I’m inquisitive about Nurture, influencing our behaviors, wondering what is it that made me who I am, and what I might have been.

I’m equally enthralled by Nature’s endless works of sculptured beauty to view high mountains, marvel at those bright and shining glaciers in the icy seas, to feel the power of an oceans’ incoming wave, watch a leaf turn colors, and to experience the sights and sounds of gushing waterfalls descending, reaching their self-made pools below. Yet I’m fearful of the growing risks that exist from fire and ice.

My hope is that there will be flowers to give to loved ones, trees standing tall to be seen, beautiful sunsets to awe, societies void of diseases, the rivers, seas and oceans pristine to sail, swim, and to eat from their offerings, and mountains to climb, to ski, and marvel from their peaks the near horizon, and to wonder: What’s beyond?

Yet, what’s beyond the horizon may not offer idyllic views of Nature’s wonders, but of their destruction and the demise of all species. I feel strongly that the biggest threat to Humankind is our neglect to do more to convince more people – especially the producers of fossil fuels -- that “Global Warming” is real! I also hope that future generations will see those trees turn their leaves into those lovely fall shades, and that they will still be standing here to enjoy. But, will Mother Nature be kind to us? Or, will we human beings be kind to ourselves by being kind to her?

Will those massive glaciers remain to give comfort to the great white polar bears, which are now watching right before their eyes Nature’s pieces of frozen whiteness melt and crumble beneath their feet, then crash into the icy sea?

Then what? From this almost unnoticeable natural phenomenon -- Global Warming -- what will happen throughout the rest of the world? In every village, city, and the seashore towns that will be the first to be drastically destroyed by Nature’s fury, we may also witness the end of civilization. In an unexpected moment, we will be facing our greatest challenge by feeling the thunderous tremors of a great Tsunami with its torrential huge waves enveloping, and inescapably, surrounding us and pounding us on all sides. And just as a “weightless” feather helplessly falling can defy gravity’s powerful pull, nor can we, with all our wit and wisdom, win a war against the ocean’s punishing rage. From our own corporate leaders’ foolishness, selfishness and greediness with no regard for the future, we will be swept as easily as the “weightless” feather into the undertow towards oblivion.

I ask again: Then what? Perhaps, if that existential icy reality is not frightening enough to make change happen, you and the next generation will witness a global warming so horrifyingly hot, that its blazing fire will scorch our glorious shell that we call Earth. As yet, we have not grasped this giant white Arctic beast’s insistent message: Like a bell ringing a resounding alarm, those giant polar bears like the canary in a coalmine , are warning us, begging us, to get with it, to run for our lives and change our fateful course – to stop what appears to be uncontrollable madness.

And, here is a more accurate and frightening reality to envision and cogitate. If those two images of the ‘power and force of fire and ice’ are not enough for you to at least reflect on this strong scientific possibility, visualize those two catastrophes –the drownings from swallowing up Humankind and our earth submerging from rising melted ice and the flaming fires from a global inferno burning earth into ashes – will most likely happen not at separate times, but they will happen simultaneously ! We are already witnessing their scornful acts penetrating in various parts of our country and throughout the world…currently, in California, Australia, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

The sight of the unlimited sky free of pollution, all species happily surviving and propagating, and the earth and oceans left unharmed, protected by the believers and the guardians of “global climate control” -- who fight to protect us and be safe from the impurities of man’s disrespect to and their greed for exorbitant wealth -- are to be admired and respected. And, those who do not make amends with Nature and who are here, still doubting the warnings from the great white bear -- they will witness the final act of Humankind’s existence turn in a split second, into a disappearing act of civilization’s non-existence.

Simply, be kind to Mother Nature!

His book Facing Homelessness was reviewed on Amazon:

THOSE SYMBOLS THAT KOKOPELLI POINT TO ARE ADINKRA SYMBOLS THAT CAN BE FOUND ON THIS SITE

CLICK HERE and Click Here

CHARLES TROTT

Helpful Sources to help us deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic

Senator Vin Gopal - Covid-19 Briefing

(Subscribe to his newsletter and read past issues) CLICK HERE

Asbury Park Patch Newsletter - how NJ Towns and Counties are impacted and latest developments on the coronavirus outbreak and its toll on New Jersey. Subscribe CLICK HERE

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON COVID-19 FROM CDC

CLICK HERE

Interfaith Neighbors - COVID -19 Emergency Assistance Fund Click Here

No-Sew Pleated Face Mask with Handkerchief and Hair Tie Click Here

Black N.J. residents are dying of coronavirus at high rates. Here’s what experts say will reverse the trend. Article from NJ.com Click Here

An Internal Medicine-certified, Emergency Room MD with a PhD in Biochemistry gives very clear bottom line information on protecting oneself from the virus. Click Here

‌

Release Non-Violent Offenders from

NJ State Prisons with the Asbury Park Transformative

Justice Project

Dear Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project (TJP) supporters,

We hope this finds you well during this wild time in world history! The Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project’s Transformative Justice classes for formerly incarcerated community members were going great until COVID-19. We postponed them until a time when group gatherings can be safe again.

In the meantime, due to COVID-19, New Jersey has released somewhere close to 1,000 jail inmates, but now we are asking that Governor Murphy do more. State Prisons are notorious for having poor access to proper medicine, long wait times to see doctors and insufficient sanitizing supplies. Some prisons have been estimated to be 7 times more infectious, meaning people incarcerated are 7 times more likely to get COVID-19 than those of us not incarcerated. These inhumane conditions make it imperative that we do something. No one deserves the COVID-19 virus. We also hear that people are made to stay in their cells all day, with only a thirty minute break. Please call Governor Murphy and demand that non-violent offenders be released from state prisons due to COVID-19.

[ Phone number 609-292-6000]

Currently the United States makes up 5% of the world's population and has 25% of the world's prison population. In the long run TJP wants to find solutions for community members other than prison, for example more mental health facilities, higher wages, housing, healthcare for all, so community members don’t need to commit crimes of poverty, and we would like to organize and see healthier communities that help each community member thrive. CLICK HERE to visit TJP’s website and learn more about our mission and vision.

Thank you for your time and work in the world.

The Asbury Park Transformative Justice Project.

Derek Minno-Bloom

Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network

Two members of Cooperate Asbury have come up with the idea of starting a mutual aid network in Asbury Park during the COVID-19 crisis called the Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network. Cooperate Asbury has decided to team up with them.

Mutual Aid is reciprocal aid and cooperation among social groups working for free to support their communities' needs. Naturalist, Charles Darwin and and Peter Kropotkin said that species that cooperate together survive at higher rates than species that compete against each other!

Cooperate Asbury sees an Asbury Park coming together to support each other in these hard times. Our network could offer to get groceries for people who can't go to the store, talk on the phone with people who feel isolated, help folks with rent or food, and show up for neighbors facing eviction.

Michael McKeown Bondhus and husband Kevin who came up with the idea have lived in town since 2012. They have started working to build a mutual aid network specifically for Asbury Park. They hand delivered the attached letter to about 50 homes in their neighborhood. Their approach has been to leave the letter in each house’s mailbox while wearing gloves. They have also been encouraging people to share the letter through email and social media networks.

The idea at this point is to build a Google doc in which people can list their contact info and specify which mutual aid tasks they are willing to do. Click Here to go to our Google doc sign up sheet. Please fill it out and check which types of mutual aid you are able to offer or need . We will create groups of no more than 30, if we create one group of 30 we will start another group.

If you're interested in helping grow the network, please reach out to your neighbors in whichever way works best for you. If you’d like to distribute the attached letter physically(just make sure to wear gloves while printing it and handing it out) or electronically and feel free to adapt it. So that we don’t overlap, it would probably be a good idea for folks to share which streets they plan to cover.

You can also join the Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network by signing up on the website Nextdoor - Click Here or Click Here

We can be reached at AsburyParkMutualAid@gmail.com . As we grow we will soon have a conference call to come together and coordinate. If you have additional ideas on how to build this network, please share them by email or on the conference call!

Thanks for your help.

Asbury Park Mutual Aid Network

in collaboration with Cooperate Asbury

Taking the Census will help Asbury Park

get needed funding .

If you haven’t received a mailing from the 2020 Census, you can still take it online or by phone. The Census takes about 10 minutes to complete and without your participation, Asbury Park won’t get an accurate count and could lose funding for programs such as SNAP Food Assistance, Head Start Education Programs, Section 8 Housing Assistance, and more.

Take it online in 13 languages CLICK HERE

take it over the phone in 15 languages [ CLICK HERE for a full list of languages]

English: 844-330-2020 ,

Spanish: 844-468-2020 ,

Haitian Creole: 844-477-2020

COVID-19 and BlackAmericans:

The Healing of America

America is about the process of Beginning Again/Reconstruction. Our history of “The Destruction of Reconstruction” ought not be repeated. Catholic Priest Henri Nouwen has written about “Wounded Healers”. All of America will be healed if it responds to the history of Native and Black Americans as never before. A “Reparations Response”, financial and much more, will begin the healing. BlackAmericans have been, can be with others, “America’s Wounded Healers”.

I am sending this “Open Letter/Epistle” to the persons below because of a phone call from Cecil Gray. He mentioned these persons in our conversation. The call was somewhat like the texts from God? that were the focus of the now ended, CBS TV, “God Friended Me” series. My hope is that the persons to whom this e-mail is sent and those who receive blind copies, will view my words as a small contribution to their efforts to heal our “Wounded America”. Those of us who were in Selma on the Tuesday following “Bloody Sunday” call that day “Turnaround Tuesday” because we returned to Selma, after crossing the Edmund Petty Bridge.

To: Rachel Harding, The Veterans of Hope Project (Please forward to Sanchez, Bracey, and Gray. Thanks)

Sonia Sanchez, Poet

John Bracey, W.E.Du Bois Afro American Afro American Studies Department, UMass/Amherst

Cecil Gray, United Methodist Pastor/Organizer Charter School

1. The out-of-proportion illnesses and deaths of BlackAmericans caused by COVID - 19 reveals a long repressed truth. The gaps in health care, financial, educational, family wealth, etc., of Black Americans. Our repression/fear of publicizing the statistics of Black injustice delays justice everywhere. (MLK)

2. The presence, participation, and contributions of BlackAmericans in/to The arts, athletics, democracy, civil rights, etc., is well documented. Why then do we tolerate the 400 plus years of the negative gaps between blacks and whites?

3. Langston Hughes in his poem about America writes: “America was never America to me.” Ralph Ellison in his novel Invisible Man, has a character say, “I am invisible understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” But Historian Vincent Harding reminds us that the creation of America as “The Beloved Community” is still possible.

4. May 2020 be the beginning of a “new” America that understands until a “rising tide” lifts the leaky boats of BlackAmericans, no American will be free. Blacks have been/are like the “canaries in the American tunnel”. We absorb the viruses, fumes, and defects of our democracy, that hurt harm, crush hope, and corrupt our American heritage. Today, these negatives are “coming home to roost” among all Americans.

5. 55 years ago, April 1965, Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood,Organizer/Leader of the Massachusetts Unit of SCLC/Southern Christian Leadership Conference asked me to introduce Dr. Martin Luther King before he spoke to 22,000 people gathered on Boston Common. We had invited Dr. King to Boston to address racial segregation in the Boston Public Schools. I, at the age of 86, continue to believe that moment transformed my life and ministry.

May the year 2020 be viewed by Historians as “Turnaround 2020”. The year America became “America for ALL of America”.

Rev. Gil Caldwell

A retired BlackAmerican United Methodist Church Minister, and a Civil Rights Movement Footsoldier: 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage, 1963 March on Washington, 1964 Mississippi (Palmer’s Crossing), Freedom Summer, 1965 Selma to Montgomery March, and Boston School Committee March, 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.

Did You Know

... That cooperation Jackson MS had a website Click Here

... That you can become a member of the Asbury Book Cooperative Click Here

... That you can pick up a meal for yourself and your family between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm FREE CLICK HERE

... That you can get a live view of the Beach now on the Beach Cam and the Boardwalk as well. CLICK HERE

All articles we print are the experiences and opinions of the authors. An editorial board reserves the right to make any changes they deem necessary to submitted articles that will keep The Asbury Voice from any liability. Authors will be informed of these changes to give them the opportunity to change or withdraw the writing.