‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Meaning What You Say
from the series Peace House Community Journal By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently attended a meeting put on by the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH). As is common these days, the meeting began with a land acknowledgement, which is a statement recognizing that what is now Minnesota was and is the homeland for various Native American tribes. The wording of a land acknowledgement is up to whoever is speaking, or whoever organized the meeting. This particular acknowledgement caught my attention because of some of the language used. The statement read: Today, as we gather virtually, it is of the utmost importance that we all recognize the land we are living and working on is stolen land from our Native American relatives. We must seek to understand our place within that history and use that understanding to work towards justice. The first thing I noticed was the word “stolen”. Of all the land acknowledgments I have heard, this is the strongest [...]
Networking: The Mother of All Mixed Blessings
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently traveled to Breezy Point, in northern Minnesota, to speak at a conference. Since the trip involved five hours of driving, I made sure I had some audiobooks to pass the time. I started listening to Taking the Work Out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections That Count by Karen Wickre, and within an hour I had an idea for the next presentation I wanted to give at a conference.As an introvert, the idea of networking doesn’t appeal to me. Imagining myself walking up to strangers at a party to convince them to do something for me makes my skin crawl. Fortunately, the audiobook helped me reframe my thinking, pointing out that “networking” doesn’t just mean convincing others that they want to help you. It can be as simple as asking a friend if they know any good restaurants. In other words, my view of networking was far too narrow.I should have realized this earlier, [...]
We’re Doing Our Best
from the series Peace House Community Journal By MARTI MALTBY It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never straightens his knees. At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.-George Orwell, 'a hanging' Marti Maltby One of Orwell’s gifts as a writer, in my opinion, was his ability to see the humanity of others, even those who were supposed to be his enemies. In his 20s, Orwell served in the British Imperial Police in Burma, which meant he was part of the oppressive system that generated Britain’s wealth and maintained her empire. He hated it. Where his countrymen saw a dirty and [...]
