‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Peaceful, but not Passive
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I disagree with Mayor Jacob Frey on many topics, but I agreed with what he said during his press conference following the shooting of Renee Good. There’s so much to say about the current situation, but the part I want to focus on is Frey’s call for a peaceful response. We can debate if that’s the most important thing to worry about, but it’s uppermost in my mind as I write this. Frey was right that we need a peaceful response. But peaceful doesn’t mean passive. We don’t need to accept how our neighbors are being terrorized, but we don’t need to resort to terror in our response either. And, thankfully, Minneapolis seems perfectly willing to be peaceful without being passive. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Twin Cities residents have protested peacefully since the shooting, but they haven’t been passive. They’ve done all they can to protect neighbors and hold the federal [...]
We Need Spirituality
Marti Maltby from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY “Community is a form of spirituality.” Dr. Kelly Sherman-Conroy, Oglala (Sioux) Lakota, Associate Pastor at All Nations Indian Church When Kelly made that comment, I grabbed my pen to make sure I didn’t forget her words. I wasn’t the only one. Kelly was opening a meeting of the Metro Urban Indian Directors subcommittee on homelessness and the opioid crisis in the Native American community. In keeping with Native culture, a respected member of the community was invited to open the meeting “in a good way,” meaning that they share words that focus our attention and edify the discussion. As I’ve learned over the seven years I have been attending the meetings, the Native American community is far more tight knit than my own culture. Those on the streets are referred to (and treated) as relatives, regardless of tribal affiliation. While my culture defaults to individual rights [...]
Order and Chaos
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby The Book of Genesis tells that in the beginning, God brought order out of chaos. We’ve been trying to do the same thing ever since, with varying degrees of success. For the most part, we seem to do okay, creating enough structure for society to function, but not enough to crush everyone. But even accomplishing “okay” is a struggle, and maintaining requires a constant balancing act. We’ve seen what happens when things get too structured. Sometimes totalitarianism results, where thought, speech, and behavior are all curtailed in the name of some “greater value.” People, either as individuals or groups, are sacrificed for something intangible. Even if it doesn’t get quite that bad, too many rules still cause problems. George Orwell, an ardent socialist, wrote a lot about the problems he saw in other socialists. Many of them, he believed, embraced socialism because it would make [...]
