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Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Hand signals & the G.A.

We are supposed to use the "time out" signal for stopping racism, sexism, etc. but when the facilitators introduce the various hand signals before the beginning of the meeting, they almost ALWAYS neglect to call the time-out for what it is.

What they say is that "time-out" is when something happens that you find offensive, that is personally egregious, you can use the signal and the process will stop.

They want to reduce racism, etc., to a "personal offense", which is another way in which racism, sexism, etc., operates here on the plaza. Instead of owning that we come from the isms, we bring them here whether we want them or not, the majority of people are trying to make the 'isms' something that personally affronts someone, mostly me.

Of course it does offend me but that is not the point. It is a more that we must smash & recreate thru anti-racism, anti-sexism, etc.

Now they can make it MY problem, instead of something the group has agreed to address and be responsible for.

Every time I have to interrupt and add "this is the signal when we witness or experience racism, sexism, etc" to the distasteful look of the facilitator.