Meet my brother, Andrew. You may have read about him in my previous post. What you may not know about him is that he has created quite a stir after an article he wrote a while back about the "race factor" in the election of President Barack Obama. Blog readers who read Safe Places SafeBlog expect to hear about violence. So it seems appropriate to me that you should read about nonviolence here as well. That's where little brother comes in. You see, he has spent the better part of his life writing about the civil rights movement and the heroes of nonviolence in this country. Here's what The Cotton Field Chronicle had to say about his article:

This article, which I understand was written on December 12, 2008, by a History Professor from Macon, GA has mushroomed all over the internet, on blogs, on newspaper websites, and everywhere. It was published in The People's Voice Weekly News, a black weekly out of Alabama, and I have reproduced it here. It is one of the most profound articles I have ever witnessed written by a southern white man, and I am sure that it resonates with most who will read it....

(From The Cotton Field Chronicle http://www.cottonfieldchronicle.com/archives/2009/01/dr-andrew-manis-when-are-we-going-to-get-over-it.html)

I decided that since major publications all over the place have decided to reprint my brother's article for their readers, then I can re-print it as well. After all, he is my brother, and this is my blog. So here's what he wrote that has caused all manner of public comment from sea to shining sea!

When Are We Going to Get Over It?
By Dr. Andrew M. Manis

For much of the last 40 years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African-Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African-Americans finally going to get over it?" Now I want to ask "When are we white Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?"

Recent reports that "Election Spurs 'Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Ala., in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk." Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame, we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right.

Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was a nonpolitical mental case who wanted merely to impress Jodie Foster.

But elect a liberal who happens to be black, and we're back in the '60s again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying "” that in America anything is possible, electing a black man as president. But instead, we now hear schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can -- once and for all -- get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with nonwhites?

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become president of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?

How long before we start "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?

Until this past Nov. 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African-American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan during the Obama administration: First, every day that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I'm going to report to the FBI anyone I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."


Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia. He is the author of A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and Macon Black and White. He serves on the steering committee of Macon's Center for Racial Understanding, and last but not least, he is my brother.

About Dreaming . . .

I recently received an email from my younger brother in which he wrote, "After some 25 years of dreaming about it, I . . . have received a Fulbright Award for Spring ’09 and will be teaching and researching at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece."

What a dream come true for him, and for me. Of course, there is a big part of me that is terribly envious of the chance to actually live in the country of our heritage. But my better self is very proud of him and so happy he is seeing the realization of a dream.

Dreams, you know, are hard to realize by most folk. Dreaming a dream is easy - even healthy and life-affirming. But a dream actually becoming one's reality is something else altogether. I have dreamed so many dreams - most of them unrealized. One thing, though, that I have learned in my maturing years is that it is better to have dreamed and not realized your dream, than never to have dreamed at all!

So I am thrilled for my brother Andrew's dream.

He is going to teach various topics at the University, including race and religion in American presidential elections. He will, no doubt, also begin research on another book while there.

My brother and I are of Greek heritage, with relatives in Athens and elsewhere, so my brother's dream come true will undoubtedly result in some very important connecting with family he has never met.

In his email he also wrote, "It is not often that long-held dreams actually come true, but this time they have."

Needless to say, I am very glad that he has spent his life dreaming.

On that note, I am particularly proud of his study, research, writing and activism on the Civil Rights Movement in our country. I learned this week that he has been invited by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, to speak at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site for the 52nd Anniversary of the 1957 desegregation events at the school.

So here's to dreaming! Maybe if I do it long enough, I will actually get to Greece myself during the time he is there.

If not, I'll see him when he comes to MY HOMETOWN in September to speak at the 52nd Anniversary of the desegregation of Central High.

Kathy Manis Findley at Safe Places SafeBlog

Connecting in 2009

2009 seems to be a year of new connections . . . or renewed connections.

In the day to day routine called my life, there is far too much talk of hurt and harm. One cannot work with victims of violence and avoid the emotions that come from knowing too much and seeing too clearly into another person's life. Domestic violence, child abuse, human trafficking, sexual abuse . . . some days I would almost run away, as far away as I can get and as fast as I can run.

What keeps me engaged in the struggle is what I see in the faces of those who have been hurt and who are still hurting. How could anyone give up when so many people are devastated by violence and abuse?

There is the child's voice that keeps ringing in my head when he says, "You can't protect me. Nobody can protect me."

And then worst of all is realizing that he is right, that we did not protect him, and that we cannot seem to find any way to protect him.

So what does this all have to do with connecting?

I am not completely certain of the answer, but I do know that connecting is comforting. Finding those old friends I had inadvertently set aside seems like the thing to do. Watching for them, listening for them, looking for them seems important.

Perhaps it is the fact that violence - all kinds of violence - destroys connections. Perhaps I am discovering a way to respond to the destroyed connections caused by violence that I see in my work.

And just maybe connecting with someone I almost lost reminds me that kindness, fondness and esteem for another person is stronger than violence.

Just a few late night ramblings,

Kathy Findley at Safe Places SafeBlog

Remembering the Struggle for Civil Rights: Thoughts From a Birmingham Child / a Little Rock Grown Person

With Little Rock Central High within shouting distance of our office, it seems appropriate to be pensive about our collective history. Those of us who actually were children through the Civil Rights movement in this country, especially those of us who lived in the South, have both shared and individual memories of those years. Where we lived determined what specific image marked our psyche. These were images that left permanent and indelible marks. My personal mark, and my earliest one, involved dogs, bombs and firehouses, and a governor standing in front of the door of the University of Alabama.

I was a Birmingham Child, so my image is of four little girls killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing - an indelible mark, to be sure, for a sensitive child. The sensitive child that I was during that time grew up to be a sensitive adult, and so I have adopted another image from my city of residence.

Once a Birmingham Child, I am now a Little Rock Grown Person. One cannot live in Little Rock for almost 30 years, raising a child who was a student of Central High School, and not be marked by these names and the images their lives evoke:

Thelma Mothershed-Wair, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Jefferson Thomas, Dr. Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls Lanier, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Melba Pattillo Beals, and Minnijean Brown Trickey - The Little Rock Nine.

Between today and January 19-20 would be a good time take in a new image, and a beautiful one at that. One can do so by visiting Little Rock, where a magnificent sculpture of The Little Rock Nine reminds us how the nine children might have looked on their way into Central High. The memorial is located on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds on the north end of the building off Third Street - ironically, outside the office window of former Governor Faubus who tried to stop the students.

Every time I see these life-size cast bronze statues, I am deeply moved and grateful that I am a student of my history - all of my history, bad or good. When you stand among these statues - designed and sculpted by Little Rock artist John Deering, assisted by his artist wife Kathy - the experience will no doubt leave an imprint on you. I plan to visit the bronze Little Rock Nine this week to make a memory for myself, to mark a time in history for me. I plan to go because I want to remember that one day after we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this year, we will inaugurate Barack Obama as our President.

In case you can't join me on the grassy site where the statues stand, I share a photo by Gary Crallé posted on his blog (http://garyodyssey.blogspot.com/2007_09_23_archive.html).

Here's how Mr. Crallé described the experience of capturing this photo of Elizabeth Eckford:

I asked her to rest for a few minutes by leaning against the statue, saying she must be tired. “I was tired a long time ago”, she murmured. For a brief moment, Elizabeth’s thoughts were somewhere else. I clicked the shutter. She is a strong lady, and her fight continues as she now seeks to protect her son from discrimination.

Why all of this musing on civil rights?

Lots of reasons, I suppose, but for Safe Places SafeBlog it's mostly about what violence has done to us throughout our history. And it's also about the faces of violence we still see every single day . . . the face of inequality, prejudice, racism, hate, unequal power, the face of one person abusively controlling another.

Let's not do it anymore.

Just my thoughts for this moment in history - more later.

Kathy Findley at Safe Places SafeBlog

Meet an Everyday Hero: Polly Franks

Polly Franks has lived through every parent's worst nightmare. On a cold October night in 1995, she learned that her two daughters (ages 8 and 9) had been attacked by a trusted neighbor and family friend. This "friend" turned out to be a convicted serial predator from the state of Texas; a man who years earlier had become known as San Antonio's "Ski Mask Rapist." By his own defense attorney's admission, this predator had committed over 200 sexual assaults on women and little girls. However, instead of going to prison, he was placed on probation and ordered to undergo "treatment" in the form of "chemical castration" at Johns-Hopkins University Hospital. Instead of prison, this predator was released back into society and allowed to monitor himself. Instead of punishment, he was allowed to move into Polly's neighborhood, one block from an elementary school. Upon being allowed to move into her community in Richmond, Virginia, this predator quickly became known to police as the "Bandanna Bandit," and was linked to at least 86 more innocent victims (mostly children) in the Richmond area. Following the attack on her children, this predator was yet again given probation and released back into society, left to monitor himself. Enraged with the lack of justice in her children's case, Polly decided to do something about it. Despite being born with a severe physical disability, Polly became a licensed private investigator for the sole purpose of bringing this animal to justice.

This child predator is now in prison for life without parole.

From The Franks Foundation website: www.franksfoundation.org

Sad Words for Victims of Spousal Abuse

Good evening, all:

Today I came across a published article written by an old friend of mine, Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press. The article was about Pastor Rick Warren and the Saddleback Church. The following are excerpts from Allen's article:

LAKE FOREST , Calif. (ABP) -- Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist megachurch pastor chosen to offer the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration, says the Bible does not permit a woman to divorce a spouse who is abusing her. In audio clips on his Saddleback Church website, the Purpose Driven Life author says the Bible condones divorce for only two reasons -- adultery and abandonment. "I wish there were a third in Scripture, having been involved as a pastor with situations of abuse," Warren said. "There is something in me that wishes there were a Bible verse that says, 'If they abuse you in this-and-such kind of way, then you have a right to leave them." Warren said his church's counseling ministry advises separation and counseling instead of divorce in abusive marriages, because it's the only path toward healing. "There's an abusive cycle that's been set up," he said. "Separation combined with counseling has been proven to provide healing in people's lives. So we recommend very strongly separation."

He defined what he meant by physical abuse. "When I say physical abuse, I mean literally somebody is beating you regularly," he said. "I don't mean they grab you once. I mean they've made a habit of beating you regularly. You need to separate in that situation, because that's the only thing that's going to solve that."

Obama's invitation to Warren has been criticized from the left because of his opposition to gay marriage and from the right for giving the president-elect credibility with religious conservatives. But recently his views on domestic violence caught the attention of Because It Matters, a blog by a lifelong Baptist and abuse survivor who uses the pseudonym Danni Moss. Moss said Warren 's commentary "expresses a distinct lack of understanding about the nature, heart and spiritual roots of abuse."

A women's rights blog called The New Agenda called Warren's views "alarming," especially in light of recent statistics showing a 42 percent rise in reports of domestic violence from 2005 to 2007. "Warren 's views give abusive spouses one more tool to control their victims: the Bible," the blog said. The New Agenda said Warren 's teaching "undermines the resolve of women who are debating ending an abusive marriage" and "omits mention of contacting the police, seeking medical attention or obtaining legal assistance to secure orders of protection for yourself and your children."

Being an ordained Baptist minister, as well as a long-time victim advocate, I am experiencing this Warren/Saddleback Theology with dual lenses. I know what it is like to be a student of the Bible and the pastor of a church. I served as a pastor for more than eleven years in two different churches.

I also know what it's like to be a trauma counselor and a victim advocate. I know all too well what it feels like to sit day after day in a "crying room" at Safe Places listening to horrific stories of physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and even spiritual abuse committed against a woman by the spouse she trusted and loved. So these sad words on the Saddleback website bring up so many personal emotions for me - grief, betrayal, loss, hopelessness, fear, captivity . . . and the list goes on. My primary emotions, though, are two:

One: Deep disappointment in a faith community that does not have any understanding about how to minister to victims of domestic violence OR to the children in these homes whose lives are being forever scarred;

Two: Extreme rage because a minister and a faith community can be so Theologically and Biblically ignorant.

Thanks to Bob Allen for bringing this to our attention. Bob always writes fairly and factually, regardless of his personal opinions. I end with this . . .

May our God forgive us all when we bring our personal biases to our Bible reading, when we fail to care for victims of violence and abuse with compassion and good sense, and when we fail to understand how important it is to hold perpetrators accountable for their evil acts and sinfulness.

Just my thoughts,

Kathy at Safe Places SafeBlog

Note: I would direct you to the writing of The Reverend Al Miles and his book:
Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know
Copyright 2000 Augsburg Fortress
Book Available at Amazon