Student gardeners reflect on reparations

 

Hello Monitor readers, 

What a big difference a month can make! July was definitely one of the most challenging and exciting rollercoaster months this year. It feels like there is energy forcing us re-look or re-think how we lean into and stretch our values, faith, and living-beliefs; particularly, where our kids and young people are concerned, just as our parents and grandparents did before, doing the best they could for us and the good of the country. Today, however, we are learning it is really about doing the best that we know, in order to do our best. We have to take time to listen more carefully and use our internal filters of right and wrong, good and bad, and of truths and lies. 

We can also take deep breaths and reflect on the Four Agreements: 

1. Speak Your Truth, Be Impeccable With Your Word, 

2. Don’t Take Things Personally, 

3. Don’t Make Assumptions, and 

4. Do Your Best Knowing That Our Best Changes From Time To Time.

 

This month, I’m sharing brief expressions from the Urban Farm and Garden Alliance (UFGA)’s summer gardening work-study team from Bethel-U. This year’s team is known as the Golden Team. Their expressions were prompted by a question during their early June orientation period.

“One possible definition of a creative reparation is something done to promote the healing and flourishing of a community impacted by historical injustice that does not necessarily involve monetary compensation. For example, providing people living in food deserts with the knowledge and resources to grow their own food promotes food justice and helps to create vibrant communities. My experience working with the Urban Farm and Garden Alliance this summer has deepened my appreciation for how gardening and the sharing of the harvest brings people together and cultivates a culture of radical hospitality and generosity.” - Caris

“The privilege I’ve had working with UFGA for this summer has been nothing short of inspiring. Connecting with different organizations and people through a shared prospect and love for gardening – while also making a difference to combat food insecurity and injustice – has only grown my passion for social work and community outreach after my studies are done at Bethel. And my own interpretation of creative reparations has molded and shifted this summer. Reparations should be more than just giving money. There needs to be an emphasis on giving back and promoting opportunities for those who have been harmed, so there can  on reparatbe generational flourishing.” - Preston

“To me creative reparations is the United States being more intentional about listening to the communities that are demanding reparations, and doing exactly as they ask. I don’t believe reparations should be a matter of negotiations as it currently is. This summer I got the opportunity to learn more about the efforts for reparations being spearheaded by the descendants’ inhabitants of Old Rondo. From what I understand there is currently an initiative by Reconnect Rondo to get the government to build a land bridge over I-94 as a form of reparations for the destruction of the old Rondo community. (More information can be found at https://reconnectrondo.com/landbridge/) Learning about this initiative, I found myself feeling very hopeful and inspired by the agency and effort going into making this land bridge a reality. However, these feelings were compromised when I found that the government is only willing to contribute a partial amount instead of the full cost of building this land bridge. This is something I find myself getting very frustrated about. Why is it that the people who have been wronged still have to settle and compromise for less than what they are owed? Why does it feel like the ones who caused the harm are the ones who have more of a say when it comes to how reparations should be handled. Something about this doesn’t sit right with me.” - Respect

 

Enjoy our State Fair, which is our Great Gathering and appreciate the Summer Olympics, which is a celebration of world citizenship. And, stay optimistic and don’t buy into the negative hype; or, as Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. once said, “Keep the faith, baby!”

May Peace Be In the Rondo, Frogtown, Hamline/Midway, Como, and Surrounding Communities... May Peace Be In Our Homes and Communities… May Peace Prevail On Earth (MPPOE).