Workshops

Okay so...I have participated in god knows how many training workshops in my life. I just could not even begin to count. Workshops for cultural tolerance, workshops for women, workshops for recovery, workshops for wonder, workshops for marching in the streets, workshops for talking, workshops for non-threatening language, workshops for diversity, workshops for sensitivity, workshops for first aid...

I mean a lot of workshop. So last night I'm really looking forward to the training for civil disobedience. The facilitator ask, "Give us some suggestions on how we can do civil resistance". I put up my hand and say "we can choose where we spend our money" She says good. I put up my hand again "We can speak out when someone says something insensitive". She was "yes, thats good". No one is saying anything....so I put my hand up again "We can make moral decisions based on compassion". She writes down on the board..."speaking". She writes down on the board "boycotting"....and then she asks another question and finally some other people put up their hands. The first guy says "we can shame people" the next person says "we can destroy property"....and I see...wow. She is writing on the board every poetic dirty bird-dogging thing people are saying . (I had to google "bird-dogging" and realized thats an adage for what Michael Moore did in ROGER AND ME) I had no idea that the game was so tight right now. I spoke to our facilitator a few times on my own during the training in the breaks. I was like, "You mean I can take a picture of you?" "you get PAID to do this training!!??" Last night I was putting my camera on the floor and taking picture of feet because I was so scared everyone would get arrested! LOL. I spent my whole life trying not to go to jail...and these folks are learning how to wear several layers of clothes (jail is cold) eat a lot of food the day before protest (one meal a day in jail) and to wear depends (long wait for bathroom break in jail) it was truly a humbling and disturbing experience. Everybody is gonna owe big time to these folks on the Karma Scale.