Second Conference, March 16, 2018
400 Years of Inequality: Creating the Call to Observance
Our first conference, in March, 2017, helped us to “name the moment” in which we found ourselves. We named it, “Divided, we have fallen.” It set an agenda for us to understand how we had become divided, and what we might do about it.
We developed a framework with three parts:
Our goal for our conference was to invite core supporters to consider this framework, and our call, so that we might use these key tools in reaching wider audiences.
We developed a framework with three parts:
- I am in the ecology of inequality.
- I don’t want to live in the House of White Supremacy.
- I will do something.
Our goal for our conference was to invite core supporters to consider this framework, and our call, so that we might use these key tools in reaching wider audiences.

The day opened with a meditation, led by Angel Acosta. He invited us to consider the lives of our ancestors, back seven generations. This unexpected opening helped all of us relax into the day. Unexpected stories of our families provided grounding and motivation.
Angel has recorded it and you can try it for yourself, or with friends.
Then we reflected on the statement, “I am in the ecology of inequality.” People told stories, used pipe cleaners, aka chenille stems, and shared ideas about this was like for them.
Bill Morrish began to collect our thoughts on a massive generative graphic at the front of the room.
After lunch, we shifted gears to talk about the second proposition, “I don’t to live in the House of White Supremacy.” In this section of the meeting, we talked about the Five Habits of Highly Effective People’s Parties:
Groups imagined the parties that they would hold and then we shared our ideas in a circle.
- Acknowledge everyone’s suffering, including your own: we all have skin in this game.
- Find the stories that give you sorrow and the stories that give you joy.
- Invite everyone to be on the committee but especially the teenagers. They are liminal, change agents.
- Don’t be afraid to name the problems, past and present. Don’t let the politicians and the bureaucrats insist it look pretty, be pretty, be nice.
- Be sure to use this time to remember where we came from and to imagine where we are going. What are we FOR?
Groups imagined the parties that they would hold and then we shared our ideas in a circle.
As the day came to a close, we were joined by a wonderful group of children from the program Concrete Safaris. They read to us from Voices of a People’s History.
Youth from Concrete Safaris reading from Voices of a People’s History.
Bette Bland, who had listened to our words during the day, read the “collective poem” she had created for us.
Bette Bland working on the poem.
We ended the day by reading the Call together.
The task, as we left Wollman Hall, was to reach out to friends, family and interested organizations to ask them to join the Observance and lead local, place-based observances wherever they found themselves.
The task, as we left Wollman Hall, was to reach out to friends, family and interested organizations to ask them to join the Observance and lead local, place-based observances wherever they found themselves.