Jobs with Justice Breakfast

The ever-expressive Fyndi and her daughter sat at the table with Teressa Raiford, Sue and me, and two others from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship at the big annual breakfast of Portland’s chapter of Jobs with Justice this morning. 

I made my little speech of thanks for the award Jobs with Justice gave us, offering a brief explanation of what Buddhism is, how our group operates, and what we care about. Sue blipped me in the midst of it, bless her.

The best part of my speech wasn’t mine at all. I quoted Bhikkhu Bodhi as follows: “Moral outrage arises when we witness how people with power and privilege are using their power and privilege to oppress and decimate other people, to deceive them, to harm them. We use our moral outrage as a way to arouse a strong moral force of resistance and opposition, and to promote what is truly compassionate and wise, good and beneficial.” 

I said we support multiple tactics for resisting those who are harming others, and the particular tactics arising from our Buddhist practice are silence, courage, and persistence.

Bella’s school was closed today for a teacher’s workshop, so as soon as I left the breakfast I collected her and we had a festive Baba Day painting ceramics, visiting Powell’s bookstore, making “slime,” and of course going to her Flamenco class, after which we made dinner together and played cards. A grand day, and I’m done now.