For I am persuaded that neither Facebook, PayPal, Fox, or AI, nor trolls, nor bots, nor politicians who lie, – not conglomorates nor fake news nor oligarchs nor gazillionaires – can separate us from the power of Love that is everywhere. -Karen Molenaar Terrell (at 5 in the morning and still half-asleep)
I typed this poem out on my Facebook wall early in the morning, and when I came back to check on it, I found a little box underneath it, with the question: “What does this poem mean?” I was curious what Meta’s AI would have to say about a poem that talks about Meta’s AI. (Which is META by definition.) I found myself laughing out loud when I read when Meta AI had to say about the poem. It was kind of sweet. It actually guessed correctly my intent. It lacked any human ego and took no offense. It was kind of charming. Here’s a screenshot:
Here’s one of the things that really toasts my cookies: When other people want to tell ME what I believe and why I do what I do.
Classic example: Several years ago, I was trying to share my spiritual beliefs with someone else, and instead of listening and learning more about what I believed right from the source (me), this person actually told me that he’d gone to Wikipedia to find out what I believed, and that I should go there, too, to find out what I believed. Which. What?!! Here I am, right in front of you, sharing my thoughts and feelings and beliefs, and you’re telling me to find out what I REALLY believe in Wikipedia?!! Sheesh.
And lately, I’ve experienced a lot of this nonsense when it comes to politics, too. There are folks out there eager to let me know why I stand on street corners with my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign, rather than actually listening to what I have to say about it. In fact, they’re not really interested in what I have to say. Maybe what I have to say would make them uncomfortable. They’d rather affix motivations and motives to me that have nothing to do with me, than try to understand where I’m coming from.
If you’re actually interested in why I stand with my sign, here it is, right from the “horse’s mouth”: I’m heartbroken by what I see happening to my country – the bullying, bigotry, and hate, the violence and corruption, that seem to be running rampant and unchecked. What I witnessed on my television on January 6, 2021, was shocking and inexcusable. What I’ve witnessed since then continues to run counter to everything I believe in: Victims of sex trafficking being brushed aside by government officials as if they don’t matter so that rapists with political clout can walk free; the hate and divisiveness that has led to the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, Rep. Hortman, and her husband, and violent attacks on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and Sen. John Hoffman and his wife; our nation’s participation in wars that have killed thousands of innocent children; the government knowingly detaining citizens and people who are in this country LEGALLY because they happen to have the “wrong” last name or skin color; and government agents ignoring the laws set down in our Constitution that protect ALL people (both those here legally, and those not) from being beaten, slammed against walls, thrown to the ground, shot in the back, shot in the face, sent to facilities where their medical needs are ignored, and deported to prisons of torture in foreign countries without any due process or a public trial.
Are you okay with all of this? Because I am not. And I believe we need to let the world know that we are not okay with this. Hence, my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign and my time spent with friends on street corners. Holding a sign on a street corner isn’t the ONLY way to stand up for what’s right, but it’s one way. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to participate in non-violent resistance against cruelty, racism, sexism, and bullying – even if it just means holding a sign for an hour.
I am not standing on a corner holding my sign because some gazillionaire is paying me to do it. I’m doing it because I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing.
Something really cool just happened, and I’m pretty sure it’s not some kind of weird April Fools Day joke.
So for the last month I’ve been in PayPal purgatory. (Try saying that fast.) Purgatory began for me when I sent, through PayPal, funds to a friend who has friends in Gaza in need of food and shelter. I named the people I wanted to be the recipients of my funds in my message to my friend. One of the names had “Mohammad” in it. My transaction got flagged by the PayPal police. (Again, try saying that fast.)
PayPal wanted me to give the birthdate of the man named “Mohammad” and wanted ID from me. I sent them a copy of my driver’s license, and told them I neither knew the man named Mohammad, nor his birthdate. Now PayPal told me that I had sent the wrong ID. And I let them know I wasn’t comfortable sending them any other of my identifying papers.
I got more messages from PayPal in the following days, letting me know that until I sent the right ID (I now know they didn’t want MY ID, but Mohammad’s ID), and told them Mohammad’s birthdate, my money was going to be sitting in their PayPal holding tank for 120 days, until the transaction voided out. They told me they couldn’t cancel the transaction or refund my money to me until the issue was resolved.
At this point, I contacted the Better Business Bureau and lodged a complaint. BBB said they’d see what they could do. They told me it might take a while, though.
Then yesterday, I got it in my head to call Chase – the credit card company I’d used to send money through PayPal – and see if I could get a refund through THEM. A lovely customer service agent named Amgika answered my call. I told her I honestly wasn’t sure if there was anything she could do about my PayPal plight (try saying that fast), but I explained the situation: I’d sent money through PayPal to a friend who had friends in Gaza in need of food and shelter. PayPal had flagged the transaction and put my money in their holding tank until it got resolved. PayPal had never released the funds to my friend – she’d never been given access to the money I’d sent her. Could that money be refunded back to me? Amgika said I should expect to see that money credited back to me within 48 hours.
I went to PayPal which had now sent me a message in response to my complaint to the BBB. It was polite, but they still wanted Mohammad’s birthdate and etc. to “resolve” the issue. I let PayPal know that I’d gone to my credit card company, explained to Chase that my funds had never gotten through to my friend, and asked Chase to get a refund for me. I said, “I think this will solve the problem for all of us.”
And this morning all kinds of everything happened involving messages from the BBB, PayPal, and Chase.
BBB asked if I rejected or accepted PayPal’s message to me, and why. I said I rejected it because I’d found another way of solving the problem – explaining I’d gone to Chase. Then I got this polite message from PayPal: “We understand your perspective that the transaction did not complete and that the recipient was not able to access the funds. We also understand your decision to contact your card issuer to request a refund. When a chargeback is initiated through your card provider, the review and final resolution of the transaction will be handled directly by your card issuer in accordance with their policies and timelines. PayPal will participate in that process as required…We appreciate you keeping us informed and understand your intent to resolve this matter. Thank you for your time and patience.”
THEN I got a message that I would find either a letter or a credit waiting for me in my Chase account. Egads. I wondered if Chase had rejected my request. I went to my account and found this message: “Dear KAREN TERRELL: We’re pleased to tell you that we’ve resolved your dispute…We credited your account for the full disputed dollar amount.”
Chase took care of it for me! It kind of reminds me of that scene at the end of Jurassic Park where the T-Rex takes on the velociraptors, and the T-Rex wins! Yay T-Rex!
There was a good turnout at the rally in Sedro-Woolley this morning.
Xavier and Eduardo, in the green safety vests, helped organize the event, and acted as crosswalk guards to get us safely from one side of the roundabout to the other. (And see? We even had our own chicken to help us answer the question: Why did the chicken cross the road?)
I ran into some of my old colleagues who taught with me years ago when I was a teacher in Concrete – it was so good to see Mary and Paul, John, and Larry again!
Germaine was there, too! And Chris – who I met at a rally in MV in January, and who is one of my “old friends” now.
I met some new friends, too – Calisa, who talked about the importance of showing up at the rallies in our small hometowns, and Jonathan, who shared his experiences as a soldier deployed to Iraq after 9-11.
Jonathan said that when he’d signed up for the service, the U.S. wasn’t involved in any wars and he hadn’t expected to ever find himself fighting in the middle of one. But when he was in boot camp, 9-11 happened, and everything changed. During his time in Iraq, the command car got blown up and his commanding officer lost a leg, and his First Sergeant lost half her face. Soldiers he served with in Iraq lost their lives. Jon’s experiences in Iraq have informed the way he looks at our current war in Iran, and I am so grateful to him for his willingness to share his thoughts and experiences with me.
I left the rally feeling inspired by the people I met there, and the positive response we got from the cars passing through.
I know there’s a meme going around that FOX News busted out the “truth” about the NO KINGS rallies – that it was put together by nefarious organizations hell-bent on some diabolical plot to destroy the United States. This is fake news.
I learned about the rallies through my friends, mostly, and through a local chapter of the Indivisible organization. https://indivisible.org/
And no, nobody paid me to protest yesterday, and nobody handed me a sign. I’ve been carrying around my own hand-made TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign since 2020. You’d think TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS would be universal values EVERYone could agree with. But weirdly, some people actually give the thumbs down to TRUTH JUSTICE and KINDNESS. (So I made a flip side that says SEAHAWKS on it – and when I get the thumbs down for TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS, I flip it to the SEAHAWKS side and usually get a thumbs up and a grin from those people who just thumbs downed the other side.)
I’m not sure I can find the words to express my gratitude to you. You are our nation’s heroes. Unpaid, unappreciated by our nation’s political “leadership,” you resolutely stand on the front lines in our airports, keeping us safe.
On Friday we traveled from SeaTac to LAX, and on Monday we made the return trip. All along the way we were treated with nothing but patience and kindness by the TSA staff. Knowing the incredible stress you must all be under now, your patience and kindness seemed superhuman to me.
SeaTac was collecting gift cards for the TSA staff, and we left a few at the drop-off place, but I know those cards don’t make a dent in what you deserve. Not only should you be receiving your duly-earned paychecks, you should be receiving medals and accolades – you should have statues in your honor. Seriously.
Thank you for your service. May our legislators and president get their act together and – without stipulation – get you the paychecks you’ve earned and deserve. You should never again be used as hostages by our politicians.
I drove up to the Peace Arch Park on the border of Canada and the States, to celebrate the friendship between our two nations.
The weather was interesting on the drive up. I left under blue skies and fluffy white clouds, but when I got near Lake Samish I suddenly found myself driving through snowfall. That lasted about ten minutes, and then I was in the sun again. “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb,” right? – and I guess when you’re in the middle of March you get all of that on the same day.
Many cosmic and wonderful things happened today.
Before I left for Peace Arch Park, I’d needed to make a stop at an old neighbor’s house. This old neighbor now lived in a neighborhood where an old teaching friend of mine had once lived. I’d asked my old neighbors if Lou still lived there, and they said he’d moved away a while ago.
So guess who I ran into at the rally at Peace Arch Park?!! Lou!! Lou had married another teaching friend of mine, Michelle, and they now lived in Bellingham. It seemed absolutely cosmic that I should run into Lou and Michelle (and their sweet pup, Brody) when I’d just been thinking of them that morning. But I’m starting to realize that cosmic coolness is happening all the time, and we just don’t always notice it.
My friend, Tom, was there today, too. He and another friend, Haidee, were the original creators of the Peace Arch Park get-togethers. Another person I consider an old friend now, Ranger Rick, the beloved Peace Arch Park ranger, came down to the arch to see how we all were doing and if we needed anything. AND I found the sister to my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign: TRUTH JUSTICE COMPASSION! How cool is that?!
I met new friends today, too – Cora was there with her “TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA” sign; Arsh (an American citizen) was at the Peace Arch with his girlfriend, Harleen (a Canadian citizen) and they posed in front of the boundary marker for me as they walked their way down to U.S. Customs; Georgia from Lynden was there, to show her support for our friendship with Canada; and, afterwards, when I sat down at a picnic bench by the water, nibbling on the macaron I’d bought myself at L&L Bakery, I met Nancy who’d come up to Blaine to take pictures of birds. I learned Nancy was a retired school principal and teacher, and an avid birder. I had such fun chatting with Nancy in the sunshine at that picnic table and talking about birds with her. (I told her about that whooping swan I’d seen a couple days ago, and gave her directions to where she might find it – I hope the swans are still there for her tomorrow.) While Nancy and I were talking, a sweet pup named Finnegan wandered off the sidewalk to come say hi and get a pet on the head. He was such a sweetheart!
Pups and old friends and new friends and the inspiration that comes when two neighboring nations come together to celebrate their friendship – today was full of magic, my friends.
Years ago I took part in a peace workshop being taught at our local community college by Leo Valk (I think that was his name?), from de Nederlands. Here’s what I remember about the peace workshop –
1) Leo asked us to draw a line down the middle of a paper. On one side of the line he asked us to draw war, and write our definition for war. On the other side he asked us to draw peace, and write our definition for peace. This got us all thinking about what war and peace actually ARE.
Then he told us that there are actually different kinds of war, and different kinds of peace. There is negative peace and positive peace: Negative peace is just the absence of war; Positive peace is built on the idea of social justice for all members of a society. Leo talked about Von Clausewitz and Tolstoy and Karl Deutsch and their differing views on war. Leo asked us if we thought, as Von Clausewitz did, that war can be justified as a way to solve problems when diplomacy doesn’t get us what we want? Is war, as Tolstoy believed, like a natural disaster that we can’t prevent, but shouldn’t participate in? Can just the threat of war be seen as war, as Karl Deutsch believed? Can we justify war if it’s used to stop evil? Or is war, as Gandhi believed, the worst evil of all?
Leo got us thinking.
2) Leo talked about nuclear weapons and explained the difference between missiles and warheads – just limiting the number of missiles, doesn’t limit nuclear power when each one of those missiles can have more than one warhead on it. He asked us if we thought a nuclear war was “winnable.” And if you “won” a nuclear war, what would that look like? What would be left of civilization to “win” when there’s already enough nuclear weapons to annihilate all life off the face of the planet?
3) He talked about strategies in a nuclear disarmament:
– Unilateralism – when a nation says, in essence, “We’re done playing this game,” and gives up all its nuclear weapons without waiting for other nations to give up their weapons.
– Reciprocity – when nations take turns giving up their weapons – “We’ll give up this, if you give up that.” This helps to build trust between nations.
4) He talked about ways to maintain peace:
– Stop changing boundaries – establish them and keep them.
– A nation’s security depends on the security of other nations. Maintaining peace is letting your neighbors know they’re safe, and not threatened by you. If countries are happy and prospering they’ll be less inclined to invade other countries.
– Do not intervene in other nations’ governments.
– Working with other nations to solve problems we all share – problems with the air we all breathe, and the oceans we share – builds alliances and trust.
– Trade with other countries is a way to maintain friendships and alliances.
I think so much of what Leo taught us all those years ago is timely now, too. I’ve been asking myself how our nation’s leadership is doing with the whole “maintaining peace” thing, and I’d have to give them all a failing grade right now. In fact, it seems like our leadership is doing the exact opposite of what brings peace.
I had a nice walk along the River Walk in Mount Vernon. Met sweet Indigo pup who approached me for a pet on the head and a scratch behind the ears. Exchanged “Go Seahawks!” with a couple of folks wearing their Seahawks caps. Saw a young man lithely leap over a fence from the embankment to get to the riverwalk. He was kind of shy. Ducked his head as he approached. But I had to say it – “That was pretty athletic!” I observed – and I got a big grin from him.
After my walk, I fetched my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign out of my car and went to join the folks in front of the Courthouse. I met two new friends down there today and they both had way cool names: Osa and Selah. After they’d introduced themselves, they turned expectantly to me to learn my name. Sheeze. “You guys have such cool names,” I said humbly. “But I guess every group needs one of me. I’m Karen.” Osa and Selah gave me welcoming, inclusive smiles – as I’d expect from the people in front of the Courthouse – reassured me about my name, and took me into their fold.
I’ve forgotten to take the “SEAHAWKS” side of my sign off since the Superbowl, so I made use of it and flipped to it a couple of times today. Once, I got two people shaking their heads in disapproval at my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign, but when I flipped it to SEAHAWKS, I got smiles and two thumbs up. You’d think that TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS would be something everyone could agree with, but I have found this is not always the case. The response that gave me a big laugh, though, was when I got a thumbs up for TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS and a tilty-handed “meh” for the SEAHAWKS.
Can you imagine what our world would look like if, instead of wasting our time worrying about feeding our egos and naming buildings after ourselves and seeking revenge on those we think are our enemies, we instead spent our time being kind and fair, and making sure we did right by each other?
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 