Another good video that captures the struggle

Important message from the Rural Coalition

URGENT: USDA Sign-On Letter

The Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative and the Sustainable Ag Coalition are circulating the following sign-on letter to Agriculture Secretary Schafer regarding the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach created in Section 14013 of the 2008 Farm Bill. The Office of Advocacy and Outreach will be responsible for ensuring that small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have access to USDA programs. In general, it will also ensure coordination between, monitoring of, and goal-setting for all USDA programs that address small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged producers. USDA has yet to establish the new office and there is concern that they may not place it within executive operations under the Secretary or transfer programs from the Office of Civil Rights, despite the clear statutory directive to do so.

What to do:

The deadline for sign-on is COB this Thursday, September 4. Please email your organization name, city and state and a contact person to Lpicciano@ruralco.org if your organization would like to sign on.

For further information contact: Ferd Hoefner, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at fhoefner@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org, Traci Bruckner, Center for Rural Affairs, at tracib@cfra.org, or Lorette Picciano, Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative atlpicciano@ruralco.org.

The Honorable Ed Schafer
Secretary of Agriculture
200-A Jamie L Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Schafer,

As you move forward with the implementation of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, we the undersigned believe it is critical that the newly created Office of Advocacy and Outreach (section 14013) be implemented in a manner that allows it to best achieve its important mission. In creating this office, Congress identified the clear need to place direct emphasis on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. In order to achieve the mission of assuring access for these emerging sectors of US agriculture to USDA programs, coordination and accountability across all USDA mission areas is critical. It is therefore essential that this office be placed at the Departmental level, as Congress provided, directly reporting to you, the Secretary of Agriculture. In this and other sections of the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also recognized the need to make special provisions for the often similar needs small, beginning and socially disadvantaged producers face in achieving viability and profitability. As such, two separate but very much related groups were established within the Office, each adding new functions while continuing and expanding previous work of significant but previously unrelated entities:

1. The Socially Disadvantaged Farmers group includes the new Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers established under Section 14009, and the Farmworker Coordinator established in Section 14013. The existing functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity which serves socially disadvantaged producers and minority serving institutions are also transferred to the Office of Advocacy and Outreach from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, thereby allowing the ASCR to focus solely on the critical tasks of assuring USDA compliance with civil rights laws and addressing the many unresolved civil rights cases and issues. This transfer allows the functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity to be separated from the issues of program and service discrimination and folded into a special group that focuses on building a better present and future in agriculture for socially disadvantaged producers.

2. The Small and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers group is given responsibility for continuing and building upon the functions for the existing Office of Small Farms Coordination, the Small Farms and Beginning Farmer and Rancher Council, and the Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, plus a consultative role on the administration of the Beginning Farmer and Ranchers Development Program administered by CSREES.

No less important than providing a new home and enhanced responsibilities for these ongoing programs and functions is the new law's wider vision of the duties of the new office, including establishing departmental goals and objectives, measuring outcomes, and providing input into programmatic and policy decisions. These new functions require office location outside of any agency or mission area. In the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also adopted a wide variety of special provisions to address the needs of both socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers. Implementation of these provisions also underscores the urgent need for a separate office at the Departmental level that coordinates and monitors outreach and services across all mission areas to assure access to new programs and to measure and report results.

For these reasons, the legislation purposely includes specific language that ensures this office would be created at the Department level. Section 14013 states, "Secretary shall establish within the executive operations of the Department an office to be known as the 'Office of Advocacy and Outreach.'" There can be no other meaning to this language than as to create this office as a separate office directly under and reporting to the Secretary, rather than under or through any other office, mission area, Assistant Secretary, or Under Secretary. We urge you to move forward with this office as a clearly separate office, equal to other Executive Operations offices in a timely manner.

As regulations to establish the Office of Advocacy and Outreach are created, it is essential this office and its two branches be rooted in and enhance relationships to the many agencies of the Department through the existing networks of Outreach and Small Farm Coordinators. The implementation team and the new directors and staff of the office must include Coordinators and others with significant experience working with small farms and with beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and deep understanding of the current and emerging programs of the Department.

The Department's focus on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a key sector of agriculture has been sporadic and fractured to the detriment of the producers. The USDA should make full use of this new authority to devote the full front-and-center attention that will allow this sector to flourish to the benefit of rural communities and our food system.

Sincerely,

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural, Washington, DC
Intertribal Agriculture Council, Billings, MT
And more.

Cc: Sen. Tom Harkin
Rep. Collin Peterson
Sen. Russ Feingold

Storm-Beaten (1908)

Here is a prayer written and prayed by Clara Ann Thompson, published in James Melvin Washington's Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans.

Storm-Beaten

Weary, worn, and sorrow-laden

Jesus, I have come to Thee;

Shield me from the darts of Satan;

Set my fettered spirit free.

Hearken to my plea for guidance,

As I kneel before thy throne;

Cheer me with Thy Holy Presence,

When I feel I'm all alone.

Struggling with the cares that press me,

Falling, when I fain would stand,

Thou alone, canst guide and keep me,

Take, oh take my trembling hand!

Pity Thou my many failings!

Strengthen Thou my falt'ring trust;

Keep me, 'mid the wind's loud wailing,

Thou, the Pitiful and Just!

What's in your iPod?

Early mornings these days continue to be filled with an attempt to regain some sense of normalcy. The early hours of the day are filled with the routine of getting out to the track at ECU here in Ada, Oklahoma, jogging a few miles, rehydrating with Gatorade, and all the while listening to tunes via the shuffle mode on my iPod. After several years of running without music to listen to and run to, it was time to make that change.

One of the most interesting albums on my playlist is "Wade in the Water," released in 2005 by the Joyful Sound Gospel Choir in Tillery, NC. The members of the choir come from the Tillery Resettlement community and are committed to raising funds to give back to that community.

The CD was recorded live at the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, Highway 561, Tillery, NC on March 25, 2005. Proceeds go to the work of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery. In fact, if you write CCT, PO Box 61, Tillery, NC 27887, they'll probably sell you a copy.

The list of songs? All amazing. Sung with passion and energy. Here's the list: Precious Memories, Fly Away, Heaven On My Mind, Walk with Me, I Shall Not Be Moved, In the Valley, Oh! Freedom, Amazing Grace, Ship of Zion, Steal Away, I Know I Been Changed, Get Aboard,
Wade in the Water, and Amen.

Check out this link for how it was used to spotlight the documentary, "We Shall Not Be Moved."

Your playlist is incomplete with this CD.

Words of a former student

Here is the text written by a student of mine, Michelle Finley, who is now studying MFT at Purdue University. The article was originally written for a local Christian newspaper there in Abilene. I think you'll appreciate her reflections.

"In the blink of an eye a life can be saved by a simple act of empathy and an informed, not-knowing stance. My own life’s joys and sufferings have shaped how I perceive the experience of others and empathize with them. At the same time I have a great amount of curiosity about each person’s unique journey. We all have experiences or events in our lives potentially providing a framework from which to serve others and help bring justice to someone’s life. I do not mean a heroic, valiant pursuit of justice in some mythic superhero legend, but rather a deceptively small act that ameliorates suffering simply by choosing love and the way of Christ.

During my training as a marriage and family therapist I encounter an array of opportunities to-in some way-help others who are oppressed in their relationships and in their communities. So often, as Christians, we galvanize ourselves by striving to know exactly what God’s plan or will is for our lives, yet all around us are moments begging us to display God’s love to others. How do we display God’s love? To answer this question I humbly venture into my journey through the world of marriage and family therapy and the unexpected places I have been as a result.

For the past year I have embarked on a journey in my internship at the Marriage and Family Institute to be among a chorus of voices seeking justice among African-American farmers facing discrimination at the hands of the USDA and local county officials. Simple and small, yet vastly profound implications for the lives affected simply from caring to ask, caring to research, and caring to speak. I am currently working with my professor and mentor, Dr. Waymon Hinson, and a team of six other students in hearing the stories of black farmers and the discrimination they face while dealing with the USDA. Because of skin color these farmers have experienced financial hardships and diminished livelihood from USDA workers refusing to honor these farmers for their work in providing this country with much of its food supply.

As a marriage and family therapy intern, I learn and apply theoretical models of how to “do therapy” as I work with individuals, couples, and families striving to better their lives. Many of these models’ objectives are to help people find paths to better, healthier living. My faith in God and my awe for the words, actions, and love made manifest in the life of Christ fuel my passion and desire to help carve out new paths for people to break free from oppression and injustice. Therapy, for me, is an obvious profession to channel the love of Christ. What fascinated me most about Dr. Hinson’s research with black farmers is how various therapy modalities can be applied to larger human systems in addition to individuals, couples, and families. I liken this scenario of applying therapy to larger human systems to how Christians employ both discipleship and missions in bringing salvation and relationship with God to other people across the globe. How rewarding to extend my skills as an intern to a world of hurting people in need for someone to hear, for someone to care, and for someone to help facilitate healing from injustice!

Advocacy evolves out of listening, observing, and addressing points of injustice. Psychology and marriage and family therapy alike point to the role of the therapist as an advocate for the oppressed. As a therapist I hear stories of domestic violence and subsequently connect persons to resources liberating them from the abuse. I listen to the dreams and hurts of a teenager and helping that teen uncover his true identity. I utilize my training in systems theory to address the emotional, physical, and social impact discrimination has on black farmers."

Words to the graduates

These are the words that I spoke over the MFT/ACU graduates on Thursday night, August 7. In that audience were seven members of Justice Team III and three members of Justice Team IV.

The work of these teams has always been a "co-curricular" thing. While the students do take a research course in which they explore via quantitative and qualitative methodologies these things that we write about here, the experiences of travel and interviews and all have been above and beyond the curriculum. They are going to make a huge difference in the world. Already has started.

We Serve a God of Extravagance

MFT Department Graduation Banquet

August 7, 2008

There is a time and a place to speak of extravagance, not in the ostentatious sense of the word, but in the God-intended sense of the word. As I see it, we serve an extravagant God who creates extravagantly, a God who loves extravagantly, a God who gifts extravagantly, and a God who calls us to extravagant living and loving out of our giftedness.

So we come to this place to honor those who wish to honor their calling. I think it is something like this. And then there was a star on the horizon, just as there is every evening as the sunlight fades. Then there is a second, a third, a fourth. Some show signs of brightness, but soon they burn out; perhaps they're not stars but meteors that only exist temporarily. Others find a different orbit than the rest. Some travel widely across the sky and for longer periods of time than the rest of us, Jeff Holland and Gretchen Etheredge, while others are a bit younger, Sarah or Kimberly or Rebecca. Others take rather circuitous routes to reach us, Ruqayyah or Kristi or Carlos or Ty, while others are a little more direct, Jordan, Mindy, or Daniel.

Whatever the path, we wind up in the same place and the same space for a span of time. We don't feel like stars, and we certainly don't always feel terribly gifted, but there are those moments when our calling is clear. It may be after moments of terror with either a professor or a client, but then the chosen and the choosing merge into something meaningful.

It's clear that we're not always in charge of our paths, that obstacles are placed in front of us, to challenge us or to refine our faith as of by fire, or to encourage us to continue in our calling. Back when I was in graduate school, one of my professors who intimidated me immensely, Dr. Jack P. Lewis, coined the phrase "ministry of study," and that, I think is what you do here, while practicing on people, so as to reach that incredible balance of understanding how theory does indeed drive practice and within that context of the therapy room, that intimate, lived moment, we actually get to see attitudes and behaviors change.

It's also clear that someone is in charge of "seasons" of our lives, and that it's not us. The teacher of old wrote, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

And so, there's a time to be born and a time to die;

a time to think about MFT and a time to accept the invitation;

a time to plant and a time to uproot;

a time to receive the scholarship offer and a time to ask more from Dr. Halstead;

a time to kill and a time to heal;

a time to wonder if Abilene is the right place and a time to drive away from it nostalgically;

a time to tear down and a time to build;

a time to sit in your first lecture with Milholland and a time to hear Goff for the last time;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to put the first letter on the first page of your first paper and a time to put the period at the end of your last reference page;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to watch Hinson interview a family and a time to say,"I can do that, too;"

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them;

a time to feel the anxiety of the client hour #1 and a time to experience the emotional tug of the last hour, whatever the number;

a time to embrace and a time to refrain;

a time to be reluctantly supervised and a time to welcome the coaching;

a time to search and a time to give up;

a time to wonder if you'll ever be worth what folks will pay you and a time to realize that a laborer is worthy of his or her hire;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to buy those books on bestbookbuys.com and a time to sell them to incoming, unsuspecting first years;

a time to tear down and a time to mend; and

a time to doubt your calling and a time to embrace it tenaciously.

So, how do you put God, extravagance, MFT, stardom, your sitting here tonight, and your calling together? I think it goes like this, and just a little further on in that particular section of Biblical text. In that section, rewritten tonight, is "He has also set eternity in the hearts of people; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

My prayer for you is that you will embrace the eternity within you, that you will live out your calling extravagantly, and that you will inch ever so closer to fathoming what extravagant things God has done and is doing through you, and by doing so you will both honor your amazing giftedness and make the world a better place.

And, a PS to the social justice team graduates:

A time to consider joining and a time to jump onto the team after much prayer;

a time to ponder the overwhelming injustices in the world and a time to decide that 'I can do a little something about them' in my corner of the universe;

a time to read of the plight of the Black farmer and a time to hear Hinson tell their stories and a time to go and talk to them directly;

a time to write letters to the President of the US and the secretary of the USDA and

a time to read their letters of response;

a time to grieve at the injustices wrought upon Black farmers of our land and a time to be astounded at their resiliencies;

a time to read about the plight of the Black farmer and a time to listen to the interviews;

a time to wonder how you'll be received if you tell your family and friends what you're up to and a time to get in the mail an article from an aunt or an uncle who is now aware of the struggle; and

a time to pray, 'Lord will these meager efforts ever make a difference,' and a time to do them again, and again, and again.

Well worth the time to watch and listen

Here's an Iowa Public Television documentary on the Black farmer issue. I think it's worth the time to look and listen.

I've met folks who did not hear of the Pigford Consent Decree, and others who in other ways were denied access to the consent decree.