MORGAN'S MOMENT...
Driving down the freeway...
     on a Sunday morning
     from paradise on Puget Sound
     to home in the Willamette Valley.
Everyone should have such choices!
     to follow the Harvest Moon at dawn
     as sun rises over Mount Rainier
     on the first day off Fall.
I thought of the song:

“'Tis the gift to be simple
   'tis the gift to be free
   'tis the gift to come-down where
   we ought to be. -
And when we find ourselves
   in the place just right,
   'twill be in the valley of love and delight”
The trouble (and joy) is
     we don't know where we ought to be
     and both places are “just right.”
It is all so idealistic
     until you listen to the news
     and include yourself in the world
     of hunger and unemployment
     and pending war.
I pray God (whatever that means)
     that all humanity 
     might find a place just right
     in the valley of love and delight.
— Art Morgan 
BOOK CORNER
You would think summer would have more hours
for more books. Actually, our camp was responsible for over 500 books checked out at the Library. Jean has five or six cards to allow us 50 to 100 books at a time for our guests and ourselves.
My boat reading was limited on novels by Wilber
Smith whom I've never read previously. I read at
least 6 of his adventure, mystery, historical books.
I learned a lot about African history and culture.
MOMENT MINISTRIES
Sept. 22, 2002
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
THURSDAY  MOMENT  #1
October 3
FALL GATHERING POTLUCK
Gathering time from 6 p.m.
Shared Potluck at 6:30
At the Morgan’s

 
NEW SEASON
Moment Ministries follows the University academic calendar. That gives us an extra month of summer. Most churches have long since begun the “new season."
Being in the “moment business,” we are intentionally non-intentional, preferring to do whatever comes next. This may not be the most
effective way to do things but we are as busy as we need to be with those things that come up.
Art will “show off” the very nice stole created by Marlene Lorenzen. There are occasions for a more clergy appearance at which this will be used. We will have pictures from our wall of fame of those
who visited summer headquarters on Puget Sound (such as the one below showing Paul, Art and Karen at breakfast in our outdoor summer kitchen). Other photos are also welcome.

(back page)

 
WORKIN’ ON THE CHAIN GANG
        Among the more serious books of summer were a couple by Walter Mosley, the black novelist who writes great stories, mostly about the Los Angeles area. I like his writing for several reasons. First, he has a great style, especially with the dialogue you would find in the Central Area of Los Angeles. It is lively and real. Second, he sets his stories mainly during the period when we were living and working in Los Angeles, right across the tracks from the Central Area. Those were interesting times. Third, his books remind me of a part of life and a part of the world from which most of us are separated. Some folks have troubles nobody knows. Mosley knows and lets us know.
        He threw a slight curve with a small book called “Workin’ on the Chain Gang.’ It wasn't a novel. It was a collection of his thoughts and observations from the black experience. I read the book early in the summer and found myself thinking about it and commenting about it all summer long.
        He says it straight, and from what little I know from my life next to the black neighborhoods, and from exposure to All People's Center and the 92~ Street Urban Renewal Corporation, as well as from reading a bit in black history, it's right on.
        He makes the point that black people in American have known from the beginning that they were chattel, valued for labor, and totally subject to the power and whims of the white boss. They were a cog in the capitalist system and Considered part of the property. They were totally disposable.
        Profit always come first. Worker effort and loyalty was rarely matched by loyalty from “the man.”
        I think we all knew that was true for black people, as well as Hispanics and others who have come to fill the labor pool.
        What Mosley makes clear is that this is not just the situation for black people, but for white as well. There is rarely such a thing as benevolent.
        I learned during my three years working for Safeway that my place in the system depended on justifying my output in terms of dollars. I was not a person, but a man hour. There was a ratio of so many dollars per man hour. I was totally subject to my Manager, which seems right to a certain degree. He, however, did not raise wages according to our contract until the Union stepped in. I understood that I was labor and he was management. He was not paid to be benevolent. He was “the man.”
        What he came to realize that he was also “chattel.” I saw managers replaced or fired without notice, based on the sales record of the store. And I saw the same district manager who tried to recruit me to the management program fired on Christmas Eve for similar cause. It's not about people, it's about money.
        Mosley shows workers all across America, including hi tech and professional people such as doctors, are now learning what black people have experienced all along—that rather than valued, independent, respected persons, they are subject to the corporate “man.” Many a loyal company man can find himself (or herself) stripped of a career job when a company is bought out or absorbed by a parent company. When things get tough, corporate CEO's let people go, often by the 1,000’s. Many lose pensions and health insurance as well as wages and dignity.
        Those who came out of chain gangs and slavery have understood this as reality forever. Many modern workers are just beginning to understand why unions became necessary.
        Many who identify themselves as above the level of ordinary labor, and part of the strata of employment that values professional effort, enjoying the status of a rising life style, are finding that they are in fact working on the chain gang too.
        I think of Amos crying out:
“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria..."
        We can argue that this is just the way it is. Yes, and the way it always has been. What Mosley is teaching us is that it's time for the white worker to understand that chattel comes in all colors.
— Art Morgan, Sept. 2002