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| Saturday, July 19th, 2008 | | 3:22 pm |
HDTV
I've finally joined the 21st century! Last night a friend from Meeting who's an engineer installed the antenna for my TV and connected it to the converter box Lexi bought. Wow! So many channels...and I'm not even paying for cable! I can see the images far clearer than before. Isn't technology amazing? | | Monday, July 7th, 2008 | | 11:46 am |
Letter to BYM & Adelphi on FUM policy
Dear fellow Baltimore Yearly Meeting members,
I write today in hopes that Baltimore Yearly Meeting will continue not funding Friends United Meeting as long as it maintains its discriminatory practices. While I cannot afford to give much money to my Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting, it saddens me to think that any of it would fund an organization that would not hire me nor even allow me to volunteer for it because I’m gay. I refuse to abide by an inherently unequal policy, which allows married heterosexuals to serve but forces gays to remain completely celibate, nor do I believe that anyone else should have to make such a choice. The FUM policy is in conflict with our Equality Testimony. Furthermore, those who wish to work or volunteer for FUM must sign a document stating that they agree with the policy and will report any employee or volunteer who does not abide by it. This violates the Integrity Testimony for many Friends.
I believe that liberal and conservative Friends from across FUM could become closer and improve our understanding if we could work and volunteer together, but this policy prevents those Friends who cannot in good conscience sign the document from working for FUM. The policy itself, therefore, is a barrier to fellowship, mutual understanding and integrity.
The Quaker Testimonies are very important to me and are the values with which I was raised. I had junior membership at Adelphi Friends Meeting from the time I was a baby until I was 16-years-old, when I applied for and received adult membership. I’ve served on Ministry and Worship, and Peace and Social Concerns Committees at Adelphi. I was married to Alexi Elaine Chapin-Smith on Third Month, Fourth Day, 2006 under the care of Adelphi Friends Meeting.
When I applied to attend the 2005 World Gathering of Youth Friends in England I did so at first simply to represent Friends Committee on National Legislation (I worked for FCNL at the time) and to serve as a French-English translator. Yet, over time I felt a strong leading to be out of the closet, a leading I could neither ignore nor discern away, no matter how much I feared being out. As a result of my being out I was able to speak to and offer pastoral care to many Friends, some from FUM- and EFI-affiliated Yearly Meetings. It was a great reminder that while the leadership of FUM may have some prejudiced views, not every FUM Friend is. One EFI Friends from the Philippines asked me to send him my wedding photos! These Friends need our support to work for equality and justice within their Yearly Meetings and FUM. Toward the end of the Gathering, another BYM Friends and I hosted a discussion on the FUM personnel policy. The dialogue was not hurtful but instead fruitful for while we did not all agree, we saw the importance of staying connected as Friends. Two Friends spoke during that time of how harmful the policy has been to their parents. One Friend said that Quakers were the only group that accepted her father as a gay Christian and so she did not appreciate a policy that treated him as less than the full human being that he is. Another Friends, who is gay, said that his mother had cried when she read about the policy for the first time and that he was upset on her behalf. One straight Friend cried because she saw the policy holding back Friends who were Spirit-led to serve and hobbled FUM’s work by preventing many talented people from working for the organization.
I know that many Friends fear that by withholding funds from FUM that we are harming FUM’s work with refugees, victims of violence and people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Yet, there are many non-profit organizations (some of them Quaker-led or –affiliated) that do this work in Africa without discriminating. These organizations include the American Friends Service Committee, Friends Peace Teams’ Africa Great Lakes Initiative, Mercy Corps and Oxfam. I believe it would better serve our integrity and those people in need of help in Africa to send money to these organizations rather than FUM projects that must operate under the discriminatory employment and volunteer policy. Some Friends are concerned that we are withholding money as a means of manipulating or holding power over African Friends. Yet, the Spirit-led decision not to send money to FUM was really about our witness not to support a wrong and hurtful policy than about trying to force others to change. Other Friends are concerned that we are distancing ourselves from FUM by not sending the funds. However, I believe the Intervisitation Project, which has grown out of the Yearly Meeting’s discernment regarding FUM, is precisely the answer to this problem. What better way is there to connect with other FUM Friends than by visiting with them?
I admit that when the question of funding FUM first came before BYM Business Meeting several years ago I hoped that BYM would simply remove itself from FUM. Yet, I saw that the long, laborious discernment process was truly Spirit-led and that the answer we reached was indeed what the Divine wanted us to do. I was overjoyed to find a solution that met our concerns and needs without causing greater conflict with other FUM Friends and the FUM leadership. This is why I left so led to be part of the BYM Intervisitation Project, which I could not afford to do without the financial support of BYM (using the funds not sent to FUM). Last year I represented BYM to Western Yearly Meeting and will do so again this year (this is why I cannot attend annual session this year and could not attend it last year). However, this year I feel a strong leading to be out of the closet while I'm at WYM, a leading similar to the one I felt before the World Gathering. It would be difficult for me to follow this Leading of the Spirit without the Intervisitation Project funding, spiritual support and the knowledge that my Yearly Meeting stands behind me by not funding a policy that discriminates against me.
In Peace,
Jennifer Chapin-Smith,
Member Adelphi Friends Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Seventh Month, Seventh Day, 2008 | | Monday, June 23rd, 2008 | | 1:30 pm |
Quakerdom
I'm driving to FGC this Saturday and driving home the following Saturday. I look forward to seeing my Quaker friends (pun! get it!) there. For the rest of you--don't expect to hear much from me that week as I won't have much computer access.
This weekend I prepared for my trip. I mowed the back lawn and washed the laundry. I still need to tend the garden, mow the front lawn, finish cleaning inside the house and refill the dogs' big food container. I also printed out detailed instructions for the babysitters. The instructions include rules such as no drinking, smoking or gambling on my property. Last year, the babysitter said she taught the dogs to smoke cigars and play poker while I was gone. I told her I didn't think Aidan would be at all good at poker.
Lexi called me from Peru this weekend. She and her fellow grad students went to the big town (the one with real telephones!) for a day. She and one of the other grad students had had a yucky illness for a few days but they took some cipro that Lexi had gotten earlier from her doctor in Michigan and now both students are fine. Lexi jokingly called the illness Atahualpa's revenge.
Also yesterday I helped with child care during Meeting for Worship. I baked cookies with the kids. It was fun but a TON of work, so I'm glad it was a just-once-per-summer event. In July I'm hosting a fundraiser at Meeting for the Washtenaw Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network. We're in the process of getting 501c3 status and I'm going to be on the Board of Directors. I already organize a ton of stuff for the group and edit the newsletter. | | Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | | 3:32 pm |
Hello!
Yes, I'm still alive.
I took Lexi to the airport on Thursday. She called me over the weekend from Pacasmayo, a large town in northern Peru. Tomorrow she and the other U of MI grad students take a bus to the tiny town of Pay Pay, which will serve as her base this summer. She's looking for an archeology site to dig next year.
Meanwhile, I continue to work on my writing. At the office I finally convinced the Exec Direc to have a meeting on what articles will appear in the magazine this year and now I'm hunting around for people to interview.
I biked to work yesterday and today. Biking is good for the environment, cheaper than spending money on gas and good for my health. I can't bike on days that I have appointments (owing to the less-than-the-best public transit system in Ann Arbor) but every little bit helps.
Prairie Home Companion was aired live from Ann Arbor, MI this Saturday. You can hear a recording on the NPR website! The Lake Woebegone story and Father's Day skit were really funny. | | Thursday, May 29th, 2008 | | 4:41 pm |
Last weekend we visited the DC area. We visited with Julie, Eri and Ro (and got to see her fabulous new look!), played with my parents' dogs, then attended Lexi's cousin's wedding. We helped out with care for Lexi's grandmother before and during the wedding. I didn't get much sleep the night before the wedding because my dad knocked on our door at midnight asking for help with one of the puppies. The dog would not stop chewing his foot where he had a booboo and he had outgrown his Shakespearean collar. Lexi suggested dopping him up on benedryl so all of us could get some sleep. The parents also needed help with grooming the dogs on Monday morning. How do they manage without us?
On Sunday we saw Lexi's aunt star in "Nickel and Dimed," a play based on the nonfiction book of the same name. Very cool! Lynn said she will finish the filming of "Vegan Zombies" this summer (she's one of the stars). I look forward to seeing this mock-horror movie.
Back home the dogs acted as if we had not even been gone, probably due to the great care their fantastic babysitter gives them. They know the sitter pretty well and she let them sleep on the bed next to her.
The gerbils at work have died and I'm sad about that but at least their older brother is still healthy.
In other news, work on this year's "Access" magazine (which I edit, see last year's edition at www.aacil.org) is going along marvelously and I'm almost done editing the recorded version of last year's magazine. The final recording will go to the Michigan Library for the Blind for distribution.
I will be at FGC this year but not BYM as I'm again representing BYM at Western Yearly Meeting this summer. My summer travel plans also include going to my cousin's wedding in California in August.
Lexi leaves for Peru on June 12. She'll be there until the end of August. This year she's going to a tiny town without Internet access and very limited phone access, so I'll maybe get an email from her once a week if she visits a bigger city on those days but I won't get any calls. | | Friday, May 23rd, 2008 | | 9:25 am |
Jen and Lexi are in DC
Want to have dinner with us at my parents' house in DC? Call us right away at three-o-one, five-six-five, four-six, three-six. We can arrange for transportation from the Silver Spring Metro.
Cheers! | | Monday, May 19th, 2008 | | 9:25 pm |
Loldogs
We just created loldogs images of Sapphie and Aidan. We can email them to you if you like. | | 4:48 pm |
I'm an aunt!
Sort of. My co-worker's gerbils (who live in a glass box near my desk) just had babies. My co-worker named one baby after me! I've been waiting for years for him to name a gerbil after me. This co-worker always names the gerbils after his colleagues.
These new babies follow the birth of their older brother, George, by just a few weeks. Yes, gerbils get pregnant and give birth that fast. I told my co-worker that he'd better take the dad away now because the gerbil mum will be able to get pregnant again within a few days.
The babies are probably only two centimeters long and bright pink. Their older brother is now about three times their size, has hair (finally!) and can see and walk around. | | Thursday, May 15th, 2008 | | 3:15 pm |
Grant Success!
I just found out that I won one of the grants for which I applied on behalf of my office. We won $2,300 to buy an automatic electronic defibrillator (AED), the machine that gives an electric shock to a person in cardiac arrest. It must be used by someone (like me) who's certified in CPR and is done as part of the CPR.
Yay me! | | 12:15 pm |
Modern Technology
Today I biked to work. On days when the weather permits and I don't have to go to an out-of-office meeting or make a presentation (necessitating that I wear a suit), I plan to bike to work. This will get me lots of exercise and save ga$. I also get to think of myself as environmental, which is always good. The bike route is somewhat longer than the car route but allows me to skip the highway and the horrendous traffic going on and off of it.
Now, at the office, our email is down, as are the database and shared drive files. The phones only just started working again. Indeed, just about all that's working right now is the internet. This limits how much real work I can do, hence my posting to LJ.
The wife informed me this morning that when I get home she's going to finish cutting my hair (home haircuts save $). I think she will also want to finish putting up the gutters. We're doing the gutters ourselves to save $ and to reuse supplies, rather than buy new. This way we get to think of ourselves as eco-friendly and frugal.
While I'm at work she's going to walk to the Post Office for one-cent stamps and get some baby meds for Aidan, who has allergies. | | Monday, May 12th, 2008 | | 1:37 pm |
Mothers Day
I called the parents' house yesterday to wish my mum a happy Mothers Day. As she wasn't home, my sister promised to give her the message that I had called but since I've yet to hear back from my mother I suspect that the message went undelivered.
The dogs told us they were very sorry they didn't get us a card. They wanted to spell "Happy Mothers Day" out in bit of chewed up cardboard on the floor but then remembered that they can neither read nor write. So, they sat on our laps demanding attention instead. They wondered what dogs with only one mother do on Mothers (plural) Day. | | Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 | | 1:10 pm |
There goes my health care
As the wife of a grad student this directly affects me. I'm now covered on L's health plan.
Michigan high court says gay partners can't get health benefits
Posted by David Eggert | The Associated Press May 07, 2008 11:48AM
Categories: Breaking News, State
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks governments and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers.
The 5-2 decision affirms a state Court of Appeals ruling.
Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefits policies covering at least 375 gay couples.
Some of the plans began as far back as the early 1990s.
After the appeals court ruled in February 2007, universities and local governments rewrote their policies to try to comply with the gay marriage ban -- so the effect of Wednesday's decision was unclear.
The new policies no longer specifically acknowledge domestic partnerships but make sure "other qualified adults," including gay partners, are eligible for medical and dental care.
The adults have to live together for a certain amount of time, be unmarried, share finances and be unrelated. | | Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 | | 4:05 pm |
Euros
Today, my colleague's assistant brought in her lunch. As the assistant put the bag on the counter, she said, "The gyros have arrived." She pronouced it as "Yuros."
I replied, "That's good, because the Euros are very strong right now. They're trading at a higher rate than the dollar."
:) | | Monday, May 5th, 2008 | | 11:33 am |
Hello
This is just a quick note to let you all know that I have not disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. I'm under a lot of stress right now and working hard, so the time I have available for LJ is limited. Sorry. | | Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 | | 11:49 am |
Help War Resisters Many US soldiers who object to the war have gone to Canada seeking asylum, but the Canadian government will not grant it. People in the US who want to convince the Canadian government to do the right thing can go to http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/ to sign a petition asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other officials to grant amnesty to those courageous enough to say "no" to war. | | Thursday, April 10th, 2008 | | 4:49 pm |
| | Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 | | 12:11 pm |
Star Trek Meme You scored 23% Kirkness, 71% Picardibility, and 56% Janewayosity! The percentages shown show how much you are like each of the three Star Trek captains. Your highest percentage is which captain you are, at heart. Kirk- You are bold, you are manly, wild, you've never met an alien you wouldn't kiss. Love 'em and leave 'em- that's your policy, like an old sailor, with a woman at every port. Rules can be bent, as long as you stay in the spotlight. You answers are quick and decisive and highlight YOU! Unfortunately, that won't help you next time your standing in front of the traffic cop for your seventh speeding ticket. Just tell the judge- "at warp, no one can hear you scream." Janeway- It may be a man's world, but sometimes a woman's got to do it. Your descisions tend to be based more on your rulebook and your moral compass than the opinions of those around you. You're good at using the best you've got at hand- even if that means using the Borg to save yourself. One flaw- you tend to blame yourself and brood more than others. So next time you find yourelf "contemplating your situation", take that cup of coffee to the mess hall and flirt with the tattoted man, for once. Picard- You are no slave to fashion! No slave to personal appearance, a determined consensus builder, taking in everyone's opinion. Bold, yet forgiving, in complete command of your emotions, your intellect. Unfortunately, underneath it all, you're a wuss in polynet pants. Your narsican mechanical heart prevents you from real relationships. The problem with this meme is that it doesn't include Commander Sisco or the guy that Lexi and I call Captain Tight Pants from that last Star Trek series (Enterprise?) that was such a bust. | | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | | 11:43 am |
| | Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 | | 12:40 pm |
I still exist
I realize that I have not posted very much or very often lately. This is because my job has basically eaten my life. I have been very stressed. Rest assured, however, that I am managing and have not been eaten by a giant worm.
L and I have been watching "The 4400." We saw as many episodes of it and "Stargate: Atlantis" as we could at the public library, which has a somewhat limited collection but is free. | | Friday, March 21st, 2008 | | 11:58 am |
Equinox
Happy Ostara or Spring Equinox. We had a full moon last night so Lexi and I had a brief ritual in the backyard. The dogs joined us. They love the mud, which just proves that they are little Pagans. |
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