On a warm, beautiful, and windy day, 50 people from all backgrounds met at Madison Meadow Park in Lombard, IL, to celebrate Race Amity Day. It was a wonderful day of singing, conversation, and good food. There was a strong spirit of unity and togetherness with conversations taking place with people who met for the first time and have developed new friendships. The picnic also included the reading of the State House resolution for Proclaiming Race Amity Day by Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock, chief sponsor; a reading of the DuPage County Board Proclamation by Board Member Yeena Yoo; and a reading of the State Senate resolution sponsored by Sen. Rachel Ventura. The gathering and the program opened with the sharing of beautiful prayers in song. We were also led a sing-along that most of the people participated in. All in all, it was a truly inspirational gathering.

Yesterday (June 9) was definitely a beautiful day all around! Naperville's Race Amity Day picnic was held in the late afternoon, and was attended by close to 100 people. Following beautiful devotions, Dr Geneace Williams, Naperville's first Manager of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, spoke on her work in Naperville and upcoming events to be involved in as well as the meaning and mission of Race Amity. Jim Percic explained Race amity and the growing movement in Illinois, and read the Proclamation from the DuPage County Board. Cat Gaddis and her band gave an amazing performance. The event was attended by representatives from like minded groups including Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association and Naperville Neighbors United. Several city and county officials were in attendance. Wonderful connections were made and bonds of friendship strengthened. Everyone who attended made it more special.

June 8, 2024-I haven’t had a day like this since 1980 when on my trip to Los Angeles (which I only got as far as Albuquerque NM) I had the opportunity to attend the Jemez Pueblo Harvest Festival. The Harvest Festival is an all day event where we spend the morning observing and participating in Native Dance, viewing indigenous arts and crafts, and enjoying the event with other participants. The afternoon was a simple affair where you go around to people’s homes and share a meal. This was my downfall. By the time we started the process I was pretty hungry so it was easy to over indulge. I would soon learn this was not very smart.

For people unfamiliar with New Mexican fare, it tends along the super spicy side. One trick I learned after arriving was to ALWAYS choose the red peppers (as the green peppers were rated at 20 alarm) which were the milder of the two peppers but would still produce an immediate sweat. So between the volumes of food ingested and the heat I was being subjected to, my system was well into overload.

I was ready to call it quits when my friends who were locals informed me it was time to go to the next house. Once we got there I was definitely too full to have more BUT to not eat would be an insult to the hosts, and I certainly did not wish to insult anyone.

As a side note, the reason for going to everyone’s home to eat is because the belief is that the more you share during the festival, the better next year's harvest will be. So once again I had to chow-down, to help with next year's outcome.

I definitely was slowing down as I was then led to the next house. There were several Jemez residents who could immediately see that I was a Gringo and was suffering from the afternoon activities. In their “kindness” I was informed that the “Feasting” I was suffering from was their way of getting revenge on White Men (being non-indigenous I fell into that category). We all had a great laugh at that as I suffered through another bite of an unidentified red pepper dish.

So now back to June 8.

My first appointment was the Men’s Breakfast and The Egg House in Arlington Hts. This gathering is for men, to gather for fellowship and conversation (as well as finding solutions for world issues. It is wonderful to be able to gather and socialize with no particular agenda and build bonds of friendship.

My next stop was the “Interfaith & Ecumenical Lunch Meeting” that was held in Oakbrook. It was souls from several religious & faith backgrounds to discuss ways we can support each other in anti-racist and justice work. In all there were 10 people involved and we came up with some productive ideas and are creating a sub-committee to begin working on bringing these ideas to fruition. I enjoyed the energy created in this gathering because in our discussion we discussed our faiths with each other and how we must work towards loving humankind and work to the goals that God has laid out for us in all our faith communities.

We held our meeting at a Brazilian Steak house which meant there was food because “if you feed them, they will come.” This meant that within 3 hours I was again feeding my face (after having as it turns out too much breakfast) and of course lunch was a buffet. Not a good thing for a man who is trying desperately to lose weight, but not sharing food (in my mind) might be thought of an affront so I suffered through another meal (along with the wonderful and uplifting conversation).

The evening’s purpose was a little more personal in that it was a completely social event with its beginnings going back to our Saturday Dinners which were open to anyone. While doing our dinners it was discovered that many of the folks who frequented our gatherings all shared birthdays in June so we started having a special June Birthday celebration to celebrate all the birthdays at once.

Because of COVID we stopped having our regular dinners, but from time to time we still find reason to get together, so it was this day that we decided to “get the band back together” and celebrate our mutual June birthdays. I will say that I have missed getting together every Saturday, though now we wonder how we had the energy to do it every week. I have missed the fellowship, the conversation, the jokes, the sharing of our lives, the food, the drink (even though I was too full, when sharing a meal with others the body still seems to find room for more), and the strengthening of connections we made.

Today was a day for community, for service and for sharing and spreading love with each other.

My one advice is to avoid the red & green peppers unless it’s the last supper.