🤷🏽‍♂️ This Is America

Who gets justice here?? Oh... and who wants bread?

Hi there!

We’ve made it to another #Gratituesday, and I want to acknowledge that there are a good number of new people on this email list since last week. I’m grateful for all of you, and I’m thankful for this growing community of people who care deeply about real bread & real justice. 

Obviously a lot has occurred since my email last Tuesday. Bread ordering instructions are at the bottom of this email again, but I’m going to use this week’s email to process with you a little bit. 

Americans will always remember where we were on January 6th, 2021 when we learned that the United States Capitol was under attack by a mob of traitors that the sitting President had incited. 

On Wednesday afternoon I was sitting at my desk in the basement as I began seeing the news about what looked like protests at the US Capitol. Thinking about how “hive mind” can set in at events like this I recall thinking, “seems to me that this will be a miracle if this ends safely.” It was 10 seconds later that I learned of the first fatality from the day where a rioter had been shot in the chest and killed. 

Life seemed to pause for the rest of that day. I felt glued to news outlets and was watching all sorts of videos on twitter of people assaulting police officers, Republican insurrectionists invading and defacing the US Capitol, and the line of succession for the Presidency being whisked away to safety as our democracy was under attack. 

Candidly, I recall having a mix of conflicting emotions during the events, and in the days that followed, specifically regarding how the Capitol was or wasn’t secured. As an American I felt defensive and instinctively wanted to see the Capitol Police and the National Guard swiftly end this attack on our government. As a black American the follow-up emotion was a sort of disbelief for how much restraint that law enforcement was clearly capable of displaying in a situation when they were under assault. 

My emotions were already raw on the subject of safety and policing. It was only 24 hours prior that we learned that Rusten Sheskey (the officer that shot Jacob Blake 7 times in the back here in Wisconsin) was not going to face any charges or any repercussions for paralyzing a man in front of his kids. As the Kenosha District Attorney gave this police officer a pass for using life threatening force, he articulated, “this case is really all about self-defense and can it be proven that it does not exist.” The DA said that it would be too challenging to demonstrate that the officer didn’t fear for his own safety or someone else’s safety in that situation. 

There has been much talk about how the mob at the US Capitol exemplified that there are indeed still “two Americas”. I wish it weren’t so, but it is so obviously true after that flagrant display of white privilege to be safe even when carrying out the greatest attack on the US Capitol in 200 years. 

To be clear, I wouldn’t want for the officers last week to have shot each of these individuals who were invading the Capitol and threatening their safety and the safety of members of Congress and their staff. 

I just want to live in a society where I can come to expect to be treated the same way as anyone else by the law. I want to live in a society where I don’t fear that the color of my skin will dictate whether or not exhaustive deescalation training will be utilized or swiftly forgotten by law enforcement. 

The privilege to expect to be given the benefit of the doubt is enviable. So I guess what I’m trying to say is… after this long exhausting week… Black Lives Matter.

And in times like these where society seems particularly dark… please keep finding ways to be an agent of hope in your own sphere of influence. We owe it to the next generation (and ourselves) to not give up on the idea that our society can continue to get better, safer, healthier, more just, and more kind. 

Thanks, 
Mo

Simple steps to ordering this week’s bread: 

1. This week we’ve got more large sourdough loaves for sale for $8/each – made with a blend of Hard Red Spring Wheat and Hard Red Winter Wheat from Meadowlark Organics of Ridgeway, WI and a spring wheat flour from Guisto’s of San Francisco.
   

2. Please reply to this email to acknowledge how many loaves you’d like to request. This marks your spot in line, but your order isn’t official until you pay for your loaf.
   

3. The final step is to make a payment of $8 per loaf for your bread. At this time payment is only accepted via Venmo to @BakingMo. All pre-orders must be complete by 11:59pm today – but with our small batches of bread we might sell out well before that.
   

4. All Tuesday orders are fulfilled on Thursday and available for contactless pickup on the near-west side. (I’ll send you details for pickup)
   

P.S. This recent article in Madison.com does a nice job explaining what this Bread & Justice bakery is all about… but more importantly… in the article Kris Tazelaar from Second Harvest Food Bank does an excellent job articulating how their needs have skyrocketed since COVID. I hope you get a chance to take a look and see why we’re donating 100% of our profits for the month of January to try to help address food insecurity through supporting Second Harvest & Feeding America.