Dena Eakles

Stories We Refuse To Hear

It’s August and commemorations of the bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and of Nagasaki three days later honor the lives lost. We’re reminded of the gruesome destruction and the inhumanity released on the world through the atomic bomb.

Podcasts and radio raise the voices of survivors and the unanswered debate lingers: Wasn’t the carnage of Hiroshima enough? Why did the US bomb Nagasaki?

As a youth I was taught the United States won the war and saved lives through the use of nuclear weapons. I don’t recall learning much about horrific annihilation. And I can assure you I never learned about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bayard Russell and W. E. B. Du Bois speaking up for nuclear disarmament or ending nuclear testing. Nor was I aware of the racial connections they drew as they warned against the use of the bomb in Vietnam and Korea.*

While we all knew the first atomic bomb test happened in New Mexico, we’re only now learning that generations of families living near the test site are still haunted by cancers linked to that initial explosion. We were not taught that the government did not take the time to warn residents about what was coming, nor did they ever document the after effects. We can thank concerned citizens and family members for that research.

The lasting legacy of the first atomic bomb

I ask myself, what will it take for people to end this nightmare of nuclear war? We fear it. Yet we continue to glorify war and refuse to find peaceful solutions. We teach our histories of omission and refuse to take responsibility for guiding our government to a new direction. Abolition of violence, in our selves and in our world, still waits for us.

This is the map of the first atomic test site in New Mexico known as Trinity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)

*https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/web-dubois-coretta-scott-king-ban-the-bomb/

W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb

Love as a Wake Up Call

The further we’ve removed ourselves from living naturally on the earth, the more the earth is challenging us to rethink our choices. And the choices keep coming. We’re over mid-way through this year and the natural disasters have increased worldwide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2023_natural_disasters

So far we are in mitigation mode. We seek to reduce the severity and the painfulness of what is occurring. But mostly we rely on blind hope. We hope it is all an anomaly. We hope the facts are all wrong. We hope it doesn’t happen to us or at least not to anyone we love.

We hope our money holds out. We hope our air-conditioning does, too. We’re so busy keeping the ship afloat we seldom look to see how those around us are faring.

Mitigation and hope will fail us. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you want to find solutions you have to step off the merry-go-round of distraction and roll up your sleeves.

If you are not growing some of your own food or helping others grow food, you are, minimally, out of step. If you are not seeking to reduce your consumption of energy – particularly of fossil fuels, you are a significant part of the problem.

And if you’re not connecting with local partners to create local solutions, stop further pollution, and move towards renewables, you’re not even in the boat.

Get on board! Everyone can do SOMETHING. Wake-up calls have come and gone. For me that call comes in the form of Love. Appreciation for the Earth and for one another gives me the courage to try. And clarity tells me all things are possible.

A mega-transformation is needed. Let’s get on with it.

Teach Forbearance

“To live and let live” is a proverb worthy of remembrance. As our homogenized society moves further from acceptance and more towards fear, it’s not lost on me that it took four white guys to write a song about violence now dominating the charts. “Try That in a Small Town” is the latest assault on human dignity. With worn and tired lyrics it boasts about guns and small town boys sticking together.

But one of the giant omissions of this mess of a song – and there are many – is that it champions a dying breed.

When we are told “the west was won”, it’s with this kind of swagger. The bravado is used to hide the truth that the west was stolen at the cost of indigenous lives and ways of being. These whitewashed storylines creep into our discourses today with the latest out of Florida introducing a curriculum espousing that human beings benefitted from being enslaved.*

Really? What sickness is this that continues to dominate the airwaves and receives so much support?

I haven’t watched the video of the song. I read the lyrics and that was enough.

Sing and make some money fellows. The tide is turning and your chest thumping proves it. You’re not striking fear; you’re inviting resistance. And how will that resistance look? Like the colors of the rainbow we will rise and envelope you. We will plant gardens where you poisoned the soil; we will restore the waters until they are pristine again.

Most importantly we will teach love and forbearance and if you are fortunate, we will forgive you.

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And if you want a deeper dive into Florida’s latest controversy: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/24/kamala-harris/do-Florida-school-standards-say-enslaved-people/

Demand Dignity

In a recent conversation with SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, Bernie Sanders remarked that he’s never heard the word dignity being expressed by more working people than now. That would be a lot of working people over a lot of decades for Bernie.

Regardless where you stand on the political sideshow, it’s refreshing to hear the words, “We need to be treated with dignity.” To hear them spoken in so many sectors is the kind of echo chamber I’m happy to support.

If you threw out your TV or don’t have a subscription to a streaming service, you might have missed the latest attack on the working class. It seems the Actors Guild contract of the ‘60’s didn’t take into account the new devil in the details, streaming subscriptions. No longer does viewer appreciation make a difference whether a show stays or goes; now it’s all about subscriptions. The willingness of corporate greed to steal the efforts of writers, actors and producers is further undermined by the new cult of AI.

Seems we’re happy to replace real intelligence with the artificial thing.

As compelling is the case that working folk get their due and dignity, so is the reality that if more people do not get on board with #unionstrong, the outcomes for the working class will diminish.

A bit more compassion, a whole lot more empathy and a ton less greed will put a Band-Aid on this capitalist nightmare. It might even improve the mental health of the citizenry and bring hope back to our youth.

Three cheers for the workers demanding dignity. But first and foremost we must all recognize the importance of #unionstrong and stand in solidarity.

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I am having difficulty with injecting links, so here are a few I recommend for further reading / listening:

What is SAG-AFTRA? https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-sag-aftra-definition/

Listen to Frank Drescher’s speech:

Conversation between Bernie Sanders and Fran Drescher: https://fb.watch/lU0uxSnLIL/

Current strikes in the U.S. https://apnews.com/hub/strikes

How Far Are We Willing To Go?

How far are we willing to go to kill? The United States has made the decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of another 800 million dollar military package.

Cluster Bombs were developed in WWII. They carry canisters of explosives that are designed to detonate on tanks and hard surfaces, but they do not always detonate on contact. There are fragments of cluster bombs used in Vietnam that are still killing and harming people decades after they were used.

More than 120 countries have banned them. The US, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey did not sign on to ban them and they have been widely used during the war in Ukraine by both sides.

Most allies are balking at the decision. Canada, New Zealand and Spain have doubled down on their support of the ban. Others support the US decision yet choose for their own countries to honor the ban. We are becoming the world’s henchmen. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66144153)

As this proxy war continues and Ukraine is dismantled, the question becomes how many of the millions of displaced people and refugees will be willing to return at the war’s end? An estimated 17.6 million people living in Ukraine will need humanitarian assistance this year as the war carries on. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61778433)

Our citizenry needs to decide where we stand.

How far are we willing to go to support death and destruction?

Are we too weak to demand a peaceful resolution?

Or are we too cynical to believe it is possible?

Our collective inability to redirect our government from war to diplomacy, and our refusal to halt shipments of weapons weighs heavily upon us.

How far are we willing to go?

Let your elected officials know where you stand, sign here: https://afsc.org/action/tell-congress-dont-send-cluster-munitions-ukraine

For more:

A B-1B Lancer drops cluster munitions. The B-1B uses radar and inertial navigation equipment enabling aircrews to globally navigate, update mission profiles and target coordinates in-flight, and precision bomb without the need for ground-based navigation aids. (U.S. Air Force photo – Public Domain)

Top photo: March 1991 unexploded cluster bomblet in a tarmac in Kuwait, photo: Johnny Saunderson compliments of creative commons licensing

Citizens of the Earth

Another Fourth of July has come and gone. Animals and Veterans can rest a bit easier now that the firework hullabaloo is over. I was grateful not to hear fire trucks as sparks flew on parched land. And I wonder how many of those flags were actually made in the good ole USA? There comes a point when learned behavior becomes monotonous. I’ve reached that point with celebrating the Fourth.

I’m much happier acknowledging Juneteenth. And I am all for giving thanks, but please keep the Pilgrim myths out of it. The truth is I’m bored with anything that doesn’t touch my humanity.

I heard the phrase Citizen of the Earth a long time ago and made it my business to understand what that meant. It doesn’t mean you cannot love your country, but it does mean you cannot love it to the exclusion and degradation of others. It doesn’t mean that you cannot take pride in achievements, but when those achievements come on the backs of Black, Brown and Indigenous people historical and contemporary acknowledgments should be given.

Being a Citizen of the Earth means that you take into account your relationship with all of Life. It means you have a right and a duty to question activities that do harm to your life and the lives of all around you. It does not imply that you can impose your will on anyone or anything.

In his Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence speech, Martin Luther King referred to our government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” That “today” continues unchecked. And the sixteen mass shootings over the holiday should tell us the chickens have come home to roost.

We need to become purveyors of peace.

Breathing as a Priority

The morning sky was cloudy and the sun was fiery red. The air was thick as the winds blew smoke from the over two hundred fires burning out of control in Canada. I thought of the People who had lived long before modern methods of communication and I wondered how they would have perceived this day. Would it have struck fear in them? Would it have generated concern for one another?

Head aches, raspy throats, blurred vision would surely have signaled some kind of pause, some depth of thinking. Perhaps even some request for help from something Greater.

But we live today and the information highway is overloaded with things to attract our attention. Unless the fires and the smoke directly impact us, it’s easy to become distracted. And for those whose air quality has diminished dramatically, do we even know how to help ourselves? Wearing a mask, staying indoors are the common mitigations, but they do not take on the larger and more implicit need of changing how we live. Cranking up your air conditioner may help in the short run, but what are the long-term damages to the environment using these kinds of solutions?

It’s time we take a pause and really reflect on the current status of the citizens of the earth. It’s time to understand that the perils that affect one, affect all, as we live in our interconnected web of life on this still marvelous planet.

I know I’m moving more slowly these days because it’s all my body can do as the air becomes less friendly and the preciousness of each breath becomes clearer.

And my hope is that enough of us care to make a change.

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Air quality below 100 is considered satisfactory. We have been ranging between 170 and greater for the past few days. Madison, WI is at 240 as I write this…

The photo is from our farm at 11 in the morning looking out over the Kickapoo Valley Reserve and Wildcat Mountain State Park.

Lead the Way

Researchers of carbon emissions are calculating the environmental costs of our propensity for war. The Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, the burning of forests, croplands and oil reserves are only a fraction of the consideration. There’s also rebuilding once wars conclude, and that is loaded with carbon emissions.

And then there is the destruction of farmland, with landmines and contaminants, forcing human migration. Or, as in the case of the ended war in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, farmers are cutting trees, including fruit trees, for fuel in an area once known for its reforestation efforts.

It is speculated that ending war games, ballistic testing and other non -defensive military operations would significantly reduce our carbon emissions. Surely we can agree to this and while we’re at it, why not agree to end all war?

I heard it said once that pigs would be constipated if it knew their dung would be used to make firepower. One has to believe that those who still mass-produce war have no sense of the preciousness of life, nor of the interconnectedness we share with the earth and all living.

So this is when I tell you hold onto your compassionate heart. Find people that support your dreams of coexistence and peace. Never doubt that the power of light can triumph over darkness. And if all you can do is wish for war to end, then wish away. Your wishing and hoping, prayers and actions can lead the way.

So at this time of Summer Solstice, when the light is the greatest and the days the longest, celebrate. Welcome in the light, bask in it and know the possibility for peace is still available to us.

Giving credit where it is due, the constipated pig comment was another of the gems of Prem Rawat.

The photo is of our newly gifted black lamb making friends with a great great grandma of our farm. We are thrilled to have this curious, brave lamb. Her mother had 4 lambs but has only one utter, so we are bottle feeding this little one and grateful to our friend for sharing her with us.

Use the Gift

Here we are in Pride month and as one would expect the rhetoric-vilifying non-heterosexuals is ratcheting up. Even Wisconsin Congressmen Van Orden and Tiffany got their anti-LGBTQ cracks in while addressing Canadian fires. One has to wonder who listens to this insanity and why it is lapped up rather than silenced.

Before I rail on the haters, I wish to thank the friends and allies who are unafraid of those who are different. I want to salute the people who have stopped laughing at course jokes and better yet have asked for voices of hate to stop. I want you to know that your words of support and caring have meant a great deal and I recognize there is a risk that you, too, will be erased by hate.

And what is this hatred? It’s nothing more than acquired bigotry that has been taught to us. We have the choice to reject it or to embrace it. But to encourage us to hold the course of hatred we are instilled with fear. Fear of other is solidified by the fear of hell. The grid of right and wrong is flexible when it comes to “Love thy neighbor”. Flexible because it’s OK to hate thy neighbor, if they’re different.

We’re spiraling downward, cloaked in religion and supported by the ignorance of laws and lawmakers. The ACLU is tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States. And while not all will pass, the rhetoric incites violence and disrespect.

Choose, People. What kind of world do you want to live in? More importantly, how do you want to live in your own being? I’ve tried hate. It only made me sick.

While we have the gift of choice, let’s put it to good use.

Photo of 2019 Rzeszów Pride compliments of Silar – Creative Commons – Attribution Share 4.0 License

Change It!

My father had a way of getting me to change my attitude. Whenever I acted grumpy at the dinner table, he would take his hand and slowly pass it over my face. By the time his hand lowered I would be smiling.

My memories of this always made it seem like magic. But now I know better.

As chance would have it, I am currently co-caring for a five year old. Grumpy faces and sour attitudes show up when we aren’t getting our way. I tried the slow hand trick, but it failed. So I had to dig a bit deeper to find out why.

My little friend and I started to have conversations about how do we feel when we are angry or frustrated. We agreed we didn’t like the feeling. So I suggested changing it. The implication is that we can change it and that it is up to us to do so. We learned to stop the behavior, but the feeling lingered. Finally she looked at me and said, “I don’t know how.” Amen to that sister, most people will never acknowledge not knowing how. “Do you want to?” I asked. “Yes”, was the answer.

We began exploring ways to change the attitude. For her, running is one way. Taking a time out, by her choosing, is another.

The power to choose our way out is a human triumph. She’s beginning to understand that. And I am beginning to understand that there was more to the hand wave than magic.

There was my father’s understanding that I could change it, and his encouragement. And above all there was the peacefulness that I felt from him that told me it was possible.

We have a treasure chest full of possibility, if only we take the time to explore.

Author: Dena Eakles