Dena Eakles

Reunion

I enjoy listening to BBC World Service through the night. I stay in touch with friends all over the world this way. Listening to the voices of people trying to survive 127 degree temperatures and drought in Iraq brings the suffering home and reminds me of a dear friend.

Sami Rasouli is an Iraqi – American. After the bombing of Iraq in March 2003, he returned to Iraq and founded the Muslim Peacemaker Teams. His hope was to build reconciliation between his two countries. With his supervision many United States citizens visited Iraq. Our nonprofit contributed to the Water for Peace Project bringing water purification systems to schools after U.S. bombs had corrupted the water supplies.

*A thank you for our help in getting a water purification system to their school.*

In 2017, he created an NGO, the American Institute for English, in his hometown of Najaf. It was to be another attempt to bridge peace.

But peace can be elusive. And while on a visit with his three children to his home in Minneapolis, this dream in Najaf was shattered by a bomb. Gratefully no one was injured in the blast, but on September 18, 2020, the institute was completely destroyed. Two Iraqi security agencies and the FBI contacted Sami, interrogated him and then warned him not to return to Iraq because he was a target. Granted an extended stay in the United States, Sami and his three children, all United States citizens, have been living in Minneapolis for the past two years while his wife, their mother has been living in Iraq.

Suad Jassim is their mother. Her paperwork qualifies her to come. All she is waiting for and has been waiting for, for two years now is an interview, that and to see and to hold her 8, 9 and 14 year old children once more.

The top photo was a visit with Sami August 8, 2016. The photos below are from Sami and Suad’s children during their recent visit to Echo Valley Farm.

Please sign this petition to reunite the family. Thank you in advance for caring.

Calling All Hearts

I like talking to people. They tell you in very few words what they believe and how they live. Believing is the easy part. Living with conviction is a bit more daunting.

You can believe we’re one race, but continue to uphold systematic racism.

You can believe the environment is harmed by human behavior, but refuse to consider even the smallest steps to rectify it.

You can proclaim we’re all equal and never let the ERA pass.

You get my point.

What then helps a person jump from believing to knowing and from knowing to conviction of action? Believing is the weak link in the chain. Throw doubts at it and belief falters. Or feed it lies and it grows into a mechanism of societal destruction. Look no further than January 6, ‘21 to understand this point.

So the first leap, from belief to knowing is crucial. Facts change. They always have and always will. It’s the nature of the physical world to be in flux. Knowing fact is not the “Knowing” we need.

There’s an internal knowing available to us if we take the time to seek it.

That knowing supports the recognition of humanity and leaves no doubt about the massacre of innocent people or the ignorance of war. It simply should not be. That knowing understands the interconnectedness of all life. And that knowing honors the Earth as our home.

With this Knowing a person can be readied for a life lived in conviction. A life lived in fulfillment of purpose, in recognition that we’re not here by accident or chance and that we all have a part to play.

And what is that part you play?

The discovery and enjoyment of the part you play is left to you and to your heart.

More Thinking, Less Bureaucracy

With the influx of city dwellers fleeing the urban jungle, and farm acreage being cut into bite sized pieces to accommodate, sewage and wastewater are in the spotlight. Whether a holding tank or a septic field, there’s often a lot more going down then simply number one or number two. Household cleaners, toxic chemicals and now PFAS – known as “forever chemicals” are turning up in our sludge.

OK you say, but the truck sucks it up and takes it away. Ah, but there’s the rub. Where is it taken? The EPA will tell you more than half of all sewage sludge is spread on farmlands. And studies are showing farmers and farm workers are paying the price, not to mention the animals and humans who are eating from those fields or drinking from contaminated wells.

Organic standards do not allow the use of sewage sludge to be used as fertilizer. That’s one remedy. We have become very good at mitigating problems at there end point, but we have a long way to go to stop the very egregious actions that are creating the mess in the first place.

The state is becoming hyper vigilant in demanding every household be responsible to contain waste, while big polluters are given a pass. Simple composting and greywater systems which could offset waste are not permitted or are enforced in such a way that they still end up in the toxic stew scattered over farmlands. We’re not thinking this through.

Stop the production of PFAS, reduce the amount of chemicals being created and used, and allow common sense to return. We’re still living as though we have not heard that the earth is warming at an alarming rate, or that we could play a part in protecting it.

Biosolid Map: The spreading of wastewater sludge (biosolids) on agricultural land, a common practice dating to the 1980s, is concentrated in the eastern U.S. where groundwater depth is relatively shallow, raising concerns about widespread PFAS contamination affecting drinking water. Source: EPA webinar, “PFAS in Biosolids,” Sept. 23, 2020.

Rescind the Doctrine

Hubris comes to mind as I read about the Pope’s apology tour of Canada. But this isn’t about the Pope who is gagged by power and the ignorance of ages. It’s about the dominant culture that continues to ignore the gross and inhumane facts on how indigenous people were and are treated. It’s about the Doctrine of Discovery, how so very few of us know what it is or don’t care about how it still influences our thinking and behavior.

When the Si Pih Ko stood before the Pope and sang the “Our Village” song, dominant media raced to explain that she was singing the Canadian National anthem in Cree. You can see her sing, tears rolling down her cheeks, defiance and dignity emanating from her. And the media whitewashed it as “the Canadian anthem in Cree”.

I call hubris: excessive pride that leads to downfall.

The Doctrine of Discovery originated as edicts by the Catholic Church in the 15th century. They empowered Portugal and Spain to colonize West Africa and the Americas by all means necessary. It’s estimated that twelve million indigenous human beings died since 1492. Unmarked graves of children at residential schools tell the story of brutalization and erasure of native people by all means necessary.

At the stand at Standing Rock when Christian clergy approached the sacred fire and asked to burn the Doctrine of Discovery, they were told “No. Because it’s not over.” In that moment I witnessed the depth of pain and the ignorance of dominance collide.

No, it’s not over. It’s alive in the trauma of remembrance and in current Supreme Court decisions. It’s not over, until we purge the hubris, or succumb to the downfall. We must rescind the Doctrine of Discovery from our beings.

Where Everyone is Welcome

Gentrification is colonizing. Colonize: to appropriate (a place or domain) for one’s own use.

It’s likely before land was owned it was held in common among people living in a given place. It also seems likely that those people worked to ensure their common interests in a way that was most beneficial to everyone – including the environment. Most likely they were agrarians who lived off the land and cared for animals who supported their way of life.

Skills were shared and bartered. And peacekeeping was left to the peaceful who held a deep appreciation for equity and dignity.

There are many places on earth that still maintain the understanding of shared commons. There are people who still understand how important each individual is to the whole.

For the most part capitalism, as we know it, has destroyed this sense of community. Ownership trumps the notion of shared commons. And the hierarchy that ownership creates breeds distrust. The deference that is expected from worker to employer has unleveled the playing field. We’ve lost our ability to be content and the scramble to get ahead leaves most far behind.

Individual “freedoms” now supersede any concern of the common good – that applies to all people on the spectrum of left and right.

The word gentrification describes inner city take over by wealth as it displaces people of lesser means. But what do we call it when wealth and privilege come knocking on our rural doors?

The gentrification of the Driftless is making it hard for people to choose simple living. Suburbia is finding us. Laws on how we should live come with a price.

Support cooperative ventures that champion the rights of Nature and human dignity. This isn’t about a hand out. It’s about paying attention to what is happening. It’s about restoring the commons.

Where everyone is welcome.

What Matters Most

I’ve heard it said that the peace movement is all but dead. Old activists still stand on street corners talking to the wind and wonder why and how people can walk on by and not see the obvious. I have deep respect for their tenacity and effort. Statisticians remind us the young may register but often do not vote. We all wrestle with laying blame as pundits pontificate about human apathy. I think we are all barking up the wrong tree.

While we insist on getting our points across and spend fruitless hours on facts that will be countered by more facts, we have forgotten the secret ingredient. Saint-Exupery said it best in The Little Prince, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

We’ve lost our ability to listen to our heart. Driven by all things external, we hope to hit upon some semblance of truth and all the while ignoring the precious gems we carry within us. This ignorance is wide spread.

But here is the greatest secret of all: for there to be peace we must feel peace. Peaceful people do not make war. Peaceful people are engaged in the internal struggle to remain clear in a very confused world. Peaceful people would rather spend time enjoying the fruit of their effort, love and contentment. They don’t waste time creating calamity.

As lies and treachery are being exposed regarding the insurrection on January 6th, and as our current leader meets with a known Saudi assassin and continues to pump millions into weaponry, one has to wonder how did we get here?

The answer is simple: we stopped listening to what matters most.

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“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
–Isaiah the Prophet

photo: silkscreen print, Library of Congress, Public Domain

Becoming Human

Slipping through the cracks. That’s how it feels. We’re living in a time with a lot of cracks and people are trying to hold on and not fall through. If there ever were safety nets, they’re long gone. Children may now fear going to a parade. Police firing sixty bullets to unarmed Jayland Walker shows just how unhinged we have become.

We’re not bound for glory, we’re hell-bent on self-destruction as if all has been preordained and our ability to choose is irrelevant. But I’m a believer in choice. And I know it is still within us to choose something better, something greater than we’re currently living.

Lists can be made of all that is horribly and tragically wrong, but there is no time. I could join the chorus of gun control and mental health advocates and while I support those efforts, we miss the point if that’s all we see. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me and even fewer may understand; yet I know this is the moment to discover our inner strength. This is the moment to step beyond hope and prayers and step into our knowing. It is possible.

It’s possible that we can choose respect and kindness in the face of ignorance and hatred. It’s possible we can overcome. We’re not the first and we’ll not be the last who have had to fight to preserve our human dignity. But fight we must.

Let this be an awakening of our spirit. Let it be our time for a change, time for the lovers, the healers, for the broken. Time to be human again.

We need to see the ugliness that has always been here in us and around us. But we must also find the strength and the courage to witness our Beauty.

While there are no silver bullets to change the world, there are practical steps that can be made. This is one that I have chosen for the past fifty years. Practicing Peace.

Where Are We Headed?

The blatant takeover of the Supreme Court and the bold and reckless words of Clarence Thomas are telling us what’s at stake. When Thomas declares war on anything he deems Constitutionally challengeable, like abortion, gay marriage and contraception, he and the rest of his ilk are forgetting the most unchallengeable – the separation of church and state.

As Jefferson penned in 1814, “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law”.

So when local folks running for local office tell us they are going to bring back Christian values, its time to say, hold on partner, lets review history, not re-write it.

It ‘s time for all clear thinking people to step out of the red and blue boxes designed to divide so that we can see the current power grab as it is. We’re being played. We have been for the past fifty years. We’ve been divided by ignorance, our own and that which is thrust upon us.

Abortion will not end because of a law. Women of lessor means will suffer greatly as will their families, as will our society. The hypocrisy of this moment is only lost on those who blindly follow and those who corruptly lead.

So when I see a candidate running for the sheriff’s office proudly posing with a man who was unapologetically part of the January 6^th coup attempt on our government, I have to ask, “Where are we headed?”

We’re fortunate to have some very fine people running for office, principled people putting their necks on the line and challenging us to make history again, to become the people we have believed we could be.

We have the opportunity to mend the divide, to come together.

And please do your homework, for all our sakes.

Here are a few worthy candidates of consideration, running in Vernon County, Wisconsin and the greater Wisconsin area: Turben for Sheriff; Swiggum for the 96th; and Cooke for Congress (WI 3rd District)

There is Enough

It took a huge effort to get the family of groundhogs eating and sleeping in our garden to leave, but we did it. And then of course we discovered the deer have been eating our corn. It’s always smart to plant enough for everyone I reckon.

The days will be shortening and the winter’s wood supply is coming in bit by bit. I always feel a touch of relief at the Solstice, knowing that the reduction of light will shorten workdays as well.

The apple harvest looks to be promising this year and I marvel at how human beings survived this dance on the Earth. I guess our ancestors did, as we must now do, be thoughtful, be creative, be frugal and above all be grateful.

Being thoughtful implies deliberate and careful consideration of the land, what it offers and how best to care for it. Being creative happens with the realization that we’re inextricably bound to the Earth in a realm of endless possibilities.

If that’s confusing to you, stop by and watch the wizardry of my wife (welcome to Pride Month) as she gathers from the gardens and the wilds to create delicious life sustaining foods. And while some of that comes from being frugal, at its core it is an act of love and gratitude. It’s in recognition that the Earth can and does provide all that we need if we can take the time to remember what some have always known: There is enough.

Another lovely awakening of this time is Juneteenth. Celebrating the beauty and the strength of those who survived the inhumanity of slavery are steps towards all of our healing. We have much to overcome, but we are one people finding our way on this precious Earth. Let’s get to it!

Loving Makes It Easy

The days keep growing longer. The birds, crickets and frogs break the silence with sweet sounds. The fireflies are back and their magic still enchants. Walking through the forest, the scents are a tonic, each plant offering its own special gift. The soil in the garden is a balm for feet and hands. Senses are heightened and gratitude comes easily.

And I wonder why we ever took ourselves out of the garden.

If you look at your family history you’ll find it’s not been that long that our ancestors coexisted with the earth. It hasn’t been that long since they “made a way out of no way”. There is something so very basic in our relationship to the earth, so very integral. It’s in our blood. We are made of this earth and we return to this earth. It’s natural to appreciate it. It’s natural to learn from it and to celebrate it. What is unnatural is to do it harm. And this we have been doing for some time now.

From industry to industrial ag, from chemical herbicides to chemical fertilizers, this need to make our lives easier has made it a living hell.

I’m always happy to hear of people trying to end the harm. Most recently a Canadian company, McCain Foods, asked their Wisconsin potato growers to adopt regenerative practices by 2030. There are a growing number of voices both consumers and producers ready for change.

And how hard will that change be to make? Loving makes the need for change come more easily. When we fall in love with the earth and all its wonders, when we appreciate the delicacies it offers and delight in our ability to co-create, we will change. Our health and the health of the planet depend on it.

Author: Dena Eakles