Dena Eakles

Diversity, Inclusion and Equity

Our local paper reported on a recent school board meeting. During public comments a representative from “Education, not Propaganda” explained that words like “diversity, inclusion and equity” should not be taught to our children.

Hmmm. I always thought those words were used to champion our collective humanity. You know the “one people, one race” ideal. It appears that brotherly love is taking another hit these days, as is the notion of learning from our past so as not to repeat it.

The new bandwagon is demanding that school boards whitewash our history replacing facts with fiction. They have taken a page from Steve Bannon’s playbook and are punishing school board members who violate what they consider to be conservative principles. They are threatening members, shutting down school board meetings, and forcing their propaganda wherever they can.

My father was a conservative. He fought the Nazi’s in WWII. He honored freedom of speech and applauded my willingness to explore critical thinking on all subjects. I don’t think he would look kindly on this ill wind blowing across our land. I think he would fear it. I know he would fight it.

But since he’s not here, I’ll honor his legacy by taking up the fight. There are numerous statewide organizations leading the way towards reconciliation and equity. Among them is a Christian interfaith organization called Wisconsin Counsel of Churches. Their latest effort is called “Taking a Faithful Stance for Equity”.

And although I do not profess a faith, I signed up to take a stand.

The time is long gone to sit idle thinking everything will be ok. It is not OK. But it is within our power to make it right. “Diversity, inclusion and equity” should be our mantra until they are understood and until they are lived.

Check out these Wisconsin faith organizations countering ignorance and hate:

Wisdom

Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice

The photo is from “Taking a Faithful Stance for Equity”

Choose the Green Path

The United Nations Climate Summit begins November first and is already being pronounced a failure. World leaders are declining attendance, covid is ramping up and the costs to produce and attend the two-week conference are steadily climbing out of reach – as is the warming of the earth.

This moment of uncaring has been brought to you by decades of lies and by greed that has known no bounds. This precarious moment has been fueled by cynicism and steered by a dominant culture that cares not for the earth or for people, but prides itself on how much it can take and how quickly.

I once learned that the original people of this land referred to the colonizers as “fat takers”. I don’t know if it was so, but it seems applicable today. Fat takers: the ones who skimmed the cream off the top, who took the best at any cost. No vision of the future for themselves or for their progeny. No care for the earth or for replacing what they stole. This mindset has led generations and the bill of sales is now being laid on our table to be paid. And it is a bill we cannot pay if we continue on the path of the scorched earth.

Frightening people with statistics is not working. And we’ve grown numb hearing about increased fires, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and other abnormalities – unless it’s happening to us.

Waiting for world leaders to act is a kicking of the can. It gives us someone to blame, but that’s all. No, this moment requires all of us. Humankind must stop allowing greed to govern. We must find our compassion and our empathy, and fall in love with the earth once more. The green path is waiting.

Our Human Family

The covid pandemic has not brought the clarion call one hoped would bring the people of the word together. Instead, driven by fear and division we’ve been dazzled by lies rather than unity.

Later this month world leaders will meet in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss the larger concern of climate change. For those with the ability to glean the rapid changes the earth is undergoing and the harm that it’s causing people, we can hope for swift and decisive action. But hope may not be enough to sway money driven politics to change the policies that have brought us to this point.

The media has finally loosened its tongue on the dire consequences we face if the earth continues to grow hotter. But many of us are still cushioned by the fossil fuel lull of cheap heat, water at the ready, and air-conditioned lifestyles. Too many are not prepared to reduce the consumption of what they believe is living the “good life”.

We have not yet understood that we’re part of a larger human family. And by some estimates a quarter of our family are already suffering the result of climate change in lack of water and food. Eighty -five percent of the world’s population have been affected by human-induced climate change. Human beings are on the move to find new and better ways to survive. But our borders, our fears and our inability to change habits and to share are leading to extreme conditions for many. Too many of the human family are needlessly suffering. And hope and prayers alone will not change the course we have chosen.

It’s time for a revival of the human spirit; time to remember the human family and to respect our home, the earth that is capable of feeding all of us. That is the indigenous understanding we all need to remember and accept.

photo – a logo by Eigenes Werk, August 7, 2006 – under Creative Commons shared license

Your Fighting Spirit

Never give up your fighting spirit and learn from others who refuse to conform.

I had an older cousin who spent the last four decades of her life in a wheel chair. In her early twenties she was paralyzed from muscular dystrophy and could barely move her hands or her head. The first time I learned of her, it was because I heard her voice singing in church. It was a strong and clear voice. It embodied love. When I realized the powerful voice I heard had come from her seemingly broken body, I was amazed.

She then became my Sunday school teacher. She was devout to her faith, but what I witnessed in her was an unyielding ability to be true to her self. She didn’t tolerate sympathy, because she did not feel lacking. She was not satisfied with Sunday worship alone; she lived her faith and cared for those less fortunate. Many a Saturday I spent ripping sheets apart and rewrapping them to be sent to lepers’ colonies. Many more were spent volunteering at a local Down’s syndrome home – under her supervision. Simply put, she was a powerhouse.

Her fighting spirit helped keep my own alive. I know her unwavering determination to love caused many to keep her a bit at bay. They respected her, but few could keep up with her. They wanted her to conform to their understanding of what her seeming illness could and should do. But she was defiant, and her resistance to become what others expected of her was a great teacher to me.

We never walk alone. Take courage from those who give it so freely. Let the love and compassion that pulses through us be the victor. Hold onto your fighting spirit. Resist normality. It was never meant for you.

Rethinking Progress

Our township is quaint. Most people have lived here their whole lives. Many were dairy farmers before the time of “Get big or get out”. They’re first hand witnesses to the shortcomings of that adage. To some the small family farm die off of is “progress”. But progress shouldn’t have to come on the backs of people or in the destruction of the earth.

It was progress that drove most indigenous people away. Had they been encouraged to stay, or allowed to teach their ways of stewardship of the earth, things might be different for all of us.

But as it is, I hear the bulldozers cutting new paths for the loggers who are going to cash in on the land. There is no regard for animal life. No regard for the fellowship of the trees. Freshly cut-logging roads in these hills will add to heavy spring runoff and an increase in floods. There’s little regard for life when money is at stake.

In the beginning of autumn colors we will watch the trees come down. It ‘s dark now but I can still hear the bulldozing. There is no legal recourse to stop it and talk is futile when you’re a woman telling men there are better ways.

“This is how we’ve always done it”, ends the conversation. Maybe you have always done it this way, but there are people who understand their relationship to the land and to one another.

The Menominee are internationally heralded for the way they harvest their forests. Care is taken to ensure an ongoing healthy ecosystem. It is never too late to learn.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. I’m weary of living in a world driven by ignorance. Money will not heal unconsciousness.

For Love’s Sake

Once again, the United States has demonstrated its disregard of refugees of color and especially Haitian refugees. Once again we watched as this president followed the directions of past presidents before him. Party affiliation doesn’t have much clout when racism rears its head.

Thinking people are noticing the implications of climate change. The horrific ordeals the people of Haiti have endured over the past few years coupled with our unending racism damns them to imprisonment and worse.

The photos of white men on horseback rounding up black men, women and children desperate for aid were absolutely abhorrent. Too painful to look at, but to look away is to ignore. To ignore is an act of compliance and agreement. Compliance with inhumanity is a deadly disease.

Clearly we are engaged in a war to save our souls. We have politicized every aspect of our society and we buy every lie that is dangled before us. The biggest lie of all is the one declaring our righteousness as God’s chosen. We have made outcasts of our humanity and our ideals. And we elect status quo politicians to keep it that way.

Kindness and compassion must reawaken in our dialogue, in our actions and in our policies. There will be no Superman to save us from ourselves. We hold all that we need within us and it’s bursting to come forth.

The only thing we have not tried…is Love.

It will only take a few more of us to stand in unity and in peace.

It will take a revolution of understanding to erupt in our hearts and in our minds.

And it will take trying the only thing we have not tried…

Let us do it, for Love’s sake.

The quote and the photo are attributed to Rev. Jacqui Lewis found on Facebook.

A Pathway to Peace

I was thinking the other day how good it would be to stop shackling our children with beliefs we inherited. The innocence of a child is delicious to behold. Then we lather them up with all kinds of crazy ideas. We teach fear instead of instilling in them the possibility of consciousness. We teach hatred and alienation as we rob them of the sanctity of being human. We teach conformity in our desire to have them walk lock step with the status quo. And we let them fall prey to the same ideologies to which we unwittingly succumbed.

For instance, since 1493, when a Pope issued the Doctrine of Discovery we have supported the idea of conquest and have used it for appropriation and colonization of indigenous people. And it can be argued that the subjugated role of women in Christianity combined with the notion of conquest makes way for the ongoing missing and murdering of indigenous women.

We teach, “Thou shall not kill”, making exceptions of war and capital punishment, and expect others to do harm on our behalf. This slipping away of our humanity did not come all at once and it will take a deliberate effort to retrieve it.

But what is our recourse to reclaim our humanity? Conquest and violence are failed principles. Fighting fire with fire has does not work. Creating a culture of peace is the path we have yet to take. Understanding that our need for peace is as vital as breathing will give us the impetus to act.

Cultivating our personal peace quickens the soul and cuts the chains of ideology. A recent international conference on Peace Education highlighted the good works of people world over towards this end. It was hopeful and inspiring.This is our moment to shine, bring on the peaceful.

It is that Simple

As the gardens wane and cooler mornings greet us, the revolution of time presses on. The afternoon light is more vivid and it seems a shame to not sit a while and take it in. This time is made for memories. The hopefulness of spring and the vigor of summer can still be felt, but the coming of autumn holds the reckoning of all that has gone before.

It’s a time of remembrance. Memories of loved ones who have walked on and of those too distant to hold close. It’s a time to reminisce and count the Goodness that has played a part in shaping our becoming. Bringing in the harvest and celebrating abundance is a universally shared experience. And in doing so the spirit of community becomes its own blessing. We are preparing for winter and the longest, darkest nights and this cycle of life and of this season of closure is rich with the preciousness of being alive.

In the course of it, I’m overcome with gratitude and I realize once again that gratitude is the core of who I am, of who we are. And I wonder as I walk over the leaves that are starting to fall, “Is it really that simple?” That to know myself is to be grateful for my life and everything that touches it…and the answer wells up inside of me, “Yes. It is that simple.”

It has been well over three years now that WDRT Community Radio has allowed me to bring you my thoughts on the power of humanity and the choices we face to remain human. For that opportunity I am grateful. Community is alive and well here and it takes all of us to keep it flourishing. Thanks to all who keep it going.

Today is WDRT’s pledge drive. If you feel it, please give.

This piece was inspired in part by the passing of a great friend. May his memory bring peace to all who knew him.

“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor”

It’s not everyday you welcome those without a home driven from their beloved country for fear of life and liberty. It’s not everyday you’re reminded of the tenants of our country as proclaimed in Emma Lazarus’ poem “Give me your tired, your poor.”

I read of human beings escaping Afghanistan with little to no belongings. Families, occupations and dreams shattered. Many will reside at Fort McCoy. To date nearly nine thousand, mostly children, have arrived. Barracks meant to house soldiers in training are now housing families in need. It was heartwarming to learn that non-profits and some church organizations are gathering donations to provide culturally appropriate clothing for our guests. Bolts of cloth and sewing machines are on their way to empower people.

I can only hope they are and will continue to be met with the kindness and compassion that each of us requires in order to thrive.

I hear they are in need of Wi-Fi to connect with loved ones left behind. Living in this rural Wi-Fi dessert I can commiserate with that and hope they are able to get it in a timely way.

In truth I am frightened for them. They have left hostility and war and have arrived on the doorstep of a country reckoning with its own national identity. I am hoping they ignore the numerous Christian radio stations that denounce the Islamic faith and its followers. These Christians are apparently unaware of their kinship with the sons of Abraham and prefer to fear the unknown. Perhaps a change of heart will transpire.

Perhaps, too, the legacy of Ft. McCoy as the largest concentration camp for Japanese, Germans and Italians during WWII will be rectified. And the soldiers training in drone warfare will look more carefully at their human targets.

This is a great article from the UK that included the wikimedia commons photo above.

This is a compilation of do’s and don’ts to consider.

Blessed Existence

Hardship has never escaped the human family. We are pummeled by Nature and by the ignorance that compounds suffering.

My Navajo friend told me how her grandmother fought to keep her baby alive during the forced Long Walk. Mothers who lost their own babies would give what little breast milk they had to the infant. That infant was my friend’s mother. I’ve often reflected on the courage, perseverance and kindness that enabled Annie, my friend, to exist. And how blessed was that existence with all of its hardships.

I remember witnessing her in morning prayers. Though humble, she was not docile. She stood boldly in her life and welcomed all of the winds that blew her way.

The story of shared breast milk was not new to me. My mother had been the recipient of wet nurses as they were called. My grandfather had been killed and my grandmother lost her ability to breastfeed. Poverty demands help. And help came in the form of neighbors. I’ve often reflected on the strength and the compassion that surrounded my mother’s existence. And how blessed was that existence with all of its hardships. She, too, had the gift of powerful prayer.

I am the recipient of the Love of these two matriarchs. With that kind of Love mountains can move.

All of us have been blessed with existence and while our stories vary, hardships and blessings have come our way. Be nourished by them.

These are hard times. These are the times to dig for strength and to uncover our gifts, to seek and offer help. We have the potential to flourish, individually and collectively, despite the hardships.

Have the clarity to be guided by Love. Find the courage to hold onto it.

Regardless of hardship, it is a blessed existence.

The above photo is of Annie.

Author: Dena Eakles