Dena Eakles

Challenging the Doctrine of Hate

Here’s hoping the doctrine of hate hasn’t gotten the best of us. The January 6^th insurrection demonstrated hate’s audacity. People questioned the outcome of an election and chose violence. White rioters taught us again of the inequity of our policing and judicial systems; the fate of people of color would have been horribly different.

One out of five conspirators at the Capitol that day were retired military; thirty were police officers. Georgia’s newly elected congresswoman and QAnon believer is gaining in financial support and in kudos from the impeached past president, while signs depicting Trump as Rambo still appear on our landscape.

We’re being asked to pass on from this moment. We’re being asked to forgive and forget. We’re being asked to ignore the history of hatred that led us here and the fact that hate is still being preached. We are being told that for the sake of unity we must not allow justice to prevail.

Collapsing in this moment will be a big mistake. And while it appears the Grand Old Party has some internal business to tend to, this is really all of our business. It has moved out of the realm of politics. It’s about our humanity.

I received a hate filled message from a Trump supporting relative. I also get plenty of nasty comments from blue enthusiasts who don’t appreciate my critiques of the Biden administration. But we’re facing a pandemic that never had to be this horrible. We’re facing climate changes that we could mitigate if we had the courage. People are hungry and without shelter while we quibble over the word socialism.

This is not a moment to acquiesce. This is not a moment to allow a handful of people rob our dignity. Humans have risen before. We can and will do it again.

photo from Hate Has No Home Here FB page.

“We Should All Be Water Protectors”*

Writing from a hotel after visiting the StopLine3.org Welcoming Center in Palisade, Minnesota.

In the wake of destruction, the pandemic opened a door for us to walk into a new day. Our consumption of fossil fuels is at an all time low. The need for extreme extraction is over. Good by KXL. The pipeline that would have sliced through the Ogallala aquifer is history. And DAPL will be next. The courts are getting ready to end the permits that should have never been granted and for the arrogance of a company that has ignored court orders and kept on pumping.

This is the last gap of oil.

And yet Enbridge continues with Line 3 – leaving the older corroded pipeline for us to clean up. Investors are jumping ship facing the reality that renewables are a far safer alternative. And many of us are coming to the realization that less is more as we leave an abusive relationship with over – consumption behind.

We have all noticed the pristine skies and the fresher air. And now it is time for the reckoning of corroded pipelines that pierce the land and waterways. Now is time for everyone to be a water protector as Winona LaDuke reminds us.

So as a water protector what can you do? You can reduce consumption and divest from fossil fuels. You can write letters to Governor Walz, to congress and the new administration. You can support the needs of those on the front lines, as they stand in nonviolent resistance, to end something that should have never gone this far.

And if you are able as we were to bear witness you can make the trip to 5 or 6 camps that dot the 300-mile pathway of destruction and bring your love, support and the supplies they need to carry on.

Let’s make this just transition for everyone.

*”We should all be water protectors.” – Winona LaDuke

A Wink and A Nod

Confederate flags, a noose and the cross referencing of Jesus and Trump signs were the images from the failed insurrection when five people died and some of us realized how vulnerable we are to white supremacy.

It’s amazing how easily human beings can be led when given the dual excuses of racism and patriotism. Off duty police were part of the mob and called their fellow officers, who were there to protect and to serve, the enemy. Blue lives didn’t matter that day as one on-duty officer died of the beating he sustained. Allegiance to party disintegrated as calls for Pence to be hanged could be heard. No one is safe when the thirst for power is unhinged.

There it was displayed for the world to see the drama of white nationalism run amuck. But it’s the continued allegiance to the ignorance that has stymied me. Republican Senators and Congressmen wouldn’t wear masks as they crammed into the safe zone at the Capitol, giving way to a rise in covid among them. And the calls to impeach are met with delusional grandeur by Congressmen still trying to sell election lies and defend the indefensible.

The wink and the nod is the way we keep our secrets. The wink and the nod hides the insidious truths behind the façades of religious piety and a government that has never risen above the duplicity of violence and racism that was its foundation.

It’s in the systemic corruption that allows peaceful protestors to be hosed, gassed and met with rubber bullets, while white terrorists are escorted in and out of the people’s house as they disrupt government proceedings.

We won’t change it, if we don’t name it. This is not a partisan issue. It’s a human issue and we need to call it out.

2020’s Last Word

Many people are looking forward to midnight, as if the year’s woes will mysteriously disappear. Fairy tales and cocktails dull reality until it comes knocking at your door.

Covid upended us because we weren’t prepared. It isn’t covid. It’s our reluctance to accept that reality, as we know it is on rough waters. And instead of holding the helm deliberately through the storm, we relinquish it to division and fairy tales.

And from what I can tell, in 2021 we’re poised to do the same.

In case you haven’t heard. There is a new viral strain. It’s the same as the old, but even more contagious. So your fairy tales of invincibility, or “we are all going to die anyway” will again be put to the test.

Happy New Year.

But it could be a happy new year. It could be a year we remember the Golden Rule: to treat others, as you would like to be treated.

It could be the year we welcome the understanding that we’re one race and put an end to systemic injustice. Say his name: #TamirRice.

And wouldn’t it be grand if we stood in solidarity to protect the planet for those to come? #StopLine3

We could let it be the year of restorative justice. And while we’re at it, we could provide good clean food for everyone, while we provide health care and education as well. Keep at it Bernie!

The military will have to stop sucking up the money, religions will have to preach, “love thy neighbor”, and corporations will need to be held accountable.

That’s not impossible; it’s within our reach.

But it’s up to us to demand.

You may be isolated, but you are not alone. Flip desperation to hope and action.

Let’s make it a good year!

This Tearing of Our Souls

For those wishing for a return to the way things were, it might be time to surrender. The old is giving way to the new. No need to look back longingly. There is no time.

This demolition of life as we knew it, this tearing of our souls, is right on time.

It’s a moment of rebirth and reset and Life demands our attention, our love and our courage to meet it. Our collective histories have been plagued by violence, isolation and inequity. We have been wounded, but we’re not lost.

In this season, as we celebrate the victory of light over darkness, in whatever ways we do, remember to celebrate our own light. We can acknowledge our significance to the whole. And we can play this instrument that we are and the gifts that we have been given with the skill of a virtuoso.

This is not a time to curse the darkness, but to be grateful for what it gives. We’re being driven to stillness. And our actions are required to be conscious and deliberate. These are great skills to hone.

We’ve spent years and some of us decades waiting for a hero or placing others above ourselves. Our ability to adore is tremendous. But to what end? And now we wait for the hero vaccine.

In the meantime the clock ticks. And the most precious gifts are yet to be opened.

I will never doubt the power of the human spirit to do good or to cause harm.

It has and always will be our choice.

And what we choose absolutely contributes to the outcome of this moment. Clinging to the past is folly; blind faith is fruitless. If you’ve not yet discovered how powerful you are, it is time.

A Fart in Church

Someone called and invited me to contribute to a political party. I explained that I couldn’t support either party, as they are “wings of the same bird” and that unless and until one or the other stopped putting profit before people and the earth, I wouldn’t be offering my support. The caller became a bit exasperated. And I thought of my mother who would have said my comments were a “fart in church”.

People don’t enjoy being challenged to think. It’s easier to cling to belief than to take the leap of faith into knowing. It’s easier to pick winners and losers and to gamble whom the winner will be, then to take into account our mutual interconnectedness and the consequences of our action or inaction.

We have yet to accept we are one people, one planet. And what befalls one of us is destined to harm us all.

Take the covid nightmare that morphed into the mask versus freedom nightmare and now is the vaccine versus the enemies of the people nightmare. It would have been much easier to stand united from the start in the best interest of all, but that would have been a fart in someone’s church. Instead our march of death continues and history will remember us as fools.

Two billion people are suffering shortages of water, with two thirds of the world’s population expected to face water crisis over the next four years. Our solution? We have begun trading water as a commodity on Wall Street. There is not a hint of compassion in this capitalist response.

It’s the religion of greed and the gospel of prosperity, which we need to put to rest. Solutions will come more readily when kindness regains the helm. Until then don’t be afraid to cause a stink.

Our Ability to Love

They say that even with a vaccine we must be willing to stay distanced and wear masks well into spring. To some this is a great sacrifice. They scream of freedom lost and stand firm in their disbelief. To those freedom fighters, everything is suspect including the surging numbers of sick and dying.

The hardest part is that it didn’t have to be. The pseudo warriors have already sacrificed something greater than freedom. They have forsaken our inherent gifts of clarity and compassion.

But I can’t waste time talking about ignorance. I want to talk to talk to the warriors who have not forsaken love and compassion. I want to say, “Do not give up.”

It’s not lost on me that scriptures share the phrase, “Leave the dead to bury the dead.” And I do not think for a moment this refers to our loved ones who have succumbed to this horrid disease. But there are those who have chosen to walk with the death of spirit in their hearts, forsaking the living. And they are very willing to lead us into their living hell.

But I am telling you, “Do not go there”. Do not live in the despair that makes one abandon heart and clarity. Do everything you can to stay alive.

And what does it mean to be alive? It is to wake every day to the realization that life is a gift, and that we are, in fact, a gift to life. We hold within us the strength and the courage to persevere. We hold the clarity and the wisdom to right the most grievous wrongs. We can ask for help and we can receive it.

We have the ability to love. And it is time we use it.

Stop Line 3

This week the last of the permits required for Enbridge’s Line 3 were granted. Construction can officially begin, although it’s been going on illegally for some time.

The granting of the permits was of no surprise. The governing agencies grew out of the diminishing era of fossil fuels and are reluctant to rock the boat. Even though we know fossil fuels are being replaced by clean energy, even knowing the threat to water from ruptured pipes.

Enbridge was granted the right to totally abandon the original corroded line and build a larger, higher volume corridor. It will transport the dirtiest of tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin even with our knowledge of diminished need.

Disregarding tribal sovereignty and indigenous ways of life, Line 3 will traverse Minnesota passing through tribal lands, wetlands, lakes and wild rice beds.

Minnesota’s Department of Health now show that covid infection rates are higher along this new corridor than any other parts of the state and Native Americans are among the highest at risk for covid hospitalizations. Increasing the number of construction workers at this time, when we are asked to stay in place, is unreasonable and dangerous.

Since 2013, many have opposed this pipeline, but more of us are needed to stand up for indigenous sovereignty and to protect the land and water. Now more than ever, as covid is ravaging our people and overwhelming our health care workers, we need this irresponsible act to stop.

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the White Earth Band of Ojibwa, Honor the Earth, Youth Climate Interveners, the Sierra Club and Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce have filed a court appeal for a stay on the construction.

For more on efforts to stop line 3, visit the website: stopline3.org.

Or call or write.

Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan
130 State Capitol
75 Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Staffed office hours are: Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Telephone Numbers
Telephone: 651-201-3400
Toll Free: 800-657-3717
Minnesota Relay: 800-627-3529

Author: Dena Eakles