Author: Dena Eakles

Enjoying Life. Plan on keeping it that way.

Nine Minutes and Twenty-Nine Seconds

The Derek Chauvin trail has begun. 

Instead of over eight minutes of Chauvin with his knee on the neck of George Floyd, we now know it was 9 minutes and 29 seconds. 

We know the first two arresting officers had handcuffed George Floyd and that he had begun to plead, “Please don’t shoot me.” And that he expressed fear of getting into the squad car. 

Then Officer Chauvin and his partner arrived. 

The four officers’ escalation of force had bystanders expressing concern for the safety of George Floyd. And one by one they spoke tearfully and painfully from the witness stand of how they watched George Floyd killed that day. 

They spoke of feeling helpless. They spoke of regret. They wondered what more they could have done to save the life of a man they did not know. They recognized it could’ve easily been one of them, there on the cement, held by four men with a man’s knee on their neck. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

They’ll never forget George Floyd begging for his life, crying out that he couldn’t breathe, and calling for his mother.

The entire world is watching. And again we are reliving the senseless killing of a man of color by an officer sworn to protect and defend. Once again we hear the defense of fear as the excuse given to treat another human being as less than.

I can’t help but recall the photos I’ve seen of white hoods and hatred. Of whips and forced removals, of white ugliness cloaked in religion and shielded by politics and the “law”.

And I hope and pray that we see ourselves on trial and that we make it our business to not turn away. Make it change.

Say his name. George Floyd.

photo courtesy of No Spiritual Surrender on Facebook.

Reversing Apathy

“It will never change”. This phrase pops up a lot these days when conversations turn towards conscientious gun laws, ending systemic racism, reversing climate change…you name it. 

Whatever demands we move towards more humane and dignified living, people are quick to say, “it can never happen”.

Really? Of course change can happen. Change is the one thing you can be sure of…but how will it change? In what direction will it change? Will we dive deeper into division, pummeled by lobbyists devoted to violence and war? Will self-serving politicians and clergy manipulate us?  Or will we overcome the apathy that accompanies our unconsciousness?

In a matter of four years, we changed from a country whose whispered racist undertones rose to a crescendo. Who are we, with our doubts and our unconscious apathy, to think we can stop it from changing again – this time for the better?

Martin Luther King was very right when he spoke of the silence of our friends and the mediocrity of whites as being the greatest enemies of humanity and justice. And I add this to his list of enemies: doubt. We doubt our power because we do not know our power. We have not yet understood the strength of our humanity.

When we realize our interconnectedness, we will stop being satisfied with our own personal status quo. Activists call it intersectional thinking. I call it common sense. When empathy and compassion reign in our hearts, they will again reign in our land.

As a nation we refused to protect ourselves from a pandemic just as we have repeatedly refused to protect ourselves from gun violence. 

But it’s not too late. 

Change will come, of that there is no doubt. But the direction change will take… that is still within our grasp. Get in the game.

Above meme credit: Lisa Ann

The Pathological Sickness of Patriarchy

Maybe its my age, maybe its being queer, I am not sure what’s driving my lack of patience with male violence against women, but on a scale of 1-10, I’m at 20.

I don’t know what the experts will tell us about the twenty-one year-old white male who gunned down predominantly Asian women in Atlanta.

He’s blaming it on his sexual addictions. Officials don’t want to believe it’s a hate crime. 

Give me a break. It’s all of the above and it smacks of the misogynistic disease that runs rampant in this country. It’s the pathological sickness of patriarchy.

And greed and patriarchy feed on power. Man camps are known to be breeding grounds for sex trafficking and the mutilation and murder of young women and men – predominantly in Native American populations and other marginalized people who live where resource extraction is big business.

OK, nothing new. Boys will be boys right? Out of state, away from their families, too much money on their hands and too much to prove…but this is where I get really lost.

Someone knows these guys. They are sons and fathers, brothers and friends of someone. Someone knows the sick propensities they exhibit. Someone knows and is not telling. Someone is letting it happen. 

And because pathological patriarchy is power based, it threads through our police, judicial, military and governmental systems. 

We are trained to look the other way.

How many reading this know what a man camp is? How many care to find out? What about the Circuit Court Judge in Milwaukee County assigned to Children’s Court arrested this week for trafficking in child pornography? A story buried as fast as it came up. 

Friends, we are way beyond “Time’s Up”.  And I am asking, where are the men and women to end this nightmare? Wake up.

For more on Stop AAPI Hate

In Numbness We Stand

On February 25th, the United States carried out an act of military retaliation on a Syrian village making Biden the seventh consecutive president to bomb the Middle East. Senators Kaine and Murphy called for congressional hearings on the legality of the bombing. Representative Ro Khanna made it clear that without imminent threat the president must get Congressional approval…but so it goes.

We are a nation of people unwilling to end war. Words like “necessary deterrent” and “collateral damage” have made us numb to the blood on our hands. The Syrian village was bombed in retaliation to an earlier airstrike in Iraq that killed a Philippine contractor and wounded a United States soldier – let that sink in. Various reports indicate that we killed 3 to 22 people. Nobody knows for sure and those that care are intentionally not heard. Oh and the village was “believed to be” occupied by militias. That’s right, “believed to be”.

The smoke and mirrors of both parties in using our military, our soldiers, and our name to preserve and protect the precious oil in the Middle East is horrifying. And yet it continues. It continues because we have grown numb. We accept the headlines and stop reviewing the details. 

We have forsaken the sanctity of life. We cannot be bothered to demand tools of diplomacy be our first choice. Yet our weapons become more sophisticated, more deadly and more expensive. 

And today’s greatest lie is “we must preserve our way of life”, while we bomb villages, and destroy the earth for fossil fuels and to fill a few wealthy pockets.

We have relied on “might is right” for far too long. I look forward to the day when one human life is as valuable as another and this Christian nation lives up to its boasts.

Photo compliments of Creative Commons Attribution – Wikimedia Commons

A Bit of Concern

On March 10th, the state of Texas is set to re-open all businesses, lifting mask requirements and stripping local authorities of the right to enforce face coverings. People fretting over the economy and weary of state control are rejoicing.

Regardless of where you stand on vaccinations, the reality is that only 15 % of the entire population of the United States has received one and the new virus variants continue to rise. Speculation is that the common flu has been kept in check with the vigorous applications of social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. But the woes of the economy outweigh the human components.

And the Lone Star state and Ole Mississippi are heading down the path of exploiting workers for the sake of the Almighty Dollar.

So when the restaurants and bars are open 100%, and the mask-less servers are scurrying about, will they be offered paid sick leave if they contract covid? 

Will hotels offer housekeeping workers any benefits to offset the risks they run? 

Is anything in place for the caregivers in hospitals if a new wave spikes and demands their super human effort?

And no relief is on the way for the millions soon to face eviction as the federal moratorium on evictions ends this month.

Apparently the game of politics is still more important than human life. During the first year of the pandemic we were led down the path of division by a bully too afraid to face the truth. And now leaders willingly subject our most marginalized people to unnecessary harm.

Someone is exercising a bit of concern, Kroger, the grocery chain in 35 states, will maintain their mask mandate until all frontline workers are vaccinated. 

Here’s to the realization: that what happens to one, happens to all.

Give Way to the Living

If we are to emerge as human beings from this pandemic and economic insecurity we will do well to submerge ourselves in some basic truth telling. 

The reign of fossil fuels is over. The latest message to the folks living in Texas was very clear. Source your food, water and energy locally. 

The war on drugs was an abysmal failure. It gave way to exploitive incarceration of people of color and those of lessor means. It opened the door to senseless violence and greed.

The rise of white supremacy and the infiltration into our police and military is not new. Protection of property over people is a right of class. That class employs ruthless tactics and people to maintain control. The unraveling of the commons was an intentional construct to divide us and to protect property.  

The belief that “might is right” deems the powerful as unstoppable. But power without humility is devoid of Love and shows itself in dehumanizing ways. Power, without humility, exploits every bit of Creation. Without Love you are an agent of death and creator of your own demise. 

But in the midst of the destruction, there are people turning around centuries of injustice. They’re standing on the shoulders of their ancestors and refusing to sacrifice Love and their humanity regardless of outcome. They’re reclaiming human wisdom with compassion and kindness.

You will find us on front lines as Water Protectors, Mutual Aid Workers, Seed Savers, Community Builders and more. We are emerging in every facet of society. 

Look around; you have a choice. Continue to prop up the cult of death in its many forms, or give way to the living, because it is our time. 

Photo credit: Learn more about John Trudell John Trudell was a poet, recording artist, actor and speaker whose international following reflects the universal language of his words, work and message.

Someone is Being Served

Once again a large part of the country has been upended by catastrophic climate. Once again we’re not prepared. I wonder how long it will take for people to get a grip on our new reality. Old systems no longer serve us. Privatized utilities that can shut power during unprecedented cold, do not serve us. Building pipelines for Canadian tar sands during a pandemic does not serve us.

Estimated numbers of sex trafficked victims tripled over the past year does not serve us.

But make no mistake someone is being served. 

People pretend to not see and then it’s too late. You become victim.

Amazon may soon have its first union in the United States, and by all accounts they are using the same union busting tactics deployed long ago. Infiltration into the ranks, blatant lies and not so veiled threats prevail. 

Too many of us are complacent or revel in false exceptionalism. Too many succumb to the allure of wealth. Too few have cultivated the empathy required for people to live in a society that can benefit all. 

If not for the brave souls determined to chart new courses, I would feel total desperation. 

But there you are on the front lines helping feed and house people, finding creative ways to educate our youth, standing for social and environmental justice which we now recognize as one and the same. There you are, the ones who have turned hope into action; the ones who refuse to look back or to call what we are leaving behind “normal”.

Because normal it is not.  Kindness is normal. Compassion is normal. Destroying racism is normal. Declaring our need for peace is normal. Loving the earth is normal.

Someone is being served, someone will be served, let it be all of us. 

Get in the Game

Drama is afoot as the Senate considers the conviction of Donald Trump in his involvement in the January 6th insurrection. The well-greased machine called the GOP seems to have decided it’s in their political interest not to rock the boat. And the feisty, but not well-organized Democrats seem content with finger pointing and fretting.

And I wonder where the patriots are? 

I listened to Trump’s speech the morning of the insurrection and I watched the vote count being disrupted by white terrorists. There’s no doubt in my mind that he was a puppeteer. And I have never forgotten his remark that he could kill someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

Seven people died, along with the sanctity of the Capitol and the peaceful transition of power. And Trump never uttered an apology.

I challenge my Christian conservative friends to hold Trump accountable. Party loyalty cannot mean supporting white supremacists that threaten death to elected officials. It can’t mean ignoring the blatant symbols of confederate flags and nooses. It can’t mean allowing this hatred and ignorance to be the leading wing of your party.

And to my Democrat friends who are accepting that nothing can be done to stop the GOP stonewalling: you are wrong and you are lazy. You have given up on the system you profess to uphold. You can contact your Republican Senators and demand their attention to truth. But don’t stop there. You can and must reach out to friends and family who were caught in the drama of the last four years and invite them to take a stand with you. This is not a politics as usual unless we allow it to be. 

And don’t stop there. Challenge the puppeteers who intentionally keep us divided.

Use your voice. Get in the game. 

House Managers present video on January 6 insurrection.

Photo: Public Domain File:2021 United States Capitol VOA 1.jpgCreated: 6 January 2021

Challenging the Doctrine of Hate

Here’s hoping the doctrine of hate hasn’t gotten the best of us. The January 6th 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