Category: Be Human

The Unraveling

The twisted threads of violence and hate are not new to us. They’ve been woven into the fabric of this nation from its beginning. To continue to deny the presence of white supremacy or to whitewash it in any way only prolongs the agony of its existence. To ignore misogyny or the usury of capitalism as destructive forces in our society keeps us from stepping into our rightful place as human beings, capable of choice and of peaceful coexistence.

Learn from the modern abolition movement and the wisdom of uplifting communities to abolish the need for policing. It makes total sense. There is hope there. There is courage there. There is vision.

It’s weary making listening to politicians argue the necessity for militarized police or insist that change must come slowly. They invite us into their complicity with a system that has fed class struggle. A system that has divided us through artificial stereotypes of race. A system that rebukes those who challenge it by imprisonment and worse. And now they are debating the reform of ICE and too many are refusing to demand it be abolished. Kicking the can down the road to surface once more. There is no way to reform a policing system that has roots in slave capture or of Indigenous genocide. The roots of ignorance run deep and we must not be tricked again.

The police state is a profit-making machine and we, through our government, are footing the bill, both financially and in the damage to our souls. To continue to allow the very loud but very few voices to dominate this transition is foolish at best, self-destructive at worst. Both political parties have benefited from allowing militarized policing to thrive. Our collective willingness to supply and and fund the genocide of Palestinian people was a precursor to what we are witnessing on our streets today.

Ask yourself why you believe and have faith in militarization? Do you recognize that fear has been induced into our psyche and shaped our decisions for generations? Can you see how it keeps us from our humanity and fuels this moment of violence?

The money poured into militarization and ICE could go a long way towards the healing that we desperately need.

Kudos to the people who are coming to these understandings and putting their bodies on the line. Kudos to the ones who are standing up to family and friends who have bullied with fear and untruths. Kudos to all who are taking a stand, in whatever way, for our mutual humanity.

There is no easy path towards our healing. There is no more waiting for those who refuse to live in a good way. We must, with everything in our beings, forge on. We must participate in this great unraveling, this untangling of the threads of injustice, and reject the leadership of hate and deceit.

We must acknowledge our history and make a conscious choice to live differently. It is not only possible. It is essential.

Resistance Bird compliments of The Aunties Dandelion. Permission given to share.

Stand for one another.

Demand accountability. We are still being played. Removing one henchman for another as the head of ICE in Minneapolis yet the grotesque acts of violence continue. Main stream media remains complicit, as do the leadership of both parties.

Listen to Senator Klobachar make her milk toast case for ICE reform on PBS. Not abolishing ICE, reforming ICE. Why?

Listen to marginalized voices. For once. Step into your humanity.

I gain strength listening to the voices of those unafraid to speak truth. However hard. I gain strength acknowledging what I have known all along. It will take more of us to bring about the change we know must surely come. Pay attention. Participate in this transformation. Wherever you are.

Abolish ICE

Created as part of the Homeland Security Act; ICE began in 2003. Currently, if separated from the federal government, it’s estimated that ICE would rank 13th in the world as a militarized army. And now as people are beginning to challenge the legitimacy of militarized and masked police in neighborhoods, smashing car windows, brutally accosting men, women and children one has to wonder who still supports this and why?

Have we not had enough violence? Why have we allowed, without conscience or dignified care, families severed and human beings detained in deplorable conditions? Is our hatred of people who are different so great that we’re willing to see an escalation in inhumanity? Three shots to the head of an unarmed woman and no one is in custody. A Black father and citizen killed by an off-duty agent because he celebrated New Year’s Eve. Are the screams of the children not reaching our ears? Who are you: the ones who cheer these obscene acts? Who are you: the silent ones? 

We have another opportunity to reel in this rogue organization. An appropriations package to further inflate ICE’s budget is being considered by Congress. It must pass with 60 votes. If Republicans hold to their capitulation to this administration, there would still be a need for seven Democrats to support the increase to ICE. Democrats must not support this increased funding. We can and must make that clear. The January 30th deadline to stop this vote is looming. We have time to bring it to an end.

This is when ordinary citizens must become extraordinary. This is when the silent must speak.

Frederick Douglas famously reflected, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”. 

Demand legislators vote against increasing ICE funding. And while you’re at it call for ICE to be abolished. 

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

In Wisconsin? Support Voces de la Frontera

PEOPLE OVER PAPERS

Graphic by Just Seeds

America First is America Alone

We are desensitized to killing. Leadership no longer recognizes nor respects international law or the norms of human decency. The United States / Israeli partnership continues the genocide of Palestinians. Turning our backs on this slaughter has empowered it. We have forsaken the independence of Ukraine and the slaughter in Sudan. The United States Christmas bombing in Nigeria was useless propaganda that harmed innocent civilians. We’re still unclear about the nearly one hundred sailors and fishermen blown up in the Caribbean. And as we learn of eighty civilians and soldiers and thirty-two Cubans killed by our bombs in Venezuela, we are distracted by the desire to take over Greenland. No time to mourn. Threats of militarization and regime change have been made regarding Mexico, Iran, Columbia, Cuba and continue in Venezuela. 

America first is now America alone. Might is right has replaced our humanity. And who will stop the United States military, led by ruthless capitalists stealing land and oil and protecting their ultra rich crony pedophiles? 

A senseless murder in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE brings the ruthlessness back home. The lies and propaganda still work on a handful, but the streets are and will continue to be lined with human beings saying “No More”. No more disappearing our neighbors and friends. No more theft of our souls.

Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook disguised as a manual for the creation of a Christian nation, is afoot, and the ignorant are all for it.

If you’re still supporting this madness, it’s doubtful these words will touch you. I write for those who see the calamity before us and to encourage the silent fringe to wake up, that we may remove the bullies we have empowered and allow the possibility of peace to reign.

Reclaiming our humanity with courage and dignity will stop this death march.  

In our human belonging, we are never alone.

Vigil for Renee Good, brutally murdered by ICE in Minneapolis, 1/7/26

Warriors of Love

Take time for the stillness in your heart. As we emerge from a year of brutal cruelty, we must take stock of our strengths. This battle is not over. Our humanity is not lost. We have been silent for too long, complicit with a status quo that never cherished our individuality, never championed our gifts. This is a time to draw upon the wisdom born of compassion and empathy. It’s not a time to cower in fear. This is our moment to rediscover the gratitude for the life we have been given; and to hone the courage needed to repel the ignorance devouring us. 

Doubt is not our friend. As we engage in a world corrupted by greed and poisoned with artificial truths, we must shake off indifference. We must become Warriors of Love. 

In honor of those who came before us, with all of their hopes and dreams for our better world and for those who will come after us, we must fight. 

Fight using the weapons we already hold: clarity, discernment, choice. History has repeated itself, because we have allowed it. But in that history, there has been a singular vision that has triumphed again and again. That vision is the possibility of peace. Not a ‘pie in the sky’ peace. It is a fundamental part of who we are and have always been. More of us are needed to cherish and cultivate it.

The ignorant laugh, but in truth the external power used to curtail us is nothing compared to what we carry – when we choose to deploy. 

Deploy love and kindness. Help one another. We’ve got this. 

WELCOME 2026!

Watch You Are In Charge – with the encouraging words of Prem Rawat

Be Amazed

I’m not a fan of amusement parks. I was a child with my father by my side on what I think was the only roller coaster ride of my life. I didn’t mind the bumper cars, I suspect it had something to do with maintaining some semblance of control. The tilt a whirl did me in. And I hunch this early loathing of what others seemingly enjoyed was a precursor of what would drive my life’s choices. I am willing to try things once, but if that once tells me it is not for me, so be it. 

And that, my friends, is the basis of discernment. From what I can tell the ability to choose is absent for too many of us today. Some people love to be dazzled by facts. And, if we are not clear about what is essential, as the facts spin, we spin with them. Some people are addicted to winning; it doesn’t matter in what form. But the gamble that comes from not knowing what is ultimately precious has given rise to greed. 

Some of us have danced with the devil and have learned how devastating that can be. Knowing your potential for doing harm is a powerful gift. It can help us remember there is another dance waiting for us. Choosing to not harm is a good starting point. 

This time of winter, of drawing inward, of contemplating new beginnings can open us to a whole new way of being, a whole new dance. We have learned the ways of external power. We are witness to its cruelty. It will be a decisive victory when we choose to walk away from this vacancy of humanity and embrace our full and powerful potential.

Hone the skills of being human. Open the gifts that have been with us since birth.

Be amazed.

Every Winter Carries Seeds of Spring

The Return of Light is upon us. People celebrate this season in many different ways yet universal themes prevail: good will to all, sharing abundance, the need for community, and a recognition of life’s evolving seasons.

Solstice, the darkest time of year, is known as a time of reflection and renewal. Some cultures celebrated for as many as fifteen days, coming together for communal strength to face the bleakness of winter. They came seeking warmth, for feasting, to share the stories of their becoming and to illuminate the possibilities and dreams of what may still be.

Winter is known as the oldest season. It’s a time of passing and of death. It reminds us of our finite nature – that as much as we are beings of spirit, we also live in temporal time, with a beginning and an end. We welcome the return of light, but also reckon with endings and the recycling of life. We come together to celebrate and also to mourn. 

Winter, if we allow it, demands withdrawal from frenetic energies so that we may take solace in the quiet stillness that envelops us. And if we are fortunate and can give our attention to it, we’re gifted with stillness within us as well.

Winter draws us inward. It’s this inward pull and outward need for community that instructs us as human beings. It’s the recognition that light will come again and this is not merely a faint hope. It is our knowing. We know the light will come because we have witnessed it. In this way, knowing is a vital human trait that protects us from doubt. Now more than ever we need to wake up to our knowing and to the seeds of becoming that await us. 

In many cultures time was marked by winter, and the questions were asked: “How many winters have you lived?” Or “How many winters have you been a human being?”

This question and recognition of our humanity may be the most important one we can ask ourselves and answer now. As the vestiges of uprightness are being mocked and stripped away, it is imperative for each of us to reclaim the better angels of our humanity. Because we can. Every winter carries seeds of spring. Nurture those seeds.

What Matters Most

The house of cards is crumbling. And for many, the overwhelm is taking its toll. We’re being forced to admit that our racist and murderous history is not simply in our past, but is and has been ever present. We have a choice. Those who cheered on this grotesque turn, are either in continued support of it, or are in full blown regret. Some are paralyzed by the fear of what we’re witnessing and now reckon with their participation in creating it.

Those who rejected and continue to resist the ICE raids on families, the disappearance of children, the murder of fisherman and the dismantling of our government’s checks and balances also have choices. Paralysis is not a choice. It’s capitulation. We can give up, assuming it’s too late and too hard to change – or we can continue to resist.  

And this is the tricky part; how do we resist? 

Knowing what matters most to us as individuals and collectively is our way out. Respecting ourselves and each other, caring for and listening to each other and acting with the confidence of people who know that the power we inherently carry will triumph. 

The sun always dispels darkness. We have power that we have yet to tap. Not the power of conquistadors, but the power of seeds yet to be planted and harvested. We have all allowed this ignorance to reign and now it is our time to choose differently. We can discover and nurture our strengths. There’s great power in resilience, in clarity, in the ability to circumvent doubt. There is worthy power in aligning with compassion and empathy. And there are powers no one will ever dominate: our ability to love and to feel gratitude. These are the seeds of our becoming.

Nurture what matters most. 

The Evin Prisons Bakers’ Club, Surviving Iran’s Most Notorious Prisons in 16 Recipes by Sepideh Gholian is a hard hitting look at the life of women political prisoners in Iran – their courage, sorrows, joys and triumphs told by one who has survived and thrives.

This Changing the Narrative podcast is translated by Fatemeh Jamalpour. Reading the book and engaging in this conversation with Sepideh has deepened my humanity and encouraged my resistance. Take time with this. 

The Evin Prisons Baker’s Club with author Sepideh Gholian

There Are More of Us

While I was handing out “No Transmission Corridor” flyers, I learned again the adage, ‘There are more of us’. The majority of folks didn’t know about Dairyland’s proposal to bring what would be the highest transmission line in Wisconsin through the Driftless, but they were glad to find out, and thanked me for letting them know.

There were a few who didn’t care, but they learned something that will hopefully be nagging at them as they drive through our precious landscapes. And of course there were the very, very few who weren’t opposed to it – not for it, but not opposed to it. They’re the ones who don’t court independent thinking and are content not rocking the boat. But nonetheless, there it was again – that sweet knowing that we are the majority. 

We, the ones who care, the ones just waiting for that precious piece of knowledge and inclusion that allows us to stand for something. The ones who are still capable of feeling dignity and who love the earth unquestioningly. 

Corporate media has done a great job keeping us placated and ignorant. We’ve been fed lies about what is necessary and what is progress for decades. We’ve been told what is inevitable and have lost our clarity and our voice in the process. 

But now as we witness lies exposed, as we learn of neighbors viciously stripped from families and communities, as we see the extend the powerful will go to hide the grooming and raping of children, and as our earth is rocked by extraction, we are also witness to the rise of this: There are more of us. And I say bring it on.

Use time wisely. Look for people who want to know. Let’s widen the circle of our humanity with those who are waiting to be invited.

AND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

“Another packed night, with probably over 600 people coming out in Charlotte, NC to be trained to join the safety patrols who are fanning out across the city each day to make sure that everyone can get to work and school safely… and home again at night. 
Every night, hundreds more people come out to find out how to plug in. 
And while CBP and ICE expanded their operations to other cities, so did we.” – Gwen Frisbie – Fulton

Read about the COP30 Climate Summit with over 1,000 Indigenous people registered for the event and their impact.

Survivors speak out in this video: World Without Exploitation. Bring abuse out of the shadows.

And learn more how to protect the Driftless:

Coercion Does Not Bring Peace

In 2016 I answered the call to go to the stand at Standing Rock. People around the world heard the prayers and came to protect the water. We saw the indecency of a country willing to destroy the Missouri River and the lives of People dependent on that river with a pipeline of crude oil from Canada.  We refused to allow another broken treaty destroy Indigenous life. We witnessed the collusion of corporate and militarized police attacking peaceful, unarmed people, once again. Our history. One of conqueror and conquest, of usury and greed. 

People endured water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and more from humans in full tactical gear who also answered a call. They followed the orders given by the king of the time, Obama.

I was there for the all-night stand at the bridge; and for the false surrender and lies that took the encampment down and everything that happened in between. I remain witness to this horrible breach in humanity and will be forever indebted to the People who upheld the very best in us.

Seeds were planted that still reverberate. The acknowledgement of those who came before – and those who will come after gave strength and courage. Yet many still do not know or care.

We are at war with ourselves. This Battle has ensued in every life throughout time. Who will we be? Which call will we answer? 

Beliefs were shattered at Standing Rock. They’re being shattered now, too. They need to be. Belief that the government works for us, while it has repeatedly demonstrated that militarism is the its interest. Beliefs that one side or the other are the team to beat. Divide and conquer has worked for the powerful throughout our history. The belief in scarcity over the possibility of abundance. And the ignorance that continues to teach peace through coercion which has never been true. We need to free ourselves from these lies.

We’re not spectators; the sidelines no longer exist. For everyone who has the capacity, it is time to answer the call. Be human.

As our military is poised to destroy Venezuela and uses fishing vessels as target practice to breed fear; as we enter the third year of genocide and still pay Israel to ignore International Law and all human decency; as erasure of predominantly Brown and Black People is strategically carried out in mass deportations; and Queer People are reminded they are lessor than; as the king of “peace” adds the threat of nuclear testing; as children go hungry and people speak of eugenics with the dismantling of health care; as the Army Corps grants Enbridge permission to reroute Line 5…

The destruction of the East Wing is a symptom. Find ways to change the things we can. Stay focused. Empathy is our superpower. And true peace is still waiting for us. It is the option we have not tried.

The photos are courtesy of Ryan Vizzions (Redhawk) and are from Standing Rock. Thanks Ryan, your work continues to teach people and remind us all of who we are.

Recognize One Another and Carry On

In case you are living in a bubble or deliberately choosing to avoid all of the indications of societal decay, please let me remind you, no one is an island. What happens to one, happens to all.

There is no talking our way out. There is no hero coming to save the day. This, what remains of “us”, is begging for accountability. We have used up all of the false hopes allotted. And we are bankrupt when it comes to saviors. 

That’s not to say hope does not exist, but it is to ask, where are we placing that precious gift called hope? Hope without accountable action is a false narrative, the lullaby of fools.

Safety nets are being ripped away with far too many of us falling. We are soon to be left with the only choice that has never left us: to help one another. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of mutual aid, it’s as old as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

Restoring human dignity is our most urgent need. Why is this most urgent? If we do not know our worth as human beings, if we do not see the value of each individual life, including our own, we will have forsaken the most significant weapon in our arsenal.

And in this battle over ignorance, restoring human dignity and seeking the company of those willing to do the same is imperative. There is power in this. There is unity regardless of differences. Where ever you are called to help: in stopping the inhumanity of ICE, in proclaiming Palestinian, Ukrainian and Others their freedom, in ensuring your neighbors have food and shelter – your courage and compassion are needed now. Recognize one another and carry on.

And in the meantime as the historic East Wing of the White House is destroyed making way for a ballroom, the military has conducted what appears to be illegal assassinations of sailors on the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean with no proven evidence of drug smuggling…and as the US military escalates its might over Venezuela.