Choice – Page 13 – let kindness win

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 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.

Category: Choice