Category: Humanity

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.

My Grandmother and me.
My mom and me.

Sober Up.

There are a lot of people expressing anguish and anger these days and a lot of people riding waves of blind trust. 

For those just getting around to anguish and anger, good for you. Now the choice before you is to bury your head once more or to find a way out of the turmoil. Anguish and anger are the first steps in coming to terms with the realities that we have accepted.  It’s a reckoning of the choices made for us long ago. The most obvious is the disregard of our relationship to the Earth, our dependence on fossil fuels and all the wars and destruction that have gone along with it. 

Another high on the list of accepted follies is patriarchy. If you’re still waffling about that one, check in with the women of Afghanistan or for that matter take a look at fundamentalists of any faith and how women are regarded. 

Women and the Earth have taken a beating over these past hundreds of years as dominant thinking has driven humanity back to the dark ages. Anger and anguish makes sense; but only if they fuel a revival of love and appreciation for life. That could be our way out.

To those of you bent on following blind faith to hell or to heaven: sober up. Jesus didn’t die to set you free of responsibility while you’re here. Your prayers and good wishes need to be accompanied by action. It might be time to take a page out of his notebook and overthrow the temples and challenge the money hoarders. It might be time to take off the yoke and stand in righteousness, not just talk about it. 

This is the time for courage and love. Bring on the best of humanity.

We Were Warned

In his 1961 “Farewell Speech to the Nation” Eisenhower gave a dire warning of the consequences of a country driven by military industrial complex. And in 1967, Martin Luther King echoed the refrain in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech citing how the war machine was bankrupting the country on the backs of the poor. 

Barbara Lee eloquently called us to take pause and consider the consequences of an invasion in Afghanistan twenty years ago. She was the sole vote against opening the door to what became the longest unwinnable war of our history.

Following the attack of 9/11, she calmly and clearly called for those of righteous indignation to take the road of diplomacy and not the path of military destruction.

We cannot say we’ve not been warned.

Now we scramble to lay blame on this president or that. Blame the weakness of the Afghan Army or blame the Pentagon for not learning from history. And while media spins the stories that cause suspicion and anger, the final evolution of our collective conscience will likely be one of resignation.

Resignation is the stuff that allows the military industrial complex to keep rolling. The Taliban are now the inheritors of all United States and Allies weaponry. But have no illusion that that will sober up the industry that thrives on creating death and destruction. No, this will become the new excuse to arm all or any that may want to challenge this regime, or any regime. 

At the end of the day, Eisenhower was right about the military industrial complex. Where he got it wrong was his firm belief that the people of this country would not allow it to happen.

We were warned.  Now will we learn?

Photo is of a US C-17 carrying people out of Afghanistan. Taken by an airman or employee, it is in the public domain of the United States.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III safely transported approximately 640 Afghan citizens from Hamid Karzai International Airport Aug. 15, 2021. U.S. Air Force courtesy photo.

Stop Blaming CRT

By local news accounts, it appears that some people in our community have their knickers in a twist regarding critical race theory. At recent school board meetings they’re demanding critical race theory not be taught. 

A little more perspective is in order. An academic reflection since the 70’s, CRT points to the obvious: racism is systemic. The theory is rarely mentioned outside of legal or academic circles, but now debunking it is the war cry of revisionist thought.

In my opinion, systemic racism is the unfinished business of a people who were willing to wipe out the original people of this land – unsuccessfully, of course – willing to enslave Blacks, imprison Japanese during WWII and have been very willing to separate families and keep brown children in cages at the border. And let’s not whitewash the repugnant Jim Crow laws and the current voter restrictions that some are attempting to implement. With this in mind how could any person of empathy doubt that racism is systemic?  

I don’t really think it’s critical race theory that has people so upset. It has more to do with reckoning a past that does not fit into the narrative we have woven into this “Christian” nation.

The concern that white children will suffer from truth is to cover our own unwillingness to rectify the past. The truth is being told and no one can stop it.  

Tossing around concepts to create fear is an old game. Let’s play a new one. Caring for the underserved and maintaining good will is not only possible, it’s necessary. This is the underpinning of all faiths.

Our ignorance should be challenged, not the truth.

Photo credit: graffito to the memory of Abdul (Abba) William Guibre in Milan (at the corner where he has been killed).Author: Bramfab. wikimedia commons

My guest in this one hour show is Rabbi Bonnie Margulis and our conversation covers racial equity, voter rights and yes, critical race theory. Thanks to WDRT Community Radio. Listen here.

The United States of Cognitive Dissonance

Are you following the wild fires out west? Pacific Gas and Electric has admitted its equipment most likely started the Dixie Fire.  Sparks from their lines have caused roughly 1500 fires over six years. Now they’re willing to spend $15 billion to bury their lines. 

I remember posing these concerns to American Transmission reps as they bulldozed their notion of progress here in Wisconsin. 

And I watch a tree’s steady decline after I was told the electric meter wasn’t going to hurt it a bit. 

We know that pipelines leak. It’s not “if “but “when”. Yet in disregard of growing indigenous led pushback, Enbridge continues its assault on waterways and wild rice to complete Line 3. 

Local weather reporting gives us day-to-day accounts but remain mute on mitigating climate change.

And as natural disasters mount, few talk about reducing consumption.

All this has me believing it’s time to consider a name change. We are the United States of Cognitive Dissonance. We traffic inconsistent thoughts that are harmful and undermining to our society. And we don’t seem to care.

Where else can capital police tell horrifying accounts of January 6th then are ridiculed by people who promote “blue lives matter”?

Where else could hundreds of sexual assaults on young girls by a gymnastics doctor be allowed to carry on for decades? With little to no accountability …

Trapped in the state of cognitive dissonance some declare they don’t know whom or what to believe.  

If you’ve moved that far from your humanity, I suggest making a beeline back to it. 

There is a way to know right from wrong.

What Time is it?

“What time is it on the clock of the world?” I remember the first time I heard Grace Lee Boggs use the phrase her husband James had brilliantly coined. Not simply what time is it in my day, in my existence, but what is the time on the clock of the world? For decades now the couple’s passion for humanity helped spark a revival of community in Detroit and beyond.

There are precious few who call us to a greater awareness of our commonality. Yet everyone has the ability to feel the preciousness of our interconnection. Everyone enjoys the benefit of unity. 

In many cultures children are raised to understand their position within a lineage and the importance of community. They’re taught to maintain the circle of life and are invited to play their significant role, whatever that may be.

How fortunate are those who have maintained their cultural relevance in a time when many are hell bent on assimilation. Spending time with indigenous people who recognize the sacredness of all life and who understand the concept of “all my relations” is a cherished gift. We can learn so very much as we unlearn separation.

What time is it on the clock of the world? It’s time to relinquish our self-importance. It’s time to return the garden.  

If you have the good fortune to find yourself in the company of those who are striving for the good of all, play your part.  Play it to the best of your ability. 

As long as we’re alive the game is afoot. And not all the plays have yet been made. There’s still time on the clock for human kindness to prevail.

Ripple the Status Quo

It’s easy to fixate on evil. A twenty-year-old white man drove his truck into a Muslim family, leaving only the nine-year-old son to survive. And the count of Native children’s bodies continues to rise, as boarding school graves are unearthed. The atrocities and the hatred of dominant culture on people who are different is a story that has been with humankind throughout history, but it is the strength of those who have been victimized that I choose to honor, not the ignorance of a few.

I choose to honor the thousands of diverse people who marched the 4.4 miles from where the family was struck down to a near-by mosque. “Hate has no home here” and “Love over hate” were the signs they carried. Compassion and unity rallied over intolerance.

And the “disappeared” are now being found and mourned as the ongoing trauma inflicted on Native people is no longer a hidden secret. 

The Senate and the House will make Juneteenth a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. And the true story of the Tulsa massacre will now be taught as facts are brought to light.

But it’s the resilience and the strength of the people left behind that I look to for guidance. It’s their courage that inspires. It’s their unyielding defiance to remain human that I respect.

Their prayers and their efforts to overcome teach the real power of being human. 

Dominant cultures flourish by ascribing others as evil. They subjugate people and foster division. Any ripple to the status quo is to be feared and controlled. 

If we are to flourish we must overcome the dominance of fear. We must find the courage and clarity to let love prevail and ripple the status quo with our conviction to be human.

photo courtesy of wikimedia commons from a photo taken in Aukland following the Christchurch Mosque shooting attacks in March 2019

What Nature Demands

Our chickens free range and not in a confined space. It means you’re likely to see chickens anywhere on the property. And of course that means every day is an egg hunt. We try to locate the nests before skunks, ‘possums or raccoons do. 

We were lucky to locate two sitting hens and move them to safe quarters. Seventeen chicks were born and pranced behind their fearless mothers.  Later a third hen yielded another six chicks. 

All seemed well until a predator unlocked the coop and killed all but one chick. Certain it was a raccoon; we set a live trap and ensured the third hen and her chicks were secure in another coop.

Next morning the trap was full of one extra large raccoon. But his audacity knew no bounds as he had ripped a board from the smaller coop and killed the hen and five of her chicks.

These are the times that challenge my desire to be peaceful. I’ve caught wild animals before, but none had demonstrated the strength and cunning of this big guy. And now we had to drive him away and set him free. 

His ferocity was intimidating, but the task was to free him and the hope was that he preferred his freedom to retaliation.

All ended well as he ran from the cage and scurried off.

We returned to find the solitary survivor chirping away, eager to live and to tell us all about it. We found two more nests in safe locations, so the chickens will do as they are meant to do and procreation will continue.

We’ll set traps for those who also do what their nature demands of them. 

And I will work hard to be true to our nature of love and compassion.

The Greatest Lie

Two hundred and fifteen children’s bodies were unearthed at a former residential school for Indigenous youth. Forced assimilation was the hallmark of schools throughout North America. 

And we are finally acknowledging the 1921 massacre of Tulsa’s thriving Black community, as we continue to uncover the systematic racism that haunts us.  

These are not merely historical one-offs. The mindset that created them is alive and permeates all dominant cultures. It’s a sickness that forbids diversity and that is why trans people are among today’s targets. It’s a virus willing to stifle anything and anyone that may interrupt its control and that is why children from Palestine are routinely arrested, as are imprisoned Uighurs of China and on and on…

If we view these atrocities as separate issues, change seems hopeless. How can we possibly stop all inhuman acts? We lack the will and our excuses are endless. But if we look to the source of the sickness…we have a chance.

Our sensibilities give way to self-destruction. Our insistence on conformity and our inability to see ourselves in another allow ignorance to thrive. It’s not enough to “love the sinner and not the sin”, as my Christian friends are eager to say.  No, it is best to slay the dragon of judgment that we each carry. 

It’s not enough to cry for the two hundred and fifteen children and their families, rather we must stop perpetuating the greatest ignorance of humankind: that we are separate from the whole. It is the greatest lie.

One people. One planet. Every action carries consequence. Every silence is betrayal.

Print / photo compliments of wikimedia commons.

For more on the evolution of humankind, Listen to John Trudell.

Hold Onto Wonder

In years past I traveled the world. Humanity’s contrasts of life styles and beliefs are a marvel, but it was witnessing our similarities that touched me. At the end of the day, we all want and need the same things. Good food, clean water, fresh air, “a little elbow room”* to live as we please, and peace. Settling into farm life, I questioned if my travel discoveries had come to an end… but now it seems the world comes here.

This region is a magnet for people seeking to enjoy the natural world and a simpler way of life. There is migration afoot in this melting pot of milk and honey and I’m grateful for the kaleidoscope of diversity and the richness it brings.  

People often say, “It feels like home,” and I smile because the “home” to which they refer is not the terrain. It’s in the welcome, the beauty and the acceptance. “Home is where the heart is” most surely and when we live within our heart, we’re always at home.

They visit in one season or another and usually leave wanting to see them all. The stars are the same stars, the moon is the same moon, but living outside the neon jungle is a rare gift and those who have not lost the wonder of it appreciate the darkness. 

And in all of this coming and going and listening to each other’s stories, I learn why one has said she’s from Burma instead of Myanmar, and glean deeper understanding of Palestine from a young Muslim couple. 

For a brief time difference is irrelevant and human sweetness is victor once more.

Hold onto wonder. It opens the door to Love.