Counteract hate, be proactive!

Here is something you can do in YOUR community to counteract the emboldened knuckledraggers...

Whatever Trump believes, his rhetoric over the course of the campaign has given all kinds of permission to haters (racists, sexists, anti LGBTQ, anti immigrant, anti Muslim, anti Indigenous, and more) to act out.

Communities set their own standards of decency. It is through our everyday speech, through what we stand for, what we participate in, what we accept and do not accept, that we set the standards of our community.

Are there folks in YOUR COMMUNITY who would be interested in a weekly vigil that focuses on messages of support FOR indigenous, people of color, lgbtq, women, Muslims, immigrants etc.? Broadcast this very specific message of support, not rage or fear...create a space of support for people who are being targeted.

US at war within itself right now in North Dakota

Right now militarized police from numerous states are aggressing upon the Water Protectors in North Dakota on Native Treaty Land. All cell phone coverage has been jammed. There is no live video coming out right now, it's all jammed.
This is how a totalitarian state operates. Make no mistake about it, Obama is allowing this. This is an act of eco-cidal insanity. Understand that what we call the US Government is an occupying force representing a financial and fossil fuel elite cartel. The elections are false. The economic system is rigged. The various "law enforcement" agencies serve the elite...not you and me. A racist apartheid system is entrenched in this country, and most white people will deny that because they are insulated from it.

Your high Obamacare premiums and deductibles, your out of control student loans, climate change, police killing people daily...and so many more ills we see in our society, these are all symptoms of the corrupt system that rules this country. It's very clear that the upcoming presidential election is a farce. What will it take for there to be massive non-cooperation? We need a general strike in this country and we need it now.

Autumnal...and Starhawk!

Paradigms this week features the author Starhawk, talking about the new audiobook version of The Fifth Sacred Thing.  Starhawk and I are old friends so we have an easy rapport, and discuss many things of interest; the Standing Rock action, what "sacredness" is...she gives a great explanation...and more.

It's grey and rainy, there's a chill in the air.  The corporate news is full of election foolishness.  The independent media is full of stories of corruption, impending nuclear war, and just general awfulness.  I find that my best response is to sit quietly and watch the rain and the river, the birds, the dog, and just enjoy being part of this.  

Brexit and...

What I see in the Brexit vote, as well as in Trump and Sanders supporters, is that people are yearning to live in societies where they feel safe, where their basic needs are met, and then some; where there are opportunities to learn and be productive and to enjoy life.  Some of that is framed in false nostalgia for that which never was,  but all of the xenophobic and racist rants are basically saying that, albeit in a thoroughly ignorant and deluded way.  The Berners are saying that too though, in more altruistic and hospitable ways.  The neocon/neolib establishment is saying NO, only the few can have that, most of you must eat shit.

What no one is saying is that if we continue to trash the biosphere NO ONE will have any of that goodness.  The overcrowding many in Britain feel is going to be everywhere because we continue to grow our population.  The hunger and thirst of the so-called "undeveloped" nations will be everywhere because we are urbanizing  and degrading farmland, and wasting/polluting water, at alarming rates.

Humans are often at their best when things are at their worst, so perhaps we are setting the stage for a magnificent unification of the humans into a great blaze of consciousness that makes living in bodies unnecessary. Maybe we'll come together, remain corporeal, and stop our destructive ways.  Maybe we will make a desert of this whole planet.  There are many possibilities.