Only Ed

Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy

2012-01-23T10:22:00.002-05:00

Tidal:

Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy

Occupy!

Please read Tidal, the magazine of Occupy Theory & Strategy, on the original website: http://occupytheory.org/Home.html, or download the issue as a .pdf file: http://occupytheory.org/TIDAL_occupytheory.pdf

Pictured is Lauren from Sanitation, perhaps the hardest working and most earnest Occupier.

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Occupied Communique #9

2012-01-02T09:54:00.001-05:00

Dear Unity,

East New York. I have been at the Occupied Real Estate at 702 Vermont Street much of the past couple of weeks. I spent New Year's Eve as an Occupier, the only Occupier, holding down the house. That night, while over a thousand live rounds were fired off from this street at a police helicopter, I was sprawled out in the 'community room' monitoring 3 Livestream broadcasts of the rally at Liberty Park. Using Livestream and our medic dispatch system I was able to provide real-time information to the medic teams on the ground in Manhattan. It is a system we will now use for all actions.

I had planned to be at the rally working as a medic, but as it happened there was to be no coverage at 702 Vermont. We occupy the house 24 hours a day so the police can't sneak in and blockade the house. All the other Occupiers who are normally here were off celebrating the new year and our new future. So I took off my red & black crosses and settled down to a night of occupying. Police sirens, like banshee cries, occupied the night outside non-stop all evening, all night, and all morning.

I was outside smoking a rollie of pipe tobacco when the shooting started. It sounded like fireworks, with groups of explosions bursting in the night sky. But when someone fired off a few rounds from a semi-automatic rifle just a few yards away I realized all the 'fireworks' were actually gunshots. Their target? A police helicopter criss-crossing the neighborhood like a wasp on the hunt.

I was safe.

Time to play the race card . . . I have the lightest skin tone in the neighborhood by several shades, and I don't speak the language on the street. I am immediately recognizable as an outsider, one of the oppressors. Yet, I have walked all through this neighborhood and have been met only with friendship and kindness. Hearty greetings of "Good morning, brother, how are you?" and "Happy new year, God bless you." follow me everywhere. Conversations and smiles follow. It doesn't matter the time of day or night -- I got lost one midnight-time for a couple hours, wandering about without a clue to where I was, alone and confused. New York is a big city. It is easy to lose one's way. Eventually I found someone who knew where Vermont Street is, and he directed me straight to my destination. As it happened, I had twice come within two short blocks of Vermont Street, but hadn't known it. On the other hand, I had also walked back up two subway stops the wrong way. And while the people on the sidewalks were friendly, the police in the street would only slow their cars and watch me -- driving away when I called out to them.

I am an Occupier. The people know it. The police know it. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt who my friends are -- the people.

Race card? Yeah. One race, the human race. What is happening here? Class war. This ain't about race, yo. This is about the robber barons who have stolen the wealth, destroyed the land and want to steal our lives away also. They will not stop until they have all the resources, have destroyed Mother Earth in the process, and have reduced us to wage-slaves under constant threat of becoming homeless. They will not stop until they have subjugated us all. We are still serfs in their eyes, and in their minds they are still our masters.

They have a lesson to learn. We are the 99%. We are not going home. We are home. We are coming for the 1%. We will not be turned away. We will change the world, we will save the world . . . now! This is the year everything changes. It will be a wild ride, and I have a front row ticket. Come join me!

I am still cold, wet and miserable much of the time, but I am still having the time of my life!

Obama signed the NDAA and SOPA. Everyone here knows we are the targets. Everyone here knows whose side Obama is on. Everyone here knows who the FEMA camps are for. Everyone here is still here. Yes, we are afraid. No, we are not going to hide. We are the good guys, yo, and the people know it.

Occupy everything!

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
   will we realize
   we cannot eat money."

   -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #8

2011-12-19T11:52:00.001-05:00

December 19, 2011

Dear Unity,

The Day of Re-Occupation started off joyous and celebratory, but ended unfulfilled. Above is an Associated Press photo of myself and my buddy (the hands grasping my backpack behind me -- so we don't get separated in the crowd) heading up the ladder (previously disguised as a protest banner) to get into vacant lot that used to be Duarte Park. You can see the eager, happy child-within shining forth on my "gnarly and stalwart*" face, and my full backpack and one of three med kits of supplies. I had planned to be there for a long time, but 10 minutes was all I would get before being ordered to my knees and zip-cuffed with 3 other medics and about 46 other Occupiers. Included within our ranks that day was Bishop Stephen Chinlund, Bishop George Packard and four other christian clerics of note, as well as our brave and courageous Hunger Strikers, Diego and Mallory.

Let me frame this event in its historic, religious, political and civil aspects.

Juan Pablo Duarte Square and Juan Pablo Duarte Park was more than the focus of Occupy Wall Street's Day of Re-Occupation, much more. Juan Pablo Duarte is one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. The highest peak in the Caribbean is named after him, and he is usually labeled as a visionary liberal thinker. He also was one of the founding members of La Trinitaria, a secret nationalist society dedicated to Dominican independence from Haiti.

Trinity Wall Street Episcopalian Church owns Duarte Square, including the vacant, fenced-off "park" slated for skyscraper development. Occupy Wall Street has asked for permission to use the lot but Trinity Church has denied the request. Trinity Church owns the land upon which the Stock Exchange is built, and owns enough property and wealth to be the second richest christian church in the world. Only The Vatican is wealthier. Make no mistake, Trinity Wall Street Church is a card-carrying member of the 1%.

Diego, Mallory and the other OWS Hunger Strikers decided to follow in the nonviolent footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, while the christian clerics were following in the neighborly footsteps of Christ Jesus, and the Occupiers were following in the civil disobedient footsteps of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.. All were aligned against the duplicity of the corporatist Trinity Wall Street Church. It was a legendary and epic confrontation.

The deciding factor was Trinity Church's denial of the "love thy neighbor as thyself" doctrine**, and the resultant use of the New York City Police Department to violently deny the public access to the vacant lot.

Trinity Wall Street won that battle, but the revolution continues unabated. We are still here. They may be able to keep us from occupying public space in the full exercise of our rights, but they cannot keep us out of the city. We are everywhere, and if we choose we are anonymous -- we are the 99%.

The NYPD handled us with kid gloves that day, perhaps because of the presence of the clerics and hunger strikers. Even still, there were serious injuries among the Occupiers that were suffered during the police action. Injuries included head, neck, face and torso injuries from baton strikes and foot, knee & fist attacks. Some Occupiers were thrown to the pavement and kneed in the head, back, arms and legs. The zip-cuffs were often tightened too tight causing acute pain and possible chronic nerve damage. The health needs of the Hunger Strikers were ignored, and all of us were demonized as criminals and crazy people.

My zip-cuffs were too tight and my requests for loosening them went ignored. My demand that the hunger strikers receive medical attention during the arrests was not ignored -- I was told they would be sent to the hospital instead of the jail, but they lied; Diego & Mallory went to the same place and received the same non-existent medical care that the rest of us did. That is why some Street Medics choose to be arrested with the Occupiers -- so that they can provide emergency first aid while in the holding cell, and so that they can liaison with the police on the victim's behalf. All four of us medics provided medical services during the incarceration, and the police provided none.

Upon being released I was met by our Jail Support Team outside the Police property, and they tended to all our needs. Jail Support includes legal, medical and comfort services. My medic buddy and I joined the Jail Support Team after being tended to, intending to wait for the most seriously injured of the Occupiers to be released and then transport him directly to the hospital -- which we did. We stayed with that victim through that hospital's tests, and then rode with him in the ambulance to a better equipped hospital for further tests. We stayed with him until we were relieved by other street medics. My buddy and I had to then navigate bus and subway routes, with all our medical and Occupier equipment, to a temporary place of shelter in order to sleep and get ready to hit the streets again. Our 36 hour shift was finally over.

I did not get to participate in the Immigrants Occupy rally, march & GA on December 18, as I was still working on December 17 when the rally started. I was finally asleep sometime about the start of their General Assembly.

It is now the 19th, and I have to go figure out where I am going to stay tonight, and whether or not I will be working the night (and day).

All of this did not go on in isolation. The same day, the 17th, in Cairo, our sisters and brothers in the 99% were viciously attacked, beaten and senselessly brutalized. That same fate is in our future. With the National Defense Authorization Act the power and desires of the 1% are blatantly obvious. Now we know exactly who the FEMA camps are for . . . us. You. My child-within wants to hide, but there is no sanctuary.

This video below is of Cairo, December 17, 2011. It is a portend of Occupy Wall Street's future. Watch it and wake up! Only you can save us. Occupy Everything!

* "Mortimer is a trained street medic, one of many gnarly and stalwart veterans of the protest scene who form an underground collaborative of more or less medically savvy people who get their qualifications more from experience than from classrooms." The Fix, Does Occupy Wall Street Have a Drug Problem? http://www.thefix.com/content/does-occupy-wall-street-have-drug-problem8130

** Leviticus 19:18 & 19:34, Matthew 7:12, 19:16-19, 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 06:31, 10:25-28, Romans 13:08-10, Galatians 05:14, James 02:08

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
   will we realize
   we cannot eat money."

   -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #7

2011-12-16T19:48:00.001-05:00

December 16, 2011

Dear Unity,

Tonight is Friday the 16th of December. Tomorrow is the Day of Re-Occupation, the day we assemble once more and take back the commons. The day after is the rally, march and general assembly of Immigrants Occupy, somos el 99%! Tonight I am on duty as Medical Dispatch, tomorrow I will be at Duarte Park at 6th & Canal for Occupation 2.0, and the day after I will be running on the Immigrants Occupy march.

I have no idea of what exactly to expect Saturday, but I am ready for whatever happens. Generally, I have a good idea of the wide range of possible scenarios, good, bad and ugly. I am very excited and hopeful for Occupation 2.0, not the least of reasons being I will have a place to call home once more; a place, the same place every night, to lay my head and sleep; a place full of authentic human beings, Occupiers! I can't wait! The people united will never be defeated!

And then on Sunday I get to be a part of a very important and daring rally, march & GA -- Immigrants Occupy! We are the 99% -- all of us worldwide. My own notion is that political boundaries are also a tool of the 1%, and so there is no such thing as an Immigrant or Foreign Occupier -- an Occupier is an Occupier, yo. No matter where in the world one was born, or which imaginary boundary lines one has crossed, an Occupier is always home at any Occupation. The notion of aliens and immigrants is nonsensical. We are a worldwide race of beings. We are the 99%. Who is left to immigrate to us? The 1%. If there is such a thing as an alien or an immigrant, it is the 1%. All of us in the 99% are family, yo.

I had a relatively restful week, first recovering from a slight stomach ailment, then traveling to Maine visiting Unity College, meeting with a couple of he evicted Occupy Augusta (Maine) people, and attending a meeting of Occupy Waldo County. I was welcomed back to New York City with love from my medic buddies, and was instantly back to work as we planned trainings for the future evolutions of Street Medics and the Occupy Movement, and discussed the tactics and strategies of hunger strikes and the failing health of the OWS Hunger Strikers.

Just a short letter this time. I wanted to send you my thoughts on the important Days of Action ahead because I don't know when I will be able to get online again. Until then, take back the commons!

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
   will we realize
   we cannot eat money."

   -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #6

2011-12-10T09:45:00.001-05:00

December 08, 2011

Dear Unity,

I had the opportunity to run on the march that put a homeless family into an abandoned, foreclosed home. It was very exiting to be a part of that -- of standing up to the robber banks and claiming our inalienable right to shelter for this family. After the march and a joyous block party, the Occupiers got down to the nitty-gritty of an extreme makeover for the neglected house. I have been one of the medics assigned to the Occupied Real Estate at 702 Vermont Avenue. Our job is to be on site for any construction-type injuries, to be there for the Occupiers in case the police assault the house, and to provide security at the front door. I am proud to be helping the Occupiers fix up this house so it can be a good home for a needy family who were forced onto the streets by the predatory and criminal practices of the banks. The Occupiers, who rotate in and out in shifts to cover the 24-hour day, are without homes themselves. They do not know where they will sleep from day to day, yet they are working hard and risking arrest and injury for a family they don't know . . . but they do know that the family is part of the 99%, and that is all that matters. We are the 99%.

Last night I had just returned to the medic safe house from being on duty all day and evening at Vermont Avenue when the call came in that the police were going to arrest everyone in the Vermont Avenue house. I joined a couple other medics, one who is down here from Maine helping us out, and made the long trip by train and foot back out to East Brooklyn in the cold rain. By the time we got there the situation had been diffused by the local political representative. It now seems that we have a few days to fix up the house before having to worry about the police shooting tear gas through the windows and then breaking down the doors to brutalize us for helping a homeless family fight back against a robber bank.

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #5

2011-12-10T09:41:00.001-05:00

December 05, 2011

Dear Unity,

Time. Nobody knows what the future will bring, but one thing is certain: we are not going home. We are home. The Occupation is home to many of us here. Home is a place where you know you belong. Home is a place you know you must protect. Home is a place where you are loved. OccupyWallStreet is my home, and I live with hundreds of other people who all feel the same way as I do. It was with great joy we welcomed the Farmers March yesterday. It was with great joy we watched Liberty Plaza fill up with happy people. It was with great joy that we saw dancing again in Liberty Square The farmers came to Liberty Square on Sunday, and we welcomed them and their message of sustainability, seed exchange, local food, and no more GMOs.

MOFGA was there. Jim Gerritson was there. Maine farmers were there. One sign made me smile widely. It said: "MAINE FARMERS OCCUPY!" Yeah, baby! That's how we roll! Whose land? Our land!

It was beautiful. The march was a long one through the east side of Manhattan. City folk were amazed to see more than a thousand farmers, some with cardboard pitchforks and torches, marching proudly and happily through the streets shouting slogans of independence and defiance. Whose food? Our food!

When we got to the park the Brookfield Properties security goons got out of the way and let us pass without trying to bully us. Bullies are cowards at heart, and the large number of people scared them. The police, however, are terrified of our drummers, and they intervened to block our drummers from getting into the park. Bringing a drum into the park is a capital offense nowadays. On Thanksgiving, during the feast we gave for everyone (including the 1%, the police and the politicians), 20 police entered the park and tried to arrest 1 drummer for criminal trespass. We all came to the aid of the drummer, preventing the police from arresting him by demanding they arrest all of us on the same charges. The police walked away empty-handed.

The drumming is the heart of the revolution. The drumming is the pulse of change. The drumming is our voice lifted on high, defiantly proclaiming "WE ARE HERE! WE ARE THE 99%! WE ARE NOT GOING HOME!"

They are terrified of our drummers.

I am always happy to see the drummers, and I am moved to action whenever I hear the drums.

We estimate we have 350 homeless people within the occupation of Wall Street. They have been staying at churches, in the subway, in alleys and doorways and rooftops, in shipwrecks and abandoned buildings, and everywhere there is shelter and a modicum of protection against the 1% and their hired guns (the police). The churches have not been as open as they could be -- trying to force their hierarchical system upon the people they have invited in - appointing bouncers and instituting curfews and lists of acceptable people. I was on housing duty as a medic at one church when I was faced with an ethical dilemma. Occupiers who were not on the list were being turned away. Occupiers who were on the list but were late arriving, were turned away. Women were told to go sleep in the subway. Women were turned away to walk the streets alone at night. People were turned away but there was plenty of room in the church for a couple hundred more people. This is not how the Occupation treats people. The Occupation welcomes everyone. The Occupation makes room for everyone. I could not hold my silence, and when one bouncer declared that the Occupiers coming late were disrespecting the church and the rules, I declared: "The church is disrespecting Jesus Christ, so the church can go fuck itself." Jesus preached a message of love, kindness and inclusion. He did not preach about lists and curfews and obeying rules. I walked out of that church because I could not be a part of turning people away when there was plenty of room for them.

Speaking of room . . . I lose my living space in less than a week. On the other hand . . . in two weeks another church will allow us to occupy an empty lot they have -- that is if the powers that be don't prevent them (political pressure was put on them immediately after they announced). In the meanwhile I will be wandering about with the poorest of the homeless. I will not take refuge in a church while my brothers and sisters are being turned away at the door. I will walk with my brothers and sisters. I will walk all night, sitting here and there and nodding for a few minutes at a time. I will stay at Liberty Square even though the security goons do not allow anyone to lie down or to sleep, and harass us all night long. I will not go home. I am home. Whose city? Our city!

We are working on several new occupations, including a farm (or two), a national forest, abandoned buildings, donated spaces and more. We are not going away, yo! We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #4

2011-12-10T09:39:00.001-05:00

November 25, 2011

Dear Unity,

A little time and a lot of events have passed since I last wrote. I keep saying that nobody knows what will happen next, and I learned first-hand just how wrong I could be about the future. I had thought that police invading the park and brutally evicting us would send shock waves across the country, and even the world. Well, the police did invade the park -- after a restraining order was issued that sought to prevent them from even entering the park (but Bloomberg bought another judge to countermand it) -- and the police did brutalize us. That night over two hundred people locked down inside the park, and they were all tear-gassed, beaten, and arrested. All our property was tossed into garbage trucks, dumped in a warehouse, and systematically searched and destroyed (we were later allowed to sift through the destruction in case we wanted our broken, ripped, mangled property . . . if it was still there . . . none of my property was in the pile, all was lost, I am left with 3 changes of clothes . . . nothing else). The police did more than beat us and destroy our property, they also killed four dogs that night. I watched all through the early morning hours from between the first and second barricades. The police would not allow us into the park, and if we exited past the second barricade we would not be let back in. We were also told that when they finished with the park they would come and get us . . . despite that threat we stayed until the end, but they let us be.

I spent the next overnight, 15 hours, standing in the rain at the park, supporting 10-40 Occupiers who refused to leave the park. Brookfield Properties hired a private security force to "help us" follow the new rules -- rules such as no lying down, no sleeping, no personal property left unattended (even for a minute), no sleeping bags, no large backpacks or bags, no food, no music, no large signs, etc, etc, etc. In reality, they are goons whose job it is to harass us in every way possible while the police look on and protect them. Protect them? We have demonstrated time and again we are not violent.But still, they are frightened of us. Perhaps it is because they know what they do is dreadfully wrong.

Then came Thursday, and the day of action. I was involved in actions all day long, from the attempt to delay the opening bell at the Stock Exchange, to the march to Foley Square, and everything inbetween. I did not go on the Brooklyn Bridge march, but more than 32,000 people did go. I was there when we re-took the park, and I was there when the police tried twice, unsuccessfully, to force us out. I was there when they stole our rental truck full of army tents, and I was there when they brutalized non-violent protesters in the park. I was also there when we marched through the city streets, and the people came out on all the fire escapes and cheered us on, as people in their cars honked their horns in support of us, as people on the sidewalks smiled, laughed, took pictures and high-fived us as we passed.

During the stolen truck incident a police officer went berserk and attacked a protester who was demanding the police produce a search warrant before going into the back of the truck. I was right next to them, and, in a break of medic protocol, I tried to break it up after the officer went berserk -- but before I could do anything I was blindsided by another officer, who dislocated my knee and sent me tumbling in a hail of police fists. Lucky for me, the crowd of protesters saved me. They started chanting, "He's a medic, he's a medic!" Before any serious damage was done to me other officers responded to the crowd and pulled the berserk officers off of myself and the protester.

I popped my knee back in, my medic buddies wrapped it up, and back into the fray I went.

I was fifteen feet away when they brutalized one of us during the first attempted park eviction that day. The police beat bloody a protester, by the name of Branden, smashed his head into the granite curb and beat him with fists, feet and clubs. They then picked him up, handcuffed him, stood him on a stone ledge -- the highest spot in the area -- and displayed him to the crowd. When he did not show fear, two officers went behind him, and bent his fingers back until he cried out and sobbed in pain -- that pain was photographed and the New York Post ran the picture over the caption "Crybaby!". I was fifteen feet away, and the line of police would not let me through to treat him. My pleas to be allowed through to treat him were rejected, and I was physically restrained from getting to the injured protester. Who do the police protect? Who do the police serve?

Without our army tents, we decided not to stay in the park -- and we left of our own volition in the evening. Of course, there is a steady presence of Occupiers in the park even now, but the "occupation" has not yet re-commenced. The security goons harass all Occupiers, and police provocateurs continually try to disrupt the determination of the Occupiers. But still we persist. Still we remain peaceful. Our response? We sent a drum circle and love-in festival to Bloomberg's neighborhood. We held a Thanksgiving Day feast and invited the police, the politicians and the 1%. We remained peaceful despite the unjustified, criminal violence perpetrated upon us.

Only the police came to the feast on Thanksgiving -- and they came to disrupt the festivities, not to join in. At one point, 20 police officers entered the park to arrest a lone drummer -- to charge the drummer with criminal trespass because no musical instruments are allowed in the park nowadays. The crowd went to the aid of the drummer, and after a long confrontation where everybody was willing to be arrested with the drummer, the police backed down and left.

I was wrong about the police starting to "get it". I was so wrong, that the violence I witnessed all day long (even I was manhandled or clubbed several more times that day) had a traumatic effect upon me. In the days that followed I found that I could not control my anger. That I was getting dangerously close to fighting with the police whenever they harassed Occupiers. I had to leave for a couple of days in order to center and ground myself, to re-affirm my commitment and reason for being there, to find the ocean of calmness within me so that I can do my job as a medic. Do no harm, is a street medic's first rule.

After the eviction from the park the Occupiers needed a place to sleep. Several local churches opened up their doors to us at night, allowing us floorspace to lay out and sleep. Quickly, however, the police threatened the churches with raids, code violations, arrests, and shutting them down. The Fire Marshall was sent out to intimidate the churches, and some closed their doors to us. This police-church struggle continues at this moment, and overnight housing for the Occupiers is a daily problem . . . but we are not going home.

Whose city? Our city!

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #3

2011-12-10T09:36:00.001-05:00

November 14, 2011

Dear Unity,

If anyone doubted that this is a global movement, that global politics and political borders do not restrain or chain us, that we are the 99% around the world and we are the revolution you have been waiting for . . . let them read this:

Communique from Cairo Re: Egypt Trip

November 13, 2011 in News

What follows is a response from our Comrades from Cairo to the recent proposal from our Movement Building Group to send OWS Ambassadors to monitor upcoming elections in Egypt. You can also download this communique as a pdf file, as it was originally sent to us.

To our kindred occupiers in Zuccotti park,

When we called out to you, requesting you join us on 12 November in defending our revolution and in our campaign against the military trial of civilians in Egypt, your solidarity—pictures from marches, videos, and statements of support—added to our strength.

However, we recently received news that your General Assembly passed a proposal authorizing $29,000 dollars to send twenty of your number to Egypt as election monitors. Truth be told, the news rather shocked us; we spent the better part of the day simply trying to figure out who could have asked for such assistance on our behalf.

We have some concerns with the idea, and we wanted to join your conversation.

It seems to us that you have taken to the streets and occupied your parks and cities out of a dissatisfaction with the false promises of the game of electoral politics, and so did our comrades in Spain, Greece and Britain. Regardless of how one stands on the efficacy of elections or elected representatives, the Occupy movement seems outside the scope of this; your choice to occupy is, if nothing else, bigger than any election. Why then, should our elections be any cause for celebration, when even in the best of all possible worlds they will be just another supposedly “representative” body ruling in the interest of the 1% over the remaining 99% of us? This new Egyptian parliament will have effectively no powers whatsoever, and—as many of us see it—its election is just a means of legitimating the ruling junta’s seizure of the revolutionary process. Is this something you wish to monitor?

We have, all of us around the world, been learning new ways to represent ourselves, to speak, to live our politics directly and immediately, and in Egypt we did not set out to the streets in revolution simply to gain a parliament. Our struggle—which we think we share with you—is greater and grander than a neatly functioning parliamentary democracy; we demanded the fall of the regime, we demanded dignity, freedom and social justice, and we are still fighting for these goals. We do not see elections of a puppet parliament as the means to achieve them.

But even though the idea of election monitoring doesn’t really do it for us, we want your solidarity, we want your support and your visits. We want to know you, talk with you, learn one another’s lessons, compare strategies and share plans for the future. We think that activists or as people committed to serious change in the systems we live in, there is so much more that we can do together than legitimizing electoral processes (leave that boring job to the Carter Foundation) that seem so impoverished next to the new forms of democracy and social life we are building. It should be neither our job nor our desire to play the game of elections; we are occupying and we should build our spaces and our networks because they themselves are the basis on which we will build the new. Let us deepen our lines of communication and process and discover out what these new ways of working together and supporting one another could be.

Any time you do want to come over, we’ve got plenty of comfy couches available. It won’t be fancy, but it will be fun.

Yours, as always, in solidarity,

Comrades from Cairo
13 November, 2011

P.S. We finally got an email address: comradesfromcairo@gmail.com

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #2

2011-12-10T09:34:00.001-05:00

November 14, 2011

Dear Unity,

Thank you for the generous hospitality and loving support you gave me during my visit last week. Everywhere I went in Maine and Connecticut I was welcomed with open arms, and the people of Unity treated me as family. At the moment I am with other medics preparing for November 17th, our two-month anniversary of occupying Liberty Park. The 17th will be a day of many actions, and all the medics will be active and ready for any situation. I encourage you to help one of the Occupations in Maine with their own plans for that day.

While I was in Maine and Connecticut the New York City General Assembly ( www.nycga.net ) passed another important document: The Statement of Autonomy. This joins the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City and the Principles of Solidarity as the guiding documents of the Occupation Movement. These three documents reveal the identity of the revolution. Discuss them. Debate them. Spread the word. When someone asks "What are these Occupations about? What do they want? Who are they?" -- the answers are within these three documents. Read them. Listen to our voices. Join us and let us hear your voice!

Statement of Autonomy

Passed by the General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a people’s movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people and for the people. It is not a business, a political party, an advertising campaign or a brand. It is not for sale.

We welcome all, who, in good faith, petition for a redress of grievances through non-violence. We provide a forum for peaceful assembly of individuals to engage in participatory as opposed to partisan debate and democracy. We welcome dissent.

Any statement or declaration not released through the General Assembly and made public online at www.nycga.net should be considered independent of Occupy Wall Street.

We wish to clarify that Occupy Wall Street is not and never has been affiliated with any established political party, candidate or organization. Our only affiliation is with the people.

The people who are working together to create this movement are its sole and mutual caretakers. If you have chosen to devote resources to building this movement, especially your time and labor, then it is yours.

Any organization is welcome to support us with the knowledge that doing so will mean questioning your own institutional frameworks of work and hierarchy and integrating our principles into your modes of action.

SPEAK WITH US, NOT FOR US.

Occupy Wall Street values collective resources, dignity, integrity and autonomy above money. We have not made endorsements. All donations are accepted anonymously and are transparently allocated via consensus by the General Assembly or the Operational Spokes Council.

We acknowledge the existence of professional activists who work to make our world a better place. If you are representing, or being compensated by an independent source while participating in our process, please disclose your affiliation at the outset. Those seeking to capitalize on this movement or undermine it by appropriating its message or symbols are not a part of Occupy Wall Street.

We stand in solidarity. We are Occupy Wall Street.

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
The Principles of Solidarity can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/principles-of-solidarity/
The Statement of Autonomy can be found at https://www.nycga.net/resources/statement-of-autonomy/



Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Occupied Communique #1

2011-12-10T09:32:00.001-05:00

November 08, 2011

Dear Unity College,

I have been working as a street medic for 39 days at OccupyWallStreet. I would have written sooner but my access to computers is very limited, and free time is a luxury I have not experienced since arriving. It has been an incredible journey, and I wish you all were here with me to ride this wave of history. However, all of you back in Unity have a more important job than I do, because to be successful the Occupy Movement has to spread to every neighborhood. Wall Street is a battleground in the revolution against the global power structure. Occupying your neighborhood is the revolution realized. When the people in the neighborhoods rise up and determine their own sustainable future by solving their own local neighborhood problems the global elite will have lost all power. Whose streets? Our streets!

The occupation at Liberty Park (aka Zuccotti Park) evolves daily. Nobody can foretell what will happen next. This is what democracy looks like.

The day I arrived at Liberty Park 700 people were arrested while on a protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Since then I have been on many marches as a street medic, witnessed many incidents of police brutality and provocation, and many more incidents of protester courage and restraint. The occupation has remained peaceful in the face of constant provocation because the protesters are powered by love -- love of themselves, love of their sisters and brothers, love of their inherent human rights. On the other hand, the police are being paid to act the way they do. No contest, yo! Money can't touch love.

I am sure you have heard of the incidents of crime at Liberty Park, a place that offers free food, free clothes, free shelter and free medical care. Yes, there is criminal activity victimizing people at Liberty Park. Men have been bussed in on Rikers Island buses. Dope dealers and drug addicts from the surrounding neighborhood ply the edges of the Occupation community with the previous knowledge that they would be free from police intervention. Homeless people of all description have been purposefully sent to us in order to over-burden our infrastructure. Yet through all this the community at Liberty Park has not lost sight of their goals while creating new and constructive ways to deal with the constant attack upon their integrity and resolve. Through all of this we continue to provide free care and love to all who come to be with us. Through all of this, though we struggle against all the problems that have plagued society for ages. We know that the sick society that the elite have abused us with has traumatized these people. This trauma can be healed, and is being healed by the outpouring of love by the occupation community. Many times I have heard a person exclaim: "I have never experienced such love in my whole life." It is a beautiful event to witness, and always brings a welling of tears to my eyes because it is the creative moment that is the birth of conceptualizing the new society we are building. It is how we become the 99%.

All of the outside social problems afflicting Liberty Park and the Occupation of Wall Street are important aspects of the movement, and are problems we need to have solutions for when we have moved out of the parks and into the neighborhoods, but are not what OccupyWallStreet is about. What goes mostly unreported, even though sometimes it seems the press outnumbers the occupiers, are the countless daily acts of kindness, care and solidarity by the occupiers to each other, to the thousands daily who come to gawk, and even to the local and federal police charged with harming us. That outpouring of love has changed the attitude of the local police -- who were totally non-communicative and undeniably hostile when I first arrived, to the situation now where except for a few individuals the police are now seen to greet us with smiles and conversation even though they still accept money to surround and menace us. They are beginning to get it -- we are the 99%, and so are they. Soon they will reject those 30 pieces of silver, and join us. That is what OccupyWallStreet is about: enabling an awareness of how all the disparate groups we have been divided into by the 1% are the 99%.

I have been moved to tears almost daily by the joy, love and exuberance the occupiers are living life. Even though we live in a park carved out of solid rock, with no soft soil or grass to rest upon, hearts full of love cushion our existence and soften the harsh realities of living in a toxic urban environment. The river is only a few blocks away, and the view of the Statue of Liberty is inspiring, but the utter lack of water birds or of any kind of life except the blind shuffling of zombified pedestrians tears at my soul. This is Ground Zero. Yes, the Twin Towers once stood here, and the new abomination taking their place rises above Liberty Park and serves me as a landmark to find my way back home, and to remind me of the disconnect between the 1% and the 99%. Despite this, and more, the myriad, spontaneous acts of kindness by one occupier to another wipes away all the hardship for me. No matter the time of day or night there are people helping people throughout the park. We depend upon each other, and we continue to be strengthened by our love of each other. That love transforms us. This is what I have been waiting for my entire life.

Many of us come to the park trapped in our old habits, by our old ideas, and with our old possessions. Living in Liberty Park changes our habits, our ideas and our possessions. This is the revolution in action. This is the new Ground Zero.

All of us here at Liberty Park are dedicated to fighting the global power structure -- the CEOs, the bankers, the politicians. We will remain relentless in our demands of the worlds billionaires -- the thieves, rapists and murderers of millions around the world. The Occupation Movement at large is not about Wall Street. It is about your neighborhood -- whether that is in Oakland or Bangor, the United States or Palestine, the middle of Asia or the middle of the Pacific -- what matters is your neighborhood. We march against the billionaires on Wall Street so that you can peacefully occupy your own neighborhood, so that you can peacefully assume political power in your neighborhood, so that you can become sustainable in your neighborhood. Please don't let us down. Occupy Everything!


Kanye West said it best: "Don't be afraid to say the word 'revolution'."

It is revolution. It is exactly what the Declaration of Independence promised, but was never delivered. Now is the time. We are the 99%, and this is what democracy looks like on our streets all day and all week.

Please email me your questions and I will attempt to answer them in future communiques. Thank you all for your support, I am very grateful to be associated with the people of Unity College in Maine.

Best Regards,

Ed Mortimer

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
   and the last fish been caught
             will we realize
      we cannot eat money."

            -Cree Wisdom-

Redemption

2011-09-28T22:37:00.006-04:00

Redemption

The seeds remember the land they came from.

Winona LaDuke

Time

2011-09-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

Time

Tick-tock?
Certainly not!
Discrete time zones?
More like cyclones!

Agroecology, Fragment 2

2011-09-07T07:03:00.005-04:00

Agroecology, Fragment 2

A philosophical critique of Gliessman's "Agroecology" text, chapter 2.

Chapter 2 Food For Thought:


In order to come closer to “nature's image” conventional farming has to be completely unraveled and then re-woven. Monoculture has to give way to diverse micro-ecosystems of individual groupings of plants, which in turn reflect the overall pattern of the encompassing bioregion in a smaller fractal dimension.

The passing of monoculture means all of the other fundamental strategies of conventional agriculture (the 7 basic practices^¹) become unnecessary. The new foundation of diversity will itself invite natural ecological webs of life, fungi, flora and fauna, to form – each facet cooperating and strengthening the others. The farmer then must also view her endeavor as a cooperative effort with nature, and not a constant battle against nature. It isn't a struggle against everything “nature throws at us”, it is learning what nature (earth) wants to happen and then discovering the ecological (that is, human) benefit in it.

A “natural image” farm encourages and nourishes the natural bounty of the ecosystem, enhancing the native production instead of forcing alien systems upon the bioregion. “Natural image” agriculture relies on solar, atmospheric and animal inputs for all the various forms of energy to put into the crop cycle in order to produce food. External inputs in the way of fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and complex (non-sustainable) farm machinery are not needed or desired in “natural image” agriculture. In fact, if the consumption of food is limited to the bioregion where the food is grown, then there is potentially no external output – thereby keeping the energy and nutrient cycles closed within that bioregion. This becomes especially important in the wider context of agricultural waste poisoning watersheds, aquifers, rivers, oceans and all the lands and lives associated with them. As well, nutrients such as phosphorus are limited in supply^², and we have wasted most of the earth's reserves using the unsustainable tenets of conventional agriculture. Keeping the cycle within the bioregion also allows for the enrichment of local culture, and the opportunity to create a local and sustainable economic system.

Of course, there is a sociological component to agroecology, and the financial facet looms large. We force external influences upon our “natural image” agriculture when we try to “plug into” the global economy. Since mimicking natural ecosystems means closing the external inputs and outputs, we have here in globalization and national economics the first obstacles to employing agroecological principles^³.

Money, food and consumer capitalism.

A “natural image” farm cannot be sustained in a consumer system where everything is sterilized, segregated and sold along intercontinental and trans-ocean trade routes developed by distant corporations to maximize profit. In order to fit into this, or any, consumer-capitalist system agriculture has to conform to the lowest-quality-highest-quantity-highest-profit (Wal-Mart) model that characterizes all the parts of such a trade system. “Natural image” agriculture doesn't fit so it must develop its own characteristic distribution (note: distribution not economic) network (bioregional, biocultural).

As well, agroecology does not fit into current social norms, and therefore it can only be a fringe subculture unless it also seeks to change social norms. It can never become mainstream, or even just a “player”, in a consumer capitalist society. So society and the distribution system have to be changed or circumvented. Society, as it is, cannot be joined, as all of history bears witness that whenever profit is a major concern money eventually overrides all else. That is why we have conventional agriculture in the first place. That is why we have joyfully raped and maimed our Mother, the Earth. That is why we have sacked and burned our Home, the Earth. That is why we have polluted and sickened our Paradise, the Earth. All for money . . . do we really want to make economics a primary concern of agroecology? What are we looking for? A kinder, gentler conventional agriculture? Or a truly gentle, sustainable cooperation with nature to enhance the quality of the carrying capacity of a particular bioregion. If it is as the title of a seminar by Stephan Bellon^⁵ indicates: “Agroecology in France: an emerging notion, between utopia and institutional greening", the agroecologists in France, at least, recognize the Aristotelian poles on the agroecology scale of virtue and vice. Bellon sees the paradise possible but also the hell that masquerades as utopia. In an Aristotelian world-view^⁶ it is somewhere on this scale that agroecology will eventually fall. In a global capitalist society agroecology will be relegated to institutional greening, a facade for show – no depth, no substance, no ecology.

So . . . for a natural image farm the nutrient cycle of the bioregion must remain intact. That means diverse, small-scale crop and husbandry farms producing only for the local communities. By diverse small-scale farms what is meant is small-scale farms that are themselves each a diverse enterprise, like nature. What is not meant is a diverse assortment of different monoculture small-scale farms.

Composting needs to become universally practiced, human wastes must be recycled into the soil creation cycle, and the implements and accouterments of daily life must be created from local materials (what is local culture without that, I ask – and answer: generic one-size-fits-none global insanity). The engines of transportation must be scaled back to a local size: human, animal, solar and small biofuel engines.

Energy must come from small-scale solar, wind, water, kinetic, geothermal and other non-intrusive sources. A note here about power generation: the same situation applies here as in agriculture, and that being the large-scale power projects are inherently destructive and unsustainable. Instead of giant hydroelectric dams there should be a plethora of waterwheels and newer technologies that provide localized water power without an intrusive human bootprint upon the environment. Wind, solar and kinetic energy can be utilized in every bioregion, and every bioregion has other sources of energy peculiar to the ecosystem there. Small-scale, local energy production means energy sovereignty just as local food means food sovereignty. Like it or not, sovereignty is a major sociological, agricultural and ecological issue – and the corporations are willing to kill to win^⁷.

Therefore, as a member of this consumer society we all hold the ultimate power – that of not participating^⁸. Buying “green” won't work because it will all eventually be corporate greenwash. Buying “local” won't work because the local system is still attached to the global system – base prices and wages are set outside the region. Buying “smart” won't work because there is no “smart” in this global economic system. Only disengagement from the global system in favor of a biocultural and bioregional system will work. It is the only thing that has ever worked, and that is because that is how nature works – how the earth lives. We are addicts to the current system, and as addicts we have a muddled and confused perception of reality. That which can save us is rejected as harmful, and that which destroys us is welcomed as beneficial. It is never easy to rehabilitate from addiction, but it is very simple – remove the drug, change the behaviors, live ethically.

And that brings the question of ecological vs. agricultural stability to the table. The earth, nature, is always in a state of flux. That is the “stability” of nature. Conventional approaches to agriculture, and even many self-identifying non-conventional approaches, seek a stability where there is no flux. If we are honest we would admit that there has never been such a stable farm as farms have always been at the mercy of variable yields due to a number of environmental and anthropomorphic variables the farmer has no control over. We would further admit that it is the height of foolishness to even attempt such an unnatural act. It is this debilitatingly myopic mindset regarding “stability” and “change” that causes us to view farming as a battle against nature. If we truly wanted “natural stability” we would “go with the flow” of nature, and not try to impose the monolithic drabness of domesticated order upon the beautiful function and art of “wild chaos”^⁹.

A final thought: industrialization, simplification, specialization and externalization (All Aristotelian principles) are not only the hallmark symptoms of monoculture, but also of our philosophical disease.

1The 7 Basic Practices of Agriculture according to Gliessman 2007 (Agroecology 2^nd Edition): monoculture, intensive tillage, irrigation, inorganic fertilizer, chemical pesticide/herbicide, genetic manipulation of plants/animals, factory farming of animals.

2Three (3) of many . . .
Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply” Scientific American, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-crisis accessed 04 September 2011
“Peak Phosphorus" Foreign Policy Magazine, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/20/peak_phosphorus accessed 04 September 2011
“Forget Oil, Worry About Phosphorus” The Daily Yonder, http://www.dailyyonder.com/forget-oil-worry-about-phosphorus/2010/09/08/2929 accessed 04 September 2011

3“Do Trees Grow On Money” Earth Island Journal (Earth Island Institute), http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/do_trees_grow_on_money accessed 05 September 2011

4“Dreams lost to mining plans” Queensland Country Life, http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/dreams-lost-to-mining-plans/2278892.aspx accessed 04 September 2011

5 2^nd International Summer School of Agroecology, accessed on the Web 04 September 2011, http://web.me.com/philogene/Agroecology/Home.html and http://web.me.com/philogene/Agroecology/Summer_School_Program_files/ISSAE.Program.pdf

6I mention here that I am not an Aristotelian philosopher (though most of Euro-American society follows that core philosophy in one form or another), but I have studied Aristotelian philosophy intensively and have rejected that world-view as fundamentally flawed. Evidence: look around, smell the smoke, see the flames, feel the heat.. I use an Aristotelian example here because it is generally understandable to society-at-large, but it does not accurately reflect the real situation.

7“Rash of murders threatens to silence environmental and social activism in Brazil" Mongabay , http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0609-moukaddem_killings.html accessed 05 September 2011

8“Italian town Filettino declares independence” BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14774526 accessed 05 September 2011

9We are so wrong-headed that we name chaos as order, and order as chaos. Inflicting a supposedly ordered monoculture upon a region actually has utterly chaotic consequences, while discarding conventional agriculture and working within the natural system of chaos using such methods as permaculture, biodynamics or biomimicry has demonstrated incredible resiliency and sustainability – in another word, order. Orwellian doublespeak has evolved into the common person's doublethink because of mass brainwashing through censored education.

Agroecology, Fragment 1

2011-09-05T22:22:00.002-04:00

Agroecology, Fragment 1

A philosophical critique of Gliessman's "Agroecology" text, chapter 1.

Chapter 1 Food For Thought:

I will answer all four questions with a single essay answer, as they all intertwine in my mind.

I preface my response with this anecdote from personal experience. In manufacturing seminars I attended there was always one point driven home: every business has to grapple with three things and only three things: quality, quantity and profit. We were taught that only two of those things were possible at the same time, never three. They taught us some statistical analysis to demonstrate how quantity and quality correlated with profit (for profit is seen as an immutable principle), and how increasing quantity decreases quality, and increasing quality decreases quantity – assuming a stable net profit sufficiently large to enable the sustained increase in the scope of the business, and in the enrichment of the owners. If any business was foolish enough to attempt quantity and quality at the expense of profit, we were told that business would surely fail.

Of course, all of their assumptions are based on the irrevocability of American capitalist theory.

Quality=ecological soundness, profit=economic viability, quantity=social equity. We have the same problem, and since we know fractal theory we can deduce instantly that we have the same situational relationships worded in different perspectives – mathematically we have the same pattern in a different fractal dimension. Among other things, that means we don't have to reinvent the wheel – we can learn from the results of what the best manufacturing minds have pondered long and hard upon. We can learn that we cannot have a holistic approach to anything under American capitalism as it is antithetical to such theories – it is a different fractal relationship. The 7 basic practices of “conventional” agriculture are held together by one thread – maximization of profit. Capitalism is hierarchal-based and profit-driven at its core. Any type of holistic approach is communally-founded and health-motivated. Two different fractals, two different philosophies, two mutually exclusive choices. We can't have both.

And so, that is why decentralization of power, local sovereignty of resources and community health (that is, sustainability) are so necessary to agroecology, and so foreign to our economic sense of reality. Capitalism is the reason why Americans cannot comprehend the destructive, even suicidal, nature of our entire system – a large component of which is the business of agriculture. After all, we made money, and money is the mind, spirit and body of capitalism. Conventional thought, agriculture and otherwise, says therefore that we won – the objective was to make money. Ecological thought says we lost, we killed the planet and the objective was to keep it healthy. It is hard to admit we've been so stupid as to value fiat money over the bounty of the planet, that we valued playing a number game over the business of reality, that we knew what we were doing all the time but were having such a good time we just wanted it to last a little longer.

We can also deduce instantly that the theoretical approach used by the writers of the text is the same as that used by the lecturers at the manufacturing seminars – because they are framing the problem in the same capitalist viewpoint: quality=ecological soundness, profit=economic viability, quantity=social equity. What they are asking, having all three at the same time, has been taught by the best business and manufacturing minds in American history to be impossible.

In other words, the System is broke, was always broke, and cannot ever be fixed in regards to sustainability because it never worked in the first place. Specifically to agroecology it means that agronomy (quantity) will always trump ecology (quality) because of the staggering number of mouths to feed (social equity). We do need a holistic approach, but by its very nature of being holistic that means we also have to heal the economic system we labor so fearfully under – remove the cancer (capitalism), nurture the patient (bioregional/biocultural), and learn a new lifestyle (decentralized local sufficiency) so as not to fall sick again. Money, profit, must be relegated to a secondary status.

Agroecology seeks to bring quality in the form of ecological soundness back into our lives. It seeks to do this by maintaining the health of the soil and preserving the range of biodiversity in the bioregion. It is a noble goal. It is an essential goal necessary to sustain the continuing evolution of the human race. Agroecology seeks to bring quantity in the form of social equality back into our lives. That is also a noble and essential goal necessary to sustain the continuing evolution of the human race in the direction that the greatest minds of human history have determined is best – toward the Good (no lesser of two evils here or billions will suffer for generations – that's just plain evil). Agroecology seeks to achieve both of those goals and maintain a profit (economic viability). Economic viability is a vague and misty term, but even if defined as only enough profit to sustain a business it is still not in any way a necessary thing for the continued evolution of the human race toward the Good. If we have ecological soundness we have the ability to live well. Agronomy also depends, long-term, upon the ecological health of the land. Non-local, non-renewable inputs to maximize production are a short-term gain that has a long and costly downside. Therefore, a healthy ecology is the primary factor (outside humans, of course) in a sustainable agronomic situation. The agronomic and ecologic health of an area is the common ground upon which sustainability is gathered.
: “Wherever our villages were, wherever we picked our food, those places are blessed places. . . . That patch over there — Artesa land in Annapolis — that is a blessed place for us. We went there as kids. We picked berries there with our mother. We picked berries for necklaces. There is another place over there where there is a lot of Manzanita, and that was really important to us. We made spoons from that and also awls to make baskets. These are the things we grew up with. We dedicated our trees not to be cut. The trees in the forest are blessed. The Redwoods give us good medicine from the sap that hardens. It was used for anemia. The young shoots are used for colds. Bark dolls are made from Redwood.; Everything out there is used for something.; The reason we are against the disturbance in Annapolis is that place is alive. It is a dedicated area. It is a special area. If they do something wrong there, things are not going to go right. Who will believe us? We are speaking from the viewpoint of Kashia. We have to talk from the viewpoint of our spiritual leader, what we were taught. The non-Indian may not understand — there are things that we Indians can’t touch but can see. Good teachings are spiritual.; We are disturbed by all the things that are happening around us. We can’t go to some beaches to harvest food, we can’t pick huckleberries any place we want. We can’t find good sedge to make baskets because the best place was ruined by Lake Sonoma. We know that there is sedge on that place over there. Baskets were our cooking pans and used to store things like acorns. That is important for kids to learn. It would be a good place to teach the kids how to make baskets.; Religion was all our life. We’ll tell you why. There were no man made conveniences here. Everything was from the creation. That is why we take care of it. That is what the leader did, she taught us to take care of the food, the water. We took care of the trees. . . .; It is a blessing to pick food. It is a blessing to roam around. The creator wants us to take care of this place.; - Violet Parrish Chappell and Vivian Parrish Wilder, elders and scholars of the Pomo Kashia band^¹
In other words, if you don't have your health you don't have anything. Ecological health translates into agronomic health which translates into human health. Economic viability is not necessary. A truly holistic approach to agroecology would have as its primary goals: ecological soundness, social health and social equity. This means an entirely different lifestyle than what we are used to . . . but then, we knew that anyway. It is time to stop clinging to bad ideas.

All of this may seem lofty and out of reach of the common person in a small village in a northern wetlands . . . but it is ground-level local. Sustainability is ground-level local. Sustainability depends upon each and every individual within a community being aware of their impact upon the ecologic health of the bioregion, as well as all their neighbors' impacts. Local resources drive sustainability. Local control of resources ensures sustainable lifestyles. If agroecology cannot break away from a profit-driven system at ground-level local then it cannot be what it needs to be – holistic.

Chapter 1 did a good job of exposing a lot of falsehoods we often hear recited as truths about conventional agriculture. But it stopped short of where it needed to go to identify the source of the problem, and possible solution. As long as profit is a driving force agroecology will remain agroeconomy.

1Ahni, Intercontinental Cry, World’s Largest Wine Corporation Threatens Sacred Pomo Redwood Forest , http://intercontinentalcry.org/worlds-largest-wine-corporation-threatens-sacred-pomo-redwood-forest/, 30 August 2011

Little Things

2011-08-13T07:32:00.003-04:00

Little Things

If you don't get the little things
right
how do you expect to get
the big things
right?

If you don't care about
the little things
why the hell would you care
about the big things?

All big things
are composed of many
little things
and
all little things
are composed of
littler things.

Life is about
the littler things
no matter how big
the thing
is.

It Matters

2011-08-12T17:42:00.005-04:00

It Matters

It matters what I do today
I may not be alive tomorrow
and yet today
for a fistful of dollars
due tomorrow
I sold
a piece
of my
soul.

It's such a little thing
they said
waiting for agreement
it's only
for a little while longer
just
put up with it.

Just a little thing
yes
but it is wrong
and yet
I did it for money.

But you need the money
they said
hoping for agreement
that's
what matters
not the job.

I need the money
yes
but it is wrong
and yet
I bowed my head.

And it hurt
now
for today
and all tomorrows
I did it for money
and it hurt
someone else.

I didn't mean it
it was not
intentional
but I knew
it could happen.

Just a frog
she was
just a frog.

But she died
I saw her
such a little one
writhing in agony
desperate
to get away
desperate
to live
but she died.

I did it
for money.

Mother
forgive me.

New Glory?

2011-07-19T22:56:00.004-04:00

New Glory?

. . . or just a paintjob?

Lost

2011-07-17T10:44:00.004-04:00

Lost

Love
is always a sacrifice,
a core of ice
in a fiery paradise,
defiant cold, forever bleeding,
a comforting pain
when there is
no direction home
at the edge of night
.
.
.

(photo by campmusa)

Goddess Loves Rock and Roll

2011-07-16T16:40:00.003-04:00

Goddess Loves Rock and Roll

I blunder as if blinded,
a blessed fool am I,
kin to drunks and little children,
caring for their fears,
lost in their shared insanity,
oblivious to our last chance,
a lost chance,
I can leave them behind
turn and cut through
the herd
to walk alone
last chance, lost chance
for calm sanity
yet how can I
be someone else not me,
there's me and . . . me,
a longing to be free
alone and content
at peace
and yet still
I stay
overlooked and overlooking
here
in a thundering crowd where
I am
lonely
carrying the news
a spark looking for
tinder
to flame
I am
looking for someone
to please
before
the darkness
falls.

"My Law"

2011-07-16T10:54:00.002-04:00

"My Law"

Written by Tieme Ranapiri (1700AD/CE?)
and translated from Maori by Kere Graham.

The sun may be clouded, yet ever the sun
Will sweep on its course till the Cycle is run.
And when into chaos the system is hurled
again shall the Builder reshape a new world.

Your path may be clouded, uncertain your goal:
Move on - for your orbit is fixed to your soul.
And though it may lead into darkness of night
The torch of the Builder shall give it new light.

You were. You will be! Know this while you are:
Your spirit has traveled both long and afar.
It came from the Source, to the Source it returns
The Spark which was lighted eternally burns.

It slept in a jewel. It lept in a wave.
It roamed in the forest. It rose from the grave.
It took on strange garbs for long eons of years
and now in the soul of yourself it appears.

From body to body your spirit speeds on
It seeks a new form when the old one has gone
and the form that it finds is the fabric you wrought
On the loom of the Mind from the fibre of Thought.
As dew is drawn upwards, in rain to descend
Your thoughts drift away and in Destiny blend.
You cannot escape them, for petty or great,
Or evil or noble, they fashion your Fate.

Somewhere on some planet, sometime and somehow
Your life will reflect your thoughts of your Now.
My law is unerring, no blood can atone
The structure you build you will live in alone.
From cycle to cycle, through time and through space
Your lives with your longings will ever keep pace
And all that you ask for, and all you desire
Must come at your bidding, as flame out of fire.

Once list' to that Voice and all tumult is done
Your life is the Life of the Infinite One.
In the hurrying race you are conscious of pause
With love for the purpose, and love for the Cause.

You are your own Devil, you are your own God
You fashioned the paths your footsteps have trod.
And no one can save you from Error or Sin
Until you have hark'd to the Spirit within.

Not Now

2011-05-30T16:18:00.005-04:00

Not Now

Memorial Day, 2009.
I was there.
I was at a coffee house.
I was with my intimate friends.
I was drinking coffee.
I was.

Memorial Day, 2010.
I was here.
I was in my cabin by a lake.
I was remembering my intimate friends.
I was drinking coffee.
I was.

Memorial Day, 2011.
I am still here.
I am in my cabin by the lake.
I am remembering remembering my intimate friends.
I am drinking tea.
I am.

Intimate friends.
once real, now Facebook.
I see them :-) and :-( and lol.
But I don't feel them smile.
I don't feel them frown.
I don't feel them laugh.
I don't feel them touch.
Except in my memory.

Memory.
Is old.
Not new.
Not now.

We are not together
exploring the universe
determining reality
searching for truth
enjoying life.

Not now.

How I miss Now
when I remember
Memorial Day.

The Fractal Universe – God or Machine?

2011-05-08T15:43:00.010-04:00


The Fractal Universe – God or Machine?



“. . . the way we think defines our world. Classic teachers, such as Aristotle or Confucius taught not in specific subjects but wide ranging thoughts that involved man and nature. Today's students are taught to be specialists. We know more and more about less and less. The classic philosophers were aware that they knew less and less about more and more.”

Andrew Sheng

Systems Thinking^¹

(Fractal by Rafael La Perna)

I have been saying for years that all things are fractal in nature – that our reasoned awareness of reality filtered as it is through the left hemisphere of our brain perceives the universe unfolding in myriad fractal patterns that are, ultimately, variations on the same theme. However, I have a strong right-brain awareness that Time is the deciding factor in our left-brain perception. Time, my right-brain instinctively intuits^², is fractal – not the Universe. The Universe is infinitely one within itself, and therefore the paradox is that everything within the Universe is fractal, and yet the Universe itself is not. Why? The Universe is complete. It is one. The fractal patterns we observe are indeed just that – fractions of the entire pattern – the pattern that some call The Creation Script (the uni-verse), in effect the Word/Sound/Music/Vibration that began creation in many myths and theories and still reverberates throughout the Universe.


We once knew that the Universe has a pattern, and the pattern of the Universe has meaning to us as a part of the Universe. We once knew that there is a correspondence between all things. We once knew that there are many patterns and many variations of patterns, but that many things share the same basic pattern, and all the patterns merge into a Great Pattern which is more than the sum of its parts. We once knew that every thing has its own pattern, including humans. We once knew that every individual thing has its own variation of the basic pattern it shares with all its kind, even you and me. We once called that science of knowing the patterns of Nature, Divination^³ – the art of interpreting the future from the portends (that is, the science of interpreting the patterns of things^⁴). However, since this artful science utilized right-brain methodology^⁵ it fell into derogatory disrepute and massive misuse in our post-Enlightenment left-brain culture. We lost a lot of knowledge when we decided this science was insignificant, worthless, mathematically approaching zero.

The pattern of the Universe can be described as a Symphony of Life. But is it orchestrated by a maestro, or is it a player-piano that works by itself and ultimately will break down?

Perhaps, neither.

Experiences in shamanic meditation and Socratic research – otherwise known as old-time (that is, classic) philosophy – leads me to “try to” define the Universe as a fractal symphony of infinitely beautiful precision wherein there is not a single errant random note. And so, except for Free Will, everything would repeat in the same precise patterns and become pointless. Free Will can change the pattern, and that is the Point. Please note that humans are not the only ones with Free Will. Every thing that makes a choice exercises Free Will.

I said “try to” because there are very few words for what the right-brain sees, and very little of what it sees agrees with left-brain logic. Some things you just know instinctively and intuitively^⁶. These things are too big and too small and too between for words. Fractal knowledge. Universal knowledge in a tiny crevice in the curve of a straight line that applies to every thing in its own way.

A quick point on meditation and research. Meditation shuts down the left-brain control of perception and allows the right-brain to communicate its emotional awareness of the Universe – which is that all is one, all is alive, we are all (place name of favorite deity here). And yet, we are not^⁷. Paradox.

Research (asking questions, seeking answers, left-brain stuff) naturally follows. The state of “wonder” is a right-brain communication. No question can be born without first there be a wondering. Wonder is a right-brain communication. The left-brain trys to understand what the right-brain experiences by question and answer – the so-called Socratic method (which is simply the way the right-brain works). Philosophy is what happens when you put meditation and research together, just as 3 usually follows 2 which usually follows 1.

It is important to note that in a natural context (that is, in the philosophy I espouse) Emotion (right-brain/art/heart/female) births Thought (left-brain/science/mind/male), but in our post-Enlightenment society we have been taught (that is, coerced) to believe Thought (left-brain/science/mind/male) has natural dominion over, and indeed must control, Emotion (right-brain/art/heart/female). However, the Reality is that Emotion does not lie, but Thought very often does^⁸. The symbology in this is massive – it is a fractal of knowledge, a foundational pattern of the Universe infinite at different levels. It is Creation, Sustenance, Revelation and Redemption. In other words, for some it's the meaning of life, yo. Life is a wonderment in beauty that often doesn't make sense, until it does.

In all things, truth reveals itself in paradox. That which cannot be, is, and by it being we know Reality^⁹ from Perception, Viewpoint, Rhetoric and Opinion. Humans, left-brain-thinkers especially, are too smart by half for their own good (pun intended). We make models of logic and reason, and play with these toys like children playing in the middle of the street, fantasy steading for reality in our minds, oblivious to our inevitable fate. Our perception of reality has very little in common with what is real.

The Cantor Set cannot be, yet it is. Achilles overtaking the Tortoise cannot be, yet it is. A fractal cannot be infinite, yet it is. Paradox. Truth. Beauty.

I know modern day 'philosophers' (i.e. pretenders) are deeply troubled by the word “is”, but the common person on the street has no doubt about “is”. It is what it is, yo. Word.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics has been broken^¹⁰ in various^¹¹ and repeatable^¹² scientific experiments^¹³, and yet we still cling to the belief that the Second Law is an unbreakable Law of Reality. It is not. It is simply a reasoned (that is, a left-brain lying) way to explain our 18^th century, Western Civilization, Imperialist-founded, Church-nurtured, patriarchal perception of reality. It is an opinion, nothing more. We should have listened to Newton when he said his work was not fit to be published, that it was just fevered ramblings. It has distracted us from reality. The reality is that the universe is actively creating (that is, the universe is always changing^¹⁴). Entropy is a myth concocted to support The Church Doctrine on the separateness of God and Nature^¹⁵. The Universe, in much the same way as the Hindu Goddess Kali-Ma, is a creative force, not a degenerative one. Despite this knowledge, scientists still cling to Newton's World, frightened like children in the dark, afraid that the quantum universe is waiting in the shadows to snatch them up.

They are right. It is. It is hiding in the shadow of the fractal curve of every straight line.

What about God? What about a Mechanical universe (ala Stephen Hawking)?

Well, first I have to abuse the notion of God. Archaeological and historical evidence points to “God” (as is historically defined) being the creation of the criminally patriarchal, Indo-Aryan, mountain war-chiefs of Middle Asia. That same band of murderers and rapists who are chronicled in cuneiform telling how they descended upon pre-Sumerian Mesopotamia and usurped power from the Sisters of Inanna (that is, the women elders), and sent their progeny throughout the world overturning the old (pre-patriarchal) order. The cruel Rapist Gods of Mount Olympus of Greek mythology and the angry Destroyer God of Mount Sinai of the Abrahamic mythology are but two examples of this Indo-Aryan influence in the historical record that stretches in many guises world-wide from before Ur to the present day. The progression of this patriarchal usurpation was described in writing by history's first known poet, Enheduanna, in her tales of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth^¹⁶. The same pattern can be found in the foundations of all cultures within patriarchal “civilization”. Each is a fraction of the story, each a budding of the fractal replicated in all its major points at different levels of “zoom”. Together they make up the The Patriarchy Fractal – the pattern of destruction and oppression the patriarchy always follows regardless of time or culture. Is it a wonder they “created” entropy?

God as an anthropomorphic “Him” is an obvious fiction originally contrived to counter the so-called Goddess-societies that were prevalent before patriarchal history. The stories of the ages confirm “His” evolution from mountain god to sun god to creator god, all the way usurping what had been female power in order to control the population^¹⁷. Under its destructive influence we deny our inborn divinity, and stifle our inherent need for creative self-expression. In this way we bring Entropy (that is, Hell) upon ourselves, creating it ourselves, afflicting ourselves. God needs Entropy/Hell to exist, so we create it in order to create God. Without Entropy/Hell there is nothing for God to do. The Universe as a creative force negates the need for God.

Goddess, on the other hand, is obviously real.

Paradox?

Perhaps. Perhaps just a aeons-old Lie found out.

The creative force of the universe is female in nature. Look around you. There is a deep felt species-wide emotion, an instinctual intuition, a knowing that persists, that the earth is Mother. That is not an insignificant emotional fact. Deny this, and you deny your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your heart, and your Self (soul/spirit/I-ness) in favor of an immoral war hierarchy based upon rape, paternity and murder.

Do not we all begin in the womb as female? The male seems to be an evolution descended from the female for the specific purpose of providing sustenance – that is, figure out (left-brain) how to provide shelter, food, and comfort. A hint toward that purpose, and how the male power went astray, can be deduced from the current “Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism” (Simon Baron-Cohen, 2002, Autism Research Centre). As well, this theory supports the right-brain experience as being just as real as the left-brain experience, and, more importantly, a moderating force that keeps the left-brain sane – when all is working properly, that is. Of course, Simon Baron-Cohen doesn't philosophize about any of the points in this paper. He merely reports scientific evidence on the physical characteristics of male and female brains in relation to autistics, hysterics, and so-called normals. His work, however, supports the philosophical leaps I seem to be taking in reference to it.

But does the femaleness in the character of Creation mean a “female God”? No. I am not describing a God in Human form, alternately destroying and creating, who meddles in Human affairs, performing miracles of parthenogenesis or otherwise apportioning apocalypses. Goddess is an emotional perception, an instinctual intuition, a left-brain label for a right-brain sensing. What is the sensing . . . of? It is the sensing of the awareness of the live Universe; the Universe as a live and aware organism connected directly to you and to everyone and everything else. Something like that, perhaps. It is ineffable – meaning I'll never get the right words, you will have to look into my eyes (that is, my soul) to know what I mean.

So . . . that doesn't qualify as an anthropomorphic deity, even if we, as a species, can only emotionally relate to the essence of the Universe (that is, Nature) as Mother. No God or Goddess in human form, or otherwise centered solely upon the human species. There is just the neverending Universe^¹⁸, it is alive, it creates (that is, gives birth) and we are all a part of it – literally and emotionally. Aho mitakuye oyasin¹⁹.

So much, as well, for the Machine Universe . . . for how can the Universe be an unthinking, unfeeling, unliving mechanical construct when all within it is alive with an energy that is always changing but is never destroyed? A non-living machine created Life? That is not a paradox, that is simply absurd in an experiential reality (that is, the only Reality that matters). Life is created by life through the female essence. The truth of it is all around us.

Look at the Universe through a starry night sky, and meditate upon its entirety. Meditate upon its ultimate vastness. Meditate upon whether or not any species upon this tiny, lonely speck of a planet qualifies as more than an insignificant detail that can be equated mathematically as approaching zero. Meditate then upon the fact that there is no randomness, and that there is no zero in infinity. Therefore, everything is significant and nothing ever fades to zeroness^²⁰. Then meditate upon the fractal zoom, where molecules of coherent energy whizz like solar systems through their galaxies of energy bonds, and we stand midway between them and the stars in the galaxies of the sky. And know that by deep meditation, by letting the right-brain freely experience reality, we can experience Oneness with the Universe – and then we realize everything's gonna be all right. It's good to be alive. As for death, in a sense, we never die, only change, just like everything else. We are, after all, beings of energy (Jill Bolte Taylor).

1 The Star Online, Malaysia, Business, editorial, Andrew Sheng,
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/30/business/8562396&sec=business

2 Instinct and intuition comprise emotion's (right-brain) wisdom (experience). Emotion Wisdom is the wild form of domesticated (left-brain) thought (belief) – it has escaped being corraled by the left-brain logic/belief system, and revels in the wonder of the infinite paradox of the universe.

3 By definition I mean all old sciences and traditions, from astrology to dream-walking to throwing the bones.

4 Which is, of course, the primary goal of every modern, accepted science – to learn enough to have the ability to anticipate an event prior to its actual occurrence, in other words, to divine the future from the portends. Societal stigma aside, the means, intents and ends of Divination and Science are the same. We shouldn't fool ourselves with words and beliefs. The goals of Science and Divination are description, explanation, prediction & control.

5 In some instances, for instance, chanting, dancing, trances, etc..

6 Instinct and Intuition are two Human senses that have been termed “wild” and “female” and so have been effectively banned from scientific thought by the patriarchy except to be treated with the utmost condescension and colonialism.

7 Jill Bolte Taylor's “Stroke of Insight” on TED.com corroborates the description of right-brain reality in this essay. It is a major support to my philosophy.

8 Demote all of what Sigmund Freud wrote to the fiction shelves. The man was insane and vicious. Following his philosophy has made us insane and vicious in his image. The Heart does not lie. The Body does not lie. The right-brain does not lie. The left-brain lies all the time in order to live comfortably in a shared (compromised and domesticated) reality. Most energy healing techniques utilize this knowledge at one level or another in their healing.

9 “Reality is that which, when we stop believing in it, doesn't go away.' Philip K. Dick

10 D.P. Sheehan, “Four Paradoxes Involving the Second Law of Thermodynamics”, The Journal of Scientific Exploration, http://www.padrak.com/ine/SHEEHAN.html

11 “Beads of Doubt”, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2135779.stm

12 “Does Nature Break the Second Law of Thermodynamics?” Scientific American Magazine, 10/28/2008, http://www.mtech.edu/clsps/chemistry/syllabi/P%20CHEM%20Lectures/Does_Nature_Break_the_2nd_Law.doc

13 “Physicists close two loopholes while violating local realism”, PhysOrg.com, http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-physicists-loopholes-violating-local-realism.html

14 the philosophical idea (aka The Divine Mystery) of Kali-Ma, and in a greater sense, Durga-Ma.

15 Separating God from Nature (that is, Goddess) has been the goal of the Patriarchy since the Indo-Aryan mountain war chief days – evidence, the creation story of the Battle of Marduk and Tiamat. Tiamat, the Mother of All Beings, is killed by Marduk, and her body is rent in two – half to make the sky, and half to make the ocean. Marduk is then hailed as Creator and Chief of All Gods. Marduk eventually becomes YHWH of the Hebrews during the time of the Tribe of Levi. The Priest Tribe of Levi being descended from the Indo-Aryan mountain war chiefs of middle Asia.

16 Diane Wolkstein , “Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer”, Harper & Row; 1st edition (January 1, 1983)

17 “Beware Harmonia”, a poem, a symbology, a philosophy, a history, a fractal of how the patriarchy gained power, http://only-ed.blogspot.com/2010/06/beware-harmonia.html

18 The Big Bang was only one of an infinite number of Big Bounces – the Quantum Universe is not insignificant – now, then or ever . . . “Another universe may have preceded ours, study finds”
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060514_bouncefrm.htm

19 “Aho Mitakuye Oyasin is a simple yet profound statement. It comes from the Lakota Nation and means all my relations. It is spoken during prayer and ceremony to invite and acknowledge all relatives to the moment. To most of us today, relative means a blood relation or another human in the family lineage. We have not been taught that an entity, other than human, could be a relative. Understanding this simple statement and contemplating it, could change your outlook on life forever. If you love and honor your relatives, you would be loving and honoring most of what is on this earth, if you lived by this meaning of relative. What a different world we would be living in! Sit with this statement, see the Truth in it. Everything is related because it all emanates from one source and has purpose. Truth can be found in Native philosophy, Buddhism, Christianity, Judism, Islam, all belief systems, because they are all related. I have studied Buddhism and found Christ. I have studied Native philosophy and found Buddha. I have studied Mother Nature and found self. Truth does not owe homage to humans. Humans owe homage to Truth.” - Silver Wolf Walks Alone

20 Plato and Diogenes, Cupness and Emptiness

Zero

2011-04-26T07:22:00.003-04:00

0

When we created zero we separated infinity from one.

1

Conventional Wisdom

2011-04-17T12:02:00.003-04:00

Conventional Wisdom

= Common Ignorance

Fractal Reflection 8

2011-04-07T07:55:00.004-04:00

Fractal Reflection 8

What intrigues me most are the similarities between the ideas behind the Koch Snowflake, the Sierpinski forms and other 'early' fractals with the philosophical paradoxes of Zeno. These paradoxes have mostly been put on the shelf and trotted out in philosophy classes as comedic examples of how logic can deny reality. However, I have always had the feeling that Zeno was actually trying to show how reality confounds human logic. Plato and Aristotle did not understand, and are on record as being dismissive of Zeno's teachings as nonsense. Socrates, however, was left speechless, and as was his odd way, wandered off in silence, never to speak of Zeno or his paradoxes again, as far as we know. Philosophers down the ages have dallied with the paradoxes, laughed at their absurdity, and tossed them aside. Some mathematicians have seen the paradoxes as mathematical problems, and through that lens used them to create the science we know as calculus. Some few philosophers have seen the paradoxes as metaphysical problems, but to date have not cracked the mainstream with their thoughts. I see fractals in Zeno's Paradoxes.

The paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise is exactly the same “problem” that is presented by the mathematical function of the iteration of the 19^th century “mathematical monsters” – specifically and most directly applicable, the Cantor Set. In both Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, and in Georg Cantor's 1833 mathematical monster, the line segment that has a third of it's length removed an infinite number of times, the resulting reality defies mainstream human logic. In other words, the mainstream mathematical model of reality is in fact not a model of reality, but simply a model of human fantasy. To be sure, human fantasy is a creative force, and many astounding ideas have been built upon human fantasy, including Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics. But in all of these human fantasies there has always been unresolved paradoxes, fudges like irrational numbers and the concept of entropy. This is, I posit, because these models do not reflect reality, but only define human thoughts. They are naught but daydreams.

There is an exchange between Plato and Diogenes that is interesting in this context of scientific models, reality, and fractals.


Just as when Mandelbrot's theory of the fractal nature of reality finally resolved those 19^th century math monsters into obvious expressions of basic reality (i.e. the way “nature” works), I think that if we continue to learn to accept our experiences over what we have been taught, we will continue to unlock the mysteries of nature and the reality of the universe.

Yogi Swamigal once said: “You have eyes, you have ears, you have nose, you have hands? What are you doing with them? What is the use of eyes, if you don't see? What is the use of ears, if you don't hear?”

April Fool's Day Snowstorm

2011-04-01T11:23:00.004-04:00

April Fool's Day Snowstorm

The snow falls wet and heavy
like the patter of small feet
running across my roof
and tugging at power lines
like gremlins having fun.

(photo by Roger Rouch www.rouchnaturephotos.com)

Midnight Snowlight

2011-02-13T00:07:00.002-05:00

Midnight Snowlight

The world is a negative. The night sky is dark, and the snow covered ground and lake are full of light. The wind is restless, changing speeds from quiet calm to howling rush in a transitory moment of frozen anticipation. A couple seconds to catch a breath of still air as the wind comes rushing up the lake from the south and shakes all the trees on the point. The trees crack and groan, and one clump of three trees grown together puts up a wood splintering racket as the trunks and branches rub against each other in protest. Snow falls from their branches as if a precursor to branches and trunks cracking and falling, but then in a half-second the wind is gone. It is quiet. Again. All is calm. The icy snow covering the land and lake shine in silence up to the few stars peeking from behind clouds. A cold silence. Then a low rumbling that gains in intensity as it speeds nearer. I wait with the trees in anticipation, and hold my breath in supplication to slow the wind as the trees thunder into each other.

A Sense of Place as a Rite of Passage

2011-01-25T07:13:00.006-05:00

A Sense of Place as a Rite of Passage

A sense of place is a manifold thing. At one end of the scale it is simply a place and a time. As you traverse the scale to the other end it comes alive. At the other end is a knowing of the lay of the land, the secret and vital places as well as the vista view. There is a knowing of the weather, the winds and fogs as well as the precipitation amounts and frequency. There is a knowing of the flora and fauna, the reluctant visitor as well as the determined homebody. But more than that there is a feeling, a connectedness that is intimately individual and inexpressible, emotional not logical. It is a landscape of memories painted in the colors of the future. A pattern of the past evolving into a pattern of the future. A living gestalt organism in its own right. A sense of place is a wildness within.

A rite of passage is a focal point to a life change. A point in time and space with a purpose, a point of no return, a new birth; an emotional, not logical, experience; intimate, individual and inexpressible. There is no going back. An experience that changes what one thinks, feels, does, is. A pattern of the past evolving into a pattern of the future. A wildness uncaged. A sense of place.

Just Reborn From Her

2010-12-27T09:47:00.005-05:00

Just Reborn From Her

by Luce Irigaray
translated by The Athlone Press

Earth,

you who house me but with whom I share,

you who are fecund with so many children, who do not resemble one another,

you who grow without respite, both in secret and in the light,

you who bear seed, flower and fruit,

you who never cease to repair life,

you who at every time of the year work for the becoming of the living,

Earth,

you who are still lavish with sun when the frost comes,

Earth,

safeguard me, faithful one.

Why Bolivia stood alone in opposing the Cancún climate agreement

2010-12-21T20:39:00.003-05:00

Why Bolivia stood Alone in Opposing the Cancún climate agreement

December 21, 2010

Pablo Solon, The Guardian, Dec 21, 2010 — Diplomacy is traditionally a game of alliance and compromise. Yet in the early hours of Saturday 11 December, Bolivia found itself alone against the world: the only nation to oppose the outcome of the United Nations climate change summit in Cancún. We were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. Yet in truth we did not feel alone, nor are we offended by the attacks. Instead, we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth.

The “Cancún accord” was presented late Friday afternoon, and we were given two hours to read it. Despite pressure to sign something – anything – immediately, Bolivia requested further deliberations. This text, we said, would be a sad conclusion to the negotiations. After we were denied any opportunity to discuss the text, despite a lack of consensus, the president banged her gavel to approve the document.

Many commentators have called the Cancún accord a “step in the right direction.” We disagree: it is a giant step backward. The text replaces binding mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with voluntary pledges that are wholly insufficient. These pledges contradict the stated goal of capping the rise in temperature at 2C, instead guiding us to 4C or more. The text is full of loopholes for polluters, opportunities for expanding carbon markets and similar mechanisms – like the forestry scheme Redd – that reduce the obligation of developed countries to act.

Bolivia may have been the only country to speak out against these failures, but several negotiators told us privately that they support us. Anyone who has seen the science on climate change knows that the Cancún agreement was irresponsible.

In addition to having science on our side, another reason we did not feel alone in opposing an unbalanced text at Cancún is that we received thousands of messages of support from the women, men, and young people of the social movements that have stood by us and have helped inform our position. It is out of respect for them, and humanity as a whole, that we feel a deep responsibility not to sign off on any paper that threatens millions of lives.

Some claim the best thing is to be realistic and recognise that at the very least the agreement saved the UN process from collapse.

Unfortunately, a convenient realism has become all that powerful nations are willing to offer, while they ignore scientists’ exhortations to act radically now. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that in order to have a 50% chance of keeping the rise in temperature below 1.5C, emissions must peak by 2015. The attempt in Cancún to delay critical decisions until next year could have catastrophic consequences.

Bolivia is a small country. This means we are among the nations most vulnerable to climate change, but with the least responsibility for causing the problem. Studies indicate that our capital city of La Paz could become a desert within 30 years. What we do have is the privilege of being able to stand by our ideals, of not letting partisan agendas obscure our principal aim: defending life and Earth. We are not desperate for money. Last year, after we rejected the Copenhagen accord, the US cut our climate funding. We are not beholden to the World Bank, as so many of us in the south once were. We can act freely and do what is right.

Bolivia may have acted unusually by upsetting the established way of dealing with things. But we face an unprecedented crisis, and false victories won’t save the planet. False agreements will not guarantee a future for our children. We all must stand up and demand a climate agreement strong enough to match the crisis we confront.

Pablo Solon is the ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations.

http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/why-bolivia-stood-alone-in-opposing-the-cancun-climate-agreement/

She Speaks Truth

2010-12-09T22:35:00.004-05:00

Jill Bolte Taylor speaks the Truth about Reality.

Click the link above and listen.

Fear of Death

2010-12-04T19:37:00.005-05:00

(originally written 01/20/10)

Fear of Death

Thích Quang Ðu'c
Saigon, June 11, 1963

Tao Te Ching
#74

If men are not afraid to die,
It is of no avail to threaten them with death.

If men live in constant fear of dying,
And if breaking the law means that a man will be killed,
Who will dare break the law?

There is always an official executioner.
If you try to take his place,
it is like trying to be a master carpenter and cutting wood.
If you try to cut wood like a master carpenter,
you will only hurt your hand.
-Lao Tzu-

To not be afraid to die is a rarity in this world today. Yet, we are long acquainted with this notion in western thought -- since the days of Epicurus (341-270 BCE). "Death is nothing to us," said Epicurus. "I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not mind", is written on many ancient tombstones -- followers of the Epicurean philosophy. What happened to bring about in us such a fear of death? Oh yes, the notion of eternal heaven and eternal hell. As a more recent philosopher sung: "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, imagine all the people, living for today." That was John Lennon, of course. We know the words, but how many know the feeling . . . and live it?

To be afraid to die is a terrible existence. One cannot live if one fears the experience -- and death is part of the experience. It did not hurt before we were born, and it will not hurt after we die. It only hurts while we are alive. Fearing death is actually fearing life -- it's one of those paradoxes that are, above all, True.

When one is afraid to die one will suffer any abomination, including letting evil people lead them. When one is afraid to die one will suffer atrocious laws, including putting innocent people to death. When one is afraid to die one will suffer any ignorance, including letting the world die around them. Governments control by fear. It wasn't supposed to be like that in these United States, but the Grand Experiment has failed. The country called America is simply another culture doomed to rot from the inside, like so many others, because the people fear the government. Why fear the government? Because the government can execute you for breaking one of its laws . . . and you never know what's going to be against the law tomorrow. So, if you fear death, you fear the executioner, and thus you fear the government who controls the executioner. If you do not fear death . . . the government has no hold on you, and the government is afraid of you. Hmm . . . could be why few people outside chefs have been taught of Epicurus. And it could be an Epicurean Underground that made the movie: "Who's Killing All The Great Chefs of Europe" (j/k)

The "official executioner" is Death, The Grim Reaper. So the last part is a warning to those governments which will try to control their people through fear of death -- they will only hurt their hand . . . rot from the inside and die. The death penalty is a symptom of a sick society.

The Hard Way? Ayup!

2010-12-04T19:28:00.005-05:00

The Hard Way? Ayup!

(originally written 01/25/10)

Reading the chapter "The Hard Way" in "A Modern Buddhist Bible" was entertaining and enlightening for me. Much of the chapter, indeed, almost every word, reads like an Alcoholics Anonymous Step Meeting! In fact, the description of the 'hard way' path to enlightenment is exactly what old-timers tell newcomers in A.A. meetings about getting off the "pink cloud" and getting on with the rest of life. I am fond of remarking that the life of a drunk is the hard way to enlightenment, but you get there just the same. Just substitute a couple stock A.A. phases for Buddhist terminology. Perhaps if people realized this, then they would look at enlightenment the same way a person in A.A. views recovery: as the final desperate attempt to 'get right' with the world, to find peace and an end of suffering; to find love and serenity; to find the meaning of life. The key words there are "final desperate attempt."

Nobody stays sober without a lot of extremely simple yet extraordinarily difficult work on themselves, exactly as Trungpa warns: "It takes tremendous effort to work one's way through the difficulties of the path and actually get into the situations of life thoroughly and properly."

Look at this quote from an Alcoholics Anonymous Daily Reflections blog: "When my own house is in order, I find the different parts of my life are more manageable. Stripped from the guilt and remorse that clocked my drinking years, I am free to assume my proper role in the universe, but this condition requires maintenance."

And this A.A. slogan: "It's easy to talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk."

And for the rest of Trungpa's chapter I can only post one more thing: an edited version A.A.'s 12 Steps. Tell me if this is not completely compatible with what Trungpa says:

1. We admitted we were powerless.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the pursuit of the Tao as we understood it.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted within the Tao, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to remove all these defects of character under the guidance of the Tao.

7. Humbly sought through the Tao to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Tao as we understood it, praying only for knowledge of the next step for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

In my own foray into the universe of A.A. I found myself attracted to Buddhism in my early recovery. I also found out that such a thing was not uncommon in A.A., simply because of the vast similarities. Also not uncommon, that after a while the alcoholic in recovery leaves Buddhism behind for the same reason Trungpa explains about the teachings of Christ: it "is an imaginary situation."

And just so there's no questions on the spirit of the 12 Steps being violated, here are the official 12 Steps of A.A.. If anyone would like to explore the connections between A.A., the 12 Steps and this chapter, a good place to start is the A.A. Grapevine and 12 Step.org.

An Experiment in Turning A Simple Thing Into Many Difficult Things

2010-12-04T19:19:00.006-05:00

(originally written 01/27/10)

An Experiment in Turning A Simple Thing Into Many Difficult Things

(photo "The Four Noble Truths" from: The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order )

The Four Noble Truths. It's a shame there is not, and has not been, a universal human language, for even in the translation of these four simple sentences there are vast chasms of murkiness about which words to use. But then, the situation of not having a universal language highlights just how pervasive a truth the first Noble Truth is.

I am not going to use this translation from 4Truths.com:

1) THE EXISTENCE OF IMPERMANENCE "Dukkha"
2) THE ARISING OF SUFFERING BECAUSE OF CRAVING "Samudaya"
3) THE CESSATION OF SUFFERING "Nirodha"
4) THE MIDDLE WAY, or THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH "Magga"

I am going to use this translation from BuddhaWeb:

Four Noble Truths
1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

Simple and to the point. It correctly highlights the one part of life every living thing would like to do without: suffering. The first truth is noble because it is honest. The second truth is noble because it is insightful. The third truth is noble because it is a promise. The fourth truth is noble because it is the answer.

What is the Eightfold Path? According to BuddhaWeb, which is basically the same translation I am familiar with, the path to freedom from suffering is: right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation.

Ah, but what is right? This second part, though simple, is not easy. Not easy at all. Not even easy to define. What is right? Well, things get murky at this point:

Three Characteristics of Existence

1. Transiency (anicca)
2. Sorrow (dukkha)
3. Selflessness (anatta)

Five Hindrances

1. Sensuous lust
2. Aversion and ill will
3. Sloth and torpor
4. Restlessness and worry
5. Skeptical doubt

Seven Factors of Enlightenment

1. Mindfulness
2. Investigation
3. Energy
4. Rapture
5. Tranquility
6. Concentration
7. Equanimity

. . . and then there's the Four Reliances . . . and it keeps on going like the energizer bunny to the Four Immeasurable Prayers, the Six Perfections, the Eight Auspicious Symbols, . . . and more. Hmm . . . talk about your ten thousand things . . .

Common Sense & the Excitement of Life

2010-12-04T19:14:00.003-05:00

(originally written 01/31/10)

Common Sense and the Excitement of Life

(symbol representing the Eightfold Path)

I am acquainted with the Eightfold Path from a perspective of using it for a time to re-make my life after alcoholism nearly ended it. From that viewpoint, the Eightfold Path is simply common sense. I can find no fault in the Path except one: where's the excitement of life?

What sense is it to become corporeal, and suffer in this material existence if not to experience the thrills, the joys, the agonies of life? Humans are all about exploring limits, not walking the middle way. The middle way is for herd animals. The extremes are for humans, for explorers, for wanderers.

Imagine a see-saw. The middle point where the board rocks upon the fulcrum is a boring ride, indeed. But out on the ends of the board -- well, that's another matter entirely! Out on the end, staring over the precipice, a moment away from free-fall -- that's where humans belong. And the Eightfold Path can go there also. It helps make sure the excitement doesn't turn into hysteria, disaster and death. Right Intention, y'know.

If one ponders a moment on the subject, one can see that the Eightfold Path weaves in through every aspect of human life -- even out on the edge. It has to, else it would not be a true wisdom.

Life is to be lived. Life is to be enjoyed. Life is transient. If one looks closely one can see it in the Eightfold Path. There is a time and place for excitement, as well as for serenity.

Quantum Magick

2010-12-04T19:10:00.004-05:00

(originally written 02/08/10)

Quantum Magick

I love quantum physics because it proves magick is real. Acually, I always knew magick was real. I used to have discussions at Quinebaug Valley Community College with the engineers there about them being modern-day wizards -- that the olden-day wizards were engineers and others who knew physics . . . and, they knew quantum physics before it had a name.

And that's the rub: 'before it had a name.' Science scoffs at a lot of things. When science scoffs it ignores the thing it is scoffing. By ignoring it, science is unable to tell us anything about it. But when, for some reason like . . . the magick just doesn't go away . . . science finally looks at it . . . and then "discovers" something new . . . and then Names it. Once science Names something it is no longer magick. At that point it becomes only humdrum science. Boring.

See how that works?

In my lifetime herbal medicines, aromatherapy, acupuncture, chiropractry, and even garlic, for heaven's sake, was scoffed at by science as having no intrinsic benefits, and probably deadly harmful (OK, maybe not garlic). Now we accept all those things as beneficial medicinal things because science finally came along and Named what these things do.

Well . . . science has now named a lot of magick as quantum physics. They admit our Newtonian model of physics just isn't right, that it works well enough . . . but maybe those weird anomalies that happen from time to time could be predicted if we knew more quantum physics. And maybe, just maybe, if we really start to know this stuff, then maybe we can Name all the things metaphysics has been trying to tell us from time immemorial. Maybe there really is something to all that hocus pocus. Maybe that woo-woo-magick crap is what is real, and our man-made society and rules are nothing but hot air, our wasted words.

For my money, science is always a day late and a dollar short. In this instance, metaphysics, science has been late from Day 1 and is now flat broke.

We can learn a lot from people who look where science does not. (i.e. the lunatic fringe)

Oh, check this out: Physicists testing quantum mechanics claim "nature violates local realism" . . . I guess it doesn't enter into their heads that nature is real, and their conception of reality violates nature. Here is a better explanation of the actual "violation."

Dogs & Reincarnation, Mongolian Style

2010-12-04T19:03:00.003-05:00

Dogs & Reincarnation, Mongolian Style

(originally written 02/27/10)

I was doing some research on my Mongol philosophy presentation, and I ran into this bit about dogs. Since we mentioned dogs and reincarnation briefly a couple classes ago, I thought this might be of interest for general background info on culture and tradition.

"Dogs are mentioned very often in famous historical documents and literary epics as "Dogs are the most loyal friends. They will never change poor master for a rich herder, grown by poor nomad it will never follow even a khaan." There was even a poem composed by Sandag, a famous poet of 19th century "Praise to Dog"

Ch. Jugder, well known expert on Medieval Mongolian philosophy, notes that "Mongols deeply respected and revered their dogs and the dogs never betrayed their masters."

Such respect for dogs even found reflection in the legislation. The Codes of Law from 1640 and 1709 (enforced and observed until 1921) both contain provisions prohibiting to kill or beat dogs.

Dogs, similar to horses, were buried on the hills so that people do not walk on their remains. Dog's tail was cut off and placed under the head. A piece of fat was put into their mouth and words of wishes to be born as a human being in the next life were said before burial."

"Mongolian Dog" (breed not 'registered') & child

(quotes and picture from Mongolia Today http://www.mongoliatoday.com/issue/8/dog_intro.html )

"Death is nothing to us."

2010-12-04T18:56:00.004-05:00

(originally written 03/01/10)

"Death is nothing to us."

Death. I've gone 'round and 'round with death, arguing (post-mortem) with the great existentialists as well as many other dead philosophers, prophets and saints of all stripes. The only definition of Death I am satisfied with is: Life. Death is defined by Life. Death by itself is nothing.

I think Thich Nhat Hanh is saying the same thing, just in different words. When he talks about "our true nature is the nature of no birth and no death," I think he is just being a tad confusing. There is a lot easier way to say that, a non-ambiguous way, a way that has already been said: death is nothing to us, life is everything to us. The nature of no-birth and no-death is life. Life is the experience between the points of birth and death. The times before birth and after death do not hold any experiences for this manifestation of life we call our Self.

Death is nothing to us.

That sentence is so stark, so unequivocal, so definite that we revolt against accepting it. But if one quiets the mind, gets rid of all those mindful and mindless notions just as Thich Nhat Hanh says, and takes stock of what experiences we know death bestows upon a person . . . well then, there is absolutely nothing.

It is silly to fear nothing. -- and the original meaning of silly meant "blessed", so that sentence is like a paradox in itself, meaning opposite things at the same time: it is silly to fear nothing (be afraid) but it is a blessed state to fear nothing (fear no thing). But that's just a silly, nonsensical, tangent anyway. The important point is: losing the fear of death frees us from fearing life.

"Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live." -- Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

Similarly, we should regard the time before we were born as nothing to us, as well. Life, the experience of life is all there is to us. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "You are what you are looking for."

And in that he said it beautifully. That is all there is, there does not need to be more: "You are what you are looking for."

Acatalepsia and Ataraxia

2010-12-04T18:47:00.003-05:00

Acatalepsia and Ataraxia

Pyrrho

(thoughts from Chapter 6: The Sheep Who Became A Goat, Rational Mysticism)
(originally written 3/30/10)

This chapter uses "randomness" as a proof. It also uses other proofs, just as unprovable as "randomness" but I'll just concentrate on "randomness". It is good to be skeptical, but that skepticism must be applied to all things, and not only to one in favor of another. One must also be skeptical of science.

After all, as I have mentioned before, pi is an abomination of the mind that does not exist. But there are many more things in science that do not exist. In fact, the entire science of geometry does not exist. We have found that there are no such things in nature as a line or a plane. Everything is fractal, and therefore neither a line nor a plane -- but something inbetween. Without lines and planes there are no geometric shapes, only fractal shapes. No Geometry . . . how random is that!?

Don't believe me, read for yourself: Fractal Dimension

Enough of that. Let's talk about randomness.

"When one is dealt a bridge hand of thirteen cards, the probability of being dealt that particular hand is less than one in 600 billion. Still, it would be absurd for someone to be dealt a hand, examine it carefully, calculate that the probability of getting it is less than one in 600 billion, and then conclude that he must not have been dealt that very hand because it is so very improbable." -- John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences

Or, as I say:

"1% is 100% when it happens."

Randomness. What is it? Is it compartmentable? Can it be segregated? Is it distinct, one random bit from another random bit? How infinitesimal is randomness? How huge is randomness? How ordinary is randomness? How extra-ordinary is randomness? Is there no connection anywhere, at any level, between one random bit and another random bit? Is every new second of time a bit of randomness never before seen in exactly that manifestation? How does one calculate randomness? If a thing has a 50% chance of happening -- how is that calculated? Forget coins, what about real life?

A baseball batter with a career of 20 years comes to the plate. Over those 20 years he has gotten a hit 30% of the time (he has a career batting average of .300). Does he have a 30% chance to get a hit? Does he have a 50% chance to get a hit? Does he have some other chance to get a hit? Or is it random -- without any reference at all to anything that has come before or will come after? No connections? None? A totally random chance to get a hit every at bat? Even the tiniest, teeniest bit of a connection utterly dissipates randomness.

Any player of baseball will tell you that each at bat in the player's career is connected in the mind of the batter to the moment at hand, and has an influence over the outcome of the present moment. Further still, each and every previous moment of the pitcher's career is connected in the pitcher's mind to the present moment. And the runner at first base, as well as the first baseman and all the fielders, and the umpires, and the coaches, and the trainers and general managers . . . and on and on. There is a complex web of intricate and ethereal connections that is so interwoven the pattern is hard to see -- and we call that randomness. The present moment is not, nor is it ever, distinct and wholly separate from every other moment. There is no such thing as a random moment, nor is there anything that exists that is random.

Go ahead, name me a random creature. A creature that exists randomly, a creature without any predecessors. Too difficult? OK, how about a random word. Tell me a random word, any word, a word not connected to any other words through thought or utterance or ink, a word that is a thought in and of itself and has random definitions each time it randomly appears in random conversations with random people on a random world in a random universe.

Randominity demands randomness at every level or it is not random. Can there be such a thing as a random anything? Or is randomness just another pipe dream like circles, triangles and squares?

Absurd? Yes. OK, how about flipping a coin? Can a coin flip be random? Or is it influenced by the muscles of the hand that flips it and the molecules of air that surround it? Make a machine to flip the coin, and the machine will wear out a little with every flip thus creating a building influence from the first flip to the last flip -- none being random.

Computers? Random number generating programs? Don't wear out, simply electrons . . . Funny thing, that. Computers cannot generate random numbers. There is always a pattern. A repeatable pattern. Programs that generate random numbers all fudge it, trying for enough of a complicated pattern that it appears random -- but it never is. Computers, those things that think in either-or, on or off, zero or one . . . those things that are utterly without deception, they say randomness is simply impossible.

If a moment cannot be random, what then can we say about randomness? How can randomness exist when there is no environment for it to survive within?

I found the skepticism of this chapter misplaced, vindictive, childish, and not at all random. Skeptics assert nothing, announcing only opinion. The protagonists in this chapter are not skeptics, they are zealots of cause.

nothing is as it seems

2010-11-26T13:11:00.006-05:00

nothing is as it seems

What do you get when different disciplines support each other in the same theory from different angles? They birth yet a new theory. Everything is more than the sum of its parts . . . and that is because nothing is as it seems.

Take this philosophical view of autism in this article by Andy Martin, philosopher and author, in the New York Times, Beyond Understanding, and merge it with this peer-reviewed piece by Simon Baron-Cohen, used as course material at Brown University, Sex Differences in the Brain: Implications for Explaining Autism, and also with this one reported by Mark Henderson, Science Editor of the London Times, Testosterone finding backs the ‘extreme male brain’ autism theory. You would do well to remember as you read these, the conventional adage that men will never understand women, and women will never understand men. As well, reflect upon the sense organs of a mantis, a spider, a lobster . . . and then again ask, as you did as a child but received no good answer, what exactly is it that a cat senses through its whiskers?

Finally, realize fully what is said in this meditation practice for beginners on the energy nature of reality, Everything Is Energy, remembering that science has not yet found the basic building block of matter, as described in this bit about the Large Hadron Collider, Place Your Bets: Will Physicists Find The "God Particle," and they never will if matter is energy as Einstein posited in his famous formula.

And so, after all that, we are left with the fact that each of us is alone within our unique bundle of sense organs, each of us sensing at least a bit differently than everybody else, all of us blind to much of what goes on around us, all of it is energy including us, and each of us desperately trying to communicate with each and every other energy thing we encounter. Why? Because nothing is as it seems.

Is it any wonder people flee reality, and need shamans, priests and wizards to be the interpreters?

Remembering

2010-11-22T13:30:00.002-05:00

Remembering

The waves on the lake are frozen in time,
like my thoughts of you;
still, stark and silent.

Black and Yellow Garden Spider

2010-11-16T20:50:00.009-05:00

Black and Yellow Garden Spider

aka “Writing Spider” and “Corn Spider”

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Argiope
Species: aurantia
Habitat: Areas adjacent to sunny fields

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.^¹


The spider has a long history of a bad reputation that continues to this day. From nursery rhymes taught to toddlers, to FaceBook fan pages like “I don't care if the spider's "not hurting anyone", I want it dead.”^², to dark tales shrouded in misery as in the spider-woman of Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio (Canto XII). On the other hand, the spider has also been known since time immemorial as a teacher and helper of humankind. Spiders have creatively influenced many cultures, especially in the skills of weaving, spinning, basketweaving, knotwork, and net making. In the realm of the spirit the spider is often the weaver of destiny^³ or the guardian of ultimate reality^⁴.

Spiders are all of that, and more, but what spiders are mostly, according to Dr. Linda S. Rayor, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Cornell University⁵, are "beneficial inhabitants of every garden, ecosystem and home." They are considered to be the most important terrestrial predator because of their role in the biological control of pest insects and small arthropods.

Spiders are generalist predators, meaning they will eat almost anything they catch. They do not, however, eat plants. Being generalist predators they are a good control for any pest species plaguing a garden. However, since their generation cycle is a long one they cannot increase their population rapidly to meet an outbreak of pests. As well, being generalists, they do not differentiate between pest species and beneficial species. They will eat good and bad insects. On the other hand, many spiders overwinter as adults, and therefore are the first on the scene in Spring to help control pest species. Also being a generalist means they are a highly adaptive life form, able to survive in wide ranges of climate.

Spiders thrive in most habitats, and in Maine there are five common spiders, and an uncounted number of uncommon spiders. The most common spiders in Maine include the House Spider (Tegenaria domestica), Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia), Wolf Spider (Lycosidae), Crab Spider (Thomisidae) and Jumping Spider (Salticidae), there being many species of Wolf, Crab and Jumping Spiders in Maine.

The Black and Yellow Garden Spider weaves intricate web designs and wait within their webs, sitting in their trademark “X” stance, until something gets caught. Then they pounce. Although all spiders have venom, the bite of this particular spider rarely causes any problems in humans

These spiders spin a spirally vertical and orb web (spiral and circular shaped web) that radiates from the center. It is more complex as compared to other spider weavings. The web usually spreads over large areas up to 3 feet across. The adult male measures 8-9 mm in length, and the female grows to 19-28 mm or more at maturity. In addition to being large and spinning a large complex web, the Black and Yellow Garden Spider has specific features that make it every easy to identify. The distinctive black and yellow markings adorn the abdominal region, and the legs are black with red and yellow markings near the body.

The Black and Yellow Garden Spider prefers to weave its web in gardens, meadows, fields, shrubs, between tall grasses and tall plants. While females make a large orb web which is characterized by a distinctive, white zig-zag pattern across it – hence the name “Writing Spider." The male weaves a smaller web on the outer edge of the large web. Breeding of this species occurs once a year.

The adult female lays about 300-1,400 eggs in a brownish papery sac that of about 25 mm, and then dies. When autumn arrives the eggs hatch into young spiders, but overwinter inside the sac itself until spring when the young garden spiders disperse. They attain maturity that next autumn, and are ready to reproduce.


If you want to increase the number of spiders in your garden the first rule is not to use pesticides, herbicides or fungicides as spiders are vulnerable to nerve agents and poison. The second rule is to provide habitat, and that can be done in the following ways:

Use mulch. It provides protection and humidity.
Provide places for web attachment or homes: Crates, tall plants, bundles of hay.
Leave areas untilled or leave plant stalks for overwintering habitats.
Grow flowers that bring in prey.

A Relationships in Nature Chart which shows prey, predators, habitat plants and a food provider in the web of life around Black and Yellow Spiders is available at the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools website.

OTHER SOURCES:

BULLETIN #7150 of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Beneficial Insects and Spiders in your Maine Backyard
http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides/library/ppt/Master%20Gardener/BeneficialsFinalPDF.pdf

Galveston County (Texas) Master Gardeners, Beneficials in the Garden
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-24_spider_blackandyellow_argiope.htm

1 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 323-4.

2 As of 11/14/2010 there were 483,259 members of the FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-dont-care-if-the-spiders-not-hurting-anyone-I-want-it-dead/220316776190?v=info

3 As associated with the Egyptian Goddess Neith, the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar, and the Greek Goddess Athena, to name a very few such associations. Cooper, JC (1992). Symbolic and Mythological Animals. London: Aquarian Press. pp. 214–15. ISBN 1-85538-118-4.

4 As in the Vedic philosophy, the spider is depicted as hiding the ultimate reality with the veils of illusion. Cicchetti, Jane (2003). Dreams, Symbols, and Homeopathy: Archetypal Dimensions of Healing. North Atlantic Books. p. 50. ISBN 1556434367. http://books.google.com/?id=0al1ZZtrnrsC&pg=PA50&dq=Spider+Grandmother+navajo+creation. Retrieved 11-14-2010.

5Rayor Lab, http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/cals/entomology/research/rayor/, Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Entymology Department, retrieved 11-14-2010, and, Common Garden Spiders: All About Spiders http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/spiders.htm, Colorado State University, retrieved 11-14-2010, and, Don't Kill Spiders: Spiders Are Good For Your Garden, http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/avoid-killing-spiders.html , retrieved 11-14-2010

Lonely November

2010-11-14T20:24:00.008-05:00

Lonely November

Winter calls.
Her cold whispers caress my heart,
satin wet shivers draw me near,
Her embrace, a lonely death, I fear,
just me, with Winter far but clear,
promises I made float by in ice,
dead, no funeral pyre, no sound,
each oath a lie, each lie a footstep,
hell bound.
I must rest now, my dear,
for I have gotten too old,
I have no more words to be sold.
Winter calls, it's time for me to go.

Common Hawthorn

2010-10-17T19:54:00.005-04:00

“Common Hawthorn”

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Crataegus
Example Species: Crataegus monogyna

Hardiness Zones: 4 to 7 Height: 20 ft, Spread: 20 ft Form: rounded Type: deciduous tree Annual Growth Rate: 12 to 18 inches Flowers: White Fruit: Red

Hawthorn goes by many names – Thorn, Thorn Apple, Quickthorn, White Thorn, Haegthorn, May Tree, Faerie Tree and more. Old European tradition places (Haw)Thorn with Oak and Ash as the three sacred trees. This gnarly, thorny tree of the rose family is rich in folklore, legend and beneficence.


There are thirty-one species of Hawthorn in Maine. The state considers it a “troublesome” tree, and so the Maine Forest Service lists only one generic name for all of them. This is odd because Hawthorn is a very beneficial tree to humans and wildlife, even if it is non-native.

Hawthorn, as the “May Tree”, is central to May Day celebrations and rituals. Spring and life's renewal have not officially arrived until the May flowers bloom. When it is time to “go gathering knots (of May flowers) in May” is it also time to plow the fields, sheer the sheep and celebrate new life. Hawthorn is traditional as the May Pole, and is thought that originally a live tree would be transplanted from the wild each year to serve as that year's Pole, and, thereafter as a guardian spirit.

Hawthorn prefers well-drained, moist soil, but is adaptable. Once established it is very tolerant of drought, floods, wind and air pollution. It is an excellent hedge tree (hence the names Hawthorn, Haegthorn and Quickthorn), being a broad-rounded, low branched, quick growing, long-lived tree with wide spreading, horizontal, thorny branches forming a dense canopy. Hawthorn wood is strong and close-grained; good for carving, tool handles and small household items. The root wood is used for small boxes and combs. The bark is good for tanning. Hawthorn berries (Pixie Pears) are a favorite winter food for many birds. Humans use the berries for wines, jellies, and medicinal infusions for sore throats, edema, kidney ailments, stress, old age, blood and heart ailments. The leaves and leaf buds are tasty eaten off the tree, added to salads, and, with flower buds and blossoms, in tea as a heart tonic. The dried blossom petals are the original confetti used to celebrate lovers. When grown with Oak and Ash it is said to create a faerie sanctuary. It is complimentary to Apple in that both have similar but different folklore, branch structures and flowers, and Hawthorn berries look like miniature apples.

Tallamy, Douglas W. Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. Portland, Or.: Timber, 2007. Print.

Plotnik, Arthur. The Urban Tree Book: an Uncommon Field Guide for City and Town. New York: Three Rivers, 2000. Print.

Flint, Harrison L., and Jenny M. Lyverse. Landscape Plants for Eastern North America: Exclusive of Florida and the Immediate Gulf Coast. New York: Wiley, 1983. Print.

Kindred, Glennie. "The Hawthorn Tree - Queen of the May." The Home of the White Dragon Magazine. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. < http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hawthorn.htm >.

"Maine Tree Species Fact Sheet - Hawthorn." The University of Maine - Cooperative Extension. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. < http://www.extension.umaine.edu/mainetreeclub/FactSheets/odd-year-htm/Hawthorn.htm >.

“Forest Trees of Maine” Maine Forest Service, Department of Conservation. 12^th Edition 1995. Web. 05 Oct 2010. < http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/ftm/ftm.pdf >

Maine September

2010-09-19T16:03:00.004-04:00

Maine September

chilly wet shadow breezes
caressed
by kisses of sunlit warmth

Diotima of Mantinea

2010-08-28T21:53:00.005-04:00

Diotima of Mantinea

In Plato's Symposium, Socrates relates how Diotima of Mantinea, a wise woman, a seer, a mystic, a priestess, taught him the Mysteries of Eros. Socrates explains how these Mysteries shatter the philosophy of Dualism. Diotima taught him that love, and life, cannot be experienced in an either-or situation. Life is more than that. Life is the experience of Be-ing some Thing other than mortal or immortal, base or divine, physical or spirit. It is the realization of a flourishing reality that is much more than a simplistic and naively mistaken paradigm of dualities. It is the realization of the infinite possibilities between polar opposites. More than that, it is the realization that the poles can never be experienced, only the ever-blossoming spectrum of experiences between the poles. Denying the abundant realm between opposites suffocates our humanity, utterly corrupts our morals, and ultimately dooms us to failure in every endeavor.

Almost 2,500 years ago Diotima revealed to Socrates that humans live wholly between the end points on every scale, and we are still chasing shadows on the cave wall instead of living life and loving the beauty of it all.

Imagine That!

2010-08-28T16:20:00.008-04:00

Imagine That!

What is the meaning of life
for a dog?
for a deer?
for a dandelion?

It is violence to presume
human life
has more meaning.

Imagine an alien race
that perceives
humans
from the same arrogance
humans
perceive other life.

Imagine being bred to
perform simple tasks
of servitude,
kept on a leash
and made to do tricks.

Imagine being managed
for our own well being,
with hunting quotas to achieve
optimum population density.

Imagine being labeled
an invasive or undesirable
species
and ruthlessly exterminated.

Imagine being bred and caged
to provide meat and milk,
hung up by the heels, bled out,
and slaughtered by the thousands
every day.

Imagine karma.

(PHOTO: A river of blood from a slaughterhouse)

25 Cents

2010-08-27T23:17:00.006-04:00

25 Cents
For a quarter
I bought
The Tales & Poems Of
Edgar Allan Poe.

For a quarter
I wandered
"from grief to groan
to a golden throne".

For a quarter
I traded
a bit of metal
for endless wonder.

For a quarter
I gave up nothing
to caress the sound
the poet heard.

Progress

2010-08-27T23:10:00.002-04:00

Progress

Sky blue pink
paint the cracks
of a new day.

Fleeting magickal moments
laden with
a silent muse
and haunting beauty.

Torn and bloodied
by the angry roar
of a combustion engine.

Endless War

2010-08-27T22:54:00.004-04:00

Endless War

Love lies dying
while hate thrives
on greed and lust
as
the Muses extol
the softness
of the rose petal
beneath the hammer
of Haephestes.

Moving Away

2010-08-27T10:16:00.004-04:00

Moving Away

Lightning flashes fill the sky
under night looming clouds
that threaten to fall.

Fog rolls in
and everything disappears,
and it strikes me:

my life is the same
as this geometry.

Never again will I look at
a yellow Penske
the same.

Little By Little

2010-08-27T10:01:00.004-04:00

Little By Little

There's nothing we can do
to change what has been.

Too many broken dreams,
too many angry words,
too many unsaid smiles,
too many not-enoughs,
too many too-manys.

Too many to bear.

Our hearts have broken
under the burden
of nothing-to-be-done.

Nothing to be done
to change what has been
that made what is now.

Looking back it all seems
so little, so weak, so nothing,
simply a web of
minor misunderstandings.

Our love has been
trapped by spite,
bled dry by discontent,
blown away by resentment,
and left to dangle
in the wind
of selfish and petty
intolerance.

There's nothing left
except
good-bye.

No Option

2010-08-27T09:54:00.006-04:00

No Option

Leaving you is
too much to bear,
but staying on is
too much to hold.

Leaving means lonely nights
of crying and wondering why,
staying means long days
of anger and shouting why.

What is this love
that is not love?

Zorah

2010-08-25T10:53:00.012-04:00

Zorah

One day,
on my walks,
through rocky forest and ridged glens,
I was visited.

That day
my heart, was weak,
and my blood, slowed, to a sluggish crawl.
I was dying.

Each step,
took greater effort,
and though, there was no sitting place,
sit, I did.

Each thought,
came through a fog,
that grew, ever thicker, until I was lost,
for a moment.

My spirit,
cried out, in silence,
for I had, no breath, to speak,
please, not now.

Why not?
Came the questioning answer,
why not now, amid the plants, rocks, animals?
No better place.

For that,
I had, only one answer,
because I love life, and I have, not yet, lived,
enough, not yet.

I saw,
then, a flash, of black and white,
with one happy eye brown, and one, ice blue,
tail a'wagging.

Zorah Dog,
my last canine companion,
who loved life, and died, much too soon,
came to me.

Get up,
she nudged, with silent smile,
get up, and run, for a walk, with me,
around the bend.

Over there.
let's go see, what is there,
something new, is over there, get up,
let's go see.

Very old,
I felt, cracked and broken,
fragile, any second, an end and a beginning.
So I stood.

Follow me,
she danced, I took a step,
and, one became many, as I followed her ghost,
up a ridge.

And down,
to the other side,
to begin, anew, another path, ridge, glen,
and still another.

Pleasant memories,
the two of us, happy,
living exploring lives, going here, and there,
wherever we cared.

Together again,
I gained in strength,
and walked the sun down, once more, with her.
No other care.

At last,
faced with another climb,
and a parting, the sun and day, Zorah and me.
She did turn.

Happy laugh,
come, one more ridge,
let's go, one more, let's go see, one more,
always one more.

With you,
Zorah Dog, yes, one more.
And so, I struggled, the steepest climb,
and, we stood.

Breathing heavy,
breath that, just a while back,
I thought, I would never breath, never be.
I was glad.

And so,
we parted, again, for a bit,
Zorah continued on, always on, ever on.
I went back.

Platitude

2010-08-24T18:14:00.005-04:00

Platitude
At the end of the day
the goal of life
is to be satisfied
with your decisions.

Recognize good, accept good,
enjoy good.

Time is not relevant.
The month of the year.
The week of the month.
The day of the week.
The hour of the day.

Within each moment lies eternity,
each is a miracle
no less than another.
Look for what is new
in every moment,
for no matter how short or long,
every moment is new, always and ever.

Be aware.
Recognize good.
Decide.
Accept good.
Be.
Enjoy good.

(In)Sanity

2010-08-24T08:38:00.005-04:00

(In)Sanity
Sanity is a fluid definition
depending upon the insanity
of the dominating class.

Civilizations fall when the
insanity of the ruling class
has entirely dominated
all other social classes.

We look back at these
failed civilizations
and from the fog of
our own cultural sanity
wonder how those people
could have been so crazy.

The current (in)sanity
is to amass as many
brightly colored strips of paper
as possible by converting
the natural wonder of the planet
into mountains of dangerous garbage
and pretending our workaday lives
have no direct correlation to
the mass destruction of the planet.

Silent Rage

2010-08-23T21:39:00.004-04:00

Silent Rage
We live in a society,
a system,
that dehumanizes us
by attacking our core
morality.

Fighting
amongst ourselves
relieves the frustration,
momentarily,
of having an enemy
that has no body
but is
everybody.

The Rapist

2010-08-23T17:45:00.035-04:00

The Rapist
The interpretation of a myth becomes an instinct
in the subconscious of the individual
and externalized in tradition, which is naught but ritual,
and through reenactment a culture is formed
that becomes the rules of the society at large
and in that way we can discern the true definition
of a specific society in the interpretations of their myths.

Modern civilizations were birthed with myths of gods and men
raping and enslaving goddesses and women
and in the fabric of these societies rape is tolerated,
albeit with token admonishment in public speeches,
and even condoned if done behind closed doors
and done to those of lesser social standing,
or to those who have been subjugated by the ring,
so much so that victims fear revealing the crimes
done to them because of the further crimes
their societies, their families and friends, will impose upon them.

Everywhere I have gone I have encountered
men who rape and men who protect the men who rape,
and women who suffer in suffocating silence,
even other women shield the men in hopes of evading
the same brutal treatment their sisters have undergone,
because even their fathers will wield the whips
of blame and ridicule against them if their silence breaks.

The culture of rape is so inbred that every religion
of patriarchy denounces sex as filthy and sinful
because the only sex they know are acts of domination,
when sex should be only the pleasure of love
and an exaltation of the sacredness of life,
so they mark the woman with the stigma of sin,
blaming her for every misfortune, real or imagined,
in a vain attempt to wash themselves of the blood
of the innocents they have tortured and murdered.

I shall be clear in what next I say, quick and to the point,
women are sacred, your mother, your sister, your friend,
your lover or a stranger, no matter who, women are sacred,
and it is men who are foul and cowardly, perverse and monstrous,
and men who beat and rob, and men who murder and war,
and men it is who must confess, and men it is to be punished,
and men, only men, must suffer the retribution of their insanity,
for all the evils inflicted upon this world are done by the hands of man.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2009-05-28/news/two-statutory-rape-allegations-tell-us-everything-we-need-to-know-about-the-mcso-s-priorities/

http://www.rapeis.org/activism/sextrade/sextrade.html

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/07/44888

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15704030/site/newsweek/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11175030

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2007/10/24/to-have-and-to-hold-rape-within-marriage

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-confirms-report-of-sexual-abuse-and-rape-of-nuns-by-priests-in-23-countries-688261.html

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/aug/22/craigslist-enables-sex-trafficking-of-minors/

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/is_ebay_the_new_craigslist_of_online_sex_trafficking

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/craigslist_makes_36_million_from_illegal_sex_ads

http://sisyphe.org/article.php3?id_article=965

http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/wiferape.shtml

http://www.longislandpress.com/2010/03/18/inside-the-hidden-world-of-sex-trafficking-on-long-island/

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE53S15X20090429

http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32701

http://www.psicopolis.com/statistiche/rape.htm

http://thecurvature.com/2007/07/29/native-american-rape-victims-go-ignored-by-authorities/

http://www.rainn.org/statistics

http://www.globalpolitician.com/21142-nigeria-rape

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1546649,00.html

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87122

http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c3270.full

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2008/1124/p07s01-wome.html

http://www.now.org/nnt/fall-99/viewpoint.html

http://www.womankind.org.uk/statistics.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19481.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/13/60minutes/main617270.shtml

http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-87Rape%20and%20Genocide%20in%20Rwanda.htm

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Darfur+women+describe+gang-rape+horror-a01611358633

http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/689

http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2007/09/religious-rape-and-cult-like-thinking.html

http://www2.tricities.com/news/2010/feb/28/blame_the_victim_religious_leaflet_claims_ungodly_-ar-236411/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/world/asia/08korea.html

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/25764

http://nativenotes.net/its-ok-to-rape-your-wife.html

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=12616

http://www.physorg.com/news196628261.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/30/rape-war-crime

http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=12598

http://condor.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/aeer13_1/Olujic.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen04042008.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1968110,00.html

http://www.newint.org/features/1993/06/05/rape/

http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/USA.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8677637.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3953747.stm

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/trafficking.html

http://www.thebodyshop-usa.com/beauty/sex-trafficking-stories

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/27/fbi-rescues-children-from-sextrade

http://www.pattayagogos.com/liindust.asp

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article415047.ece

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy110.html

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon422.htm

http://en.rian.ru/Religion/20100114/157540293.html

http://human-rights-violations.suite101.com/article.cfm/sextrade_workers_trafficked_around_the_world

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952335,00.html

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000021

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/23/sex.workers/index.html

http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2010/05/the-u-s-youth-sex-trade/

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1596778&page=1

http://www.libertadlatina.org/LatAm_US_San_Diego_Crisis_Index.htm

http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/stop-violence-against-women/issues/implementation-existing-laws/trafficking

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Human-Trafficking-a-Problem-in-Major-Cities-Across-US-96252899.html

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2805%2974347-6/fulltext

http://www.gendercide.org/case_nanking.html

http://www.catwinternational.org/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4038249/

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/126780

and more, much too much more.

The Last Unicorn

2010-08-23T15:10:00.005-04:00

The Last Unicorn
Beauty defeats pointlessness.
Real beauty, not that inane pop culture dementia,
that insanity that captures and enslaves beauty,
cages it, chains it, numbs it, dumbs it, domesticates it,
in order to fend off our own pointless existence.
We are so frightened of life that we daren't
speak truly of death to one another.

But because we rarely find real beauty
in our insectoid mad, civilized society.
We fool ourselves with illusory beauty
that has less substance than shadows,
and that fuels our insatiable need for more,
ever more because the ache never leaves,
and we never forget the crimes we commit,
but in our cowardice we refuse, we deny
until the blood of the last unicorn, still denied,
runs cold in pools of lost chances, we deny
to the end of it all when it at last is pointless
to realize, apologize, and cry . . . real tears.

For only real beauty satisfies the heart,
and that beauty can only come from within,
and the only way to go within ourselves is
to commune with the universe without.

Blinded

2010-08-23T12:46:00.003-04:00

Blinded

Those who walk within a circle of light
cannot see out.

Those who walk in the darkness outside the light
can see everywhere.

Revolution

2010-08-23T11:53:00.004-04:00

Revolution
the unstoppable uncompromising storm
is as much a necessary part of change
as the calm scented breeze of idealistic paradise

Night Walk

2010-08-23T11:29:00.004-04:00

Night Walk
starlight on a black loneliness
glimmers of idea and footstep echoes
soft scents of proclamations in the night
black cat loping through wavering shadows
hugging the golden light of torches
fixed to street corner temple poles
between sanctuary of the open heart
and the prison chaos of human reason

Philosophical Rebellion

2010-08-23T11:06:00.003-04:00

Philosophical Rebellion
Ideas marched out
great philosophy of the ages
crazy ideas from the fringe
and ramblings
of dreams and nightmares
for the firing squad
at the local laundromat
with the Laundry Lady
executioner
eighty years young
with socks older than me
that don't have
as many holes
as I do.

Crow

2010-08-21T12:37:00.008-04:00

Crow

Crow is the Keeper of the Sacred Law.
Crow bestows a very powerful responsibility.
Personal integrity is uppermost.
Truth to Self is life's guide.
Crow is always on a mission.

Crow is always mindful.
Crow is always aware.
Crow is always realizing.
Crow walks the talk,
always,
and speaks the truth,
always.

Crow is an omen of Change.
Crow lives in the void and has no sense of time,
Crow sees past, present and future simultaneously,
Crow sees Reality.
Crow knows light and dark,
inner and outer,
good and evil,
all dualities,
splits them into Many
and merges them all to become
One
as the Rainbow
in all its uncountable colors
is One.
Crow is the totem of the Great Mystery.

Crow is the symbol of spiritual strength.
Crow manifests the magick of Life
through the mystery of Death.
Crow is a messenger.
Crow speaks of illusion,
Crow speaks of reality,
Crow speaks of pain,
Crow speaks of love,
Crow speaks of creation,
Crow speaks of destruction,
Crow speaks of magick,
Crow speaks of relativity,
Crow speaks of continuity,
Crow speaks of community,
Crow speaks of The Pattern,
the Web, the Spiral, the Labyrinth,
the Past, the Present, the Future,
all One,
all The Unending Spiral
which is Never and Now and Always.

Crow is vigilant.
Crow is a guardian.
Crow watches over us.
Crow sees what is hidden.
Crow warns of danger.
Crow tells us when it is safe.
Crow announces time to play.

Crow is Trickster,
always turning our wrong-headed plans upside down.
Crow teaches by making a joke of what we think is serious,
by taking away what we think we own.
Crow is the Fool who is Wise.

Crow is adaptable to any situation.
Crow is surrounded by the magic of the Universe.
Crow is free.

Hey, Is That You?

2010-08-21T11:53:00.010-04:00

This post I originally found on the Anti-Civ Library on the Web. That site has disappeared. However, I recently found it again on the Animal Liberation Front site, in their ezine "Memories Of Freedom".

What we do to our relatives is abominable. The humans who do this to animals will do this to humans, if given the chance. The soul of these vivisectionists is shriveled, wasted away, barren and polluted. This lament is not just for coyotes, but for all of us. I give it to you, from one Trickster to Another.

Hey, Is That You?
Hey, is that you? Sitting there on the hill? Watching us tonight?
Have you come to let us out of here? We’ve been waiting for you.
Crying every night.
Trying to tell you, hoping you would come.
Have you heard . . . what they are doing to us in here?
Listen, 140 coyote people crying in distress.
Each with their own story
of separation, pain, torture and death.
Listen, they are trying to tell you, enough to break your heart.
All true.
Brother. You got to let us out of here.
Warrior, listen in case you’re questioning your next move.
They starve us in here, then tempt us with sheep,
radioactive poison sheep.
And they watch us die.
Feeding our pain into a computer to study.
Sister-warrior listen, in case you are unsure.
They mate us to have pups,
then steal them,
maim them,
poison them,
we never see them again.
Only sometimes we hear them, only children.
They cut us open, take our wombs, poison us,
see if we can still have pups,
then watch us die.
And when they are done with us,
they dump our bodies by the ton,
in mass toxic grave.
Lightning-womyn sister of mine, let us out.
Thunder-man brother, pay them back.
We are Coyote, and our Medicine is strong, even now.
You and I, we are the same.
You Coyote Warrior, we Coyote.
Spirit healers.
It is our way, always wild, never die.
Morning has come and you are leaving,
our hearts are sad,
and we cry to you.
But we listen to your promise to return.

Hey its you again! You are back!
This time you stand tall, proud,
brave hearts forward as you walk the road.
Not come to watch. To act!
We see you there, cutting fence with your tools.
Coming closer, we sing, coyotes in distress, coyotes excited.
We are sick, and our tribes broken, but tonight some will go free.
We howl. One heart together with you, to give strength to our weak,
love to the ones left behind, hearts break, crying in sorrow.
Run Coyote.
Head to the hills.
Run and be free.
Be Coyote again.
Do not look back.
We hear your warrior cries, you are strong,
and use our Medicine well.
You take heart from us, and we from you.
Still there are some that are our sisters, brothers,
all star soldiers.
Maybe we will make it . . . at least some.
Coyote Warriors where are you tonight?
Today we watched the laboratory burn.
The one where our torturers hide.
We watched the flames as the sun came up,
danced and sang like Coyote again.
Now we must run, and so must you.
But forever, our hearts shall be as one.
Hey Coyote Warriors! Where are you?
We’ve been looking for you.
We need you.
We wait for you in the deserts, mountains, plains,
our home.
You Coyote Warriors belong here too.
Born to the humans, still living among them
in their crazy cities.
The time for you to leave is now. Come home.
There is much to be done.
Many of our wild ones still imprisoned, remember?
Being tortured, killed, destroyed. We never forget.
Yours is to fight, this fight dog soldier.
Keep our wild spirits alive!
Sacred hoop strong, it was never broken.
And your home is here, among us,
your wild sisters and brothers.
We have much to teach you, remind you of our power.
Come home Coyote Warriors. It is time
to reweave the web, the tribe to each other,
all to the Earth Mother.
Build your fires,
and there we will sing to you
Tell you of the days long ago,
when we were all one.
Coyote medicine is your strength.
The earth spirits are strong, and are poised to help you . . .
if you listen.
Warrior societies, your time is now.
Find each other. Come back home.
You should only be among the enemy to raid.
All you warriors, keepers of the dream,
do not let them have you.
Do not go down.
What makes you think you do not have to hide?
We must.
We have Coyote Medicine to help you stay free.
Remember what it is like to live.
Wild. Proud. Together. Free.
Prepare earth warriors.
Trickster is coming.

What Is And What Is Not

2010-08-16T09:37:00.007-04:00

What Is And What Is Not
What is sacred to you?
Is it the giggle of an infant?
Is it a mother's reassuring kiss?
Is it the spark of dawn's first light?
Is it the dying ember of Sol's last light?
Is it the sight of Luna protecting the night?

And if these be sacred then what about
the stars in abundance without a moon?
the stormy times that make night of day?
the quiet sleep of mother and child?
the cry of an infant at the passing of a shadow?

All yes, and then I ask, what about
a walk close to home in the woods with birds?
the flight of a butterfly across a wide river?
flowers that surprise unexpectedly around a bend?

Then why, I ask, do we hunt so fiercely
for profit of money from blood and death?
for numbers uncountable in dollars in banks?

And why, I cry,
do we rape Mother Earth for the game of gold?

So now I ask, is anything, to you, a blasphemy?

Do You Know?

2010-08-15T11:16:00.007-04:00

Do You Know?

Do you know where you live?
Do you know where you walk?
Do you know where you sit?
Do you know where you sleep?
Do you know where you eat?
Do you know where you drink?
Do you know where you love?

Do you know the dirt under your feet?
Do you know the air around your head?
Do you know the trees at your back?
Do you know the sun on your belly?

Do you know your neighbors, the birds?
Do you know your neighbors, the mammals?
Do you know your neighbors, the marsupials?
Do you know your neighbors, the reptiles?
Do you know your neighbors, the amphibians?
Do you know your neighbors, the fish?
Do you know your neighbors, the crustaceans?
Do you know your neighbors, the mollusks?
Do you know your neighbors, the insects?
Do you know your neighbors, the arachnids?
Do you know your neighbors, the trees?
Do you know your neighbors, the shrubs?
Do you know your neighbors, the grasses?
Do you know your neighbors, the flowers?
Do you know your neighbors, the fungi?
Do you know your neighbors, the protista?
Do you know your neighbors, the chromista?
Do you know your neighbors, the bacteria?
Do you know your neighbors, the archaea?
Do you know your neighbors, the cnidaria?
Do you know your neighbors, the viruses?
Do you know your neighbors, the crystals?
Do you know your neighbors, the sedimentarys?
Do you know your neighbors, the metamorphics?
Do you know your neighbors, the gases?

Do you know the rivers? the streams? the creeks?
Do you know the rivulets?
Do you know the lakes? the ponds? the pools?
Do you know the puddles?
Do you know the rain? the mist? the fog?
Do you know the dew?
Do you know the arroyos? the washes? the gulches?
Do you know the gulleys?

Do you know the mountains? the hills? the ridges?
Do you know the slopes?
Do you know the gorges? the ravines? the crevasses?
Do you know the hollows?
Do you know the dales, the dells, the glens?
Do you know the dingles?
Do you know the plains? the meadows? the glades?
Do you know clearings?
Do you know the swales? the marshes? the swamps?
Do you know the bogs?

Do you know the weather? the clouds? the winds?
Do you know the storms?

Do you know the stars? the planets? the moons?
Do you know the meteors?

Or do you know only the number of a building on a street in a settlement?

Do you know the sitting rock by the shady tree?
Down by the creek over the ridge past the glen?
Where you can see the stars at night?
Near where the crows roost?
That is where I will be.
Come and talk to me.

The BP Oil Spill Never Happened

2010-08-15T10:27:00.003-04:00

re-posted from Mother Earth R.e.v.o.l.u.t.i.o.n.s.

The BP Oil Spill Never Happened

Posted on August 14, 2010 by saynotobarbie

Photo Credit: Deep Water Horizon

Was there an oil spill, around Earth Day this year? Oh, I hadn’t noticed. Actually, I think it never happened. I think we are all sitting around a fire in the woods, entranced by the choreography of flames, and consequently we had a collective vision of being raped and dismembered. The oil spill and its related disasters are all metaphors for human brutality, I suppose.

Was there really an oil spill? Or did my water break and did I give birth to a dead baby? She felt like a giant, bloody, ice cube sliding out of my body who melted away into clumpy ravines as she sobbed down my thighs. Oh right, that never happened, either. The oil spill and the still birth were both nightmares. I must have been under a lot of stress that week.

No. No. It’s true.

We’ve almost shot Mother dead and I’m not sure she will recover. The oil spill did happen, despite my denial.

When I have braved peeking at photos of oil-soaked animals, dead and alive, I sob. What have we done?

What have we done?

I can’t handle this. I feel like I am holding Mother’s hand as she struggles to

Photo Credit: Deep Water Horizon Response

breathe, her lungs pop up like little bursting buttons. I feel like my heart is about to shoot out of my chest like a flurry of F-sharps from a tenor sax as terror engulfs me because a man is about to force himself into me. I feel like I am choking on my own vomit as I wake up from a season of drunken avoidance. I can’t handle this. I can’t handle this.

Sea turtles were burned alive.

About 50 per cent of our bodies is water; cells and billions of subatomic particles swim within us, just like sea life swim in Mother’s oceans. What if your heart were burned alive like the sea turtles? What if someone pried open our mouths to pour millions of gallons of gasoline inside, causing us to suffocate from the evil batter that pushes us down like cinder blocks to the bottom of the Gulf?

Most of us are sorry, I believe — sorry that we have been so terrible to Mother, been so terrible to each other. Mother will live on after we are gone, but we cannot live without her, needless to say.

Photo Credit: The Sierra Club

There are several things that we can do in response to the spill. I cry over spilled cow’s milk and Mother’s milk (oil). I think crying is important. I cry real tears and through paintings, songs, and other art forms. This is how I express myself the best. But it’s not only self-indulgent and self-soothing. The arts are a form of communication to the masses and communication creates awareness and helps others get in touch with their feelings. This is why my arts group, the Tryst Collective, is hosting a one-night event next month (date TBD) about the NYC’s creative community’s response to the spill. Please see the Call for Entries and Musicians for more information if you are interested in participating or attending.

I also encourage getting directly involved with oil spill cleanup. There are a variety of things that we each can do, including donating and advocacy work. Here are two helpful links, both chock full of information:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/gulf-oil-spill-help_n_558736.html

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/fresh-greens/2010/05/03/10-things-you-can-do-to-help-the-gulf-coast-clean-the-oil-spill.html

Mother Earth Is Crying

2010-08-13T10:24:00.002-04:00

Mother Earth Is Crying

Mother Earth Is Crying: An Andean Perspective from Tyler Depke on Vimeo.

We Will Always Be Here

2010-08-12T10:39:00.002-04:00

We Will Always Be Here

We Will Always Be Here - indigenous people in northwest Argentina from Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.

Do You Remember?

2010-08-10T22:26:00.014-04:00

Do You Remember?

Do you remember what it is to
be
a human being?

When you push away
. . . your work
. . . your games
. . . your friends
. . . your pets
. . . your family
. . . your enemies
. . . your hopes
. . . your worries
. . . your dreams
. . . your illusions
. . . your cares
. . . your wants
. . . your fears
. . . your desires
. . . your politics
. . . your religion
. . . your laws
. . . your rules
. . . your oaths
. . . your promises
Do you remember?

When you push away
. . . your numbers
. . . your stories
. . . your traditions
. . . your customs
. . . your music
. . . your noise
. . . your trainings
. . . your studies
. . . your events
. . . your compromises
. . . your denials
. . . your prejudices
. . . your inclinations
. . . your notions
. . . your tattoos
. . . your piercings
. . . your trimmings
Do you remember?

When you push away
. . . all the tools
. . . all the machines
. . . all the computers
. . . all the televisions
. . . all the radios
. . . all the contraptions
. . . all the objects
. . . all the houses
. . . all the streets
. . . all the cities
. . . all the cars
. . . all the planes
. . . all the trains
. . . all the cycles
. . . all the wagons
. . . all the boxes
Do you remember?

When you push away
. . . all the money
. . . all the gems
. . . all the silver
. . . all the gold
. . . all the copper
. . . all the iron
. . . all the metal
. . . all the wood
. . . all the stone
. . . all the trinkets
Do you remember?

When you push away
. . . all the fire
. . . all the oil
. . . all the gas
. . . all the coal
. . . all the fuel
. . . all the electricity
Do you remember?

When you push away
every thing
. . .
and stare out into the abyss
. . .
do you remember who you are?
Do you remember what it means
to be
a human being?
. . .
Or are you lost?

What's In A Name?

2010-08-06T10:31:00.010-04:00

What's In A Name?

"Have I not in my power to become what I choose? Is there any reason why I should not rather make an effort to gain a respectable livelihood for myself than live in a degrading state of dependence? What is it to me that my ancestors could boast of noble blood? Shall I spend a life of poverty for fear of contaminating their dignity? Would not such meanness be a much greater contamination? Is not honour, virtue, independence the only real dignity? Oh yes, it must be so. I will seek a nobility which monarchs cannot give and which the proudest amongst them shall be taught to respect." -- the character of Edward Mortimer, from Emma Mortimer: A Moral Tale, by Mary Hughs, 1829

Nine Touchstones

2010-08-05T11:00:00.004-04:00

Nine Touchstones
by Carol P. Christ, "Rebirth of the Goddess"

Nurture life.
Walk in love and beauty.
Trust the knowledge that comes through the body.
Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering.
Take only what you need.
Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations.
Approach the taking of life with great restraint.
Practice great generosity.
Repair the web of life.

Why Capitalism is a Failed Philosophy

2010-08-02T12:13:00.005-04:00

Why Capitalism is a Failed Philosophy
or
Why Objectivism is Insane

Capitalism is based wholly upon materialism. Materialism constructs a reality based wholly upon physical objects. Objects do not have experiences. All living beings have experiences. Experiences are constructed from feelings. Feelings cannot be analyzed using materialist or objectivist language because feelings do not originate from physical objects.

Attempts to define emotions as chemical reactions within a living being cannot determine the originating force that caused the reaction. All they can do is describe the physical reaction caused by the emotion. The emotion itself is undefinable using materialistic language.

Define love. Define pain. Define anger. Define happiness. Define reality without emotion.

All materialist philosophies and sciences, including all forms of mathematics, deny the reality of life. Without emotion there is no sanity. The brain is not the mind just as the body is not the person.

Emotion is the originator of all thought. Emotion is the originator of all creation. Emotion is the universal language. Emotion is unspeakable. Emotion is an action. Emotion is the primary act.

Love is a kiss. Pain is a tear. Anger is a snarl. Happiness is a smile. Reality is experience.

A Walk Outside

2010-07-30T23:07:00.004-04:00

A Walk Outside
i stand upon the edge of a cliff
tiny, barely a speck
inconsequential to the roaring
emptiness of the abyss far below
and yet the stillness is far close up

continuous soundless lightning
a dancing figure of rainbow flames
swirl and flash with mesmerizing hues
lightning that etches a form
just the other side of sight
in a cloudless starry night

the mists of the surging river
beckon me fall to the cave below
beneath the bleak precipice
to forget in shades of indigo sleep

ideas whisper faintly in my mind
reflecting within a starving spirit
longing to swoop to the river
and drink deep of the pureness
of everlasting eternity
and be consumed by coldness
without beginning or end

halted only by the sparks
that form within my form
life, insignificant, and yet
undeniable and endless
a tiny calm amid the storm

I turn and walk slowly
to fade back to green
trees and grass and blue
skies with clouds of white

between and betwixt

2010-07-29T22:59:00.006-04:00

between and betwixt
It was a wild ride
to the river
that day
and a long walk down
a lonely rocky slope
to stand at the edge
where the out of focus chaos
of society in turmoil
receded at the presence
of the familiar watery calm
but that time
there was a difference
that time
I felt small
a weird sensation
as if I passed a boundary
so I looked all around
and felt what was to be felt
and still I was small
I felt
and with a shrug
whether tall or small
still I was me
so I accepted the feeling
with a satisfied chuckle
because underneath it all
I still knew what it is to be
me
so I strode further on
and stood at a rise
I looked all around
at the river and the grass
at my feet the water flowed by
and the dirt slowly followed
then I knelt gently down
on that shrub circled knoll
and the Earth
She did call out to me
but I hesitated, no answer,
She called again and
I reached out to touch Her
warm and smooth the bare dirt
soft and silky the blades of grass
I stroked and dallied
for a moment in time
enjoying a long forgotten memory
as I felt the passion pulse
and realized
my path, beginning to end
between and betwixt
so
with resignation I stood up
to contemplate the river
again and then turned
and at the apex of the knoll
quite above the ground
I hurled the fire of yesterdays
back the way I came
full of all the travail
broken dreams and bodies
the sicknesses and the deaths
all the anguish and sorrows
the laments and the pains
then motionless I stood
the shock of anger had passed
and everything went quiet
as I began to sway
first toward where I came
then toward where I went
back the way that was past
and then further to the way not yet
unconsciously at first
but with growing awareness
She spoke to me
and upon full realization
a moments hesitation
to enjoy the presentation
of the sway before the choice
tilting in and tilting back
an aching equilibrium
for a relaxing interlude
but though pleasant it was
I knew I could not stay and sway
a decision must be made
so I lifted my gaze skyward
and I cannot say
to this day
if the bolt, upon me did alight
or if it came from me
and upon the sky it did light
the choice was made
with Her I would be
and with new eyes I gazed
over to the river flow
swollen and hiding
what I thought I knew
just moments before
downriver it washed
and a new reality lay layered
and though I searched
for the moments that had passed
they had gone, no trace
and for a time
I missed that world of mine
that once I trod in broken rhyme
for a time
until the silence did break
by a chipmunk who scampered
and the wind did breeze
to rustle in the trees
the scent of the dirt
wet with the river
as time burned away
and I knew, then and still now,
I am who I am
no matter where I go
between and betwixt
upper, middle and lower
I will always be me
and She
will always be
She.

Society

2010-07-29T22:14:00.005-04:00

Society

is an act, a sham
that wants to be me
for all to see
but I smile with glee
'cause there's an inner me
a me
there still it be
not what you see
you have no idea who I am

there's a decision that needs to be
society or me
don't you agree?

you say I can't escape the program
but I'll not go blindly
for some vicious bully
I know your boundary
can discern it clearly
and though you be tricky
and say I'll be sorry
I don't give a damn

I decide to be me
not society
so, painfully, I'm free

What Sets Us Apart

2010-07-24T16:15:00.004-04:00

What Sets Us Apart
I walk the forest
alone and lost

crows in the trees
give raucous warnings

rustle in the bushes
danger hunting me

crow wings and cat tails
black feathers and tawny fur

noisily I climb a ridge
standing defiant I declare

I am human
I have fire

SILENCE

the other side
is all butterflys and flowers

Secret of Life

2010-07-22T22:36:00.003-04:00

Secret of Life

The road of life must ever be traversed
with the destination in mind
. . .
death.
Let us dally and wonder,
for there is no exit.

Squaring The Circle

2010-07-21T11:42:00.006-04:00

Squaring The Circle

The numbers π and e, pi and Euler's Number, do not exist in nature. Therefore the circle does not exist in nature because without both π and e a circle cannot be constructed. Without the circle all of geometry becomes infinitely easier. Without both π and e all schools of mathematics become infinitely easier, and some disappear completely. Without both π and e the nature of the universe becomes infinitely easy to understand. Without both π and e cluttering the mind with endless illusory computations the fractal nature of reality is plainly evident. Fractals are simple to understand once the mind rejects both π and e. The nature of the universe, and therefore all reality, is very simple to understand. Fractals are finite sets of information that repeat infinitely at all levels. Reality is fractal. Fractals are infinite. Reality is infinitely fractal. Everything is One. One is Everything.

All theories based on the reality of both π and e are obviously complicated hogwash. Need I say, as well, that all so-called advanced mathematics using i, imaginary numbers, are only advanced delusions in the same manner as π and e? So having done away with π, i and e means the oft-called most beautiful formula, Euler's Formula, is as ugly as it gets.

As above, so below. Get with the program, yo.

Before I Leave

2010-07-14T20:05:00.008-04:00

Before I Leave

As the last tear of parting rolls slowly down my cheek
A sadness for times no longer to be
A happiness for times that led up to thee
A gladness that I did live and see
I'd like my last words to be
"May I have a kiss before I leave?"

A kiss for family
A kiss for friends
A kiss for times I remember
A kiss for times I forgot
A kiss for times that were
A kiss for times never been
A kiss for tears
A kiss for smiles
A kiss for life
A kiss for love
A kiss for you
A kiss for me
A kiss for the journey
A kiss for the tarry
A kiss for what was
A kiss for what is
A kiss for what will be
A kiss for I am not to be

May I have a kiss before I leave?

Lament to the Spirit of War

2010-07-10T10:35:00.005-04:00

Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna, circa 2300 BCE

You hack everything down in battle.
God of War, with your fierce wings
you slice away the land and charge
disguised as a raging storm,
growl as a roaring hurricane,
yell like a tempest yells,
thunder, rage, roar, and drum,
expel evil winds!
Your feet are filled with anxiety!
On your lyre of moans
I hear your loud dirge scream.

Like a fiery monster you fill the land with poison.
As thunder you growl over the earth,
trees and bushes collapse before you.
You are blood rushing down a mountain,
Spirit of hate, greed and anger,
dominator of heaven and earth!
Your fire wafts over our land,
riding on a beast,
with indomitable commands,
you decide all fate.
You triumph over all our rites.
Who can explain why you go on so?

Thomas Jefferson, Father of American Genocide

2010-07-04T09:29:00.007-04:00

Thomas Jefferson, Father of American Genocide

This is the Thomas Jefferson that revisionist historians teach:
Northwest Ordinance of 1787:
"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them." -- Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Henry Knox, 1787

This is the real Thomas Jefferson. His extreme duplicity has been copied and perfected worldwide by governments and corporations to this day:

Letter from President Jefferson to the Governor of Indian Territory and future President William Henry Harrison:
"You will receive from the Secretary of War … from time to time information and instructions as to our Indian affairs. These communications being for the public records, are restrained always to particular objects and occasions; but this letter being unofficial and private, I may with safety give you a more extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may the better comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through the official channel, and observing the system of which they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it in cases where you are obliged to act without instruction. Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by everything just and liberal which we can do for them within the bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual protection against wrongs from our own people. The decrease of game rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them to agriculture, to spinning and weaving. The latter branches they take up with great readiness, because they fall to the women, who gain by quitting the labors of the field for, those which are exercised within doors. When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. At our trading houses, too, we mean to sell so low as merely to repay us cost and charges, so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital. This is what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will consequently retire from the competition, and we shall thus get clear of this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us a citizens of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves; but, in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation. " -- Thomas Jefferson, February 27, 1803

Letter from President Jefferson to the Secretary of War Henry Burbeck:
"If we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated . . . in war, they will kill some of us; we will destroy all of them." -- Thomas Jefferson, August 28, 1807

Capitalist Nature

2010-07-03T21:49:00.009-04:00

Capitalist Nature
Adam Smith,
taught that God created nature
in such a way that men
could pursue their own interests
without care or worry about anybody else.

Ayn Rand,
taught that nature is brutish,
and that all who follow an ecological path
will become grunting subanimals
digging in the dirt with their bare hands.

Alexander Hamilton,
taught that nature is simple poverty
yet provides the raw materials for life
but only by industrializing nature
can man create true wealth

David D. Friedman,
teaches that nature is uncontrolled
and that a man who knows the land
has a natural right to claim it as private property
and social status determines the ultimate owner

Need I say
they loved to survey
so nature's worth to assay
it's body and soul just a gateway
to riches and wealth for today.

Judaic Nature

2010-07-01T23:16:00.014-04:00

Judaic Nature
Philo Judæus,
Alexandrian philosopher and defender of the temple,
taught that YHVH is immanent in nature
and creates continuously, but only in spirit,
because all matter is the work of the devil,
and so must be defeated in order to reach the divine.

Abraham ibn Daud,
the first Judaic Aristotlean,
taught that nature is disconnected from YHVH,
that a vast heirarchy of angels
act as intermediaries between YWVH and nature,
with this world as the lowest creation.

Bahya ibn Pakuda,
the fountainhead of Judaic philosophical pietism,
taught that nature is finite,
and the usefulness of all creatures
is expressed in the bounty
they provide for man.

Moses ben Maimon,
known as The Second Moses,
taught that nature is only the shadow of YHVH,
the very existence of YHVH sustains all nature,
and so the state of nature is always a reflection
of the perfection that is YHVH.

Need I say,
they loved to downplay
Nature in every way
as only a necessary waylay
on the way to the divine bouquet,
to determine if your spirit will hold sway,
and relegate Nature to only a valet.

Islamic Nature

2010-07-01T16:40:00.010-04:00

Islamic Nature
Abu Ali ibn Sina,
creator of the Islamic scholastic system,
taught that nature is
merely an instrument for the soul
to assist men in perfecting their love of Allah,
and is the lowest of the sciences.

Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari,
the 3rd-century Renewer of Islam,
taught that nature is
unstable and ever changing,
there is no continuity except Allah,
who creates and destroys everything in every moment.

Abû Hâmid Al-Ghazâlî,
the 5th-century Renewer of Islam,
taught that nature is
completely controlled by Allah,
only a field of cause and effect
where Allah decrees every individual causality.

Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh,
the last prophet of Islam,
taught that nature is
available in unending bounty
and created for men as rewards
by the limitless generosity of Allah.

Need I say
they loved to convey
that Nature is only a pathway,
and paved our will to obey,
without thought but of to pray
that Allah will provide in every way,
without a thought for any other day.

Scientific Nature

2010-06-26T11:59:00.009-04:00

Scientific Nature
Sir Francis Bacon,
the father of the scientific method,
taught that nature is to be
placed on the rack, enslaved,
bound into service and
forced out of her natural state.

René Descartes,
the father of modern philosophy,
taught that nature is to be
our possession and slave,
that animals do not feel pain
even when whipped, skinned or vivisected.

Immanuel Kant,
the father of free thought,
taught that nature is to be
judged, compelled and laid bare,
the laws of nature need be broken
to the categorical imperative of human will.

Stephen Hawking,
the father of the unified universe,
teaches that nature is without soul,
empty, barren and mechanical,
that human reason will triumph
and make the universe a slave to our whims.

Need I say
they loved their naysay,
thought Nature is only a display,
and paved our way to assay,
without thought of any spiritual way,
Her intrinsic worth today
as only a commercial dossier.

Christian Nature

2010-06-25T15:40:00.013-04:00

Christian Nature

A strange and most glorious mystery do I see,
said Saint John of Antioch,
Patriarch of Constantinople,
named Golden-Mouthed
for his oratory prowess,
and he did declare
the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all the rest
of creation
exist
solely
for men's use.

All the dumb plants and animals,
said Saint Thomas of Aquinas,
preeminent philosopher of Christianity,
named the angelic Doctor
for his inspired wisdom,
and he did declare
all of creation,
the animals, plants and earth herself,
is naturally
enslaved
solely
for men's use.

Only fools value the natural world,
said the Apostle Paul,
chosen by the Christ,
named apart from others
for his knowledge of the sacred message,
and he did declare
the entirety of nature,
every thing of this earthly existence
degraded
solely
for men's use.

Men are incomplete in nature,
said Saint Augustine of Hippo,
patron of all holy monks,
named the Blessed
for his teaching of divine grace,
and he did declare
all manner of calamities,
all disease, sickness and sin
comes
solely
from uncaring Nature.

Need I say
they loved their doomsday,
thought Nature was only decay,
and paved our way to slay,
without thought to parlay,
any who thought Nature's bouquet
is our heaven today.

The Collected Fragments of Westian Philosophy

2010-06-23T23:33:00.013-04:00

The Collected Fragments of Westian Philosophy

Mae West's philosophy reflects a working-class sensibility, wittily attuned to prevalent male attitudes and realities toward women, work, sexuality and life. West sees wisdom residing in regular folks who must live through the harshness of everyday life. West trashes the notion that it is the elite who know what is real, hence ethical and hence good, in life. West recognizes that emotion is more powerful and satisfying than reason, and reason, on its own, is ridiculously lacking in answers. In all realms, emotion has a claim to parity with, and authority over, reason.

Surviving fragments of Westian Philosophy:

I am all woman.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it.

It's not what you get that counts, but what you give.

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.

Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

Sex is emotion in motion.

Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.

I expect it'll (going to prison) be the making of me.

The time I spent in jail was about the most profitable days of my life.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

A hard man is good to find.

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.

A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.

A man's kiss is his signature.

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.

Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.

He who hesitates is last.

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.

I only have 'yes' men around me. Who needs 'no' men?

I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.

I go for two kinds of men -- the kind with muscles, and the kind without.

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.

It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

So many men, so little time.

A man in love is like a clipped coupon -- it's time to cash in.

His mother should have thrown him away, and kept the stork.

Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.

Marriage is a great institution. No family should be without it.

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

We don't think about marriage as something going on and on, with children from generation to generation. It's often just a passing whim.

I'm single because I was born that way.

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.

To err is human, but it feels divine.

Too much of a good thing can be taxing.

I feel like a million tonight, but one at a time.

When women go wrong, men go right after them.

It's (sexual relationships) just this physical thing.

I like the kinda comedy that imitates me.

Anytime you take religion for a joke, the laugh's on you.

I"m going to drown, down in those troubled waters (religion), they're creeping around my soul.

It takes two to get one in trouble.

These girls (prostitutes) are willing to work, but how can they when the law is always ready to pounce on them and send them back to the Workhouse?

Find'em, fool'em and forget'em.

I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.

I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.

Too many girls follow the line of least resistance--but a good line is hard to resist.

Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!

Any time you got nothing to do--and lots of time to do it--come on up.

Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different.

Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.

All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.

The score never interested me, only the game.

Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

You can't get too hot over anybody unless there's somethin' that goes along with the sex act, can you?

I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.

Women with "pasts" interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself.

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.

There are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.

The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.

Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.

The curve is more powerful than the sword.

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.

I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.

Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces.

A woman in love can't be reasonable--or she probably wouldn't be in love.

You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.

Love is the only industry which can't operate on a five-day week.

Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.

Men are easy to get but hard to keep.

It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.

Kiss and make up--but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.

A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phone book.

Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.

You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.

I take it out in the open and laugh at it.

The best way to hold a man is in your arms.

Brains are an asset to the woman in love who's smart enough to hide 'em.

Look your best--who said love is blind?

Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.

Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.

Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.

If you put your foot in it, be sure it's your best foot.

It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.

The best way to behave is to misbehave.

Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays.

A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty--he has suffered longer.

Don't come crawlin' to a man for love--he likes to get a run for his money.

Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.

Don't keep a man guessing too long--he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi. And, girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.

Some of the wildest men make the best pets.

Let the crooks look out for themselves.

I've got to do it (speak out) as a citizen. I've got to do it for society. They (gangsters) threaten us under penalty of having acid thrown in our faces, and they don't stop at threats either.

I'm the first personality since Chaplin that's got the masses. I've got all classes and all ages.

I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better.

Did they expect a sermon? Why weren't they in church if they were so religious?

It was not that I was jaded, it was only that I had no answers to serious things (meaning of life).

Goodness had nothing to do with it.

I don't like myself, I'm crazy about myself.

Yeah, honey, but you can't prove a thing.

A couple of interesting readings:

Robert Forsythe, Mae West: A Treatise on Decay

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/forsythe/mae.htm

The Religious Affiliation of Actress Mae West
http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Mae_West.html