Saturday, December 17, 2011

Help the Mental Health and Civilization zine project reach print






Mental Health & Civilization is a compilation zine that explores how civilization leads not only to the degradation of the planet, but of our mental health as well.

Through personal stories and critical essays by various contributors, Mental Health & Civilization connects the dots between the insanity and destructiveness of the dominant culture and widespread personal mental un-health.

This zine will be available in both print and digital formats.

Contributors include: Robert Jensen, Urban Scout, Crimethinc., The Icarus Project, and many more, with art by: Stephanie McMillan, Kaitlynn Radloff, Ted Bolha, and more.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Recommended film: The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Based in 1920's British-occupied Ireland, this film is the absolute best i've seen in terms of what a serious, militant resistance movement might look like.

It follows a chapter of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) as they recruit, build, and train an armed resistance movement to force the British--who had murdered and humiliated them for generations--from their homeland.

But, they didn't stop with the British. A large faction of the Irish people signed a treaty with the crown to create a new "Irish Free State", which meant their independence was meaningful only to the extent of the whims of the British. To fight for real justice and freedom for all people--not just the ruling class--the resistance movement had to battle amongst fellow Irish.

All people interested in a living planet--and the resistance movement it will take to make that a reality--should watch this film. The courage found within every one forming their amazing culture of resistance--militant and non; including those who set up alternative courts, sang traditional songs and speak the traditional Gaelic language, open their homes for members of the resistance--is more than i have ever experienced, yet exactly what is needed in our current crisis. Those who fought back endured torture, murder, and the destruction of their communities. Yet, they still fought because they were guided by love and by what is right.

It's time we fight back. Watch this film and discuss it with those you love, with your camrades. The next question becomes: How?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A few recent dreams

Here are a few dreams I've experienced recently:

1. "Death": My partner and i met a strange fellow at a dark park. He called himself "death." He was an anarchist, and was wandering around doing random acts of resistance. He was very illusive. He ran really fast and would just get up and run somewhere unexpectedly. One time, he got up and ran to get his bike. My partner and i wondered where he was. We then heard the sound of a bike approaching, but didn't know where it was coming from. We wondered why he was here and he told us he was here for "anarchy." He was trying to stop some developers from destroying this marsh nearby.

2. "Rummaged through": I left my car in some huge city. I was very scared as i navigated the city to get back to the car. When i got there, the trunk was wide open with black crates (like those that i put vegetables in at the farm i work at in waking reality) stick out of it like drawers. they had been pulled out slightly and i found my stuff had been rummaged through. Money was still there, though, as were other items that would have made sense to take if somebody was breaking in, looking for things to sell. I grabbed my baby blanket from the trunk. The hood of the car was open, too, and the lights were on. I quickly got in the car. It was parked half-way over the sidewalk on some random corner of some random streets. It was totally out of the yellow parking lines. I then realized i never put money in the meter and suddenly i knew it was the police who broke in.

3. "Decolonization": My friend was teaching me how to play piano at her home. We started talking about European conquest and, at one point, i said that i think it'd be totally appropriate and justifiable to kill settlers. She asked me why i thought that. I said: because look at what they did to the indigenous. This conversation was sparked by a painting on her wall, depicting settler armies moving out the natives, which my friend liked. I saw a scene of an Arawak prince on a hill and a European sneaking up behind him. I knew that one reason the Arawaks were so nice to settlers is because one of them was being fed messages telling them to trust settlers even before contact. I knew i too had been fed these messages. The only way to stop the messages was to cut off the transmitter attached to my body. I knew we all had to do this.


Friday, August 12, 2011

DGR Wisconsin's first event


On August 5th, an amazing event that i helped to set up happened at Candlelight Collective in West Bend. I, on behalf of Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin, invited musicians Big Dudee Roo and Thistle to play their songs of ecological, social, and feminist resistance. I gave a short talk and presentation on Deep Green Resistance (DGR) and also had a DGR table set up.

The presentation started with a showing of the incredibly powerful short film, Resist: Do not Comply, which includes the voices and words of Lierre Keith and Derrick Jensen, two of the authors of the just-released book, Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. I am so grateful that i had the wisdom of Lierre and Derrick on hand to begin the presentation with; the film had many in tears, and really set a tone that was perfect for what i was speaking to. The talk started with general information about the Deep Green Resistance movement: it's strategy, analysis, goal, and statement of principles. Then, i discussed the local Wisconsin chapter, where we are it in terms of building the group, our goals, and how folks can get involved to start fighting this system of death at home.

In the future, i would like to deliver a DGR speech more clearly and confidently, so in the meantime i will be practicing. Overall i felt the feedback was good, though (probably because the venue as a whole is supportive of me, as i helped to found it and am still very active there; but anyways...). Many heads were nodding as i spoke. There was no time for Q&A, but i only heard positive comments and excitement about the movement as the evening went on.

The table looked wonderful. It included: two stand up signs with DGR quotes (from DGR Austin); The Problem, or why: Deep Green Resistance pamphlet; General DGR fliers and brochures; Green Scare pamphlets; A pamphlet written by Waziyatawin, called Indigenous People and the Revolution; Security Culture pamphlet; E-mail update sign-up sheets; and a glossy Deep Green Resistance sign. All of the literature was free, and much of it was taken over the evening. Multiple people signed up on the e-list sheets, and many commented about getting more involved.

I want to note how amazing the music at this event was, too. Thistle played first. She sang many songs about gardening, riding bicycles, occupying the Wisconsin state capitol, and killing those who spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico. I really loved a song she played called "The Last Day of the Sword", about the end of patriarchy. Thistle's energy was intense and inspiring. Next, was Big Dudee Roo. They have been one of my favorite bands this year, and meeting and watching them play was a total honor. Besides being extremely talented musicians, the politics in their lyrics are perfect. A couple of the band members are already active in the Deep Green Resistance movement, and, very much to my delight, it shows. In one song, for example, they sing a beautiful quote (and one of my personal favorites) from Derrick Jensen: "If we wish to stop the atrocities, we merely need to step away from the isolation." My words simply cannot do their music justice, and i urge you to listen and buy cd's from them to give your support. If you are anything like me (someone who loves life, resistance, feminism, and the landbase) you may feel like you finally found the musical match to inspire you in all facets of your work.

As of now, Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin is planning for more events and opportunities to speak and give presentations like this. If you have ideas or want to get involved or want to give us feedback, get in touch: dgrwisconin [at] riseup [dot] net.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Neutrality in the Face of Bigotry: Letter to the Editor

This is a letter to the editor i wrote for the local West Bend paper, "The Daily News", when they published an article about school administration responses to bullying against the LGBTQ communities during the Day of Silence protests. It's from earlier this year, but i thought i'd repost it here:

Neutrality in the face of bigotry, hatred, oppression, and immorality does not exclude you of responsibility, of accountability. If you are neutral, you are complacent, and thus, a collaborator.

In the April 15th Daily News article concerning the Day of Silence actions, a Kewaskum principle is quoted, expressing his belief and decision that if “one group can make announcements and wear t-shirts, the other can, too”. What he’s referring to here is the “counter-protesters” who, on the Day of Silence wore shirts with slogans like “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Look at this in contrast to the slogans found on the t-shirts of those who participated in the Day of Silence action: “Proud to be me”, “Stop the silence”.

Those who participated in the Day of Silence action were, obviously, human beings who identified as GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Queer) or allies to that community. These are people who are discriminated against more frequently than many others in Washington County could imagine. And they stood up. They said “no more”. What other option is there? When those with power let us down, leave us to suffer; it’s out of necessity that this happens. School administrations have done little to nothing to stop the hatred, prejudice, and violence aimed at GLBTQ-identified individuals. In some situations, they’ve enabled it or have acted as barriers to justice for these groups.

How can anyone not see the fallacy of neutrality in this “t-shirt” situation? Imagine if, during say African-American History month, white students wore t-shirts with racist or white supremacist slogans on them. Would the administration act then? Or, would they again say, “both groups have a right to make announcements and wear t-shirts”? This is not an issue about free speech, it’s about oppression and it’s about the powerful (those who are supposed to give “guidance” to our children seven plus hours, five days a week) siding with the perpetrators instead of the abused.

Those who claim neutrality in this situation are re-enforcing inequality and must be held accountable to the same degree as any other perpetrator of hatred and abuse. Our community will not be safe until every last one of these bigots are confronted and stopped in their tracks.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Announcing: DGR Wisconsin


Announcing: The Wisconsin chapter of the Deep Green Resistance movement!



Deep Green Resistance is an analysis, a strategy, and a movement being born — the only movement of its kind.

As an analysis, it reveals the last 10,000 years of human history–the rise and dominance of civilization–as the culture of death that is now threatening every living being on Earth.

As a strategy, it critiques ineffective lifestyle actions and explains their inevitable failure to stop the destruction of people, species, and the planet. In contrast, DGR offers a concrete plan for how to stop that destruction.

As an aboveground movement, just now taking its first steps, Deep Green Resistance is based on this analysis and implementing this strategy. And we’re recruiting.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Fascists at it again in West Bend

Homophobic fascists have resurfaced in West Bend to attempt to deny the local high school Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) club official status.

The GSA has been meeting informally for at least ten years at the West Bend high school. The group acts as a support structure and place of discussion for GLBTQ-identified folks and their allies. As homophobic bullying and abuse run as rampant as ever, the West Bend school board voted down the proposal to make the club official, clearly conveying that they didn't think the club was morally appropriate or at least not important to them. Operating without official status means the GSA cannot use school mediums to promote their group and is barred from receiving donations.

During the board meeting, Dave Weigand, a local ultra-conservative and bigot, commented that members of the GSA could seek out psychiatrists who could help them cure their homosexual lifestyle. Besides one member of the board, all those who were in favor only did so because they were afraid to go to court, lose the battle, and lose lots of money. Most of them repeated that they "do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle."

Queer liberation is necessary. Resistance is vital. These bigots think they can control and destroy our community, can push their homophobic and oppressive agenda without any resistance. West Bend is, after all, known for it's consistent gay-bashing, racism, fiscal wealth, and conservative power. We must come together and show them they are not welcome.

Here's a relevant article from a friend.
Here's a relevant article form an enemy.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Mental Health & Civilization zine

Mental Health & Civilization is a zine that explores how civilization leads not only to the degradation of the planet, but of our mental health as well.

Through personal stories and critical essays by various contributors, Mental Health & Civilization connects the dots between the insanity and destructiveness of the dominant culture and widespread personal mental un-health.

Coming out in the Summer of 2011, this zine will be available in both print and digital formats.

Contributors include: Robert Jensen, Urban Scout, Crimethinc., The Icarus Project, and many more, with art by: Stephanie McMillan, Kaitlynn Radloff, Ted Bolha, and more.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Resistance in Madison


Below is an inspiring speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson i got a chance to see at the rally in Madison on Friday, February 18th.

I don't necessarily agree with everything said in this speech. I don't necessarily think this struggle is the most important one. But this labor-hating bill is inspiring and mobilizing tens of thousands of people in Madison and is promising continual resistance to the union-busting Governor and corporations. We need it all, so best to the resistance in Madison.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Feeling: Jesse Wolf Hardin interview by Derrick Jensen


This interview changed my life. It contains, by far, some of the most inspiring words i've ever read. Had i not discovered this interview in Derrick's book How Shall I Live My Life? last spring, i may have never lifted myself out of the numbing rut i was in and began to love and speak with my landbase. I found this copy here: http://cosmicrevolutionks.blogspot.com/2010/10/derrick-jensen-jesse-hardin.html

**
Jesse Wolf Hardin’s work and life are all about feeling. He has written that “we know that we live in order to feel- and feel in order to praise and celebrate that life. We sense and relate to the world through the complex symbiosis of emotion and instinct we call the heart, through the ‘five senses,’ and those unmeasured faculties like intuition and precognition that scientists have lumped together as the ‘sixth sense.’ While we can benefit by learning the “facts” about any chosen bioregion or terrain, we can never really know a place by reading a book on the subject, or by thinking about it. We only come to know it like a baby, humbly and appreciatively touching and tasting the world we’re a physical, integral part of… Our natural response to our being born is to pull the substance and meaning of the world closer to us, by grabbing a hold, to pull ourselves ever closer to it. In this way life ‘makes sense,’ and our senses make the experience of life.”

**

Derrick Jensen: You’ve written: “To become native again is not to emulate Native American or any other past or existing cultures, but instead to recall and relearn our own connection to and responsibilities to the regions where we presently reside.” What does that mean?

Jesse Hardin: We’re native to the degree that we enter into reciprocal relationship with the living land we’re each an integral part of. To the degree that we are not only in love with- but loyal to- the place that supports, nourishes, sustains, informs, and inspires us. To be native is to give back our full sentient presence and artful acknowledgement, our protection and affection to repay the gifts of food, home and wisdom with personal activism and heartful prayer, with restoration and celebration; to repay with our fullest living of life, while we’re alive… and with our bodies when we die.
What is essential is that we be open to the directives of the ecosystem. That we become conscious of its needs and troubles, character and flavor, integrity and health. Conscious of the essence and spirit of place.

DJ: Let’s back up a second. It seems that before we can talk about inhabiting a place, we need to talk about home.

JH: To “lose our place” is to lose our way home. Home is the heart in deep relationship with the land. And it is the place that calls us most insistently, instructs us loudest and best. The place we inevitably miss when we leave, the partner to our pain, and reason for our joy. Home is not only where you want to live, but how you want to live. And it is the place where you want to be when death finally claims you.
Let me put it this way: the source of all psychological, social, and environmental dis-ease is our illusion of separateness. And the first step in mending that artificial schism- that deep, damn wound- is to try to bring ourselves back to a place of engagement with our authentic beings, in the vital present moment.

DJ: I don’t understand.

JH: The opening to the experience of the universe, is through intimacy with a living planet, Gaia. The doorway to the experience of Gaia is through our sentient animal bodies and our feeling hearts. And the journey- the work, the realization- can only happen in immediate present time. Reindignation begins with reinhabitation of our awakened bodies and roiling emotions, in the “now”. Much of the natural world, and our own wild spirits, are dying as a direct result of our alienation and abstraction, from what I call our “great distancing.” And perhaps most tragically of all, we are dying without having fully lived.

DJ: That reminds me of a quote you use from H.G. Wells: “One can go through contemporary life fudging and evading, indulging and slacking, never really frightened nor passionately stirred, your highest moment a mere sentimental orgasm, and your first real contact with primary and elemental necessities the sweat of your deathbed.” What does this mean?

JH: It’s all too easy to acquiesce to the status quo, to the latest trends, and to our habits and fears. To give up our dreams for a meaningless career. To seek distraction in the television set and salvation in the sky. To compromise on a mate, and to pretend we’re a victim of something called fate. To reside in the busy mind, and thereby avoid the pain of the neglected body and the anguish of an untended heart. To flounder around in the superficial rather than risk the frightening depths. To accept and acquiesce rather than discern and confront. To settle for comfort and safety instead of sensation and response-ability. We civilized humans are as tourists in our animal bodies except during certain moments in the midst of the sex act… or when scared for our lives. All too often, it’s only when we face mortal or psychological destruction that we come back to the body that feels, runs, retaliates, or relieves. Back to ourselves, back home.
Clearly social and environmental activism isn’t enough, unless we can somehow change the way we as a species perceive and relate to the natural world, to land and place. We can claim all these small, short-term victories but the fact is that the world is being deforested ever faster as we speak. More toxic chemicals are being released into the ground and water than ever. We’re changing the climate. And genetic engineering poses what is perhaps the single greatest threat to the health and integrity of life on Earth.

DJ: Are we losing?

JH: I’m afraid so, at least in the short term. But the trick to right relationship- and to really being worthy of this blessing called “consciousness”- is to do what is right, what matters most, regardless of the visible results. We seldom see the ramifications of all the good we do, but more importantly, we need to make the grand effort not because we imagine we’ll succeed, but because it’s right to do so. Because it really, deeply matters to us! And in a way, even discouragement and disgust are potentially good signs. They’re evidence of an awareness of the odds stacked against us, and it is acting in spite of them that makes one’s life heroic.

DJ: Are you saying results don’t matter?

JH: Of course they matter. But we watch for results in order to figure out the best actions to take, not for a reason to act. And sometimes we’re able to accomplish the impossible. When Crazy Horse saw his family and village under attack by the U.S. Army, he could see that the odds were stacked against him, and that any resistance could be futile. In spite of this he unsheathed his weapon and rode headlong into the fight, inspiring other braves to follow his example, and breaking the enemy ranks with the sheer intensity of his effort, his investment and risk, his life and love.
To keep from feeling discouraged it helps to look past the nest two generations of getting kicked in the teeth again and again. What I live for is the realization of an epoch after technocivilization has met its ignoble end, blowing itself up, or slowing wasting away. For a time what wildlife takes back the ruins of our cities. When wild creatures stalk the shells of office buildings and malls, when the plants start growing up through the cracks in the pavement. We can’t expect to see that.

DJ: But we do. You see it all around yourself. You got the cows off of this land, and the cottonwoods and willows have come back. It’s beautiful.

JH: True. In a way I’ve been able to protect and restore more wilderness by working my butt off for it- by standing up to trespassers and developers and every other threat for all these years- than I ever did blocking logging roads. But even this single victory remains in jeopardy. I can’t find a land trust willing to take on this special riparian refuge without an attendant bank account for monitoring it. I can’t sign a conservation easement, if no one will accept it. It’s protected for now, through sweat and threat, dumb luck or an assist form the spirits. And more than that, it’s reveled in, honored, restored and resacramented… and yet there are no guarantees it can last. The best we can do is to wake up each and every day, giving thanks for being alive and aware in this enchanted place. Being who we really are, and doing everything we possibly can, for all the right reasons.

DJ: I’d like to go back to the notion of reinhabiting one’s body.

JH: Your door to the entire world is located where your feeling body touches the giving ground. Your bare feet, your rear end, the few square inches of absolute contact are points of connectivity between yourself and millions of years of organic process. And the way to fully experience that connection is by disengaging our mental tape loops, our voice tracks, the constant commentary that keeps us perpetually anticipating the future or criticizing our self about the past rather than tasting the muffin we’re eating right now. Then we can experience the world around us- as well as within us- like the awakened, hungering, feeling, responding, caring creature selves we really are.

DJ: So reihabiting one’s body is tied intimately to reinhabiting the present moment.

JH: We can’t feel our connected to the sentient body, or participate in the processes of the natural world, anywhere but “here,” and “now.” And we can’t really be either if we’re forever residing in our brains, engrossed in the movies of our minds. All the while reality waves its arms and wings and cloud forms like flags trying to win back our attention, trying to give us back our lives. I mean, there’s a reason why they call it a “present:” because it’s a gift we’re fools to miss.
Most of us have read that old science fiction classic where the professor departs his basement shop astride his “time machine,” leaving nothing behind but a ring in the dust on the floor where it once stood. In the same way civilized humanity is often out of touch, absent, unreachable by a world of unfolding presence. Our bodies remain in place like that impression in the dust, while our minds orbit backwards and forwards through the years, inhabiting every period of time but now, and every place but here. Too often we dwell on our desires and worries, rather than dwelling in the present, in place. And meanwhile things like industrial development and environmental destruction are largely accomplished out of time, by future-looking planners and bureaucrats who are oblivious to the purrs and the pleas, the rewards and challenges of the beckoning present. What we need is a conscious, collective high-dive into the always decisive moment- reimmersing ourselves in the sensations and responsibilities of the real world- now!

DJ: How does one begin to do that?

JH: Reach out to what is real- a leaf, a chair, a friend- emissaries of the present glad to reconnect us to the now. If something exists for the sense, it exists in present time. Wake up from the nightmare of past events and far away places, peer into the gradations of black in the unlit bedroom, focus on the pressures of covers against skin, or give yourself over to identifying any smells making their way to you through darkness. Try showers hotter and colder than you think you can stand, focus on the lover you’re with until there are no others. And if all else fails, there’s nothing like a loud boom, the sudden screeching of brakes, or a genuine near-death experience to bring us back into bodies ready to run or have fun.
There’s so much distraction and obstruction we have to remain fiercely focused and totally insistent. Because almost everything in society calls you away from yourself. The clamor and bright lights, standing in lines or working in offices, going to movies or making small talk. For the unplacated few, our society can seem like a very lonely place. The average Joe doesn’t seem to want to smell as deeply or love as much. Or to risk deeply caring, because it might mean he has to act on those things he sees and feels. Even the friends you’ve known forever might not affirm something that is a little bit heavier, a little deeper, than they may want to go. Maybe you becoming more of who you are mirrors something in themselves they don’t want to deal with, and so they try to keep things light. Becoming yourself makes you momentarily the loneliest person on earth, but as you walk through that door you realize that you’re part of everything. And that in the end, it’s impossible to be alone. That’s the kind of assurance and wisdom that nature affords: intimate knowledge of this moment, this tree, this place, this home.

DJ: And it seems to me to take a long time. I’ve been living on the same land now for about three years…

JH: And you’re just starting to get introduced.

DJ: Yes.

JH: This courting and bonding requires not only commitment but presence and attention, day after day after day. If we’re only home seasonally, or if we’re gone five days out of the week, it’s not the same. Deepening relationship requires we get to see the sun come up in a slightly different place each and every day through each of the four seasons. I’ve got so many friends who live in cities, who work all day indoors, and some of them don’t even know which way the sun sets. Until we’re oriented, until we know where we are, until we know what direction is East, how can we know what direction to take our lives? And it takes time to recognize the ecological cycles, as many of them are long. There are seven-year cycles for different insects, and there are different flowers that come up only every four to eight years. Patterns of rain and drought. New species moving in or disappearing. Miss a single week in this enchanted canyon, and you could miss the bulk of the wild mulberry season. No single sunset will ever be repeated again, quite the way it shined today.
This intimacy of relationship, this narrowing down of focus actually expands what it means to belong and to be alive. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that such a deep relating and reinhabiting will ever be compatible with making an income or covering one’s medical insurance.

DJ: Why not?

JH: They require we do work that takes into account the integrity and needs of our bodies, our communities, other species, the air, water and land… and that’s a hell of a way to try and make a living. This System rewards its citizens who acquiesce, compromise and conform. We’re usually paid not only to do what we’re told, but to “look the other way”- away from the effects of our tasks on our bodies, our families and our world. In fact, the more meaningless or destructive the position, the more money and benefits we can make. Corporate heads and politicians, geneticists and nuclear engineers, army generals and real estate developers are highly paid. Writers and dancers, preschool teachers and counselors, environmental activists and those who run food programs for the poor, wilderness restorationists and sage poets are lucky to be paid at all. Or else they’re volunteers.

Bu there’s an upside to this. Since the fields that require caring help pay so little, they tend to attract the most sincere people. People who are doing their service for the purest of reasons.

DJ: What’s your story?

JH: There never really was a time when I felt like I fit in. There was never a moment I didn’t feel alienated from the social agreement.

DJ: What social agreement?

JH: That if we mind our “p’s” and q’s” everything will be alright, medicine will find a cure for death, science will erect bubbles over our cities to purify the air, we’ll meet Mr. or Ms. Right, the oil companies will come up with new forms of inexpensive energy, taking away our privacy is their way of protecting us, building more missile systems will make us safer, Social Security will really take care of us when we get old, and we can all have lots of babies with no serious effects on the environment or our quality of life. And in the end, if we play by the rules we’ll all go to heaven where there are no endangered species or slaughtered Hutu tribesmen, nor wives being beaten by husbands with no self-respect.
The agreement is that we’ll smile even if we don’t like someone or something, and gather on Christmas and give presents even to those family members who happen to resent us the rest of the year. That we’ll ignore the child abuse we know is going on across the street, and have secretive affairs rather than be honest with our spouse about our feelings and needs. That we won’t talk about the effects of pesticides we sprayed in our well trimmed yards this afternoon, the percentage of poor uneducated kids in the military, or the reasons for unwed mothers and chemically deformed babies.
Do you remember a magazine in dentists’ offices when we were kids, called Highlights? Do you remember the page where they’d show a picture with something out of place, like a hammer hanging from a tree, and you were supposed to figure out what was “wrong with the picture?” From the time I was a toddler it’s felt like that to me. It’s like tapping on the rocks and discovering they’re hollow, finding mold marks and seams once we look close enough at trees. It’s like we’re all living in a big theme park… and we have to pay to get out.
When I started running away from school at age fourteen, I found bouts of hunger more stimulating than daily doses of tasteless frozen dinners, and liked being lost better than always thinking I knew where I was going. Safety was a numbing straitjacket, so I embraced risk. I welcomed the pain, because I couldn’t stomach denial anymore.

Read the rest here:
http://cosmicrevolutionks.blogspot.com/2010/10/derrick-jensen-jesse-hardin.html

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Action Alert: Demand Medical Treatment for Anarchist Prisoner Jerome White-Bey


by prisonbookscollective

55 year old Jerome White-Bey continues to be unjustly confined in Ad Seg (the hole), denied medical treatment for liver disease. A prison doctor prescribed interferon treatment for Jerome’s liver disease, however the Regional Medical Director Dr. Conley and the Director Mr. George A. Lombardi has refused to transfer him. Denying such treatment could prove deadly. Denial of medical care is one of the many ways that the prison system abuses political and politicized prisons.

Jerome is reaching out to those on the outside to pressure officials to provide him with the treatment he deserves.

People are encouraged to write letters and make phone calls to:
1. George A. Lombardi (Director)
2. Ms. Lisa Jones
3. Dr. Conley (Regional Medical Director)
4. Ms. Gloria Perry (MD Chief Medical Officer)

Missouri Department of Corrections
2729 Plaza Drive
P.O. Box 236
Jefferson City, MO. 65102

Phone number is: 573-751-2389

Sample letter:

Dear Director Lombardi,

I write to you out of deep concern for prison inmate Jerome White-Bey #37479 who is suffering from liver disease. The visiting doctor prescribed interferon treatment for him, but he continues to be denied this treatment. If gone untreated, his condition could worsen.

I am asking that you immediately grant Mr. White-Bey the interferon treatment he needs to protect his health and to remove him from administrative segregation. Under the Eigth Amendment prisoners are entitled to adequate medical care. I hope that you take immediate action to uphold Mr White-Bey’s rights and health.

I and all who share concern would be gratified by a reply from you as soon as possible. Thank you for your time on this important matter.
Respectfully yours,

[Your Name]

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Recommended film: Rabbit Proof Fence



The civilized have been insane from the beginning. This movie illustrates that wonderfully. No group of sane human beings could design and perpetuate a system of forcibly removing children from their families and ways of life in the name of a "new world". In this story, three young aboriginal children are ripped away from their family and home by the whites and put in an institution to "train the aboriginal out of the aborigine". This is part of a systematic program of genocide. When they escape in an attempt to return home, the civilized are up in arms to bring them back. The white psychopath in charge reacts about the importance of the recapture of the children and continuing institutionalization by saying something to the effect of, "we need to save them for their own good".

Of course, this type of atrocity shouldn't come as a surprise. Those of us in the U.S. can see this first hand, just by pondering who lived on this land before we did. The civilized couldn't have their cities without insatiable sadism and unflinching colonization. It's time to resist. It's been time. It's time to give back to the indigenous what's been stolen from them.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Deep Green Resistance conference in Colorado, May 2011


from http://derrickjensen.org/dgr.html

Deep Green Resistance conference in Colorado, May 2011

A Weekend Workshop with Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay.

Friday, May 27- Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sedalia, CO (30 miles southwest of Denver)

We live in the most destructive culture to ever exist. In Derrick’s talks around the country he repeatedly asks his audiences, “Does anyone think this culture will voluntarily transform to a sustainable way of living?” No one ever says yes. If we really accept the seriousness of the situation, what would that mean for our strategy and tactics? This is the urgent question we will be exploring over the weekend.

Topics to include:
Organizing the Resistance
Bringing It Down: Bottlenecks and Levers
Building It Up: A Culture of Resistance
Liberal vs Radical: Some Conceptual Basics
Organizational Structures Above- and Belowground
Security Culture
Q & A with Derrick

To Register and for more information, go here.

“DGR is an antidote to futility, inaction, paralysis and despair. Finally, I can see a way forward.”
–K.M.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

END:CIV

from endciv.com

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

Host your own screening:
END:CIV

Watch the trailer:

Monday, January 10, 2011

Waziyatawin Targeted by FBI: Sign the petition

by International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – Twin Cities

Sing the petition!

On November 8th, 2010, Dr. Waziyatawin a well-known Dakota writer, activist and teacher, was invited and presented a talk at Winona State University concerning the brutal realities of the colonization of this continent’s land, its resources, and First Nations People. She also spoke of a common need to restore our environment and a way of living that is not reliant on capitalism and the destruction of nature. The timing of the speech served to reinforce some of her points. At the time she spoke, members of the Dakota Nation were holding a Commemorative March along the route that nearly two thousand Dakota people were forcibly marched in 1862. The march route passes through Winona on its way from Lower Sioux Agency to Fort Snelling, where, over the winter of 1862-1863, those who managed to survive the march itself faced confinement, starvation, disease, rape and (for many), death. Shortly after Dr. Waziyatawin’s talk, a letter to the editor appeared in the Winona Post accusing Dr. Waziyatawin of making “terroristic threats”. In January 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Dr. Waziyatawin to question her speech and beliefs. We, the undersigned, see Dr. Waziyatawin’s Truth Telling as an important and honorable step toward healing the injustice of this land. We maintain that targeting Dr. Waziyatawin for this Truth Telling is a continued abrogation of justice. Truth Telling is not only about the past - it is also the present and the future. Truth Telling describes not only the harsh realities that First Nations people faced during the initial stages of genocide against them, but also of the long standing efforts of ethnic cleansing: re-location (reservations); boarding schools; forced sterilization; the illegalization of religion, language and culture; decades-long legal battles for recognition from the U.S. government in order to gain access to sacred lands; theft of land, resources, sacred objects and ancestors (burial sites); domestic violence; drug and alcohol abuse; homelessness, incarceration, and racism. We, the undersigned, also condemn these tactics used by the United States government against human rights as state intimidation. With the Patriot Act today, and the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) before it, government agencies have exploited their power in order to disrupt, disenfranchise and “neutralize” movements that struggle for justice and equality. The recent call the FBI made to Dr. Waziyatawin is not an isolated incident, just as the FBI raids and what is now up to at least 23 Grand Jury subpoenas that have been issued since September 2010 in Minneapolis and Chicago - are all indicative of this government’s continued targeting of social justice movements. We assert that Truth Telling is a necessary step towards reparations, and that reparations are a necessary step towards Indigenous Sovereignty, the healing of our land and all people. We assert that the U.S. government must recognize and be accountable for the hundreds of treaties it has broken with First Nations. We condemn the FBI for targeting members of our community for Truth Telling and for working in solidarity with global Indigenous movements. It is through a united vision of justice for all peoples and a healthier planet that we band together against colonization, imperialism and racism in its many forms. Towards Justice, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – Twin Cities