"Gift Economy" AKA Free Stuff!!

In response to a friends article here: http://animacenter.org/blog/?p=773 , and in recognition of the fact that I'm not going to be working at the Clothing Stash much longer, (but still really want to keep and expand on the principles of what that is) and the rad Really Really Free Market event that's about to happen, I decided to compile some awesome articles and resources about Free Stuff! So here we go...

The following two links are articles on the Gift Economy concept, which I only discovered recently...

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Gift-economy

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/07/31.html

This one's about "Collective Autonomy", which is just awesome... So sad that the woman who recently started working on this movement died last year... We should honor her memory by helping to expand on this project!

http://www.collectiveautonomy.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Building_Collective_Autonomy

And of course, the Food Not Bombs Website for anyone who doesn't already know...

http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

The Freecycle group...

http://www.freecycle.org/

The Really Really Free Market!! Like the Clothing Stash!! Only less frequent :( Here's a link to the one in San Fransisco, with some info for starting one of your own elsewhere...

http://www.reallyreallyfree.org/index.php?l=home

And here's the Facebook page for the one happening here this weekend...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108363469411&ref=ts

Rewild Eugene often has cool workshops for free on how to make stuff from natural sources that you can gather for free. They will also be at the Really Really Free Market teaching folks how to start a fire with a bow-drill...

http://primitiveeugene.blogspot.com/

Plus, although not necessarily "free", this is a really cool website with neato how-to videos for alternative energy sources, including how-to make your own solar panels (which looks ridiculously tedious, but is cheaper!) ...

http://greenpowerscience.com/

Please feel free to reply and contribute your own "Free Stuff" resources! :) Thanks!

Me and Neil'll Be Hanging Out With The Dream King

Neil Gaiman wrote this book for Tori Amos and her daughter Tash. It is the best kids book ever and Neil Gaiman is the most handsome, amazingly awesome writer in the whole world. He is my one and only "Celebrity Crush" and he is obviously dating the wrong Amanda, if you ask me. ;)

Who cares if they are obnoxiously cute together...

And since reading that book last night got me thinking of her, here's a little Tori... This lady and this album in particular got me through my angsty teenage years. Definitely in my top 5 of all time/most influential albums of my life... Enjoy!

"World At Gunpoint" By: Derrick Jensen

I really needed this one right now, especially when it's so easy to feel disenchanted and grumpy with the movement when folks are in the process of being arrested...

In the words of my friend Kiva, "Activism needs a new (way) of working, that's for sure. Time to revolutionize the revolution!" Fo Sho. Read on...

A FEW MONTHS AGO at a gathering of activist friends someone asked, “If our world is really looking down the barrel of environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?”

The question stuck with me for a few reasons. The first is that it’s the world, not our world. The notion that the world belongs to us—instead of us belonging to the world—is a good part of the problem.

The second is that this is pretty much the only question that’s asked in mainstream media (and even among some environmentalists) about the state of the world and our response to it. The phrase “green living” brings up 7,250,000 Google hits, or more than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards combined (or, to look at it another way, more than a thousand times more than the crucial environmental philosophers John A. Livingston and Neil Evernden combined). If you click on the websites that come up, you find just what you’d expect, stuff like “The Green Guide: Shop, Save, Conserve,” “Personal Solutions for All of Us,” and “Tissue Paper Guide for Consumers.”

The third and most important reason the question stuck with me is that it’s precisely the wrong question. By looking at how it’s the wrong question, we can start looking for some of the right questions. This is terribly important, because coming up with right answers to wrong questions isn’t particularly helpful.

So, part of the problem is that “looking down the barrel of environmental catastrophe” makes it seem as though environmental catastrophe is the problem. But it’s not. It’s a symptom—an effect, not a cause. Think about global warming and attempts to “solve” or “stop” or “mitigate” it. Global warming (or global climate catastrophe, as some rightly call it), as terrifying as it is, isn’t first and foremost a threat. It’s a consequence. I’m not saying pikas aren’t going extinct, or the ice caps aren’t melting, or weather patterns aren’t changing, but to blame global warming for those disasters is like blaming the lead projectile for the death of someone who got shot. I’m also not saying we shouldn’t work to solve, stop, or mitigate global climate catastrophe; I’m merely saying we’ll have a better chance of succeeding if we recognize it as a predictable (at this point) result of burning oil and gas, of deforestation, of dam construction, of industrial agriculture, and so on. The real threat is all of these.

The same is true of worldwide ecological collapse. Extractive forestry destroys forests. What’s the surprise when extractive forestry causes forest communities—plants and animals and mushrooms and rivers and soil and so on—to collapse? We’ve seen it once or twice before. When you think of Iraq, is the first image that comes to mind cedar forests so thick the sunlight never reaches the ground? That’s how it was prior to the beginnings of this extractive culture; one of the first written myths of this culture is of Gilgamesh deforesting the plains and hillsides of Iraq to build cities. Greece was also heavily forested; Plato complained that deforestation harmed water quality (and I’m sure Athenian water quality boards said the same thing those boards say today: we need to study the question more to make sure there’s really a correlation). It’s magical thinking to believe a culture can effectively deforest and yet expect forest communities to sustain.

It’s the same with rivers. There are 2 million dams just in the United States, with 70,000 dams over six feet tall and 60,000 dams over thirteen feet tall. And we wonder at the collapse of native fish communities? We can repeat this exercise for grasslands, even more hammered by agriculture than forests are by forestry; for oceans, where plastic outweighs phytoplankton ten to one (for forests to be equivalently plasticized, they’d be covered in Styrofoam ninety feet deep); for migratory songbirds, plagued by everything from pesticides to skyscrapers; and so on.

The point is that worldwide ecological collapse is not some external and unpredictable threat—or gun barrel—down which we face. That’s not to say we aren’t staring down the barrel of a gun; it would just be nice if we identified it properly. If we means the salmon, the sturgeon, the Columbia River, the migratory songbirds, the amphibians, then the gun is industrial civilization.

A second part of the problem is that the question presumes we’re facing a future threat—that the gun has yet to go off. But the Dreadful has already begun. Ask passenger pigeons. Ask Eskimo curlews. Ask great auks. Ask traditional indigenous peoples almost anywhere. This is not a potential threat, but rather one that long-since commenced.

The larger problem with the metaphor, and the reason for this new column in Orion, is the question at the end: “how shall I live my life right now?” Let’s take this step by step. We’ve figured out what the gun is: this entire extractive culture that has been deforesting, defishing, dewatering, desoiling, despoiling, destroying since its beginnings. We know this gun has been fired before and has killed many of those we love, from chestnut ermine moths to Carolina parakeets. It’s now aimed (and firing) at even more of those we love, from Siberian tigers to Indian gavials to entire oceans to, in fact, the entire world, which includes you and me. If we make this metaphor real, we might understand why the question—asked more often than almost any other—is so wrong. If someone were rampaging through your home, killing those you love one by one (and, for that matter, en masse), would the question burning a hole in your heart be: how should I live my life right now? I can’t speak for you, but the question I’d be asking is this: how do I disarm or dispatch these psychopaths? How do I stop them using any means necessary?

Finally we get to the point. Those who come after, who inherit whatever’s left of the world once this culture has been stopped—whether through peak oil, economic collapse, ecological collapse, or the efforts of brave women and men fighting in alliance with the natural world—are not going to care how you or I lived our lives. They’re not going to care how hard we tried. They’re not going to care whether we were nice people. They’re not going to care whether we were nonviolent or violent. They’re not going to care whether we grieved the murder of the planet. They’re not going to care whether we were enlightened or not enlightened. They’re not going to care what sorts of excuses we had to not act (e.g., “I’m too stressed to think about it” or “It’s too big and scary” or “I’m too busy” or any of the thousand other excuses we’ve all heard too many times). They’re not going to care how simply we lived. They’re not going to care how pure we were in thought or action. They’re not going to care if we became the change we wished to see.

They’re not going to care whether we voted Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or not at all. They’re not going to care if we wrote really big books about it. They’re not going to care whether we had “compassion” for the CEOs and politicians running this deathly economy. They’re going to care whether they can breathe the air and drink the water. They’re going to care whether the land is healthy enough to support them.

We can fantasize all we want about some great turning, and if the people (including the nonhuman people) can’t breathe, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but that we stop this culture from killing the planet. It’s embarrassing even to have to say this. The land is the source of everything. If you have no planet, you have no economic system, you have no spirituality, you can’t even ask this question. If you have no planet, nobody can ask questions.

What question would I ask instead? What if, instead of asking “How shall I live my life?” people were to ask the land where they live, the land that supports them, “What can and must I do to become your ally, to help protect you from this culture? What can we do together to stop this culture from killing you?” If you ask that question, and you listen, the land will tell you what it needs. And then the only real question is: are you willing to do it?

Why Neil Gaiman Rocks

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen–I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones who look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline of good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of The Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies too. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive

and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

you can read part one of this book here...

do it!

The Truth About Easter and Why I Celebrate...

Easter is NOT a Christian Holiday. In fact, the term "Easter" is used only once in the Bible and is used to describe the Passover. But everything we "traditionally" use to celebrate Easter here in the States comes completely from Pagan origins. Eostre, Eoster, or Ostara, is the Norse Goddess of Spring and fertility who is awakened after her long sleep (Winter).  There are MANY similar legends in many other geographic regions, but since I know this is where a majority of my ancestry is from, this is the one I pay most attention to. The Greeks of course have Dionysos and Persephone, and I'm pretty sure we were all taught that story. Then there's Cybele and Attis, from the Mediterranean. Attis is the God of ever-reviving vegetation who was born of a virgin, who dies and is reborn every year. Sounds slightly familiar, hmm? Dates back about 200 years before that other guy. Anyway, Attis gets it on with Cybele, a fertility Goddess associated with Spring, who some folks called the Phrygians worshipped. 

Here's some info about the origin of the Easter egg hunt... 

"At the spring Equinox, the balance of the day shifts from dark to light; the hen senses this and begin to lay her eggs. In the forest, wild birds lay their colorful eggs, and in ancient times our ancestors went out to hunt for them, and perhaps brought them back in their nests, or in baskets imitating them. Therefore nestlike baskets of decorated eggs and the Eoster Egg Hunt remind us of the revitalization of nature. Colored eggs were also offered to Eoster. 

Raw colored eggs are used as amulets, kept raw to promote fertility, and hard-boiled colored eggs are eaten at sunrise on Eoster's Day. They are often dyed red all over to represent the Sun, and their red shells are thrown in the river so that they might float down to the "Kindly Ones" (the daughters of Hades and Persephone ). Thus they go to the Underworld as symbols of renewal." http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/JO-Eo.html 

You can find more info here,

here,
here,

and here.

Happy Eostre!

heart art

got a new tattoo yesterday...

and already people are asking me why... what's the symbology? well,  first of all, I'm a very heart centered person, but mostly, I just think it's pretty...

and I'm not alone...

http://streetanatomy.com/blog/

http://iheartguts.wordpress.com/

http://streetanatomy.com/blog/category/tattoos/

More On Rewilding

 The Rewilding Part 6: Wild Leap 

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

“Even so, the spirit voices are singing,
their thoughts are dancing in the dirty air.
Their feet touch the cement, the asphalt
delighting, still they weave dreams upon our
shadowed skulls, if we could listen.
If we could hear.
Let’s go then, Let’s find them. Let’s
listen for the water, the careful gleaming drops
that glisten on the leaves, the flowers. let’s dance
the dance of feathers, the dance of birds..”

-Paula Gunn Allen

One Fall I spent long hours at the base of the volcanic cliffs near our canyon home. Rising some 300 feet from the river’s edge, they look like the stilled froth of a once liquid mountain, of igneous flows that so long ago gulped and pulsed in glowing molten delight. They’re home to a clan of cliff swallows, amazing birds that create plaster nests out of spit and dirt, gluing them sixty feet or more up the sheer face of the rock. I was bemused by the antics of the baby swallows inside them, chirping away for all they are worth while the mothers soared in aerial displays or charmed them with bits of food from their mouths. Some of the nests were built flush to the rock, while others hung down like clay baskets in the wind.

The young swallows, wildly flapping their spindly wings, would rush around their nests in preparation for that fateful first flight. Of course, running in circles can hardly be construed as training in the fine art of flying. What they were actually doing was developing “a case of attitude,” getting up the necessary “chutzpah” to do the seemingly impossible. So high up from the ground, the test was “pass or fail,” with no room for incomplete gestures or subsequent regrets. Time and again I was startled by their mad dashes to the edge. One by one they would get up the nerve and take off into the unforgiving skies, bobbing around clumsily before catching feel of their wings and soaring away.

Every one, that is, except for the tiniest one of all.

In my life I’ve consistently championed the small kids on the playground and the runts of the litter. And I’ve been known to take risks in behalf of the littlest of the little guys: the beaten and extirpated members of other species. So naturally my sympathies went out to this last of the feathered siblings, as I cheered-on with all my heart its numerous attempts at takeoff. Again and again it would run out to the lip of its nest, but always caving in at the final second as if crippled by some unconquerable sense of self-doubt. I knew that it couldn’t remain in the warm confines of its abode forever. Sooner or later the mother swallow would cease to bring food to its hesitant offspring, and the familiar and once safe nest would ultimately serve as the agent of its demise.

Time after time it would bravely scurry forward, only to fall back again. On its fateful final try it ran all the way up on the edge, before wildly flapping its wings in an eerie attempt to regain its balance. Only this time, the little bird had come too far to turn back, and my heart seemed to stop as the bird’s momentum carried it over the side. I watched helplessly for what seemed like an eternity, the bird dropping in slowly expanding circles before finally landing with a pronounced and pitiful “thud” on the flesh-toned rocks at my feet.

A few days later, I left my precious home for yet another series of talks and workshops, doing my best to be worthy of the source and reservoir of my life’s inspiration. I remained troubled, however. What lesson could there possibly be in this failure of the “little guy,” the seemingly meaningless death of that precious baby swallow? What message could there be that might sustain me on my trip away, or help inspire the crowds of people who would be gathered to hear what I had to say?

The answer came at last, flowing clear and purposeful like the sweet-medicine river itself: Sometimes the only difference between falling – and flying — is hesitation!

I share this tale now because like that nest of cliff swallows, both our society and we personally may be at a crux, a pivotal juncture upon which ours and the greater human future depends. Certainly those myriad social forms based on denial of the abyss or most resistant to change, are the most likely to fall. And one by one, we may come to recognize the ways in which we are ourselves increasingly teetering on a precarious edge, where moving boldly forward into the unknown is terrifying, but where denial or hesitation could cost us our lives. On the other hand, awaiting our fateful leap is a wilder way-of-being as meaningful and deep as the canyon, as expansive as the beckoning sky.

In the Animá tradition, we teach that every moment is a decisive moment, not just those key times in our lives considered major crossroads like choosing a career path, or determining whether or not to stay in an unsupportive marriage. When we are fully embodied, sentient and conscious, every minute is purposeful, and nearly every act deliberate. This includes where we choose to be or who we choose to be around, and how we will act in every situation. Even resting in a hammock is a purposeful act, undertaken for rest and nourishment, for the pleasurable sensation of swaying in the breeze or the nap that will give us strength for the day’s remaining tasks… rather than our unwillingly collapsing onto a couch when we can go no further, and feeling vaguely guilty for lying down.

That said, there are some decisive moments with far more significance or far greater harmful or beneficial consequences. Certainly, that would include how we respond in times of pronounced danger, when another driver suddenly swerves into your lane, a boyfriend starts to get abusive, or a fire is spreading through the house. So too, the healthy decision to leave that boyfriend, to change a university major or face the costs of quitting school in order to pursue a life as a farmer or a father, a musician or person with a mission. And to get out of a figurative “bad relationship” with those perceptions and systems known to be ultimately abusive to ourselves or the people and planet that we love.

For increasing numbers of our kind these days, the developing global ecological and economic situation is not only amply threatening to provoke reconsideration of every practical aspect of our existence, from the ways we make money to the size and kinds of vehicles we drive… but also can lead us to the question of what matters most in life. The size of the closets or age of our clothes can seem so important in times of assured income, but as soon as that income stream slackens, keeping usable rubber on the family’s only car and glasses for the children’s eyes quickly become the priority. And if that income stops altogether, the only thing that may feel truly relevant anymore is the securing of a steady supply of food for the plate.

The progressive malfunctioning of 21st Century economic and social systems is and will continue to be a cause of pain that we would never wish on anybody… and yet like nearly all things it brings with it lessons, benefits and blessings. So long as there seemed to be a surplus of gas, raw materials, credit and funds, there was scant likelihood of a majority making any substantive changes in the way or the amount they consumed, to take into account the effects of their personal lifestyle and political acquiescence on those in other regions of the country and world, on the diminishing wild salmon that we love to eat, on the air we breathe and the aquifers that we drink from. Only when necessary or desired items become unavailable or too expensive to afford, does there seem to be sufficient impetus to maintain, mend and adapt what we already have, or to weigh the convenience of disposable products against durability of goods manufactured to last. And only when the usual means for comfort, placation, avoidance and distraction begin to fail – when all pretense of a safety net disappears – are most of us sufficiently both alerted and disrupted to abandon ill-serving habits and props, to question that rules and laws that bind us, to explore new directions in thinking or ways of doing… or to assess our real needs and plumb our dreams, then seek for once to fulfill them.

And so it would seem to be for society as a whole, generally driven to change only through necessity, the bloodied as well the bloodless revolutions, the overturning of regulations and unleashing of initiative, the thinking outside of the box and consideration of innovation, the creation of intimate alliances as well as the empowering of the individual, the purging reassessment of long vaulted values and beliefs, the trauma of collapse and possibilities that attend every new beginning. We and the society we have partnered with, now seem perched precariously on the crumbling lip of that young swallow’s daunting abyss, charged with collectively choosing between flying forward bravely and enthusiastically into the unknown, or else continuing to cling to habitual but ever more brittle and undependable structures instead.

“Again you say, why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization!”
-Crazy Horse

It’s important to understand that abusive systems and personal disempowerment are not social aberrations that a benign evolving civilization seeks to rectify, but are in actuality some of the more unpalatable defining characteristics of a civilized paradigm as resistant as concrete to change. Indeed in the end, adamant liberty and quiet servitude, personal wildness and de-naturing domestication are not a dichotomy to be solved but a decision to be made.

Everyone, at some point in their lives, makes a deliberate if subconscious choice whether or not to desensitize, to live confined by propriety, temerity and schedule, or to subject ourselves to the unreassuring but surprising possibilities of our natural selves. To fit in rather than be outstanding. To acquiesce to outside powers in order to avoid the demands of responsibility, or else to act like and insist on the rights of a truly free person. And all too many of us have traded responsive, sensate and celebratory human wildness for the perceived comforts and distractions of the modernist, global technoindustrial paradigm that is even now defaulting on its inflated promises to us.

Which way we decide on, and whether or not we ever change our minds, depends on our criteria… and criteria is always determined by what we find most valuable. When all the support systems seem in place and the paychecks are coming in time, we may ask if a thing is “easy, legal, bankable, acceptable or fashionable.” When times are shaky, we are more likely to ask “Is it edible, practicable, salable or tradable?,” and “Is it safe, predictable, repeatable, comforting, reassuring?” Under either of these circumstance, a rewilded person or willful child is just as likely to wonder “Does it taste right? Does it sing, laugh, resonate? Is it free, beautifully and gracefully embodying its own nature? Is it real, authentic, intensely itself? Does it feed and fan, or deaden and dilute our spirit? Does it excite our potential, or cramp our personal expression and style?” And “Can you dance to it?”

Choosing the illusory security of conformity and handing over power to vested authorities can in fact be terribly perilous, making us victims of or subject to events rather than co-creators of our world and our reality. But committing to wildness, individual expression and personal responsibility can be just as scary. Discovering one truth about our authentic selves or the conspiratorial workings of political and economic systems, can call into question the credibility and intentions of every other aspect. Beginning with recognition of our unmet inner needs or the exposure of a banker’s or president’s lie, we may shift our perception enough that all kinds of inconsistencies and injustices can then be seen… and at that point we may find that the entire set of “facts” and assumptions our very lives have been based on are actually crumbling beneath us.

There are more reasons to be concerned than simple disorientation or existential alienation. The wild man/woman inside you may spook your friends, walk off the job to become an artist or soothsayer or happy-go-lucky vagrant. He or he may make decisions internally, only in the moment and from the gut, without a thought for future dilemmas or past foibles. Laugh too loud in a social situation. Tell it like it is even at the risk of discomforting others, or demonstrate untimely or inappropriate desires. They are apt to eat with their hands at times, luxuriating in the feel as well as the smell and taste and cha-cha of colors in the bowl, and to innocently expose adult duplicity by telling the truth like a child. They can be genuine and candid at great cost to career, relationships and social standing. Such wildness can admittedly result in a misdemeanor ticket for frolicking in the downtown fountain, or cause us to respond to a Summer breeze by running barefoot in the grass.

The rewilded people I know are inevitably impatient with packaging, and intolerant of closed spaces. They may get testy if placed in a room without windows, and tend to climb trees at any age. They love dirt, and yet spend an inordinate amount of time in a bathtub. They defy stereotypes and demand attention. They can be the loudest and the quietest, either gregarious or solitude seeking, or both silly and wise. They have been heard to purr or growl when they make love and bite in bed, to readily rise to defend their loved ones and indulge in every creative medium. In fact, they are mediums, venturing between the magical realms that exist simultaneously on this plane. They find it easy to say “no!”, while the rest of the time they may radiate “yes!” to experience, chance and possibility. I’ve seen them take pleasure in their aging as well as in their persistent childishness, in the passage of the seasons as well as the blooming of every flower. They’ve learned or are learning to be comfortable with their shape and scent, their most natural weight and bodily processes, and even the most easily aggravated among them seem excited to open their eyes each new day. They are thoroughly themselves most of the time, resulting in their often becoming either self employed or communal, entertainers or loners, group leaders or expatriates. They can be fiercely self disciplined, but never respond well to discipline and manipulation from others. They’re most likely uncertified and unofficial, are both understood less and paid less than other people in their situation, and might be either unreasonably suspect or exceptionally loved. They may or may not yet describe themselves as wild, yet they have broken the spell of domestication and learned to trust their feelings and instincts, have refused to continue being victims or bystanders and become participants again, have turned to their own values and knowings for authority and chosen to risk pain or censure in order to greater experience life’s adventure, beauty and pleasure.

The rewilded among us may be hard working but they don’t usually have a career. What they hold is a purpose, with their jobs being either an extension of that purpose or simply a means to fund their larger mission in life. They are sometimes street people, hunting and gathering in dumpster laden lots, or preaching their atypical sermons to the ranks of nonbelievers marching down the sidewalks to their high-rise offices. Over-managed kids who managed to run away. Disgruntled professors who quit their positions to become organic farmers and rock and roll drummers. Anarchistic primitivists and unrepentant outlaws. But they are just as likely to be rule-bucking preschool teachers trying to give their students something more than the stock curricula, like a belief in their personal vision and confidence in their power. Radical scientists escaping harmful preconceptions and overturning entrenched, institutionalized ideas. Patriots or liberators. Conservationists and activists, caring counselors and crucial community healers.

For all the difficulties of rewilding in this age of perverse denaturing – of reclaiming freedom and self reliance in an era of control, surviving and thriving through the dissolution of so much that we once counted on – it is nonetheless a choice and transition providing immediate rewards. For the rewilded, every wonderful or telltale smell is discerned, and not a single shapely cloud passes unnoticed. Sex becomes more present and wholly expressed, the kiss lingers, the hug can be an end to itself. Colors appear more alive, meals more flavorful. Acts become more spontaneous, heartful commitments and relevant relationships more satisfying. And immediately, the rewilded are better equipped to respond in the moment to shifting conditions. To make their own right decisions free of supervision, and take pride in themselves without needing anyone else’s recognition, approval or applause. To grow their innate abilities and maximize their situational effectiveness. To distinguish official lies and discern hidden realities, protect and defend themselves from expected and unexpected threats, uncover a bounty in times of scarcity, dance even in the absence of music, and yet hear music in everything.

Of course, knowing and even being able to describe the magic of the world is not enough to guarantee that we always engage it. An ecophilosopher friend of mine talks about being motivated by a sense of loss due to the destruction of the natural world. But seeing him discoursing here in this powerful canyon where I live, without adequately sensing and interacting with the unique energies of the place, made me believe his sense of loss stems as much from being caught up in his head while the wildness he writes about is calling him outside. Wisdom is not a matter of how much we know or how well we evoke, but the depth and quality of our conscious interaction. Just as the richest are not those who own the most things, but those who most learn from, utilize, savor and celebrate what they have. Not the person with the fullest pantry, but those who most fully taste what they’ve got. Life presents all its flavors only to the embodied, present and wild… only to those who dare to fully notice, feel, engage, open to and receive the palpable gifts of this world.

So often, what it takes to get us fully in our bodies and conscious beings is a personal life crisis, a combination of failed jobs and marriages, an emotional response such as professionals once called a “nervous breakdown.” Real engagement and change usually comes with the desperate reappraisal of coveted norms, when an author’s books flop more likely than when they are selling well, or when a revealing of hypocrisy undermines lifelong prescriptive dogma. So it is with cultural, economic and political paradigms, that seem to go on endlessly until the fundamental underlying principals and promises collapse. The chance for a new sustainable human society is made possible and more likely due to the widespread bank failures and resulting global recession, heightened insecurity and challenge… the societal equivalent of the traumatic personal breakdown. We may or may not be entering what the Mayan and Hopi prophecies refer to as a time of “cleansing,” paying the price for our separation and denial as forewarned by the Kogi gate keepers. But the current disruptive conditions are at the very least an opportunity for our remembering and reclaiming, restoring, re-visioning, reshaping and rewilding of self, society and place unparalleled in modern human history.

The jump we are called to make is frightening, but no more so the ultimately deadening effects of continued recalcitrance and flailing hesitation. Besides, it is our calling to attempt the impossible! And it is time to expect a miracle, even as we continue diligently working to influence the direction of change. If we are to believe in magic, in our fairy tale of a more empowered, natural self and liberatory world, then we must also believe in happy endings. Ours is the shared wild covenant, together reaping the whirlwind of heightened awakeness and sensation, responsibility and purpose… determining what in our lives and our society to let go of and which to keep, as we each take that wild leap.

Rewilding Event In New Mexico

Check this out... Animá Path of Rewilding Correspondence Course

Also, if you look on the left of the blog about the correspondence course, it says they are having a Rewilding workshop in May, so check into that as well. I know there's a registration form in the blog.

These guys are amazing and have lots of great events going on all summer long, this being the first. I would LOVE to go, but alas... I would feel great if some others went in my honor though! Yay! Spread the word!

"temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events"

This is ranty, so consider yourself forewarned...

Do you think there is such thing as coincidence, or if you are just made hyperaware of certain things happening because of previous circumstances leading up to them? I think people will always see what they want to see in things, and even though I'm naturally, fairly cynical, I also really want to believe in their being a reason for things in this world. This kind of relates to something's that we've been talking about in my philosophy class, which is the idea of free-will... and I still don't really know where I sit with it all, so I'd really like to know what other people think...
The problem with most religions is that they are "Deterministic" and generally tend to believe that everything is predetermined, but also preach about morals and making right decisions. BUT, if everything is predetermined, then why bother with morals, we're all natural sinners and we're all going to do what the god's have fated us to do anyway, so we're all doomed really, and what a pisser... On the other hand, Indeterminists believe that since modern physics shows that the fundamental building blocks of matter behaves in random and probabilistic ways, matter is not determined, therefore we are not determined, because we are material beings. BUT, I believe that quantum physics would argue that at an atomic level there is order, so Indeterminists can't be completely right. So, there is a third option of Compatibilism that combines the other two trains of thought by redifining free-will as doing what you want, even though your wants and desires are caused by heredity and social conditioning. I don't really see this as "freedom", if your decisions are predetermined, even if it's not by a damning god. Society can be just as damning. Although this does seem to be the most accurate of the three, I think that on top of it all, there has to be another determining factor. So what is it?? I obviously don't want to believe that everything I do is predetermined by what society tells me, or by what my combination of DNA imposes, but this may very well be the case. I mean, I know that this leaves open the door for making my own decision about things along the way, but inevitably, I am who I am because of what I was born into, and that will never change completely, at least according to this theory. Seems depressing, but very likely true. Sooo... what's the truth, and is there even one? And is there a third determining factor that has something to do with "fate" or coincidence, or a series of seemingly random coincidence leading up to a pivotal moment in time. And if so, if you were to ignore these "signs" so to speak, and not follow them to their logical conclusion, would you be doing yourself a big diservice and setting yourself up for hardships along the way? ... Just a question...

From Wikipedia:
Coincidence is the noteworthy alignment of two or more events or circumstances without obvious causal connection. The word is derived from the Latin co- ("in", "with", "together") and incidere ("to fall on").

The index of coincidence can be used to analyze whether two events are related. A coincidence does not prove a relationship, but related events may be expected to have a higher index of coincidence. From a statistical perspective, coincidences are inevitable and often less remarkable than they may appear intuitively. As an example, the probability of two individuals sharing a birthday already exceeds 50% with a group of only 23 (see the Birthday problem).

In The Psychology of the Psychic the author David Marks describes four distinct meanings of the term "coincidence". Marks suggests that coincidences occur because of "odd matches" when two events A and B are perceived to contain a similarity of some kind. For example, dreaming of a plane crash (event A) would be matched by seeing a news report of a plane crash on the next morning (event B).

In optics, coincidence is also used to refer to two or more incident beams of light that strike the same point at the same time.

Remarkable coincidences sometimes lead to claims of psychic phenomena or conspiracy theories. Some researchers (see Charles Fort and Carl Jung) have compiled thousands of accounts of coincidences and other supposedly anomalous phenomena (see synchronicity). The perception of coincidences often leads to occult or paranormal claims. It may also lead to a belief in fatalism, that events are pre-destined to happen in the exact manner of a prior plan or formula. This lends certain events an aura of inevitability.

Deepak Chopra and other proponents of ancient Vedic spiritual and other mystical teachings insist on the fact that there is absolutely no coincidence in the world. That everything that occurs can be related to a prior cause or association, no matter how vast or how minute and trivial. All is impacted by something related to it that is unseen or seen, cognized or not in the universe. He and many others worldwide also suggest that science, in particular mathematics, is rapidly moving towards this conclusion as well. Nonlocality theory of physics is just the latest example of phenomenon that seemed coincidental, but are in fact causal. The claim is that this and other science and mathematical conclusions can extend this to every aspect of existence.

It has also been suggested that coincidence is just the mind connecting two or more unique events; if the mind does not make the connection then there is no coincidence. (Douglas 2005)

“It is no great wonder if, in the long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur.”-Plutarch

and on Synchronicity...

The idea of synchronicity is that the conceptual relationship of minds, defined as the relationship between ideas, is intricately structured in its own logical way and gives rise to relationships that are not causal in nature. These relationships can manifest themselves as simultaneous occurences that are meaningfully related--- the cause and the effect occur together.

Synchronous events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework which encompasses, but is larger than, any of the systems which display the synchronicity. The suggestion of a larger framework is essential in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity as originally developed by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung.[citation needed]

Jung coined the word to describe what he called "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events." Jung variously described synchronicity as an "acausal connecting principle", "meaningful coincidence" and "acausal parallelism". Jung introduced the concept as early as the 1920s but only gave a full statement of it in 1951 in an Eranos lecture and in 1952, published a paper, Synchronicity — An Acausal Connecting Principle, in a volume with a related study by the physicist (and Nobel laureate) Wolfgang Pauli.[1]

It was a principle that Jung felt gave conclusive evidence for his concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious,[2] in that it was descriptive of a governing dynamic that underlies the whole of human experience and history—social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. Events that happen which appear at first to be coincidence but are later found to be causally related are termed as "incoincident".

Jung believed that many experiences that are coincidences due to chance in terms of causality suggested the manifestation of parallel events or circumstances in terms of meaning, reflecting this governing dynamic.[3]

One of Jung's favourite quotes on synchronicity was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards".[4

Food Not Bombs

Today was my first day cooking for Food Not Bombs and it was great! I had been doing some donation pickup and internety stuff for them up til this point, but this was by far the most enjoyable part of the gig. Alix, Ayesha, myself and Isabelle went over to Alix's house to cook and did a totally kick ass job with what we had. This was definitely a learning experience and I will probably bring some of my own kitchen stuff with next time, although I am in love with Alix's knife set... seriously... I probably enjoyed using them a little too much. There's just nothing better than a really sharp knife when you've got tons of veggies to chop up. Anyway, here we are hard at work... Isabelle was honestly a huge help in the kitchen. I love that she really loves to get involved with that stuff!
I was in charge of the potato concoction. Thanks to Alix for contributing some of her own about to go bad stuff, and actually purchasing a couple things, and for the use of every kitchen gadget she owned! Anyway, I made some of my "famous" breakfast potato things, but with a lot more stuff and I guess they turned out pretty awesome, because they were gone before I could snap a pic... But, Alix's chili was equally awesome in my opinion and Ayesha's apple-cinnamon concoction made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Honestly... I think we just totally kicked ass! I've had some pretty blah FNB's food in my day, but this was really one of the best meals I've had in a looonnnggg time. Yummy! Here's some happy "customers"... Yay! Can't wait til the next fourth Sunday! :)

getting old

I'm afraid I'm getting a little too used to being a hermit... I seriously have little urge to go out and be social anymore. I would much rather just stay at home and relax with my kiddo and roomie. When H has to move out next week, that might change, but I'm really kinda worried that it won't. And actually, I'm a little more worried that I'm not really all that worried about it. I really just think I'm getting old and set in my ways... I think I'm turning into my Dad, bitter cynisism and all. ;) Really, it just boils down to only really wanting to spend time with the people who have proven to be trustworthy in my life and not wanting to go out of my way to look for more people to add to the fold. Was feeling a little sorry for myself last night... don't know why I let a cheesy hallmark holiday get to me, but I did, then I rememebered just how complicated relationships can be and just how miserable my "mariage" made me and still does and got over it. And this may all sound dark and depressing, but it's really not... I don't feel depressed, not over being alone and a hermit anyway. I kinda think it suits me. :) I think I'm going to make today Singles Day and go celebrate that fact. Yay!

Relaxation/Reflexology

Learn to read your hand

More about reflexology

Relaxation/Reflexology

Last night we had an awesome girly spa night with foot massages, facials, truffles, champagne, strawberries and movies. It was awesome! All except for the movie Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which is just bad... really bad. Doesn't this look awesome..?

I've been having some real issues with anxiety and insomnia so I've been using reflexology and accupressure on myself in an attempt to alleviate that some, and for the most part it really works. The thing with reflexology, which I know a bit more about from massage school, is that you want to make little "Walking" motions with your thumb to really get into the points, and you want to always "Walk" in an upward motion and not down. I want to find out more about accupressure (didn't get that far in school), because the little bit I was trying out on myself the other night was working wonders. I swear... the spots that corresponded to the lungs made me breath deeper, etc. Check it out...
http://www.corehealthinstitute.com/serenity-self-care-points--faq.html

And these neat little widgets I found here and in the next blog (cause I couldn't figure out how to get 'em in one place). Check it... It's good stuff!

Learn to read your foot

More about reflexology

Eugene Food Not Bombs

This is from my friend Ayesha... Please feel free to pass it on...

Hello everyone!

 
Over the last few months Eugene Food not Bombs has not been serving food. With the ridiculous amount of food that is thrown away each day in this society, this is a travesty! If you want to be involved in the gleaning, dumpstering, serving, and/or cooking of yummy vegan meals while confronting the commodification of food and the militarization of our entire society (not just the cops and the military) come to the re-start up meeting for Eugene Food not Bombs this coming Tuesday (January 27th) at the growers market (454 Willamette St) at 6 pm. 
Feel free to email us with any questions, and please forward this email to anyone who might like to help provide free food to our community. 
 
Love,
Eugene Food Not Bombs

Help Dine' Elders in New Mexico!

URGENT SUPPORT IS REQUESTED FROM DINE ELDERS AND YOUTH!
author: repost Sithe Global & DPA are proposing to build the Desert Rock power plant, a 1,500 MW Coal Fired plant in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation. This is an area already polluted by 2 other major coal power plants. Local Navajo residence and community members oppose this project for many harmful reasons!! This Desert Rock power plant is still in the environmental review process and has NOT yet been permitted. 
Sithe Global & DPA are proposing to build the Desert Rock power plant, a 1,500 MW Coal Fired plant in the Four Corners area on the Navajo Reservation. This is an area already polluted by 2 other major coal power plants. Local Navajo residence and community members oppose this project for many harmful reasons!! This Desert Rock power plant is still in the environmental review process and has NOT yet been permitted. 

However, Desert Rock company trucks have began moving onto the backyard of Alice Gilmore, an elderly navajo woman, and her family on wednesday to begin drilling efforts. Desert Rock officials and police have not shown any documents or permits to the local residents stating their purpose or permission to be there. Dine supporters and community members have joined Alice and her family to blockade the road. They are elderly women and youth, and they have been camped out on the road over night since Tuesday! Desert Rock trucks have repeatedly rushed them and have almost run-over people a number of times as they attempt to get by. Desert Rock power company is violating the lease rights of the local Navajo residences and is harassing elderly Navajo women and youth! This is an urgent time and support is needed!!! 
Lucy A. Willie, right, stands at the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant site outside of Burnham on Wednesday where she and 
several friends and family stayed overnight to stop a contractor for Desert Rock Energy Company from doing preliminary work. 


What they need: 
- More People Support 
- Fire wood 
- $$ 
- Attention! 


HOW YOU CAN HELP! 

- More People! More people are needed to sit in support! All are welcome! 

directions to the area are below: 
The site is between Gallup, NM and Shiprock, NM (northeastern, NM). Take the road between Gallup and Shiprock, the 491. at the Mustang Service Station (one of the only service stations between the two), turn East on road #5 towards Burnham Chapter. From Burnham Chapter turn North onto gravel road #5082. About 10-12 miles up the road turn West until you see the encampment. There will be markers (balloons) out on the roads. (if you begin to see a dragline, you've gone too far) 


- Fire wood! it is cold outside and many of the resisters are elderly women. if you can get firewood to the site it is very very much needed! the directions to the site are above. 


- $ Money! Resisters are in need of money for gas and food, and also for bail money if necessary. Please send donations to local resident and supporter: 
Elouise Brown 
1015 Glade Lane 34 
Farmington, NM 87401 
Elouise can also be reached at: thebrownmachine@hotmail.com 


- ATTENTION! the more media and observers are present the least likely Desert Rock is likely to run people over or harass them. contact the media, tell them what is going on. Contact Navajo Authorities, tell them you are extremely concerned. Be a legal observer. Spread this Alert! 

Media Contact: Lori Goodman, cell #: (970) 759-1908, e-mail address: kiyaani@frontier.net 


- Contact the Following Authorities! Tell them you have heard about Desert Rock's harassment of Navajo elders and youth. Tell them you are extremely concerned! If enough people contact these offices they will know that the world is watching. 

Shiprock Police Department 
phone: (505) 368-1350 
fax: (505) 368-1293 

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley's Office 
P.O. Box 9000 Window Rock, Arizona, 86515 
phone #: (928) 871- 6352 

also: George Hardeen, Navajo Nation Communications Director Office of the President 
Office #: 928-871-7000 
Cell #: 928-380-7688 
e-mail: georgehardeen@opvp.org 

Bureau of Indian Affairs (Gallup Office) they are conducting the Environmental Impact Statement. 
Harrilene Yazzi, NEPA Coordinator Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office 
P.0. Box 1060 Gallup, New Mexico 87305 
Phone: 505-863-8314 
Fax: 505-863-8324 


Be a Legal Observer - get to the site and help record/witness what is happening 


Send this Action Alert Far and Wide! 


Thank you for your support!!! 

Enei Begaye 
Executive Director 
Black Mesa Water Coalition 
408 E. Route 66, Suite #1 
Flagstaff, AZ 86001 
Office #: (928) 213-9760 

Jihan Gearon, Native Energy Campaign 
Indigenous Environmental Network 
(877) 436-2121 



PRESS RELEASE 
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 

Contacts: 
Sarah Jane White, Doodá Desert Rock Committee (505) 860-6166 
Dailan J. Long , Diné CARE, Doodá Desert Rock Committee (505) 801-0713 
Elouise Brown, Doodá Desert Rock Committee (505) 974-6159 
Lori Goodman, Diné CARE (970) 759-1908 

BURNHAM, SANOSTEE & NENANEZAH RESIDENTS BLOCKADE DESERT ROCK PROJECT 

Burnham, NM --Burnham, Sanostee & Nenanezah Elders and citizens are braving the cold to protect the land from the encroaching Diné Power Authority (DPA) and Sithe Global LLC at the proposed Desert Rock site. Navajo residents confronted the Diné Power Authority/Sithe Global on Tuesday afternoon after learning of water drilling that had been occurring without the knowledge and notification of local residents. 

"I have said 'No' over and over again and you keep coming over!" Nenanezah elder Alice Gilmore exclaimed to Sithe/DPA employees at the confrontation. For Gilmore, the issue is despicable and uncalled for since she gave no consent to allow DPA/Sithe into her grazing area. Members of the Doodá Desert Rock committee gathered to support her opposition and asked Sithe/DPA to disclose Drilling permits that allowed drilling activity to occur, to no avail. The residents refused to leave after the Navajo Nation Police attempted to give access to DPA/Sithe Global, claiming that permits for the Desert Rock project are not for public disclosure. The Burnham residents barricaded the roads to disallow traffic into the Desert Rock site and have remained in place since the Tuesday incident occurred. 

Members of Diné CARE/Doodá Desert Rock Committee met this morning at the Shiprock Courthouse to get answers about drilling permits yet the Lieutenant Dempsey denied access to Gilmore and other concerned residents to view the permits. Residents are asking for: 1.) A copy of the categorical exclusion that is allowing the drilling activities to commence. 2.) Copies of the Clean Water Act Sections 401, 402 and 404, that would prove compliance with regulatory requirements have been met. There are major disturbance taking place and according to the Clean Air Act, these permits are a pre-requisite for drilling activity. 

The proposed area is home to extended families, but arbitrarily drawn political boundaries by the Navajo Nation and company representatives have the families separated into the three chapters: Burnham, Sanostee, and Nenahnezad. The boundary defining Burnham and Nenahnezad has been moved south for benefit of DPA/Sithe as recently as two years ago. 

"The local residents are not protesters but are resisters. Who would be happy if a well is being dug in their backyard especially when it is done in secrecy? So, how can those residents be considered protesters when they are simply standing up for their rights to have clean air, water, and environment." Stated, Elouise Brown of Sanostee. 

Burnham, Sanostee and Nenanezah residents are not waiting for remedy; many have set up camp at the proposed site and are refusing to move until they get the needed documents. "We're fed up with them," states Sarah J. White, President of the Doodá Desert Rock Committee, "the grandmas and the grandpas are being walked over by these monsters and they're being denied information. We're standing our ground now." This incident follows accusations made against Sithe/DPA about environmental injustices, EPA's proposed issuance of prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permit Air Quality Permit for Desert Rock Energy Facility and the creation of Navajo Nation Energy Policies without public input. 
### 

Lori Goodman 
Dine' CARE 
10 A Town Plaza, PMB 138 
Durango, CO 81301 
PH: (970) 259-0199 
FAX: (970) 259-2300 
Cell: (970) 759-1908 
 kiyaani@frontier.net 
 http://www.desert-rock-blog.com/ 



NAVAJO TRADITIONAL ELDERS BLOCKADE POWER PLANT SITE 

By Brenda Norrell 
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report 

BURNHAM, NEW MEXICO, USA - Elderly Navajo women and their children formed a blockade, built a fire and camped at the site of a proposed power plant on tribal land in northwest New Mexico. The blockade of traditional Navajos halted site work in a region that is already toxic with air and water pollution from power plants, oil and gas wells and scattered radioactive tailings from the Cold War. 

Facing the threat of arrest by tribal police at the blockade, Navajo elderly, including one medicine man, said they are willing to go to jail to protect their land and way of life. 

Most of the elderly are already ill from living in an area where power plants have released 100 tons of coal combustion waste that is blowing in the wind. One of the Navajo elderly resisters is in a wheelchair and another has severe asthma. 

For the second night on Wednesday night, Dec. 13, Navajo resisters camped in the cold at the site. "I have said 'No' over and over again and you keep coming over!" said Nenanezah elder Alice Gilmore, who holds the grazing permit for the area of the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. The Navajo Nation and Sithe Global LLC plan to build the power plant, which would be the third power plant in the Farmington/Bloomfield area. 

Confronting Sithe and Navajo DPA employees, Gilmore was adamant that she has not given permission for the power plant on her land. Navajo elders from Burnham, Sanostee and Nenanezah chapter, all taking a bold action to fight the tribal government and corporate aggression, joined Gilmore at the blockade. 

"We're fed up with them," said Sarah J. White, president of the Doodá Desert Rock Committee. "The grandmas and the grandpas are being walked over by these monsters and they're being denied information. We're standing our ground now." 

White said Navajos at the barricade need everything in the way of food, firewood and supplies. "We need everything from A to Z," White said. 

The blockade was formed just 10 days after Navajo Nation elected leaders gathered with representatives from 14 countries and formulated a global ban on uranium mining on Native lands. The power plant blockade also comes as Navajo Nation leaders are fighting in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to protect San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Ariz., from the desecration of snowmaking from recycled wastewater for tourism. The mountain is sacred to 13 area Indian tribes. 

However, both Navajo President Joe Shirley, Jr., and the Navajo Nation Council support the construction of the Desert Rock Power Plant and accompanying coalmine, which Navajos say would add more pollution to the air, land and water, already saturated with disease-causing toxins. 

The Navajo Nation tribal government has attempted to censor the voices of Navajos speaking out against the Desert Rock power plant in New Mexico and the use of aquifer water for coal mining by Peabody Coal on the western side of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The proposed site of the new Desert Rock power plant is in the Four 
Corners Region, targeted since the 1970s as a national sacrifice area for energy production. 

It is also the sacred region of Dinetah, the place of origin of 
Navajos. However, the air is so polluted in the region of Dinetah near Bloomfield that persons with asthma and respiratory diseases find it difficult to breathe. 

Further, Navajos say while they struggle with respiratory diseases, 
cancer and the death of their loved ones in this region, many Navajos must also haul water and live without electricity, since the power plants on Navajo land primarily provide electricity for non-Indians. 

The Navajo blockade comes as O'odham in Sonora, Mexico, challenge a secret plan by the government of Mexico, with the knowledge of the USEPA, to create a hazardous waste dump near the sacred site of Quitovac where O'odham hold ceremonies. The Navajo blockade coincides with an action by Pima on Gila River tribal land in Arizona to halt expansion of a hazardous dumpsite. 

At the same time, Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico, gathered to prohibit the 
use of banned pesticides in agricultural fields, now resulting in 
cancer and deaths. 

At the proposed new Desert Rock power plant site in New Mexico, Navajo residents confronted the Diné Power Authority/Sithe Global on Dec. 12, after discovering that water drilling was carried out without the knowledge and notification of local Navajo residents. 
Members of the Doodá Desert Rock committee gathered to support 
Gilmore's opposition and asked Sithe/DPA to disclose drilling permits 
that allowed drilling activity to occur. However, no permits were 
provided. 

The residents refused to leave after the Navajo Nation Police 
attempted to give access to DPA/Sithe Global, claiming that permits for the Desert Rock project are not for public disclosure. The Burnham residents barricaded the roads to disallow traffic into the Desert Rock site and Navajos remained at the blockade. 

Members of Diné CARE/Doodá Desert Rock Committee met Dec. 13, at the Shiprock tribal courthouse to get answers about drilling permits. 

Navajo residents said a tribal police lieutenant denied Gilmore and 
other residents access to view the permits. Navajo residents are asking for a copy of the categorical exclusion, which would allow the drilling activities to commence, and copies of the Clean Water Act Sections 401, 402 and 404, that would prove compliance with regulatory requirements have been met. 

"There are major disturbance taking place and according to the Clean Air Act, these permits are a pre-requisite for drilling activity," Navajo residents said in a public statement. Further, Navajos say tribal boundary lines were redrawn to accommodate the power plant corporation. The proposed area is home to extended families, but arbitrarily drawn political boundaries by the Navajo Nation and company representatives have the families separated into the three chapters: Burnham, Sanostee, and Nenahnezad. 

Navajo residents said the boundary defining Burnham and Nenahnezad was moved to the south for the benefit of DPA/Sithe within the past two years. 

Elouise Brown of Sanostee said, "The local residents are not protesters but are resisters. Who would be happy if a well is being dug in their backyard especially when it is done in secrecy? So, how can those residents be considered protesters when they are simply standing up for their rights to have clean air, water, and environment." 

Burnham, Sanostee and Nenanezah residents are not waiting for remedy; many have set up camp at the proposed site and are refusing to move until they get the needed documents. 

Navajos said this incident follows accusations made against Sithe/DPA about environmental injustices, EPA's proposed issuance of prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permit Air Quality Permit for Desert Rock Energy Facility and the creation of Navajo Nation Energy Policies without public input.

then there's this...

abney park...

and random coolness...

new favorite websites

Watching the League of Extraordinary Gentleman this morning, I was inspired to look up some steampunk stuff to help me with ideas for an art project I'm working on for welding class and came across these websites...

First is the steampunkhome blog here on blogger... check out this neato handmade flashdrive... 

I just love the way circuitry board looks.

Next is a website I had heard of not that long ago called etsy... Here are some pretty things I found...

awesome!

Finally, is the steampunk workshop... I totally wanna make this...

anywho... that is all. just thought I'd share.

I'll post pics of my box when it's done.

PLEASE be so kind as to forward this to your email list or include it on your blog or newsletter.  

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Announcing the new Medicine Woman Tradition and Animá websites:

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Wild Foods Weekend Aug 28-31


  Animá is the way of vital, authentic, purposeful being... of heightened awareness, radical honesty, connective sentience, self knowledge and self love, purpose and conscious action, bliss and balance, health and wholeness. Correspondence Courses drawn directly from the source, from the living earth and this enlivened universe, and through our intuitive hearts... manifest in our commitments and acts, on our unique individual paths. 
The Animá Medicine Woman tradition focuses in addition on the committed healing of self, others, and the world we are a part of.
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lost

Still one of my favorite bands and my favorite song if theirs. I think I saw them on this same tour, in Memphis. They were the shit live...