Everyone wants to be a Christian. No one wants to be Christ-like.
3.12.2017
What if exactly the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who are Christians is that those one-in-a-million that follow Jesus......
What if exactly the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who are Christians is that those one-in-a-million that follow Jesus are those that are immediate to follow their own self disciplining moral impulses, and those who Jesus does not recognize are slow to do so? I'm sure that is the case. Why do not all but one in a million Christians follow Jesus? Because they do exactly what he commanded them not to do, they let something, in their case a church, pastor, a priest, a pope ... get between their own soul and what they experience as the Creator.
3.11.2017
My lesson in dentistry. The following is not a complaint or criticism necessarily. It is sharing something I learned yesterday that I had not realized. I was born.......
My lesson in dentistry. The following is not a complaint or criticism necessarily. It is sharing something I learned yesterday that I had not realized. I was born and raised in the medical system for the over-privileged. Yesterday is the clearest view I have had yet the medical system for most of us which is not the one I was brought up in. In our sick culture even as a poor person I have been over privileged by receiving Medical Care in Washington DC which for the poor and homeless is far more extensive than a medical system for the poor and homeless in most parts of this hideous United States of 2017. But what I realized yesterday is that the dental care I have received graciously in Washington DC, well-intended, even heroically overcoming the neglect that our society wants to visit on WE poor, what I realized yesterday is that it is health care for the poor. Specifically I mean, with all the best of intentions the dentists in Washington DC attending to the poor administer to us care to compassionately slow but not stop the destruction of our mouths. They assume that in our system to slow or stop, to arrest destruction of our mouths is too expensive. Yesterday I went to two dentists. Both were very competent. One, the later, was very compassionate. The first was in a Nationwide Dental Care firm called Aspen. Easily the most comprehensive exam that I have received in 20 years. They assumed or hoped I was one of the over pillage that would pay any reasonable price to protect my mouth from further erosion. I am cursed by grinding my teeth with all of my might when I sleep. I know this is been destroying my mouth. For the last three years when I have gone to a dentist for the poor they have commented on what good care I take of my teeth, no bleeding of the gums for example. What they weren't telling me was that they were not doing a rich person's exam, they were not doing the Deep evaluation to see if there was bacteria destroying the bone that holds the teeth in place. I have lost three teeth so far. It is only yesterday that I realized why, each time I have seen a dentist I have tried to find out why so I can prevent it from happening again. It is not my lack of care for my teeth. It is the fact that they had not checked to see if bacteria was destroying the bone. healthcare for the rich assumes that one wants a healthy body until they die. The most compassionate health care for the poor assumes that the poor will suffer and die much earlier, and very honestly and compassionately simply tries to slow the process and make it less painful. If there is a condemnation in order, and there is, it is not of the individual practitioners, but we as a culture That accepts that only a few will have a decent quality of life.
3.10.2017
If I, if we four on this mission, are not fighting for you, if we're not fighting for your children, for your grandchildren and theirs , please read no further. If we are not ably fighting, courageously, with our entire life limb and treasure for you , please read no further. If we are, then you should read further: 1. We leave, we have left, nothing on the table. We spend........
If I, if we four on this mission, are not fighting for you, if we're not fighting for your children, for your grandchildren and theirs , please read no further. If we are not ably fighting, courageously, with our entire life limb and treasure for you , please read no further. If we are, then you should read further:
1. We leave, we have left, nothing on the table. We spend our lives fighting for the future of us all, as does every committed Soldier, no? And yes there are few soldiers on the left committed in that way. We leave nothing on the table. Did I say nothing? Did I mention nothing? We need and want nothing for ourselves, but our work will be ground to a halt without help.
2. Without money for fuel we are going to be stuck pretty quick. On our travel east from Standing Rock talking with groups along the way, evaluating several possible properties for our first extreme Eco community, we have our three pickup trucks. I think that's what they're called. We're pretty much out of money for gas let alone maintenance.
3. We have kept nothing for ourselves. For some of us this goes back more than a decade, for some at least the last year. If our bodies are to continue there are certain expenses that need to be covered. In my case two teeth need to be extracted and the periodontal disease that I have in Fairly Advanced stages which prior dentists have withheld telling me about, if not treated will have severe consequences. Rich people's dentist charge about $1,200. I have learned there's some prayer that I can find a community health center like the one here in Bemidji Minnesota to do it for about a third of that. I have two teeth that need to be extracted one of which soon will be somewhat of a mortal threat if that does not occur. Even the several hundred dollars that the community dentist will charge , 25% of the rich person's dentist, even that exhausts our resources.
I am not going to stop fighting no matter what until my body can no longer do so. I know of no price that I will not pay personally. But that does not mean I can't be rendered ineffective through lack of resources, I can, and will be, unless people step up. And the same is true with all four of us.
Note to self, it looks like another sleepless night unless I do some pain medication. What is it about tooth pain and night time that dislike each other so much?
4. The state maliciously inflicted thousands of dollars of damage on Joe's truck and my vehicle on the 23rd when they drove us off our land, destroyed other thousands of dollars worth of our property, and jailed us for protecting the planet and water of you and yours. It was determined today that his truck is totaled. What that means for our forward travel is not yet clear. The actions of the state caused roughly $1,000 worth of damage to my vehicle. Maybe More but that will not be known until it's drivable which is weeks away.
I don't really care what happens to me. Had things gone violent on the 23rd and I received a bullet to my head I would have only been thankful. But not by my hands. I will fight on with my last breath.
But I do care what happens to your nieces and nephews, and your children, your grandkids, and I, and my three comrades, to fight non-violently for them as we will, requires modest resources to be effective.
We have been, and always will be extremely miserly with our resources. Currently even though offered more by an extremely kind supporter here in Bemidji we sleep four to a room, me on the floor. Dinner tonight was a ham and cheese and bread from the grocery store as other recent nights before that. We don't want any more. We wouldn't spend more on ourselves if we could. But we need money for our work.
A. Initial needs. Within the next few days I hope that we develop and share with you a budget for our roughly next two months that will be largely exploration around the Central and Northeast and teachings and sharings to others of our mission. The major features of that will be gas money, extremely rare lodging that we would pay for the lowest-cost motels, and food, when lodging and modest food is not provided by allies. in another month we may have the option in some places of low-cost campgrounds instead of the occasional Inn motel but currently they are not open this time of year.
B. Phase 2 needs. I hope that in coming days we develop and share with you an initial statement of financial needs for the First Community to starve the corporate capitalist state that we will begin construction on in May. Once the weather permits. This Statement could well be in several flavors from extremely modest to less modest depending upon what support if any we receive from people like you.
C. Phase 3 needs. As you can guess, the community construction is a two-year project we anticipate and even this soon I hope that we develop and share with you a planning budget, order of magnitude, for what that might entail.
I suspect that we may do a series of GoFundMe, and yes, personally I have near zero expectation that will raise any significant funds. We know how to have the state take our money to kill people abroad, we don't know how to offer it ourselves for people that fight for our kids by not killing others but killing themselves Softly. But we owe to them and you and ourselves to give you the opportunity to step up in the way I've just described.
James, speaking for myself, and not the group. Eric Wallace-senft Val Armstrong Joe Britt Jr.
Oh, and I don't mean to suggest that we are perfect Warriors. Far from it. There is a huge temptation to be a holier-than-thou echo chambers to ourselves and we haven't yet always learned to resist that. We have been pretty Savaged by the state and our sick Society for months now and do not always transcend that and thereby sometimes are distracted. But we're as good a team as I've ever seen like this in United States and I think we might get better.
Important resources on this mission:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10210590862320683&id=1620551416
Beginning at 4 minutes, 45 seconds, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10210610694216468&id=1620551416
3.09.2017
James, if Massive Empathy Deficit Disorder, MEDD, is the human epidemic killing creation then what are you going to do about that?
James, if Massive Empathy Deficit Disorder, MEDD, is the human epidemic killing creation then what are you going to do about that?
Unless how I spend my life gives me a dramatically shorter life expectancy I'm really of little hope. I think I am much more horrified by the expected demise of creation than I am at my own. This is Central to why I fight pretty much alone.
Unless how I spend my life gives me a dramatically shorter life expectancy I'm really of little hope. I think I am much more horrified by the expected demise of creation than I am at my own. This is Central to why I fight pretty much alone.
I don't enjoy basketball but I am aware that in the game the only way to win is to be honest about the time left on the clock. A team that allows themself the illusion that they have more time than they do always loses. I do not allow myself that luxury. That is one of the reasons that I fight alone.
I don't enjoy basketball but I am aware that in the game the only way to win is to be honest about the time left on the clock. A team that allows themself the illusion that they have more time than they do always loses. I do not allow myself that luxury. That is one of the reasons that I fight alone.
What I say is mean and cruel and destructive , unless we are avoiding seeing what could save us. And I......
What I say is mean and cruel and destructive , unless we are avoiding seeing what could save us. And I believe the latter is the case. We start with the assumption that we cannot find the courage and the wisdom now to stand up and save the world. We start from that assumption. We start from the comfortable assumption that we are already defeated but we will find some satisfaction in fighting anyway. So we don't ask the question that the healthy mother or father asks when their child requires a miracle, what would I have to do? We never ask that question. We never ask that question because it is too frightening to us and we don't care to face the Fright even though that is the only way to give our children and grandchildren a prayer.
The fundamental void is that not 10, not 5 people that I see face the question , what will it take to stop the machine in time? There is no hope until that changes.
The fundamental void is that not 10, not 5 people that I see face the question , what will it take to stop the machine in time? There is no hope until that changes.
In 13 years of upfront DC experience I have seen little difference between mass demonstrations in Washington DC and mass masturbation. Maybe......
In 13 years of upfront DC experience I have seen little difference between mass demonstrations in Washington DC and mass masturbation. Maybe someday it will be different. I don't expect so but I would be happy to be wrong. The one thing I'm certain that such one two three or four day demonstrations accomplishes is to show our opposition how completely and totally un-serious we are. That we are unprepared to pay even remotely the price required to stop them. With these pitiful self-pleasuring efforts we announce our unconditional unilateral surrender. Hell we Delight our opposition as they watch us bleed what little time and energy we have into totally impotent meaningless efforts. There is no history or tested theoey of civil resistance, nonviolent Warfare, or violent Warfare, that suggests that such Washington DC demonstrations are other than what I say. Not that anyone cares. We like what makes us feel good, screw the next seven generations. Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to be the revolution.
Friends, I know that there were some, many, in the camp that saw us as a committed Relentless Force for good, we the Oceti construction crew. We tried......
Friends,
I know that there were some, many, in the camp that saw us as a committed Relentless Force for good, we the Oceti construction crew. We tried to be this for the joy of it, for the success of the camp. It cost us dearly, personally. Of course we received no remuneration and asked for none, and it cost us greatly materially and personally to do we did. Not to mention the thousands and thousands of dollars of damage inflicted on us by the state during their brutal arrest of us on the 23rd; thousands of dollars of damage to our vehicles, thousands of dollars of possessions destroyed. Not only would we do it again, but we are doing it again but in a different way now.
We are committed to building the first of many communities that starve the capitalist corporate state. Slightly more detail here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10210590862320683&id=1620551416
If you know of any people, any tribes, or others, that believe in our spirit, believe in our commitment to creation and creator, we are in dire need of Financial and other support. We need a committed land-lord with suitable land without the government authorities hovering to rip apart what we do.
Right now we are in dire need of financial support for transportation, lodging, and we need a place that is quiet and supported where we are out of the elements where we can get our heads together, regain our strength, plot a course ahead, and do some online work for 3 days or so. Currently we are traveling East and are right now in the Minneapolis area.
Again, if you know of anyone that wants to support us in the work we do it would be most helpful now to connect us. Joe Britt Jr. Val Armstrong
We will post about heroics in the past and ideas for today until our fingers bleed. Nothing is too much for our children and grandchildren, well, except actually spending our life limb and treasure.
We will post about heroics in the past and ideas for today until our fingers bleed. Nothing is too much for our children and grandchildren, well, except actually spending our life limb and treasure.
We dream The Impossible Dream: we've just driven 3 hours to Bemidji where someone associated with the tribes may be arranging for our three trucks to receive much-needed work that was promised at Standing Rock for the months that this crew built everything in sight, but help and support that was never delivered. Today......
We dream The Impossible Dream: we've just driven 3 hours to Bemidji where someone associated with the tribes may be arranging for our three trucks to receive much-needed work that was promised at Standing Rock for the months that this crew built everything in sight, but help and support that was never delivered. Today and tomorrow it may be delivered. Once that's done we need some place this small crew where we can just focus for three days or so on the mission ahead to build the first of many communities that starve the corporate capitalist state. Csccs. Without your help none of this dream is going to be realized. I don't think anything will stop us from trying but without your help it won't come to fruition. We are on our way to the Vermont unless some more promising property emerges. We need some place where we can be protected from the elements and work on our planning and possible website etcetera for three days. It would be a great help if you would give some thought, connect with your contacts, connect with organizations that might like to help this project proceed. Joe Britt Jr. Val Armstrong
3.07.2017
We will post about heroics in the past and ideas for today until our fingers bleed. Nothing is.....
We will post about heroics in the past and ideas for today until our fingers bleed. Nothing is too much for our children and grandchildren, well, except actually spending our life limb and treasure.
3.06.2017
We aim to establish the first of a series of Communities that Starve the Corporate Capitalist State (CSCCS). These will.......
### CSCCS's, Communities that Starve the Corporate Capitalist State. This is my understanding of the initial thoughts of this core team. Your comments, suggestions, recommendations are welcome. Please read and comment.
"We aim to establish the first of a series of Communities that Starve the Corporate Capitalist State (CSCCS). These will be self growing, self-sustaining, self-propagating, with near zero consumption of corporate or capitalist Goods of any sort, and near zero extraction from mother earth. The basic design approach is so threatening to corporate profits that upon being understood it has been banned from University campuses and even meetings of the UN.
With much less technological know-how for thousands of years people lived on earth doing what we intend to by way of minimizing disruption and they lived at a much higher inner quality of life than most people do today. We intend to bridge this Gap for the benefit of humankind and the benefit of creation. We see no other way to stop our Collective suicide now in its Advanced stages, than to starve the corporate capitalist state.
A core team proven in commitment and expert in architecture, Construction, and Technology is exploring available options for partnership that provides land, passionate long-term commitment to the vision, and possibly funding. All parties are investing heavily and will gladly Supply Mutual guarantees. The property that offers the strongest Foundation is what we will select and currently that looks like a property in Vermont but we are very open to other options and are exploring several.
These are perpetual cultures of contribution, from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs, that are radically inclusive with a priority of helping disenfranchised, disengaged communities to slowly but surely become revitalized through participation and eventual inclusion in each of these Ventures. We are determined to expand the current core team for Greater inclusivity by age and gender, as quickly as possible.
At the medium and long-term heart of this venture are children with healthy activities at the center of the community and Community Construction.
The core team is not looking to build communities for themselves but rather upon establishing each Community will move on to the next.
Although the pragmatic, judicious use of corporate capitalist products will take place, by harnessing the energy of Mother Earth, and the Sun, in millions of tons of Earth placed above Earth bearing structures even the use of corporate products such as solar panels and wind turbines will be minimized. Each Community will be self-sustaining in its food and the availability of water sources, ideally river or lake, will provide many advantages.
Those who are passionate about this vision, and have thoughts about available suitable land, and or funding, and joining this mission, please comment or message us.
Everyone wants a revolution, no one wants to be the revolution. It will be interesting to see who if anyone will stand with us in this mission."
Our experience so far more and more indicates that Native land is government land. I remember grandma Regina, and Grandma Dorothy, both Ogallala, indicating that the reservation is a concentration camp. All indications.....
### Our experience so far more and more indicates that Native land is government land. I remember grandma Regina, and Grandma Dorothy, both Ogallala, indicating that the reservation is a concentration camp. All indications are that they are correct. Government agents just hover over all thee camps we have visited. Within half a day of being at each Camp if not before a government agent was on the camp doing one thing or another. It was eerie. The first Camp, Eagle Butte, we were told that government agents had indicated they did not want another camp set up, as I recall. The second camp, Cherry Creek, out in the middle of nowhere, a government agent somehow was instantly aware of a toilet that was being dug and redirected where it would be dug. The third Camp, Prairie, last night after it was dark a Bia agent truck drove in off the Prairie with its lights off through the camp just like it owned it. Which it probably does.
3.01.2017
I don't know how long it will last, although I suspect it could be permanent. At least for the moment.....
I don't know how long it will last, although I suspect it could be permanent. At least for the moment I have reached a new level in my spiritual strength as a human rights activist. I have the sense of looking forward to each and every opportunity where by simply being a decent human being I draw the savagery of my sisters and brothers, and corporate and government entities, that they might visit it on my body for simply being decent. Gandhi's faith is the same as mine, 100% in the force of the truth revealed. Primarily a force on the nervous systems of onlookers , but even the force that can help cure perpetrators. There is no other revolutionary way to fight.
It's odd, for 10 years the words wage love have been tattooed on my cheeks. But only in the last day or so have I come to have that unfold more fully. We know that someone who wages violence, a good soldier, is nearly Unstoppable. If they're on an important Mission, they take a bullet to the leg, if their comrades are any danger, they will fight on. And if they take a second bullet, they will fight on until totally unable. This is what it means to wage war. Waging love it's exactly the same. I have just been massively Savaged by the state. Can I respond any less relentlessly than one Waging War? I wage loving. I am a loving revolutionary. I am a wager of loving. I cannot imagine that anything can stop me from doing that as long as I can take a breath.
Update. Traveling down to Eagle Butte Cheyenne River Pow Wow Arena. My vehicle is undriveable. An estimated $700 damage. It could......
Update. Traveling down to Eagle Butte Cheyenne River Pow Wow Arena. My vehicle is undriveable. An estimated $700 damage. It could be more expensive but I will not know until it is driveable. It is simply not possible that the damage was due to anything other than malicious Savage intent. Absolutely impossible. vehicle weighs 160 pounds. The trailer weighs 70 pounds. Absolute Savage Power Over Law. It has been retrieved and is on the back of a flatbed with lots of other stuff. Possibly Parts can be purchased and sent to make it drivable and possibly welding can be done. In order to gain access to the vehicle to retrieve it it was necessary to pay $1,280 for the towing fee on the hundred and sixty pounds solar bicycle car that is 52 inches wide and 71 inches long. And it was necessary to pay $1,280 to receive the trailer which has a replacement value of $1,000. There was no other way to get the vehicle. There is no recourse. They can and will torture and crush you like a bug unless you remain compliant, sheep, cooperating with evil. Yes, of course I will make the choice that I made every single time. I will not live in fear. I will not be bullied. Crushed physically is up to them. I expect it will take a week or so to get the vehicle operational and then I expect to resume my trip across the country. The arraignment for my arrest which carries a maximum of one year in prison and $5,000 fine, the arraignment is March 22nd in Mandan. By Friday or Monday it's possible that a public defender will be assigned to me at which point I can find out if that arraignment can be handled in such a way that it does not require my physical presence. Based on the pattern with the 700 or so arrests that have taken place before mine it is unlikely that any court appearance will be until 8 months from now or so. Our cell phones for our misdemeanor charges are not being returned. Those are unlikely to be returned until the court case is settled. If you are awake and sane then you have one of two choices in realizing what is done to Citizens merely trying to protect basic human rights, your choice is between being terrified and outraged. But that's for the few that care to be awake.
Today some of our time was spent trying to tie up Loose Ends Here in Mandan. This includes circuitous circular round-robin visits to Sheriff's Office, state district attorney, Sheriff's Office, repeat, repeat, repeat. A blessing it was to run into Grandma Regina's son, Charles, a blessing it was too run into grandma Regina's son, Charles, because I was able to make clear to him that although being in prison is not something that I think I would enjoy that my number one priority is to use my body to support Regina's treaty stand as best as I am able if it is of great potential benefit. I was able to say that some people want to avoid prison, some want to fight the legal system and that neither of those categories apply to me. I know of no price I wouldn't pay if it could be a major help in the treaty rights fight. I was very glad because I think he understood that and I am hopeful of getting guidance in advice from he and his legal team and his moms legal team before the 22nd.
2.27.2017
Standing Rock update: The Savior of standing rock, grandma Regina, said.......
Standing Rock update: The Savior of standing rock, grandma Regina, said that we are not to take this next bullet. We are to go and continue the fight elsewhere. She says that no purpose will be served by getting arrested again and in fact it will decrease the clarity of our arrest 3 days ago in the treaty stand. By the way, I, and most of those arrested with me, face $5,000 fine and a year and prison.
There is a likelihood less than 15% that the other camps will be raided Monday, & a 95% chance that they will be raided on Tuesday. The odds appear to be 80% that on Tuesday it is not the desire of the state forces to arrest people or bust heads. But they will clear the camp. Anyone there on Tuesday if they are seen to be clearly moving quickly out of the camp will not be arrested or harassed. Anyone that resists should expect the use the Force.
Three days ago we were lied to when we were told similar things, that they would not come in that day, and 15 minutes later they were arresting Regina. That could happen again here but I do not expect it.
Probably half of the black hoop camp evacuated today and the rest, most of the rest, expects to evacuate tomorrow, Monday. I cannot speak for sacred stone.
When I last wrote I expected to stay and get arrested, refusing to leave the bullying by the state and by the Cowardly Tribal Leaders, greedy for their casino dollars. But even before hearing from Grandma Regina today my plan changed.
Anyone that has followed me in 3 weeks knows that aside from using my criminal case to stand alongside grandma Regina in her treaty stand, the next greatest opportunity I see to help Humanity is to build the first of the series of Earth ships that use neither fossil fuels nor even the great energy required for solar voltiacs and wind in the traditional sense, but rather to use the stored cooling of the earth in the summertime to avoid huge energy cooling requirements, and to use the huge stored summer earth heat for winter heating. And many other similar non fossil fuel, none capitalist energy sources. We need to starve the Beast or it will continue and finally destroy us.
Well, it may be that the single most important thing that the 8 or nine months of standing Rock did was to bring together a dozen or so people with the skills, heart, commitment, intelligence, courage, tenacity, to do this.
We are at the casino tonight having moved out of the land that is under threat today. We're resting and gathering our thoughts. Tomorrow we go to Mandan where our vehicles if NOT been destroyed they are impounded, and if our cell phones are going to be returned that's where they are. So we'll be exploring that. Then we expect to go to some safe place for a week or so to chart our course from there, evaluating six or so potential pieces of land, beginning to explore who might want to support with funding, etcetera.
2.25.2017
Just arrived back at one of the camps. All the camps we are now informed and told they will be cleared tomorrow. The campaign......
Just arrived back at one of the camps. All the camps we are now informed and told they will be cleared tomorrow. The campaign is fairly optimistic that their legal rights will prevent that. My current goal is not to get arrested tomorrow. I don't see how that could make me more useful. Actually, tonight I would be in the casino but they're full. So my current plan is to get out of Harm's Way maybe even early in the morning, walk or ride to the casino, sit in the lobby, and have a room there tomorrow night. Of course the only way to be at all safe would be to get out now, but I am not in the habit of being bullied or frightened.
2.22.2017
Standing Rock update: it's 5 minutes after 5 in the afternoon. More than three hours after......
Standing Rock update: it's 5 minutes after 5 in the afternoon. More than three hours after I expected to be arrested. I've got hypothermia. It's quite interesting. To my knowledge I could walk out of the camp right now and Escape six months in prison, a felony charge, and possible severe physical abuse now and then prison. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't cooperate with the evil that is being done to our Native American brothers and sisters, even if they can. I can't do it. I can't cooperate with this evil anymore. This state, our country, our economy, totally Antichrist. I can't cooperate with it. Isn't that wild?
Standing Rock update: Everyone wants to be a revolutionary, but no one wants to be the revolution.
Standing Rock update: Everyone wants to be a revolutionary, but no one wants to be the revolution.
### The smoke is from a bunch of children playing Indian and burning buildings from what I can tell. Nothing to worry about. Certainly nothing that the oil industry needs to worry about.
### The smoke is from a bunch of children playing Indian and burning buildings from what I can tell. Nothing to worry about. Certainly nothing that the oil industry needs to worry about.
Standing Rock update: a group of so-called Warriors just walked past, about......
Standing Rock update: a group of so-called Warriors just walked past, about an hour after the deadline to leave the camp but they're leaving. These are Warriors, they really consider themselves that and who knows, maybe they are. But by what measure? They've had a lot of food. They've had a lot of sex. They've had a lot of adulation. They had a lot of fun. They've been playing Warrior that's for sure. They've had a lot of power on security and other things and maybe done some good with that. I don't know enough to judge them, but I certainly have my questions. If we repeat what happened at this camp 10000 times what the hell impact is that going to have other than to possibly kill the oil industry with laughter at our cowardly, historically insignificant, impotent efforts?
### I'm sorry, do you really think that we just fought an important battle? Incidentally, I'm sitting in front of my tent expecting that.......
### I'm sorry, do you really think that we just fought an important battle? Incidentally, I'm sitting in front of my tent expecting that my $12,000 vehicle will shortly be destroyed and that I will be manhandled at best and spend months in prison by the time it's all done. By what f****** historical measure did we just fight an important fight? We showed up for months worth of camping? Months of free food? Months of playing Indian? This compares to the march in the Selma Bridge how? The march on the darsana saltworks how? Tahrir Square how? Well, okay, the women in the water facing mace and brutality, yes that counts for something. That was one day. Maybe there were one or two other days. My God, don't we love our children enough to face how massively far we continue to fall short? Until we do this we can't get serious about what it's going to really take.
Standing Rock update: I am not here for Native rights. I am not here.......
Standing Rock update: I am not here for Native rights. I am not here for treaty rights. That's far too little far too late. I'm here for human rights. Any of us that are fighting for anything other than human rights and maybe creation rights, but that's probably a strategic non-starter that is too esoteric, anyone that is not fighting for human rights in whatever arena is strategically wasting their time. Am I against native rights? Am I against treaty rights? Of course not! Am I against the right of children and current citizens to clean water? Of course I'm not. But for us to put these fragmented issues front and center is way too little way too late. Human rights is what we morally need to be fighting for and strategically if we did that paying a big enough price people might begin to understand that there is only one set of Human Rights and the people receiving the least are receiving what we all can expect in the future.
Standing Rock update: not that anyone should care but me, but I am greatly saddened at the lack of character in all but a few my native sisters.......
Standing Rock update: not that anyone should care but me, but I am greatly saddened at the lack of character in all but a few my native sisters and brothers. Yes, it is no worse than what I see in most populations. My God, it is so understandable. But it is so rare that any is a revolutionary Force. Why am I saddened by this? Because I hoped it would be different. A strength of the culture I believe is a desire to unite with the spirit of the universe. But we humans unite more strongly, more powerfully, with more wisdom, more courage, more grace, more decency when we primarily Unite toward the well-being of the neediest, human and nonhuman. I see this as a fundamental weakness of native cultures, their focus is too abstract and too removed from Humanity. An additional terrible weakness is a focus on mysticism, not unlike Christianity for example, but both are thereby crippling of their adherents because they bleed energy away from the real Battle Ground which is the spirit within human individuals and in common. If there's a constructive reason for me to share this it is in the off chance that a sister or brother, particularly native, cares to take it to heart and to try and Lead to a more hopeful way of being.
Standing Rock update: The battlefield, 100% of the battlefield, on which the future of humanity, of creation, will be finally lost or won, is 0% physical, 100% spiritual. This has always been true. We have always pretended......
Standing Rock update: The battlefield, 100% of the battlefield, on which the future of humanity, of creation, will be finally lost or won, is 0% physical, 100% spiritual. This has always been true. We have always pretended this was not true. The most powerful creatures known in the universe are the two legged humans. Where our individual and Collective spirit is, there we go. Only through a massive and sustained Global shift in the spirit of humanity is there any prayer for a decent future. I hope to remember this on today, February 22nd here at Standing Rock. If my body, my life limb and treasure, can be used so that the terminal savagery of our fascist greedy Antichrist satanic Collective spirit in this sick country and world, if my body can be used by Savage perpetrators, possessed by their evil spirit, if my body life limb and treasure can be used to sicken the spectators to the final destruction of their children's future, if I can use my body to help them become sick and at the evil of their passivity, and possibly to sicken even one or two of the perpetrators, immediate or distant, crushing us today, then I hope to be glad of that. I think I will be glad of that.
I have heard what I understand to be native story. A grandfather and a grandson are speaking, the grandfather says to the grandson, there are two wolves fighting each other within you, a good wolf, and a bad wolf. The grandson thinks for moment and says to his grandfather, grandfather, which of the Wolves will win? Grandfather answers, the one that you feed. The story is broader than that in its implications. With each breath, with each action or omission of ours, we feed one of those two wolves in those who are impacted by our lives. Everything depends on which ones we choose to feed.
Even Napoleon saw this:
"Do you know, Fontanes, what astonishes me most in this world? The inability of force to create anything. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the spirit."
Written as I am here here on self-assigned duty at the composting toilet complex taking out bags of s***, sweeping, feeling the sawdust bins, making certain there's enough toilet paper.... I like to serve. This is a nice way to to lovingly serve my sisters and brothers here, and there by the world, as best I can see to do at the moment.
2.21.2017
"Glory" (1989) - 54th Infantry Pre-Battle Song("Oh, My Lord")
Standing Rock update: If we keep retreating, if we always Retreat, if we usually Retreat, how.....
Standing Rock update: If we keep retreating, if we always Retreat, if we usually Retreat, how can we ever expect to win? If we always disengage when the ultimate price must be offered, how can we ever expect to win? If they will gladly destroy our lives and we refuse to have our lives destroyed, how can we ever win?