Veterans Day Reflections

Please read this from my heart to yours on Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day and my deepest gratitude to all of the people and their families who have served our country.  As always the heroes at the very top of my list are the Vietnam veterans- particularly the Dust Off pilots and medics. They never ignored a call, never abandoned a mission. They flew into the depths of war, over and over and over again, to save life after life. They risked their own lives more times than any of us can imagine SO OTHERS MIGHT LIVE. These heroes were harassed, spit on, ignored, attacked, and horrifically disrespected by a nation divided over politics. Here our history stands as a powerful reminder- whatever our political views might be I hope we can respect and honor the heroes, continue to see each other as human, and to stand together in the face of hate.

While hate and politics have created great divisions, perhaps respect and gratitude can bridge a gap today as we all reflect on the service of our veterans. They have helped to uphold the ideals of our country-  particularly our freedoms- where we can stand and declare out loud whatever it is we believe in. Where we can speak out when we don't agree with decisions and policies of our government- where we can actively work to create a society we want to live in. Please continue to work to keep these ideals- even when you disagree with the beliefs or views of others.

So many have already begun the journey across the aisles that have divided us- while I must stand with all of my power and force against the hate that is spreading I absolutely stand with you my fellow citizens committed to making this country and our world a safer, more equitable society.

Thank you to our heroes who answered their call of duty to their country. And an enormous debt and respect is owed to the service people who served this country even when their country hasn't always upheld their rights- Native Americans, African Americans, women, LGBTQ people.

We can all continue to work to make sure we take care of our veterans after what they have sacrificed for our country. We need to step up for them as they have for us.

A special thank you to all the veterans in my life- you inspire me!!!

Happy Veterans Day! I am forever proud to be the daughter of Flatbush- a truly amazing leader who decades ago learned how to fly the hell out of a helicopter so that other might live! I love you dad and will always work to make you proud.

Recognize our humanity in each other

After the initial shock that we could allow such hatred to flourish, I have had great faith restored by the beautiful and most important people in my life tonight. I have watched us comfort and console, challenge and support each other in raw, difficult, and real ways.

Here's what I know- we all recognize change is needed- we all believe we can do better- as a country, as a world, but also as individual humans. So let's do that- let's do better. "When they go low, we go high"... And not just high cause pot is legal in more places but high where we continue to stand proudly in who we are, where we continue to use all of our voices in the name of good. Where we protect and honor each other more - because clearly we have already too often failed at that.

So stand for what you believe in, stand for justice, stand for hope, and equality.

If you wanted to completely flip American politics- congratulations you have succeeded- so now what will you do?

Now what will we as a county stand for? Will we really continue to decide our government should have a say in our bodies (I thought that small government idea was a thing- so why are there laws about my body)?
Will we really allow people to starve in front of our eyes?
Will we return to when our elders were left with even less than they have now? Will we take away healthcare from the most vulnerable?
Will we really take away the rights of loving couples to be married?
Do we sleep well at night turning away immigrants who pursue the American Dream?
Are we really okay with so many young black kids being killed?
Are we really okay with corporations as people?
Or that so many of our civil liberties are not being supported or upheld?
What will we stand for as a country?

Or as my internal optimist cling to the little shreds of hope- might we start to unravel the complexities of social issues and economic decisions we have tied together as if they are the same thing, might we begin to see how interdependent we truly are, might the insanity of how divided our nation has become allow us to unify around the central tenants for which we all stand?

If I let this election silence me, then I have surely weakened the causes I most believe in. If I let this election enliven the passion and commitment of my values, and so do you, then maybe we can be one step closer to a better world.
 Trumps's messages have been against everything I believe in- against diversity on all levels, bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableism bullshit - that is exactly what I as an anthropologist and a human reject. But maybe we can prove ourselves far better than that hate. Maybe when given the potential to destroy so many lives, maybe we can all decide on some basic decency and respect that we could share in common. My greatest hope is that we can recognize the humanity in each other once again- that's my mission as an anthropologist- that's why I teach. I want us to recognize our humanity in each other.

We have the power to do that- no government can take that from us or decide that for us. We the people create the world in which we want to live. So whoever is in office- maybe we can all search our hearts for compassion and maybe that can help unite us.

All I really know is that the people in my life are amazing- they are beautiful, intelligent, inspiring humans who are unbelievable forces of good in this world. I can sleep now- thinking of all of you out there working for a better world.

Pantsuit Nation Rising- November 8, 2016

PANTSUIT NATION RISING: (Nov 8, 2016)
The sun rises over Mt. Rainer as election day has finally arrived. So much rhetoric, propaganda, hate speech- far too many triggering lines shouted as victims relive horrible nightmares. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism given free reign - hate allowed to feaster and stew finally bubbling to the surface as we face a day for the first time in our history we have the power to elect a woman to the highest office in our land. 

The hatred and fear mongering has done its job- to scare and divide but an even more powerful force has risen in opposition- a nation of pantsuits!

Forums and places where people of all genders, races, backgrounds come together to not only cheer each other on and work to elect their candidate but to support, validate, and encourage one another. Their stories pour out over social media- 

A woman who lost her baby late in pregnancy kicked out of a hospital (a place supposed to protect and help her) and told to go to an abortion clinic where she must endure a FORCED ultra sound of the child she knows is already gone- prolonging a nightmare so painful there are not word to describe it. The pantsuits respond faster than the internet can sustain- "I'm so sorry for your loss", "we love you", "we are with you", "me too". The words of pantsuits all over the country rapidly filling page after page of support. 

Brave women sharing stories we know are far too common but as a society we have shamed into silence so that we might maintain our own comfort. Stories of abuse, of rape, of sexual assault- People courageously finding a cause worth breaking decades of silence for, worth typing words many have never been able to say out loud before. The pantsuit nation responses in thousands of voices "you are not alone", "we are here", "us too!"

Racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism apparently a campaign platform now - but voices emphatically declaring in response a refusal to let others define our own worth- supporting each other as a pantsuit nation rises to the call of justice, of decency, of the ideals for which this country was founded. 

Parents of children mocked in hatred for their differently abled minds and bodies- here demanding better of our country- calling on us all for more inclusion and compassion. And the pantsuit nation responds. 

Beautiful story after story erupt from this pantsuit nation - so many there are almost one hundred still waiting to post. Dying of cancer but determined to leave a mark on the world with their vote; in love with a partner some have told them they don't deserve to marry; children, parents, grandparents uniting together for a cause they believe in; women in labor refusing to bring their babies into this world until their vote is cast; stickers placed on the graves of suffragettes who risked everything so the women of this country could today have a say in their own democracy. 

A pantsuit nation rises- adorned in white in the name of brave women who have come before us, standing in power of a unity that transcends so many important social movements, supporting and uplifting each other in standing in our own power and combatting the hate that has always been there but now has been given a platform. The power of community demonstrated person after person as we declare each in our own ways, in our own voices that we matter, that we deserve respect and love and equality under the law, that our earth is worth fighting for. 

There is so much work to be done ahead- water protectors currently camped on the cold front lines of the fight demonstrating day after day the power of non-violent resistance, of doing what is right, of love in the face of hate. There is hatred and ignorance to combat, patriarchal oppressive systems to dismantle and change, humility and respect required for an environment we have treated as horribly as each other- so much work to do ahead. 

But as I watch the sunrise today, I have renewed faith. I adore my neck in the pearls of my great grandmother- who lived most of her life not being allowed to participate in this democracy, the ring of grandmother who was born two months after women gained the right to vote in the US, my white shirt honoring suffragettes and all who have stood in the face of great darkness to demand our country better uphold our ideals of equal rights for all, and of course my pantsuit. 

Watch this pantsuit nation rise! #imwithher #pantsuitnation #womenwithher #vote #pantsuitnationrising

Oneness

Transformation washes over me

As the world looks anew again and again

The freedom given by true love

Releases and unties me to a higher space.

I held on to being invisible and saw it as my weakness

I held on to feeling like no one, as if I needed to become someone

I feared my lack of memory as my own defect

I longed to fill the emptiness within through another’s greatness

And I believed that my lack of distinction from others was a sickness.

In trying so much to become seen by the world, I was resisting the calling of my own soul

To be no one in a world pushing each so desperately to become someone

As if what we already are is not the most powerful, strong, beautiful expression of existence

The illusions of this humanness disorienting and distracting

Convincing ourselves we are lost, we are alone, we are not yet enough, we must become a someone

Teaching ourselves and our children that love is something earned rather than the mystical birth rite of each soul.

To let go of those illusions is to know for a moment that we are a manifestation of oneness

The road of enlightenment is a path of forgetting and releasing

It is through embracing the emptiness, letting go of the fight to define oneself, and allowing each being to simple be as we already are.

What I see now is that which I most resisted and shamed in myself were my places of connection, evolution, and oneness.

To become one with the universe is to lose oneself

To become enlightened is to know the connection between all that is

To be in the moment is have no need of memory

The emptiness within when explored is the peace and vastness of the universal life force

So when I felt invisible, when I was no-one, when I was empty, when I was alone, I was being called home.

My humanness forever pulling me into illusions of separateness

The image of even a soul or higher self a continued illusion of the self.

My soul is the universe, it is the connection of all things, and is not mine as there is no me from which to contain or possess it.  

To live as a human is to shift between the pulls of illusion and those of knowingness.

I follow the pull, the calling, the motion moving through me, dissolving me, into the embrace of oneness.