Okay people; steel yourselves for a Brave New Reality. Christmas vacation (or whatever you celebrate, or don't) is over. I hope you all had love and companionship with the people who count most in your hearts. It's back to work now, back to the reality we now face. The time to pretend that we haven't just forever lost democracy as we know it is over. Are we going to sit on our hands or do something about it? Are we going to roll over in fear and disbelief at what we've been experiencing, continue to say,"this can't be happening. They wouldn't do that. They COULDN'T. Could they?" Just ask a holocaust victim if it could or did happen.
YES they CAN (no pun intended) do what they've been doing and worse, and they've been doing it for years while we've been fattened, poisoned, and seduced into sleeping through it all without a fight. History repeats itself againandagainandagainandagainandagain. It's extraordinarily frustrating that we humans seem unable or unwilling to evolve as a species.
if you want to skip the rest of the post, my list is here (scroll to bottom)
Some questions I've been asking myself are: Where have I colluded in perpetuating paradigms that oppress and destroy, just so I can have my "comforts?" Can I discern between wants and needs, what fills my soul and what takes from it? I believe these are just a few of many important questions to ask ourselves if we want to change anything - inside or out. It has to start within each of us. Forget new years resolutions: resolve just one thing: To wake up and stay awake, and to DO something, anything, besides just sit on your hands.
Together we're strong. Divided and downhearted, we're powerless and enraged in ineffectual ways, fighting and blaming our neighbors and not holding our oppressors accountable. Friends, just "thinking positive" or ignoring the world around us while acting locally (although most helpful and immediate) won't be enough to help the rest of the suffering on the planet, much of it generated by U.S, government/corporate policy and our unwillingness to let go of our cushy lifestyle. I believe it's essential that we each realize our connectedness to the greater whole and I would hope that realization would impel us to also act on their behalf. We no longer have the luxury for apathy or ignoring the greater whole. (and no, I'm NOT a communist!)
That's why I ask that we all find some way to donate any amount of money to one or more of the groups who fight for us - for our voting rights, the environment, social programs, human rights, health, basic rights for our physical bodies including women's right to choose, education, rights to eat organic non-poisoned food, freedom to speak our minds and hearts, freedom to rid ourselves of parasitic oppressors. Our basic freedoms are evaporating fast. The consitution is so eroded now that it is going to come under much more attack soon. Resistance is being crushed and if we don't keep resisting, that will get worse, not better.
It's imperative to fight the apathy and despair we're all feeling and not cave into the fear fed to us year after year; mostly by mainstream media and T.V. One way to fight apathy and hopelessness is to GIVE; time, energy, a voice, skills, money, care. Every day I get emails from the groups and media I subscribe to, asking for money. They need it to operate from day to day. They won't shut up or sell out, so they are continually in a state of barely paying the bills, yet they keep on working for us on a shoestring, thanks to our donations - however small - of money, time, and spreading the word to those who would help.
I post today in hopes that you will either donate to your favorite group, or at the very least post a list of deserving groups and organizations to your social networking groups. Make your own list or use an existing one and add to it. Check out some of the groups people name and maybe find new favorites. The idea is what's important. Pass the lists on and on and on; let's keep this thing going and compile a big list of networing with and for each other. (Taking a bit of time to sign and generate online petitions is effective, regardless of what you may hear.)
Networking ideas are also helpful. Here are a few of mine. Talk to local media people; ask to write a guest editorial and bring in the local aspect of how something statewide or national or global affects your locale. Bring a speaker to your town and have a town hall meeting. A law just passed that will help more local radio stations get started; if you don't like what you're hearing on mainstream media, start a local station with uncorrupted media!
Please dig deep into your pockets, people. Without these groups, times will be much harder for us all right away. It's so hard to choose just one group, but just think --- instead of silly "bought" commercial gifts every year that fill the landfills higher with toxins and are mostly made in China by slave labor, how about gifting a deserving group working for what few rights we have left, what if you could convince those on your gift list to do this too? That one simple act could do such great things for the planet.
Without whistleblowers, watchdog groups, environmental groups, and alternative media, we would have already lost everything years ago. So it is all the more imperative that we fight for what few rights we have left. We must be RELENTLESS in our calls, faxes, emails, petitions, and letters to our congresspeople and senators. Even if we think it doesn't work, we must let them know we won't stop. And we must support these groups who stick their necks out for us all. If a criminal like Tim Eyman can gut the state I live in with his horrible initiatives and stay out of jail for embezzling $200,000 of his own campaign money, we can certainly learn how to write initiatives for our own states, many of which seem incapable of figuring out how to balance a budget.
And yes, if you pray or meditate or wish or intend or go for a hike in Nature, keep doing that and really notice what is around you and appreciate all that we have. Some kind of spiritual/soul balance is paramount in keeping the heart from hardening from all that it must witness. May we all have a new year filled with positive and effective actions that back our words, thoughts, and fervent wishes.
My list so far (and growing):
Op Ed News
Audubon Society
Avaaz.org
CREDO action
Public Citizen
Huffington Post
Color of Change
Presente.org
Public Campaign
League of Conservation Voters
Greenpeace
Partners in Health
FreePress.net
Friends of the Earth
Sierra Club
Defenders of Wildlife
Organic Consumers Association
Truthout (Keith Olbermann's site)
GovTrack.us
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