So tonight I embrace the cold. Call it in—cold is what we need, to cool the overheated earth, to bring back the rains. I offer up the fire, to the snowy plover, to all the endangered species, to everything and everyone whose simple birthrights are stolen. Let this be the Solstice magic. Tides turn. Miracles happen. Out of darkness, light is born. […]
|
|
||
|
During Obama’s State of the Union message, I was scheduled to give a talk at Northern Arizona University on “Women Taking Action: Using the Insights of the Feminist Movement.” As part of it, I decided to write the State of the Union as if Obama were suddenly possessed by the spirit of the nurturing, caring, […] Organizing after an Obama victory is like bicycling with the wind at your back, instead of peddling into a stiff head wind. I’ve lived and organized through the victories of Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush, and believe me, this is better! And we have a lot of organizing to do. […] Yet, here I am. Do I really need to do this? Well, yes. Why? Because in the end, it always comes down to the streets. When the greed, the hypocrisy, the assaults on our freedoms, our pockets, our future and our common sense go so far beyond the level of toleration, there’s no substitute for the outrage of the streets. […] Today my friends are in Copenhagen protesting at the Climate Change Forum. I’m in Cazadero, doing my bit for climate change by trying to get my microhydro system working now that the rains have come. […] I like to drum for actions. As long as I’m drumming, I believe I’m absolved from screaming and chanting… […] Every freedom we cherish, every great change, every liberation of a slave or shift in conciousness or small increase in justice was won in just this way—in the streets by people who mostly felt at the time that they were losing. […] What does political action do? Does it matter that a dozen of us spent a day standing in the sunshine, holding signs, talking to tourists? I believe it does matter. We calculated over a thousand people will have seen our signs. They’ll wonder what ‘350’ means, and what it has to do with climate change? They might click on 350.org and find out that this action is one of 4000 worldwide. They’ll marvel that even in our remote corner of the world, people are concerned about the issue. We’re everywhere! […] |
    |
|