Is There Hope?
Poverty increases among those i know living in these endangered mountains. The economy has been sucked dry fueling the greed driven never ending genocide. Women are disempowered, saddled with small children and the controlling silencing of too many men.
Who is standing for the children? I learn that an activist who has been a father for four months no longer is with the mother and child. She
has gone to live with her mother far away. The bachelor household could not provide privacy and peace for the baby and her. When the long time
bachelor living there told me of her departure, i simply said, "The needs of women and children are at the bottom of the priority list." I had
called the middle aged first time father to talk to him about my son, whose baby son was born July 3rd. His room mate was there instead. When
i hung up, i was not surprised at the outcome. I had been with that guy and my own daughter on the frontlines of Big Mountain back in 1986. He
never liked my child and we parted after less than 6 months. The needs of a mother are dreary to the professional bachelor. Period.
Why is there not a powerful unity among women to insist irrevocably on stopping the killing horror creeping up to torment us all? Instead, the
privileged consider leaving this shameful country and furthering shame by running away simply because they can. How selfish! As if we can run
from the madness cosuming the future in unprecendented bleakness!
Someone who i worked with once said "Hitler's Germany was the dress rehearsal for now." Yes, we are surrounded by good amerikkkans afraid to
speak up and act with clarity and courage. Too many ignore the desperation in our own communities, not to mention the world at large. How
discouraging.
To top it off, those who would act often have nothing to work with. I speak as one who has no income except for the bits of art i sell here and
there, a first time sum for some writing, the jobs i am forced to leave home to obtain, the contributions people make to use the phone or for the peace work i struggle to do. I never imagined i would have so little to support my child and me. I am grateful for our garden and that we know how to do without. Soon, we may face hunger. I pray it does not come to that, but why wouldn't it? I see no clear way out of this....
I hear about the laying off of nurses cause a hospital in Spokane no longer recieves funds from the feds for the very poor to be treated.
No, it is all going to kill and pay off the corps that profit from annihilation. Where is the outrage? People are stupefied to the extreme.
What bothers me the most is the continued sexism among men i have known for years and years, their minimization of harassment, rape and abuse,
their insistance that men are as abused by women and refusal to acknowledge the struggles mothers endure. At least i do not have to clean up
after someone who denies the value of my daily work. It is bad enough that the culture at large and the alternative one as well disregards the
years of cleaning, cooking, caring for others that women do day in and day out, year after year after year with no compensation whatsoever. When
i do break down and ask for occasional assistance from men in my family, i always must endure verbal abuse or sexual harassment in exchange for a ppittance that simply pays a few utilities and for groceried. Never any luxuries like maybe getting a bathtub installed so we don't have to use
a washtub in our tiny living room or a decent outhouse. No nothing like that.
Then there are the women who live on the streets, the teenagers, the elderly, the extremely vulnerable. I am wealthy in comparison. I do not
fear for my life every time i manage to get to sleep. I do have cold running water and a camper stove to heat it on. I do have trees and clean
air around me right now and a garden in the shade that does produce food anyway. My daughter can play outside without fear while we are home.
As winter approaches, we have to think of leaving since i do not have money to buy firewood or staples to get us thru the winter. I hate leaving
to work for wealthy people cleaning their indulgent homes, grooming their expansive yards. I do not have the right to live at home with my child.
I am forced to leave almost every year. Never make enough to save, just to get by. Staying in the homes of others who dictate what we do. Being
subjected to the moods and whims of others who do not have skills for coping with children or enduring sexism, classism, elitism....
Oh Creator help us! I simply wish to stop all war and provide my child with a potential healthy future. I wish to be part of insisting that
right for all mothers and their families. Why can't we do it?
Who is standing for the children? I learn that an activist who has been a father for four months no longer is with the mother and child. She
has gone to live with her mother far away. The bachelor household could not provide privacy and peace for the baby and her. When the long time
bachelor living there told me of her departure, i simply said, "The needs of women and children are at the bottom of the priority list." I had
called the middle aged first time father to talk to him about my son, whose baby son was born July 3rd. His room mate was there instead. When
i hung up, i was not surprised at the outcome. I had been with that guy and my own daughter on the frontlines of Big Mountain back in 1986. He
never liked my child and we parted after less than 6 months. The needs of a mother are dreary to the professional bachelor. Period.
Why is there not a powerful unity among women to insist irrevocably on stopping the killing horror creeping up to torment us all? Instead, the
privileged consider leaving this shameful country and furthering shame by running away simply because they can. How selfish! As if we can run
from the madness cosuming the future in unprecendented bleakness!
Someone who i worked with once said "Hitler's Germany was the dress rehearsal for now." Yes, we are surrounded by good amerikkkans afraid to
speak up and act with clarity and courage. Too many ignore the desperation in our own communities, not to mention the world at large. How
discouraging.
To top it off, those who would act often have nothing to work with. I speak as one who has no income except for the bits of art i sell here and
there, a first time sum for some writing, the jobs i am forced to leave home to obtain, the contributions people make to use the phone or for the peace work i struggle to do. I never imagined i would have so little to support my child and me. I am grateful for our garden and that we know how to do without. Soon, we may face hunger. I pray it does not come to that, but why wouldn't it? I see no clear way out of this....
I hear about the laying off of nurses cause a hospital in Spokane no longer recieves funds from the feds for the very poor to be treated.
No, it is all going to kill and pay off the corps that profit from annihilation. Where is the outrage? People are stupefied to the extreme.
What bothers me the most is the continued sexism among men i have known for years and years, their minimization of harassment, rape and abuse,
their insistance that men are as abused by women and refusal to acknowledge the struggles mothers endure. At least i do not have to clean up
after someone who denies the value of my daily work. It is bad enough that the culture at large and the alternative one as well disregards the
years of cleaning, cooking, caring for others that women do day in and day out, year after year after year with no compensation whatsoever. When
i do break down and ask for occasional assistance from men in my family, i always must endure verbal abuse or sexual harassment in exchange for a ppittance that simply pays a few utilities and for groceried. Never any luxuries like maybe getting a bathtub installed so we don't have to use
a washtub in our tiny living room or a decent outhouse. No nothing like that.
Then there are the women who live on the streets, the teenagers, the elderly, the extremely vulnerable. I am wealthy in comparison. I do not
fear for my life every time i manage to get to sleep. I do have cold running water and a camper stove to heat it on. I do have trees and clean
air around me right now and a garden in the shade that does produce food anyway. My daughter can play outside without fear while we are home.
As winter approaches, we have to think of leaving since i do not have money to buy firewood or staples to get us thru the winter. I hate leaving
to work for wealthy people cleaning their indulgent homes, grooming their expansive yards. I do not have the right to live at home with my child.
I am forced to leave almost every year. Never make enough to save, just to get by. Staying in the homes of others who dictate what we do. Being
subjected to the moods and whims of others who do not have skills for coping with children or enduring sexism, classism, elitism....
Oh Creator help us! I simply wish to stop all war and provide my child with a potential healthy future. I wish to be part of insisting that
right for all mothers and their families. Why can't we do it?
posted by swaneagle at 9:56 PM
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