Be the 1%?

Hi Maggie,

I don't know how you can sit and listen to that.  I get so upset, I cry, I lose it.  It's too much.  It's too sad. It's too overwhelming.

And yet, it happens and I know it happens.

The rapists and users are middle aged, white, married, employed daddies.  They are the ones who have figured out how to succeed within this system.

But there is something wrong with this system. The masses are enslaved to support the 1%.  The Earth is raped and owned, objectified.  Animals are owned, objectified, and oh yeah, part of the industry is the rape rack.   Women are owned, objectified, raped.  So are the men who are least like the 1%.

But those who are akin to the 1%, they are given a little. They are allowed to be slightly better than those of us who are actual, obvious slaves.

In order for this system to work, we all have to be oppressed.   I know damn well that those "consumers" of pain and innocence were preyed upon.  I know it.

I know our Dad could only molest his children because his Dad did it to him, and so the chain goes back into our black and slightly royal past...because who were the 1%?  Royalty.  I'm pretty sure that's where it started for us.

And to be a man in this violence - what does it take to appear successful?...Be strong, do what has to be done. Ignore the pleas of the weak.  Be strong, don't show emotion, don't show weakness, no matter what they do to you. Be strong, leave your competitors choking in your dust - don't stop, don't look back, success is only for the strong, those who take care of themselves...

By protecting these men, these rapists, I think that maybe, at a deeper level, rather than protecting their reputation, we are protecting the system.  The system thrives on the pain of using whoever is below you.

The military always stands out as a symbol for me. I read that 80% of female military report being sexually harassed.  I have read articles about women soldiers dying in Iraq of dehydration. They do not drink during the day to avoid having to walk to the latrine in the dark. If they walk outside, they are raped by our own men.  Our side attacks itself - male against female, the worthy - those most like the 1% - versus the lesser being.  This week I read an article about a man trying to report his sexual assault in the military. Can you imagine how hard it must be to be a male and ask for help?  Men are supposed to be strong, emotionless, self-sufficient.  The response - further assaults.  You can bet he was a man not like the 1% in some way - not tall enough, not white enough, not blue-eyed enough, not manly enough.

It just hit me that some of the power that comes from the "consumers", from the young man I wrote about earlier this week who was taunting a black man for no other reason than the color of his skin, there is an inner belief that we want to be like them.  There seems to be an underlying understanding that we all want to be white, male, wealthy.  I saw it in the man's eyes as he made monkey sounds at the black photojournalist...I saw the entitlement. I saw the surety that he was highest, and therefore allowed to behave in a cruel manner.

But rape, sexual assault, I am also convinced it releases pain.  It numbs.  It may become addictive.

So we can say these are simply bad men, or maybe they can soften, be vulnerable, admit who did it to them, so others can remember.  Others can say, Me, too, and change.

The big question is - do we want this system to crash?  Because this objectification is the basis of our western civilization which is threatening to dominate the whole world. Looking at child exploitation, looking at sex slavery, looking at environmental issues,all the issues...they are all about the few owning and controlling all.   If it goes down we will all be dumped into turmoil.  And who knows what our species will look like when we emerge.

I'm willing. I trust humanity.  I do not trust this inhumane mindset which is threatening to destroy all.

Didn't know I was thinking this, but I guess I am.

Love and hugs from Clare

worthy ones

Clare,

I spent an hour listening to a lecture on childhood sexual exploitation this afternoon…
I still have an hour more to get through.
It is truly disturbing to hear the statistics, theories, characteristics of the "consumers"…
It is all about failing to see the other as a human being.
I wouldn't treat an animal that violently…
why violate a young human?

The woman giving the lecture runs an agency that helps the victims…
she said they are branching out to help males and transgendered youth as well.
Why is this so ubiquitous?
Why don't we see any one as worthy unless they are white, middle aged males?
Most "consumers" are white, middle aged, married men with kids and a job…
but they are the ones that count…
theirs are the reputations worth protecting…
theirs are the lives that might be ruined if the truth were told.

I heard a news story about the Korean women asking for reparation and having no voice in the negotiations. Traumatized again and again.

Women's lives don't matter…
unless, maybe you are the mother or sister of one of those middle aged, white males…
wait, no- even that's not protective.

The laws are improving. Being caught with a sexually exploited child carries the same punishments as pimping them…at least that's a step in the right direction.

I am not sure I'd like to live in the tropics…
I love the seasons…
I could live without air-conditioning though…
it gives me headaches.

I'd love for youth share more books…
I'm working hard right now to put this course together…
but once that's done I will have time for reading again.

Love and Light beautiful sister,
Maggie

woman-trash

Hi Maggie,

Daniel Quinn is a favorite. I read Ishmael years ago, and have read it at least twice.  I have another of his books here I will share with you. I need to send your Christmas gift which has now become a birthday gift, which will be late. We are having white out conditions on slippery roads. Nothing got done today.

The book I'll share is The Story of B,  and B is the blasphemer. 

I will sort of undecorate later this week. It's only the Tenth Day of Christmas.  We are still supposed to be celebrating.

It is cold. I know it was colder for longer last year. I know. But I still don't like this.  I look forward to global warming.  I was thinking about how much less heat we will need, which will be a great saving of resources. Now we just have to train people to stop turning the air  conditioning so low in the summer. I hate going into the grocery store in July. I need a sweater to go inside.  Then, some days, when I walk back out, I walk into a wall of heat. It is awful.

I know I've mentioned this before, but Earth is a tropical planet in her natural state. When she returns to her natural state, we'll be able to just live...no more heating and cooling. We can just live - and maybe garden year round.  And get used to green Christmas - if there is even a Christmas.

I just watched a short video of a very emotional, older Korean woman trying to ask a government official why he accepted reparation and apologies from Japan on her behalf without talking to her or any of the other women who were forced into sexual slavery to service Japanese soldiers during the war.  She reminded him that these women, she and her fellow slaves, were all still here, ready to be witnesses to what happened.  He was trying to get her to sit down and listen, but he was not listening.He was just smiling and waiting for an opening so he could get her to sit.

She was just a women, another hunk of meat to be used as needed.

She asked if he ignored her because she was a woman? Because she was old? Because she was not educated?

I felt sick. I felt sick for these women, and for this system that makes men feel they deserve anything they want to rape...then not think of themselves as rapists.  They think of themselves as men, although they have just betrayed their own humanity, and are truly less than men.

More mental illness, I think...

Something for me to think on...

Read another article also, discussing the huge amount of sexual abuse that happens in military families..

More to think on...

Love and hugs from Clare

overdone

Clare,

I agree that stereotypical name calling and assumptions are the result of mental illness…
I also know it is fear based…
easily creating other in one word.
I hate when I hear those derogative words being spoken freely…
it immediately makes me uncomfortable.
I am reading a book called Ishmael…
it's about a teacher and a student.
the teacher is a gorilla…
the student, a middle aged man who water to change the world when he was a younger man.
The lesson is connection to the world and each other…
it is powerful…
it needs to be read…
the copyright is 1992.
How do these things escape us? or me?
I'm glad I'm reading it now.
I may suggest it to meeting as their next book selection.

I'm not feeling too well tonight…
queasy…
tired…
overdone.

I un-decorated my house today. That's always a sad day for me. The "magic" is over.
I like my stuff back out though…
it's comfortable…
and familiar.

I'll check back tomorrow.
Love and Light beautiful sister.
Maggie

N-word

Hi Maggie,

I moved and stacked wood for about an hour today. I feel it in my thighs, in my abs.  I forget to go outside sometimes. I forget that I need to go outside - psychologically and emotionally almost as much as physically.  While I was outside, I was completely surrounded by raucous sounds that seemed to be coming from everywhere.  Finally, I looked up and there was an immense V of Canadian geese moving south.  Somehow they knew there was a really cold front coming tonight, and they are moving. I know because of the Weather Underground.  I wonder how they know.  S#5 told me that the cherries are blossoming near DC.  I read that an air mass moved across us, and up over the Arctic.  The air mass is 50 degrees higher than the normal temperature. Some scientists predicted that would melt the polar caps.   We have crazy flooding in the midwest, snow storms in the southwest.  This week I read that the Earth was hit by a solar flare. If it had been one magnitude higher, we all- all of us, on the whole planet, we all would have lost electricity.

Then I started reading a Native American prophecy. It said this change is going to be remorseless, but cleansing.

So all we can do is relax, hold on and love everyone and everything as hard as we possibly can. 

I watched a video that also shook me.  There was a photojournalist documenting the work of a group of activists working to educate everyone about fracking.  This big white guy, probably in his mid-30s, wanted to go make fun of the hippy-dippies.  Then he saw this photojournalist, who was not only black, but had dreadies.  He began to tell the photographer that he was the root of our problems, his taking things from us.  He called him names and made monkey sounds at him.  The photojournalist very calmly continued filming the young white man.  Because no one was standing up to him, he just kept going on. And on. And on...

The video has been posted, and the white man, who was identified, lost his job.  He was forced to apologize to the photojournalist. 

I was shocked by the depth of the white man's fear and ignorance.

I'm not sure if losing his job was the best solution, although if I were an employer, I certainly would not want an employee this rude and mean and ignorant. But losing his job - I think the white guy will feel even more put down by the scary people who look different than him.  It may make his mental illness go deeper. This was a chance to maybe transform thinking...

We all need to take AVP!

One seriously strong thought came to me, though.  Nigger is not about the color of skin. (I am so afraid to write and say that word.  I'd rather FUCK!  Mom did well!)  Nigger is about mental illness. Anyone who uses this word is displaying a serious symptom of a mental illness, and they need treatment.

Unless, of course, it is someone disempowering the word by making it their own.

Back to my quiet Sunday afternoon, with no one in my house...ahhhhhhhh...the dogs are asleep...ahhhh...and so are the cats. We're hunkered down, waiting for the bad weather to arive!

Hope you are nestled in, too.

Love and hugs from Clare

trust-n-love-n-faith

Hi Maggie,

I love the deep, deep wisdom in recognizing that the answer is simple, but not easy.  It always comes back down, to me, to taking that step through fear.  That seems to be the essence of trust. Walking up to that palpable, but invisible, wall of fear, then stepping through it.

You are also absolutely correct that trust goes both ways.  Understanding that is absolutely loving and accepting... 

It's sort of hitting me that trust and love are connected. (I mean, I knew that, but it seems that I am seeing the connection from a different perspective.)  Maybe love is the outward symptom of inward trust...maybe.  And both are the opposite of fear. Kind of crazy to think about it like this.

I honor your husband for considering this so carefully.  Taking responsibility for two more kids, kids who have been hurt - that's big.  But it's doable.

And maybe this will melt him a little, let him enjoy a life run amuck...or more deeply - it will get him out of his fifth chakra, where we only feel safe is we are in control.  And get into the sixth chakra, the green chakra, where we float down the river of life in faith that we are fine.

I am wandering around the house looking for chocolate.  Unfortunately, when I went to the store, I bought kale. And Swiss chard. And a rutabaga. 

Writing this morning, and my youngest called and asked if I wanted to go have lunch with her. Yes!  But the writing was actually going well.  Two days ago I opened the document, and stared at it.  Then finally I ordered myself to write just one sentence.  Good grief, it can be changed later.  Then I went to bed, and in the dark, I knew what to do next.

I like that!!

Do you have resolutions?

Love and hugs from Clare

trust

Clare,

My New Year's Eve was pretty quiet and challenging.
Husband came home from work in a very difficult mood. He is overwhelmed by life right now…
hospital takeovers…
financial concerns…
potential retirements of colleagues...
raising our kids…
fostering 2 other kids.
I listened as he spoke and could only come up with one word…
Trust.
I asked him to trust that the divine universe was leading and all we have to do is follow.
He has so much discomfort with letting go of control.
It is out of his comfort zone.
I see him struggle…
and yet the answer is simple…
but never easy…
Trust

We had the young men over yesterday. It was comfortable…they fit in nicely here.
And yet, I kept judging what I thought his thoughts were minute by minute.
I had to let it go and ask for trust in husband…
trust…
it goes both ways.

Love and Light beautiful sister,
Maggie