Yesterday was International Women’s Day so what could be more appropriate than advocating reading than a book which lays out the ongoing conditions under which many girls and women do not thrive in our world while fighting to survive despite the odds against them? Via chapters presented as entries of significant words and phrases in The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary writer NoNieqa Ramos takes you directly into the inner world of Macy Cashmere–named for the store and the fine wool used in luxury clothing items–who puts the survival skills of the likes of Laura Croft Tomb Raider to shame. Suffice it to say that Macy has truly mad survival skills and an equally mad will to thrive no matter what the world throws, literally, at her. Now there’s one thing that’s crucial for you, the reader, to keep in mind: Macy’s world IS our world, your’s and mine, no matter what your level of reality denial may be based on the specific context in which you live, this is the truth. Savage Inequalities is not only the title of Jonathan Kozol’s indictment of educational inequity in America–which still exists. Savage inequalities is one way of describing the nature of the vastly differing statuses between females and males—unequal on multiple levels and viciously savage from the home-front to the war-fronts. Macy’s dictionary presents an indictment not of the educational system which far too often serves as an overburdened safety net for children, but of American culture which treats girls and women as sexual objects for exploitation and male gratification. If you don’t agree then quite possibly you’re living in a vacuum without a cleaner. I’m not going to argue the point as the media lays it all out there every day with ongoing reality checks from real life—no need for reality television shows which are pure fantasy yet often reflect this sad state of affairs. Now that that fundamental piece of ugly truth has been laid out (no sexual allusion intended) let’s let Macy take the lead. This is a first person narrative which speaks to readers without pulling any punches. Actually it throws very hard punches. Consider your children very lucky, and very privileged, if they have a home, stable family life, enough food to eat –at home–, access to a quality education, and your undivided attention whenever they need it. Macy Cashmere has none of these essentials. Macy is a designated “problem child” at school where she speaks her mind very freely–and is willing to pay the consequences for doing so. She knows the in-school behavior drills so well that at times she pushes the office buzzer herself after crossing lines. If she didn’t have such a strong voice and immense willpower who would pay any attention? School is not perfect, but it does throw life lines to Macy via the likes of Miss Black who sees and hears far more of Macy than she lets on and does what she can to feed and support Macy mentally, emotionally and physically. Oh the power of music, never underestimate it. Jazz pulls Macy’s trigger in all the right ways upon her first hearing of John Coltrane, A Love Supreme in Miss Black’s class.
Macy’s home world might be described as a mix of David Simon’s Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets of Baltimore and Dick Wolf’s Law & Order’s SVU–yes, it’s full of sex crimes and violence. If you think I’m pushing this too far, well, Simon’s book and Wolf’s series kept coming to mind while I followed Macy through her world. So that’s that–the power of references for creating connections. The difference is that it’s all seen and told from the viewpoint of a young teenage girl–not from the perspective of adults. Adult perspectives trickle in via Macy’s observations but they do NOT drive this narrative in her very personalized dictionary format. The chapter titled “I Have A Dream” has nothing to do with Martin Luther King’s speech except perhaps as its utter antithesis. Yet, Macy’s world is one created by adults–and not just her parents–and a system devised by adults and perpetuated by adults–and fought by other adults. Macy is a girl who knows how to effectively put to use whatever comes to hand to deal with important problems like a visit from CPS and the entrapment of her best friend by an oh so caring “uncle”: an all-purpose cleanser, a slave’s machete, a bag of cocaine. Make no mistake, nothing holds Macy back when she sets out to protect those she loves: her brother Zane, her friend George, her best friend Alma–for whom being Gifted & Talented is not enough to ensure escape from poverty, not by a long shot.
As if violence, drugs and wrecked home life aren’t enough challenges for the girls Macy represents there’s the entire SEX package to contend with. What matters to the males of our species? Breasts, bodies, and booty calls—those are what females are for–bottom line, that’s it. Brains never come into the picture. Heart never comes into the picture. It’s all a sex end game never-ending. At least that’s what Macy observes from her mother’s efforts to survive and the prostitutes like Velvet working the streets. Yes, Macy has issues with her mother. Issues so big they’re ethically trying. Ironically, Velvet does more looking out for Macy than her mother seems capable of on a good day with or without her “guests” who provide the necessities of life when Macy’s father goes to prison. Perhaps it’s because one good turn deserves another thinking–or maybe it’s just plain decency and fair play in Velvet’s books. Just because you’re stuck in the sex for hire business in order to eat doesn’t make you a bad person—far from it. But who would Velvet be with other options? What would Macy’s mother do with positive options? Think about that. Who would you be with no positive options in your life? Why do we do the things we do–and don’t? Macy’s dictionary entry:
Why
Noun: Reasons 1 and 2
Why do I hate? Because it’s so much easier than love. Because hate is reality. Love is a fantasy.
Why do I write? Le me break it down. Teacher Man taught us about something called haves and have-nots.
Via the words that really matter and their meanings for this very “disturbed girl”, Nonieqa Ramos deftly gives Macy Cashmere not just a voice but a ROAR impossible to ignore. Ramos does this so effectively that her writing makes it look easy–the sign of real greatness in every art and skill. It’s not difficult to read the writing and words on the pages–but it gets downright nerve-racking to take in the content the words portray. Macy Cashmere’s dictionary is disturbing—it’s supposed to be. It’s a book meant to shake you up and rattle your brain pan. Macy Cashmere is here to wake people up not lull them into sleep at bedtime. How would you go about saving your best friend from the worst daily grind you can imagine? What are machetes for? I don’t think that qualifies as a spoiler. Hmm, naw, just a hook for Macy’s line of action in this microcosm of the world in which we live. Have you asked your teenage girl what’s going in her life lately? If not, you need to get on that right now, because the issues faced by Macy Cashmere are everywhere. If you don’t know what those issues are then you need to read The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary asap because it’s only a matter of degrees.
One older white male neighbor’s smoldering pit fire.
Who burns ‘whatever’ in a pit all day and night long when it’s been dry as hell?
An older white dude used to doing whatever he wants.
Late this morning–after I’d put out seed and water:
One younger white dude living in the house next to the fire starter’s saw the fire reach the wood pile along the fence.
Young white dude did nothing.
He thought it was “a grill thing”.
There is NO grill anywhere in sight in any yard.
It was our Mexican American neighbor, Edgar, who lives on the other side of the block who came to the front door and told me about the fire along the fence separating our yards.
He wanted to know if he could use the hose to put out the fire by the fence.
Together we went to work with shovels and hoses.
His wife called the electric company to alert them to the danger to the electric ‘box’ on the ground
There were English as a second language ‘language’ and location issues.
A map would have been very useful for the person answering the electric company phone. As in for seeing that the addresses on one side a block are on a different street than those on the other side of a block along another street. So much for Google maps if you’re working for the Power and Light Company.
We sorted that communication problem out via my resorting to what is commonly known as “bitch” mode in very loud English.
The Power and Light person kept repeating “Call 911.”
I asked her to call 911–she had the address–because WE , Edgar and I, were busy keeping it contained.
A man from Power and Light came to check the ground electric box.
The fire department did not put in an appearance.
The fire is out.
Which neighbors can I do WITHOUT?
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Standing Rock
Today
Wherever YOU be
When YOU wash your face and hands think of Standing Rock
When YOU bathe your children think of Standing Rock
When YOU clean your food think of Standing Rock
While YOU go about Your day think of Standing Rock
When YOU drink water today think of Standing Rock
When YOU flush your toilet today think of Standing Rock
When YOU shower today think of Standing Rock
When YOU make coffee today think of Standing Rock
When YOU wash clothes today think of Standing Rock
When YOU drink tea today think of Standing Rock
When YOU turn on a hose today think of Standing Rock
When YOU see the sky today think of Standing Rock
When YOU walk on the Earth think of Standing Rock
When YOU are kissed by the wind think of Standing Rock
When YOU think of Standing Rock think of our sisters and brothers Protecting the Water.
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Get informed. Raise your voice. Use your talents. Reach out and engage however you can. Do not put this on the back burner. Do not wait for another day. Do not wait for more time. There is no more time. The time is now. The place is Earth. It’s the ONLY home you’ve got. Finding water on Mars is of no use to you or me or anyone’s children. We can’t just f—the Earth and fly away into space. Star Trek is not reality. Scottie will not be beaming anyone to a nice safe place–and definitely not to any quaint islands whose people are watching the sea rise even as I type.
400 ppm CO2 is here to stay while all of us are alive.
Climate Change is real. It’s happening now. If you’re not feeling it yet, you will. I guarantee it.
~~~
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Just for fun: Jordan’s Ranting Vent on the New York Times’ FAIL reporting on Standing Rock– Heads up, foul language in profusion. Hey, it’s a RANT! It’s to be expected. If you want nice and polite tune into the PBS News Hour.
#WaterIsLife
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Who cares about R2D2 when you’ve got a Water Warrior Drone Scout? Is there anything cooler? Yeah, well Dakota Access Pipeline Layers and the Morton County Sheriff’s forces are not too fond of them. I do not understand why they keep shooting at drones. Actually I do and so will you after seeing what drones can show and tell. Still, what does a helicopter have to fear from a drone? I don’t know, but apparently they’re capable of “stalking” with ill intent. A malicious drone? Huh. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll do that bird flying into the blades or engine or something. Yep. Instead of getting into all that, here’s a few Digital Smoke Signals from Myron Dewey’s drones. If you click through to YouTube you can see more and subscribe. Take a load off and enjoy the views that you have NOT seen on mainstream news.
Drone Day Shift-ing.
Drone-ing at night.
After being asked nicely by the feds to stop construction ETP/DAPL did their usual thing–work.
Why not take a load off on the day after Thanksgiving, sleep in, then lounge around in your pajamas with family and friends?
Why not have a stress free no shop till you drop day this coming Friday?
Loiter in the living room listening to music, linger over leftovers, binge on favorite flicks, have a pumpkin pie party, play with your kids, spoon with your significant other, do anything but shop.
Why not?
Take some time out and chill out after all the political reality show insanity–which will probably still be ongoing when you return to the work week on Monday morning. If you need to detox this would be a good time to do it.
Tune out the non-stop advertising triggering your inner shop junkie addiction. Take another route to gift giving this season. Get creative and innovative about experiences, quality time, and engagement with those you love.
Why not give up emptying your wallet into the pockets of corporate CEOs?
Why not donate your time and/or money to a cause that you and a loved one believe in?
Why not spend the time you’d spend shopping for plastic toys actually playing with your children?
Why not invite friends over for a song and dance party as a gift?
Why not?
And if the corporate profit margins don’t cross the red line in to the black profit margin so what? What does corporate America do besides promote consumerism for its own executive gain? Oh and don’t forget that corporations pour money money money into politics for their own agendas serving only their interests. If you think they’re interested in serving your interests you’re delusional.
When you must shop, why not shop only at small, independent business struggling to compete with chain stores?
It’s all about value and values. What are yours?
One way to create positive change is to change how we spend our money–where, on what and why. Because yes money does talk–and we can direct the discourse when we make ours walk in directions of our choice.
So why not take the stress out of this Thanksgiving and take a time out from the tragic comedy aka political farce. Detox and recharge your personal batteries.
The bottom line is that no one really needs to shop at all this Friday.
Why not stay home and eat bonbons while watching all the episodes of Firefly then Serenity? Or whatever trips your stress relief trap.
Why not?
Detox. Refresh. Revive.
Oh and drink plenty of water because Water Is Life.
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Respect to PBS News Hour’s William Brangham for getting Warren out in the open and speaking his mind in full view of the public at large on public television.
Permit or not, it sounds like ETP/DAPL intends to do just as it pleases. Who is going to stop them? The Army Corps of Engineers?
Apparently not according to Myron Dewey’s drone video which shows the drill ‘appearing’ at 3:16 am on Nov. 16, after the statement by the Army Corps of Engineers for work to halt while they do their ‘research.’.
Hmm, yeah, let’s let this “play out for a couple of weeks” as President Obama says. Hmm. yeah, let’s do that while Kelcy Warren’s partners thumb their noses at everyone.
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What can I say? Really what is there left to say at this point? If you’ve been following events at Standing Rock there’s nothing to share because you’ve seen and heard it all via social media and alternative press–with a few blips on mainstream media when it’s convenient or a ‘filler’ report is needed or they’ve been hounded into coverage by celebrities. It’s down to the wire as to what President Obama and the Army Corps of Engineers will or will not do regarding the Dakota Access Pipelene that no one wants except Energy Transfer Partners. What can I say? What would Obama do if they wanted to run that pipe down the Mall in DC?
What can I say?
That racism still runs rampant in North Dakota just as it did when the region was part of the Dakota Territory before state-hood?
That Big Oil Companies continue to ravage the land and water without check in the United States of Corporate Owned America?
That the militarized state of the American police is on full view at Standing Rock–and mainstream media doesn’t want to touch it with a hundred yard pole and the President is steadfastly unwilling to address it?
What self-respecting journalist would NOT want to cover what’s going at Standing Rock where unarmed Water Protectors are going up against an Armed Police presence which serves only the interests of Big Oil while getting to give vent to its own home-grown racism? It’s the kind of story journalists have wet dreams about. Or they used to. Or maybe only the likes of Sinclair Lewis and Edward Morrow did. (I write that last with FULL respect for all the independent journalists doing their best on the ground at Standing Rock.)
If there were hundreds of pretty blue-eyed blondes facing off with police anywhere have no doubt the mainstream media would zero in on them like a heat seeking missile and never let go until it drank the story cup to its driest dredges. Journalists would be swarming all over those attacks with pepper spray, batons, strip searches, dog kennels, rubber bullets, grave descerations, arrests of independent journalists, violations of civil and human rights like flies on a slice of cheese on a hot summer day.
Maybe that’s what’s required–thousands of white people going toe to toe with Morton County Police aka ETP/DAPL’s security force–a police force which ironically is now at least $10 Million in debt for playing toady to the oil business (according to one local news report Morton county thinks the feds will ante up for their security efforts. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out for them.)
Or maybe not. I think the problem runs even deeper than skin color and culture and language to core values.
That’s where the crux of the problem lies: The values of corporate mainstream media, Big Business, the President of the United (sort of) States, the Army Corps of Engineers and the dominant culture are in direct conflict, 180 opposition to the values of the Standing Rock Lakota, their Indigenous and Non-native allies and everyone else who loves the Earth –with or without humans running amok on it.
Rampant capitalism, greed, exploitation of the Earth’s resources without a care beyond the goddamned almighty profit margin VERSUS honoring the Earth and all other living beings it supports; a formerly perfect planet with a formerly perfect ecosystem for supporting an immense diversity of life.
It’s Death versus Life.
It’s Oil versus Water.
It’s the value system which claims Earth is a but a resource for non-stop consumption versus the value system which claims Earth is our Mother which allows us the ability to live and thrive as long as we Honor and Cherish it by living in harmony and balance with our environment and non-human relatives.
It’s the illusion of control and dominance of Nature versus graciously living in our place in the web of life.
But, hey, you probably already have thought all this out.
So–what’s next?
What will happen when ETP/DAPL lays pipe under the Missouri River? Does anyone really think an acting without a permit fine will stop them? In our more idealistic moments we like to think so in a fair game. But this is not a fair game played by nice players willing to obey a set of rules. The oil industry is not bluffing, it really is an absolutely ruthless business run by people perfectly willing to LIE endlessly about the reality of Climate Change and make no apologies for it. Exxon, Chevron, Shell–all you have to is check their histories in the Amazon, Niger Delta and in the Gulf of Mexico to get the point–if you don’t have it already. These people do NOT play fair. They do what they please–until it blows up–literally–in their faces. And even then they go right back to business as usual.
Oh wait, if the pipeline isn’t laid at Standing Rock and gets rerouted elsewhere is not the same problem still on the books for potential contamination of the soil and water?
Change is in order.
Climate Change is coming one way or another.
Ask Mother Nature what’s on her agenda. Perhaps her answer is on the winter wind so cold it hurts to breathe. Perhaps a touch of global warming would be welcome at Standing Rock, North Dakota where the cold freezes bones and ices the air it sucks from your lungs. Ask the buffalo what they prefer.
#NoDAPL
#WaterIsLife
#HonortheEarth
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