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Activists Envision the Future
Beyond the Resistance!

As l992 drew to a close we ended a year of honoring our resistance and survival over the past 500 years. It's now time to think about the "Beyond" part of this international campaign. Where do we go from here and how?

This is where the activists finally COME OUT of the trenches to give us their visions of the next 500 years and ideas we can use to achieve these visions.

"A Time to Reprioritize"

Pauline Pfandler, Sebastopol, Feminist Theatre:

"What is past this present dominator culture? It is a time to return to listening to our inner authority. A time to relinquish our addiction to consumerism, power over people and fear. A time to reprioritize to what's really important within a person's life: self expression, art, music, dance, passionate sex between equals and love, attention and respect to both our elders and our children be they biological or not

"Solidarity between People of Color"

Anita Poree, Kenwood, Multicultural activist:

"500 Years of Resistance and Beyond...what's in store? I DON'T HAVE A CLUE! All I can deal with is NOW and the fallout from 500 years of oppression and blatant genocide aimed at Indians and other People of Color on this continent. All I can deal with, at this time, is honoring the incredible feat of brilliant survival by Indian people of this land. It takes all I have to stay empowered, self determined and encoouraging of Indian descended, African descended and all other People of Color, to be warriors for one another, not against one another.

But I do know that we are here to stay and we are in a profound cycle of cultural and spiritual regeneration. Since the Columbus invasion we have fought with weapons of war to logic, from treatied cooperation to tactic compromise. All of which has been very enervating to the spirit under the deceptive, ever changing criteria of the insatiable Amer-Euro appetite for dominance.

Race, as a ploy, is a contrived Euro-American misconception. As a result, it has become a handy power tool used for carving out those insidious steps to genocide. Racism-vs-genocide is usually tauted as two separate concepts, but I would submit to you that it is one move toward the eradication of a people, period. Currently it wears the harmonious smiling face of ethnic absorbtion and the melting pot theory. This new age "one- ness" (of racism/genocide) is being used to keep us off balance in order to justify and maintain the theft of our lands, culture and labor. We are no longer willing to fit ourselves into the "white is right" model and it is crucial we follow through on our heritage healings or there will be no "beyond" from the last 500 years.

As of this moment toward "beyond" it is the "job" of all we People of Color to loudly define and declare ourselves according to OUR standards and needs, not from the so called power structures' homogeneous terminology or dehumanizing perspective. We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into Amer-Euro value persuasions that are set-ups for our cultural and spiritual annihilation. We must pursue nourishment from the ancient ways in our cultural memory and strength from our ancestors, of which we are the sum total.

This is our time for demonstrative empowerment and celebration. And in assurance, there truly is no need for white fright/flight/panic/backlash.

In order to create and develop more viable systems of inclusion, empowerment and mutual respect we must, from this point on ALL work for:

To name but a few objectives toward the goal of a more healthy, whole America.

From this 500 year point on, we must vow to sing celebrative in the voices of our full cultural and ethnic selves, We Indian, We African, We Latin, We Asian, We Pacific ones. And we invite Euro-Americans into appropriate layers of the circle, not in dominance or as our salvation, rather in alliance by mutual consent and respect. No doubt, we will all experience the pain of denial or resistance to change to some degree. But it is necessary for us to allow ourselves to pass through our unhealthy fears re: change, in order to come out on the other side of our whole selves. This is a must, or there will be no "beyond" this 500 year mark, only a sad repeat of what has been/is."

"Rethink the 'Melting Pot" Model."

Mary Moore, Camp Meeker, Justice Activist:

"We must work fulltime to eliminate ALL the isms based on race, gender, class, age, and sexual preference. These are the basic justice issues that must be resolved before there can be any peace on this earth. The responsibility for this change in attitude rests on those in the dominant culture who think least about these issues. Whites, men, heterosexuals, middle and upper class people must rethink this societal garbage or there will be a need for an ongoing resistance to it and that goes for the subtle variations on the "isms" as well as the more overt. That includes rethinking the "MELTING POT" theory which many white liberals assume is a progressive one. The various cultures represented on this planet are rich in tradition, wisdom and self expression and must remain intact-not melted together. We can learn from and enjoy each others cultures and celebrate our diversity, where there is mutual respect and equality.

To achieve equality means that the institutionalized power differences have to change also and that means working to end the corporate/government/banking/military alliance that literally programs our lives. That means working toward the eventual end to governments and empowering people to become self-governing. (I know, I know, but this is a vision!) Within the progressive community some real progress will come when the"Old Left" and the "New Age" finally listen to each other. The "Old Left" sorely needs a spiritual base and the "New Age" needs a common sense grounding in the power politics and economic realities of this world. They have much to teach each other. Neither point of view is right or wrong. It's a balance that we need to work toward.

Other parts of this vision include the decentralization of food production and utilities and the practice of bio-regionalism; the use of HEMP to save the environment and ease suffering; a flea market and farm market in every community to facilitate recycling and encourage local production; use of financial resources for rehab centers not prisons; daily massages for all who wish them and the elimination of building inspectors.

And finally, ignore the damn deficit! Shine it on!! Pay off the school children and elders on fixed income who are stuck with worthless government bonds but let the fat cats and foreign governments eat it!!"

"The Left Needs a Spiritual Foundation."

Michael Agnew, Camp Meeker:

"Life on the left appears to be coming more hazardous all the time, fraught with the perils of pseudo-anarchy, infiltration, pathological dissidence, selective (elitist) activism, and spiritual poverty!

Why the fragmentation? Why the staunch differentiation? Why the dissolution of communal thought? What's missing? These questions may not be as hard to answer as we think, for as sure as an individual's cry for help in spiritual struggle is mad and unhappy, so is the cry of the masses.

Top on the list of spiritual bankruptcy is the North American white person. A human being of the melting pot variety with no real roots of his own. An individual accustomed to borrowing and plagarizing the rites and cultures of indigenous people, because they have no culture of their own. It is the habit of the white American to take by force or deception the things they think will make them secure and happy and usually at the expense of a minority's contentment. The bully in the schoolyard taking the smaller kid's lunch money? It is apparent that Christianity with its idioms, hypocrisies, and high price can no longer satisfy the hunger of a spiritually berefit people and hence we (white folks) have attempted to adopt inwardness by burglary or finance. I wonder how much money has been spent on Eastern gurus with their "laughing all the way to the bank" ministrations, or the white American "quick fix" outfits like est and Lifespring? I wonder even more if it has done any damn good!

The white American status quo of taking whatever we want has become painfully preposterous, and contrary to what Bush says, people around the world do not love us, even when we pay for it. Like our dependence on oil from abroad, we also depend on other cultures to oil our spiritual machinery. A big problem here is we end up practicing our borrowed faith half assed and lose interest when the method is no longer trendy or the money runs out. We also have a habit of making everything garish and noisy such as waving styrofoam tomahawks at baseball games, and sitting around pseudo-pow wows hoping like hell something will happen. Now, channeling is cultish and cute, and most of its spiritualists are in the bad actor catagory. I know, I'm an actor. A channeler I saw had actually plagarized quips, tricks and voices that another channeler had put on tape. So maybe we need something original!

An original change of events occured in the sixties that marked the beginning of a spiritual revolution that seemed almost specifically designed for the bogged down Western chakras. L.S.D. cracked the seal on egoism, and opened the lid on free-form dimensionality and love. In this era people became willing to share their territorial imperatives, their food, cars, friends, and passing the joint around was natural. We had our chance and bungled it. Now we must cast our eyes in neglected places.

A mass healing is in order. No-no, we don't need to gather at the river and get bunch-dunked or travel to vortexes or beat on empty drums or even go to Church. Christianity will offer us a wine gone sour by too much time on the shelf and guidelines that actually tether the soul rather than free it.

Even the most dedicated Westerner will have difficulty adopting Eastern philosophy and discipline due to heavy programming in the Western arena.

So what will work for our dismembered ranks? No one is really wrong here, just confused. People are, as a family, attempting to tear away our singular and used skin-we are shedding-nature demands it!! An increasement of awareness.

The most legitimate of the approaches to self awareness is the didactic the self help programs, and this approach is accepted everywhere in the world, as well as being western as hotdogs. There are no bosses which should loosen up the granite like anarchists. There is no heirarchy or paid leaders or financial installments. There is no religion or political dogma and best of all...nothing is expected of you! One can speak ones mind without fear of religiosity, condemnation or interuption.

There are l2 step programs for just about any kind of addiction you can name, and you can bet EVERYONE is addicted to something, be it booze, shoes or food. These programs offer sanctuary, relief, friendships, and most importantly--unity! In the l2 step programs one can begin to practice honesty by being in a situation where little else is possible, and also learn how to help others as an increasement of self. One learns how to dissolve singular and self absorbant thought for some simple suggestions and guidelines. Yes, since we are out of control, control addicts, we need guidelines. She will learn how to teach by being teachable. He will learn how to be joyous by self expression. They will learn how to share by accepting what is freely offered.

So is there a catch? Yes, the self help method has a spiritual foundation which is its catalyst for inducing change in people. Once again, we are not talking about crosses, virgins or halos, but rather something very homogenous and palatable to humans. Spirituality is sustanence and we are real godamned hungry!! The left, like all other factions of our society, needs a point of light to unanimously agree to, a benchmark for its foundation. Something sorely absent from everything we've tried is spiritual solidarity, or rather a united agreement that we are not omnipotent and can desperately use some help.

We must no longer take faith by force and consider a very generic approach to God.

"Take our Power Back!"

Laura del Fuego, Sebastopol

"In the last year I've been aware of an idea, a shift in my thinking, which I believe is directly related to the Goddess in my life, a more female balance in the intellect. The Gnostics called it EPINOLA, female inelligence. As a result I no longer think of this mass of land as the U.S., but as the great Turtle Island. Conceived of by my ancestors, my vision is clear. I believe our culture and our so called "country" is nothing more than a myth we are educated to believe is reality. But stop and think; what has Washington, the mythical fatherland got to do with our reality? Why must we pay taxes? For what and to whom? What has the so called south and the midwest to do with us?

Basically nothing. What have women and people of color got to do with the mythological federal government? Absolutely nothing except to be oppressed by it. (I use the word mythological to make a point.)

Why do we pay taxes? To support Bush and his cabinet, support war, the fat cat Senate, the Congress, kissing cousins to the multi-national corporations, made up mostly of white men who live high off the hog while the rest of us fight over bones? The very people who would take food out of our children's mouths, keep them locked in ignorance, refuse to educate them. That would deny us as women basic rights to our bodies, even to our minds if it were possible. Who expect us to pay exorbitant taxes so that they can enjoy the good life but we still live without simple human necessities. Why do we allow this? This so called government or country or society has really nothing to offer us.

Simply put, we don't need it. Why do we insist on giving it credence, power? We can eliminate it. Not by violence, that's their game, but by simply choosing. And believing it's possible. Oh, not in some airy fairy new age way, but by actively believing it. For example we can form a contingent of women, men, children and go to Sacramento, to Washington, to the White House or Congress, write a manifesto and deliver it. "Your welfare is being cut off boys. You're fired as of now. Vacate the premises! Don't forget your toys, your bombs, your gas guzzling limos, your jock straps and your playboy magazines. And don't forget to take your Clarence token Thomas's and perverted Ted Kennedy's with you. You can clean up your crap on the way out!!! Close the door, there's a draft in here exuding a stench that will last till the Second Coming!"

We can honor ourselves in our circles, our rituals,our local comunities and what we do with each other. Believing that we and our visceral tangible real lives are important, pertinent and worthwhile. Some of us are called to action, others to inner introspection, others to be artists or whatever.

To heed the Goddess, Madre del la Tierra is to honor the true self, the feminine, the personal, the child, the domestic, the metaphorical meaning of indigenous.

And turn off hierarchy, power over, the impersonal, the illusion of the image of the U.S. as a mighty power. The illusion of the American justice system as a invincible machine able to crush us, to crush women, children and the indigenous. This mytho-system does not and never has served us. It's dying. Let it go. Let's celebrate its demise with the birth of our own system defined by us and governed by us.

The popular media is based soley on electronics. In this regard the author Orwell was prophetic. It's all nothing more than a slight of hand; the old man faking it behind the scenes in the Wizard of Oz. We have been duped. But if you choose you can strip away the veil, turn off your T.V. even your radio. Don't read the mass produced newspapers for a few days and what is your reality? I'm not suggesting to turn it off for good, unless you want to but just long enough to put things in perspective. Turn off the static. It's time to start to realize that there are different levels of reality; the visceral is the most powerful. As in the living hoop of the circle, the ritual. Then there's the reality of the world of the mind. The modern white world. The world of the ego, personified by the intellect, the world of the electronic media at best is only a diversion, at worst given fealty, annihilation of the spirit, death.

At this point we are living in occupied territory. Unconsciously, being part Indian, a Chicana and woman I have always felt this way. Beneath the ground of this land is buried the blood of the Indians, the sweat of black slaves, the labor of exploited Chinese, the incarceration of the Japanese. And always the women, underpaid, abused, raped and murdered. We all know this. But there are those of us having experienced and felt, know it better, feel it more viscerally. Right beneath the Disneyland surface, the white male hierarchy, lie the burial grounds of our ancestors, Native Americans, blacks, Asians and women whose spirits roam the land restlessly haunting our sleep and our days. They will never until expiated let America forget from whence it came. Their blood and bones are in our hands locked into our fate. They are with us, leading us on.

"Get it Together, Communicationally!"

Don Eichelberger, San Francisco, Abalone Alliance activist;

"The coming 500 years will be a time of sweeping all the separate piles together. We, the people, finally together will create a mighty mountain. We will learn to be less reactive--if we are lucky--and more able to listen even to criticism. To be reactive is to defend. To defend is to close communication. Luck will come with learning new ways in the struggle to free the earth from those who would own her.

Our ability to communicate-individually, regionally and nationally-is deeply affected by mass media. Everything from the evening news, to presidential debates, are portrayed by the media as sport. Would that it were only "circuses" in Plato's visions of "bread and circuses" given the masses by philosopher kings. Sports as media helps keep the population (a term used by social architects to objectify people and to discount the power of individuals) aggitable. It diverts discussion from the front pages to the sports pages. Passions stay stirred from the World Series to the Super Bowl, through NBA play-offs, the Stanley Cup and Big Time Wrestling. The Olympics opens the way for the rawest kinds of nationalism, bestowing an international flavor. Competitive poltical battles, long on rhetoric and media imaging and short on substance also oils the machinery with its slime.

News focused on sensational violent attacks helps spread a shroud of distrust among people. Cold war rhetoric and terrorist baiting help drive wedges among nations. The owners and controllers of the media know the power of its propaganda, and drive the machine in such a way as to ensure control by an elite of benefactors. They are not above producing media that stirs deep-seated divisions: racist stories, sexist advertising and jingoistic movies and music.

We must show openness and understanding wherever we see none happening. There are people in the world actively opposed to the goal of kindness. Proper manners,yes. Civility, yes. Displays of strength and resolve, yes. But kindness, a "feminine" principle? I witness world events, the wars, the invasions, the suffering. And I know it is set in motion largely at the will of a few men who call themselves "Bohemians" I try to look past it.

"Oh, it's just a club", they say. Then I remember that Care, another "feminine principle" like nurturance and kindness, has been ceremonially banished by fire from this old mens', old money clique for over l00 years.

We will come to realize that Care, even "Dull Care" deserves our protection. We will learn that a caring people holds power to make change for the better to happen. We will tap the power we experienced from an oil-soaked seabird in the Persian Gulf. That image, a seabird, helplessly caught in the muck that was the Persian Gulf, demanded an end to that invasion more loudly than any human voice could. Without Care, an oil-soaked seabird is nothing. Add Care, and that oil-soaked seabird might stop a war. Add Care and a "bombed out bunker" becomes dead humans crying out for an end to the suffering.

If more corporate high guys and their political friends would think ahead several generations, instead of only until tomorrow's Japanese stock market opening, we might see a different set of decisions being made in behalf of the earth and those of us who inhabit her. We cannot sit, though and wait for that kind of enlightenment to descend on an elite of rulers. We must all become leaders, and light each other's way to the promised land."

"Rearrange Structure and Priorities"

Peggy Noton, Petaluma, peace activist:

"My vision of a better society is a pretty classic socialist one. Among other things, I would have the airwaves controlled by the people, to whom they legally belong, and not the big money interests. Government would concern itself with distributing the wealth equitably. Everyone who wished could receive a high quality education through college, and the curricullum would have real history and not patriotic propaganda at its core. Everyone would have a decent place to live, good food to eat, meaningful work, affordable federally funded health care including alternative treatments now banned. Most especially, the official cancer establishmnt would be exposed as the corrupt fraud it is and replaced with currently existing benign alternative treatments that actually do cure cancer.

Politically, we would have proportional representation, political campaigns would be federally funded with all parties receiving equal funding and air time. Military expenditure would be cut by 80% and an enlightened program of economic conversion would be instigated. Those formerly in military work, together with the other unemployed, would be put to work building affordable housing, a national high speed mono rail system, cleaning up the toxic military sites, rebuilding the nation's roads and bridges. The auto industries would concentrate on producing non-polluting vehicles. All nuclear technology would be immediately dismantled, including nuclear power. Non-polluting alternaative sources of energy would be subsidized and would replace the present sources.

Government would own the large industries which would be run by the workers. Small scale private business would exist, with worker ownership and a cap on personal wealth. Family farming and organic farming would become the standard modes of agricultural production. Chemical companies would be dismantled. There would be generous federal funding for the arts and for artists. The U.S. would abandon its imperialist policies towards the Third World.

The minute I start writing about my vision of a better world, I come up against how we are going to get there. In this regard I want to talk about the ideas of "negative" and "positive" which motivated this month's column. In order to mobilize public support for changes like the above, you have to expose the existing power structure for the unjust system it is. You have to criticize it. Looking at such criticisms, New Agers complain that political activists are being "negative", equating political dissidence with personal negativity. It is an easy way to get out of doing the political work that must be done if we are to have a better society. Learning how to get along with each other in our organizations is of course essential if we are to accomplish anything, but those who concentrate on this to the exclusion or neglect of political work do not understand or do not want to confront the economic, social and political realities of class power that to a large extent shape the lives of us all.

White Cloud Wolfhawk Eagles Xochipillicueponi, Pinole:

"Visions can never be wholly personal because they are truthful messengers and realities of nature. Contrary to Western denialist thinking you can't invent your own reality. Reality is a very pragmatic, beautiful and awesome fact of life. You can't just make it up. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to nature. You either face it or you don't and if you can't face her you will never be a part of nature, you can never be connected. Our response as Native American Scientists to Eurocentric Proponents of Imperialistic Thought is, that it is nature that invented reality, it is nature that created truth, YOU did not discover it anymore than a barbarian Columbus discovered Turtle Island. It is nature that created you. You are her invention. Without her you do not exist. Michael Harner did not invent Shamanism. He did not discover it. He is not a Shaman. It is not his. It is not his nature. He has no right to pin PhD's onto the egos of the affluent and the white in order to steal the aboriginal spiritual birthright of indigenous peoples, many of whom cannot even read or write, so that he may megabuck his way into a realm of spiritual awareness for which he has no understanding, very little respect, and no experience whatsoever. He is not an indgenous person. Brandt Secunda who falsely claims "the reins" from Don Jose Matsua for Huichol Shamanism is not a Huichol. Dona Andrea Matsua Rios, Don Jose's daughter, very plainly stated to me that Mr. Secunda cannot be a Huichol Shaman because he knows only enough Huichol to name a few gods and has the vocabulary of a five year old. Huichol language is extremely complex and the ceremonial knowledge required is monumental. I plainly state that Mr. Secunda cannot be a Huichol Shaman because he is neither Huichol nor indigenous. The whole of the Huichol nation from teenager to newborn child precedes Mr. Secunda in claiming aboriginal rights to carry on tradition. The whole of Native America from South America to Canada precede both these gentlemen in the millions when it comes to these ceremonial and spiritual traditions to these indigenous prerogatives, to these aboriginal rights.

My vision of the next 500 years is genetically and spiritually linked with the vision of my ancestors. It is also linked with the vision of my living elders, the Grandmothers and Grandfathers of Guatemala and Mexico, the seers and guardians of the sacred fire who daily walk the road of blood, through the death squads and their disappearing brethren onto the road of prayers. At this moment, there are many eyes witnessing the future through my eyes, which are already the ancestors of tomorrow's indigenous inhabitants on our re-emerging Turtle Island, which will ultimately supersede and bury the diseased, the dying, the lost, the fake America. The America that nearly killed us all as it stumbled through political, industrial, military and fundamentalist psychosis, toward national suicide, trailing a wake of monstrous spawn behind it, ethnocide, infanticide, genocide and matricide, its final progeny of hate. Who tried to kill the Mother? You don't need to be a prophet to know whodunnit. They're all running for office at the same time, at this very moment.

I speak to you now from the perspective of the seers of the future. We can see that the American Death Squads were the BIA, Peabody Coal, Chevron and a host of others under the direction of the Government of the United States and George Bush, who organized the re-establishment of Nazism in l988, with his campaign ethnic outreach vehicle, The National Coalition of American Nationalities; it drew its membership from the National Republican Heritage Groups Council, which included anti-Semites, racists, fascists and sympathizers of Hitler's Third Reich. The Republican Heritage Groups Council was originally promoted by Richard Nixon in l97l, and blessed by Ronnie Reagan in a l985 luncheon attended by Nazi collaborators. The American/Nazi Death Squads had fully surfaced in brazen regalia by l995 and were bludgeoning doors by the year 2000. These were the long years of purification, when the Moon was red and the Sun was blue. The earth retaliated with earthquakes, volcanos, myriad natural disasters and there was massive Civil War.

The first symptom of this mass insurrection which led to revolution against oppression across the continent began in Los Angeles in l992. I speak to you from the navel of the earth, from the lips of the Jaguar. I bring this vision to you now from oracles of obsidian, from the black eyes of the scarlet beams of divination that guide every step of our grandfathers and grandmothers who are keeping the World in balance and alive today, despite the crimes of the younger brother, who seeks to annihilate the Mother and destroy us all.

The Native American brethren of the United States and Canada are in danger of total annihilation. Their ceremonies and traditions cannot survive without our help, nor can we withstand the deathsquads and the expanding genocide for much longer, nor can the Mother endure. We are convinced that we and the Mother will survive. But we cannot survive without the sacred fires, the candles or the prayers. Without them, the sun and the moon and the stars will be forced to move to destroy us before we move outward to destroy them. They, the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars are the extraterrestrials; they feel, they think, they move, even as the lightning moves, in justice, even as the earth moves to create balance and beauty where there was discord and violence.

I and many grandchildren will be dead and gone in 500 years but we will be there, and if we want beauty and harmony and peace, then we shall have it. We are here now to create it. Build the prayers, stoke the fire, light the candles. From Guatemala , from Mexico, with the hopeful eyes of all our spirit, we are gazing at the Northern Horizon, waiting for the light from your bright candles, as we have waited through the centuries for the dawn.

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