From the river to the sea.

I live between the river and the sea. In the Pacific Northwest of North America, where several salmon-rich rivers pass through the majestic coastal redwoods and then meet the Pacific Ocean. This land is magical, and I would be heartbroken if someone bombed it to oblivion, with willful disregard for the safety and lives who were there first, the true stewards of the land.

Those in power are willfully ignoring the demands of the people. They’ve been silencing dissent for decades. They’re systematically making it illegal to criticize genocide.

This is the natural next step for an empire that was forged in the blood of genocide and labor of the enslaved. The same empire that sent children to war in Vietnam, bathing them in dioxins and sickening their offspring and the land’s original inhabitants for generations. The same empire that dictated the economy was more important than our lives, letting a deadly and disabling virus continue to flourish. The same empire that made it a crime for a doctor to save a pregnant person’s life. The same empire that made it a crime to go to the bathroom.

We can’t afford houses, medicine, food, fun, or children. So many of us don’t have clean water, a roof over our heads, or warm clothes on our backs. Our bodyminds are exhausted from past and present trauma.

We have seen so much destruction in such a short time.

I am heartened that so many are finally seeing the horrors of the nakba that never ended. I am heartbroken that this fight is a long one. There is much to be done when we’ve done so little before.

But now we have momentum.

We are forever changed. We will keep speaking truth to power. We will keep naming fascism when we see fascism.

It’s only a matter of time before we are criminalized for being anti-fascist.

But now we have momentum.

And more importantly, we have nothing left to lose.

Filed under: Uncategorized - @ December 10, 2023 6:38 am

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