Pick the 2010 Rubber Dodo Award Winner – Vote by October 3

Whoo Hoo!

All ya'll get to vote on the most dangerous environmentally dangerous a*-hole of the year!

Ready for a little environmental catharsis? Help us pick the most outrageous eco-villain of 2010.

The Center for Biological Diversity established the Rubber Dodo award in 2007 as a way to spotlight those who do their very best -- that is, worst -- to destroy wild places and drive species to extinction. The award, named after the most famous extinct species on Earth, is given out every year.

This year, we need you and everyone you know to cast a vote and send a message that endangered species can't be shoved aside for dirty oil development, petty politics or ineffectual government. So vote now for the 2010 Rubber Dodo award and then share this on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and with anyone you know who cares about protecting wild animals and plants.

Previous recipients of this prestigious faux-accolade were land speculator Michael Winer (2009), polar bear opponent Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (2007), who set a record low in the number of plants and animals he placed on the endangered species list.

There was no shortage of nominees this year: BP CEO Tony Hayward (Gulf oil spill), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (ineffective spill response, reluctance to save imperiled species), Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter (wolf opposition) and Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (opposing species protections, pushing dangerous oil and gas development.)

Cast your vote for the Rubber Dodo award by October 3 for one of these four or write in your own nominee. We'll announce the winner in early October.


Pick the 2010 Rubber Dodo Award Winner – Vote by October 3

"Micky Mousing It"

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"Mickey Mousing It" is a term used by Grandfather Wallace Black-Elk 

? Why do people my age feel compelled to preach/teach through the Entire Inipi when they are sitting behind the bucket? Why can't they be like our Elders...saving their thoughts/words for when the door is open or before ceremony? Why won't they just shut up and let us pray? Isn't praying what we came there for?  How are we supposed to be able to hear the Spirits speak to us when all we can hear is the lecturer? Where's the respect for our prayers?

I mean...if you are so busy preaching how will you know if someone is in need of help? Aren't you supposed to be be praying for the people in the lodge & being mindful of what the purpose of the lodge is? Aren't you supposed to be taking ...care of the people in the Initi?  I don't believe you can do this if your thoughts are focused elsewhere.

This is one of the reasons I no longer go to ceremony, it seems to be about people hearing themselves preach/talk, not about helping the people who are praying (or trying to).....

 

Another ?: In Inipi the Elders (not my peers) always pass Mne/water after the second round as "medicine", because they know we are becoming dehydrated & going into the strongest prayer round... So why is it my contemporaries refuse to pass water to the people unless someone almost begs for it? And even then, it is given to us grudgingly. What the hell is with that? Don't people get ill from being dehydrated?

 I realize that some may choose to suffer through sacrifice, but, not all sacrifice must be accompanied by suffering....

Most of the medicine people tell us that "We are not here (in Inipi) to suffer, but to give our suffering up to the Tonka Oyate"...so why are they trying to hurt the people by depriving them of Mne?

I'm just trying to get this clear....because This Is NOT how our Elders taught us! So where do these contemporary people get these ideas?

Every time I go into a lodge, it's just so "half-way" from how my Grandfathers & Uncles & Aunties ran them.....who changed the ways of the ceremonies? When? & Why?

When the "traditional ways" of ceremony are changed, doesn't that effect the Spirits & how they relate to us? Doesn't it bother them that we take short-cuts? Doesn't it make them, just the tiniest bit upset to have the original instructions ignored?  Doesn't it make them want to ignore us?

You can tell this bothers me...so much so, that I don't even want to go to ceremony any longer, unless it's with one of the Traditional Elders....and as far as I know, there aren't too many of them remaining.

A sister of mine would accuse me of "letting people keep me away from my prayers"...well that's her limited view. They only keep me away from ceremony.....

Nothing Keeps me away from my Prayers nor from Creator..... Besides when going into a lodge where people "Mickey-Mouse it" (Grandpa Wallace's term), I feel as if I'm being kept from my prayers just through the distraction of the preaching, the explanation of every song sung, the denial of Mne, the lack of Cannunpa.....the half-wayness of the entire ceremony...keeps me distracted. Hence I stay at home....which is probably a better place for me, because then I'm not dehydrated & more at peace with the world.

 

MI Takuye Oyacin

 

Protect CA's Clean Air: Stop Valero & Prop 23!

Valero wants to abolish our "Clean Air Act", because they are unwilling to clean up their oil refineries in California....  They continually do not come up to CA's clean air standards and are one of the major polluters in our state.

The president of Valero (TX) recently stated in an e-mail that he is "running a business and making profits is more important than CA's clean air".

Amazing isn't it.....  Well I say it's time to stop the poisoning of our air and say "NO" to Valero & Prop 23 and "YES" to clean air.

Did you hear that Valero, a Texas oil company, just gave another $3 million to the campaign to repeal our anti-pollution and green jobs law?

I just joined the Courage Campaign and CREDO Action in pledging to stop Valero and vote "no" on Prop 23, their dirty energy proposition, on the November ballot. Will you join me?

http://www.couragecampaign.org/PledgeToVoteNOon23

Thanks!

Thoughts on Love, Life & Past Lives

I'm thinking really that we All just want to be loved....and how hard can that be?  For some of us being alone is a sad thing, but for others of us it is a good thing....for it's not about being lonely it's about being alone & in comfort with ourselves.

I am alone, for the most part I am more than comfortable being with myself, yet there are times I truly desire male companionship of one man in particular.  But it is plainly clear that "That Man" (as I refer to him to Creator) is "Just not into me", even though when we are together we have a smashingly good & loving time......  So this brings me to those thoughts that I have been mulling over the past several days:
 
What if, I'm here only to make amends for my actions in my past lives? How sad would that be?  I have had several less than happy relationships, which now roll off my back, like water on a duck...but during those moments within those relationships not all was happy.  When I sat in meditation of those relationships I have seen "movies" of past lives where I have purposely done damage to those men who were at present time less than loving towards me.  And I can honestly say that at times I laughed and said; "Oh that's why!"  I'm sure acting as Lucrezia Borgia was no laughing matter, but for some reason I find it a bit humorous....go figure.

So as I amble along in this life, I come to where I am now, with having had my soul make amends....and I'd say for the most part I'll call it being even, tit-for-tat...  Yet this most current relationship that has gone on & off for the past eight (8) years, but began with a gift of feathers almost fifteen (15) years ago, I don't want to call it even & forget about.   This is the one that has been intertwined with a few of the others and it is the one that has my heart dazed & confused.

So back log ago, in another time and in another place....back when they punished women of power, Jews, & heretics by torture & death, there I was a free & unencumbered by matrimony, a woman of power.  There are two distinct men I recall, but the one that hurt me the most is the one I am telling about now.  I only remember being tied to a stake surrounded by bundles of faggots (look it up) and watching as he sadly gazed at me while his "friends" lit the fire.  I remember the sadness and not comprehending why this should be happening when I could still feel the love between us..... As then another man in chain mail on a horse came to my rescue and took me away to safety....but that was another man with another story, maybe for another time.

In an other time, in an other place and an other life...maybe back in the 1700's (this is an estimation, for I only have a vision of this and a calendar that I am unable in this time to decipher)...in the time of Great Plumed Warriors, Serpents, Gods, Pyramids, & Temples.....we were there again with roles reversed.  Great Warrior woman was I, he my willing love, led into the temple, made love to upon the altar, conceiving twins and cutting his heart out as an offering to the Gods.....

Which brings us to current times.....where I once again have had a vision, one of Ptesan Win, an otter cannunpa & "That Man" & myself. Accepting the gift and being told that this would be the hardest thing that I would ever do in my life.....and now being at a loss as we are apart from his choosing.

No doubt, I pray, vision, seek answers, go out to that land and sit & offer up that tobacco..... In this time of the full-moon I once again ceremony, sit in that sacred circle,  requesting; answers, knowledge & the wisdom to know how to continue with that gift.....

I am not seeking matrimony, I am not seeking cohabitation, there are things I must complete here in this City....but the quality time we once spent together is what I am missing and making the sadness & heaviness of my heart.  No matter that I should continue to reach out, there is only my empty arms.

Truly I am at a loss.....

Mi Takuye Oyacin