IMPLACABLE: Vanessa Dundon

Vanessa Dundon, also known as Sioux Z , has been working since September as a first responder at a blockade meant to protect the environment, a community's water supply, and their people's national treasure all at the same time. She is a Warrior woman, not merely in figure-of-speech, but in accordance with her Dine (Navajo) tribal traditions. Many tribes have warrior cultures and traditions that do not exclude women or associate empathy with weakness, and that emphasize service, self-sacrifice, courage and finding peaceful resolutions if at all possible.
Her duties involve listening and watching for other protesters who lose their temper and become aggressive or who antagonize police, and physically remove them form the front lines. So she was policing the front lines for people who are too angry to represent their movement properly. She also assisted injured protesters and carried them to safety. Both very physically and emotionally demanding jobs, but all in a days work for a No DAPL Pipeline first responder.

In the course of her service, Dundon suffered the loss of all her most treasured possessions after a raid at the North camp, when people were forbidden to return to highway 1806 to retrieve their belongings. Hers and many other people's belongings were later dumped in one area, having been badly damaged and soaked in what seemed to be urine and ammonia.
Last night, on November 27th 2016, an officer aimed a tear gas canister directly at her, after another officer pointed her out. Normally, tear gas canisters are aimed upward. The canister hit her in the eye and severed her retina. At this point, Vanessa has been told she may never see out of her right eye again.

After she was basically shot with the teargas canister, she pulled off her bandana and covered her injured eye, turning to run for safety. At that point, she was shot in the back with a rubber bullet, which brought her to the ground. Two other first responders then rushed to her side and carried her to safety.
She gave the following interview after the incident. Despite the physical and emotional tolls and losing almost everything she had, Vanessa, like many of her comrades – some of whom may now have to have amputations because of their injuries – has not given up. She gave this interview after her ordeal:

Due to receiving orders to participate in situations like this one, at least two police officers have turned in their badges. Media outlets owned by multinational corporations, like Fox and MSNBC, have generally failed to report on the treatment of the protesters, and some have even misreported acts committed against them as acts committed by them instead.

In a world torn by lies, where people hear only what they wish to hear and believe whatever makes them comfortable, real stories of those who face down terrible odds, pay heavy prices and keep fighting are priceless.

We applaud all heroines, of every shade in the human rainbow, who stand for what they believe in and who never give up. May her story and others be cried from the rooftops, and may they continue to inspire, as well as convict. We wish her and all her comrades a speedy, and complete, recovery.

- F.W.F.G.

To All That Was Lost, And Remembered

Yesterday, in my country, it is Memorial Day. A day to remember all our fallen soldiers through all the time that we have been a country, and I am mostly a pacifist. What should a pacifist do with Memorial Day? I don't believe in the last few wars we have had, and probably most of the wars we have ever had. There is also a fight in congress right now about making women register for the draft, or to simply abolish selective service in the first place. The draft is a big part of why I have issues with Memorial Day, so I will discuss both of these issues here.
I vote for abolishing the draft, for sure. If a situation arises that truely does call for the giving and taking of human life, those who volunteer to give and to take it are volunteering for tremendous sacrifice. Those who are compelled to do so are being sacrificed. There is a huge difference.
If a society under genuine threat to its very survival cannot generate enough people who care enough about it to fight for its survival, than I don't think it can be destroyed by its enemies anyway, because it has already been destroyed from within; the enemies just bring this to light and make it obvious. I definitely don't think it comes down to that for real as often as other Americans - and certainly the leadership here - seem to think, but I do realize it can happen. For those who choose to fight for what they believe is left, they should have that right.
One woman with the fury of a bear robbed of its cubs has ten times the fighting power of twenty plus men who don't even want to be there. If a woman loves her country that much, and feels that it is in peril and killing some people really will save it, she will have the fury of a mother bear whose cubs are in peril. Believe it. Men have more bone and muscle and fewer nerve endings in their skin, and in cultures like ours, who value the ability to exert force over others and in which that kind of thing inspires awe and respect, that extra dose of Testosterone (a growth hormone) is viewed as existing for wars and other instances of physical combat. Testosterone on the brain doesn't actually cause aggression, according to Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a Prof. of biology and neurology at Stanford University ("The Trouble With Testosterone" Sapolsky), but when the brain is in an aggressive mode for whatever reason, testosterone intensifies activity in the regions associated with aggression. It only happens if his passions are aroused that way though. If a man does not feel inclined to be aggressive, and that part of his brain in isn't turned on, than the T is not going to do that much. Therefore, it makes no sense to force unwilling males onto the battlefield when there are capable women who actually want to go.
I think it is sexist - not just against women but also against men, and definitely not in the man's (or the nation's) best interests - to have male selective service. The draft devalues a human life and a human will because it is a male human, while at the same time takes a condescending attitude toward women as far as our ability and prerogative to serve and protect those who depend on us or who we care for.

The worst thing is, so many wars fought in the Western world have been for someone's material gain, and many men's lives were sacrificed on the alter of greed. Leaders who call the shots on this never admit that this is what it is for, but it is nevertheless a serious problem. To say those who die in combat they were sent to against their will "served their country and preserved our freedom" is not really accurate in such cases. It doesn't feel like respect to say that this person who was forced against his will to give his life for something neither he nor I probably believed in "gave his life for my freedom"; it feels a lot more like the opposite of respect.

To forget about or ignore Memorial Day doesn't seem right either. So what am I supposed to do with Memorial Day? I think this year I finally worked out how I can respond to Memorial Day.

To all that were lost, all who were lost, I salute you. If you gave your life for a worthy cause, I salute you, you are not forgotten. If it was given by somebody else, either for a good cause or for plain old greed, I remember you, and I  acknowledge you, and the tragedy and injustice that really happened. I will not forget or ignore those lost in Vietnam for example, who were taken from your homes and dreams and plans to fight a war that wasn't your own, and you didn't get to ever come home. I will remember you too, and what really happened. I will call it exactly what it is, an injustice perpetrated by your government, who should have been protecting you, instead they sacrificed you and your family for who knows what, maybe for money or pride or for votes. I am sorry. I will celebrate Memorial Day praying for an end to selective service, and an end to corporate greed and political corruption, an end to a nation that has no respect for life and conscience, and the start of a new day when no one has to fear being called on to fight and die and even kill in a war that they can't call their own. I will pray for a day when the real and full stories behind every conflict can be properly reported and understood, and real solutions addressing root problems can be found instead of blood poured out again and again as time marches on.

To all those who willingly paid the ultimate price for freedom that actually wasn't preserved or achieved, whose genuine heart of a hero was exploited and abused by those in power, I remember. I will seek, daily, to make choices that will lead to a change so that those who sacrificed you for their wallet will not have the ability to do that anymore. I won't just remember, I will live to honor the memory.

I salute all the heroes who have fought on battlefields and off of them who are no longer with us, some who won, some who lost, all who gave their lives to making others free:

Crazy Horse,
Russell Means
Wilma Mankiller
Martin Luther King
Geronimo
Lozen
Coleste
Harriet Tubman
Alice Paul
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Victoria Woodhull
Sojourner Truth
Mohandas Gandhi
Wiwo Ken Sawa
Col. Robert Shaw, with more than 1/2 of the 54th Massachusetts regiment
and the many others whose names I do not know, your sacrifices, your causes, and your efforts are not forgotten and never will be, so long as there is breath in me.

May all our warriors rest in peace.

F.W.F.G.

Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.

Thanks to Abstrakt Goldsmith for this nugget of history that most of us never learned in school.

ATTENTION MEN! Please Respect Yourself

Guys, I want you to know something:

You need to respect yourself.

Hypothetically, if I sat and openly paid really cute guys to give me flowers, tell me all sorts of nice things about myself, and other such stuff they do in sappy movies and fairy tales... If I acted like I thought I really was this adored princess-y creature because of all this attention from guys I was blatantly dropping tips to the whole time, would you infer from that behavior that I respected myself?

If I bragged to all my girlfriend's about it openly, in public places, in order to show them how truly girly I really was, 'cuz, “Look, my traditional feminine needs are just oh-so-HUGE! What a big awesome woman I am! I have money and I can get a bunch of gold-digging hotties to give me attention with it! Aren't I just the Queen of the Hill” Would you respect me then, or think I had any for myself?

Do you realize what it looks like when you sit and pay girls to dance for you? And if you brag about it in restaurants and gas stations and parties?
You want somebody to jump on your lap when you come home, somebody to offer you beauty and vulnerability, and to think that you're worthy of those things. That's ok, but, by sitting and openly paying women to pretend to find you worthy, you are doing a masculine version of what I just described above. Calling 1-900 for explicit phone conversations is doing the same thing. That person on the phone doesn't care about you, doesn't really think that you are sexy and all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips, That person is merely as desperate for employment as the callers are for attention.... They're being paid to be dishonest with callers, pretending to like them and to respond well to them, and the caller blatantly pays to be lied to in order to facilitate lying to himself.

If you really, honestly have respect for yourself, you will never do that kind of stuff. Ever. Period.

If you treat yourself with respect, you will attract people who respect themselves and who respect you, but if you don't then you probably won't.

You will feel better about yourself, over time, if you just treat yourself with genuine respect no matter how you might feel (I've tried this, it really works!). Choose to respect yourself too much to reduce yourself to blatant self-deception. Deep down, you always know that stuff's not real, right? Stay real, and don't accept less than honest truth, and honest respect from others.

Respect yourself enough to stay real. Please.

Ok, that's all. Take care. <3

On Reconciling Faith and Pro-Life Initiatives

It is often thought that religious beliefs are the sole reasons for being pro-life, and that pro-lifers are just imposing their beliefs on others.
While it is true that some pro-lifers are ignorant and say "The key to preventing unplanned pregnancy is a wedding ring," not everyone is so uninformed.

Ironically, I have heard that abortion rates are higher in religious communities than in the secular population - specifically, in religious communities with very conservative values. Part of the reason for this is the condemnation of people who get pregnant out of wedlock, because it means they had sex out of wedlock. The shame makes people in this situation seek to hide one sin, and this leads to a temptation for a far greater one, basically. This temptation is very often acted on, apparently.

Ironically, many feminists buy into the lie that abortion is necessary for "sexual freedom" which I guess is what they call the normalization of promiscuity. They do  not appear to realize that strong social stigma associated with to sex outside marriage indirectly drives many to abortion if they have failed to follow the dictates of their belief system. Getting rid of that stigma also gets rid of a common perceived "need" for abortion. They think they need abortion to get rid of the social stigma that drives many people to abortion in the first place. That seems rather self-contradicting.

Now, does this mean that people of these faiths should abandon their sexual values? No, not necessarily, but they do need to pay attention to the tenets of their faith that discuss mercy for sinners, if applicable (Christianity is not the only faith that is against abortion. Also faith is not necessarily the reason a person will be pro-life; many pro-lifers are atheists or pagans, and their numbers are steadily growing. It is however, the one I am most familiar with and will be used as an example.) You need to tell people what to do after they have committed a sin, so they can amend their lives and go forward. You need to help them raise, or find good adoptive parents for, an "illegitimate" child. Getting rid of that term entirely is a great idea too.

If you do not believe in the choices a woman made that led to her pregnancy (assuming she was not raped, that is), that is fine. You will not be able to change what she did though, by ridiculing her, reading her the riot act, gossiping about her, or cutting ties with her when she needs your support for the baby's sake if nothing else. The same holds true for males, though the fathers may receive far less ridicule and shame in this situation. Shaming males for their sins, in communities that at DO genuinely maintain the same standards of sexual behavior for both sexes, may increase any temptation he may feel to lie and say, "It isn't mine." In the case of Christianity, Jesus said "Whoever is without sin can throw the first stone." That doesn't mean you don't call something a sin, or that you should never teach people not to do it, but it does mean that you should make it clear every time you do so that, for those who have sinned, it is possible to change and begin anew, to make right choices in the future. Right choices, using Christianity for an example, might include: acknowledging that the baby is yours (or perhaps finding out if you really aren't sure), choosing life for your baby, working with the other parent and any resources available to make the best decision for the baby and for each other, getting married if you think you can make a good home life emotionally for the baby as well as financially, choosing adoptive parents who share your beliefs, staying out of bed until you are married from this point onward. Of course, the first four are applicable to pretty much anyone, regardless of what they believe, but in order to live what you believe going forward, these are things a Christian would also have to do.

An adorable demonstration that life is so precious, even if it comes with a crisis for the parent. Watch how volunteers raise a baby bat whose mother couldn't take care of it.

If it happens that the more does not know who the father is, the situation is much more severe. Even many secular communities will gossip about that, not just religious communities. It is one thing to feel that she could have set better limits and made some better choices, but there are times to talk about what you think people should do and times not to. There are also more and less positive ways to do it. Talking about redemption is talking about how to make a change and do the right thing from this point on. Don't say, "Don't have sex before marriage. If you had followed God's rules, you would not have gotten pregnant." That promotes a culture of death. Instead consider that, if you believe in God, then God sent this baby to the world for a purpose, and nothing is an accident. One thing a surprise baby often does is help people learn, to help them think and prioritize differently from the way they have. "You can't just live for yourself and your own pleasure, none of us are made to do that. This baby is not a cruel curse, she is a blessing that is helping you become more than you were before, more than you would have been otherwise. This new life is teaching you about life, and helping you become the person God made you to be. Parenthood is a sacrifice, whether you raise the baby yourself or give them up. It takes strength, and it also builds strength." In the case of rape, of course, the baby is still a gift (even though the rape was definitely not), a good thing and a blessing offered in the middle of a bad thing, a redeeming element in the midst of perversion and horror. My oldest friend was conceived in rape. She is indeed a gift. She is one who mentored me when I was leaving a terrible home-life, trying to get my life started as an adult with almost zero preparation in any way whatsoever, and was living on the streets. She is NOT her father, and if she were a boy she still would not be her father either. Even if you believe in sex before marriage is a sin, a child out of wedlock still has as much value as one conceived in a marriage bed. How life comes to the world does not dictate the value of that life, the fact that it is a life does.


A woman who became a mother through rape talking about her experience.

If you are a person of faith preparing to speak on sexual issues, be sure to talk about turnarounds after bad choices. Be sure to emphasize that life is sacred and always means a new beginning; a new life is an opportunity for positive change, not a curse that keeps you from whatever you want. Choose wording that does not contradict this. Real freedom always carries responsibility, it never means doing absolutely anything you want without a thought. The only time you are not accountable is when you are not responsible. When you are not free and empowered, you cannot be held accountable, but when you are free, then you must be accountable for your actions. Tie freedom and responsibility together, as they are irrevocably connected. What do you do when you have made a wrong decision? You accept responsibility (if you are a person of faith this usually means confessing a sin to God and asking forgiveness), and then you make amends by making good decisions afterward. You give the child you made the best life you can, you let them go (if you keep them you will still have to let them go increasingly as time goes on, and if you give them up for adoption you have to let go to whatever degree dictated by your adoption contract, be it open, sealed, or somewhere in between). Continue your education, especially if you keep the baby you will need the additional income that education could help you get. Major in something lucrative, or at least take courses or get a minor that could help. Don't give up on your dreams, that would be a bad example for your baby if you keep him or her. Don't stay with an abusive partner, especially if a new little life is depending on you and learning from you. Make good choices from here out, not because the baby is a bad consequence want to avoid or that you learned from. but because you need to show others, especially the baby if you have one, better things than what not to do.

When talking about right and wrong choices in sexual behavior, no matter what your values are, it is important to emphasize redemption after bad decisions. Killing a baby is never a redeeming choice. No one who takes another life intentionally does so without thinking they need to, or without convincing themselves that it is right. That doesn't mean it should be legal, and that doesn't make it morally right, ever. Redemption after abortion is a topic that needs to be addressed as well. Forgiveness and restoration should always be discussed any time that sin, or whatever you call bad choices, is discussed. Don't just tell people they are wrong, tell them that they can do better. Consistently.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star