Newsletter #3 Ohio then Missouri 10/4/2019 On the Road Again

 After a six month hiatus – half forced: broken toe and sprained ankle; half chosen: assisting a sistar’s move off the continent after 40 years in the Bay – I’m finally resuming my mobile version of the door-2-door as I go town-2-town offering readings/gatherings/discussions centered on “But What Can I Do?” and except for the extreme heat and nasty mosquitoes, I’m loving it!

And what exciting and malevolent times to be back on the road! There have been sooooo many folks standing up to the maliciousness of our government, military and corporations, so many events and actions organizing to protect Mother Earth and all life on our planet, and specifically to protect asylum seekers and refugees from our u.s.ofa. wars and greed. Thus my ‘new’ paint job on the back of my casa camion!

My next scheduled reading/discussion/gathering is being organized by an amazing, kick-ass local Missouri radical feminist activist – yes there are strong amazons fighting in Missouri – for October 10^th so if you’re in/near Missouri or have any friends, family, or others, anyone who wants to know “But What Can I Do?” please help spread the word.

Here is the blurb Via put out:

Berkeley-based anti-racist, radical feminist lesbian activist Xan Joi is coming to Fulton, Missouri on October 10th, to read selections from her book, “But What Can I Do? A handbook for change: My Self, My Community, My Country,” gained from her experiences driving around the country over 400,000 miles since 9/11 in her veggie-oil powered box truck. Her “radical ride” has mobile billboards emblazoned with large, pointed anti-war, anti-violence, pro-peace, pro-empowerment missives all four sides. The discussion will be held in room Hazel 112 from 11:00 am -12:50 pm at Reeves Library, on campus at Westminster College. All are welcome to attend."

           

Report Back Ohio Reading

            I was deeply honored recently to be the featured guest “presenter” at the 35^th year celebration of a small womyn’s land in Ohio. What an incredible accomplishment to establish, promote and protect female sovereignty for three and a half decades. When these womyn founded this land with, for, and by womyn, what an amazing accomplishment and now, an Amazonian feat to keep it sacred womyn’s land, even more fantastic as it continues to exist.

            35 years ago it was not only unthinkable for womyn to live together on land with ourselves, by ourselves but revolutionary to challenge the misogynist paradigm of females supposed innate need for a male(s) to provide, protect, and direct our lives. Not just revolutionary but even more importantly: empowering!

            Female empowerment! What a terrifying thing for a patriarchal society!

            I am extremely thankful, and profoundly respect and laud these early feminist foremothers who recognized the many levels of attack on female bodies and taught us how to love our bodies, cherish our bodies, respect and value our bodies and more: our vision, our voice, our thoughts, our leadership.

The making of white people’s comfort with our role as colonizers!

           

            Two separate ‘notions’ were raised during this reading that I want to share with you because they are both common ways in which white people seek comfort in justifying our role as colonizers.

            The first is the belief that all people are racist, regardless of their race. What comfort, what relief white people can get from this idea that we are not the only racists in the country and some go even farther: claiming that if Black and brown people were given the chance (hmmmmm) they would be/have been just as racist as whites.

            To reiterate, white people are the only ones in this country who have the power to be racist – as men are the only ones who have the power to be sexist – to oppress a class of people, to belong (whether they want to or not) to the class of people who have the power to oppress.

            Any people can be bigoted, prejudice, and can discriminate against individuals if they have the means but only those with the power of their race can be racist. I caution white people to also know that there is a difference between bigotry, etc., and the response or reaction to racism.

            The second justification I want to talk about here is one of the beliefs touted by our amerikkkan nitemare and engrained in our perception: the blaming of people for their poverty and lack of ‘success’.

            This came up when we spoke about how if one has four things in life daily at the same time – clean water, a roof over your head, a change of clothing, and food you can save for the next day – we are among the 15% wealthiest humans on the planet.

            Most of us in this country don’t want to look at our riches, compare ourselves with those 85% of humans, and believe their paucity is due to their own ineptitude or corruption of their government, etc. Not many of us want to think it’s because we have embraced and pursued this amerikkkan nitemare at the expense of everyone else.

            One such rationalization is pointing out that the people in a looted country might presently have the riches but don’t have the “infrastructure” to move those riches to the people who need them. Of course, what we’re talking about is the infrastructure capitalists use to move goods and services: as roads, trucks, ships, stores, etc. Not to mention an income-based society.

            One of the first things colonizers do when conquering a country is destroy that country’s infrastructure for taking care of its people. One of the primary ways we accomplish that is by redirecting land use to make the land provide whatever resource it is that we want and need, thereby destroying the people’s ability to use the land to provide for themselves.

            Many of us don’t think to define “infrastructure” as that which characterized most pre-colonization lands: community, life and work erected around the resources the people needed to survive. i.e. not based on fossil fuel consumption at the very least.

            That’s all she wrote!! In love and rage, Xan