Detroit made me proud last week- I was able to attended the People’s Conference for Palestine, here in my own city. What a wonderful experience to be surrounded with clear-sighted people full of hope, despair, information, ideas and plans. I will share some of what I took away from it for myself and for those […]
What lies do you believe? Identifying and refuting the lies we have internalized is a very dry powerful exercise. It is the path to change entrenched behavior, to create new realities, and to liberate our minds. Here are some lies we have absorbed about the genocide in Gaza. It’s complicated There are overt lies, and […]
Genocide is being committed in Gaza: deliberate, effective, ruthless, evil intentional killing of humans of all ages and identities whose only crime is to be Palestinian. The entire population is the target, the casualties are not collateral damage, but successful targets. Israeli soldiers are dropping the bombs but we are complicit, this is “our” genocide. […]
Originally published in MetroTimes There is something jarring about flipping between the news stories of General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant closing and Fiat-Chrysler’s new east side facility breaking ground. When a plant opens, public and private sectors invest together, with millions in tax subsidies, land deals, and other incentives from local government. When a plant […]
As published in Riverwise magazine How state policy legalized the destruction of Detroit. Detroit is a city with so much to lose and so little to spare. Popular narratives which attempt to describe Detroit’s struggles resort to abstract reasoning, such as the ‘invisible hand of market forces’. Other times, corporate submission to global market trends […]
Originally published in Hour Detroit An iconic image of winter in Detroit is the columns of smoke spewing from sidewalks. Steaming streets are part of the landscape, but few know the answers that lie beneath this mystery in plain sight. Below our sidewalks, there’s a vast infrastructure that includes electricity, water, sewer, and fiber optics. […]
Yesterday I took a trip to my small local grocery store and got a call from my best friend about her amazing time at the Women’s march in DC. She was giddy with excitement and we shared about our hopes and ideas and experiences participating in the actions of the day. As I left the store, […]
Above the land, exposed and hard they’re aching just for touch. They chase a thousand beaded dreams but never have enough. When aching grows, it overflows- a sharp and biting cuss, Our eyes showed their reflection, so, they tried to bury us. Inverted dome, we made it home- a womb beneath the crust. We bore […]
“The battle has just begun. I will stand to protect the water, the land. I am asking each of you to come stand with us.” -LaDonna Brave Bull Allard what it was like I came to Standing Rock in answer to this call. I wanted to lend my energy to the beautiful movement that is […]
As a multigenerational caucasian-American, I have lived my life in a position of privilege relative to many other Americans. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, most of mine have been met, and I enjoy the luxury of being able to quibble and complain about relatively minor offenses. It’s always been hard for me to […]
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