#cloudwomen

I Remember is a digital mixed media collage. Copyright © Michele Jackson. All Rights Reserved. 

INTERIM 

Come visit me  Spirit of Solitude for today  there is snow softly and pleasantly falling filling the woods with a quality

of freshness and renewal. No work today only time gentle time spent alone with all of creation and time

gentle time always comes with an essence of healing. Come visit me Spirit of Solitude warm yourself at my fire

for today  there is snow softly and pleasantly falling in gentle time with an essence of healing. Come... Copyright © 2018 MariJo Moore.  All Rights Reserved.

Painting. Medium: Acrylic on Canvas. Copyright ©2018 Anyssa Galván.  All Rights Reserved.

ISN’T PUERTO RICO GETTING BETTER?

“Isn’t it getting better?” people ask on my return from a second trip to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria. Well, yes I guess in some ways. 

   Does getting better mean that almost everyone on the island now knows the only safe drinking water is bottled, treated, or filtered despite no government information campaign?  For the island, that’s a minimum of 3.5 million gallons of water a day. And that doesn’t include water for hand washing, dishwashing, cleaning food. FEMA and the military were worried that they shouldn’t distribute too much potable water as people will become DEPENDENT. Dependent on having clean drinking water?  Also, they argue, it would destroy the local economy since it could interfere with businesses that sell water…often for extremely inflated prices. Remember, we are talking about an island where more than half the residents are below the official poverty line, jobs have disappeared, and everyone has lost something since Maria: family members, homes, all of the possessions inside their homes, cars, damaged windows, roofs, and appliances. I spoke with a local doctor from a mountain clinic who is a public health specialist. I asked her how long it would take for safe water to return to PR.  “About a year”, she replied. “First you need to have reliable electricity so that the pumping stations and filtration systems can work.” The reservoirs in Comerio are filled with dead animals. Near Caguas, raw sewage backed up into the water supply for San Juan. We see waterborne diseases constantly in the clinics.

   And what about the mountains of plastic water bottles? Not to mention the 100,000s of tons of trash including furniture, appliances, electronics, trees piled up along the roads providing homes for rats and other vermin. In the wealthier urban areas, garbage has been hauled away, but to where?  Will there be more toxins leaching into the water and soil in the future? Getting better, the official line has changed to stop the water from a toxic Superfund site in Dorado being sold as safe to drink as it was officially sanctioned in the first weeks after Maria.

   Does getting better mean that most people on the island have figured out how to survive without having electricity? And those with electricity still have frequent blackouts including at the international airport. There were 60,000 electrical workers in Florida after Irma, working around the clock to restore electrical services in a week. In PR, there are a few thousand workers and electrical restoration may take until May, 8 months after Maria, or longer. Estimates of how many people have electricity are all over the place. Now there are only estimates of what percentage of power is being generated (maybe about 50%) but no one pretends anymore how that translates to households with electricity. No electricity means washing all your clothes, towels, bedding by hand. It means no fresh foods unless you live in an urban center close to a well-stocked market with refrigeration and can afford fruits and vegetables. The temperature is still unseasonably warm, in the upper 80’s with lots of humidity. It means a short shelf life for insulin, no means of cooling people down. Remember the nursing home in Florida where many elders died without air conditioning?

   Yes, everyone who gets electricity back up is happy, even though it goes off a lot. And many find their appliances no longer are working. Still, it’s better than Haiti where years after the earthquake nearly 70% of homes have no electricity.  Not really a fair comparison, although close by since it is not an official US colony. More comparable is the Navajo nation where over 30% of homes have no electricity and about 40% have no running water; the same reservation has enough polluting fossil fuels extracted to power Las Vegas and beyond.

   Does getting better mean that a clear majority of the island’s population live in poverty, up from slightly less than half before Maria.  In Mississippi, over 20% of people live in poverty. On the Navajo nation, the number is over 40%. 

   Hey, but at least there aren’t bombs falling like in Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. Saharan Africa has 70% of households without electricity. And in many countries around the world, people don’t have access to clean water.  “45” and the ruling elite is making the US and its colonies into true world citizens. 

   Let me end in praise of the spirit and resilience of the Puerto Rican people in the face of the island-wide destruction of Maria. The first days after Maria had every able-bodied person working nonstop with a machete, chainsaw,  or whatever means available to clear a path of debris to get out their door, connect with neighbors, clear the roads. Many people were rescued from extreme flooding by their neighbors with boats, rafts, anything that would float.  That continues to this day with most of the rescue, relief, distribution of food, water, and medicines as well as reconstruction of homes done by the grassroots. No one I talked to had gotten economic help from FEMA to rebuild or repair their home. 

  Also, there is the resilience of the land itself. A fabulous change is the trees are coming back. The beauty of the tropical vegetation is being reborn. The mudslides are being covered with greenery.

  I worked at Clinica Bantiox, an amazing free clinic and emergency room in Toa Baja which took care of everyone who walked in the door.  Young Puerto Rican health professionals and students run the clinic with occasional help from visitors. I had lunch with several nursing students who were running down the colony status of Puerto Rico, their inability to vote in US elections, and their second-class status to a Mexican classmate who asked: “but can’t you immigrate and have voting rights if you go to the US?.” Yes, they responded, but this is our home…not the US mainland.” However, they continued. it was almost impossible to afford to stay on the island now. One student was planning to move to the US, at least for a while, after graduation as she would be unable to support her family on a nursing salary in PR. Maria has torn aside the facade; many people are vocal about PR being a colony. One friend said “It is not enough to be diligent, it is not enough to make your regular practices more flexible and adapt to the humanitarian crisis in which we live. The message is that the lives of Puerto Ricans are not equal to other lives.”

   Before Maria, there were massive protests against the Junta, privatization, and conditions on the island. Now just the act of staying and surviving is an act of protest.   We must support Boricua on the island to survive, rebuild, and thrive.  There are millions of people who want to stay on their Isla although there will be many forces seeking to use Maria as a means to seize land, lower the already abysmal salaries and standards of living.  Schools, hospitals, clinics, the university are targets…privatize it all. 

  Please support the grassroots folks on the ground. Keep Puerto Rico in the news. Demand US aid for Puerto Rico and an end to the Jones Act which makes everything more expensive in PR. Demand an end to the “PROMESA” law which created the Junta; cancel the debt. No more colonies. 

See Defend Puerto Rico, for more info and to make donations. 

Que viva Puerto Rico!

Pinche Tacos: Beat TB Tacos

(A Poem)

 Ingredients:

     1.   Black beans: my choice, but any kind will do, and I cook about half liter.

     2.   Organic No-Salt Seasoning

     3.   A pinch of salt: how redundant...

     4.   Garlic salt: a pinch

     5.   Oregano: a pinch

     6.   Parsley: a pinch

     7.   Sweet basil leaf: a pinch

     8.   Canned jalapeño juice: to taste

     9.   Cheese: as desired

     10. Wheat or corn tortillas

Procedure:

     1.   Use, mash, and 'fry' leftover beans with about an ounce of Olive Oil.

     2.   The more you let the beans cook dry, the better they taste.

     3.   Add a pinch of each of the ingredients, and be more generous with the organic no-salt seasoning.

     4.   Add Jalapeño 'juice' to taste.

Making the 'Tacos':

     1.   Using corn or wheat tortilla, add the desired amount of black beans, and place them along one half of the tortilla.

     2.   Add the desired amount of favorite cheese.

     3.   Fold tortilla and place on comal; turn over to heat both sides evenly.

     4.   Add whatever other ingredients you wish for; like, avocado or jalapeños.

     5.   Enjoy and share your pinche tacos. Copyright © 2017 Martina Gallegos.  All Rights Reserved.

Forbidden Words



for those who will not be silenced

The evidence of your ignorance screams so loudly every time you twit- ter another snort about you or your thoughts about anything... you call foul play you the King of foul who rules the oligarchy by bad behavior lies and slurs you try to silence truths by calling everything fake news you the King of fake you can't stand words like 
diversity because you despise it you wouldn't know vulnerable because you are a bully who’s always banked on entitlement you abhor anyone 'other' not just the transgendered you the King of xenophobia saying you want to make America great again code for going backward in time to slavery to poverty to us 
 with our heads 
 bowed down
 forward in time 
to more 
 wanton destruction 
 of earth 
its people 
 you the King 
 of destruction 
of greed 
 we need no 
science-based 
 studies to tell us 
the world is dying 
 we live out 
 on the earth 
we’ve kneeled 
in its fields
 as farm workers 
as soldiers
 as warriors 
 giving birth
 we do not live 
in towers 
 in castles in White Houses and the future 
 of fetuses 
 everywhere  even your future 
 generations  depend on us  to  RESIST!

Copyright © 2017 Odilia Galván Rodríguez.  All Rights Reserved.

More 45 Quackery: He forbade the use of the following words in certain government documents: "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."

Poem first appeared on Poets Responding 

Photo copyright ©Anne MacDonald, used by permission

Hibernation

hush

guides are ready cedar kin heirs to oak and hazel trespassers transgressors progenitors swimmers in the midnight frozen river

leak beyond the edges glass worn thin like tree bark water writes days of quickening and sorrow in turquoise ink on a bloodshot sky

dawn a latecomer gloaming walks an early road northern winter says follow chitchat crows in the narrow light

more hours spent in reverie than consciousness old women tie their shoes with deer sinew and catgut in the early dark fall from grace into knowing

Copyright © 2017 Sharon Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

Sharon Elliott was born and raised in Seattle and has written since childhood. Four years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and Ecuador laid the foundation for her activism in multicultural women’s issues. She is a moderator of the Facebook page Poets Responding and is an ally to people of color and to the earth.

WE Are The Sacred Hoop

Each one of us has a sacred purpose we came here to do. WE are the seeds planted by the Ancestors prayers and dreams... while singing the songs of Creation.

No matter what that looks like we are here to return to the ways of being in alignment and harmony with Creation and all sentient life in Creation.

WE are here to empower ourselves and our people (all nations, all colors of the sacred hoop)

We can no longer stand in silence and watch the predator energy consume all that is good in Creation

Each sacred purpose is just as important as another's sacred purpose, no one is above or below any one else. Everyone's opinion matters... EVERYONE!

WE must get beyond skin color, race, class and gender to truly evolve into what the old one's dreamed of... The generations that would restore true power, by rEmembering, true power is in Creation and all that resides in Creation has power and spirit...

WE must lite the fires, do the ceremonies, carry the bundles, the teachings and stop separating ourselves from the truth. That we were born as a gift of creation and it is our responsibility to honor this gift of life... for all beings as our brothers and sisters

We have remained strong, we are still here, our spirits will never break, we are the beauty in the chaos, we carry the medicine bundle of creation in our hearts and spirits...

WE are the Sacred hoop, complete and ready for what is ahead. WE are powerful and we are supported by our Ancestors. For we are thousands of struggles, thousands of prayers, and thousands of dreams.

Copyright ©December 2017 Thana Redhawk.  All Rights Reserved.