Void

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food

Posted: July 16, 2026

‘Couldn’t have done it without you, Bode’

So may I present my own casting choice for Odysseus:

Absolutely not

You know who would try that shit?

Is this the face of a man who would defy the very gods to get home to his wife?

You know who would defy the gods just to show he could get away with it?

Specifically Cere Junda (I love her).

One of the main themes of the story is the fact that nobody is perfect.

Cere Junda: Every Jedi faces the dark side. And it’s very easy to fail. Cal Kestis: You’re still struggling with the dark side. Even after cutting yourself off from the Force. Cere Junda: We will always struggle. But that is the test. It’s the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are.

This is what is means to be a Jedi. If falling to the dark side wasn't so easy, the Jedi wouldn't need to exist in the first place. Their strength is their compassion. They choose diplomacy first because their goal is to defend life. They share a deep connection with the Force, but they don't weaponize it.

Cere used the dark side to escape Fortress Inquisitorius and killed everyone (except her former padawan) to get out. Her rage was so powerful that she cut herself off from the Force completely and stopped considering herself a Jedi. She feared that if she connected again she would succumb to the dark side entirely.

That is the battle. It's not about perfection but rather restraint.

She used the dark side and it didn't make her evil, but she struggled with it for years because of her own guilt and anger. She stopped herself from falling to the dark side, but she didn't fully trust herself anymore. When confronted with Vader once again, she almost allowed the dark side to consume her, but Cal reminded her that she still had a choice and she chose differently. Instead of using the Force as a weapon, she used it to create a force field to protect both her and Cal. She stopped herself from crossing the line, which takes a lot of strength considering she was facing the monster she felt so much hatred for. The monster who had brutally tortured her, not just physically but also mentally. The monster who forced her to watch as her former padawan succumbed to the dark side and became an Inquisitor.

Resisting the dark side is not easy. The temptation is always there, even for the Jedi, but their ability to rise above and choose compassion and mercy over rage and cruelty is what sets them apart. Sometimes they stumble, sometimes they fail, but failure is part of the journey too.

And that's a lesson that is repeated throughout the story of Fallen Order.

Eno Cordova: Failure is not the end. It is a necessary part of the path. Hope will always survive in those who continue to fight.

.........................

Jaro Tapal: Get up. Try again. Padawan Cal: I just keep failing, Master! Jaro Tapal: Do you? Good. Keep failing, keep getting back up. That is the only way to succeed. Don’t allow yourself to be weighed down by ego and pretense. Let go of what you fear to lose and rise up.

..........................

Cere Junda: Failure’s a part of the journey.

Trans activist Jamison Green's passport photos before and after HRT. Left he's age 32 (1980) Right age 41 (1989) after being on testosterone for one year (x)

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.