Written by swaneagle harijan   

Every week i vigil on Thursdays with Women In Black on Vashon. Sometimes it is just me and one other woman, mostly it is about 4 of us. The experiences these various women have standing for justice is impressive; so many unknown tales of vast courage, vision, action. Millions of such people populate this country whose names we will never know. The underpinnings of a great massive resistance to violence, corporate/military/colonialist take over of all life is simmering in the nooks and crannies of this country. No, the billionaire greed mongers and their hate filled shills shall not prevail.

The time has come for those of us who are guided by the deep principals of nonviolent resistance to prepare for our final duty. Many of us may die in the days to come. I am sad to say, many of us will die. To shirk our duty now is to leave an unbelievable nightmare to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. A very difficult task faces us here. It is the violence cultivated by the slave owners' descendants, the off spring of the KKK, the death squads trained to kill their own friends, families and neighbors. It is the violence cultivated by invaders from Europe still foisting genocide against Native Americans whether on reservations or walking down a Seattle street carving a piece of wood. It is violence that has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction such as the largest nuclear arsenal in the US (possibly the world) that resides across the water at Bangor Nuclear Navy Base. It is the violence of crazed militia men fearing Mexico's supposed plans to take over the US or slandering the environmentalists attempts to save what is left of nature, our very sustenance, in the name of a contrived right wing Jesus. It is violence that we are all immersed in here, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, El Slavador, anywhere US trained Special Forces (highly trained death squads) and their troops have disrupted survival possibilities of the people to make way for corporate rape and pillage of remaining resources.

Perhaps we face the most serious task ever laid before a privileged people in humanity's time on earth. I do believe this is the case.

Last night i was part of an event celebrating the successful halt of a massive sand and gravel mine operation on tiny Maury Island that would have extracted 7,500,000 tons a year exposing arsenic, contaminating drinking water, killing fragile sea life in a declared Aquatic Reserve. 2 years ago i participated in a lockdown roadblock as well as 2 kayak actions of civil disobedience as part of the tail end of 13 years of arduous community efforts to prevent this debacle. None of us were ever arrested during this time tho several of us received written warnings by the US Coast Guard that further such interference with the construction of the 305 foot steel pier would bring us felony charges, $250,000 fines and possibly 2 years in jail. At least 1,000 people showed up for the wonderful food, drink, talks, music and happy victory as the 250 acres will now be a state park. It was a fine gathering thanking all of us for the multi faceted efforts that seemed to create this shining success.

But i was troubled. In all my many years of doing civil disobedience, never have i been part of any action that actually worked. I have faced felony charges before standing in front of a bulldozer threatening the burial site of Roberta Blackgoat's baby son and mother at Big Mountain in 1989. Along with 3 traditional Dineh (including Roberta) and 6 other nonIndians, we were arrested that cold sub zero day, put in the Hopi Tribal Jail, divided from the Dineh and shipped to the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff. Tho the charges against all of us were dropped, the bulldozer did it's dirty work.

Last night my son, who is of African American/Cherokee/Irish heritage, said to me, "If this had been a resistance of Indian people against Glacier's mine, they would not have won."

It is undisputed that Vashon is a place of great privilege. Many extremely wealthy people have fabulous homes out here, if not second or third as well. Fundraising succeeds in maintaining a quality of life that is fast disappearing elsewhere. Vashon is charmed. It also is stolen land.

Shomamish Peoples were forced off Vashon taking their long houses with them. Many residents erroneously believe the Indians didn't live here. To this day, the Puyallup, whose reservation absorbed the Shomamish, have access to the Chinook Salmon runs under their fishing treaty rights. Maury is where one of the only remaining healthy runs of Chinook still return in the Puget Sound.

So in all of what happens in daily life locally and beyond, i wonder how will we make it right where i live? How can we activate restorative justice where we each live in this country? What about calling back Vashon's first drum and the people whose songs were here long before invasion?

The Nisqually people have a huge Glacier mine operating on lands taken from them in the delta that destroyed homes, burial sites, salmon runs and sacred land. This monstrosity receives little attention as it grinds along as the greatest source of sand and gravel in the Puget Sound. Glacier is now negotiating expansion which will endanger the Sequalitchew Creek watershed. They may be gone from Vashon, but they keep up destruction justified by use in roads we drive on.

To stop genocide anywhere else requires addressing it where we live; where we stand is sacred land. To stop war elsewhere demands we make it right at home.

The massacre that targeted of Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson yesterday, seriously wounding her head, was truly shocking. Splashed all over Facebook is the map Sarah Palin had posted, which she took down shortly after the shooting of at least 10 people, 5 dead, showing rifle cross hairs marked where she feels opposers to the right wing corporate agenda should be eliminated. Efforts by Tea Partiers to distance themselves from the shooter are proving shabby at best. This is truly frightening as these people, and they are many, are very well armed.

We who stand for peace will be facing people fallible to scapegoating who view us as a dangerous enemy. The climate of interaction has been fanned with flames of ignorant hatred via FOX news, Rush, Savage and all those who enjoy large and wide voice while those struggling nearly invisibly for peace and justice are known only to those of us with pre existing website access to healthier updates on reality. How long we will have means of gaining vital information remains to be seen. Newspapers are all but gone, cell phones faces warrantless search and seizure, draconian laws suppressing truth are in place. Oh, it is mighty serious.

But what will we do about this? Perhaps it is time to haul out the supplies for erecting permanent peace camps. We cannot let up for one second. We need to be talking to everyone who crosses our path. We all are in this together like it or not. Time to talk seriously to our scary neighbors and relatives. Time to shift how we live into highly visible solution, if not to the so called media, to those we live among. We must display a more sane take on the course of enacting peace in these volatile times.

By stopping all the wars backed by the US NOW, we can begin to rebuild a sensible society allowing a spectrum of views that are not committed to killing anyone who thinks differently. This is what war is all about, here and abroad. We do have a war here. Seriously. Too many people have been killed already while those in power tip toe around the hooligans, the true domestic terrorists, who always are able to get more guns. The NRA has played a key role in keeping the extreme racist right well armed. NRA also insured that the Mexican cartels can still keep the US guns coming. Meanwhile, peace activists in the mid west who have no guns, kill no one, are being harassed by the FBI. Something is way off kilter.

Every action until this point has been preparation for what is demanded of each one of us now. We must be vigilantly pursuing ways to move the society in a direction of great love, forgiveness, community. Bring the Billions Home, Stop All Wars, Save Our Earth, The People, All of Life.

Truly Peace can never die. It lives in the hearts of each person. We all have the capacity for great love. It is all we have left now. If that peace only comes with the deaths of us all, so be it. Otherwise, we better get going on this big mess we all are in. Is is up to us, we know that.