Author: jennynazak

(Topic: USA politics.) The “eating dogs and cats” story is actually just plain xenophobia. This is why I deleted the pet joke meme off my FB timeline the other day.

It’s not funny, and I should’ve known that right away because I grew up around so many kids & families who were refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other countries, and people said the same nasty things way back then. This is very dangerous and very un-American.

People have always said nasty things about new people from “foreign” lands. Starting with the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Portuguese, my own Eastern European ancestors, the people from numerous African nations who my English ancestors kidnapped and enslaved, and many others. All the various peoples who have made our country what it is. The whole mix.

Scapegoating immigrants makes an easy target for our economic woes and anything else we think is wrong in our country. But we absolutely must not fall into the trap. Because a trap it is.

Speaking on a general note, beyond just the “eating cats” meme.

We can continue to allow the media and various politicians to cheaply manipulate our emotions, or we can get real. With each other. It starts with something small like just talking with a neighbor.

Instead of falling into the cheap trap of becoming, ourselves, performers in a macabre circus, we need to roll up our sleeves and get down to the work of troubleshooting whatever policies are not serving us. And CREATING BETTER! This will take all of us, together. The human mind channeled constructively is a wondrous instrument.

Plurality of viewpoints is a great asset, not a detriment.

Government is supposed to be by the people. We all need to participate, however we are able to. Even if you don’t feel you have time or money to run for office, or serve on a citizens board, or some other deep involvement. It might just be writing a letter, or making a phone call, sharing the QR code for registering to vote, making sure a neighbor has a ride to the polls, posting a thoughtful post on social media that is genuinely crafted to invite honest discourse. And so on.

Speaking of money, we need to get money out of politics. Many countries do! Many countries purely finance their elections from public monies. It helps dilute the disproportional influence of lobbyists, bad actors, big corporations.

Whichever candidates you plan to vote for, you are a fellow American, and our work is in front of us no matter what.

Here’s a article that goes into the story about the putative pet-eating. “Whom Jupiter Destroys, He First Makes Mad: How 4-chan gave us the cat-eating Haitian Fright.” (Justin Ling; Bug-Eyed and Shameless blog.)

Terra Vance – Marked Melungeon shared this very informative article today on their Facebook page.

The following comment is something I posted in reaction to yet another anti-trans meme on the page of a Facebook acquaintance who is persistently bringing this stuff up.

(Note: One might reasonably ask why I don’t just unfriend this person. For one thing, she’s part of my permaculture / sustainability circles. And diversity is a core principle of permaculture. Her being anti-trans seems to fundamentally contradict that. So I can’t just leave this. Also, some of her other FB friends have been trying to talk sense into her when she makes these posts. They present very good arguments in a civil manner. I feel like unfriending her is not going to solve the problem. This hate is spreading toxically throughout society. I have to at least try to speak up.)

My comment today:

What if we decide that it just doesn’t matter? What if we decide to just honor how someone identifies themselves? How does it hurt us?

Extremely rigid notions of what’s male and what’s female harm us all.

Here is a personal example. I am a cis het female. I am even what would be conventionally called a girly girl. All into the lace and beads and all that kind of stuff.

And yet throughout my life, there have been many many times when people have tried to put me in my place, accusing me of being too masculine and not feminine enough.

I bet almost everybody has been made fun of for being too masculine, or too feminine, or not this enough, or not that enough.

Making fun of trans people, and not wanting to allow them to just exist, is a dreadful, murderous thing to do to other human beings. And furthermore, that kind of rigid patriarchy harms ALL of us. if we can allow everyone to exist, we get the benefits too! It’s silly to be shaming each other for this or that aspect of our appearance, behavior, gender identification, etc.

Women getting shamed for having body hair; men getting shamed for having not enough body hair; women getting shamed for having too many muscles; men getting shamed for not having enough muscles — blah blah blah. We could just drop all of this.

This isn’t just an abstract issue for me. Some of my Trans friends would be dead of suicide today if they hadn’t gotten the support and care they needed.

I know how I have felt when I haven’t been allowed to be myself. It’s absolutely horrible. And I haven’t experienced anywhere near as extreme of anything as what trans people have experienced.

If people are worried about restrooms, we can have unisex restrooms like they do in many countries.

If people are worried about sports and unfair competition, then we can take a look at what the rules are and I’m sure arrive at something that will work. For all I know, those rules and standards are in place already. I’m just not a big follower of sports so I’m not familiar with it.

If we’re worried that somehow someone is making fun of our femininity, like if we’re thinking that someone dressing up and drag is making fun of women – I think it’s actually the opposite, right? But anyway that’s not what’s going on.

If we are worried that society doesn’t respect mothers and motherhood enough, well that is a very valid worry and concern. We really need to work on respecting mothers and motherhood. And really supporting mothers. And supporting children. But marginalizing and hating trans people is not going to help us with that.

Just a few thoughts. Maybe other people will have some insight into this dynamic of hating trans people or anyone we see as different.

Actually I think we have some sort of internalized misogyny, I’ve seen a lot of women impose insane standards on each other and on themselves. We become the fashion police, the food police, the make up police, the body shape and weight police. And I have participated in that crazy sick world when I was younger. Not anymore.

My FB friend responded that her primary concern is the longterm negative health effects of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and unnecessary surgery.

To this I responded:

So if this surgery, medication, etc, were restricted to people over 18, say, does that mean you would have no problem with trans people? (I said 18 because I figure if somebody’s old enough to be drafted into the military they are old enough to decide what gender they are.)

More:

I understand why parents want to know what the teachers are saying to their kids and teaching their kids. Parents have always had the right and the obligation to pay attention to that. And there are lots of ways for parents to give input and get involved in what is being taught at school.

BTW when I was growing up, back in the 70s, it always bothered me that people could not be openly gay and be teachers. The thinking was that gay teachers would teach kids to be gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But, as someone who always knew she was female and attracted to boys, I always thought that was really silly and damaging that teachers could not be openly gay.

I feel the same about transgender people. 

As I’m typing this, the core value of mine that I’m feeling motivated by is wanting people to be able to be their authentic selves. And hating fakeness and pretense. I think fakeness and pretense have done a lot of damage, both within the educational system and within the family structure.

BTW freedom of self expression is certainly one form of freedom of speech. I am very much in favor of freedom of speech. I think we can’t have a civilized society without it.

“He who dies with the most toys wins.”

A popular bumper sticker I saw in the Gordon Gekko era of the 80s. And a very popular sentiment for many decades in the USA.

In more recent years, though, the aging of society has brought a new perspective, as many people are tasked with sorting through houses jam-packed with accumulated possessions — their parents’; and their own.

One might almost go so far as to say that the new motto is, “He who dies with the least toys wins.”

Or more precisely, we might say the winners are those who manage to judiciously distribute, wear out, or use up their possessions in a gradual manner as they age. Ideally not being left with anything unused or unwanted.

And also not “cheating” by sending piles of stuff to landfill. Regardless of how good it might feel to clear out one’s junked-up space.

It’s a challenge for sure!

My college asked alumni to post on the website, offering advice to the incoming freshmen of the class of 2028. Here’s what I wrote:

A warm welcome to the class of 2028!

As many others here have described, the beautiful College and surrounding area offers an incredibly rich array of experiences and resources. Please avail yourself fully!

And make a point of occasionally attending events and programs that are far outside your usual areas of interest. At the very least, you’ll have an interesting experience. And sometimes really magical connections happen.

And I would add … Please take very good care of your mental and emotional health. The College has a counseling center. Find out about it; get an overview of what’s available. You never know when you might need it, if not for yourself then for someone you know. The College’s mental-health services were a lifesaver for me, 40+ years ago.

College is incredibly mind-expanding. For many of us, it’s our first extended time away from home. That’s exhilarating, and it helps us learn and grow. But, as we come into contact with a dizzying array of new-to-us ideas, and encounter people from so many different worlds, it can sometimes also be a bit disorienting, and it’s natural to feel emotionally overwhelmed at times. The College offers many tools and resources to help you navigate these waters.

Even just knowing what your core values are, and reminding yourself of them from time to time, can help you maintain equilibrium. If you don’t yet know what your core values are, there are tools available to help you explore that.

Keep an eye on your friends and classmates; check in with each other. Cultivate your emotional intelligence along with your academic prowess.

One more piece of advice: When it comes to choosing a major and minor — or even just sampling a course outside your chosen path — please don’t shy away from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. They offer many viable paths to a livelihood. And furthermore, in order to create a sustainable society, we need the arts and humanities as much as we need science, engineering, business, and other disciplines. The wicked problems facing our world require all hands on deck.

(And by the way, “all hands on deck” includes ALL of us, no matter how long ago we graduated. No one gets to sit this out. We all have to work together, and we all get to work together.)

And back to you, New Freshman. Whatever your chosen field — and whatever your other skill areas and personality attributes — please know that you have great value to add to the world. You may hit a rough patch at times, but please don’t give up on yourself! You are unique, and there are gifts that only you can bring.

Enjoy your college life, new freshman of the class of 2028!

This question came in response to a comment I made on Sharon Astyk’s page, saying I travel by train 16 hours each way to see my family once a year. I commented:

“Air travel is so utterly miserable. I don’t understand how so many people put up with it. I’m happy to sit on Amtrak for 16 hours once a year to go visit my siblings. OK, it’s 16 hours each way, but I’m still fine with it.”

Which prompted someone to ask me:

“Is that the only time/place you travel?”

My reply to the person’s question:

Nowadays yes. I mean, I go on some occasional short trips within my state and region, but the annual trip to see family is my only super long distance one.

For a variety of reasons.

I have been very fortunate in my life. I got to travel when I was younger, and because the experiences were so rich (such as getting to travel around England, Scotland, and Wales for 5 weeks in the 1980s; and getting to live in Japan for 5 years in the 1990s), they went a long way and I am satisfied.

Before that, as a child, I grew up in the military family so we moved every couple of years. My parents took the opportunity to take us camping in many national parks and state parks all over the country when we would be moving from one assignment to the next.

As a climate activist, I am keenly conscious of the footprint of my past travel. And so I feel it’s my duty to leave it to the younger people, and to other people who have never had a chance to travel.

Fortunately I really love my adopted home place.

And I added another comment later on the same thread:

If I liked the area where my family lives, I would probably move there to live closer to them. And I may do that someday. [Note, the cost of living there is really high though.]

But I really love the place where I have made a home. There’s a really beautiful community here.

I did used to live twice as far away from my family, but I decided to at least move to the same coast of the USA as them. Did that 14 years ago and here I am.

If there were a really good network of walking paths and cycling paths, I would probably be very happy to take a very very long time on my trips to see them. Maybe nine days each way by bicycle, or 40 days each way on foot. My work is portable. But right now the safe network of paths does not exist.

(The original post on Sharon’s page was sharing a post by a person who says they’re happy to sit on a train for many hours, even though it takes so much longer than air travel. That they enjoy watching scenery and being able to get up and walk around, etc.)

PS. Although my assertions of finding air travel miserable are 100% true, there is an additional reason why I assert my dislike. I’m trying to emphasize the cramped drudgery of air travel to see if I can nudge more people to rethink hopping on airplanes. A little behavioral-economics experiment.

As I’ve said before on this blog and in various public forums, it’s not just about wanting to avoid the ecological impact. It’s about wanting to minimize my contribution to the destruction of other cultures, communities.

The rootlessness of modern industrialized culture is something I see as very much an artifact of the endless-growth economic model. And while giving various benefits to some individuals, it has had a deeply destructive impact on people, communities, cultures, ecosystems, and biosphere.

Here are two books. One of which has become very popular in recent years so you may have read it. The other one may not be as familiar but you may also have read that one.

Two books. One published in 1972; the other in 2001. Very much overlapping themes.

1) A Nation of Strangers, by Vance Packard. Published 1972.

2) Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community, by Robert Putnam. Published 2001.

I found the older book while shopping in my public library’s bookstore the other day to replenish my Little Free Library. Putnam’s book I read a couple years back. Good stuff.

I like how Packard sums up his idea of what an authentic community is:

“My own view is that an authentic community is a social network of people of various kinds, ranks, and ages who encounter each other on the streets, in the stores, at sports parks, at communal gatherings. A good deal of personal interaction occurs. There are elected leaders or spokesman whom almost all the people know at least by reputation. Some may not like their community but all recognize it as a special place with an ongoing character. It has a central core and well-understood limits. Most members base most of their daily activities in or near the community. And most are interested in cooperating to make it a place they can be proud of.”

Packard’s description very much squares with what I have found in my adopted hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. I have experienced glimpses of it in previous places where I lived, but more of it here than anywhere else before.

Another quote that grabbed me came from a novel I read yesterday, that I had purchased for my LittleFreeLibrary. The novel is Fishing in the Yemen, by Paul Torday. (The Yemeni Sheikh is speaking to the British protagonist, a mild-mannered fisheries scientist):

“‘This house was first built in the year 942 according to your calendar, and in the year 320 according to ours, and my family have lived here ever since, here and in Sana’a. It always interests me when European people come here, that they have no idea how old our civilisation is. Do you not think we have learned how to live and conduct our lives according to God, in that time? That is why some of our people hate the West so much. They wonder what the West has to offer that is so compelling that it must be imposed upon us, replacing our religion of God with the religion of money, replacing our piety and our poverty with consumer goods that we do not need, forcing money upon us that we cannot spend or if we do, cannot repay, loosening the ties that hold together families and tribes, corroding our faith, corroding our morality.'”

Mic drop. If that doesn’t just say it all.

This is something I have tried to point out many times. As a disillusioned environmentalist some years back, I was so relieved to learn in Permaculture class that humans can be a beneficial influence on the environment. Not just a “less-bad” influence.

In prepper / doomer / collapse-aware circles, many people have fallen into thinking that the earth would be better off with humans not on it. You might hear people talking about how billions of people will need to die, etc.

But this is a limited and inaccurate view, based on our experience of Euro / capitalist / colonizer culture. (Or what Daniel Quinn, author of the Ismael books, called “taker” culture.)

Humans are originally living in partnership with nature.

This 15-min TED talk is refreshing & energizing without being “hopium.”

https://youtu.be/eH5zJxQETl4?si=5B7ZgDuf40lkXmbo

Title: “3,000-yr-old solutions to modern problems.” (It’s a worldview we get introduced to in Permaculture class, with a sort of “Survey 101” of examples from many different times and places. But this is direct from the source, indigenous peoples).

TED Talk by Lyla June Johnston, Ph. D., an Indigenous musician, author and community organizer of Diné, Tsétsêhéstâhese, and European lineages. She has many other talks as well.