Dr. Cornell West

Dr Cornell West is, for me, the great American Thinker of our time.  The TRUTH of his words brought tears to my eyes this morning.

Precious Grandson Born, December 10, 2012, 11 am.

I think I might get to be a grandmother at long last.  Here is granddaughter Celeste and our grandson, still unnamed.  They are beautiful children and a blessing.  I hope they will always feel that inside their hearts.

I hope I can be a grandmother consistently for a long time and influence in a good way these two young souls.  They deserve to have an easier life than their mother and grandmother did.  They deserve to be surrounded by goodness.  They deserve all that life has to gift.

Will and I will do our best to put all we can into it as if we were like those mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers who took being parents and grandparents for granted.   Will and I, however, know all too well what a miracle, what a vulnerable miracle, how out of our hands that great gift is.  We don't have much to say about it so we pray.

Malcolm X

This is the philosopher, world political leader, who had the most influence on our generation, Malik el Shabazz, Malcolm X.

Sagoroe

I had forgotten Will made this short video when we went to Glen Cover, Sagoroe Te, to join the encampment there to save the shell mounds and protect that sacred area on the Vallejo Bay and estuary of our salmon:

Winnemem Ghost Tribe

Tonight, late at night, I'm looking through videos of the Winnemem to find one which Chief can use when she comes to Eugene to keynote for the Women of Color Conference January 25.  She will be speaking in classes, speaking at a keynote of women of color leadership on campus and she will be giving a keynote.  Caleen likes to show video and speak because it is hard to convey accurately who the tribe is and what our struggle to resist extermination of our way of life is to a crowd unfamiliar with the Winnemem without taking them through video to the place and among her people.  Without the technology people would not have reason to care if we exist or not.

I found this film and I want to save it here.  It was put together by California Watch, and it is about restoration.  Will and Toby McLeod have done films about salmon, ceremony but their documentaries have not focused entirely on restoration.  For good reason.  People's eyes glaze over as soon as that word is mentioned.  This weekend I told two friends, tribal, and people who care about the Winnemem that no matter how condensed, when I talk about recognition or restoration, people's eyes glaze over.  They were surprised.  I started one sentence, and their eyes glazed over.  Not easy to do.
But with the magic of video images, this little film is not so painful, especially since there are so many scenes of the village life and the beautiful sacred sites, the ceremony, the dances, the Chief and tribe.  So I'm thinking this should be added to the list of "Dancing Salmon Home" and "Ceremony is not a Crime."

What do you think?

Lyla and Paige Traveling Through

Today is a special day.  Lyla and Paige are traveling through on their way up to Portland!  We had a dinner of vegetable stew and dumplings, Will's wonderful green salad, smoke salmon dip from Alaska from Katie, and corn bread finished by goatcheese and cherry frozen dessert -- like ice creme but doesn't make us sick.  We had wonderful conversations -- even while Lyla washed dishes.  Tomorrow before they leave we will go to Off the Waffle with Steve Morozumi.  Life is perfect!

Segorea Te

Corinna Gould, Ohlone leader, and good friend of Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu, speaks here about the precious estuary and cove, called Glen Cove by the media, and Segorea Te by the Ohlone and their allies.  This is the very place where the Sacramento River goes into the ocean and where our salmon would go from the sweet river waters to the estuary to grow up and then to the salty ocean.

Injunuity: Buried from Adrian Baker Animation on Vimeo.

This is the area that people tried to protect with the encampment at Glen Cove for months over a year ago. They seemed to win the battle, but were tricked. All the indigenous medicine plants gone. It's like a lawn there. WRONG!!!! And this area will be gravely impacted if and when Governor Brown surrounded by bad advisors, even those who claim to know about tribes and the issue, builds the peripheral canal which diverts all the water of the Sacramento south. The bay, our salmon's estuary, here in this place Corinna talks about will be gone.