Author: Tracy Abell

On this Independence Day

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

On this Independence Day, I suggest we in the United States think about liberating ourselves from one of our most harmful and destructive practices:

MONEY AND WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
“Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.” (source). Since October 7, 2023, the U.S. has sent at least 14,000 of its 2,000-pound bombs to Israel for a grand total of 28 million pounds of bombs raining down on Palestinians. And that only accounts for the BIG bombs. Who knows how many more pounds of death have dropped on Gaza.

Image by segobou from Pixabay

On this Independence Day, the thought utmost in my mind is declaring independence from genocide.  No one is free when others are oppressed.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Wordful Wednesday: flora edition

/ Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

As mentioned,  I spent part of yesterday in the backyard. However, my attention wasn’t solely aimed at birds, bees, and butterflies. I also found beauty in the bindweed blooming at the base of a clump of lamb’s ear.

Backyard.   July 2, 2024

 

Don’t get me wrong: I’m no fan of the invasive bindweed that wraps itself around other plants, choking them off. But the flowers are pretty. I still remember my neighbor’s horror years ago when I’d said as much. The funny thing is, the neighbor who now lives in that house also thinks bindweed flowers are pretty. Still, we both try to keep it at bay. And we’re both wildly unsuccessful.

In addition to the lovely blooms, I have to admire the weed’s tenacity. Bindweed and cockroaches, man. Survival instincts like no other.

Twofer Tuesday: house wren edition

/ Tracy Abell / 14 Comments

Earlier, I was feeling loads of anxiety about the state of the world and planet, and so wisely went outside to sit below the deck for a hit of nature. The lamb’s ear are abuzz with bees and a painted lady butterfly landed on the plant closest to me. A swallowtail butterfly floated past. Various birds sang and then went silent for a while. As I petted Emma who was curled up on the bench next to me, a house wren began singing again. I aimed my camera into the light to capture the songster.

Didn’t catch the wren mid-note, but they were singing their little heart out.

And then I became aware of another wren, this one making the churring sound. That bird was a little farther down the fence.

I took a few more photos, grinning as the first wren continued the melodious song while this one stuck to its churring call. I lowered the camera then squinted, wondering if I was seeing things. No, I wasn’t imagining it!Two wrens, side-by-side. Two fluffy wrens. The baby wrens that’d been very vocal on Saturday as their parents worked tirelessly to feed them. The baby wrens that’d left the nest on Sunday, leaving Zippy and me to wonder where they’d gone. Just minutes before they showed up on the fence, I’d asked him whether young wrens stick around or head to a whole new area on their own. Zippy said he didn’t know.

But now we do know: they stick around!For a while, at least. To learn their calls and songs, and to practice flying.

 

 

Climate Movement Monday: whales, tents, & jail support

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

It’s another Movement Monday and I’ll be extra brief as Zippy and I are headed out for a much-needed dose of nature. I’m grateful to be able to escape to the great outdoors where I can clear my mind and refill my well, and I hope you’re also able to  rejuvenate during these incredibly dark days.

This ask comes from Healthy Gulf and involves personalizing a quick letter:

The critically-endangered Rice’s whale lives only in the Gulf of Mexico and is teetering on the edge of extinction, with only about 50 whales remaining. But rather than protecting them, members of Congress are trying to block desperately needed actions to protect the whales. These whales need your support!

Will you take action today to tell your representatives that you support protections for critically endangered Rice’s whales?

Some members of Congress are attaching anti-whale language to bills that would fund government agencies in 2025. One measure by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would force the U.S. Air Force to exempt itself from protections for the Rice’s whale under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, even though the Air Force has not requested it and has a long history of working to protect endangered species in its operations. Another would block the federal government from spending any money on creating restrictions on the speed of ships traveling through designated whale habitat—a proven conservation action used worldwide to protect whales from vessel strikes. 

It’s pathological behavior for Congress to ignore the multiple crises threatening humanity’s very existence and, instead, to use their considerable power to target whales for extinction. Whew.

The second issue I want to put on your radar is a fundraiser to buy tents for people in Gaza (just realized they also have a separate fundraiser to buy diapers). The Sameer Project is a donations based aid Palestinian-led initiative working to supply emergency funding to the displaced families in Gaza. They are doing amazing work under incredibly difficult circumstances. This from their GoFundMe update today: The Sameer Project has so far provided over 525+ tents sheltering more than 5,000 people since the Rafah invasion started in May. That accounts for 1.5% of all the displaced population. Not only that, but our team has also been providing cash, clothing, food, water, and medical in all parts of the Strip. Wheelchairs are extremely expensive and difficult to find yet we successfully secured one for a woman with a severe case of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Our community kitchens and water trucks are going strong in the North because of your support. We also recently sourced around 300 milk tins and 1250 packs of diapers in both the North and South. 

Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated!

The third issue is monetary support for the courageous people of Stop the Money Pipeline who are putting pressure on CitiBank to stop funding fossil fuel projects and genocide in Israel (you can notify Citi you’re opposed their actions here). I wrote about the Summer of Heat campaign here. This from the latest Stop the Money Pipeline email:

In the last three weeks, we’ve helped organize sixteen actions on Wall Street financiers of fossil fuels, including seven civil disobedience protests at Citi’s HQ that have ended in more than 250 arrests.

As a result of our tireless organizing, our message is getting out.

Yesterday, ABC correctly reported that “fossil fuel projects in [the Gulf South] are devastating Black and Brown communities.” Reuters wrote that “Citi employees were alerted on Thursday to anticipate ‘significant protest’ activity on Friday.” The previous day, Bloomberg reported that our “protracted campaign is beginning to wear on employees and executives alike.”

We aren’t deterred by all the arrests. Our resolve is only hardened: we will make our demand to end fossil fuels impossible to ignore by continuing disruptive, nonviolent civil disobedience.

That’s why we’ve been shutting down Citi’s HQ since early June – and why we’ll continue to be back week after week.

To sustain this fight, we need your help. Donate here to our legal and jail support fund. Every cent raised will support the courageous activists risking arrest week after week here in New York.

Again, any amount is helps! Thank you for reading this far and please know how much you’re appreciated. Solidarity! ✊🏽

His poetry and my photo

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

This morning I went into the backyard with the camera and came away with this image from one of our blooming Apache Plumes.

The image reminded me of dancing fairies, delicate and airy. Later, I received an update and thank-you email from a fundraising campaign, sponsored by the Gaza Poets Society, to evacuate two young children from Gaza. The email update stated that due to the continued closure of the Rafah border, the campaign is shifting from evacuation to sustainability (food and basic supplies), and donations of any amount are gratefully accepted.  The thank-you portion of the email was a PDF of the Gaza Poets Society Anthology.

As I read through the poems, Dance with Me made me think of my blooming Apache Plume, and I wanted to share the pairing here. His poetry and my photo, connected across the miles, in honor of our shared humanity.

Dance with Me – Mohammed Moussa

I’ll dance with you
under the rain
in love and pain;
on the seashore of hope
we will sing for life and joy.
We’ll dance
on behalf of absence
in the streets, and
on the outskirts of our city
we’ll flap our wings
lift joy and love
and sing
         and sing

Twofer Tuesday: out my window

/ Tracy Abell / 12 Comments

Today I’m grateful for all the activity that’s viewable from my windows. Just a while ago, I paused my laundry duties to watch house wrens at the nesting box hanging outside the window. Nothing like a little avian activity to lighten the drudgery of dealing with dirty sheets and towels.

Last week, I photographed this youngster eating the nut munch we provide for neighborhood squirrels. I smiled the entire time.

A few minutes later, I was gifted the sighting of this magpie and its colorful plumage. It wasn’t until looking at the photos that I realized a tail feather is damaged. That imperfection doesn’t detract from its beauty, but instead adds to its mystique.

It’s currently 95 degrees and I’m hunkered down inside, grateful for the swamp cooler keeping the house cool-ish and for the windows that allow glimpses of our wildlife visitors.

Climate Movement Monday: declare a national climate emergency

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Welcome back to another Movement Monday in which we discuss the climate crisis and take a quick action on behalf of people and planet. I don’t have a formal request for an action today, but suggest making phone calls and/or emailing Biden plus your two Senators and one Representative to report on what June has been like where you live. Is it hotter than usual? Windier than usual? Have there been wildfires, floods, tornados, tropical storms, drought, hail storms, etc.? How’s your air quality? Have you had to curtail physical activity? Have you lost insurance coverage due to climate risks?

A Bloomberg article from April stated “White House officials have renewed discussions about potentially declaring a national climate emergency, an unprecedented step that could unlock federal powers…” I don’t have a subscription so could only read that opening, but it seems like a good idea to let Biden and the Democrats know there’s broad support for the declaration of a climate emergency that would unlock all sorts of powers to take action.

When I made calls today, I reported that despite it still being morning, the temperature in the Denver metro area was already above 90 degrees. I went on to say that while those elected officials possessed considerable power that could be used to mitigate the climate crisis, they were instead using that power to enable and support a genocide in Gaza, and total destruction of infrastructure via 262 days of nonstop bombing that was also accelerating the climate crisis. I pointed out that the majority of people do NOT want their tax dollars used to kill and destroy, and would prefer a climate emergency declaration that would get everyone working together to ensure the planet remains livable.

On a related note, last week organizer Kelly Hayes shared the link to a Truthout article Climate Refugees Are Occupying Abandoned Buildings in Southern Brazil. This not only ties in with Rosaliene Bacchus’s recent blog post, but also gave me a boost. People coming together to care for each other in time of tragedy.

“This is our lifeboat,” says Liziane Pacheco Dutra. She wears a thick black jacket. Her hair is pulled back in a pony tail. “We lost everything to the flood. We have nothing. We have no bed. No food. We were disrespected at the shelter, and here we have found a connection, care and open arms. We’ve made friends. The kids play together and we are looking after each other.”

People were not treated well in the shelters which are mostly run by middle and upper class people who show the working class little respect. Instead, people are forming communities in abandoned buildings.

It’s a profound sentiment and a symbol of what the occupation means for the nearly 60 families that live here.

I recommend reading the entire article which shows what happens when people come together for the common good. Reading it warmed my heart and filled me with hope for the many possibilities available to us. Shared humanity for the win!

Wherever you are, I hope your local temperatures and weather are moderate. I’d love if you shared details of your June in the comments and/or comments made to your elected officials. Either way, please take care and stay safe. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Day 261: it’s all connected, we’re all connected

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

On this 261st Day of Genocide in Gaza, I admit to being stunned that the carnage has not only not ceased, but has become increasingly depraved. I won’t go into details as the words and images are easily found due to IOF soldiers proudly documenting their depravity/lack of humanity on social media sites. To counteract the sadism, I decided to offer a poem by a Palestinian, and so went in search of something that resonated.

I landed on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) who is “feted as Palestine’s national poet for his words expressing the longing of Palestinians deprived of their homeland, which was taken by Zionist militias to make way for present-day Israel. His poetry gave voice to the pain of Palestinians living as refugees and those under Israeli occupation for nearly a century.” And because this morning I began reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson, the Darwish poem I chose is “The Prison Cell.” Because just as the United States incarcerates more people than any country on earth (currently about 2 million people), Israel incarcerates thousands upon thousands of Palestinians and holds them without filing charges. It’s all connected. We’re all connected. And just as the incarcerated in the U.S. are treated as less-than and subjected to brutal conditions, so are the Palestinians. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we live on this planet: It’s all connected. We’re all connected.

In this spirit, I offer:

The Prison Cell
by Mahmoud Darwish
(Translated by Ben Bennani)

It is possible . . .
It is possible at least sometimes . . .
It is possible especially now
To ride a horse
Inside a prison cell
And run away . . .

It is possible for prison walls
To disappear,
For the cell to become a distant land
Without frontiers:

What did you do with the walls?
I gave them back to the rocks.
And what did you do with the ceiling?
I turned it into a saddle.
And your chain?
I turned it into a pencil.

The prison guard got angry.
He put an end to the dialogue.
He said he didn’t care for poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

He came back to see me
In the morning.
He shouted at me:

Where did all this water come from?
I brought it from the Nile.
And the trees?
From the orchards of Damascus.
And the music?
From my heartbeat.

The prison guard got mad.
He put an end to my dialogue.
He said he didn’t like my poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

But he returned in the evening:

Where did this moon come from?
From the nights of Baghdad.
And the wine?
From the vineyards of Algiers.
And this freedom?
From the chain you tied me with last night.

The prison guard grew so sad . . .
He begged me to give him back
His freedom.

—-

One final connection between Palestinians, the men in Attica in 1971, and me: this poster I unearthed in my basement yesterday, one I’d bought years ago (and possibly hung in my California classroom):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s all connected. We’re all connected.

Climate Movement Monday: Summer of Heat campaign

/ Tracy Abell / 9 Comments

Welcome back to another Movement Mondays in which we discuss all things climate and then typically take a quick action or two (today’s suggestions from Stop the Money Pipeline will be to donate, make a phone call, and send personalized emails) in support of frontline communities, those enduring the worst of the climate crisis.

With record-breaking heat happening around the country, along with a whole lot of wildfires currently burning, it could be said that every single one of us lives in a frontline community. Here’s today’s wildfire map from FIRMS US/CANADA (Fire Information for Resource Management System US/Canada):

Each of those orange flame icons represents a current wildfire. And it’s precisely for this reason that last week, Stop the Money Pipeline launched their Summer of Heat campaign (scroll down at link for details and lots of good info, including this):

The clock is ticking. That’s why during the Summer of Heat, we’re taking joyful, relentless nonviolent direct action to end fossil fuel financing. 

Wall Street is bankrolling the coal, oil and gas companies that are polluting our communities and killing our planet. But we’re going to stop them.

We’re going hard all summer long. Week after week. Month after month. We’re taking the party to the streets and we won’t stop.

The following comes from the Stop the Money Pipeline newsletter sent last night:
It’s been quite the first week here in New York. We organized civil disobedience actions at Citibank’s global headquarters four days in a row: On Monday we blockaded every entrance with 150+ people. On Tuesday, we did it with a giant pod of orcas. On Wednesday, it was the turn of the scientists, including Dr. Sandra Steingraber and Dr. Peter Kalmus. And on Thursday we blockaded the headquarters with 200+ elders and 50+ rocking chairs.

On Friday, we held a block party in the plaza outside the HQ and in the midst of it all, we also found the time to disrupt a speech by Citibank’s Head of Wealth Management, Andy Seig. In total, 144 people were arrested this week, demanding an end to the financing of fossil fuels.

As someone who was arrested and jailed for climate protest, I know the risks these folks are taking on our behalf (especially risky now during an ongoing pandemic in which New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, is threatening a statewide mask ban). Alec Connon, co-director of Stop the Money Pipeline, said in that newsletter he was jailed twice last week! If you can spare a few dollars, please donate to the legal fund set up for the summer’s planned actions. Twelve weeks of actions will land an awful lot of people in jail because the powerful elites are working overtime to crush dissent as climate collapse worsens. Note: today’s article from independent journalists at The Lever is Big Oil’s Plan to Criminalize Pipeline Protestors.

The following also comes from last night’s Stop the Money Pipeline newsletter:

The stakes of the climate fight cannot be overestimated. Already, at less than 1.5°C of warming, half of the world’s coral reefs have collapsed and millions of children are being displaced by climate-driven extreme weather events every year. If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels in the coming years, it will get so much worse.

Given these stakes, it feels good to be a part of a campaign that at least feels close to being commensurate with the scale of the crisis.

I take heart, too, in knowing that history shows how effective sustained campaigns of civil disobedience can be. Indeed, many of most significant advances in social justice of the past 150 years ― from women’s suffrage to desegregation to the many gains won by organized labor ― owe less to subtle, “respectable” maneuvering than to the disruptive campaigns and groups that first made the issues impossible to ignore, and then forced decision-makers to act.

I believe that will be true of the fight to end fossil fuels, too―and that civil disobedience will play a key role in turning Wall Street against the fossil fuel industry.

As we take a breath and prepare for another week of civil disobedience actions, there are several ways that you can support the Summer of Heat campaign, wherever you are.

You can take a few minutes to call Citi’s CEO, email a dozen of their top executives, or call them out on social media. If you have the means to do so, you can also make a donation to the Summer of Heat campaign here. We’ll put every cent to good use.

And, of course, if you’re really eager to jump in, you can also look up where the closest Citi branch is to you and plan an action; or you could even start to plan your trip to New York. June 28th would be a very good day to be in town…

In Solidarity
– Alec Connon, Stop the Money Pipeline coalition co-director

PS: Interested in checking out the media from the first week of Summer of Heat? The pick of the bunch is here: Newsweek, the Hill, Salon, Democracy Now – Wednesday, Democracy Now – Thursday, Bloomberg, ABC7, AM NY, NPR, Common Dreams, and the NY Post

As I end here, I want to highlight the TikTok video of the orcas blockading Citibank on Tuesday. (Warning: profanities).

Thank you for being here and please know I appreciate your efforts on behalf of people and planet. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Sunday Confessional: the mundane soothes me

/ Tracy Abell / 12 Comments

Zippy and I’ve lived in the same home for 28 years, the longest either of us has stayed in one place. We came here with two young children, two large dogs, and two cats. We needed/wanted space. Our sons now live their lives elsewhere and the household is just us plus one small dog and two cats. We no longer need all this house or the big yard.

I dream of living in a smaller dwelling. The problem is, I don’t know where I want to go. Should we stay in Colorado? Should we venture somewhere new? Can I find a location that doesn’t have extreme temperatures or mosquitoes? I’ve been pondering this a while, but those questions still bounce around my head unanswered. So, for the time being, we’re still here.

But! Last Sunday I set my eyes on the future and began taking steps. I started divesting of stuff, specifically Zippy’s stuff. Why his? Because I knew the keep-or-toss decisions would be easier. Our basement storage room contained about ten boxes he’d put down there when he lost his engineering job nearly nine years ago. The boxes were filled with technical books and files, things he’d used over the course of his career and planned to use again. Except he was never able to get another job and, as the years went by, the info contained in those boxes was no longer current. Keep-or-toss decisions would be a whiz!

As I shuttled boxes up to him, one at a time, Zippy decided what he wanted to keep and what could go. As he went through the minutiae, I took the discarded files and books to the garage where I began filling bins and then boxes with paper to be recycled. The files were easy to handle, the books a little harder. I experimented with an xacto knife and cut pages from book spines before realizing I preferred tearing out the pages. Zippy thought that approach was tedious and way too time-consuming, but I loved it. After I got into a rhythm, I felt my mind empty. My thoughts were no longer on Gaza or climate collapse or the pandemic or the peeling paint in the bathroom or the bindweed strangling my yarrow plants or the health issues facing various loved ones or the fact that I still hadn’t found anyone to deliver mulch for the backyard. All my focus was on reaching down with my right hand to gather a number of pages–not too many and not too few–and then tearing them along the spine in one smooth motion before dropping the pages into a neat pile in the box next to me and then reaching for more.

Photo by cottonbro studio at pexels.com (A Person Wearing White Long Sleeves Tearing the Pages of a Book while Soaking in the Lake)

I destroyed books and workbooks for most of the afternoon and not only felt a deep sense of peace, but also accomplishment. I was–FINALLY–kinda, sorta taking steps toward a move.

The next day, we drove our Subaru filled with all those bins and boxes of paper to the city recycling center where we unloaded my hours of labor. While I was dismayed to learn our paper had to go into the same roll-off that contained cereal boxes and egg cartons (degrading the paper quality), the sense of accomplishment rose up in me again. It wasn’t only the car that was lighter as we drove away.

We didn’t get through all the boxes last week and today we finished up. As Zippy sorted through his belongings, keeping some things and discarding others,  I returned to my post in the garage and began tearing pages from books. The same calm returned with each successful rrrriip.

I realize not everyone will resonate with this approach to mental health, but you might be surprised. Never in a million years thought these words would come from me but
I absolutely, with no reservations, recommend tearing pages from books!

Action needed: prioritize Palestinian refugees in U.S.

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

As you know, the United States is largely responsible for the genocide happening in Gaza right now. Tens of thousands dead, thousands more buried beneath rubble, and entire families wiped out by the U.S. bombs supplied to Israel. The reality is incredibly bleak. However, there’s an effort underway that could potentially save thousands of Palestinian lives, and that is to allow them to reunite with family members in the U.S.

This action info came to me via an email from MPOWER CHANGE:

Rep. Greg Casar, Sen. Dick Durbin, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal are leading a bicameral letter expressing strong support for a Priority-2 (P-2) designation under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for Palestinians in Gaza with family in the United States. The Biden administration is reportedly considering this policy change.1

Urge your U.S. Senators and Representative to sign on to the Casar-Durbin letter NOW:

Palestinians are so rarely granted U.S. refugee status that, of the over 60,000 refugees resettled in the United States in 2023, fewer than 0.1% were Palestinians.2

PLEASE take two minutes to personalize a letter to your representatives, demanding they ease some of the pain and suffering they’ve enabled by signing on to the Casar-Durbin letter.

Thank you in advance for your help. Solidarity! ✊🏽

  1. “White House considers welcoming some Palestinians from war-torn Gaza as refugees,” CBS News, Apr. 30, 2024.
  2. “Republicans want to ban Palestinian refugees from entering the U.S., but it’s already very hard for them to get in,” NBC News, Oct. 7, 2023

Olive Odyssey: olive oil from Palestine

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Zippy is the chef of our household (while I fill the role of “grateful eater of all he prepares”), and when he decided his cooking was in need of some olive oil from Palestine, he placed an order with Olive Odyssey. Our olive oil arrived today!

But we didn’t only receive the bottle of olive oil. The package also contained an organic fabric bag and a post card with the above picture on the front and this message on the back:

It feels so good to hold that bottle in our hands and feel the connection with Palestinian farmers who lovingly care for their olive trees, land, and traditions. Shared humanity for the win!

eta: I just realized the bottle has other info, including that this olive oil is from farmer  Abed Al-salam Bargouti and that it was sourced from “Rumi olive trees nestled in the hills of Aboud village at the heart of Palestine’s Ramallah region.”

Poppies for Palestine

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

As I walked past my neighbor’s poppies today, my thoughts went to Gaza because the poppy is the national flower of Palestine.

June 10, 2024

I’m grateful for these poppies, glorious and resilient in the face of our frequent heavy winds, since mine tend to live very short lives. Every year, they’re here and then gone. But despite my poppy experience, poppies are seen as a symbol of resilience:

The poppy symbolizes the resilience and enduring spirit of the Palestinian people. This designation stems from the flower’s pervasive presence in the region and its poignant representation in various cultural and historical contexts.

The red of the poppy symbolises the blood of the martyrs within this land. The colors of the poppy also mirror the colors of the Palestinian flag with red, black, white and green.

The poppy’s vibrant red petals are often seen as a metaphor for the bloodshed and sacrifices endured in the ongoing struggle for freedom and self-determination. Its ability to thrive in adverse conditions mirrors the steadfastness and hope of the Palestinian people amidst their challenging circumstances. The choice of the poppy as a national symbol is a powerful testament to the collective memory, cultural identity, and the unyielding quest for peace and sovereignty in Palestine.

Today I post these poppies in solidarity with the people of Gaza. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Friday Haiku: on freedom of the press

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

religious school mob
attacks journalist
supremacist frenzy

Note: this happened on June 5 in occupied Jerusalem during the “Flag March.” Palestinian journalist Saif Al-Qawasmi was attacked, first by students of a religious school and then beaten by Israeli police. Journalist Nir Hasson tried to protect Qawasmi and was also beaten. Hasson, who works for the newspaper Haaretz, took this photo. Other images can be seen here.

When magpies sound the alarm, heed their calls

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

This morning as I did my daily “bed stretches,” it finally registered in my brain that the magpies were being unusually loud and persistent outside my window. I got up and looked out.

A fox!

I ran to the other end of the house to grab the camera from the dining room table, updating Zippy on the way. When we got back to the window, the magpies were still chastising the fox and I started taking photos through our screen. Unfortunately, the shutter clicks disturbed the fox (s/he turned to look directly at me), so I stopped.

But I texted my neighbor to let him know he had a visitor. He quietly stepped out onto his deck and the fox ran for the back fence where it leapt up onto the same section where a bobcat had sat nearly two years ago, and then disappeared on the other side. A beautiful gift from the universe! And a very, very nice way to begin the day.

Note to self: when you hear incessant magpie calls, investigate!

Climate Movement Monday: deadly heat in Gaza

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

Welcome back to another Movement Monday in which we talk about the climate crisis and the communities already getting hit the hardest. Today’s post focuses on the people of Gaza who have not only been under attack since October–thousands and thousands of bombs raining down on them no matter where they go–but have also been under siege in terms of deprivation of food, water, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid.  On top of all that, displaced Palestinians faced a record-breaking heatwave that pushed temperatures over 100 degrees as they huddled in tents that became deathly hot. This article from Climate Home News points out the disparity between how the Israelis’ in Tel Aviv and Gazans living in refugee camps handle high temperatures. Spoiler alert:  people in Tel Aviv stay in their air-conditioned homes or travel to the sea to sit under beach umbrellas while Gazans forced to live in nylon tents are losing their children to heat stroke. This week, the temperatures will “only” be in the upper 80s and low 90s, but if you’ve ever slept in a tent not shaded by trees, you know how unbearably hot it gets inside.

Boys carry water bottles in Gaza on May 28, 2024. (Photo: Naaman Omar)

Here’s an excerpt from the Climate Home News article:
The predicament of Gazans forced to endure sweltering conditions in ill-equipped tents is not an isolated problem. Across the world, climate change and war are forcing more and more people out of their homes and into makeshift camps. More than 75 million people are currently displaced inside their own countries – 50% more than five years ago.

Read that last line again: More than 75 million people are currently displaced inside their own countries – 50% more than five years ago. 

If you’re like me, reading something like that can tip you precariously close to despair. But we can also have a different response. We can read something that feels overwhelmingly bad and ask ourselves “what can I do here and now to effect change?” Today I’m going to share some links for ways in which we can help Gazans.

  • MUNICIPALITY OF GAZA is working toward the restoration of sewage treatment, waste management, and access to clean water which will cut down on waterborne illnesses.  You can donate HERE (any amount helps!) If you appreciated Refaat Alareer’s work I shared here (including “If I must die, let it be a tale”), please note that he also ran the social media account for the Municipality of Gaza (@munigaza).
  • GAZA FUNDS is a project that connects people to crowdfunding campaigns for individuals and families from Gaza. Each time the page is reloaded, a different campaign appears. While the rotation is randomized, campaigns for the sick/injured and campaigns close to meeting their goals are prioritized. We never want any of these campaigns to go stagnant, so we make sure to also prioritize fundraisers that haven’t had a donation in a while. As existing fundraisers meet their goals, they will be replaced with other fundraisers that need your help. You can donate HERE. I’ve seen people on Twitter highlighting their $5 donations to several campaigns with the knowledge that those contributions add up as well as give Palestinians the much-needed boost of knowing they haven’t been forgotten by the rest of the world. (more info re the Gaza Funds volunteers here). Also, I’m including the below graphics that offer additional ideas on how to help plus social media account info.

One last note to help make the connection between the United States and what’s happening in Gaza: On May 31, multiple water mains in Atlanta burst and people were/are under a boil water advisory. Many parts of the city are still without water. As I write this, it appears there’s still no clear communication on the water situation and many Atlanta residents are calling out Mayor Andre Dickens for attending a fundraiser on Friday AFTER THE FIRST PIPE BURST. The water infrastructure failure further highlights that the push to build Cop City in Atlanta to the tune of $100 million is the absolute wrong “public safety” initiative needed when the city can’t even provide citizens clean, safe water.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for being here! We’re facing incredibly difficult realities, but we’re much stronger together. Solidarity!✊🏽

Raising a middle finger to A.I.

/ Tracy Abell / 15 Comments
After this morning’s writing session in which I sought refuge from our current reality by working (some more) on chapter 8 of my middle grade novel, I came here to check my WordPress dashboard. In my Contacts spam folder, was the following:
Edited to add this gem from another spammer on 6.5.24:
This state-of-the-art web app allows you to create captivating children’s books using advanced AI technology. It takes care of both the writing and illustration, and all you need to do is input your ideas (or let the app come up with the idea too, LOL). No writing or illustration skills needed!

“Pocketful of Warding Stones” by Rasha Abdulhadi

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments
The following poem and image were published at Poetry Online (a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing literature and art accessibly) on October 21, 2023.
Pocketful of Warding Stones by Rasha Abdulhadi
…
how much of the weight of time we carry
is the burden the murderers gave us,
and whose ends do we serve to hate
ourselves for not dying as easy as they wanted?
…
what firekeeper can scrape
the char of guilt from this burnt offering,
pull air over embers of grief & longing,
find some flint in the heart left to light?
…
how can we untie living grief from the longing
to have done more, and find instead what
more could yet by our breath be done?
…
we can hold ourselves, responsible yes,
refuse a rebellion captive or complicit
confess instead a broader bravery
on which to spend the coin of our lives.
…
we who untangle loss from creation by blowing it to bits—
why obscure grief, why hoard it or hide its face,
as if a siphon could drain an ocean, no—
let them hear the holes when we sing.
…
every death in war is a casualty, no matter the speed
or how exhausted, how unscaffolded the rebuilding.
i know a hurricane who reached through years and state lines
into lungs hearts and bowels, and snatched souls back to flood.
when the disaster of war or the war of disaster steals homes it steals lives,
and though it may take time to cash them, we know where the blame lies.
…
we ward against the guilt of war
the blistered blessing of surviving our kin, and
around the undefused bombs our bodies hide,
we build a larger house to live in.
…
though the house of sorrow be vast,
give grief her rooms to stalk through
let living longing paint the walls.
can we then deny guilt, that rent-free tenant,
the lease it seeks in the house of grief?
…
refuse them victory on this field at least:
our breathing belongs to us
and is not some shame we owe or stole,
or failed to lose like they wanted us to—
our bellows blow to break knees bent over any neck.
…
i won’t devolve the monument of my body
to the keeping of the state, won’t donate
the corpse of my dreaming
to service the desires of murderers
or their gracious paperwork proctors.
i won’t do the blamework for them.
…
our mothers have been here before, they know
there’s no antidote for the poisons sown in the fields of war
but i will refuse the death machine of the imagination any morsel more
…
at least in my heart, the war can’t have you, my friend—
and wherever the last domino of my body falls,
let me land as a gear-breaking wedge—
the murder wheel won’t win my shame.
i won’t let them kill me before i die
and i offer you the same.
——————————-
Rasha Abdulhadi is calling on you, dear reader, to join them in refusing and resisting the genocide of the Palestinian people. Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it’s a handful, throw it. If it’s a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw. Get in the way however you can. The elimination of the Palestinian people is not inevitable. We can refuse with our every breath and action. We must.

On this Memorial Day

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Today, as neighbors fly their red-white-and-blue flags and the U.S. government-sponsored slaughter of Palestinians in Rafah reaches new levels of horror, my thoughts are on Aaron Bushnell who was a 25-year-old active serviceman (U.S. Air Force). On February 25, Bushnell self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. D.C.

Before setting himself on fire, Bushnell said this: “I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”  His final words were “Free Palestine.”

I wanted to highlight Aaron Bushnell today, in part, because I also want to highlight the reality of the U.S. military that recruits desperate people who see no other way to build a future for themselves. Levi Pierpont went through basic training with Aaron Bushnell and the two became friends. After a year-long process, Pierpont was released from the military as a conscientious objector in 2023. In this opinion piece published after Bushnell’s death, Pierpont wrote of the talks he’d had with fellow service-people about wanting to get out of the military before their contracts expired:

During the process, I had so many conversations with fellow military members, a great many of whom could relate to the way I felt. One member spoke frankly with me, admitting that she had serious concerns with supporting the military. However, faced with the high costs of medical care outside the military, she commented: “If I have to sell my soul to the devil to get my children healthcare, that’s what I have to do.” [emphasis mine].

Think about that: because the elites have decided we in the U.S. can’t have universal healthcare, young people are forced to make the excruciating decision to inflict violence on strangers around the world–literally blowing up men, women, and children–so that their own children will get the medical care they need.

According to Pierpont, there are also those in the military who are unable to carry the burden of their role in violence and destruction. The above paragraph ends with this:  “Others were considering taking their lives as the only way to escape, and had no hope that they could make it to the end of their contract.”

I wonder how many of those flying flags today think about the despair felt by military personnel. How many of those flag-wavers would support service members who’ve served this country and now want out after realizing that what they’re being forced to do is an affront to their consciences and souls? What exactly does it mean to “support our troops”?

Today I honor Aaron Bushnell who made his own excruciating decision to very publicly protest the U.S.’s role in the genocide in Gaza. To be very clear, that’s not a death I wanted for him or for any of us who feel so much anger and despair about the slaughter and destruction being carried out in our names. Instead, I want an end to U.S. imperialism and the military industrial complex so that corporations no longer get rich off death and destruction. I want an end to people being forced to commit violence because their own country treats them violently via not providing for their material needs such as food, housing, healthcare, and clean air/water. In the meanwhile, I made a donation in honor of Bushnell and Pierpont to the non-profit Center on Conscience & War that “advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war.”

Aaron Bushnell’s final Facebook post (since removed) said this:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”

The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

Rest in power, Aaron Bushnell.

********

Final note: In reading more about Aaron Bushnell, I learned about an earlier act of self-immolation in December 2023 by an unidentified woman holding a Palestinian flag in New York City. At the time of the article’s publication, the woman remained hospitalized in stable condition.

Drunk on writing

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

On a personal level, 2024 has brought an awful lot of pain and hardship to people I love, making these first five months feel like an entire year has already passed. And when I factor in the horrors of the U.S.–sponsored genocide of Palestinians, the emotional weight of these days is almost more than I can bear. But I’m now finding consistent refuge in my writing because I’ve made it a daily priority.

Rather than trying to cram a writing session into whatever slots I could find in my days and then saying oh-well if it didn’t happen, writing is now (again) part of my morning routine. As a result, I’ve been making slow progress on the second draft of my middle grade novel. I typically work for 60-90 minutes and that’s enough to keep me (mostly) centered for the rest of the day. That routine and commitment to my creativity keep me afloat, although some days I look and feel like this disheveled Northern Shoveler.

Lake Hasty. April 2, 2024

As Ray Bradbury said, You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.