Over the last few years, I have written in this blog several times of the intersections of oppression and the underlying systems of domination weave into a web of harm that catches us all.
When the hurricanes hit Puerto Rico in 2017, I ached for those who I knew there where I had once worked with the Puerto Rican parrots. This led me to speak of how racism, colonialism, and imperialism had devastated people’s lives, the land upon which they were born, and over which parrots used to fly, they say, in the hundreds of thousands.
When Black people were killed by police in 2016, I wanted to bow and vow for their lives.
And again, and again up until 2020 (and certainly beyond) the beauty of the other takes my breath away, which I wish to give to those who find they cannot breathe.
In so many parts of the world, Covid-19 rages, striking vulnerable groups who have no choice but to provide essential services to care for themselves, their families, their communities, and the earth. We give thanks to all, highlighting our conservation teams throughout the Americas who continue to sacrifice much for a better way of life for all.
Parakeet Rangers in Karasabai, Guyana
My beloveds of the earth, I rejoice that we have come together centering for freedom, about which I preached in 2018.
But I want to move beyond just aching, bowing, vowing, breathing, giving thanks, and centering, and I don’t want to do it alone - can’t do it alone.
If I ask you to join me in our co-liberation, I must also join you, and not just the two of us, but more, and more and more, bonded in Unconditional Solidarity. Miki Kashtan, writes of this, and lifts up these words from Victor Lewis:
Liberation involves the liberation of the earth to restore maximum creativity and vitality
within the earth system. On the human level, that means deep, universal, and
unconditional solidarity.
What does Unconditional Solidarity (US) look like?
I don’t know, because it has never happened in my life, and I was born into a system of domination out of which it is hard to imagine what such a world would look like, let alone how to get there.
Perhaps it means that we go beyond a “We” symbolizing the control of human actors and drivers of domination, and moved to “US,” where we decenter ourselves and our individualism and awake to how we are the receivers of infinite relationships of love and accountability? The earth and her beings happens to us, and we must make “happening places” in return.
A la querida vida de este mundo, la tierra nos dice que sí, y a cambio, debemos decir SÍ - Solidaridad Incondicional!
One Earth Conservation is co'hosting with Science and Perspective an online conversation next week to see how we got into this mess of domination, to imagine a different future, and even more importantly how we can get there together. Our facilitators are Dr. Ancilleno O. Davis of Science and Perspective, and the Rev. Drs. Meredith Garmon and LoraKim Joyner of One Earth Conservation.
You can find out more about the free one-hour webinar on July 8, Wendesday, 3 p.m. Eastern USA, and register, here,
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Until then US – SÍ!
