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| Ekajat, Blue Tara, Ferocious Protector Goddess, Painted by Shri Ram Bahadur Lama, Lama Thanka Painting School, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu |
Indian police have charged six men with murder, hours after a woman who was gang-raped and thrown from a moving bus in Delhi nearly two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital ... The announcement came as thousands of Indians gathered to mourn and protest the death of the 23-year-old medical student. The woman, who has not been named, sustained serious internal injuries after being violated with an iron bar during the attack, which took place on 16 December and triggered mass demonstrations calling for better protection for women against sexual violence. Guardian, 12-29-12
Rage in India, Hope in Canada; Idle No More, One Billion Rising for the Rights of the Great Mother and All Her Daughters
By Richard Power
The fatal gang-rape of the young Indian medical student in Delhi, the mass murder of the twenty children in Newtown and the sociopathic efforts to deny the truth of the Climate Crisis; all are symptomatic of the same profound spiritual illness.
The patriarchy must fall. It is sick, and it must fall.
There is no more important cause than this, no more urgent mission than this; if you do nothing else for your world, participate in this effort. The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other.
One Billion Rising (February 14, 2013) will shake the Earth; and the Earth will shake the human psyche out of the ghetto of ignorance, and into the temple of its own essential divinity.
Empower women and you will shift the center of gravity on every issue from Climate Change to Gun Control.
In the male-dominated societies of these two millennia, we have cut ourselves off from the fullness of life. The human psyche is pathologically out of whack. It has gone off the rails. It is lost to itself. The balance must be restored. A healing must be undertaken.
In the ancient symbol of the Yin and the Yang, at the center of the swirling Yang there is a drop of Yin, and at the center of the swirling Yin, there is a drop of Yang. The madness that led to the atrocities in Delhi and Newtown originates in the loss of this great balance. Our collective psyche has fallen into a crack in the world made with the blunt instrument of its own ignorance; this crack divides male from female, heaven from earth, human from divine, and light from dark, forcing them into false and warped dichotomies, when in truth they are dynamic aspects of one great whole; each equal, opposite and energized by the perfect tension of having the other at its nucleus. For healing and evolution to take place, women must be empowered and the divine feminine must be exalted.
But there is not only the rage rising from the streets of India, there is also the hope rising from the streets of Canada, because there those with eyes to hear and ears to see are Idle No More. And of course, their actions are being inspired by the vision and sacrifice of a woman: Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation. As I write this Chief Spence in the throes of a hunger strike, in a tepee across from the seat of government in Ottawa. She is attempting to compel Canada's conservative Prime Minister to engage in a dialogue about recent legislation that not only threatens Mother Earth but also the sovereignty of the Native American peoples.
Mr. Harper may relent, scared of the political fallout from letting this great leader die. I dearly hope he does. I want Chief Spence to eat. But I won’t soon forget this clash between these two very different kinds of resolve, one so sealed off, closed in; the other cracked wide open, a conduit for the pain of the world. But Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people, places and principles that we love. This message is a potent gift. So is the Idle No More movement – its name at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more. Naomi Klein, As Chief Spence Starves, Canadians Awaken from Idleness and Remember Their Roots,Globe and Mall, 12-24-12
I have embedded two videos in this post. First, a Democracy Now! piece on Chief Spence and the Idle No More movement; second, a seven minute Eve Ensler/Tony Stroebel film on One Billion Rising. Remember, one billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women - and men -- dancing is a revolution. Join ONE BILLION RISING at http://www.onebillionrising.org. I urge you to view both of them, and share them with others.
The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other. Those who do violence against women, those who slaughter the innocents, and yes, those who finance the denial of the Climate Crisis because acknowledging it would threaten their obscene profits, all of them are cut off from life, from the Earth and from the deepest parts of themselves. All power must be wrested from their hands.
Remember Malala Yousafzai, the fifteen year old who was shot in the head and neck, because she dared to champion the education of girls such as herself, and Neda Agha-Soltan, the twenty-six year old Iranian woman shot and killed in 2009, as she protested the thugocracy's election theft. Remember those twenty little children in Newtown, and that unnamed young woman in Delhi. And yes, remember Gaia Herself, who sustains us all, and suffers us all.
Join One Billion Rising on February 14, 2013. It is a doorway. We desperately need GLOBAL, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION NOW!
One Billion Rising
Idle No More: Indigenous-Led Protests Sweep Canada for Native Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.
Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.
