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eaglehttps://sunlightonthewater.wordpress.com
eagle's avatar

No Toys Under the Couch

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Wonderful capture of motherhood. 🙂

Unknown's avatarVoices from the Margins

No Toys Under the Couch

By Cheryl A. Bates

I sat on the floor for a moment to scratch behind the dog’s ear

and happened to notice there were no toys under the couch anymore.

No singing coming from the bathtub after dinner or

water on the floor to soak my socks.

No lingering smells of baby lotion and bubble bath

no more stories about dinosaurs, ballerinas, or

living room camp outs before bedtime.

No hair clips and tiny toys left forgotten on the floor

to pierce the arches of my feet at midnight after work

when headed across the room to bed, in the dark.

I lay on the floor now but something is wrong,

no sudden full body attacks from a two and a half foot munchkin.

No giggles of delight from when I toss her into the air

No more, do it again Mommie. Do it again!

View original post 171 more words

Cottage industries support community

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A good piece on sustainability combined with economy. Too Big To Fails don’t want to hear this because it flies in the face of their practices of greed–they want it all.
Note the circle created by the farmer tending the sheep, the mills that make the wool into usable product, the crafs person making the wool into useful clothing…and on. Traditional roles would have the men raising the sheep with women creating the clothing…a benefit to both sexes. I just wanted to point out that women contributed, without much acknowledgement, throughout history in our very survival. Without warm clothing to sustain throughout cold winters, we would not have survived. Additionally, it was women who picked nuts, berries, and roots that also helped sustain humans–men were not that great of hunters back in the day….

earthstonestation's avatarearthstonestation

How can rural communities  advance the common goal of economic stability, healthy living and environmental stewardship?

Food, clothing and shelter are the necessities of human survival. These industries and the transportation of these goods also have the largest impact on the environment. These same industries also drive a good portion of the local economy as well as corporate economic growth.

Most countries use capitalism as a way of organizing the economy. The things that are used to grow, make and transport products are owned by individual people or a company rather than the government. The mid-18th century gave rise to industrial capitalism, made possible by the accumulation of vast amounts of capital under the mercantile phase of capitalism and its investment in machinery. Over the past two decades, Wall Street investors, boards of directors, financial analysts, even auditors and career politicians have all  collaborated in creating a new type of…

View original post 974 more words

Fighting for history: Uncovering the truth of residential schools

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Another Catholic Church scandal–denying the indigenous their history and once again denying abuse victims. I cannot imagine the mind that would think it is okay to put a child in an electric chair!

Zig Zag's avatarWarrior Publications

Native children in Residential School. Native children in Residential School.

A report from the front lines of the search for “truth” in Truth and Reconciliation, and a look at the people trying to make history accessible to aboriginals and non-aboriginals alike.

By Tim Alamenciak, Toronto Star, Aug 29 2014

WINNIPEG—There are two sacred boxes in the offices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

One is a bentwood box sculpted from a single piece of cedar by an indigenous artist. Its panels are adorned with the mournful carved faces representing First Nations and Métis who suffered through the residential schools era, when government-sanctioned institutions systemically tried to eradicate indigenous culture, tore apart families and operated havens for child abuse.

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Life in Rahm’s Chicago. The death of a nameless homeless man in Logan Square.

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They would rather spend $$$ putting up barriers instead of buying a nice suit, a haircut, a place to get a shower and sleep, and some good food…perhaps leading to a job offer….

Fred Klonsky's avatarFred Klonsky

extralarge

The Kennedy overpass at Belmont and Kedzie.

DNAinfo:

A man who police say was homeless was beaten to death in Logan Square Saturday evening.

Around 10:50 p.m., the man, 59, was in an alley in the 1900 block of North Ridgeway Avenue when two people got out of their car and beat him with their hands and feet, according to Officer Janel Sedevic, a police spokeswoman.

The 59-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, Sedevic said.

While the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the fatality, they were unable to provide any additional information.

No one is in custody.

In May, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) began constructing concrete anti-homeless spikes under the Kennedy expressway at Belmont in Logan Square.

The overpass had provided shelter for dozens of homeless men.

The city built the spikes so high that it blocked the view of drivers…

View original post 284 more words

Happy Labor Day, Mom

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Wow. what a great piece.

When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be a piece on the unsung workforce of women who take care of the home and children…with nary an acknowledgement by law or wages…but I was pleasantly surprised that even though it was about a mother who works outside the home, it held such a great depth and context.

I disagree with the author’s assertion, however, that the education “reformers” don’t seem to grasp the hard-won battles women have had to fight for the same rights that men enjoyed without resistance….

…the “reformers” know EXACTLY what they are doing.  They know that the teacher’s unions have protected working women with equal pay for the same work performed as men teachers, with protection of being dismissed for asserting the same equal rights enjoyed by men such as being able to be married, have children, have reasonable work hours and good pay.  You have to remember who the “reformers” are and their indifference towards women, or worse, loathing of women.

(By a weird circumstance, I belonged briefly to the American Federation of Teachers and was amazed at their strength, unity, and benefits.    It was like nothing I had seen before. )

 

 

 

  Chain Reaction: One Judgment, One Word, One Label – Forever Tarnished

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I promised myself that I wasn’t going to get on here today–try to get some stuff done around here, but alas, I couldn’t pull myself away from this heartwrenching post.
Having worked in a state hospital, I can say that everything he wrote is true in my experience.
Some of you might recall the story of the new psychiatrist whom was bullied by the staff with more seniority. They wanted her to give a certain drug to a patient. She refused, saying that it was not warranted for this particular patients’ issues. She had also brought up other stuff that the staff did not want to face. She was compassionate towards the patients and had designed a terrific video on exploring their feelings and the circumstances surrounding them–to help them recognize patterns so they could deal with them better. And one day, when passing on the sidewalk, she related the bullying story to me, but was looking around the entire time to make sure no one saw us talking! incredible.
Another story–a nurse came to the hospital to give a talk to the staff and I was videotaping it. She related her own story of being locked away in a mental institution where she was catatonic (not speaking). One nurse, however, kept talking to her every day. She would encourage her and tell her that someday when she was ready, she would talk again. And she did.
Another story–there was a patient that um, for want of a better word, “got around”. The staff labeled her as a slut. I was thinking that she was probably sexually abused and this was the way she had been taught to connect with people. How is she supposed to know any different when she has been disrespected?
Freud was all about power and control. He and others appointed themselves as the “authority” by which they decided who was mentally ill. They decided that women were mentally ill by being “emotional”….and that I believe is where the misogyny against women started…or at least got its justification.
I think there are different degrees of mental illness–some are temporary, and some, I think, are incurable and the person will never get well.
It is an interesting take on the temporary mentally ill as being on the verge of a ethereal breakthrough–that they have been chosen as a medium to bring about a message.
Finally, heavy metal poisoning must be addressed here–physical causes of mental illness are all but ignored by the profit-driven Big Pharma hold over the mental health system…
It has been known for centuries that mercury poisoning leads to mental illness (mad hatter’s disease), and yet, is never brought up as a possible cause when there are blatant symptoms pointing towards it–sensitivity to light and noise, difficulty talking (autistic), sensitivity to chemicals, loss of IQ points, aching joints and muscles, anxiety, depression, memory loss…I could go on.
One last thing, and then I’m done–it has also been known that gluten intolerance and schizophrenia are linked…and yet I never read any of this until just recently. This has been known since WWII at least–and then got buried when Big Pharma discovered psychotropic drugs.
We need to take the profit factor out of the mental health profession if we truly want progress…