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Diana van Eyk's avatar

What do we tell the kids? Something like that, Caitlin.

I believe that something powerful, primordial and unstoppable inside us all is waking up, and will crack the oppression we're under like eggshells under our feet.

And we have to record this history in a way that warns future generations so they will never, ever allow anything like these times to occur again.

Just Sayn's avatar

We have been warned for centuries. But the complacent and the complicit have brought us here. We continued to dismiss the warnings. Action is required , words fall on dumb ears.

Landru's avatar

Thank you, that was a beautiful statement of hope.

Vin LoPresti's avatar

""It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair".

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Patrick Powers's avatar

"It was the worst of times, then it got worse."

Davina's avatar

So now we change it.

Vin LoPresti's avatar

Oi, raise the Pessimism scale?

Malcolm MacPhail's avatar

“The old world is dying and the new world is struggling to be born, now is the time of monsters” - Antonio Gramsci.

Susan T's avatar

When I need to find a little hope (which is every day) I go to explore.org and watch the bears in Katmai Park at Brooks Falls in Alaska. They have returned again this year. Sometimes with their cubs. And there are still lots of salmon. And they are still getting fatter. And I just hope that, even if humans disappear, they will not.

Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Perhaps you might enjoy this poem about Katmai, I wrote some years ago. It won a prize in the Proverse International Poetry competition, 2016, and is published in the anthology.

White Water

Mother bear’s alone with her cubs
 at riverside.


The drop at the falls is half what it was.

Foaming white water

where salmon and bears collect 


is now neck-deep and empty.


Much effort to brace against
 the wake of


the crazed, unstoppable current.

Perhaps the rest have tired,


eaten enough, taken a chance 


to hone up on hibernation skills.

Bears will waken and return.


These spawning salmon past their peak


will not. 


Soon the summer run will end.



Rivers’ flow without end.


Does the river hibernate in the sea?

Does it rest in the deeps


till it’s time to rise again?


Will the seas rise? 


Will bears wake in winter dark? 


Will the ice melt?

Will the Pacific circle of salmon


come round again?



Will we know when we’ve seen 
the last one?



Will we wake up alone?



Will we


Wake up


Landru's avatar

Thank you, that was so beautiful and inspiring. We need that today more than ever.

Chuck Nasmith's avatar

A black bear ran across my yard yesterday by the apple trees and I regret it scared me and I it. Be afraid. A new world is possible. Help Wanted . When Palestine is free we will be.

Wren's avatar

The world is changing in front of our eyes. All the deception and destruction that we have endured concerning the ME is slowly being dealt with by steady hands with a vision: China and Russia watch closely. The nations of the world are intertwined. Iran, as the best example, is not alone.

The USA bases are being destroyed and the radar eyes and ears are going blind and deaf. This may well not be the end of the war, but Iran is made of stern stuff. It will outlast whatever is thrown at it and come out better in many ways. The USA is facing a weapons stock deficit but Iran is not. The USA cannot control the Strait. Ansarallah has entered the fray.

With the USA and EU facing severe energy troubles of its own making something will have to give soon. It won't be Iran. An economic retrenchment will have effects we can't see yet.

People who didn't "get it" before are starting to see much better. There's a long way to go but we're getting closer. Cooperation between all countries that extend a hand is the only way through. It may take a hard and painful fall first to bring that point home. The world is at a pivotal point. It will never be perfect but it's finally moving in the right direction. Let this play out for awhile.

Davina's avatar

It's funny how people think these days about who the enemy is/was but the US sees everyone as an enemy, even friends become enemies rather soon, and enemies become friends - at least to the politicians called "president" especially the present one who has never been a politician; only a bully and a conman. Part of the US's problem, few actual politicians but lots of conmen, all on the make, who call everyone else by that name. The few who have a soul are shut down and harassed or bribed until they relent or just opy out.

We are born with the ability to sense what is good and what is not. We are born with that sense and it grows if it is allowed to, but it scares some people so they try to stop us from using it, when we need it most, so times daily. But it is always there waiting for us to remember that we were born with it, and it is real, and it is ours to use. It is waiting...

Feral Finster's avatar

The Chinese and Russian leadership lack the aggression necessary to win.

Russia does not want to end the West but to be allowed to join it.

China simply wants to be able to sell things and make money.

Wren's avatar

Russia set goals at the beginning of the SMO and is steadily gaining territory- although territory beyond the Donbass/Crimea was never particularly wanted. It has enough territory of its own and who needs to manage a belligerent western Ukraine? It takes what is necessary in terms of land. Once it wanted to be in NATO and be accepted, but it seems clear now to them that this will never be allowed. The EU and USA need it as an adversary.

China and Russia are closer than before the SMO and, yes, China ploughs its efforts into commerce and improvement for its citizens with impressive results.

They will assist Iran as they feel is necessary while trying to keep a distance. Iran, for example, has the Beidou system now instead of a spoof-able GPS for targeting.

What happens in Iran is important to them and they offer council. Anything else I am unaware of. Likely Russia gave Iran sophisticated weaponry. There were shipments made from Russia early on.

Feral Finster's avatar

Russia is further from each of its stated goals in Ukraine (denazification/neutrality/demilitarization) than it was four years ago. Anyone who believes any promise concerning NATO wants to be lied to.

China complies with western secondary sanctions and gladly sells the drone components used to kill Russian soldiers. If that's a friend, I hate to see an enemy.

The Americans, by contrast, are utterly ruthless when they smell blood.

Wren's avatar

Well this conversation could go on and on but I do consider your views.

Feral Finster's avatar

I have heard all the excuses before.

Chuck Nasmith's avatar

I stared at a tree by the lake today. It seemed to be messaging me. Later, a bald eagle landed in it, and its child lost a fledging feather that landed by my feet. TY Caitlin & Tim and all. Fuck Israel and supporters. Help Wanted.

Philip Mollica's avatar

The child in me needed to hear this right now.

David Gosselin's avatar

Excellent.

Lots of people need to hear this.

Jason Michael Wynn's avatar

I love this. I too have a Parenti scented face. I went down a deep dive of Gnosticism a few years ago, needing a break from bloodshed and predatory markets. While many of the tour guides pushed an apolitical analysis of it all, I had heard Kandioronk's critique: "preserving your soul in capitalism is like preserving it at the bottom of a lake", and I am sure more of us can read between the lines than when these stories were first discovered.

Phil Ingram's avatar

Brilliant and inspiring! Thank you Caitlin.

Smacko9's avatar

Focus Unite

We Are Mighty!

Hassan Al-Mosawi's avatar

If the truth had followed their desires, the heavens and the earth and all that is in them would have been corrupted. Rather, We have brought them their reminder, but they are turning away from their reminder.

 (23-71)

Terrance Ó Domhnaill's avatar

I would like to ask your permission to read this for my weekly podcast coming up next Wednesday please? This poem is very timely and a direct poke at the systems we fight against. I would like to push that narrative as far as we can.

Marc G. Wathelet's avatar

They want immortality by downloading their mind in silicon, minds that are so closed they don't understand we have an immortal soul that will outlast all of them.

Urvasi Devi Dasi's avatar

I particularly liked ....."its eyes full of primordial déjà vu,"

dale ruff's avatar

I am delighting in Caitlin's turn to signaling our inner strength rather than our hopelessness.

it signals a shift in her mood and perspective that can inspire all of us, even as we argue and split hairs.