Good (Encouraging) Stuff (Part 1)

The farmers restoring Hawaii’s ancient food forests that once fed an island

Maui is a hub for GMO research but Indigenous farmers are trying to bring back the abundant and thriving landscapes of their ancestors

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Only love can stop war: a Northern Cheyenne chief’s call to the world

Our people’s teachings, connecting us to the land and the universe, have enabled us to survive genocide and can point the way to peace – 146 years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn

… The fact that we have survived this genocidal onslaught with our language, ceremonies and teachings is nothing short of a miracle. We were not supposed to survive, still we did*.*

Have you ever asked why? We know. We survived because these teachings, passed on from generation to generation, connect us to the land and the universe. They are the best counter-remedy to the intergenerational effects of genocide.


One of my teachings is that the Creator shows her love for diversity in her creation. Without the understanding of diversity there is no unity, and without unity there is no oneness with Creator.

The Creator wants us to love each other; that is what the loving Creator is all about.

Looking at the wars, mass shootings and genocides happening around the world right now, and reading about what has been done to my people above, you might ask: how can people do this to each other?

The answer is simple: what we do to each other has already been done to us. European peoples were engaging in wars and suffering the effects of genocide long before they came here, and unfortunately it is still happening now. Today, humanity faces unprecedented extinctions due to what we have done to Mother Earth.

What you call natural disasters are Mother Earth’s way of healing herself.

If western thinking could have solved these life and diversity-threatening conflicts, it would have been done by now. In 1946, Albert Einstein made a call to “let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels”. Cheyenne teachings elevate our thinking, whereas western genocidal and exploitative thinking has brought us all to the brink of extinction. I call it a mind virus: it is oppressive and does not value diversity.

We will never end war and genocide unless we change the mindset that created it. War cannot defeat war, only love can stop war.

My love and my forgiveness do not depend on you. I want to forgive you for what you have done to my people, the genocide and the eradication process. This might be our last chance to put an end to this genocidal and suicidal mindset.

I love you, and there is nothing you can do about it.

The person speaking these words is a living miracle.

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TIL about the Vjosa river.

Maybe we can get a train down there sometime for a holiday. If we ever do those again.

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Happy 80th Birthday Paul!

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Hope this will inspire other businesses:

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This is excellent…

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Merry Solstice

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Google has a nice homage to Norval Morrisseau for National Indigenous Peoples Day.

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Absolutely awesome entries for the renaming of the Ithaca, NY, police force.

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:thinking: My favorites are Lipstick on a Pig and the author’s favorite Crime Spree Observers.

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The embedded video is engrossing, and made me happy.

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Geez, I guess it’s too late to pitch a few more names into the hopper:

  • IthaCOPS
  • Current Occupiers of Cayuga Tribal Areas (Ithaca Locale) (COCTAIL)
  • Cornell University Buzzkill Squad (CUBS)

Oh well.
Timing…

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Depending on how one feels about cows I suppose.

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“The ability to register to vote and to update voter registration information easily and conveniently is essential in a robust, inclusive democracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This agreement is part of our commitment to ensuring that eligible voters across Alaska have access to voter registration opportunities required by federal law. We will continue working to ensure that states and counties across the country are complying with the mandates of the National Voter Registration Act and other federal voting rights laws. We thank state officials for agreeing to undertake actions we deem necessary to achieve compliance with the mandates of the NVRA.”

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Each and every year cows kill more people than sharks do.

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Buffy Sainte-Marie is a planetary treasure

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As Sainte-Marie put it, “The Doctrine of Discovery essentially says it’s okay if you’re a [Christian] European explorer … to go anywhere in the world and either convert people and enslave, or you’ve got to kill them.”

Holy shit…
TIL. Wish I hadn’t.

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