October 4, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Power and Voice

The newest stats for Domestic Violence are that 1 in every 4 women will be physically abused at sometime in her life. So if you have 3 friends, and you yourself have not experienced physical abuse, then one of your 3 friends likely has. This can happen in any relationship you are in. A friendship, dating, even being married. An estimated 1.3 million women have been victims of Domestic Violence by an intimate partner.

Emotional and physical abuse are choices that the abuser makes for him/herself. There is a cycle of violence and this cycle includes a honeymoon period when the abuser is sorry; even to the point of tears, presents are given, and loving words cross the lips. These behaviors hold the victim in the relationship very often. Not always. It depends on the victim.

Power is something the abuser wants. This is borne out statistically. He/she wants the victim to always be somewhere he knows about. A sense of fear is created for the victim but also it is confusing and mind-boggling because the person you see is not the same personality that others see. They get the charming, thoughtful side. They see the tender, loving person. They do not see the person who sent you to the ER.

Voice is the ability of a human being to set boundaries and to choose to spend time with friends, neighbors and family. Isolation is the act of removing a victim from communication and association people from their support system. Terror and fear often close a victim’s mouth. S/he often feel alone, helpless and hopeless. If any of this sounds like your life, you are in danger. You need to get to a safe place. Most cities these days have shelters for victims and their children. There is legal help and counseling.

Don’t stay.

You are not alone.

You are not guilty of anything.

No matter what the abuser says…

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Unlearning to not Speak

Blizzards of paper

in slow motion

sift through her.

In nightmares she suddenly recalls

a class she signed up for

but forgot to attend.

Now it is too late.

Now it is time for finals:

losers will be shot.

Phrases of men who lectured her

drift and rustle in piles.

Why don’t you speak up?

Why are you shouting?

You have the wrong answer,

wrong line, wrong face.

They tell her she is womb-man,

babymachine, mirror image, toy,

earth mother and penis-poor,

a dish of synthetic strawberry ice cream

rapidly melting.

She grunts to a halt.

She must learn again to speak

starting with I

Starting with We

starting as the infant does

with her own true hunger

and pleasure

and rage. —Marge Piercy, feminist author and poet

Namaste

Barbara

October 2, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

October 1

Yesterday was October 1, the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

As most of you are aware, I worked in Domestic Violence in Pennsylvania and Ohio for many years. Last night, here in Asheville, the local shelter HelpMate, held a vigil in Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville. A group of women who form a women’s choir, WomenSong, performed and it was music with a message, with good voices and good hearts behind them.

A survivor told her harrowing story and, though we got rained on throughout the event, it was a beautiful gathering that included a memorial to all the women and men in North Carolina who have died due to Domestic Violence in the past year. Amazingly, through the combined efforts of organizations like HelpMate and the YWCA, along with law enforcement, the mayor’s office, the county and city councils, and the D.A.’s office, not one of those died in Buncombe County.

I’ve been to many of these vigils and the difference from when we started that first shelter in the ’70’s was remarkable. There was a police presence, to protect the attendees, and a plethora of government officials, from the local and county levels, were there to show their personal and political support. A proclamation from the Mayor declaring October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Asheville was read; among other things the proclamation gave her public support for the work to stop Domestic Violence in Buncombe County and Asheville.

I’m going to include some of the pictures I took last night. It was raining and was quite dark after the sun went down, but for those who have never attended an event like this, I wanted you to see what is going on here in Asheville. Some of these picture are of T-Shirts from the Clothesline Project, a National movement where survivors and families and friends of victims of Domestic Violence who were killed express themselves and the stories of lives that were lost by decorating and writing on shirts. Each shirt represents a life lost, or damaged by Domestic Violence.

I also introduced myself to HelpMate’s volunteer coordinator, and offered my services. I am looking forward to getting into the trenches of this fight, within the limit of my mobility and health.

Namaste,

Barbara

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You can Survive Beautiful and Happy Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Real Men Don’t Hit Women Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Closeline Project Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Each Shirt is a life lost or damaged Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Violence has not place in a relationship Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Just because you’re a Girl doesn’t mean you have to be a Victim Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

WomenSong Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

WomenSong Rehearsing Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Standing in the rain for an important cause Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

Spirits undampened in support Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

The City of Asheville Building lit up in Purple — the color of Domestic Violence Prevention Photograph Copyright Barbara Mattio 2015

August 8, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

Don’t Let Fear Stand in Your Way

I wanted to share another TED Talk with you, by Priya Parker. Priya is an advisor to leaders and organizations on strategy, vision and purpose. Her company, Thrive Labs, works with individuals and teams to help them identify what they care about most and align it with market realities. Her research includes identifying what are the driving factors that lead people to thriving and what blocks them from it. She helps organizations keep and grow their culture and values as they scale. Drawing on 10 years of conflict resolution facilitation in the United States, India and the Middle East, Priya designs visioning and innovation labs that help organizations grow from the root.

She shares 7 techniques on how to know if you need to reboot your life. It’s an interesting take on life, and encourages us to overcome our fears and follow our passions, whatever they may be.

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October 15, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Don’t live with Violence

If you are living with violence, you must protect yourself and your children and get out. We all go into a relationship feeling love and having dreams. Your wedding day was just what you had wanted it to be. You had a beautiful honeymoon and you were so happy and so in love. It was a perfect wedding night.

Now, you are dressing for dinner. The two of you had had such a lovely afternoon and a delicious dinner. People toasted you in the dining room and when the band began to place you danced in your husband’s arms. A nice man asked to dance with you, but your husband said no. He was pretty quiet for the rest of the evening.

He decided you were going to go up to your room. You didn’t really want to leave but tomorrow was sightseeing. He says nothing on the way to your room. You are thinking about the nightgown you are going to wear to bed. He walks into the room behind you; then shuts and locks the door. You turn around with a smile on your face and he opens up his hand and hits you so hard that when you look in the mirror, you see the red hand print.

You are stunned. What happened? He is yelling and calling you names and telling you are a slut because that man asked to dance with you. You face aches. He grabs your arm and twists it while telling you that you will never dance with anyone else. He is shaking you so hard that your teeth chatter. You are trying to get away and are terribly afraid. What is going on?

He walks out, slamming the hotel door. You stand there with tears running down your face. Why did he get so upset? What should I do? You clean up and carefully get ready for bed. Carefully, because your face is very sore and your arm hurts. You cry yourself to sleep.

In the morning, you wake and his side of the bed is empty. You are shocked and very confused. Then the door to the hotel room opens and he walks in. He looks awful. You can tell he has been crying. He has brought you a huge bouquet of red roses. He is sorry. He never meant to handle you in a violent way. He loves you and it will never happen again, he swears. He kisses you and cuddles you and you make up. Your world becomes whole again. He is so wonderful to you, considerant and thoughtful.

Life goes on. Everything is fine. And one day, a girlfriend calls and asks you if you want to go shopping. You said, “Sure.”

You quickly get ready to meet her at the Mall. You leave a note on the kitchen table in case you will be late coming home.

You and your friend shop, have lunch and a couple of glasses of wine. It had been such a fun day. You are now a little bit later than you expected, but you left a note. No problem. You walk into the house and call out, “I’m home.” Your husband walks into the living room where you are hanging up your coat and begin to show him your purchases. His voice drips with sarcasm. “Where have you been?” You mentioned the note you had left. He says you hadn’t had his permission to go shopping. What? What is he talking about?”

He grabs you and punches you in the face. You hear a crack and then another punch. You go down to the floor and he begins to kick you. He kicks you where bruises will be covered with clothing. You are screaming at him to stop and he is screaming at you. He accuses you of meeting a man and cheating on him. He picks up your purchases and throws them everywhere. You can’t stop crying. He holds up the nightgown you bought to wear for him and he rips it apart. He screams you had worn it for your lover.

He took you to the hospital and refused to leave you side. You had taken such an awful tumble down the stairs. The staff allows him to stay. There isn’t much they can do for you. They bind your torso, give you pain meds, suggest you carpet the staircase which your husband agrees is very important. You go home with your discharge papers and he gently helps you out of the car when you reach home.

He is again sorry. Terribly sorry. It will not happen again. Please don’t leave him. He can’t live life without you. He will kill himself if you leave. You are in agony, the pain pills are making you fuzzy and soon you just fall asleep.

You used to discuss this type of incident with your Mom and your sister. You met a woman who is being battered but what she suffers is so different from what happens to you. As the months and years go by, your lady friend went to a Domestic Violence shelter. You never see her anymore. The shelter moved her to a new state so she could start again with a new identity. Your mom develops Cancer and he gets edgy when you go to see her. The day your Mom dies, you feel totally lost and there really isn’t anyone to talk to. You don’t realize that he has gradually isolated you from all of your friends and your sister. He calls them trouble makers. He is the one who really loves you. The only one who loves you.

Now, you just do what he says. Nothing matters anymore. Then one day you think about the battered woman you had been friends with. You wonder if the Domestic Violence Shelter is still in town somewhere. You get ready and call a taxi. You tell the driver what you need and he delivers you at the Shelter.

You talk with a counselor, have a bite of lunch. They explain what they can do for you, including legal representation. You decide to go home and pack a suitcase. You have to get away from him. So you go home. The shelter gave you a list of things to bring. You are moving as quickly as possible and try not to forget anything like your medicine. You hear a small noise behind you and you turn. Your husband is standing there screaming that you cannot and will not leave him. He pulls a revolver out of his jacket and shoots you dead. The neighbors hear the screaming and the gun shot and call 911. You are dead on arrival at the ER.

More women are killed trying to get out of a battering relationship than at any other time. Abusers have a motto. I call it a motto because it every one that I ever worked with would tell the woman, ” If I can’t have you, no one will.” I can tell you from my experience that they mean it.

Does this mean you should stay? No. Never. But the leaving must be planned in advance and in secret. No one can know where you are going. There is an underground railway to move women who are in the greatest danger. Some abusers are just much worse than others. Though none of them are good. Usually a well executed plan can take a month or more to put into place. Don’t go back. He will kill you in time or you will kill him trying to protect yourself. There are so many women and men working to help abused women. You are never alone. Domestic Violence is a crime. The court system will punish him for what he did to you.

If you are a man being abused I must give you the same advice. Abusers don’t stop abusing. Male or female. They will simply move on to another partner and begin the battering again. People care about you. So try to get out. Try to get to a safe place, a shelter or even a hotel. Talk to counselors and the police. No matter what, it is never all right to hit another person. You deserve better. You deserve to not live in fear and violence.

Zentangle by Barbara Mattio. Copyrighted 2014

for Artists4peace

September 26, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Is it glamourous to be a victim?

These days there are two kinds of women who are victims. One is the woman who has been sexually molested. The other are women who have been in a battering situation. Both type of woman has been violated. The violation is physical and emotional and mental.

The first time a man hits a woman, she is in shock. She can’t believe this person she loves would have raised his hand and hit her. Hit her so hard her lip bled and her jaw cracked. The pain is excruciating. He is screaming at her and calling her stupid and ugly. Her mind freezes. This is a nightmare. She must be dreaming. She must. This can’t really be happening.

When a woman is a victim or rape or molestation, the man and society often try to tell her it is her own fault. She shouldn’t have been where she was, her skirt was too short, she is a tease. Violence goes with the unwanted sex. Rape is often happening at the same time as she is tied up, he talks trash to her. Rape often includes inanimate objects which can cause severe injuries that will require surgery or leave permanent injuries.

There is no perk to being victimized. None. Some women are stronger than others, they can walk away the first time they are battered. For some, the emotional abuse wrecks their self-confidence and his words begin to play over and over in her head. With time that voice is louder than the voices of the people around her.

A woman who has been raped, she knows what kinds of things that may be said about her. She was asking for it. She really wanted it. In truth, rape has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with power and control. The rapist needs that power and control to perform. Often a rapist will threaten to come back and kill her if she tells anyone. He often has a gun or a knife in his hand. So, many young women hesitate to report the rape.Some can take a month or two to find the courage and conquer the shame before they can report it.

Both types of victims feel shame, guilt and fear. Battered women live with the abuser and fear more abuse. Often, when they leave, it is in the middle of the night and they flee for their lives and the lives of their children. Many have no job skills, or access to credit. This is why battered women’s shelters are so important. It is important that shelter locations remain secret to protect the women and children who are staying there and also to protect the staff. Taxi drivers know where they are.

There is nothing to be gained by being a victim. Helping a woman to listen to her own voice and not the voice of her rapist of batterer is important but it often takes quite a while. There is no status in being raped or beaten. Society needs to remember that these women are someone’s daughters, sisters, cousins, mother and friends.

So please don’t judge. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Take in consideration that she is vulnerable and frightened. Scorn from people in her life will only increase her fear and vulnerability.

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Rape Hotline

No one wants to be raped or molested.

Survivors get a second chance.

Domestic Violence is a crime. You can’t hit another person, ever.

Domestic Violence is found in every level of society.

August 13, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Genocide

I have had to do some very difficult thinking. As you already know, I am a pacifist. I do not believe in war. War brings nothing but violent destruction, resentment, anger, bitterness. It brings all that we are fighting so hard to eliminate.

I am working for peace by bringing light, kindness, compassion and goodness to push out the darkness, the pain and the horror hanging over our world. I think we may be making some progress. But the fact that genocide is involved in the conflict in Iraq changes my heart and mind. Genocide is the game changer.

This isn’t the first time homo sapiens have been the victims of or the perpetrators of an evil desire to eliminate certain nationalities or religions. The radical group ISIS has killed many of the men of the minority group Yazidi. Thousands of women, elders and children have fled with whatever the could carry. Children have been brutally killed and women have been told they will be married to the ISIS soldiers, a horrible fate for these women. Some may be sold. As we have discussed, human slavery is rampant in our world. Pray in your way for all of these people. May we be successful in stopping the carnage.

Genocide is wrong. It is the only reason for a conflict or a war. We have fought to stop genocide in the past and we have stepped back from other cases of genocide. I believe that we all must do what we can to stop genocide. There is no reason to kill our brothers and sisters because they are different. We are a civilized world, at least compared to the world historically. On behalf of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Croats and many others have been in the position of being the victims of genocide. I must say, there is no reason for genocide. WE ARE ALL ONE.

Our POTUS is considering a larger humanitarian mission to rescue the thousands who have been stranded on a mountaintop. I can’t support us getting into a war. I can and do support stopping genocide. It is indefensible and we can not let it go. Pray for the dead victims and pray for those on the mountain to survive and to be able to begin their lives over again in safety.

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Dove of Peace

Yazidi Refugees Recount Desperate Struggle To Flee Islamist Militants In Iraq

by Sophia Jones, Posted to Huffington Post 08/12/2014 4:14 pm EDT Updated: 1 hour ago

SILOPI, Turkey — The Omers’ journey to safety was the stuff of nightmares: gun-wielding militants firing on cars of screaming children, tens of thousands of people trapped on a mountain, mothers keeping dehydrated babies alive with their own saliva.

It took nine days for Omer Omer and his wife, Baraa, both 60, to make the desperate trip with their family from the town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq to the relative safety of Silopi, a border town in southeast Turkey. After hardline militants from the Islamic State captured Sinjar earlier this month, vowing to kill members of the Yazidi religious minority unless they converted to Islam, they fled to Mount Sinjar, along with tens of thousands of other civilians. They say they were stuck there in the blazing heat for five days without food or water as people perished around them.

Now the Omers, their faces sunburned and covered in rashes, are seeking refuge with 22 family members and neighbors in a tiny, rundown concrete home in Silopi. The house, occupied for the first time since it was built years ago by Turkey’s Housing Development Administration, is part of a makeshift camp set up here in the past week. According to local aid workers, there are are some 700 Yazidis at the camp and about 800 others seeking refuge around Silopi in other makeshift camps and homes. They consider themselves the lucky ones.

“When we left our village, the Islamic State was shooting at our car,” Baraa says as flies buzz around her. “There were eight people in our car and people were running alongside us trying to hide themselves.”

Looking down, she adds, “My disabled cousin was burned in her house.”

Baraa’s family says that heavily armed members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party(PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, saved their lives by escorting them and other Yazidis from Sinjar, battling Islamic State militants along the way. They say that without the PKK’s help and a car to drive to the mountain — many of their friends and neighbors fled on foot — they wouldn’t have survived.

Busra Saeed rocks her son, Waseem, as she recounts her journey from Iraq to Turkey.

The Omers’ 26-year-old daughter, Busra Saeed, says that the most harrowing moment of her journey was not when the militants lit her neighbors’ homes on fire, or when bullets started flying, but when she crossed the Hezil Suyu river from Iraq to Turkey.

“The river was breast-deep,” she says while holding her 2-year-old son, Waseem. “I thought I would lose him.”

As the Islamic State continues to gain more territory in Iraq with the goal of creating an Islamic caliphate, it has reportedly killed at least 500 Yazidis, burying some alive. While some people who fled to Mount Sinjar have been rescued by helicopters and others have managed to reach Turkey, Syria or safer parts of Iraq, the death toll is climbing daily. Another day on the mountain is another day without adequate food, water, medical attention or shelter.

Sitting in the excruciating summer heat, refugees here exchange horror stories as children around them stare blankly into space. The refugees have one word for what the Islamic State is doing to their people in Iraq: genocide.

“How can we go back there?” Baraa asks, her lilac-colored dress matching her husband’s tunic. “They will kill us.”

Refugees in a makeshift refugee camp in Silopi, Turkey, are living in small, dilapidated homes built by the country’s Housing Development Administration.

Baraa says that one of her neighbors called her a few days ago and said he had witnessed militants kill a pregnant woman and cut open her belly. Stories of women and children being used as sex slaves run rampant in the camp. A United States official confirmed last week that some women are being sold or married offto Islamic State fighters.

Just days ago, Baraa and her family were eating leaves to survive. Now, they’re living off donations from Silopi locals and volunteer aid workers. The family has even received medical treatment for diabetes, paid for by Kurdish locals.

But the refugees wonder how long they can survive on donations from generous strangers.

“People here share their things with us, but how will they do this for a year, two years?” Omer asks.

Yazidis desperately seeking sanctuary in Turkey find a cash-strapped country already facing a crippling refugee crisis. More than 800,000 registered Syrian refugees — and many more without permits — have poured over the border in the past three years to escape the civil war in their country, settling in refugee camps, crowded apartments and even bus stations.

Like many Syrians who came before them, Yazidi refugees here say that smugglers are charging hefty fees — around $600 per person — to sneak people without passports or papers across the border. Many Yazidis fled in the middle of the night, some of them still in their pajamas, so they didn’t have a chance to grab large amounts of cash. Most could not afford such a large fee in the first place.

Hundreds of Yazidi refugees sit under tents in a makeshift camp to escape the heat.

Some Yazidis who lack proper documentation have been turned away at the border by Turkish guards, refugees say, while others have been detained. Outside of a school here now being used as a detention center for undocumented Yazidis, Turkish security officials holding assault rifles pace next to exhausted refugee families. After a week of barely surviving, they now find themselves prisoners in a foreign land.

Several mothers in Silopi say they had to leave their children behind with other family members because they don’t have passports for them. They are waiting to somehow get the appropriate paperwork or find a way to smuggle their children across. They say they’re not going back to Iraq — not ever.

Back at the makeshift refugee camp, a short drive from the detainment center, Omer says he considers himself and his fellow Yazidis stateless.

“This is the end for us,” he says, as his family sits in silence around him.

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Yazidi people flee for their lives

Yazidi refugees being taken out by helicopters who are dropping bundles of humanitarian aid.

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June 13, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Magic of Love

Two important words

Everyone seems to be talking about love these days. It is an important word for our existance on the planet. Love, the favorite word of Cupid and one that drops easily off of our lips. Just what does it mean? Well, there is the Hallmark sense and family sense. I am writing today about love in a much different and bigger sense. As sentient beings, we throw the word around easily. What the world needs now, is love sweet love.

Love means so much more than we think. It is the reason we care about the survivors of the Oklahoma tornadoes and Hurricane Sandy. It is the reason that we care about the millions of abused women and children in the world. Love is why when we hear of a young woman having to endure genital mutilation or an acid attack that we care.

Love is why we make beauty in this plane. We plant millions of flowers, raise vegetables and plant trees. Love for our environment is very important. I think that raising some of your own food, increases the love you give to yourself and to others. Taking a bouquet of home grown flowers to a friend strengthens the love between both of you.

Love is inclusive. Real love will embrace everything in your world. Love doesn’t exclude anyone or anything that comes firmly from the Beloved. The Beloved dwells within all living creatures. To love does not mean that you agree with everything someone says or does. The tricky bit is that we are all children of the Universe. No matter what we say or do, we carry Divinity within us. Love encircles and brings goodness. It grows as it is spread around. It transforms as it is shared. It heals wrongs like an anti-biotic cream.

Fear has nothing to do with Love. It is exclusive of love and it can’t be healing like love is .Fear makes us judge others who are different in their looks, skin color, religion and in how they love. Fear contracts the sphere of our lives and it can even cut us off from people who love us. There is no way that love and fear can dwell together. A person who has brown or yellow skin is not different than you are. They are the same except for the color of their skin, that is all. Divinity dwells within that person also.

Fear within our hearts and souls leads away from God, and there is no right way to worship or love God/Goddess/ Adoni/ Allah. Fear destroys and love creates. If we could all conquer fear, we would have peace in our world. So I ask you to try it and see what happens. See if you don’t find yourself enveloped in love.

“It is time to put up a love-swing!

Tie the body and then tie the mind so that they

swing between the arms of the Secret One you love,

Bring the water that falls from the clouds to your eyes,

and cover yourself inside entirely with the shadow of the night.

Bring your face up close to his/her ear,

and then talk only about what you want deeply to happen.

Kabir says: Listen to me, brother, bring the shape, face, and odor of the Holy One inside you.”

—Kabir; this wonderful poet was an Indian and the son of a weaver. His poems were influenced by Sufi poets.

Loving hands create love

April 9, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Heartbreak again in America

We must find a way to coexist.

Lone Star College has suffered its second mass attack. The first, as you might remember was a mass shooting. A terrible event for students and parents to live through. Sadly, mass murders and mass attacks are becoming part of the tapestry of American life. WHY?! How could so much anger and hatred be breeding within our shores?

Today, this campus was invaded again by pain, terror and tragedy. A male suspect dressed in black, had stabbed 15 people, four of whom have been life-flighted to the hospital. It appears that an X-acto knife or a box cutter, or another knife, may have been the weapon used. One young woman interviewed stated that a woman had been cut around her mouth.

Lone Star Campus

An item like this was the possible weapon

My heart is screaming. More children, more injuries, tears for students and teachers and parents. Fear, on this campus and others, has reached a crippling state. This is horrifying. I have a grandson, not in Texas, who is in college, and this sort of violence terrifies me on his behalf. And still, we do not learn.

Hatred is not holy, or religious, or beneficial. We must turn away from anger and hatred. We have to learn to live with acceptance and love and courtesy.
This country will die — we will continue to kill each other — if we do not teach our children to love, to be kind, to give, to accept and not to judge. We need to protect our children and change our society to a loving and accepting society.

Hearts need to be more important than guns or knives.

Until we learn to accept one another, to teach love instead of intolerance, to stamp out prejudice in favor of caring, this sort of tragedy will continue to occur. We must do more than cry and wail and beat our chests. We must ACT, in love and in compassion and ensure that the next generation does not continue the violence.

December 4, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Peace is Important to Saving Mother Earth

A Peaceful Picnic Among the Water Lotus

Hello, everyone. Have you ever noticed how you can look at something over and over and not really see it? I have and I have realized something. What I have realized is that we need peace and we need to heal our planet. We must do them together if we are going to have any success. The concepts need to be interwoven for strength and workability.

If we work hard and accomplish healing the planet, and we end up in another World War, it won’t do much good. If we learn to live peacefully with each other. To love others as we love ourselves. If we manage not to fear the differences in cultures,skin color, or beliefs and we haven’t healed the planet, well, we will not survive either. So we must all work together to make this entire plan work. The full commitment of every person, government and religion is necessary.

We can’t do it without work, love, acceptance and honoring all that is sacred. What is sacred? Everything is sacred because Divinity is found within everything which breathes and lives. This includes our planet. So we need to find a way to weave the threads of the lives of all sentient beings together to form a strong yet beautiful tapestry that will reflect the love and holiness that is here among us..