C#@*^&! (coexist?)

I've seen these images all over the net. The first time I saw one I thought it was a good idea. But of course since I'm ornery I ended up asking myself why? Not - Why is simple coexistence a good idea? Nah. I asked myself why were these signs, related to religion and requesting that these religions and their followers coexist, simply coexist, a good idea? I couldn't actually find a reason why. As someone who defines as spiritual rather than religious, I couldn't even find a good reason to engage with or feel passionately about this idea. I decided not to post one in my blog's sidebar and left it at that.

This morning, I saw a status report on facebook about these signs and again I had to stop and think about their significance. I thought about the issue having to do with that christian cleric, the muslim imam, the mosque at ground zero and the threatened book burning, all of which, I have to admit, have only registered peripherally for me. It seemed like a very amurkan specific news item. Hell! I already thought of ground zero as some sort of bizarre amurkan holy ground, sanctified by the media and government, 9/11 cannonized by a citizenry in deep denial, controllable, lacking in context, kept in ignorance, unable to deal with their nation's status as oppressive world bully, needing the collective outpouring of rage and mourning as an outlet lest it be turned on their own evil ass government.

I've observed the whole threatened qur'an burning from an emotional distance mostly because I don't believe in the sanctity of any religious tomes...not even this bridge called my back.

When the coexistence campaign image came into view on my screen this morning I remembered that a REALLY BIG world event is unfolding in amurka and that those who are accustomed to smoothing over, flattening and normalizing the real issues are now inviting especially us wimmin to call for a diseased, silenced peace because that's what we're trained to enforce as those who carry the keys to the family, the continued undisturbed futures of our patriarchal cultures.

As "news" about the c.c.c. (crazy christian cleric) boomerangs all over the place, given wide berth and free passage by the corporate media. it becomes clear to me that our rulers are asking us to once more put our attentions where they would like them to be. If they didn't want us to pay attention to the minister and the book burning and the mosque at ground zero, none of these would make the news.

So fine. They want us to engage with this subject matter. They don't just want us to engage. Nah. They want us to engage passionately, at a core level, as if paying attention to this was as necessary as breathing. It's also clear that they want us feel as if we can make a difference here, as if by virtue of being completely focused and morally outraged we can make a difference. They want us to feel necessary and strong, as if our collective will counts for something.

hehehehehe.

They do this to us every little while. Have you noticed?
The campaign for gay and lesbian marriage.
What else did the people "win" recently?
Oh, teah, obamarama. The people voiced their collective opinion and he "won" the election. How's that workin' for yuh? :)

So collectively, we're gonna change something. Now, where did I put my radical cheerleader pom-poms? hehehehe.

Gimme a D!
D!
Gimme an E!
E!
Gimme a N!
N!
Gimme an I!
I!
Gimme an A!
A!
Gimme an L!
L!
What's it spell?

DENIAL!
(i know you can't see me. but right now i'm shaking my radical cheerleader pom-poms wildly, and spastically jumping up and down and doing excited cartwheels all over my livingroom)

Yup. sigh...
So this stupid man and his stupid quest for ever increasing subterranean levels of ignorance is being defined as a news maker.

I need to ask - What's the message here?

Well, for me the message is that if we don't pay attention to this "issue" and "fix" it, the extremely "zealous" muslims will lose their minds and attack all those who live in christian controlled countries.

Yup. They're "zealous". muslims are. heh

amurkans who are the citizens of a completely christian obsessed right wing dominated (newsflash - obamarama isn't left, he's just more left than the republican right wingnuts) state are not the zealous ones.

amurkans who attack every and anyone with absolutely no provocation whatsoever, are not the ones to be feared. Their government, so very controlled by christian fundamentalists, is not going to freak and attack every and anyone who gets in its way. They wouldn't do that. They haven't already done that time and time again.

Nope.

It's the muslims. The amurkans are just worried about being victimized. They're quaking in their boots worried about Muslims attacking them. hehehehehe.

So what to do?

hmmm...what to do?



I know! They go into overdrive asking everyone to just get along?

Can't we all just tolerate each other?

Can't we all just coexist?

Of course right wing christian fundamentalists are already listening to this mantra. Of course they're not the ones who need to be kept in check here. Of course they've always been about coexisting. Even when they started their holy democratic capitalist imperialist corporate linked oil thirsty wars in the middle east they were coexisting.

Right.

So, I've been seeing posts all over facebook about the insanely zealous muslims and how they are desperately trying to reeducate their youth to not be so intolerant, how muslim wimmin are so desperately abused and dominated they need the west to intervene on their behalf...by forcing them to not wear the hijab.

Funny how I'm not seeing quite as many posts about the insanely zealous christians who have been kicking the asses of so many people all over the planet for so many years. Of course many will hasten to point out that muslims have also been a colonizing power in certain parts of the world and kicked their fair share of ass in the past. I would have to say that this is true.

Others will point out that it's not just the christians kicking muslim ass, it's also jewish zionists. And I'll agree.

But the reality is, this isn't really about muslims and christians or about christians, jews and muslims at the end of the day, if it ever was.

This is about power and the struggle for it. This is about the balance of power on the planet and about how two things - water and oil - will define who holds the reigns of power all over the planet.

Living in kkkanada and sitting atop so much water, I realize that the kkkanadian government, having already successfully usurped the sovereign power of Native peoples and their right to make decisions that effect the ongoing survival of their peoples, having also through systemic attempted genocide and the partitioning of many Native peoples onto bantustans...err...reservations, has illegally taken control of mineral and resource rights including water. As a controlled territory of amurka, if this country hasn't already handed over many water rights to amurka, it will eventually. we are not independent, free or able to defend against the demands of amurka. No one is.

muslims, on the other hand, have not so easily handed over their resource grounded power. Given that the whole planet is completely in thrall to oil, by rights the muslims should be the ruler/commanders of us all.

Why are they not?

Well, the christian westerners/european descended peoples would rather die than take their orders from muslims. So, they've been attacking them on every possible level in the media and through conventional war. They have been actively undermining muslim nations, their leaders, their reputations, undermining their religion and their culture, imprisoning their peoples, mass murdering their people and encouraging others to attack them.

They have been oppressing muslims by surrounding them the way a group of children who might not be able to take on another child individually would surround a small child in a courtyard, pushing here, kicking there, grabbing here, pulling there until that child, so tired of resisting, so exhausted by the constant attacks, falls to the ground and lets the other children pile on to administer even more punishing blows.

The christian westerners are bullies who have generally been attempting to make life for muslims very unsafe all over the planet so that they are forced to struggle for their very existence, just to live, just to draw breath free. With that daily struggle for survival going on, there is no space for any muslim block or single muslim nation to emerge as viable alternative to the western states in the way that the communist USSR emerged as a viable alternative to amurkan captialist democracy.

I know I'm hacking all of this together really roughly.

Please realize that I had a hell morning with my eight year old and that my four year old (who I refuse to give over to the clutches of the day prison system aka the public schools until he is coherent and able to tell me something coherent about how his day went) just took a juice box and squooshed it under his foot until the juice spurted all over the living room rug which meant that I had to go get the green cleaner and a wet rag and clean it up while the thoughts were still swirling around in my head. Yup.

So what was I saying?

Coexistence, enh?

I would prefer to make a sign that said CONTEXT.

Historical, political, social, planetary context makes the campaigns we start real time and online much more potent, more intelligent, too.

When we don't have context, when we do not let context permeate our movements, we function as blind agents of domination, doing the bidding of that tiny percentage of the planet's population that controls all of our resources, defines our daily movements to and from work, influences how we do relationships, how we build our families, how we interact across differences, how we resist, how/when/if the serfs who outnumber them end their reign of terror over our lives.

Coexist?

I will gladly coexist with any/everyone except that top tiny percentage and anyone who supports their ongoing dominance. That small percentage at the top are a disease, a pox on the face of the planet. The harm they have caused is immeasurable. It would be good if they were set adrift on one of the space shuttles they keep funding with our money made from our sweat and blood and energy. Destination? Nowhere in particular. Just not here.

With everyone else I would like to just live in peace and make something different for my children and their children's children and for everyone else's children's children.

Truthfully, I'd have say that we do already coexist. We have to since we only have one planet.

For me the issue ends up being not whether we coexist or not but how we coexist.

Coexistence within a framework predicated on power and domination is unacceptable.

I want to have this word co-ex-is-tence deconstructed utilizing an anti-oppression framework that foregrounds the matrix of power and domination because when many talk of coexistence it's in the same vein as those who talk about tolerance or acceptance. when what they really mean is collaboration. Their choice of word is completely devoid of any critique of oppression. They just want the fighting to stop even if it means that some go back to very effectively, very quietly dominating others while others stand and watch and thank whatever god(s) they believe in that it's not them being crushed. As long as things look good on the surface, then the much longed for coexistence will have been achieved.

Coexistence.

Is that what we all want? Really?