Milwaukee Marijuana March (Event #2)

My friend is a contributor to NORML - the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. - and he and the leader of NORML - Jay Blaze, set up a march in honor of reforming Milwaukee's Marijuana Laws. We marched from the top of Kilbourn Park all the way to City Hall downtown and back to Kilbourn Park marching through Riverwest.

There was a huge turnout, people expanded about four blocks!
Some people even joined the march as we walked past.
There was some downfalls though, like drunk people who were giving NORML a bad name by jumping on public property and causing a scene.

Some of the chants we sung were as followed:
"What do we want?!"
"WEED!"
"When do we want it!?"
"NOW!"

"D.E.A. - GO AWAY!"

We had a megaphone being used, I got to speak on it a little bit.
Halfway through the march, everyone was parched, and next year if the march happens, water will definitely be needed. A woman actually had fallen in the grass next to the sidewalk, and everyone kind of waited patiently and made sure she was okay then began moving again.

I think it was a successful march and many people in their cars would honk and yell and appreciate what was happening.

Although, personally, I think this march was a performance, not much of political or effective stance at reforming a law. I think it definitely brought people together in unity to honor a reform, but I don't think marching will change anything.

Climate Disruption

It's to no surprise climate disruption is happening. What is unbelievable is that there are people out there who actually deny that it is an issue. With surrounding facts and consequences that are already occurring from climate disruption, it's hard to understand what people are thinking who deny climate change.

What are some of the effects of climate disruption?

-----"These changes are already being observed in various forms in different areas, such as prolonged drought, heavier rain falls, retreating glaciers, melting permafrost, loss of sea ice, and rising sea levels. The impacts of these changes are disrupting transportation, energy, agriculture and health systems, and are expected to increase."-------

So, climate disruption isn't just hurting the environment, it is also hurting us and how we are living/the systems we have created. Climate disruption is actually stressing water resources which will in turn have a domino-like effect on many aspects that follow suit around it. Our whole health is surrounded by water and without a reliable source of water to be found, we will definitely be risking our health and well-being. 

----The U.S. Pentagon issued a statement saying that climate disruption actually poses a greater threat to it than terrorism. ----

So, how does this affect us locally? Obviously, this is occurring right at the very moment and people have to learn how to deal with it in someway or another. For example, we can take a look at the droughts we have had recently on the west coast in California. The Sierra Nevada mountains snow pack actually ended up melting due to higher than normal temperatures. The high temperatures also caused some of California's reservoirs capacity of H20 to decrease which is the source of water for millions. This is the negative consequence droughts have on citizens and the environment. 

The huge global problem of climate disruption is due to not just one country, one population, or one thing. Rather it is from a combined effort of how we make every day decisions and how our history has developed us in to industrious societies. It's scary that the negative consequences are so rapid, literally it is frightening, yet the effects don't seem to be slowing down, but increasing exponentially. If something doesn't change we are going to seem more local effects, there is no doubt about it. 

CENTER STREET FREE SPACE WITH BEEHIVE COLLECTIVE

April 15, 6pm, Center Street Free Space - HANDS-ON Collaborative Graphic-making workshop (set aside your whole evening, it will be approx 4 hrs long)

Walked in to Center Street Free Space at around 6:20. 3 Tables were connected, and there were about ten people sitting around it and two men standing up. The two men standing up would be the members of the Beehive Collective.

We started the workshop by playing a game. My friend, Leyton, told me a story where she had felt uplifted & empowered by an act she had done, while this was happening I was supposed to draw it while she didn't look. I tried to draw symbols of the words she was saying & story she was telling. Then, she did the same to for me. It was a fun exercise and it was gratifying to be able to tell a story of where I felt uplifted and felt like I had made an impact. You don't get to tell people that very often.

 Then, we played another game. We had to draw what "prison-industrial complex" meant to us. We then all passed around our drawings around the table. Some drawings were completely conceptual, for instance, a stairway leading to nowhere below the ground, others had literally prisons drawn and the United States inside of it, and many, many, many others of how people interpreted the phrase. 

The games were allowing us to open our minds and share with others without the unnecessary judgement or competition one many feel in a big group. 

We then came together and started to brainstorm things about Milwaukee, the good things and the bad things that we could change/that bothered us about our city/movements occurring/what we were passionate about. We came up with this huge spider web model of all sorts of things including...

- police assault/ police violence

-sexual assault

- gardens

- space reclamation

- food desert

- education

- potholes

- DIY action/ DIY bike shops

- sex trafficking

- sustainability

- etc.

We then tried to connect things together because by connecting the smaller variables we would be able to unleash the smaller details we could then put on paper and possible concepts we could follow. Then, we were separated in to 3 groups. I was grouped with 4 guys I had just met we all had to interpret and conceive a drawing based off these intertwining theories and connected-ness of ideas we all had brainstormed.  It was hilarious and a lot of fun. We had a running joke about HOW WE HAD TO HAVE A POTHOLE in the drawing. Finally, we put a pothole in...it was great. 

The Beehive members tried to let us feel at ease and didn't shoot any of our ideas down. They were all ears and wanted us to understand that instead of saying "No, but..." we should always say, "Yes and..." because it is a much more positive way of working with other people. They were extremely laid back and extremely inspirational. I talked with a member at the end, I feel bad because I don't remember their names, but he had told me there were only about twenty members of the collective. That really blew me away because I was suspecting a bigger number and I am not sure why. But, WOW, it was a great experience and I'd like to go to more events like that more often, or just make art and share ideas more often with people rather than living a 'basic' 'mundane' life. There is so much out there to discover and so much we can do to fix things in our city, school, and each other's lives.  

Final Project

I've decided I would like to do further study on a local business for my final project. I have heard and shopped at the Riverwest Co Op before, but never did I think twice of what actually goes on behind the scenes there. The fact that its right next door to me in my community really intrigues me and I want to learn how it facilitates and what sort of people are behind the scenes making it all happen. Knowing a friend that works there is a pretty big help too to gain information about it.

I want to make a mini-documentary about the Riverwest Co Op. I have this camera and I've been meaning to shoot something for a while and I figured this would be a great opportunity. I would like to include maybe two interviews in it, but the style I am going for is very relaxed. I don't want to make something super formal. The Co Op has a relaxed feeling that welcomes the community through its doors. I hope to gain information on how the Co Op thrives and what type of connections the owner-workers have to other businesses to get their products. This mini-doc will be fruitful with shots of every day happenings at the Co Op, but true focus will be on community and hopefully some main members will be able to speak to me so I can see how they profit from being a part of such a democratically run business.

So, the main purpose: how does a Co op work? Whose a part of this Riverwest Co op? Who makes things happen there? Are there any rules? Are there any obligations? How do you become a member? How could I start my own Co op?

: )

AIM

Right after viewing It's A Good Day To Die and also the scene of occupying Wounded Knee I immediately related the actions that took place of the AIM to The Black Panthers although there was definitely a slight contrast in both movements. Each wanted to occupy a space that was in their own right to occupy. Each wanted to remain non-violent, but each had to resort to violence in order to protect themselves from authority possibly taking violent actions against them which created a tornado and resulted in negative coverage by mass-and mainstream media.

This negative media coverage resulted in adding a weight to the already heavy negative and false depictions of each movement and people of the movement...but, if there had been no violence, would there have been any media coverage at all? Would the citizens of the United States care about what American Indians were fighting for?

I'm sure there would have been limited interest in white Americans lives as to what these American Indians were fighting for or exactly what they were trying to achieve. It's the fact that white Americans were not sitting in the same spot as these American Indians were/are- the privileges shining out of their (white) assholes maybe was all they needed to remain naive and prideful rejecting the fact that there were people who had lived here on this land before them fighting for their basic human rights again, much like they once had before when the country was first colonized. I mean really, how much bullshit can a single human *category* take living in an institutionalized and definitely cruel world?

I said category because I am not going to pretend that American Indian is a race, or Black is a race, or Mexican is a race for every person with tanned skin and dark hair- there are different tribes, countries, roots, things that come from different cultures, people should not be trajectory to one, stupid, thing- defined by/ called by THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN.

The Black Panthers- similar to AIM- fighting for respect, for human rights, violent, but what other road were they meant to take? Somebody had to pull the trigger and yeah they added + MLK JR. added to the hope stirred rise of Black Power and equality (in some cases...) but, unfortunately, we talk about these movements today and not a single damned thing has changed in human consciousness.  Sure, maybe blacks can walk the streets and eat where whites eat, and go to the bathroom and drink wherever, BUT there is still social stigma- a depleted-ness of loving one another - blacks to white, white to black - because there is insecurity within both from each other, there is no trust.

All in all, similar movements, similar tactics, similar outcomes.
WHITE POWER
(Kidding. Totally kidding)

I am not proud of what people of my heritage have created and done other than the fact that I get to exist and experience my life. That's all.

At least, many are becoming aware in my generation. Awareness is key.

OCCUPY WHAT? PREACH WHAT? WEEK 5

What if everybody across the globe sat in at McDonald's occupying each empty seat or space within the building holding an animal, or potted plant, refusing to buy anything, but just stood or sat there, with nothing but smiles and good conversations all around. Would the people working be fed up, call authorities, would big media try and pan in over the controversy and confusion? Would McDonald's buy their way out of being covered by big media? Probably, I mean the Olympics for f**ks sake is sponsored by this god awful place that we all have carried guilt from after eating a chicken nugget or big mac. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS GLOBALIZED WORLD?!

I guess we could think of more creative ways of trying to occupy a space because let's face it, people love their McDonald's, and people indulge in that guilt...well because...sometimes it's an unnecessary necessity on a Friday night or on a road trip or after a break up, you feel me?

I say down with McDonald's, Walmart, Kentucky Fried Chicken, maybe even Taco Bell...(maybe) but, let's face it Domino's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Popeye's, Kmart, etc.etc.etc. creates this alienation from people-to-people, people-to-soul, people-to-nature-- this weird awkward fantasy of eating YUMMY food (food, yeah right I worked at Subway and there was about 7 other ingredients in the steak, other than the word steak) and HAVING NECESSARY THINGS. I preach and I know it, but if people only were educated and sought sustainable agriculture and sustainability within their lives then people wouldn't be reduced to working over 40 hrs a week at these corporations getting minimum wage just to get by and adding to this weird, materialistic, hopeless society that we live in by being a main contributor to it.

My roommate and I were talking tonight actually about this topic of 'occupying' or trying to change a specific disruption within our global pattern. What if everybody had to go vegan for a day? How exactly would that impact the world? It's a creative disruption because I believe that people ARE TOO-INDULGENT and honestly, myself included, do not understand the specific impacts we are having on the environment and ourselves.

THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS TO OCCUPY, but I know me and countless others are thinking, "HOW?" and "WHERE?"

That my friend seems like a matter of importance and will and thought.

I guess we have to look at the things that matter most to us. Like Eyon Biddle said, he is confused as to why United State's youth is not so concerned about high tuition costs and the result of never-ending student loans, only letting our passivity take control of our here and now, and truly not planning for the future.

There are countries where education is
 free.
FREE.

Seriously, Wikipedia has listed over 37 countries that have free post-secondary education including Brazil, Germany, and India, and including China looking at policies trying to transition to a free education nation as well. This is important. This is huge. America doesn't want it. WHY.

If we only could create an up-rise, a movement, a 'something' that mattered to people because a lot of people really aren't standing for anything these days besides the hit songs they hear on the radio supporting misogyny and a way of life that is totally unattainable and unhealthy for any human being. I want to shake society and people and make them wake up, it disgusts me (preachin' again)

Alright alright, so I am pretty much ALL TALK. I have ideas. I don't know how to begin and where to begin like I've iterated. It's a matter of creating a people that come together willing to live for changing something that has a valid impact on their lives.


In Milwaukee, maybe there are ways we can come together as a whole to make this city we live in a better place. What really matters? In my eyes what really matters is sustainability, safe walking environments and bike paths, local owners and growers, diversity glorified, women free from sexual assault, people coming together to make the city more beautiful.

Maybe that could be a beginning? Maybe if Milwaukee had one big day where the community comes together, East side for example, and painting a huge mural together, letting art encompass the diversity without constrains." Art-- what's that going to do?" some may say....and then we could respond with "Ya, be jealous you don't live in a city that allows every person to come together and make their mark on their own city they live in."

It doesn't have to be art, but that's just a start, a start of remembering that we are people and citizens, not aliens that treat each other like aliens because we are so muffled up in our god damned business every day that we forget we are all people of the same kind!

Art is a way and means of coming together to create....
....as we are learning that all forms of art can be used in creating an activist approach especially performance.

So, my ideas are mush. melded. their all wrapped up in my brain. we complain day to day about the things that hurt us and the things that 'make life hard.' Maybe some don't complain at all? Maybe they are passive, and O.K. with the way things are, or are uneducated...a sad reality of our day and age.

It's these things I wonder about, and it's this society sometimes I worry about.

Sarah

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Also, there is a poem I've posted below if you have the time to watch the video.

POETRY POST

Writing for me is my sacred outlet when I need to discover more about myself and push myself to somehow organize my thoughts. I feel like I've taken this class right at the exact moment when I needed it because I feel really strongly about certain topics that we have been discussing. The conversations we have in class are sometimes the conversations I wish I were having with the people around me. There is too much passivity in my life, and just talking about the issues creates awareness in my mind. I struggle to find ways of becoming an active person who wants to be a part of something bigger than just myself-my life-alone. I guess writing has always been a way for me to express this longing I have.

This has nothing to do with the Week 5 post we are supposed to do, but since we talked about poetry and have viewed poems in class I thought I'd share a video I created. I made this about three weeks ago after a day of exhaustion-- mental exhaustion to be specific. I felt a fire within me and I needed to express it. I received good feedback from this video among friends, but I hope to continue writing and making more videos.

Video is untitled.