I want a REVOLUTION।
I feel the wanting with every fiber of my being। It has been with me since the day I entered this world as a mortal womon on the planet Earth. Through my life it has burned intensely like flames with fresh dry wood added and then other times, it has waned, smoldering hot coals, hidden. But as life changes and new experiences provide me with chances to grow, fresh material to burn, my coals reignite…
Light is returning,
Even though this is the darkest hour
No one can hold back the dawn
Since this issue on activism has come round again। I had to ask myself what is it I want more than anything, that I would be willing to lay my life down for, to give up all my comforts and delusions/illusions for? As “hokey” as it may read, PEACE was right there. Now the trick is HOW to do that in the present state of the world under heteropatriarchy. So I talk of Evolution/Revolution and a different world where all Wimmin are free from male oppression. Men are running us and the whole planet into oblivion and we are indeed at a critical point!
I call it REVOLUTION। I strive for it in the choices I make. I am fortunate and bountiful in my life in so many respects, but I am well aware that too many of us are being extinguished by the privilege and power run amok amongst the male species. One too many of my sisters languish in prisons or are raped and battered, objectified, bought, sold, annihilated. Somehow men are supposedly in charge of EVERYTHING! How did this happen and, perhaps more importantly, why do we let it continue?
As a long time activist, who has given great energy to different causes and also grown jaded and frozen with hopelessness and fear, I know well the struggle to not to give in to the inertia that can overtake me as a result of living in patriarchy। So many of us lesbian feminists face those moments of questioning. We wonder if what we do makes a difference? If the intense and bright flames of our dreams for a different world don’t just burn themselves out in the airless heteropatriarchy and leave little trace of our presence save for a bit of scorching around the edges. I tell you the fire still burns even now, just when I thought it had faded away. It calls me to reach out to other women –to reach out to those who know the longing best, EACH OTHER. We need to talk to each other about that deep yearning and what is it we truly want.
One planet is turning
Circle on her path around the sun
Earth-mother is calling her children home.
In no time in say the last 2000 years has there been any time without some kind of conflict। In the last 2 centuries, men have taken it to scales in which EVERY woman is subject. Women are used as the reasoning to go to war, such as the cry the US government used to rally support for invading Afghanistan Women are the ones most likely to suffer at the hands of either side’s soldiers as well. Yes, males kill each other in brutish and unthinkable ways, but womyn will most likely suffer the anguish of rape and slavery before they too are murdered. Is it any wonder we yearn for peace at our cores? Deep in every womon is the memory buried like coals beneath ashes, awaiting the puff of wind to reveal its still burning heat; glowing we are the ones who bring life to the world. But so many have forgotten their real Power. Instead they have bought into power by male standards. They have allied themselves to the ones who would destroy them. And yet we still thrive. For many of us the memory of our true Selves and what that means for the planet is finally coming into the forefront of our consciousness.
So here we are poised for the big change we can all feel coming। Inside us burns a fire, not always understood even by ourselves. We live in a culture that if given the opportunity will destroy everything. I don’t want to be remembered on the cosmic scale as the planetary beings that sadly self-destructed. I don’t want to so toxify the entire planet that it becomes uninhabitable for any species. I also don’t want to idly stand-by and watch men do it either. I want a REVOLUTION and I know it’s going to take every single one of us to do it.
The how to do it is often much more complicated than the desire to make it happen। Many things can get in the way of organizing. It would be foolish to negate the effects of racism, classism, ableism, ageism, and sexism on any woman’s ability to create change. Sometimes the struggle to survive is more than any one can take. Here in the US, I live in relative comfort despite struggling at times with poverty. I have white-skin privilege and a loving network of friends and family that do indeed rally to my aid should it arise. I have little to give up, but some have even less. I would barely hesitate if I thought it would improve things for all of us, but I can only say that for myself. Asking other women to give up what little if anything they have can be daunting at best if not downright terrifying. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is convincing women who have allied themselves to men. The status they enjoy, the privilege and power bestowed upon them because of their connection to their husbands and children; it is difficult to imagine any woman giving that all up for the lofty dream of women’s freedom touted by some “radical” lesbian who wants to being about the demise of heteropatriarchy However, I perceive it as a false security and sense of power, because it is given by others and not owned by the woman herself, for herself. She is only as useful as her roles as wife or mother and once these are done; as many find out they become invisible and anonymous. Of course the same may be said for some lesbians as well. Those who believe in the right to marry and “be like everyone else” as a way to gain acceptance may find themselves quickly if not more invisible and anonymous as het women because they are seeking vindication by conforming to heteropatriarchal standards. The dream of the house, the car and happy children are buying into the patriarchal paradigm as the only model for purposeful existence and happiness. So where to start and just how to begin the conversation, which may eventually lead to action? This publication is one place ot start. It may inspire other like-minded sisters to risk talking with women they know in their social connection, families, and workplaces about the possibilities of a different world. C-R groups, feminist readings, along with any action that continues to expose the true plight of women and the precarious nature of our entire planet can only further the realization of our need for change.
Let’s keep it burning
Let’s keep the light of hope alive
Make safe our journey through the storm
Fan those flames my Sisters, in whatever way you can, for whatever matters, truly matters to you। What would you lay down your life for? What would you give up for EVERY woman to know peace? Our sisters need to remember and we have to find a way to help them remember. That is the REVOLUTION I long for. That every woman remembers her fire! REMEMBER: We were not meant to be slaves, not porn-stars, not prostitutes or whores. Not blushing brides, not beings of any less value. We are here! We exist and the whole so-called human race could not exist without us. We can no longer abide our own destruction or the destruction of the planet. And that is exactly what it is going to come down to!
Talk, write, march, yell, scream, whisper, but do not be completely silent! Most of all talk with other we’moon about the longing for peace and how easy it might be for all of us if we finally agreed to act as one great flaring of flame, transforming all it touches। We were once Goddesses and Warriors, Remember? Yes, Remember!
FREEDOM, true freedom and PEACE for all womyn! Imagine it sisters! Let it run wild like the cleansing fires that could take a whole forest, but leaves in its wake new life। We are the flames, we are certainly the coals. Coals become transforming/transmuting fire by just doing. All it takes is a good wind. Let’s embrace the wind sisters!
Fire transform me
Bring me to my passion
I choose life! YES!
I choose courage!
To dance among the flames… *
Alisa Starkweather
I feel the wanting with every fiber of my being। It has been with me since the day I entered this world as a mortal womon on the planet Earth. Through my life it has burned intensely like flames with fresh dry wood added and then other times, it has waned, smoldering hot coals, hidden. But as life changes and new experiences provide me with chances to grow, fresh material to burn, my coals reignite…
Light is returning,
Even though this is the darkest hour
No one can hold back the dawn
Since this issue on activism has come round again। I had to ask myself what is it I want more than anything, that I would be willing to lay my life down for, to give up all my comforts and delusions/illusions for? As “hokey” as it may read, PEACE was right there. Now the trick is HOW to do that in the present state of the world under heteropatriarchy. So I talk of Evolution/Revolution and a different world where all Wimmin are free from male oppression. Men are running us and the whole planet into oblivion and we are indeed at a critical point!
I call it REVOLUTION। I strive for it in the choices I make. I am fortunate and bountiful in my life in so many respects, but I am well aware that too many of us are being extinguished by the privilege and power run amok amongst the male species. One too many of my sisters languish in prisons or are raped and battered, objectified, bought, sold, annihilated. Somehow men are supposedly in charge of EVERYTHING! How did this happen and, perhaps more importantly, why do we let it continue?
As a long time activist, who has given great energy to different causes and also grown jaded and frozen with hopelessness and fear, I know well the struggle to not to give in to the inertia that can overtake me as a result of living in patriarchy। So many of us lesbian feminists face those moments of questioning. We wonder if what we do makes a difference? If the intense and bright flames of our dreams for a different world don’t just burn themselves out in the airless heteropatriarchy and leave little trace of our presence save for a bit of scorching around the edges. I tell you the fire still burns even now, just when I thought it had faded away. It calls me to reach out to other women –to reach out to those who know the longing best, EACH OTHER. We need to talk to each other about that deep yearning and what is it we truly want.
One planet is turning
Circle on her path around the sun
Earth-mother is calling her children home.
In no time in say the last 2000 years has there been any time without some kind of conflict। In the last 2 centuries, men have taken it to scales in which EVERY woman is subject. Women are used as the reasoning to go to war, such as the cry the US government used to rally support for invading Afghanistan Women are the ones most likely to suffer at the hands of either side’s soldiers as well. Yes, males kill each other in brutish and unthinkable ways, but womyn will most likely suffer the anguish of rape and slavery before they too are murdered. Is it any wonder we yearn for peace at our cores? Deep in every womon is the memory buried like coals beneath ashes, awaiting the puff of wind to reveal its still burning heat; glowing we are the ones who bring life to the world. But so many have forgotten their real Power. Instead they have bought into power by male standards. They have allied themselves to the ones who would destroy them. And yet we still thrive. For many of us the memory of our true Selves and what that means for the planet is finally coming into the forefront of our consciousness.
So here we are poised for the big change we can all feel coming। Inside us burns a fire, not always understood even by ourselves. We live in a culture that if given the opportunity will destroy everything. I don’t want to be remembered on the cosmic scale as the planetary beings that sadly self-destructed. I don’t want to so toxify the entire planet that it becomes uninhabitable for any species. I also don’t want to idly stand-by and watch men do it either. I want a REVOLUTION and I know it’s going to take every single one of us to do it.
The how to do it is often much more complicated than the desire to make it happen। Many things can get in the way of organizing. It would be foolish to negate the effects of racism, classism, ableism, ageism, and sexism on any woman’s ability to create change. Sometimes the struggle to survive is more than any one can take. Here in the US, I live in relative comfort despite struggling at times with poverty. I have white-skin privilege and a loving network of friends and family that do indeed rally to my aid should it arise. I have little to give up, but some have even less. I would barely hesitate if I thought it would improve things for all of us, but I can only say that for myself. Asking other women to give up what little if anything they have can be daunting at best if not downright terrifying. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is convincing women who have allied themselves to men. The status they enjoy, the privilege and power bestowed upon them because of their connection to their husbands and children; it is difficult to imagine any woman giving that all up for the lofty dream of women’s freedom touted by some “radical” lesbian who wants to being about the demise of heteropatriarchy However, I perceive it as a false security and sense of power, because it is given by others and not owned by the woman herself, for herself. She is only as useful as her roles as wife or mother and once these are done; as many find out they become invisible and anonymous. Of course the same may be said for some lesbians as well. Those who believe in the right to marry and “be like everyone else” as a way to gain acceptance may find themselves quickly if not more invisible and anonymous as het women because they are seeking vindication by conforming to heteropatriarchal standards. The dream of the house, the car and happy children are buying into the patriarchal paradigm as the only model for purposeful existence and happiness. So where to start and just how to begin the conversation, which may eventually lead to action? This publication is one place ot start. It may inspire other like-minded sisters to risk talking with women they know in their social connection, families, and workplaces about the possibilities of a different world. C-R groups, feminist readings, along with any action that continues to expose the true plight of women and the precarious nature of our entire planet can only further the realization of our need for change.
Let’s keep it burning
Let’s keep the light of hope alive
Make safe our journey through the storm
Fan those flames my Sisters, in whatever way you can, for whatever matters, truly matters to you। What would you lay down your life for? What would you give up for EVERY woman to know peace? Our sisters need to remember and we have to find a way to help them remember. That is the REVOLUTION I long for. That every woman remembers her fire! REMEMBER: We were not meant to be slaves, not porn-stars, not prostitutes or whores. Not blushing brides, not beings of any less value. We are here! We exist and the whole so-called human race could not exist without us. We can no longer abide our own destruction or the destruction of the planet. And that is exactly what it is going to come down to!
Talk, write, march, yell, scream, whisper, but do not be completely silent! Most of all talk with other we’moon about the longing for peace and how easy it might be for all of us if we finally agreed to act as one great flaring of flame, transforming all it touches। We were once Goddesses and Warriors, Remember? Yes, Remember!
FREEDOM, true freedom and PEACE for all womyn! Imagine it sisters! Let it run wild like the cleansing fires that could take a whole forest, but leaves in its wake new life। We are the flames, we are certainly the coals. Coals become transforming/transmuting fire by just doing. All it takes is a good wind. Let’s embrace the wind sisters!
Fire transform me
Bring me to my passion
I choose life! YES!
I choose courage!
To dance among the flames… *
Alisa Starkweather
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