Monthly Archives: November 2014
Grateful
As we come up on Thanksgiving my Facebook feed is starting to fill up with commentary about “The real history of Thanksgiving.” Most of it is true, and most of it I am familiar with. America was built on the backs of people who shared their labor and their knowledge. Rather than responding with gratitude, our white European fore bearers appropriated their gifts and made sure their stories written out of history.
So I want to take some time to be grateful. I am grateful to be able to live on this bounteous beautiful land.
I am grateful for wild rice, and corn, and pumpkins and all the food that is indigenous. I’m grateful to see tribal people standing up for their land rights against fracking and pipeline building, knowing how destructive those technologies are to the environment. I’m grateful for the people who share the history not taught in our schools and who tell the stories of the downtrodden.
I’m grateful for the immigrant cultures that have brought so much variety to my life. I’m grateful for fried rice and tortillas and collard greens.
I’m grateful for print and color patterns and architectural wonders that were never a part of my European heritage. I’m grateful for literature with points of view that are different from my own, but which make it easier for me to shift my own perspective. I’m grateful for the music, the meditation, and the technologies that make my life easier and more pleasant.
I have been blessed in my life with the opportunity to travel. I have been in positions to decorate my home with artwork from other cultures. I have had the opportunity to work and play and truly get to know people whose upbringing was very different from my own.
I’ve recently started an online meditation series Headspace. As I move through the meditation lessons they ask me to reflect on who else benefits from my practicing these techniques. Trying to build a business speaking on spirituality I ask myself, “who do I serve? Who needs to hear what I have to say?”
I think the cultures and people who supported the development of this country had that attitude.
“How can I help? Who can I serve?”
I think our culture has an attitude of “What do I get out of it?” I’d rather live with the former.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to try.
VOTE
Mid-term elections. What’s the point? There are a lot of them actually. It’s easy to get caught up in the Presidential races. There’s a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of hype that goes into those campaigns. It’s a high-profile race for a high-profile job.
Thing is, the mid-term elections are for jobs a lot closer to home. The legislators aren’t representing the whole country, but your state. The state office holders are representing your district (which at least includes your neighborhood). City office holders determine things like snowplow schedules and lawn maintenance rules.
There are other even closer to home issues that come up on midterm ballots. Sometimes there are local ordinances and issues – vote yes/vote no to a proposition that changes how things run in your city. Or vote yes/vote no to a school tax referendum.
On the heels of Samhein, Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Dia de los Muertos I am reminded that many of our ancestors fought hard for the right to vote. Women couldn’t vote in this country until 1920. That’s 145 years that we couldn’t vote and less than 100 that we could. Blacks, or at least black men, were theoretically given the right to vote nationally in 1870. In both cases there was strong enough opposition that people actively worked to keep blacks and women from the polls.
Husbands would forbid their wives to vote, and pastors preached against women exercising that right. Taxes, tests, and intimidation prevented most blacks from exercising their right to vote until the voting rights act of 1965. We still see active legislation (like for voter ID’s), and intimidation to try and prevent “undesirable populations” from exercising their right to vote.

From the Minnesota Historical Society: Proceedings of the Convention of Colored Citizens of the State of Minnesota program, 1869. This program was presented at the first political convention black Minnesotans held after gaining the right to vote. The celebration held on January 1, 1869 in St. Paul also marked the creation of the Sons of Freedom, the first African American civil rights group in Minnesota.
When we vote we stand on the backs of those who went before us. As disenchanting as the system may be it still works better when there is more participation. My daughter says she’s often not happy enough with either candidate to vote for them. I explained to her about how people get to be on the ballot.
If there is a certain percentage voting for your party in the previous election, that party is automatically included on the ballot for next one. I have voted for a 3rd party candidate just because I believe we should have more than two choices. If I can’t vote for someone I like, I can at least vote for inclusion.
Minnesota has historically high voter turn out. We are often highest in the country or at least in the top 5. We tend to average about 67% turn out. This year may be higher as they’ve expanded the rules for absentee ballots. You no longer have to actually be absent. Anyone could go down to their city hall and request a ballot, or request one on-line. The city halls are set up as polling places, or you could take it home and mail it in (or drop it off another day).
Orion and I took full advantage of that this year and voted early. It was much easier for us than finding our polling place (which moves depending on the year.) It also meant we didn’t have to stand in line. Additionally the accommodations for Orion’s disabilities are much more readily addressed at home than in a busy polling place.
So please, honor your ancestors and vote.
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Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. After the election this gravesite was visited by a number of women and decorated with their “I Voted’ stickers.