Surfside Relapse?

December 28, 2023

April 3rd, 2007

Returning from work this evening, I decided to try and contact Al at the Surfside Recovery House. Not having the number, I asked the on-duty C.O. if she could look it up for me. Moments later, she provided me what I sought. There were two separate numbers. One to call between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, and another to call 24 hours. As it was after dinner I called the latter but I was informed over the phone that it was a restricted number. Uncertain whether it was restricted from here or from there, I went back to the C.O. to inquire. She proceeded to dial it up from her office and quite readily handed me the receiver. I thought it odd and potentially against protocol but who the hell am I to question? I took it and this guy answered. I introduced myself and asked for Al. The guy seemed rather taken aback and asked for my title to which I said I had none. I was just a friend of his looking to see how he was doing. He informed me that Al didn’t have any phone privileges. I countered by saying that ‘I thought Al was granted phone privileges after two weeks.’ It has been twenty days since Al was discharged so by my count I figured his permission to use the phones was granted six days back. The guy on the phone then said, “Al’s phone privileges had been revoked because he has three strikes against him!” At this point I yielded and said goodbye. Finishing the very short call I handed the receiver back to the C.O. prompting her to say she ‘thought I was calling the recovery house in the interest of applying.’ Seems that I unwittingly got away with one! A call that was otherwise restricted for me I managed to make although it didn’t bear out the result I wanted to see. I at least learned a little bit more of Al’s situation without it costing me money off my phone card. As for the reason for the three strikes, I didn’t learn that.

It’s been plaguing my mind exactly what could Al have done in his short time to accrue three strikes? His six week term at the recovery house is broken down into different phases. The first two weeks he isn’t even allowed off the premises. No freedom and no phone for the first 14 days. It not until this initial fortnight has passed that he is granted partial freedom where he could meet with temptation and chance running afoul of rules or regulations. He’s only six days into this minimal freedom phase of his recovery and already he has three strikes? He just spent the past eight months jumping through ALL the hoops to qualify for parole and gain admission to the halfway house. No booze, no tokes, no fun… but Al was good to go. I have seen motivation, and his name is Al! Six days of minimal freedoms and already three strikes?! What on earth could he have done? Not make his bed properly? And while I’m asking all these questions, how many more strikes can he have? Is it possible that he could get kicked out of the recovery house and back to jail? For what? One more strike? Two more? Poor Al still has 22 more days to complete his term there. Given the thin ice he’s on, can he make it?

Letter to the Editor – Helen Grond

December 28, 2023

Re: Letter from Alex Allen, regarding Riley Donovan’s response to Helen Grond’s article: When your government goes off the rails, what can you do, (TIG, Nov. 23)

Not to quibble with Alex’s quibble but the proposed cell Tower is for a 206 foot high structure, on the face of it. The fine print states that Rogers can at any time after approval, increase the height by 25% without further notification or consultation. Approving a 206 foot tower is the equivalent of approving a 258 foot tower. Transparency seems best and I typically describe the height as “up to 258 feet“.

Concerned residents of Hornby Island, who are doing everything in their power to hold the Trust accountable for their blatant mishandling of the whole tower affair, have every reason to mistrust Brian Gregg – Roger’s agent. He also happened to be the agent for the Telus 2017 failed tower bid on Hornby. Mr. Gregg initially informed the Island in 2016 of plans to install a cell tower near the Co-op corner on Hornby Island. Upon realizing that Hornby wasn’t overly enthusiastic about cell towers, he changed the story and announced that the proposed tower was no longer going to be a cell tower but instead, a backup repeater tower in case the landlines went down. Do landlines go down?

Since taking on the Rogers’ application, Mr. Gregg has steadfastly refused to meet for an in-person, on-island meeting – a legal requirement. Zoom meetings do not qualify. The Trust had been unwilling to hold Mr. Gregg to his legal obligations. They have since softened their stance as they were caught red-handed colluding against the community in favour of Rogers. I have previously detailed the malfeasance demonstrated by the Trust, including interference in our local Trustee elections, clear evidence that staff planners coached and guided Mr. Gregg to avoid meeting obligatory consultation requirements and of course the inevitable coverup which included a beet-faced wall of silence and a flurry of staff changes!

I’d like to expand on Alex’s mention of Mr. Greggs’ alleged exposure to disorderly conduct by locals at the 2017 public meeting and his subsequent fear for his safety in future meetings. Concerned residents first heard about those claims in an email sent by Mr. Gregg to a local resident as his reason for refusing to meet Islanders in person, a year ago. The initial reaction of attendees to that 2017 meeting on Hornby, was incredulity. This was rapidly followed by a chorus of guffaws. The profile of a typical concerned resident is that of a peace loving gardener in their 70’s. There were no public threats of any kind made in the 2017 meeting and poor Mr. Gregg was likely rattled by having to face penetrating questions from well informed grannies. I don’t think Mr. Gregg likes penetrating questions – especially in person.

Included in Mr. Greggs’ email was mention of an unnamed person of authority on Hornby, who had advised him that it was unsafe for him to attend a public meeting here. I’m trying not to giggle at how preposterous that claim is. I wonder which local person of authority would be willing to slander their own aging gardeners? I say we all deserve to see the evidence! What prompted the mystery person to warn Mr. Gregg that it was unsafe for him to come to Hornby? Or possibly, did Mr. Gregg make everything up? My dear Watson, we have a dilemma. Has our community been infiltrated by corporate apologists or are we being had by a sly Mr. Gregg and his close and cozy friends – the Islands Trust Corporation, or all of the above?

What the Trust and our own Trustees, fail to understand, is that due process for this application has been broken to bits. The Hornby population has been deceived, acted against in multiple illegal ways, been unfairly slandered and had a full year of precious gardening time wasted on this bureaucratic boondoggle. Democracy is growing paper thin out there and our community mustn’t be forced to accept a disingenuous, half-hearted attempt to patch together a process that lies in a pile of odorous ruins – long overdue for a decent burial and at high risk of leaving a permanent stench.

Solstice, Winter Beach – Christine Wilson

December 28, 2023

Solstice, Winter Beach

It is said, by those who study such matters,

that all that exists is made of stardust.

Every single thing, animate and inanimate, fish and flower

consists of particles from long extinguished suns.

Could God be stardust too?

Did God make the stars, or did the stars make God?

Be careful when you choose your gods.

Select that which you most revere;

that which will inspire you with awe

and wonder

and overwhelming love, for all your days.

It is the quiet time of year, the winter solstice

so I walk the beach to give thanks to the mother.

Animate or not, she is of fire and stardust forged.

The orb that gives us words for colour- cerulean, azure, aquamarine-

on this holy day is appropriately monochrome.

The sky is like the inside of a pearl.

The air is so still, even the busy waterfowl are hushed

as we rest upon the fulcrum of the year.

What tips the balance? What provides the pivot?

Is it faith or is it physics?

No matter, because if I really concentrate

I believe I can feel the exact moment of change when it all shifts.

The pendulum pauses to gather energy for the return

and we all- starfish and sunflower and me too!

standing here with feet of clay and stardust

turn, inexorably, inevitably

back to light.

Green Wizardries: The Three Wise Men

December 28, 2023

I recently met one of my neighbours down at the ferry landing. I went over to him to ask after his little dogs and he was very happy to introduce us and explain their situation. His oldest puppy had lost the use of her back legs and he had feared he would have to put her down but thought he would try one more thing first. He bought her a little chariot for her back legs to ride on.

The smile on his face was dazzling as he told how she had been so depressed by her immobility that he feared she would never be happy again. But once she got her chariot, she perked right up and was zooming around with the greatest verve. He said his puppy would fall over a lot at first but quickly learned what sort of slope she could navigate. He still has to keep an eye on her and right her from time to time but her happiness at her independence has given her a new lease on life.

I should explain that my neighbour has, in the last few years, endured enough personal tragedy to fill up a Russian novel. He has endured great loss. I tell you, his smile did me a world of good and surprised me.

My neighbour explained that he has found solace in his spiritual life and has read the bible twice through but does not claim to remember it all. He was on his way to town to help out at his Church’s program of providing meals to people in need. He said the people they serve are really beautiful, gentle and generous people who have helped him a lot. I was kind of amazed to hear a crusty old soldier talk like that but was delighted for him.

I am not a Christian but I believe that almost any spiritual tradition, pursued honestly, will give great benefits but you have to do the work. That means reading sacred texts, praying, meditation and good works among many other practices. Developing a spiritual life is a long, slow process that I find to be very similar to my learning to play the cello. Daily practice is essential if you want to get anywhere.

One of my friends was married for fifty years to a very dashing woman who illuminated his life. I didn’t know how he was going to manage without her when she died of cancer but at least, he had the dogs. Then, not long after the loss of his wife, one of the dogs suffered a devastating injury and had to be euthanized.

My friend bravely carried on only to lose the other, much younger dog, last autumn. Then, he was prevailed upon to take in an old cat who needed a good home. The cat died of liver cancer after a few weeks of cuddle time. My friend feels death is pursuing him but he sees this as his work now.

His wife and pets could not have been in better hands when they were ill and needed him. He also ministers to many people who know his situation and come and tell him their own stories of sadness and loss and he comforts them and tells them how to live through the sharpest sorrows.

The last wise man is a tough old homicide detective and yes, he too lost his beloved wife to cancer recently. He nursed her at home until the end; the hospice nurses came out to them where they live in England. He too has some little dogs and a family of adult children and beautiful grandchildren who he felt he had to be strong for.

I think he felt at loose ends until he got the news that a very old friend of his has cancer and will need to be cared for and protected. My cop friend calls the man’s wife, “useless,” and is planning to be the main caregiver.

He gave me a little speech saying how his friend is a Church of England Vicar and in with the snobby set of rural gentry, “but who will be looking after him when the chips are down? Muggins here, that’s who!”

To serve and protect is kind of his calling. That and his deep faith in the Roman Catholic Church, no less, gives him the power to go on in the certain knowledge that his time away from his wife will be slight and they will see each other again. Indeed, she drops in on him from time to time and that is a great comfort to him.

We may all need to be strong and to be there for our loved ones. I feel troubled times are coming. We could do worse than to emulate these three wise men.

Sea Cucumber

December 28, 2023

The Hoarders of Virtue – Part 2

December 14, 2023

On July 19, 2023, Bronwyn Schuster, publicist for the Denman Island Bus Service (DIBS), wrote to Mike Van Santvoord, publisher-editor of The Islands Grapevine (TIG),

“I will be choosing alternate avenues for articles and advertising for the various community projects I am involved with until you create an editorial policy that holds the vulnerable members of our community in higher regard.” TIG’s Mike Van Santvoord replied to Schuster the same day saying,

“Your threat to take business elsewhere will have no effect on TIG’s editorial policies.” and, “The foundational principle of democracy and social justice is a free press. In my view, the response to speech you do not share, should be more speech.” And, “I have attached the TIG editorial policy for your convenience.” Following TIG’s publication of “Threats, Lies, and the Misuse of Public Funds”, on August 10, 2023, Schuster posted a response on Denman social media that same day,

“I realize now how my language was threatening, and were I to write that email today, I would have worded my concerns differently.” In reality, DIBS had stopped advertising in TIG in May 2023, as had some of the advertising from the other non-profit organizations Schuster publicized. It was only then that we realized the fullness of the coordinated boycott. That same August 10th, 2023 day, Van Santvoord received an email from Anthony Gregson, Chair of DenmanWorks Economic Enhancement Society (DW), saying,

“I regret to say that by a resolution of the Board, you are removed as a director with immediate effect.” and, “All contractual arrangements with visitdenmanisland.ca are immediately terminated.” Notably, Gregson didn’t speak with Van Santvoord prior to these decisions, or explain any specific allegations of wrongdoing on Van Santvoord’s part. Remarkably, Gregson added,

“Bronwyn Schuster overreached herself,” and, “Denman Works recognizes that DIBS contractor Bronwyn Schuster, while entitled to an opinion on Grapevine editorial policy, had no right to use her position to threaten a withdrawal of advertising.” There were no consequences for Schuster, and they did not resign as they should have. In publishing “Threats, Lies, and the Misuse of Public Funds” Team TIG had responded to a threat by Schuster, and had not criticized Gregson, Sam Borthwick, or DIBS. The members of Team TIG have always enthusiastically supported DIBS, and had offered sponsorship money to DIBS, an offer that has received no response for 2 years, and still a standing offer.

Why was Van Santvoord served the ignominious consequence of being fired from the DW Board, and his job managing the visitdenmanisland.ca website? And why were the bylaws of DW ignored by Gregson in doing so? Van Santvoord wasn’t offered the opportunity to speak with the DW Board prior to a vote to remove him as is required, nor has he ever been offered an explanation from Gregson and the DW Board for these dismissals. Mike Van Santvoord did nothing wrong, or in contravention of DW or its bylaws. His positions must be fully restored as a result of any fair and just review of the facts.

In last week’s TIG, we published “The Hoarders of Virtue” to highlight the lack of transparency and accountability in the publicly funded domain. DW stopped publishing their meeting minutes in 2018, and Gregson is serving as Chair past his 4 year term limit, “at the pleasure of the Board”, as described in Agenda item No.5, a Special Resolution of the unpublished agenda and general meeting minutes from just prior to DW’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), in March of 2023.

DW and Gregson have not made a sincere effort to communicate publicly with Denman residents, and actively recruit his replacement by publicizing the need for renewal of DW’s Board. This was recently foolishly described by a DW member on Denman social media as “begging and pleading” and as a “thankless job”, even while the DW “working chair” is a paid position. While only Board members Gregson and Van Santvoord attended the AGM, the other Board members were recorded as absent. As Denman residents, DW members Sharon Clarke, Bill Engleson, and Pam Willis attended the AGM meeting by Zoom call, to constitute a voting quorum. On August 10, 2023, Van Santvoord replied to Gregson’s notices of dismissal with,

“Nothing related to my position as a Director or Board member of DenmanWorks was employed in anything to do with my private business.” and, “I am not required to discuss my private business with you. It is your conflict of interest that you have seen fit to remove me from the Board on false and fraudulent grounds.” As Team TIG has previously reported, Schuster admitted to covertly acting alone, having not shared their threatening correspondence to TIG with Gregson, Borthwick, or the DIBS Committee. Gregson replied on August 16, 2023 to Van Santvoord with,

“The board may proceed as it sees fit. You are not entitled to a hearing nor is a special meeting of members required.” and, “There is nothing about “cause” in the contract for VDW (visitdenmanisland.ca website). The contract simply says that the contract can be terminated on 14 days notice at any time”, ignoring B.C. Labour laws pertaining to wrongful dismissal. Previous offers and attempts to settle these matters privately have been rebuffed

We are demanding both a full and transparent public accountability for the wrongful dismissals, and the complete restoration of Van Santvoord’s positions on the DW Board, and managing visitdenmanisland.ca, followed by a thorough public apology by Anthony Gregson and his resignation as DW Chair. Gregson’s actions have caused TIG and its contributors damages to reputation and loss of income, and TIG will be looking to be compensated for these damages, should Van Santvoord and TIG not be served an honest and just resolution to these matters from Gregson, and the DW Board, Ember Hutchens, Robert Newton, Julie Geremia, Caitlin Fogarty, and Laura Pope.

Ima’s Kitchen Updates

December 14, 2023

We just got informed that Bronwynne’s shoulder surgery will take place on January 8th. We have three baking weekends (Friday baking and farmers market) left until then. We will be baking on the following days :

—December 15th and 22nd

—January 5th.

If there is enough demand for stocking up on bread, we will look into adding a midweek baking day throughout this time. Also stay tuned for pop up evenings (pizza, falafel..)

After Bronwynne’s surgery, rehab will take 3-5 months during which she will not be able to work. For the first month yogi will be off work as well in order to assist in all the day to day tasks around the house and to make sure her recovery goes as smoothly as possible! After that, we have made plans for some friends and family members to come help yogi run the bakery and ice cream production to some extent in order to make income!

We are not as yet sure what our business will look like over 2024 but will keep you updated as we navigate this challenging chapter of our life!

We would like to thank you all, again and again, for your support throughout our years on island and look forward to whatever comes next, and are excited to keep making your tummies happy!!

Take care, from Bronwynne, Yogi, and June

Help Us Re-Build for the Future

December 14, 2023

DS&MS

Denman Seniors and Museum Society

denmanactivitycentre.ca

Help Us Re-Build for the Future

A Year-End Message from the Denman Seniors and Museum Society

To Our Denman Community:

The Denman Seniors and Museum Society is a registered charity that runs the Denman Activity Centre and the adjacent Denman Island Museum. The Centre contains a fitness centre, lounge and gymnasium. It is a busy hub where people play pickleball, badminton, and table tennis, attend fitness classes, and participate in community events such as the Remembrance Day ceremony.

The facilities are available for rent and host everything from the famous Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival to individual celebrations of life to weekly meetings for a number of groups. Most recently, the gymnasium and lounge were used – along with the Denman Community Hall – for the popular Denman Island Christmas Craft Faire. This year’s event attracted hundreds of visitors who patronized both local craftspeople and Denman Island businesses.

The Museum saw an increase in visitors and local residents this past summer. You couldn’t miss the huge beach garbage monster created by Liz Johnston that towered over the Museum entrance, along with Jean Coburn’s beautiful shell-based dress, and Helen Mason’s dress made entirely from cigarette lighters that had washed up on our beaches. Thanks to the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS) who provided the guest summer display. Guests also enjoyed a presentation by Andrew Fyson, in which he described his circumnavigation of Denman Island, and generously donated a copy of his book.

August 31 marked the end of the fiscal year for the Denman Senior and Museum Society and it marked our first full year of post COVID-restricted operations.

That happy milestone was marred just a month later when we experienced a serious leak in the large roof over the fitness centre and gymnasium. In addition to our planned replacement of the museum roof, we now had to replace the roof of the gym on an emergency basis. This required us to deplete our reserves, which had been set aside for future major projects such as replacing the roof of the lounge and renovating the washrooms.

We now need to re-build our capital reserves in case of another emergency and also to enable us to maintain our building on an ongoing basis.

This building plays an important role in serving the social, recreational, cultural and economic needs of our community members – of all ages. We therefore ask you to consider playing a role in maintaining this valuable community asset. You can do so by making a tax-deductible donation to the Denman Seniors and Museum Society.

To make a donation you may:

Mail a cheque to Denman Seniors and Museum Society at Box 28, Denman Island, B.C., V0R 1T0
Drop off your donation in the mail slot of the office door
Send an e-transfer to dsmsbookkeeper@gmail.com
Make an online donation through CanadaHelps.org

Salt in our Tears

December 14, 2023

When I wrote “Soul in a Bowl” a few weeks ago, I spoke of how simple are the ingredients for bread and then reeled them off. Only after publishing the piece in The Grapevine did I realize I’d neglected to include the salt. Oh my, the salt. I dismissed it at first, rationalizing that bread- makers just know that salt is an essential ingredient, but that tiny omission has continued to bug me.

What would bread be without salt? What would our world be without our tears?

We take pains to revere the sweet – sweet talk, sweet food, sweet rides, sweet times. We value the sweet. When have we ever heard: “Oh that was so salty of you to say that or do that”? We seem to be a culture addicted to the sweet, be it found in our ice cream or our narratives. We want things to be nice, to be good, to be happy. We don’t want pain or sadness to get in the way of the sweet times. Even more so during the Christmas season.

Salt is underrated. It’s true that too much salt, like too much sweet, is not a good thing.

We react against an overdose, our bodies reject it. Hearing the stories of health workers under siege in Gazan hospitals drinking intravenous solutions because they had no water to drink makes us cringe, knowing that IV fluids are saline solutions. We are not built to drink salt water.

Yet, salt is an essential part of our lives, and to me, it’s a good metaphor for the complex mix of life today. Like salt in our bread, inclusion of the painful aspects of existence is a necessary part of “full catastrophe living” (Jon kabat-Zinn).

Every day right now brings fresh tears, salty tears. Hearing that Christmas is cancelled in Bethlehem, the very home of Christmas, is a good reminder that this is not an ordinary year. We are witnessing ethnic cleansing in Gaza which is within the State of Israel. And we are witnessing a real genocide – not a “possible genocide” – facilitated by the US, unfolding before our very eyes. And yet our western media are mainly focused on excoriating the Mayor of Calgary because she refused to join a Hanukah candle-lighting ceremony that became recast as a “pro-Israel” event. (It is not lost on me that she is a woman, and a woman of colour at that.) Or publicly hammering the (again, women) Presidents of Harvard, MIT & Penn who got caught by a congressional committee in a trick question surrounding the Palestinian peace & justice slogan “From the River to the Sea”. The mendacious idea of naming that a call for genocide of Jews distracts from the real genocide on Palestinians in Gaza. The framing of all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic continues, as does the smokescreen of vilifying people for not condemning Hamas atrocities “enough”. I don’t like Hamas or what Hamas did on October 7^th. Journalist Jonathan Cook calls it “a slave revolt”. ALL warfare includes atrocities; ALL murder is bad; ALL lives have equal value. But for Israel and its supporters, all lives apparently are not of equal value, considering the vastly disproportionate number of people killed so far in revenge for October 7^th. How many is “enough” to compensate?

Weeping for the dead and injured is a normal human reaction. If we stop shedding tears for the more than 18,000 Palestinians killed so far in the mad rampage on Gaza right now, if we don’t shed tears for the 1,200 killed October 7^th and the hostages held in Israeli prisons and in Gaza, we lose a precious bit of our humanity. If we look away, knowing what we know, in favour of keeping things upbeat, “don’t bring anybody down”, we also kill off a part of ourselves.

Part of being fully human and having well-being in our dark blue world (Elizabeth Fischer, may she rest in peace) is being able to hold a whole range of emotions, and not be engulfed by them. It is to move away from blaming, denying, excusing, justifying, rationalizing, and instead, facing reality.

For the sake of our children, we need to try to make sense of insane militarism on our own time. Children aren’t equipped to hold the kind of grief a true reckoning stirs up. Because of our privilege, the accident of our birth and where we reside, it’s incumbent upon us to appreciate and be thankful for the immense natural beauty that surrounds us, especially at this time of Solstice, to be grateful for the safety & relative security of our families & communities, and for our very real freedoms compared to so many others.

And we can deepen our humanity by opening our hearts to the suffering in Gaza right now and taking action to demand an end to the killing and the beginning of the hard but necessary work of finding a way through to justice and peace. This we can do. Yes, there are Christmas lights to put up, baking to do, many distractions to keep us ever so busy, but can we not spare a few minutes each day to write/call/petition/protest our government and its complicity in ethnic cleansing, its cowardice at the UN? To truly savour life’s sweetness, we need to honour and include the salt. After all, Christmas is cancelled in Bethlehem.

Only Truth And Clear Seeing Can Lead Us To Peace And Harmony

December 14, 2023

DEC 9, 2023

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

The Independent has an article out titled “Inside a southern Gaza hospital: Screaming orphaned children, amputee toddlers and the stench of rotting flesh,” which begins as follows:

“A badly burned toddler screaming for the mother he doesn’t know is dead — and screaming because doctors do not have enough painkillers to relieve his suffering. An eight-year-old boy whose brain is exposed as bombing damaged parts of his skull. A teenage girl, her eye surgically removed, because every bone in her face is smashed. A three-year-old double amputee, whose severed limbs are laid out in a pink box beside him.

“And in the background is the stench of rotting flesh as maggots ‘creep out of untreated wounds’.”

These horrors are all caused by a genocidal onslaught that is being backed to the hilt by the US government, who just single-handedly blocked a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire to end this nightmare. Instead of focusing on the unfathomable depravity of all this, Americans are being propagandized into worrying about a completely fictional epidemic of university demonstrators chanting for the genocide of Jews.

But for all the efforts to spin, justify and distract from the mass atrocity Israel and its allies are perpetrating in Gaza, more and more people are opening their eyes to what’s happening, and are ceasing to fall for the propaganda any longer.

This is largely because for the last two months the horrific images described in text by The Independent have been cascading down our social media feeds in jarringly graphic photos and videos. Those who’ve only been peripherally aware of Israel’s actions in Gaza may find those descriptions astonishing, but for anyone who’s been following the Gaza massacre it’s just a verbal description of what we’ve been looking at since October.

It’s much, much harder to propagandize the public into accepting military atrocities when they have decent visibility into how those atrocities are actually manifesting as they inflict themselves on human flesh. In an age where photos and videos of events can go viral within minutes of their occurrence, and in an area where it’s still possible to upload some footage onto social media, it’s far more difficult to persuade people to believe this is anything other than what it is.

If everyone on earth could really truly see what’s happening in Gaza, and actually viscerally grasp and appreciate what they were seeing, the killing would end tomorrow. It would end tomorrow because the entire world would force an end to it by any means necessary. These atrocities would no longer be tolerable by humanity’s collective consciousness once they had been fully seen.

And really all of humanity’s problems are like this. If everyone could really see and deeply comprehend how horrific war is, war and militarism would end immediately. If everyone could really see and deeply comprehend how insane and self-destructive ecocide is, ecocide would end immediately. If everyone could really see and deeply comprehend the horrors of poverty, abusive prison systems, police brutality and institutional injustice, these things would no longer be permitted to exist in our society.

Seeing is all that’s required for humanity to begin moving out of dysfunctionality and towards health. That’s true regardless of what scale of humanity you’re talking about, from the largest problems of global civilization right down to the subtlest dysfunctionality in the inner processes of the individual. Once enough seeing has happened, the dysfunctionality cannot continue.

Corruption and malfeasance doesn’t stop until it has been exposed to the public. Abuse doesn’t stop until the abusiveness has been clearly seen for what it is and brought to an end. Addiction and other self-destructive behavior patterns don’t abate until the inner dynamics which drive them have been brought into consciousness and seen clearly. Self-realization only occurs when there’s been a clear seeing into the nature of awareness and perception.

Seeing is crucial to ending dysfunction at every scale of human life. That’s why Julian Assange figured that the best way to help the world would be to find a way to make it easier for the public to see what’s going on behind the veils of secrecy that the powerful enshroud themselves with, and that’s why Assange is now currently in prison. Those who want more health and harmony are always trying to find ways to make things more seen, while those who want to preserve the status quo of domination and dysfunction are always trying to keep things hidden.

In this sense we actually are kind of looking at a struggle between light and darkness, because there is an ongoing battle between the impulses within our species to make things seen and the impulses to make things unseen. On one side you have real journalism, true education, authentic activism and dedicated inner work trying to bring the unseen into the light of awareness, and on the other side you have government secrecy, censorship, propaganda, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation and the war on journalism trying to obstruct and obfuscate the truth from the public eye. Those who desire peace, health and harmony will always find themselves on the former side, while those who desire domination, destruction and exploitation always find themselves on the latter.

That’s why Israel has been systematically exterminating journalists, artists and academics in Gaza, and why it tries to restrict internet access and communications as much as it can get away with. It’s why the US empire is imprisoning Julian Assange and continually working to control what information the public sees online while hiding a tremendous amount of its activities behind government classification. It’s why the abusive husband works to isolate his wife from her friends and family and tells anyone who says anything about his abusiveness that it’s none of their business. It’s why when we sit in meditation there are forces within us which squirm and flail around rather than allow stillness and inner clarity to set in. Humanity is in a constant struggle with itself — between staying hidden and becoming a truly conscious species.

But we can’t hide from ourselves forever. Already more and more cracks in the walls are appearing, and the light is streaming in through them. The aspects of our species which want to remain hidden are leaving fingernail marks on the floor as the aspects of ourselves which want to be seen are dragging them kicking and screaming into the light of consciousness.

There can only be one winner in this fight. We’ll either become a conscious species that is guided by truth and lucid understanding or we’ll kill ourselves by nuclear war or climate catastrophe in our frantic efforts to remain hidden. Either way, the tower of lies and secrets is coming tumbling down eventually.

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.