​I cannot live in this country without taking a stand against the greed of corporations that profit off of mass murder. 

As more murders, fueled by racism, sexism, gender violence, and pure hatred, happen every day, I am reminded of the profits made by politicians, consultants, corporations and gun manufacturers and distributors who don't give a shit about the people, but instead intend to promote a culture of death.

As a family member of three opioid addicts, may they rest in peace, I am constantly reminded of their suffering when I see those who are struggling in my neighborhood and community. When I see people who are homeless and addicted, from Portland to LA, Maine to Florida, I see the faces of my family. As the opioid crisis expands, it is unfortunately growing in all working class demographics, including Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. Despite some recent settlements requiring corporations to pay sums that could never match up to the death and destruction they caused, there is no slow down in opioid-related deaths or distribution of opioids, and Fentanyl is on the rise.

Meanwhile, Big Plastics, my name for the network of corporations that produce and promote plastics, continue to produce Earth-destroying products and packaging at rates that far exceed our ability to recycle. Meanwhile, we can't even outsource our masses of plastic material to China. It's too much.

Mass incarceration, including both prisons operated with tax dollars, private prisons, and ICE detention centers represent the nexus between corporate greed, racial hatred, environmental terrorism, the opioid crisis, a culture that promotes violence, and the repressive policies of the United States Government. The United States is imprisoning more people than any other country in the world, industrializing repression of the working class and dis-proportionally incarcerating Black, Latinx, and Native American people while a multitude of corporations and individuals leach every bit of profit they can from our collective repression.

The bread and butter issues in society right now are how we are going to deal with hatred, racism, mass murder, and corporations that intend to kill and imprison the working class as part of their strategy to profit themselves.

We must prepare ourselves for collective action. Collective action means the people coming together to demand change. The time is coming for a massive, national action that will be historic and profound. The time is now to change our focus from hyper-consumption to reducing waste, from serving ourselves to serving one another, from investing in material objects to investing in our children. The time is now to stop the distraction and denial. The time is now to fight back.

Photo by Kay Boyd

​I admit that I struggle between aspects of my deeper cultural self, wherein lies a battle between Deep Earth Celtic woman, mother, & elder-goddess centered spirituality and the message of Jesus Christ, which was brought to my people through bloodshed and domination by the Catholic Church, but also through early radical Christian communities that were deeply socialist and even communist, including artistic monks who interpreted their old Serpentine religion into a reading of early scripture called The Book of Kells. 

It is also not at all a fantasy to remember an association to the image of the sweeping woman, the true Peasant Goddess, not a magic woman at all, but one deeply connected to healing and to food and to community, to one so Loving that she was a danger to all institutions because no institution can be more powerful than the Mother.

No Queen can claim the loyalty of the Mother over her sons and daughters, nor anyone she has truly fed. 

But you don't hear me, though. If you are overwhelmed, as I sometimes am, by a seemingly perpetual drone of hatred and of violence, of capital and of waste, I ask you to join me in acknowledging that horrible ongoing din as the wreckage we are swimming in, but also, conversely, the scream of the Mother to her child, a voice that constantly wails: we must come closer to our Mothers and the Mothers must come closer to one another, for coming through the Mothers is the only way out of the mess we are in.

And we must not forget that the sweeping woman (whether she sweeps the hearth, the sky, or the Ocean, the archetype exists in working class culture all over the world, in Africa, The Americas, Asia and the Pacific Islands, And Europe). She is in the Caribbean and she is in Ireland; she is in West Europe and in West Africa. She emerges from both with different features, but in all she exists as a warrior against the demons that impact the working class.

 I shall not apply my meaning to a description of her deeper purpose in cultures other than my own, but to my knowledge, she sings and dances, she cleans, and in her own way she fights, for the broom has two sides, one for sweeping, and the other, the handle of the broom, the powerful wand with which she may choose to fight. And of course, we know SHE RIDES, representing the sexually liberated woman, the ultimate threat to patriarchy and gender oppression.

In the Celtic tradition, this sweeping woman knows so much more than how to fly by night. She knows seeds, berries, the fruits of the forest, broths, the timing of the natural world, and she also knows city, trade, politics, birth, death, and community. Her knowledge directly threatens institutions because her power cannot be controlled, monetized, captured. She refuses to be authenticated. She certifies herself. She is willing to burn. When the flames come, the night brightens. Again, she flies.

And let's remember that the sweeping woman is also the mother, or can be. She is only depicted as the crone because they had to separate her from youth, the oppressive construct of beauty as youth, and sexuality. She is separated from her children for the same reason they separated her from the Christ image; they were too dangerous together, for together, they were stronger than capitalism, stronger than the falsehood of the church, stronger than money, stronger than gender, than age, and stronger than hate. 

And those who would judge me, ask yourselves once more, did not Jacob wrestle with the angel? Do you mistake Christ for the opposite of the Mother? Do you mistake Christ, in his humility, for a rule follower? In his pacifism, do you mistake him for weak? Could you open yourself to the reality that all description is language we use to try describe the reality of God, though most of us just sit here scratching our nails against the cavernous walls, hoping for that breakthrough? 

Could you open yourself to the reality that sweeping woman is still the representative of God--she who sweeps at Walmart, she who sweeps at Costco, she who sweeps at the mall, she who sweeps her classroom, she who sweeps her kitchen at night, the children in bed, she who sweeps is the real savior, and she who prays while she sweeps, the priest.

What is the role of the sweeping woman tonight, in the dusk of the steaming planet? Can she sweep away the parking lots, the single-use plastics, the Amazon of plastic packaging? Can she sweep away the hatred, the racism, the division? Can she aim her handle at the corrupt systems, while cleansing and preserving the sacred community? Can she plant the seeds of resistance? Can she still represent deeply-rooted Loving community? Can she still heal her suffering brothers and sisters, those already poisoned by the apocalypse? Can she fly tonight, powered by the sacred spirit? When she burns, will she still flicker in the night, will she flirt, once more, with the stars?

Photo by Kay Boyd

​Please let me be clear, I know its hard to hear each other in here sometimes. I am unfortunately not a pious creature. I am sometimes hot with anger and even fury. I struggle to remain peaceful amidst such injustice. There is a voice inside me that reminds me every day that the opioid crisis took down a large part of my family. And I do want to make one thing clear: I am not here to talk about compassion for white working class addicts. I'm here with a vengeance against the people, corporations and politicians, who profited from killing my family. I am here with the hard reminder that addiction is, in fact, also impacting the Black, Latinx, and Native American communities, and has for decades through harsher sentences in the system of mass incarceration. I am here to remember the 130 people who will die today from overdose or narcotics-related illnesses out loud.

I'm here to make the connection between the opioid crisis,  mass incarceration, the promotion of violence in society, the availability of deadly weapons, racism, the oppression of women, the separation of humanity from the Earth, and oppression of the working class.

I wake up with a lot on my mind, but I thank God for giving me this voice. One thing is for sure. I'm going to use it. 

​​
​As an artist, an activist, and as a woman who is deeply interested in plant medicine, as one who has studied, in depth, colonial domination and its impact on women and survivors of colonialism worldwide, I fully reject any church that seeks power, money, and property over community, as they are abusers of Christ. 

I reject any person or organization that attempts to use Christ as bait to achieve greater hierarchical power and control of the masses,

for the Christ that I am aware of was a rebel, an anarchistic protester of the Roman empire, a man willing to directly confront the early bankers by literally tipping over the tables of the money lenders. Jesus Christ was against hierarchy. He wished only to be associated with the poor. He spoke to the people about loving one another, but he protested the corrupt government, and that is why they crucified him. 

As I witness the corruption in our society right now, I refuse to stay silent as the politicians and corporate thieves, both descriptors of the current President, use the name of Jesus Christ to fool the people. 

No follower of Donald Trump is a follower of Jesus Christ.

No corporate executive who hungers for money can associate themself with Jesus Christ.

Any corporation that sells semi-automatic weapons is automatically working against Christ.

Any corporation that sells massive quantities of deadly, addictive opioids is a dealer of death and destruction of the working class, not a follower of Jesus Christ.

In the media, we often hear of "Christian Conservatives". I have yet to meet a conservative who was a follower of Christ, for Christ was about non-judgement, giving rather than hoarding, loving and community building among the people, not building hierarchical power and protecting murderers in the name of nationalism and personal gain.

In the name of my fallen family, in the name of all victims of gun violence and opioid death or mass incarceration, and in the name of the fallen Christ, do not call me a Christian. But call me any time if you want to feed people, love children, love one another, protest, and act in courage and resistance. I'll be right here.

Photo by Kay Boyd
Floral design by Susan Anglada Bartley

​As we confront the ugliness of hatred in the world right now, let's remember that Antifa (Anti-fascist) can and does mean non-violence.

Antifa is the seed of loving courage that blooms in a hateful world.

Antifa is the Atheist whose actions are more Christlike than the thieves who run the church.

Antifa is the walking, captured Christ who fell down and rose up again, but at no time hid or tried to escape.

Antifa is Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan, Hindu, Buddhist. Antifa is all four directions. Antifa is above and below.

Antifa is the flower's right to bloom. You can cut her down, but she left seeds that will continue to reach for the sky.

Antifa is both masked and unmasked. Antifa is the questions: aren't our faces masks for our spirits? Do we have a right to them? Can we take a moment to recognize the privilege in having a face?

Antifa is the fight for the world we believe possible. Antifa is public prayer. Antifa is the great sacrifice of the self for the community. Antifa is every time you tell the truth. 

Photo by Kay Boyd