The Velvet Hammer

This young woman speaks for our planet and for future generations better than any politician, any company personnel, and media type. Anyone.

I am a story teller. It is an ancient art. I have three stories about Cleveland. Because I am a woman, I tell three.

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Well, it looks like "Just Say No" has failed. I am flabbergasted. I really thought that no meant no. Looks like it was another don't ask, don't tell approach to life, a head in the sand behavior, an overwhelming boon to humankind.

One in four sexually active teens has a sexually transmitted disease. Over 70% of reported chlamydia infections and nearly 60% of gonorrhea cases are in young people from ages 15 to 24. A steady number of these infections happen to preteens, with some as young as 10. Every year 3 million teens get a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD).

Girls represent a majority of the cases and black youth have the highest infection rates. Although the infections are easily treated with antibiotics, they are usually not tested nor treated. STDs leave youth more susceptible to more serious diseases like HIV/AIDS. In fact the cases of HIV/AIDS in youth from 15 to 24 has more than doubled.

25% of teen girls between the ages of 14 and 19 have at least one sexually transmitted disease, usually Chlamydia or Gonorrhea.

Chlamydia is caused by a bacteria which can be treated with $10 worth of antibiotics. (Unless pharma monopolies have jacked up the prices.) Often there are no symptoms at all. Chalamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. Untreated mothers can pass it on to infants, causing complications. Chlamydia is more common among teens than older men and women.

Gonorrhea is caused by a bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. Boys may have a painful discharge and swollen testicles. Often girls show no symptoms while others have painful urination and discharge. Many infected mothers pass it on to infants, who can go blind or suffer other complications. Teens have higher rates of gonorrhea than sexually active men and women 20-44.

Some studies show that 15% of sexually active teenage girls are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), many with the type of HPV that is linked to cervical cancer.

Young Americans ages of 13 to 24 are still contracting HIV at the rate of two per hour.

Let's talk about sex. Here's a winning video to start with:

http://www.dogooder.tv/freshfocusvideocontest/isisMovies.aspx

Sometimes, reading the bad news, you can toughen up until you are nearly a Droid. Self protection. I am a flip-flop Gemini entity. I am hard as nails and soft as butter. Sometimes I scream. Sometimes I rant. Sometimes I threaten. Sometimes I cry.

It is the ability of the heart to open... It is the ability of the eye to cry salt water - like the oceans - and wash the feelings clean again. I once was a "magical" leader. I found it, like nearly every other religion, to be too egocentric to feed my feelings...my deep, deep feelings. And that lead me to atheism. I cling now to needing to do the right thing here and now. There is no heaven nor hell to reward nor punish me. Only my own thoughts and feelings and deeds. I live better in my own skin for this.

Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I am a snot-nosed weeping thing and it is only at those moments - among perhaps other pure love events - that I feel human again.

I don't ever want to stop crying.

Here in Cleveland they just love their fireworks. This does not mean the displays put on by professionals with safety factors. This means quarter sticks of dynamite blown up in the streets openly and in any back yard. Tonight it is going to sound like Iraq. We have our own homegrown terrorists. Living with these people in the abandoned inner city of Cleveland is just like being the magician's assistant on a spinning wheel blindfolded while the knives go whizzing by. The only difference is all these people are drunk or drugged up amateurs. Lots of people are going to get hurt and a few will die. We've had an average of 3-5 murders every day lately. Why can't we just get along? So it only makes sense to celebrate this fucked up country with more explosives, weapons and violence. That's how we came in.

We had our mail box (metal) blown to smithereens. I still have it in our basement as part of our 4th of July history. The kid/man who did it 10 years ago still walks around every day.

His parents are big pot dealers. The police know it. They know all the drug houses. They would rather harrass gay people and people who are transgendered like my husband. One 2nd District policeman threatened my husband's life publicly. That happens to be a felony. That is the caliber of our protection. We've had one of our cats shot.

So this 4th we are hiding behind mirrored film on every window with metal mesh protecting the windows (which have been shot at many times and broken.) The cats never go out.

We try never to go out. We've got ear plugs and a sawed off metal baseball bat right by the front door. That's how you live in Cleveland unless you are a criminal (and, sadly, that includes the politicians, police and some firefighters.) This year we are seasoned. We are ready. Bombs bursting in air - just like in our horrid war-packed national anthem - all over the hood.

What I would really like for this Independence Day is Impeachment. Impeach Bush for Independence Day! Give me Liberty or Give me Death!

Here is a Youtube video by one of the handful of politicians who remember why they are on the Hill.

Dennis Kucinich: Independence Day: Let Us Remember Who We Are

http://russellmeansfreedom.com/

In December of 2007, the Lakotah people, under Article 6 of the Constitution, unilaterally withdrew from all Treaties in a Plebecite/Referendum for Sovereignty and Freedom. Russell Mean is running for President of the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation on November 4, 2008.

According to White Man's law, the Lakotah People are required to elect a new President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Note that "Sioux" is a word that is not in the Lakotah language. It also happens to translate as "enemy." There will be a petition among non-voters will follow to determine the total number of People who want Freedom.

The future independent Lakotah Nation:

Do the Oglala Lakotah want to continue living under Colonial Apartheid rule and in worse than third world conditions? Or do the Oglala Lakotah want to control their destiny by choosing freedom, responsibility and prosperity?

Russell Means working with all Governments; Tribal, City, County, State, and Federal!
Russell Means no Confrontations!
Russell Means the return of the Black Hills National Forest to Lakotah!
Russell Means the return National Grasslands to Lakotah!
RUSSELL MEANS FREEDOM!!!

Russell Means Freedom is his slogan. When Columbus invaded this land and began the genocide which has never stopped of the Indigenous People, he thought he had landed in India. Thus the term Indians for these people. Sheer stupidity. The genocide continued during the time of the "Wild West" with the massacre at Wounded Knee. It was also at Wounded Knee that Annie Mae Aquash was murdered by a sold-out "Indian" and Leonard Peltier was falsely imprisoned (for more than 30 years now) as a Sacrifice for the death of two FBI agents who attacked an Elder's homestead. It has been far too long since a First People have had their Freedom. This is not the land of the free and the brave. That is a lie.

Mitaku Oyasin...
(We are all related)

I am only a small part Lakotah, several generations past, but I feel the beauty of my people and I am one with them.

A Lakotah Lullaby

Let my People go.