SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 MAKING CHANGE Work for peace My last article on labor power is the mother of this article. Working for peace is the most important job before us. Once we understand the responsibility we share in the use of our labor power we can begin the shift from compliance to love. Compliance is based on a social norm we have inherited as a treasure of sins and blessings, as my article “The Healing of our ancestors” attempts to clarify. Our heritage needs the awareness of mindfulness in all its forms as we honor the blessings and atone for our sins. The main sin of the colonial and now imperialist epoch is supremacism. The belief in sex or race as markers for supremacism has morphed into fascism. We now see power and wealth as the final phase of supremacism. It is expressed in the corporate state as the exclusive tool of wealth and power and its innate right to concentrate wealth and power into an ever smaller minority. The dominant ideology presents the ruling class as the most important VANESSA from page 11 are they calling the police now? How does that make sense? It’s like why can't you just look the other way? I'm not barbecuing you know? I'm not making a scene.” I questioned Vanessa about finding employment. She told me “I'm working with Corn Williams and Kat Layton at the LEAF (Liberation Empathy Advocacy for the Future) headquarters. I help a team make sure that the homeless in the area have support. They come in looking for something to eat or someone to talk to. I sit with them and keep them company or maybe help people find clothing or other things.” “So are they employing you?” I queried. “Well, they're not giving me money." She replied. “It’s mutual aid. You help take care of people, they help take care of you. When you're doing your part in the community; when you're helping take care of everybody, that’s work. “But it doesn’t stop there,” Vanessa added, "Motherhood is work too, with Miracle, it's a full-time job.” Finding work when you’re already homeless is challenging. No address to put on paperwork, no shower or laundry to be presentable during an interview, the unstable environment of being transient makes it hard to schedule appointments or find transportation. Vanessa’s barrier to employment also includes finding affordable childcare. Being expected to get back at the Gutenberg Project for the best written translations of this oral work. The Great Law of Peace, an agreeKEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 player which also presents wage slavery and debt slavery as inevitable. It will take study and meditation to understand who we are in our quest for freedom and take the next step in the right direction. This is the work of peace. Homo sapiens have used violence to bolster the different kinds of supremacism from the time of written history. Preliterate violence existed but at a much smaller scale. The book “Tales of the Mabinogian” tells stories of this shift from the Welsh perspective. Look on your feet by “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” while taking care of a child is insane. Vanessa is trying to support the community that is helping her, but the community where she keeps her tent, that she also helps take care of, is telling her to move on down the road. What if instead of writing on the card “can’t camp here, private property” the card said “call us, we have a job and an apartment for you.” Pittsfield Township could hire Vanessa to work in park maintenance. Glencoe could offer her a job and provide an apartment. These agencies are so close to doing the right thing, but all they can come up with is “can’t camp here, private property”. Not even enough decency to write in complete sentences. Last question: “If you could get a free ride to Eastern Michigan University, what would you study?” “I would study criminal justice,” she replied without hesitating. “Why's that?” I inquired. “Man," she said with emphasis, “to lock up all the politicians.” “And why is that?” I pressed. Vanessa opened up, “I just feel like they are being corrupt, the damn city of Ypsilanti is being corrupt, It's like they only give certain people Section 8. Like they are doing favoritism with housing. And it needs to be cleaned up, just like the city of Detroit. I see them, but do they see me? We'll see if anyone is gonna help.” ment to end warfare and begin the Iroquois confederacy, gives us a sense of preliterate homo sapiens. We can choose what kind of humans we want to be. This is a lifelong journey that begins with intention. Are you ready for the whole truth or just enough to feel special? The temptation of American exceptionalism is strong as people want an undisturbed comfort zone. Impermanence inevitably breaks through and new forms of suffering arise. We all know love is the answer but are watching a genocide in progress. There is sociological research that indicates 3.5 percent awareness on any issue results in a tipping point of social change. “The Emperor has no clothes” moment is coming. The show cannot go on. The stage will open for the era of peace on a broader scale than we could have imagined during the age of genocide which is still playing out. The shift to peace was present at the Makeshift Gallery Art Gallery on 407 Liberty on Sunday, August 24, 2025. The Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice is coming alive at a new level. Some of us went to the Labor Day march in Detroit on September 1. If you went you probably got a flyer on the call for a national anti-fascist conference. Every Friday there is a peace vigil by the post office at Fifth and Liberty from 6 to 7 p.m. On Thursday there is a Palestine vigil. International Day of Peace is September 21. Ann Arbor Community Commons is active with that “Dancing in the Street” celebration. Veterans for Peace annual celebration at the Ark is on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025. Keep your eyes and mind open and help the shift to peace as a way of life. Breathe with the all good expanse of primordial purity and come more fully alive. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 One day after returning home to camp, King found a Pittsfield Police business card on her tent. It said, "Can't camp here. Private Property of Glencoe.”
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