The Safety Illusion

Life as a social and political activist has taught me many things.

One thing I have come to believe is that the idea of Security and Safety is just another problem of perception.

You will be protected by brute force as long as you do as you are told, AND are lucky enough to always be in the right place at the right time. If those things do not define you, my advice is to have a plan and get some skills.
Don't wait for something fucked up to happen before you do this.

Adopt a Security Culture

What behavior theatens security? This is something to be aware of personally and interpersonally. We must learn to See the Seeds of Violence, and do not allow them to flower. In the mass protest arena, this is something that is likely to erupt, as facing the violence of the police culture is exactly what you are organizing to do. In the family or community relationship it can be much more difficult to get clear on. Emotion is high, but the stakes are different.

Know what behaviors will compromise security and be responsible for educating anyone who acts in a way that violates or threatens security. When all members of a group understand security and correct mistakes, unsecure behavior becomes unacceptable and will stop. Dealing with infiltrators will be much easier when the collective voice is in harmony.

People who gossip, egotistically rant, project or ask for unnecessary information about activities are a severe danger to temproray autonomous zones and the anarchist ideal of security. If this happens, this person can be taken aside and gently educated in private about what danger their behavior brings.

Be careful not to preach, injure pride, or raise defensiveness, this will likely keep them from being able to accept your well meaning advise. Likewise, if someone comes to you about a behavior you have that was disruptive, disturbing, or offensive, listen to their concerns! Perhaps it's time to check yourself! We are all here to learn from each other. We must be willing to accept others for their best behavior and trust them to do the same for us.

I want to find those people who I know and trust enough to feel safe with.
They are everywhere, everyone.



"When you perceive some distance between you and what you observe, do notice in this distance the lack of love, and know that, without love, however hard you'd try to reformulate the world, to set a new social order, or to talk about progress, you will create only conflicts. All this is between your hands. »
-j. Krishnamurti

fragile

she was an old woman. someone who had probably lived a very full life, and had been well cared for. she was quite obese, with a history of various cardiac and vascular disease related issues.

The probable cause of death was MI, a 'heart-attack'. She fell at home about 2 weeks after having a stroke, and then had died in the ER.

Deeply, and without hesitation, he just sliced through the skin around her breasts, down the middle, then across her hips. Peeling back mounds of skin and fat exposed her chest bones and muscles. "She's had some open heart surgery" as was evidenced by the steel sutures in her sternum. Then he brought out these ...snippers.., and starting at the bottom of her ribs, cut out a square through to her collarbones, an entry into the cavity of her body. The organs were all laid out still in the sacs of connective tissue and surrounding fat, but now accessible.

He took the heart out first. A large gush of blood streaming from where the aorta had been clipped. Somehow this fluid filling the space in her chest seemed to possess some kind of vital energy, like the life-force, or the spark or whatever it is, that keeps us whole and alive. If was if it had simply retreated into this inner space to condense. We examined the vessels, then the lungs, which were blackened- a result of living a full life in an industrialized country-. Each organ was removed, stripped out of it's fatty casing and weighed. -Spleen, Pancreas, Kidneys, Uterus. The pathologist took a sample piece from each one in a place he thought would give some sign or a true diagnosis upon microscope examination. Determining The Cause of Death, and then he threw the remainder into a bucket.

When the bone saw came out and it was time to take out the brain, we all had to leave the room, including the pathologist. The reason we all gave was that we didn't want to inhale the bone-dust. Right. I wondered how the tech who was doing the sawing felt in there. Alone and sawing open an old womans skull. I am generally quite empathetic, but I had great difficulting with this stretch of emotional imagination.

When we re-entered the chamber, and the scalp was peeled back from the head, covering her face, it was such a relief. Not having to look at her facial features removed much of the tension from the experience. We were able to hold the brain, a three pound, infinitely complex, ball of fat. Networks of thought encapuslated in membranes and holding the inaccessible thing that was, only 24 hours previously, the solid segment of this womans personality.

This is just description, so much of what I think I learned is still liminal. So many of my questions right now existentially silly. but thats where I'm at with my recent experience. I feel very fortunate, and very fragile.

finally a form that fits.

Hello

My name is
Tineke

My gender is

adult, agender, ambisexual, androgyne, autogynephiliac, biogirl, bisensual, boigirl, both, butch-ish, complex, creature, crossdresser, cuddly, curious, cute, different, differently-gendered, dominant, dork, drag prince, eyeliner fag, fourth gender, freak, friend, gender anarchist, gender outlaw, gender pirate, genderbent, genderfuck, genderqueer, girlboi, girlfag, god, goddess, grrlboi, grrlydyke, gyrl, homo, homoemotional, homovestite, individual, not sure of others, nymphomaniac, obsessed, other-gendered, peopleemotional, peoplesexual, queer dyke, queergendered, recreational gender blender, royal, sacred whore, same gender loving, sapiosexual, self-defined, sex positive, sexy, sexy muthafucka, shaman, shapeshifter, sir, slave, slinky minx, slut, snuggly, spiritual, starfucker, stealth, straight?, twin-spirit, twink, versatile, wannabe, wench, whatever, who cares, witch, wizard, woman, womyn, YES!, yestergay

what's yours?

http://www.kreativekorp.com/miscpages/gender/gender.pl