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Political + Spiritual Imperatives for the Future: Strategies to Heal and Win

Healing Justice Lineages: Political + Spiritual Imperatives: Entry 2

This piece of Healing Justice was centered around building health and power for medical practitioners within the medical industrial complex. Practitioners may be the people that help cure you of illness when you’re sick, but they also have a lot on their plate possibly mentally or physically, maybe they’re fighting trauma or injustice themselves. It’s important that maybe the industry create confidential safe spaces for practitioners to discuss anything like their personal life all the way to challenges within the medical industrial complex that affect their life or work, maybe things that challenge their beliefs or ideas. For not following the beliefs of the medical industry, or supporting something that the industry does not, practitioners may lose their license or employment. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to have the freedom and creativity of your mind, just to live in a system that strips you of that natural right.

My first thought when reading this piece was that everyone is allowed to have their own thoughts and opinions, believe what they believe, and choose to support whatever they want, no matter their occupation, social status or anything else. The fact that a medical practitioner can lose their license or job because they support abolition practices is sickening and truly has nothing to do with their position in society or occupation status.

The link below is the story of Uche Blackstock and her experience in the medical industry, and why she quit. This story is about racial inequality for Black members of society, as well as the issue of general inequality and sexism in the medical industrial complex that she experienced first hand.

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Political + Spiritual Imperatives for the Future: We

Healing Justice Lineages: Political + Spiritual Imperatives: Entry 1

This section of the reading delves into a poem about the connection between present human beings, effects of change to our Earth, and remembrance. Vasquez is able to connect storytelling to the remembrance of who we are, and where we are from. At the beginning this piece we discuss the land and Earth as who we are and where we come from; and when reading further, Vasquez describes us human beings as many different things like: The students of pollinators, living libraries, sacred clowns and more. The one thing that we were described as that caught my eye the most was “Portals to the past” and “We are the Soil”. Vasquez’ point is, what will be possible in many futures to come because of our everlasting effort to remember and tell the stories of those before us.

I really liked this poem because of the positive way it described humans in correlation with storytelling. Most of all I loved how it connected us to our ancestors before us and Earth. I’ve always tried to stay connected to the environment, but I now realize that I don’t appreciate it the way I should, and I don’t use natural resources the way they are meant to be used. Especially after watching the video attached below, I think of soil in an entirely new way, and not just dirt, but the creation and sustainability of all life.

“That even if someday we can no longer grow what we need from the soil That we are still the soil That we are made from the earth, water, and air” (Tre Vasquez). I came across this video and it touched me deeply in a way that just feels so right about our planet, back to our roots from the very beginning of the first human being, and how we have changed since then, all through the discussion of soil.

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Alchemy: Theory + Praxis: Visioning Practice

Healing Justice Lineages: Alchemy: Entry 3

This part of the reading holds many “what if” questions to the topic of healing justice. Like what if we started these practices a long time ago, how would our society look today? What if everyone participated in these practices? This reading encourages you to imagine what life would be like today had more people become involved in healing justice teachings that started not recently but long ago. The last question leaves you to ponder what you would do starting now for twenty to fifty years into the future. These questions can be angering to ponder, as things today could be different if society let go of a traditional justice system long ago and embraced community.

This leads me to wonder if there would be less violence in our world, or more storytelling and remembrance. Would there be more spiritual practices and environmental healing? Would we appreciate what we have and value community more? These questions are important to think about as we enter into the future of the justice system. I believe that what we do today will affect future generations and improve our world. We NEED to ask ourselves and others these same questions about community, environment, rights, current practices and most of all, how we can always be changing and enhancing our world for cultures, land healing, ending generational trauma, and so much more.

This link will bring you to the Fireweed Collective website which will discuss their framework in healing justice and what the future can look like if we all participate in healing justice practices that corelate with crisis, trauma, liberation and more.

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Alchemy: Theory + Praxis: Healing by Choice!, Detroit (2015 – Present)

Healing Justice Lineages: Alchemy: Entry 2

Healing by Choice! is an organization made up of women and gender non-conforming people of color health and healing practitioners based in Detroit, Michigan. This group is based in believing in consent and agency; believing that all people know themselves best and they get to decide when and how they want to participate in healing. This group continues to grow and provide healing justice practices, events, and care movements. One phrase that is mentioned in this piece is when they say “everyone is an expert on their own experience”; I admire this way of thinking because it allows those who are traumatized or victimized to grow and find their own path to healing whenever there are ready, it gives them a sense of control in their life.

I really appreciate this reading as well as this organization. I believe that you can help people while also letting them have their own choices in the matter. There’s no time limit on freedom or liberation, and there’s no specific or right way to be free or liberated, especially from your own mind or surroundings. I think this organization is setting the perfect example in the healing justice movement for how to care for yourself and others, and to let it be known that there’s no right or wrong way to heal.

This link will take you to the Healing by Choice! website where you can learn more about what they do and get involved!

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Alchemy: Theory + Praxis: Environmental Justice

Healing Justice Lineages: Alchemy: Entry 1

The beginning of this reading of environmental justice focuses on reconnecting ourselves with the Earth and accepting diverse cultures as a part of our planet. This piece emphasizes respect for all cultures, languages and beliefs of the natural world. It also discusses that all land, animal and plant life are sacred, and the key reconnecting and embodying ourselves to Earth. The more that humans exploit and take advantage of natural resources, the more we steal from sacred land and traditions, as well as all natural life forms (plants, animals, etc.). Environmental justice in this setting is advocating for the protection of Earth and all its inhabitants; since colonization, we’ve ruined land by building on it and polluting, killed millions of plants, animals and human beings, and lost our way and respect for Earth. The latter half of this piece gives key examples of efforts made to protect Earth (Black organizers in North Carolina blocking toxic dumps in their neighborhoods, protecting sacred lands in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and farmers fighting mass pesticides sprayed in their fields).

I like to believe that I try protecting the environment just by picking up a wrapper or plastic bottle I see on the ground or saving water by taking short showers. But I know that will never be enough unless everyone on Earth does the same thing. Environmental justice is crucial to our future generations, and I think everyone should be conscious of the downfall of our environment and what we can do to change it.

For this interactive piece I chose a website on 25 tips to help you reduce your carbon footprint:

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Origins of Healing Justice: Storytelling Practice – Our Land, Work, Bodies, and Spirit

Healing Justice Lineages: Origins: Entry 2

This section of the reading encourages you to reflect individually or with others about aspects regarding the culture and spirit of your own community. This reading gives you the chance to discuss and tell your own story regarding the community you live in. There are four collective questions from this section, each one about the different factors that create community; One about conditions of the land, one about the economies, one about the bodies and identities and the final one about the spirits.

One of the questions is as follows: What are the conditions of the land in your community? What stories does the land hold that you want to remember to use for our collective survival and liberation?

The way I would ponder this question, is what the land like before urban development was and what have the consequences been on environmental health. Before Fort Collins, this land was home to many indigenous groups that valued culture and spirit to heal. Then it was inhabited by white settlers, and today this land is the city of Fort Collins, with no room for indigenous memory. We have to remember that we live on indigenous land and that we must honor ancestral tradition through storytelling. While there are other ways to answer this question, I thought it was best to mention indigenous peoples and how the impact of urban development has shed the tradition and memory of storytelling, as well as ripped the land of it’s original and spiritual state.

This video is a short TedTalk that brings to light the value of storytelling through the narrator’s ancestry and memories.

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Origins of Healing Justice: Fire in the Belly

Healing Justice Lineages: Origins: Entry 1

This chapter discusses the struggles and constant attempt at change in the South during the mid 2000’s. During this time, many BIPOC communities experienced power, as well as exhaustion and collective burnout. This chapter highlights the need for overall sustainable practices, as constantly organizing against the conservative backlash of that time caused many Queer, Trans and communities of color to become beaten down by these extreme efforts for change.

Within this chapter as well, the collective burnout signifies a larger aspect. When experiencing collective burnout, it’s like sharing generational trauma and not just going through it individually. And as communities come together and continue to fight for a better future, the structural oppression continues. Overall, it’s important to recognize individual and personal needs, while balancing sustainable activist practices. Challenging the oppression and stress of the modern day has always been a part of our world, however its important to create sustainability within the community so as not to feel burnout in your personal life.

I believe that no matter what you are involved in or choose to fight for, it’s vital that to continue the fight (stress, personal like, time challenges, oppression) you must organize and manage your life and your practices.

The link below will bring you to the Southern Cultural Treasures organization. This organization strives to provide financial capital and overall support to BIPOC led and serving arts and cultural groups in the South. The main mission of the SCT is to honor and acknowledge artistic expression in cultural organizations. You can also check out the many programs involved in the South arts and see what they’re about! (Music, Art, Dance, Instrumentals, etc.)

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Past: Toward a Healing Justice Future

Healing Justice Lineages: Past: Entry 3

The beginning of this reading dives into the historical injustices of the medical industrial complex by mentioning the targets such as disabled people, immigrants, intersex communities and more by explaining the idea of who is considered healthy or diseased. Another interesting topic discussed was the Anti-Asian period as a result of the Covid – 19 pandemic. In 2020, at the start of pandemic and still today, Chinese and other Asian communities received an immense amount of hate, violence and blame merely because of the origin of the pandemic.

This subsection of the book rounds out the systemic inequalities brought on by the Covid – 19 pandemics, as well as the rooted concepts of “healthy” and “diseased” that society lives by. This chapter merely challenges the medical industrial complex and it’s roots and ideas.

I believe that all people are experts on themselves and themselves only. While the Medical Industrial complex may label people as healthy and diseased, I think often times it can be beneficial to get a checkup just to make sure everything is ok biologically. However, I believe that different cultures have their own ways of handling the terms “healthy” and “diseased” and there should be no universal label on it.

To touch on the Anti – Asian time period, it’s crazy to think that an entire race could be shamed because of where a pandemic originated. It’s the same concept as when African refugees were hated for the spread of Ebola, as mentioned in Healing Justice.

Attached below is a link to an article from The Economist exhibiting a graph of discrimination since the 2020 pandemic began:

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Past: The Black Panther Party

Healing Justice Lineages: Past: Entry 2

This reading discusses the very beginning and formation of The Black Panther Party. The reason this Black founded and led organization came to be was solely for the purpose of black liberation and freedom in the United States. What started this Civil Rights Organization was the constant police brutality, violence, poverty, and the overt mistreatment of Black individuals. The assassination of Malcolm X and countless other Civil Rights organizations inspired the programs and aid that The Black Panther Party provided; A few of which included a free breakfast program, food, health, education and police patrols for safety purposes. These were all community survival programs put in place by The Black Panther Party to aid in liberation and equality.

Growing up, I learned so much about slavery in the South, heard countless stories about Harriet Tubman and other Black heroes of that time, and always knew about segregation and black oppression following slavery. What I never heard about were the details. Before this novel, I had never heard of the Black Panther Party, for some reason it was always wrongfully left out of any history classes I’ve ever taken. I think it’s vital to educate about the lesser known organizations and black abolitionists and activists who contributed to the fight for freedom and justice.

This video below will briefly explaining the history of The Black Panther Party. This will give insight to new perspectives on history in the 1960’s and provide further cognizance on this Civil Rights Organization.

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Past: Learning to Listen: Sky

Healing Justice Lineages: Past: Entry 1

This section of the reading discusses Harriet Tubman and how her efforts in not only her experience in slavery, but her escape and the people she helped, involved the sky. The reading quoted Tubman as listening to sky as a form of looking to God, and holding onto hope. This resonates to today's society because in a way, the sky is a freeing element, and a way for people to still look to God. 

The beginning of the text describes opening listening to the sky through the top of your head, as if your skull has broken open from the top; This being a way to breathe through any wound, and listen to the sky for healing. 

The most interesting element, which is universal, and the oldest way of direction, is reading the stars and their placement in the sky to navigate; Navigate to freedom. Using to sky to tell time and passage was the first ever navigation system used and led Harriet Tubman and several slaves to freedom by following the North Star. In the passage it reads, "I saw the North Star with my own two eyes, and I knew I could use it to free us". To understand the natural and spiritual elements of the world we live in, makes all the difference in how we choose to live and how far we can go by trusting in our bodies, and trusting in nature. 

This is a link to an interactive planetarium where you can navigate with stars and constellations:

https://stellarium-web.org/Links to an external site.