On the day the only living Pinta Island Giant Tortoise was found dead, fires raged in the foothills of the Colorado front range and the Supreme Court of the U.S. decided the state of Montana could not assert its 100+ year old legislative policy stating the corporations are not people.  It was raining in Portland, OR where today the sun peeks regularly between clouds making for dappled shadows instead of monochrome.  That same sun rose in Colorado to witness the persistence of fire where it now gnaws at the selvage of Colorado Springs.  Real homes of real people have been/are being consumed even as, in Washington, DC, that Supreme Court of ours was voting 5-4 to salvage Health Care Reform.

Every event is real.  Each relevant to all of us sharing this place and time.

My friend and colleague, Roy Sampsel (Wyandotte/Choctaw) comments on how the individual is sustained by community that is necessarily composed of individuals.  Roy knows governments and he knows relatedness.  Roy Sampsel was Deputy Secretary of the Interior for the Nixon administration.  In the years since has been called upon thousands of times to assist tribal governments as they ensure and enact their sovereignty.  ”You must see yourself as a citizen of the community of which you are a part,” he said this week as we sat together in Portland’s South Park Restaurant. Pointing to interdependence as the necessary constant for the emergence and expression of and independence he noted, “This is ongoing.  It must constantly be reaffirmed.”