Clare Consultation, LLCMentor of the Highest Order – A Precious Elder has Passed
An hour ago, this text message from my dear friend, Charles Hudson: Roy has passed. In immediate loving memory, I am reposting this blog from October 10, 2014. Before you read this, though, I want you to know this man is one of the very few about whom no one can exaggerate upon his death. Roy Sampsel is truly a Great Tribal Leader. Daily, he touched the world and its people… Read More
Do Not Forget: This Morning Too, Has a Pulse
On this day – at the time of inauguration of our country’s 45th President, we are no less in and of the reliable weave of relationship. Within the natural world. Within the social world – itself entirely an expression of nature. On this day – like all other days, a pulse. And wisdom – like Dr. Angelou’s in 1993 – it’s truth everpresent, whether seen and lived from or not. May… Read More
#NoDAPL – A Closer View from a Young Anishinaabe Woman
More helpful words from another clear thinker. This time, a young woman. Kayla DeVault is an Anishinaabe, enrolled Shawnee. She lives on the Navajo nation where she is studying Diné studies at Diné College and working as a civil engineer for the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation. She is also a youth ambassador for Generation Indigenous who has attended meetings at the White House. Several weeks ago, she spoke before the leadership… Read More
Indians. Current Events. NO, REALLY. PAY ATTENTION.
Breaking news – The moment I posted the last blog*, the news came through of acquittal of the white, male, armed and militant protestors who occupied the federal lands of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter. That same moment, the news emerged of another round of arrests of Dokata Access Pipeline protestors, most of them Native Americans, and most of them peaceful. Coincidence? Yes, likely. Hipocritical and racist? Well, you judge for… Read More
Indians. Current Events.
I am non-Indian. I benefit from clean water, clean air and healthy soils. I benefit from social agreements that support those things. I benefit from social agreements that protect the dignity and civil rights of all of the people who rely on clean water and air, the food and the human community those make possible. Right now the Cleveland Indians are in the World Series for the first time in over 7… Read More
Death, a Rainbow & Ethical Journalism
Yesterday, my little sister, Nancy Jones, posted another of her brilliant and honest posts as a frequent contributor to Daily Kos. Her writing was centered on her friend Zot Lynn Szurgot. On September 7, Zot, one of my sister’s nearest and dearest friends was killed on a Georgia highway when a semi ran a stop and plowed into her car. She was just through another good day on site for completing a solar… Read More
Heeding Lessons from a Small Business
Last week I sat with the staff and management of a mountain town cafe – a group I’ve had the chance to work with as they have moved into the big center of transition. Without knowing it, this small organization and the people who sustain it are inspiring models of what showing up to change looks like. For 14 years, the Cafe Regis has served the community of Red Lodge, Montana as… Read More
A Promise in Stone
In this life of no guarantees – of too much hatred and violence – of 24-hour news headlines, fear, and double-speak. In these days of winter showing up everywhere in unusual ways while night follows day follows night, and decisions have come to seem more baffling than ever. Under this one sky, sharing this water, ground and air, love is what we have for certain. This is so. But, whatever you do,… Read More
Visual Data – Truth or Dare
For all you graphic data nerds out there (and I freely admit I stand among you), a few thoughts on statistics. Perhaps a good starting place – correlation. Correlation is the way fluctuations in measurement of separate variables or outcomes match up. Like the way we keep seeing cigarette smoking correlating highly with lung cancer. The problem with correlation – or perhaps better said, the inherent limitation – is that correlation alone may… Read More
Thanksgiving was Yesterday
And, today Americans awaken to what the commercial conglomerate has named “Black Friday.” The term originated in 1951 in relation to industry and business owners noting the tendency of workers to call in sick the day after Thanksgiving in order to have a four-day weekend. By the 60’s the term was a derogation on the part of law enforcement officers in Philadelphia who had to deal with significantly increased pedestrian traffic on… Read More