Drone Quilts Exhibit at Albany Legislative Office Building, Closing Visualization and Call to Action.

Closing prayer, visualization, and call to action for October 20th Media Conference – Drone Quilts Exhibit at the Legislative Office Building in Albany — delivered by Mickie Lynn

View of the media conference from below, photo by Connie Frisbee Houde

We call on the four directions and the four elements as a focus for the changes that we need here today. Changes from wanton killing, to respect for all people.  Changes from lawlessness, to justice, accountability, understanding and transparency.

Although West is the direction of ending this is where we find ourselves. Here in the well of the Legislative Office Building.  We swim down together to the depths of our emotional connections. Finding the wisdom of our intuition. The waters of life connect all living beings.  Harm done to innocent people anywhere is harm done to us all. West is the direction of the transformational mysteries of birth and death. This is the direction of connection to spirit and connections among spirits.

Standing here we say “Let’s end these needless deaths. Let’s return the gift of unlimited potential to the world’s children. Let’s birth a new way of solving conflicts.  Let’s use our experiences as women to help make this change”.

We absorb the beauty created for the victims of drone killings and we know that we must do more than remember them.  Let’s help to stop the fear. Stop the deaths. Stop the destruction that drones create. Fear and death In Waziristan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Gaza, and now Iraq and Syria.

South is the source of our energy.  Of life sustaining sunlight. Powering muscles, fueling growth.  Of the blood flowing through our veins. Of the beating of our hearts. Of the primal force of drumming. Of the love for other people. Of the passion to protect our world. Of the power to keep working through obstacles. Of Patti Smith’s anthem, “People Have the Power.”  Let us make it so!

East brings us change and new beginnings.  The element of air.  Storms, winds of change, breezes and migrating birds and butterflies that travel all over our world.

But what of the terror now flying in the skies above us?

What of the children who dread blue skies because they bring the clear view that allows drones to target their homes and schools, destroy their loved ones, their communities, their fields, their places of work and play, their places of worship.  Air carries the sound of incessant buzzing telling the children “We’re watching you.” “We can kill you anytime.” “Don’t go out.” “Don’t play.” “Don’t learn.” Don’t expect a safe world.”

But East also provides the direction of laws and traditions.  The place where perhaps we can start to remind our government of our own laws.  And international laws and the laws of war, and the conventions against indiscriminate weapons and criminal murder.

North holds our connection to the Earth.  To our places in the web of life and to the ground which we walk upon, and to which we ultimately return. All the elements and biochemicals that sustain us.  Resources that we need to share and to use wisely.  The materials that can give us shelter, support our human needs and  keep us safe – Or used in a reckless way, contaminate our planet for all time.
This is the place where we must take our stand.  Where we must acknowledge all of the living beings with whom we share the biosphere. Honor the soil, the mountains, the deserts, the oceans, the frozen tundra and all of the climates and ecosystems that the world holds.  And that hold us in turn.

And at the Center we now exist in this time and place. Having come together to address the problems of killer drones and their use in endless war.  This is the time to make a commitment.  To do something to change this behavior.  It could be something small.  Just one action, one letter, one phone call, or one petition.  It could be something larger like setting aside time and energy to lobby, act with others, educate, mobilize direct action.  Or it could be fierce dedication to non-violent civil disobedience, or something else that requires risk or imagination.  Whatever it is – Let’s sink our roots down into the Earth and make the commitment to do something.

In the words of the Canadian Aboriginal Rights Group: Idle No More:

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.  I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

Let’s gather our collective energy.
Shape it into a force for change.
Let’s bring it into the world!

Media conference view from above in the well of the Legislative Office Building, Albany NY, photo by Connie Frisbee Houde