(Recently, the “management” style of several leaders, notably women, reminded me of the first dream I ever remembered, its message,  my (intended) ground of being, and a wise mode of being for all healthy, positive relationships.)

My black and white etching of five women

entwined in work and play appears.

The women pulsate with life.

In placid stillness

moving effortlessly

combing hair

serenading

drawing

writing

reading

Whispering/singing/whistling

Sunbursts, bold stripes, wavy lines

unfold horizontally

Daisies mark the scene.

The women, different nationalities,

yet interrelated,

interconnected.

The women powerful simply because

they do not seek power.

They seek to empower themselves.

They seek to empower each other.

– from Plum Dreams Diary by Joyce Lynn

© Janette MacKinlay

ALL THAT REMAINS

“All That Remains (aka Dust Bowl) is dust that was on my belongings I rescued from our destroyed art loft (across the street from the World Trade Center in the aftermath of September 11, 2001).”

Created 2001-03

Janette MacKinlay Artist, Activist

Fourth in the series, “9/11: A Survivor’s Story,” All That Remains is made of an aluminum and glass vase, World Trade Center debris and dust, and dried berries. Photographed by Lise Gulassa

EYEWITNESS

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Janette MacKinlay was in her fourth floor art loft at 110 Liberty Street, across from the World Trade Center. Instead of beginning the day at a tower fitness club as usual, she watched stunned as two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. When the towers collapsed, the windows of the loft imploded, dust spewed everywhere. Janette fled, a wet towel over her mouth.

Janette’s “self-prescribed therapy” to heal from the trauma of being “an eyewitness, survivor, and displaced resident of the attacks of September 11, 2001,” is art — creating narrative arrangements — organic assemblages. She fuses her longtime passion for contemporary art and design with a more recent fascination with Ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging.

The Dust

“The return to the place was hell.. a living hell. We knew what to expect because we had seen it about an hour after the towers came down, but it was still a grim reality that had to be faced. There was a layer of dust on everything,” Janette wrote in her book, FORTUNATE: A Personal Diary of 9/11. Eerily, she predicted, “I am going to be haunted by the dust for the rest of my life.” In an honest, inward look, Janette admitted, “The dust seemed to have an emotional impact on me.” Read the rest of this entry »

The remnants of a body in an open grave. A shadowy figure feasts on the skull.

I awoke from this dream Sunday morning, March 21, trembling and fearful. In my journal, I wrote: This dream reports/foretells the dire consequences of the Obama/Democratic health insurance legislation the House is voting on today.

The misleadingly named legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PL 111-148), which President Obama signed March 23, entrenches the corporate dominated health insurance industry — WellPoint/Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, Aetna, United Health — and the big pharmaceutical companies, possibly irrevocably, in the U.S. health system. (The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, PL 111-152, which Obama signed March 30, is a companion to PL 111-148.)

Negative Pattern

Another sell-out, another massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer dollars, this time under the guise of health insurance premiums, to these corporations exempt from anti-trust laws.

Congress, with the White House orchestrating, wrote the legislation with enough loopholes to drive a Hummer through. The failure of Obama and the Democrats to honestly fix the broken system will also jeopardize viable health insurance programs like the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicare and derail hope of real reform.

But Obama and the Democrats cleverly used the Republican opposition and faux cries of socialism and communism as cover, while handing insurance and drug companies another key to the Treasury. This is “historic” legislation, not as the White House and media equate with “sweeping reform,” but because this massive over haul is a giant step toward fascism.

Truth-in-Labeling

Fascism is business controlling/dominating government. Communism is its polar opposite — government controlling business. Socialism is state ownership of industry, of capital.

Read the rest of this entry »