Red Cedar Peace Initiative

A very dear friend of mine asked me to attend the Red Cedar Peace Initiative with her last night.  I happily accepted her invitation, but not really knowing what I'd be getting myself into at this gathering.  Well, I personally have to say that this was the best medicine for my heavy heart.  Ever since our presidential election and it's outcome, I've grown increasing weary and now it's to the point of feeling anxiety and fear.....real fear that I haven't felt in many many years.  So, I decided that I'd like to share my personal feelings with you about the political climate that surrounds all of us.  If you'd rather not read this, I'll understand.  Actually, I was going to post about Bike man's Thanksgiving patties, but with my personal anxiety these days, I thought I might feel better just getting this off my chest.  Lol....then I'll move on to food and recipes on another day.

As you can see in my two photos, there were around 55 people that showed up for this community gathering.  As I listen to numerous folks talk, I soon realized I wasn't the only one that is suffering from fear, sadness and anxiety.  Wow, somehow I began to feel a peaceful energy surround me last night.  I think I also started to feel the compassion and love of others in that room.  I discovered we all felt passionate about the same issues and this gathering quickly had us talking about our concerns.  Now, I have to tell you this gathering wasn't meant to talk politics.....we weren't there to bash a political party, but we were there to talk about our fears and concerns of political changes that would affect our children, grandchildren, our seniors, our communities, our LGBT community, international student population at our local university and much more.

One thing I am so proud of that I just want to briefly mention.  When I look around and I see the people who immerged from the 60's era (the hippy generation), and I still see them today in their mid to late 70's, still fighting for social justice and still so passionate about the environment.  These are the people from my generation, even though I was a young girl in the 60's, they have always cared about society and they care little about BIG money or big corporations.  I truly respect these people and I respect their integrity of clean living and protecting our earth.  I am sad to think that our young people of today do not understand the hippy era.....the love and not hate attitude. 

So, getting back to our peace initiative gathering.  I'd like to list our common concerns, which will be affected by the new Trump administration.  When you read through the concerns, just ask yourself, what can I do to help my local community deal with these issues?  How can I help?  Even if you are a Trump supporter, how can you help community members who feel scared like me?  What I'd rather not hear is the typical Christian reply....oh, just pray about it!  Prayer is not the answer to greed and corruption.  I'd like you to think about how can you make children feel safe, especially with the hatred that is oozing out from our communities right now.  How can you comfort the LGBT community that is increasing fearful for their lives.  And how can you help the African American communities that feel the bigotry and hate?

Concerns from our gathering:

How can we teach our children to be kind and show respect?
How can we console our immigrant workers who are fearful of losing their jobs?
What will happen to climate change when all the regulations are thrown out?
Many worries about clean water and clean air
Environmental regulations dismantled nation-wide
Clean energy and moving forward like the rest of the world
Public school systems and funding cuts verses Charter schools
The growing divide in our country.....can't we all work together?
Silencing of opposition from Donald Trump himself.....people are scared! Dictatorship???
Standing Rock situation and taking away the rights of our native people to protect their sacred land
LGBT community - how can they feel safe from the hatred and discrimination
How can we make our international students feel safe while attending college at UW-Stout
How can we stop the factory farms from increasing their herds to thousands of cattle & runoff issues

There were so many more concerns that I didn't mention, but this gives you an idea of what we were talking about locally.  I will be attending the next meeting in January to continue to help implement a plan for bringing our community together to feel safe and to give support when we are facing so many political changes.

For now, I might just have to take a break from social media, especially my Facebook account....or even reading the news.  The political climate is exhausting right now and it's easy to get depressed and feel hopeless, but that is why it's so important to get involved in your community to make a difference.  We owe it to our children, as they will suffer the consequences in the future.  Thanks for reading.