Zypher speaks

The speaker discusses their experience with technology and how it allows them to record conversations. They then mention the astrological event of Pluto entering Aquarius and compare it to past revolutionary periods in history. They express uncertainty about being prepared for potential changes. The conversation then shifts to a video call between two friends in different locations. They discuss time zones and the challenges of technology. They briefly mention family matters and the importance of prioritizing them. They express excitement about finally talking on this platform and discuss their diverse backgrounds, including Sephardic Jewish heritage and indigenous Mexican ancestry. They touch on the history of Sephardic Jews and the challenges they faced during the Inquisition. The conversation ends with a mention of the current global conflicts and the speaker's interest in hearing the other person's thoughts on the topic. Yeah, I'm doing this thing where it's recording to my computer, but I'm on my phone, and that way... That way you have a hard copy. I have a hard copy, and then like... In the way that works for you. Yeah, like my headphones go to my phone and not my computer, and my computer sound is weird. Anyway, long story short, hopefully this works. Technology. Technology, as Pluto enters, where is it headed? Aquarius. We are having that moment happen a couple of days early, apparently. Oh, okay. So, that's going to be like... What is that going to be for us? The last time Pluto was in Aquarius, that was like the Haitian Revolution, that was the French Revolution, that was all the revolutions, that was that era where all the systems just... People are like, oh, hell no, we've had enough. I hope that happens. I'm not prepared physically, mentally, or spiritually, but... But it might be on its way anyway. All right, well, let's lace up and do what we've got to do, I guess. I mean, I think it's going to happen whether or not we're ready, but I think it's also kind of... Pluto is always that getting rid of what no longer serves you, kind of... Some people call it destructive, I prefer to think of it as regeneration and active motion. Wonderful part. And you get knocked around enough, you learn how to rephrase things, so it sounds better. All right, well, I'm going to get cozy, I hope you're comfortable. We don't have... Go ahead. I'm just realizing I might have enough bandwidth to actually turn my camera on, but the internet here is a bit... You can see me in a halo. Hi. Let me try that with a different light. It's okay, because I think we're only going to use the audio, so whatever you feel comfortable, but I do like to see you. I mean, I haven't seen you in forever, it'd be nice, but I also feel like the audio would be better. Sure. Hello. Hi, friend. Hi, you're so far away. I am half a world away. It is very, very interesting, this technology we have, so I can speak to you in real time, and we are like literally two continents in an ocean apart. What time was it there? It's 9.15. Okay, how are you feeling? I'm feeling okay. Yeah, I usually get to bed around midnight or 1, so we're all good. Okay. And thank you for your patience. My young blood cousin had all the things that needed some time to talk through and figure out some family stuff, so always good. I'm glad you prioritized that. Well, I guess if we want to get started, I think it's going to kick me off, like... In 40 minutes? Yeah. Do you want to count down or something while I'm ready? I don't know. We usually have a five-minute warning beforehand, and then you can always sign back in and log back in. Okay. I'm going to try to keep it short and sweet, but we'll go with whatever happens. You realize I'm Native and Jewish. Short and sweet is one question for 40 minutes, and that's me being really succinct. And also, you can be casual and just... It doesn't have to be all formal and rigid, but yeah, we'll just see where it takes us. All right. Well, welcome. Do you want to introduce yourselves? Zhu Zhu Zha Tie. I'm a great Jew in my grandfather's Nutna language, and I would like to make space to open up for the ancestors that I hold. I am here as a Nuna person, as a Wishnawari person, as a Nahua person. My ancestors were also Raramuri and Benezaca. All those nations are our original names. People outside of Mexico do not know them, but I was creating my ancestors from the Otomi Nation, from... Wow. I'm having a blank. Otomi Nation. I don't use the misnames anymore. From the Aztec Nation and the Nahua Nation. From the Zapotec Nation, from the Huichol Nation, Raramuri Nation. Those are my indigenous ancestors, and I also am here for my Moroccan Jewish and my Sephardic Jewish ancestors who have been guiding me across the ocean to come back here to Morocco. And so I'm joining you from here in Marrakech, Morocco. Thank you so much. I am just lighting this candle and I'm burning a little sage so we can have that positive cleansing energy, not just for us, but for everybody that's dealing with depression in this world today. And you and I met, was it 2016? Standing Rock. Yeah, so I'm not going to do math right now, but a long time ago. It's been a couple of lifetimes ago in the way I reckon. Yes, absolutely. And since I met you again in this realm physically, I have always been impressed by your wisdom and kindness and generosity and sharing what you've known. And so I'm really excited to finally get to talk to you on this platform and hopefully be able to disseminate some of that wisdom to other people. And I just want to kind of let you flow with whatever you think. I have a few questions, but we are in November 2024. It's been over a year of genocide in Gaza and now multiple other genocides. And there's been attacks in Lebanon. And actually the Zionists are attacking multiple other places as well. I know that you have become sort of a scholar in this topic and would love to hear what your thoughts are. Or if you want to kind of kick it off by sharing what kind of changed the way that you started thinking about things. Because as I understand, you were kind of raised in a religious Jewish family. So what switched for you and how did that start to happen? So I'm very mixed. And so my upbringing was also very mixed because of the Sephardic legacy of my Jewish ancestors. We know that we started in the Levant, but we don't consider ourselves Levantine Jews because we left so long ago. And Sephardim are the Jews that eventually made their way usually from Palestine to North Africa into Spain. And a lot of people like to say that that history started around the 900-1000 common era. But in our family's history, we know that we made that movement a long time ago with the idea being that wherever in the world, you know, about 1200-1500 years ago, wherever in the world our relatives would go, they would always have family to welcome them. So it was this idea that as Jews, our Jewishness was in the beliefs that we held and the traditions that we practiced, including hospitality, including welcome, including a quest for knowledge and a quest for meeting other people and getting to know deeply and having deep relationships with people wherever we were. And so, you know, our family was, there aren't other Jews who take on an identity of where they ended up, but because our nation was there in Spain for so long, we took on the term Sephardim, which Sephard is the old way of saying Spain. So there was a deep connection, a deep rootedness that goes for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. And because of the Inquisition, because of the 500 years of Inquisition, a lot of Jews became what are known as conversos. They were forcibly converted to Catholicism under pain of death. And there was a lot of suffering that happened in my ancestors' histories of feasts of fealty where, you know, the Jews would be gathered from a Spanish town and put on a big platform in front of the whole town and forced to eat a meal of everything that was forbidden, mostly that were just absolutely not part of our tradition and was actually a religious taboo to eat. And if you refused to eat, that was an instant death sentence. If you ate it but you couldn't maintain it, that was an instant death sentence. And so after the expulsion, when Spain finally said, okay, enough, we're just going to get rid of our Jews. And, you know, mind you that for 500 years under what people know as the Moorish rule, it was actually when Moroccans, when the indigenous Moroccans, the innocent, went from Morocco to Spain because they had so many people coming to Morocco seeking shelter, so many refugees who were talking about how bad things were in Spain. They decided, okay, instead of us constantly having to keep bringing people in and caring for people, we're going to go and figure out what is going on in this land. And so for 500 years they ruled and they brought in the rights of women. They brought in the rights of women to hold land ownership, the rights of women to divorce their husbands, the right of basically people to hold whatever spiritual beliefs you held. There was a peace amongst Muslims, Catholics, and Jews for 500 years. And basically it was the anti-blackness and the anti-Arab and anti-immigrant feelings in Spain that caused the expulsion to happen that we know happened in 1492, right around the time that Columbus made that fateful journey. So my ancestors kind of hit because of these two things happening. We had people who were running for their lives from Spain and slowly making their way, like you weren't allowed to go from Spain into the New World. So my personal family, they went from Spain to Sicily or to other places in Europe until people forgot that they were Jewish long enough. And they were also hidden Jews, like converts oftentimes gave up the forward-facing kind of Jewish traditions, practices, and beliefs. But we would carve little figures and we would turn them to the east so that whatever the people had to do in the day to live, a piece of their spirit was maintained that held the beliefs and continued to be quote-unquote true Jews. So running from Europe, running from everything going on in like 1492 onwards, a lot of my ancestors ended up in Mexico and ended up intermarrying with a lot of my indigenous ancestors because the calendars fit. Because both indigenous to Mexico and Sardegna had a kind of spiritual calendar that revolved around the natural world and it revolved around harvest cycles. And so it was kind of this meeting, even though it was across such a big cultural divide, there was still some commonality, some understandings of like, in Jewish practice, there's an honoring of the birthday of the trees. And in Mynuna tradition, there is an honoring of having basically a birthday celebration of the trees. So like in all these desperate ways, in language barriers, there was still these commonalities. So a lot of my ancestors mixed that way. So I was raised Sardic Jewish, very kind of traditional, more orthodox form of Judaism. I was also raised a little bit Catholic. I was raised very fundamentalist Christian, like right-wing Jerry Falwell-esque, very, very, very rigid conservative Christian. And then some of my relatives were atheists and agnostic and also told me, and my grandfather taught me from the time I was little in our traditional Mynuna tradition, which, you know, some might call pagan. So it was a very big multi-pot. As much as my ancestors are multi-pot, my own upbringing was a multi-pot. And having so many different traditions say that either all beliefs are to be welcomed and respected, as far as like how my grandfather taught, you know, you don't disrespect any beliefs. Everybody has the right to conscience. To some of my very fundamentalist, you know, Christian folks being like, no, this way is the only way, or the Catholics being like, you know, how dare you, this is the only way, everything else is evil. It was a lot to take in as a kid. But, you know, the dominant theme was very much kind of a Zionism, and like this is the only way as Jews we can be safe. But at the same time, there was this acknowledgement that our ancestors had survived over 500 years of the most intense violence. People could be put away and charged in the inquisitors for a common soup that we made for Shabbat on Friday. Just the blending of having garbanzos, garlic, and the stewed meat in a pot to put over a fire was enough to put you in the inquisitors' prisons. Because only Jews ate that in Spain. So, it was a lot of mixed messaging. And it was a lot of also just giving me space to kind of figure things out for myself. When I was a younger person, I randomly came across Suheir Hamad's Born Palestinian, Born Black in the library. My dad was taking college courses as a returning student, and I was basically given a lot of time to just run around the library. I just started reading anything and everything I could get my hands on, and reading her book really was the first time where I got to hear from another perspective of one that I was told was supposed to be a certain way, and this was direct confrontation and conflict. And kind of growing up with all that other religious difference, I understood that two things can be true at the same time. And fundamentalism and reductionism doesn't always lead to the path of understanding and truth, true truth, cosmic truth. So, Suheir's book really just kind of broke open a lot of that indoctrination and the propaganda that I was given. And, you know, as I got older, moved into becoming a queer person, and becoming the two-spits that my grandfather had named me in our tradition, and realizing that the boxes that modern American culture had made were never going to fit the experience that I was called to have. So, when you inhabit a body and an identity that's never going to fit, it's really easy to kind of start breaking away all these other ideas that we're supposed to have boxed in regarding stuff like Zionism, regarding stuff like colonization, regarding stuff like queer and trans identity. I was never going to fit perfectly in, so I just really started leaning into listening to my ancestors and letting them lead me to what they wanted me to know, and worrying less about fitting into any dominant standards of anything that I was given. So, it broke apart and shattered a lot. And, you know, as you grow and you meet people and you get to connect with more and more people and meeting more and more Palestinians and just hearing on the ground, it really did shatter everything that I was told at the same time as being like a queer and trans non-binary and two-spit person So, it was shattering this idea of what I got to have as a quote-unquote American under capitalism. Like, everything just kind of undid itself all at once. And I got to take, you know, my first years in my young adulthood just kind of unpacking everything I was taught and unlearning all the lives that I was given and really seeking out what actually is there underneath it all. Can I put myself on mute? Because I don't need all those. Um, wow. So, what I might be hearing is that the queerness led to kind of this shift in just the way concepts are, like, received. And, like, there was a rejection of, like, the mainstream narrative of just how people could exist, especially within, like, capitalism and maybe the Abrahamic religions that were brought here to Turtle Island. And so, if that didn't fit, maybe a lot of other things that we were told didn't fit. So, that's really interesting to see, like, how queerness can open up so much so much more thought. And that's why we need to protect our trans and two-spirit people because there's so much intrinsic wisdom in just being able to see that see things differently and reject the bullshit. Because, like, certain identities don't ever get to be confronted with that and don't ever have to, like, critically think about certain things because they just kind of are able to walk along in this path that they were told is the path to walk down. That's a really awesome concept that I love that that was brought up. So, I guess my next question is, unless you want to just take it in a different direction, is, like, right now, what is something that you find is missing from the dialogue? In a lot of the dominant American kind of hegemony, there is always a requirement for people to be experts. And what I see missing is the curiosity of just wanting to know, not for the sake of knowing, but for the sake of trying to kind of build and pick apart and see piece by piece, as opposed to having the answer. Just asking questions to see what answers are possible. And, you know, we don't have enough play. We don't have enough, like, focus on joy under capitalism. There's always this, everything has to, you don't get to do art because you just want to create or doodle. You have to have a product. You have to have something marketable, something sellable. It has to be on brand. And the same goes for singing or dancing. But, you know, the flower just grows and blossoms because that's what it is. And I think, I constantly think about John Trudell's words of, we're the human beings, not the human doings. And capitalism really forces us to be doing something all the time to a purpose, to a profit, to, you know, gross national product. As opposed to just doing things for the sake that we're doing them because we're human beings and that's what we want to do. And I think part of my queerness, I always like to say, you know, my queerness is less about who I find attractive or who I sleep with and it has everything to do with the fact that I'm resisting the boxes and check marks and the predeterminations that my society and my class and capitalism and being American have put on me because I was born in a certain body and assigned a certain gender. And it has everything to do with the roles and responsibilities that I'm willing to give and the ways I'm willing to serve my communities and the people and the things of Earth. And I don't see that as kind of a guiding principle in a lot of dominant queerness that's so dominated by kind of a white male gayness as opposed to like an indigenous two-spirit where the least interesting thing about me is who I find attractive and it's everything to do with the work I've been preyed into by my ancestors to bring to this world. And our queerness is the questioning and it's that liminal space between the black and the white. It's in that myriad of gray where we get to find new ways of being in a world that is no longer being served by the binary of yes or no, black or white, man or woman. Oof. Bars right there. That got me a little bit emotional, I've got to say. Yeah, I've been listening too. Space for emotion under capitalism. We're not allowed to breathe or to just be or to take it in or to feel joy or grief or sorrow. So, you know, that's awesome to see in our world right now is the ability to connect with all those myriad of emotions that we have flowing through us and that help enrich our experience. We're spirit beings in a little meat suit for a given amount of time and within that there's worlds that we get to explore, that we should get to explore, that we don't get the time and space to explore. Yeah. For so long we were, like I was told anyway, that the correct way to debate or to interact with people is this very calm, monotone, fact-based interaction and exchange. And there's so much that's left unsaid and, like, we have to question what we've been told are facts. So much of what I learned in, like, college and K through 12 was just propaganda that served the white supremacist capitalist project. Like, so much of it, like, was anything actually true? And, like, it takes a lot of time and effort to, like, unlearn all that stuff. Including, like, what we were just talking about is, like, different ways of communicating and feeling and connecting. And so, yeah, I do think we need to, like, make space for that curiosity for our, like, room for understanding and growing in those areas. Because, like, the only way that, like, I have gotten to the point where I'm at is because of people, like, being real patient and generous with their knowledge and time with me and allowing me to be, like, real ignorant about a lot of stuff. And sometimes confronting me where it would be really, it would sting and maybe I had, like, some resistance. But over time, like, I believe that I'm, like, being helped to have a better understanding of a lot of things. So I hope that for myself, that I can have the patience for other people to absorb what has been shared with me in a gentle way. And that's what I'm struggling with right now. Because a lot of the relationships that I've had have been, like, surprisingly Zionist. Surprisingly uncritical. Where I, it's not the ones that I'm, like, yeah, you obviously are going to believe what you see on TV. And that's where I'm, like, not shocked. But the shocking part of, like, why aren't we on the same page about this? And they're, like, citing New York Times articles as, like, facts. They're condemning Hamas without, like, wondering why. They're, like, they're repeating that, like, narrative. They're bringing up October 7th over and over again. And these are people that I find should have, like, that critical thinking. Anyway, yeah, trying to find that balance of, like, checking people when they need to be checked and allowing that space for understanding. And that time is, like, kind of where I'm finding some challenges. But I know, like, in order to thrive going forward, we are going to have to have community despite our differences. So, yeah, like, what do you think about all that? I think for any of us born under the current configuration, that is the occupation of Turtle Island, known as America, emphasis on the three Ks in the name, we're from birth onward for how many ever years we've been educated, whether that's 18 or 22, or in some cases, what, 26, 30 years. We are force-fed so much misinformation and purposely given misinformation and propaganda so that we don't, so we're not curious about what lies beyond our borders. You know, if we're given this idea that America is the greatest nation, then why would we go anywhere else? And why would we travel? And why would we make connections with people outside of us? You know, because we're just so great. And the older I get, and the more I've traveled, and the more I've learned as I go, it was so that we couldn't see how horrible we were enslaved by Catholicism, how we're given just the bare scraps of what humans need for survival, not even to thrive, but just to barely survive. And in all that indoctrination, it is possible to make choices to seek new information, to unlearn and kind of uproot all of those threads that we've been given, but people have to make that choice. They have to choose to be curious and to let go of this idea that what they know is all they need to know. And what I've learned over the course of, you know, the last 407 days of this ongoing genocide is I'm not responsible for what anybody else thinks about this. I can only control how I respond and what I do given the information. I can offer resources. I can offer an ear. I'm not going to be sounding board if people are working through something, but I can never come to somebody who has already decided that what they know is all they need to know when that cup is full. You know, education should be the sparking of curiosity, and it should be giving us tools to critically evaluate and to learn how to research and constantly think about what we're taking in and what we're learning from. But in America, it's always been about this kind of marker of, like, filling a cup until it's full, and then there's no room for anything else. And you can't reach, you can't add to a cup that has already determined that it's full. And the good news is, in the traditions that my grandfather taught me, I'm only responsible for me, and everybody else has to figure out. And sometimes we're intersected with community and we're intersected with our relatives because we are supposed to be that spark that ignites a change in thinking, or at least the beginnings of a curiosity of, could there be another side to this? Could there be another way to interpret this? Could there be other history to this? But what I've also realized in kind of the decolonial work that I've been a part of for 14 years now, is that colonial entities don't want us to be educated and they really don't want us to be critically thinking about things. You need to be a rank and file person that's so exhausted and kind of barely nourished and barely has time to recover from a working day to then go and turn around and go right back to it. If you have time and leisure to think and to ponder and to just sit and be or to meditate or to put hands on trees and feet on grass, then you start asking dangerous questions about why is everything the way it is? And so I do think that a lot of the interruption in capitalism really is just the breaking down of not only needing to be right or to be an expert or to think we know, but also just in breaking down the way that we use time and slowing down and giving ourselves moments of pause, moments of reflection, moments of not knowing to begin to undo the foundations of the occupation that we are under in America. Thank you. Yeah, I think I was like, yeah, we are full of shit and kind of we are a lot of times because of all of that indoctrination and media that we've consumed that has just tainted the way that we think. So we've just got to clean out that shit and allow space and room for new, fresh concepts that may not even be new or fresh, actually, because they may have existed long, long, long before us, but just been so suppressed because, like you said, they are dangerous to the status quo. And you've been to some different communities and also lived in the belly of the beast. So, like, what are some of the things that you've noticed in your travels and staying in different places? Like, yes, this is the greatest place in the world. Is it not? You know, I instantly think about my relationship to food when I'm in the occupation that is America. I can't eat gluten, I can't eat dairy, I can't eat chicken, I can't eat eggs. Like, the list is long of the things that I am quote-unquote allergic to and have a severe reaction to and that constantly and instantly kind of sets off a lot of symptoms involving my chronic illness. And the second I step out into Europe and I've been in Basque Country, I've been all over Andalusia, Granada, here in Morocco, and a lot of parts of France. I went back, and in all those places I was visiting, like, ancestral sites that, like, we know my ancestors lived in. As soon as I touched down anywhere outside of America, all those allergens, all those toxic responses just instantly went away. The entire time I'm in America, I have just kind of, like, not to be too graphic, but like, even the air and the water makes these, like, lesions, these, like, weeping sores on my skin where, like, my skin can't physically tolerate being in that country because of the way that our food production is so toxic and our water is so polluted and our air is so toxic. And, you know, I was born in California, I was born in San Diego, I've lived in some of the biggest cities all over America, but, like, I'm coming from, like, a very rural part of the Pacific Northwest and trying to find the cleanest air and the cleanest water that I can, and my body was still not handling being there day to day. And as soon as I got away, even in the bigger cities, with more, like, with worse air quality than what I've been living in for, like, the last seven years, my lungs are better, the asthma's gone, a lot of the chronic illness symptoms are gone, and, you know, I notice that the people, like, here in Morocco, the culture, like, everything's slower. I used to think I was really chill in America and compared to a lot of Americans, like, I'm kind of that, like, stereotypical, like, stoner dude that just is, like, whoa. But, you know, I'm still neurotic because there's such more of us more of us slowing down. And, like, the five times the calls to prayer and just the focus that, like, yeah, you gotta do stuff, but then you gotta step out of doing stuff to transfer it. And, like, there's a culture where when people work together, like, they share meals, and because people work, like, really long hours here, you know, there's often, like, you go to work and there's breakfast together, and then everybody pauses, and then there's lunch time, and then there's pauses for prayer time, and if you're working into dinner time, there's gonna be dinner, and, like, the boss man's gonna pay for that, and, like, where you're working will provide that. And so there's, like, there is no individual. It's all community kind of given, and these, even in, like, Spain, you know, like, when people are walking their dog and they're taking them off leash and the dogs go to each other, I was like, oh, no, they're gonna be, like, you know, like, people just have time to, like, meet strangers and to meet each other's dogs and to, like, walk on a beach with a stranger for a minute. You know, there's just this, this more openness to connecting, and I've gone to places where there's a lot of language barriers, and yet, if you want to connect with somebody, you're gonna listen with the ears of spirit, and a lot of people have that outside of America, and I think in America, if you don't speak our language, if you don't look like me, if you don't, if I smell that you're not in the same class, if you're not the same, if you're not the same, you know, gender, all these things, we're always finding reasons to want to be a part and to just be with people, and in other parts of the world, there's more of an openness to just want to connect because we're two people who happen to be in the same space, so why not share a moment together? And I really, really appreciate being outside of the empire for that, and I'm surprised how many people actually see America for America. They get that what the media says about us is one thing, and the actuality on the ground is quite different. Nobody here in Morocco is shocked by the recent election results. Everybody's like, you've been sliding toward fascism for a really long time. This is very unsurprising. The biggest shock that a lot of people have is that there still is this idea that America is this, like, land flowing to milk and honey, and you just have to work hard, and you'll just have all the money, and so they can't. It's a really big shock when I say, no, I had to come to Morocco for health care and for dental care because I could not afford it in America, and America would just as soon let me die as poor, queer, trans, indigenous person than give me access to basic medical care, and when I was recently really severely sick, I mean, A, aunties are the amazing, indigenous aunties are the reason why we live because they're always there, like, caring for, and then, like, here's tea, and here's food, and let me take care of you because that's the same indigenous culture, but the idea here of medical care, like, you're really sick, we're not going to force you to go to a clinic. We're going to, the doctor's going to come to you. They're going to bring the medicine. They're going to bring the IVs. They're going to bring what you need, and we're going to get you well, and we're not going to make you lose your health because you were sick. It was actually, like, for an in-home health care visit, it was very affordable. It was less than what I would have paid for one type of MLS at an ER in any American hospital, and going to the pharmacy and getting, you know, a laundry list of all these medications and antibiotics, and it's less than the price that most Americans pay for one movie ticket or one dinner eating out, and even, like, I have problems taking medication in the States. Everything just is too much, and my body just instantly can't handle it, even like baby Tylenol, I can't handle it in the States. Here, I've had no reactions to any of the medications, and, you know, the nurse that came was gentle, and the doctor was caring, and it was very obvious from his bedside manner that he was concerned with me being okay, and he called me, like, it was a midnight visit when I came to the hotel, and he calls me at nine in the morning just to check in and make sure I'm doing okay and that everything's okay, and there's no charge for that. That's literally, like, it's part of my job to make sure you're on the road to recovery, and, you know, how many nurses in the hospital will tuck you in or give you any time of the day, and before they left, the nurse was, like, tucking me in. He was checking to make sure, like, everything was good, and it's just this level of care that we don't get in America where everything seems to be about how much can they charge and how much profit can they make as opposed to how well and how fast can they get us to wellness. Okay, so we are sold a bill of lives about this being the greatest country. People are better in other places. Like, there's more heart. The food is not poisoned. The air is not poisoned. And people aren't expected to be, like, little automatons and cogs in a system making profit. Like, people actually get to be people and have real quality of life elsewhere in the world. Yeah. I know, like, some people that served in the U.S. military, and the thing about joining an imperial army like that, that is just, like, held back on domination and extraction is they have to have a really good, like, pitch to make people believe that what they're doing is good. That they're the good guys. They're not the terrorists. And so I think, like, really, that whole K-12 propaganda system is blinding us to believe that either you can join the military and be a good guy or that you should be supporting these good guys. And I have people that I love that have done horrific things and maybe they don't even recognize it, but I think that's what I just realized is that maybe this whole system is set up so that from a young age we honor and respect people who are doing some of the worst things, the worst atrocities, and we have to defend this place, which we're going to call the best place. And it's wild. It's wild. Okay. I guess I have another question for you, and if you want, like, you can add anything else in, but this might be my last question. It's like, what, with all this context, what gives you hope? Every time I see a quote-unquote weed poking through pavements anywhere in the world in the harshest conditions and a sprout and decided to reach for the light, I really love that this world, our ancient earth, always wants to keep reaching for renewal and for life. And I think watching these young people, you know, I'm getting ready to walk through my 44th winter, and I didn't think the world would be quite as bad as it currently is in this configuration, but I see these young people of, from preschool all the way on up to their 20s that really just get it. That really just get it and understand these kind of cosmic truths that I've had to beat my head against a brick wall to try to figure out, and they're already embodying, or how easily they're dismissing the lies, the myths, and the force that to even see, let alone confront and undo. And so that gives me a great amount of hope that each generation is getting it just a little bit more and they're figuring it out just a little bit faster and that as this young generation is really having to struggle with the very existential crisis that is our current climate, chaos, that they're reaching across the divides of race and class and gender and hetero-patriarchy to want to connect and build these movements of change and liberation for each other and for the world And honestly, as hard as the last 407 days have been of watching the violence against our Palestinian relatives, seeing the whole world finally wake up to the propaganda, to the Hasbara, has been foresaid for 76 years. And for them to still understand that Zionism is a little over 100 years old and that it's not Zionism, it's not Judaism and that they're able to understand that Jewish people are awesome and Zionists are not every Jewish person. That gives me a lot of hope that we can actually move into a regenerated and just and truly peaceful future together. Thank you so much. I am seeing that too, and I just love to see the strength and resilience of plants. They're going to do what they're going to do. They're going to find a way. And I think that's what we need to figure out too, is like, are we going to find a way or are we going to let the pavement run us over? It takes courage. All pavement cracks eventually. And even the pavement is part of Earth at some point in its life and it will go back to there. And I have to keep in mind myself that everything is a cycle. And even if we can't see the big, full view of that cycle, we're still a part of it and it will keep turning. Thank you. Is there anything else that you would like to mention where people can find you if they want to see what you're up to? Well, I keep thinking about what you said about the military. I grew up in the military. My dad was a 30-year Navy veteran. Our military is the biggest export that we've terrorized the world with starting with the conquest of the sovereign nation of Hawaii and continuing on since the 1800s. And my great-grandfather was self-educated. He taught himself English by reading the Bible and, ironically, the New York Times in the early part of the last century. And he said, you know, every time the American economy gets into trouble, America starts a war somewhere. And this was a man who lived through World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam. And I think that's a really astute thing to remember that our biggest export is the war machine. And so to really stop a lot of what's threatening our existence on this planet, whether it's climate change or capitalism, it's really tied into stopping the war profiteering machine and to really figure out creative ways because we'll never have enough weapons. We'll never have enough of all the technologies that the war machine has. But thinking about back at Standing Rock when we were going against those tanks, going against those planes, we always said, we're coming to you with our prayers, with our smudge because we're fighting the spiritual and we're fighting this war not just for us, not just for these waters, but for all life, including you, who are wearing that riot gear across from us. And I think moving forward, you know, all these battles and all these struggles and all these oppressions, at its heart, I do believe it's a spiritual battle. And so we're going to have to get really creative with what we throw at it to change things. So, that's my final thought on that. And yes, if people want to find me, for now, at least until I possibly head over into the West Lake on a humanitarian mission, I'm still on Instagram at thebird.elites and they can check out the documentary I made about saving our legacy forest at WeSpeakForTheForest, plural, dot com. Yeah. And drop me a message. Drop into the DMs. I love saying hello to people. I love making new friends. Strangers, in my tradition, are just people. Strangers are just family and friends we haven't met yet, is what I've been taught. Yeah, and I would like to encourage anybody listening to this, all, like, two people, if anybody has some spare funds to go support their efforts to, I don't know, go ahead and tell what you're about to do on the West Bank. Well, first, I would ask people, please, please, please, we have a fundraiser. My adopted family in Hadza, in the central part of Hadza Strip, they really, really could use some help. There's a fundraiser at GoGetFunding.com. Help a family of five survive in Gaza with ashes all in it. The link is on my bio and my Instagram. They're just a family that took me in and has loved me, knowing all the things they know about me, and still loving me unconditionally. And even if that wasn't true, every family in Hadza deserves support and love right now. And so all of us, no matter where we're at, if we are born in the empire, we have a lot more privilege than anybody that has combined in the Strip, so please support. And yeah, I'm preparing for, I'm working with, I'm trying to find any way in to go do some international observation, possibly some documentation, possibly just getting hands in dirt, helping with tending the olive trees, making sure that our Palestinian relatives tending goat herds in the West Bank can get some support and safety, just trying to do what they do and have been doing, as their ancestors have been doing, to defend their memorial. So thinking about toward the beginning of the year, doing a three-month stint, just trying to be another set of eyes and another international presence to try to keep settler violence and the occupation violence away from some of the remaining Palestinian farmers and shepherds trying to make a living there in the West Bank. So courageous and beautiful. What an act of solidarity. So yeah, well, thank you so much for your time today. And we'll go ahead and post that in the show notes, like your Instagram, which links to the fundraisers. Thank you for having me and thank you listeners for listening. And please support also this amazing work that these relatives are doing, bringing some truth and good medicine into the world. Thank you so much, friend. All right, I'll let you get to bed. I know it's getting late over there. It was so good talking to you, ciao for now, friend. Bye, Anna. 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