Get To Work

Last week's post was, "Wake Up" so naturally this week is about getting to work. If I want us to live in a democracy I need to get to work. 

I don't feel like I'm particularly trained or skilled in any particular area, so I have to volunteer to my strengths and inclinations, to my, let's call them enthusiasms.

As much as taking a baseball bat to my frustrations sounds cathartic, it is really not the way.

So what are my enthusiasms, what draws my admiration, what gives me joy? 

Scouting

Camping, ceremony, preparedness, ecology, democracy the live long day, Baden Powell, James West, William D. Boyce, and so forth.

One of the first things Hitler did when he came to power was outlaw the Scouts of Germany. Several of the members of the White Rose belonged to underground, illegal Scout troops. There were underground, illegal Scout organizations behind the Iron Curtain in Poland. I firmly believe if ANY of the boys on the island had been scouts the Lord of the Flies would never have happened.

I had become slightly disillusioned with the Boy Scouts of America (soon to be renamed Scouting America) because of the way the organization had gone about making changes. I don't necessarily disagree with the changes, more the way they were handled.

Fundamentally, though, scouting is still the same. You can't go wrong with the Scout Law.

A scout is:

Trustworthy

Loyal

Helpful

Friendly

Courteous

Kind 

Obedient

Cheerful

Thrifty

Brave

Clean and 

Reverant

So I re-volunteered with my local Scouting America council (Northeast Illinois Council).

I've also been very interested, fascinated, and concerned about the indigenous people of the Americas. I have a BA in Anthropology because I wanted to be as educated about these people as I could be. I feel very embarrassed to find out only recently how many Native Americans live in and around Chicago and how many organizations they have in the area.

On top of that, November is National Native American Heritage Month.

I also volunteered with the American Indian Center of Chicago.

I hope they can find some way for me to be able to help them.

I think the first way is to try to help get the word out about the Native American organizations in our area. If anyone reads this that didn't know anything about these then I hope that I helped even a tiny bit. I'll post some links below.

I do love writing fiction, but I don't have the skills at this point to write things like Animal Farm, or 1984, or Fahrenheit 451. Maybe someday, and when I can I will do that also.

Here are some links to Native organizations in the Chicago area:

The D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at The Newberry Library

American Indian Center of Chicago

The Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative

Mitchell Museum of the American Indian

Chicago Title VI American Indian Education Program

American Indian Association of Illinois

 

WAKE UP!

Yesterday was a clarion call for democracy, LGBTQ+ support, immigration reform, refugee support, clean energy support, environmental support, and anti-racism (including indigenous peoples support). 

Yesterday I did a very small part by voting. Today I’m going to do another very small part with this blog that no one reads, I’m going to change the logo.

A while ago, I found out about a movement to adopt the female belted kingfisher as the mascot for the University of Illinois (my and Mrs. Prop’s alma mater). At that time I found a logo made by mickgee2k14 (the artist said I can use it if I attribute it) on reddit that harkens back to the old chief logo, but for the new mascot.
 

In case you didn’t know, the old mascot of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini was Chief Illiniwek. The NCAA required UofI to remove that mascot in 2007 and it's about damn time I do it too.

I'm going to clean this old blog up and try to include support for those issues I mentioned above, because we need to work harder than ever and I'm making a commitment today.

I also feel that fiction can explore possibilities and good or bad, I can't help myself and I write. I plan to post more of my fiction while some old stories and posts are going to go away. 

I hope I can spark some discussion and raise awareness where and when I can. If not, and this blog continues to be unread, I will be doing other things, as I said this is one very small part.

ILL -