Tonight’s the night. The third of a succession of 4 blood moons will shine, or rather, dim in our skies right before sunrise on the west coast. Starting at 3:16 am (any correlation to the bible verse John 3:16 on the eve of Easter Sunday??) the moon will start to move into the Earth’s shadow. This event will last just under five minutes. The shortest total lunar eclipse of the century.
Shortest total lunar eclipse of the century coming Saturday By Amanda Barnett, CNN
There has been lots of buzz about this tetrad and that it seems to be falling in line with Jewish holidays. It is a nice theory, but we have to remember that Jewish holidays were specifically “scheduled” in line with lunar cycles, so this isn’t a surprise.
The Jewish calendar is also not the same as the ‘civil’ calendar that most institutions and households use. The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.
So, the Armageddon that this tetrad is supposedly bringing does not resonate with me, nor will I focus on it. I prefer not to create that reality.
Enjoy this short blood moon eclipse and gaze in awe of how beautiful the cosmos are.
Sometimes Love isn’t Enough
This would be one of the most contradictory statements to ever come out of my mouth or fingertips. In my experiences, love is always enough. However, this is not my experience and I am grateful for that. John Hargrove, previously a senior trainer at SeaWorld, finally said enough was enough and quit.
John Hargrove insists that his relationships to the Orcas were very deep, meaningful, and he had a profound love for them, but in his words, ‘…love isn’t enough. It doesn’t mean that’s right or make the situation OK”. He feels that up until 2012 he was programmed enough to defend this corporation because he believed in its mission.
That slowly started to change over time. He had his own dance with death while training and suffered many injuries on the job. That wasn’t what did it though. It was the injuries and deaths of fellow trainers and how those situations were handled.
When Alexis Martinez was killed and it was brushed under the rug, it sent him his first warning sign that this corporation may claim to have their trainer’s safety in mind, but when it comes down to it, they don’t. Two days after Martinez was killed, John was back in the water. He and the other trainers were never told the extent of Martinez’s injuries and their bosses never pulled them out of the water to do a safety evaluation as they claimed to the media they had.
Then just two months later Dawn Brancheau was killed by another orca and became the subject of a documentary titled, Blackfish. Around the time of these deaths, OSHA held a hearing on the dangers of being orca trainers and SeaWorld testified under oath that they had no idea the trainers had dangerous jobs.
At that point, John knew this was a soul-less corporation who cared for nothing but profits. People are expendable and these poor whales who suffer every day are only swimming dollar signs.
John explains the horrors these poor creatures endure and at no time blames them for their aggressive behaviors. These orcas went through periods of days without food, forced inbreeding, and they would heartlessly separate mother from calf. The mother would haunt the empty tanks for days calling out for her lost child.
It’s absolutely cruel. SeaWorld in the face of all this, still are willing to fight to the death to keep these magnificent and emotionally intelligent creatures confined and force them to perform regardless of how sad and unstable they are becoming. These animals are bored and heartstricken for the lives they distantly remember or the freedom they know in their heart they should have.
This article is really trying to spread the world on this horrific treatment and are advocating for the release of all orcas held captive by corporate entities. They hope to someday have them released to seaside sanctuaries as they would no longer be able to survive in the wild.
‘I Was Disgusted’: How One Trainer Left The SeaWorld Horror Show By Melissa Cronin, The Dodo
Native American Genocide
Now it’s been a little while since I’ve been in high school, but from what I remember being taught about American history…I never once heard my books describe what early settlers did to the Native Americans as genocide, but it certainly is fitting. Not only did early settlers band out to take land, resources, and personal liberties from the Native Americans they also took their lives.
It’s been pointed out that many of them died from European illnesses they had no immunity to, but that aside, early American settlers did successfully dwindle Native American populations. I live near a couple reservations here in Western New York and I can tell you personally they do not have much land and what they do have is such a disgrace and it’s not their fault, even today in modern times.
Here’s how it works here. Native Americans are allowed to have a tax free area to live on. Since they do not pay taxes, they do not have state agencies to assist them. Meaning, they have to patrol their own roads for speeders and the like. “Our” plow trucks do plow the roads in the winter, but that’s mainly because their roads that are heavily used by the tax payers. Tax payers that know they can speed right on through because there is little enforcement.
On top of that, since there is no real law enforcement from “the outside”, many Native Americans on the reservation cannot get mortgages. The reasoning behind that is simple, if the owner defaults on the loan, the bank will not be able to enforce a foreclosure. So, this leaves many of them in dilapidated homes with their extended families.
There are a few really nice homes that you will see when you drive on through and they are the higher ups that work at the casinos we have here in Niagara Falls. They can afford to pay cash for a home to be built. It’s very sad, but this is what it’s reduced to and they don’t teach this in schools either.
The College Board decided that students needed to learn about Native American genocide and it obviously was not very well received. America has always been taught as a country that is better than everyone else because we stand for democracy, equality, and justice. We are a country built on these wonderful ideals of freedom.
How many of us are truly free? If we are being taught to never question the sources of information that are fed to us when we are young, what type of people are we raising to lead our country? Deluded narcissistic politicians who will fight for the American way of life without really looking at what’s going on.
That mentality has led us to where we are today. Thank goodness we are on the precipice of change because this cycle needed to end so very badly.
The Native American Genocide and the Teaching of US History By Tanya H. Lee, Truthout
We are far greater beings than we have been told, far greater beings than most of us realize.
In Light and Love,
Lindsey