Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke

 

For those of you who are not familiar with her, Winona LaDuke is the Executive Director of a group called Honor the Earth.

Last week they began a new campaign  called   “Love Water, Not Oil,”  that is vital, no critical,  to all Americans, not  just Native Americans.

What Fracking and Oil pipelines have done and will continue to do to the environment of this country, should be high on everybody’s agenda.

Once our water supplies and land are contaminated, it will take thousands of years to make them safe again.

Hopefully, you will keep this in mind, when you go to the polls to Vote this week and next:

” which candidates are supporting Fracking and Oil Pipelines and which ones are opposed to them? “

The condition of the water and land that you will  have this time next year depends on it.

Here is a brief Bio that I wrote about Winona several years ago.

She was and is,  an amazing woman, that I have the utmost respect for.

A side note that I find interesting about Winona, she and Robert Redford share the same birthday, August 18th!

Winona LaDuke at Dream Reborn Conference  April 6, 2008
Picture credit: Eclectek

 

Winona LaDuke, who was born in 1959 and grew up in Los Angeles,  is Anishinabe/Anishinaabekwe – Ojibwe and an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg of the Makwa Dodaem – Bear Clan of the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota.

Her father, an Ojibwe was a supporting actor in westerns as well as an Indian activist and her mother, a Russian Jew from New York, was an art professor.

As a teenager LaDuke addressed the United Nations on mining issues.

After graduating from Harvard in 1982, she took a position as the principal of the High School on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

LaDuke is a Program Director of the Honor the Earth Fund and works nationally to promote and assist Native Environmental groups.

She is a Founding Director for White Earth Land Recovery Project: a reservation-based non-profit organization focusing on land, cultural and environmental issues.

LaDuke co-chairs the Indigenous Women’s Network and is Program Director of the Environmental Program at the Seventh Generation Fund.

LaDuke ran with Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000 as his Vice-Presidential candidate for the Green Party and worked to increase Native American voter registration and activism.

She has written on environmental racism and is the author of several books including: Last Standing Woman and  All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life

LaDuke spoke at the International Women’s Conference in Beijing, China on August 31, 1995.

Read excerpts from her speech

LaDuke teaches courses on Native Environmentalism at the University of Minnesota and other colleges and has campaigned for the reduction of nuclear waste.

In 1994, she was named by Time Magazine as one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age.

She currently lives with her two children on the White Earth Reservation.

 

Places to learn more:

Native Americans Launch ‘Love Water Not Oil’ Ride To Protest Fracking Pipeline

Winona LaDuke – Wikipedia

Honor the Earth Website

Winona’s Facebook Page

Love Water Not Oil

First Nation Ride For Mother Earth Forms Norwegian/Indian Alliance

An Interview with Winona LaDuke

Honor the Earth – Wikipedia

 

Enough Already!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE Politics, all Politics!

So for me to be driven, forced and bullied into creating a NEW Blog about this abhorred, loathed and despised subject, something BIG must have happened.

Well it did.

It seems to me that we, the public, the common people, the ones who pay all of the bills for this Government that appears to have more time off, than any other employees in the world, have little, or no say in what Politicians do, or don’t do.

After more than a week of daily phone abuse, yesterday was the very last straw, I could take no more.

Can you say Political ROBO calls?

Spending hours  on the phone with various Government Agencies and our Phone Company yielded ZERO results, because you see, no one is breaking any laws.

So, yesterday, I vented my fury over the complete lack of any semblance of control in our own home and began this NEW Political Blog:   http://politicalpanderings.wordpress.com/

As you will immediately gather by the graphics and appearance, yes it is somewhat satirical!

My hope is, that if you feel the same way, you will come and lend your voice, to what will be a Word Press version of a Blogging Smack Down, until Election Day in November.

If we are truly a country born of Freedom and Democracy, shouldn’t that include our right to peace in our own homes?

Am I the only one who is tired of being the whipping post for a few powerful politicians, who it seems, answer to no one?

They fear no form of legal reprisal and are running amuck at our expense, literally.

Reading the first post on this NEW Blog, should explain everything.

But for now, Enough Already!

 

 

50 Years of Extraordinary Service

Lake County Supervisor of Elections: Emogene Stegall
Picture credits: Lake County

 

Years ago, when we first came to Lake County Florida, we discovered a very active local political group.

The political demographics are not of importance, as we were each at that time, from different ones.

But we had met and liked a couple at a local rally and they invited us to come look them over.

We did and found some we thought were of like minds, so became a part of their group.

Eventually we started going to all kinds of events, meetings and fund-raisers in the area and one of the very nicest people that we had the pleasure of  meeting,  on what was to become a regular basis, was someone it turned out, was a most remarkable person.

As it turned out, Emogene Stegall was the Lake County Supervisor of Elections.

This position was,  in and of itself,  quite an impressive accomplishment, but you see, this is a position that this amazing woman has held for the past fifty years.

Yes, 50 years!

Most people do not stay at their jobs for 50 weeks, let alone for 50 years.

So, Mrs. Stegall became an instant favorite to run into where ever we happened to be on our political journey in Lake County.

It is most unlikely, that anyone could ever top,  or even come close to her long list of achievements here.

Emogene has been recently recognized for her lifetime, or 50 years of service as the Lake County Election Supervisor and a beautiful story accompanied her  picture in our local paper, the Leesburg Daily Commercial.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall if this inspirational woman ever does her memoirs!

One can  only imagine the many great stories that she could tell of her years in this Office.

Did I mention that Emogene was ALWAYS perfectly dressed?

She was simply first class when it came to her public appearance and maintained a persona that matched the extremely important Office that she held.

Regretfully, the many wonderful pictures that we had of her and our many encounters, were lost last Fall in Indiana, when both of our laptops were stolen while we were there on vacation.

These personal pictures showed the  joyful,  warm and kind person that we were grateful and lucky to know.

Congratulations Emogene on celebrating 50 years of the best service that Lake County will ever receive from ANY employee!

What the future holds for Mrs. Stegall is yet to be determined, one thing is for  sure, Emogene will do it perfectly, just as she always has!

 

A lovely tribute to her is here:

Stegall recognized for a half century of service