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THE REBIRTH OF THE MISSION to CARE
I hatched the idea of harassing the police state mentality of Measure Z ( A Humboldt County 'Public Safety' tax Fund), by offering something to that fraud that would actually enhance the security of my SoHum community.
My partner Kathy Epling re-baptized my rather passive aggressive offering with a larger vision she dubbed The Respite Center – a stable place which would be a sanctuary for the at risk and vulnerable proliferating on the streets of SoHum and America. No go. Now Debra Carey has taken this vision to the very heart of Nonprofit-dom and has been refused. SoHum? Where’s that?
Now we have it anyhow: The Epling-Hurst Respite Center. We are doing it on our own and we want you in on it too. We have rented the building on Briceland Road across from Redway Feed. It had been a Church, one of the many dead and dying Churches which were – and are - more concerned with assuring the damned of their place in hell than in providing an example of a Gospel led life. Heaven is for the Saved only and the ticket is on the numbers of your bank account. Ask the followers of Reagan and his disciple, Trump. This Sharia Christianity is the perfect state religion of Trump which has nothing to do with the power of “God’s love.” It is a scheme for exclusion where Hell, thankgod, is still functioning overtime; but it is in the street now, reserved to provide suffering for the poor, the helpless, the traumatized. No problem here: the Sharia Calvinists reject - on principle - good works in favor of a faith devoid of actions where Jesus is not a living presence but a sort of Wizard of Oz, floating on a cloud and armed with thunderbolts to punished the enemies of their domestic Sharia .
Well, the Respite Center could be called Gospel Action: you know, feed, clothe, heal, minister. But none of us really wants to hang the dead weight of Christianity around our necks. If anything we are postChristian and if we minister with religious authority it is the mockish authority given to us by the old sixties Universal Life Church where all members are ministers! We are quite at home therefore with Buddhism’s mission to save all sentient beings. That’s a religion that’s ecological enough for what’s coming down the road.
But we do respect our building’s old namesake: St. Andrew. He was a hip guy right enough, a follower of John the Baptist and the first to recognize Jesus for the conduit of love that he was. St. Andrew brought along that powerhouse of a brother, St. Peter. The game was afoot. And us CHILLers (CHILL= Community Help In Living Locally) are still in it: unafraid to call on the spirit in this time of need. You know the drill – our backs are against the wall as a community, but the spirit - and we hope Kathy - has our backs. We want your backing now.
Support the Respite Center, contact Debra Carey at povertysnotacrime@yahoo.com or me,
Paul Encimer at encimer@hotmail.com
I hatched the idea of harassing the police state mentality of Measure Z ( A Humboldt County 'Public Safety' tax Fund), by offering something to that fraud that would actually enhance the security of my SoHum community.
My partner Kathy Epling re-baptized my rather passive aggressive offering with a larger vision she dubbed The Respite Center – a stable place which would be a sanctuary for the at risk and vulnerable proliferating on the streets of SoHum and America. No go. Now Debra Carey has taken this vision to the very heart of Nonprofit-dom and has been refused. SoHum? Where’s that?
Now we have it anyhow: The Epling-Hurst Respite Center. We are doing it on our own and we want you in on it too. We have rented the building on Briceland Road across from Redway Feed. It had been a Church, one of the many dead and dying Churches which were – and are - more concerned with assuring the damned of their place in hell than in providing an example of a Gospel led life. Heaven is for the Saved only and the ticket is on the numbers of your bank account. Ask the followers of Reagan and his disciple, Trump. This Sharia Christianity is the perfect state religion of Trump which has nothing to do with the power of “God’s love.” It is a scheme for exclusion where Hell, thankgod, is still functioning overtime; but it is in the street now, reserved to provide suffering for the poor, the helpless, the traumatized. No problem here: the Sharia Calvinists reject - on principle - good works in favor of a faith devoid of actions where Jesus is not a living presence but a sort of Wizard of Oz, floating on a cloud and armed with thunderbolts to punished the enemies of their domestic Sharia .
Well, the Respite Center could be called Gospel Action: you know, feed, clothe, heal, minister. But none of us really wants to hang the dead weight of Christianity around our necks. If anything we are postChristian and if we minister with religious authority it is the mockish authority given to us by the old sixties Universal Life Church where all members are ministers! We are quite at home therefore with Buddhism’s mission to save all sentient beings. That’s a religion that’s ecological enough for what’s coming down the road.
But we do respect our building’s old namesake: St. Andrew. He was a hip guy right enough, a follower of John the Baptist and the first to recognize Jesus for the conduit of love that he was. St. Andrew brought along that powerhouse of a brother, St. Peter. The game was afoot. And us CHILLers (CHILL= Community Help In Living Locally) are still in it: unafraid to call on the spirit in this time of need. You know the drill – our backs are against the wall as a community, but the spirit - and we hope Kathy - has our backs. We want your backing now.
Support the Respite Center, contact Debra Carey at povertysnotacrime@yahoo.com or me,
Paul Encimer at encimer@hotmail.com
GREENFUSE
Published mostly monthly, in Southern Humboldt County
& distributed through six Northcoast counties since 2000-
Until the untimely death of our Editor-in-chief who described it thus:
"Greenfuse bears witness to the love
and enduring stubbornness of a
small group of supportive, creative activist known as the:
Waking Dog Collective-
(Unlike sleeping dogs, waking dogs never lie).
The group includes a various assortment of beings,
including some actual Dogs & Cats, Ravens in the air,
and the memory of dead goldfish and humans."
And next? Post Greenfuse- A new name? A new crew? No matter what the issues continue.
Greenfuse Redux?
a new beginning, who can say?
YOU CAN.
Published mostly monthly, in Southern Humboldt County
& distributed through six Northcoast counties since 2000-
Until the untimely death of our Editor-in-chief who described it thus:
"Greenfuse bears witness to the love
and enduring stubbornness of a
small group of supportive, creative activist known as the:
Waking Dog Collective-
(Unlike sleeping dogs, waking dogs never lie).
The group includes a various assortment of beings,
including some actual Dogs & Cats, Ravens in the air,
and the memory of dead goldfish and humans."
And next? Post Greenfuse- A new name? A new crew? No matter what the issues continue.
Greenfuse Redux?
a new beginning, who can say?
YOU CAN.
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Spring 2016:
Unforeseen obstacles confounded timely publication of a hard copy paper- So for expediency- Click on Uncle Anonymous→ to read the current layout of GREENFUSE . And Check out the new FUSE FEED |
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Publishers dispatch- Winter 2015:
As you may already know, Kathy Epling died June 15. Because of this you haven’t seen a Greenfuse since May. Kathy was the editorial core of the newspaper, with a unique genius for getting to the personal heart of the matter with texts and graphics. There was no replacing what she did.
Which has put the future of Greenfuse up for grabs. But, a significant number of people from Ukiah to Arcata have responded with commitments to keep the paper going in the spirit of the Waking Dog Collective. At an Oct. 13 meeting in Garberville, the consensus was to continue on its same uncompromising radical track.
Greenfuse meant always to counter the drag of that political inertia that has culminated in the long coup of Obama’s regime and the endless war. Now more than ever a voice is needed to support the rebirth of widespread popular resistance to the status quo. The candidacy of Bernie Sanders offers a figure of popular enthusiasm as authentic as Nader. Old and new movements – Black Lives Matter, Womens’ autonomy, Climate Change, Human Rights, Banning the Billionaires – have taken center stage again.
So we are not quitting. Your payment of the enclosed bill for past advertising will serve as “start-up” money for the next incarnation of Greenfuse. I will be continuing my role as necessary in producing, printing and distributing the future Greenfuse. I will continue also to help coordinate advertising – which I hope will include your ad. More on that as we continue to shape up Greenfuse # 169.
As you may already know, Kathy Epling died June 15. Because of this you haven’t seen a Greenfuse since May. Kathy was the editorial core of the newspaper, with a unique genius for getting to the personal heart of the matter with texts and graphics. There was no replacing what she did.
Which has put the future of Greenfuse up for grabs. But, a significant number of people from Ukiah to Arcata have responded with commitments to keep the paper going in the spirit of the Waking Dog Collective. At an Oct. 13 meeting in Garberville, the consensus was to continue on its same uncompromising radical track.
Greenfuse meant always to counter the drag of that political inertia that has culminated in the long coup of Obama’s regime and the endless war. Now more than ever a voice is needed to support the rebirth of widespread popular resistance to the status quo. The candidacy of Bernie Sanders offers a figure of popular enthusiasm as authentic as Nader. Old and new movements – Black Lives Matter, Womens’ autonomy, Climate Change, Human Rights, Banning the Billionaires – have taken center stage again.
So we are not quitting. Your payment of the enclosed bill for past advertising will serve as “start-up” money for the next incarnation of Greenfuse. I will be continuing my role as necessary in producing, printing and distributing the future Greenfuse. I will continue also to help coordinate advertising – which I hope will include your ad. More on that as we continue to shape up Greenfuse # 169.
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Autumn 2015
The life & times of the Greenfuse. Waking dogs never lie. The monthly Greenfuse, was originally the product of a very short-lived newspaper committee formed during a small gathering of Green party enthusiasts in Garberville during the build up towards the momentous 2000 presidential election. For a room of die hard progressive activists, desperate to create political change, creating a newspaper seemed a natural tool towards the goal of organizing. This appeal- to create media through the consensus process of the embryonic local Green chapter was however a bit of window dressing. The torch of media publication was in fact a foregone conclusion for cultural activist Kathy Epling and Paul Encimer, For Paul and Kathy As committed peacemakers, environmentalists and humanitarians, activism had always included creating your own media. When the Greenfuse solidified as a project, Kathy was quick to take on the task of Editor-in-chief and steered the infant rag away from the purely utilitarian political screed it may have become in those heady days of Green politics. The Green Party organization was on the move, but Kathy recognized that the Green Party had no monopoly on the ideals of a peaceful, environmentally sound humanitarian future, and was reluctant to devote the work of a regular publication to simply building a party of like minded people. Her literary heart gave a soul to the project that included finding seldom heard voices, the victims of war, the eyewitness reports, innocents abroad and a diversity of thinkers, writers, and activist. With the new technology of the internet acting as a virtual wire service, the Greenfuse had no qualms about capturing relevant content where ever it could be found, adding local voices and issues, and distilling it down to say something important about people and the world that confronts them. Kathy called the production; ‘a project of the Waking dog collective.” As a founding member of that collective I can tell you now, that is an elegant fiction. There were no staff meetings beyond passionate discussion, no editorial conferences beyond casual suggestion, and no schedules beyond deadline. The Waking dog collective is a dream, a vision, the poem of a rag-tag collection of fellow travelers, an extended family of activism that swirled around Paul and Kathy’s bookstore. The actual production was in their hands, on wrinkled recycled paste-up mechanicals- old school cut and paste production, often into the wee hours to make the self imposed deadline, followed by a trek to the printer to wait while the archaic inky web press churned out another edition of inspiration and truth. I created the masthead and contributed the art that set a style that Kathy pursued with graphic internet searches. The writing I contributed for many years with a three part formula, blending: historical observation, current affairs, and personal experience, with a goal of supporting others waking interest, was always accepted cordially, but I always knew I had hit the mark and had a sense of accomplishment when editor Kathy placed my piece in a prominent position. Preaching to the choir was always given with a project like this, but the hope was always that some turn of phrase, some historical precedent, or inspiring action could temper and strengthen the leading edge of progress towards a better world, perhaps teaching that tired well rehearsed choir just a bit more about the intricacies of harmony, or intonation. Given the world we find ourselves in, the danger was always the possibility of being too depressing as the chaos of political, environmental and human tragedy played out. Personally I can attest to closing down emotionally during the spiral down the rabbit-hole that was the Bush years, and the predictable banality that followed. One can only say the same thing a few hundred different ways before it seems ridiculously futile. The political/economic reality of the game table we share is rigged beyond hope. Hence, finding hope has never been harder. Kathy is shockingly, and suddenly gone now, a local motto has been adopted: WWKD- What Would Kathy Do? Well, obviously what Kathy would do, as regards continuing the publication of the Greenfuse without Kathy, is say impossible! and so it is. But the future continues. With the dominance of the digital social media-sphere, is there still a place for inky hard copy newsprint? Why would there be? Because independent thought and voices, the kind of thought and voices that questions authority, challenges assumptions, and provide the facts, insights, and testimony that inform decisions are a basic requirement of social progress. The advent of electronic social media, and popular programming fill the need to some degree, but media literacy demands a level of awareness that recognizes that for-profit corporate organization of news and commentary product, and the way it is delivered matters. There is a reason freedom of the press is specifically named as a basic right that government may not infringe. Sharing knowledge, practicing and sharing freedom of thought, and the free trade of ideas is the power we have. As creativity narrows, so do our options. But, what if our only option is to be creative? If that is true, even if we are going to the proverbial hell-in-a-hand basket, that journey can be so much richer if we celebrate and encourage creative ideas, creative thoughts, and creative observation, and share it. Randomly acquired periodicals; zines, newpapers, journals, rags, like a synchronistic casting of a message-in-a-bottle, will always have a home amongst the aware and literate, if you have ever been inspired by found words, are a seeker of truth, a peaceful warrior, and a giver of care- you are a member of the Waking Dog Collective- pass it on. -Joshua Golden |
Kathy Epling, Editor & Co-publisher of the GREENFUSE- Poet, romantic, book lover and nurturer of plants, animals and people; regardless of their flaws, troubles or station in life. A savior of the oppressed, friend to the friendless, and tireless activist for the good and right- The closest thing to Mother Theresa Southern Humboldt had, died suddenly June 14th 2015. From: Prairie Schooner, Volume 80, Number 3, Fall 2006: The summer sun was bright sweet as licked candy those hot days Cooling our bodies in the green waters we closed our eyes. We believed even the sunlight loved us. All our games were dotted over with stars. We shone in each others light & turned & turned our hurts minor & kissed away. It has been dark now for some time shadows taking our hands. One by one our friends are not here I can't see who it is, there, far in that cold shade, the golden leaves fallen all around, such tired children, who in that darkness calls us in. -Kathy Epling. 
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