By pattrice | 26th May 2009 | Filed under
EssayOriginally published in June/July 2007 issue of Satya Magazine.
It was a typical winter night at the Eastern Shore Sanctuary, meaning I was sitting on the couch brooding about big problems while dogs chewed carrot sticks on the carpet and catnip-fueled felines chased each other around the chaotic kitchen. Some new piece of wretched information—probably something about polar bears—had punched me in the stomach. “Why aren’t people doing more about global warming?” I muttered angrily. Elder dog Zami regarded me levelly until it hit me: I am people. Why aren’t I doing more about global warming?
Feeling a bit abashed, I decided to ask the question really rather than rhetorically: Why aren’t people doing more about global warming?
Since I am people, I asked myself first.
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By pattrice | 27th Nov 2008 | Filed under
Essayby pattrice jones
First published 28 November 2006 by FreezerBox Magazine.
Throwing the homosexuals to the hounds sounds like a metaphor for the Republican Party’s electoral strategy of recent years, but it actually happened back in 1513 in what is now Panama. Then, governor Vasco Nunez de Balboa condemned 50 homosexual Indians to be torn apart by dogs.Seen by both Catholic Conquistadors and Protestant Pilgrims as a sign of godless animality, same-sex pleasure was ruthlessly suppressed throughout the process of the subjugation of the Americas. Today, the conquest of the senses continues, as billions of people and animals are forced to forgo all kinds of natural happiness so that a privileged few can enjoy the empty gluttony that has brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe.
When Columbus blundered into the Caribbean, sexual freedom — including full acceptance of homosexuality — was the norm in the region.
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