You, Need Green Onion Oil.

Yes, You. 

You need green onion oil, and I will tell you why. 

This week is the first of a few where the markets will be selling fresh onions with of massive green tops. Farmers usually let the tops wither before processing, but leave them on in the farmers markets in the early summer. I don't blame them, it looks great. I actually prefer the flavor of green onions/ the tops, to the bulbs. 

I would say this saves me from having to buy green onions, but I grow wild Alaskan onions in my yard, so I rarely need to buy green onions in the summer time. When I bought three onions one Saturday I realized I had more green onion than I could use before it rotted. I really hate food waste. 

What we eat affects the function of our body. Onions are traditional medicine in all indigenous cultures where onions thrive. They have been used to treat colds, cough, sore throats and fever. From a western medicine perspective we have determined that they are high in anti-oxidants, reduce inflammation, and lower cholesterol. Onions grow well here in Alaska, and are good choice for growing on your own and "putting up" for winter. You can also support local farmers and get them at markets or from friends like I do. 

 

So why do you need green onion oil? I have mentioned the nutrition and medicinal uses, and how we can support local food practices. However, the primary reason to make it is the amazing flavor and utility of the oil. If you want the taste of light green onion in your cooking all winter, pull this lovely green oil out to sauté any vegetable. The smell on the kitchen when it hits a hot pan is amazing. It can be used in any recipe that calls for olive oil that you want to add a green onion flavor to.  My favorite use is the surprise presentation of Green Eggs and Ham in the morning. I fry the eggs in the olive oil, and they are green. In our version, we serve up bacon as our ham. Don't judge. 

I gently ask that you share the Green Eggs and Ham utility to anyone you share the oil with!  Its a lovely gift for your foody friends. They will ask you for it year after year if they don't start making it themselves. 

Ingredients:

Green Onion Tops. 

These can be from chives, wild green onions, tops from fresh onions from the Saturday Market, or green onions from the Grocery store.

Olive Oil. I use Organic Extra Virgin

Equipment:

• Knife 
• Cutting Board
• Blender
• Two bowls to collect oil.
•  Cheese cloth-Jelly bag- or half of an old tee shirt with a colander.  
• 2 Glass Jars
• 2 Sealable plastic bags. I use one gallon bag and one quart bag in my large batches.  
• Optional-Gravy separator- Turkey Baster 

Method:

Take the green onion source you have chosen, and coarsely chop. Place the green onion in the blender. Do not compress.  Poor your olive oil into the blender, filling the blender to half the height of the loose greens. Puree the oils and onion. The emulsion will become cloudy. Blend until you feel the slurry become warm. 

Let the oil sit for an hour or so. Blend once more for 30 seconds for good measure. 

Separate out the solids.   

Squeezed Green onion oil and Juice
Before Separation. 

Pour the slurry into your jelly bag or like I do most often, just line a colander with half an old t-shirt (clean) and allow to drain for an hour or so. I will lightly stir the slurry after the first hour, pulling the plant matter away from the cloth. After the second hour, remove the catchment bowl. This oil is going to be your "pristine" oil that should last you through the winter if you don't use it too much. 

Place second catchment bowl under colander. In my case I now gather up the corners of my shirt remnant and start to twist and squeeze to get the rest of the fluids out.  In the "squeezed" batch you will get much more water and the oil is greener and stronger. It has more plant particulates and will go rancid more quickly than the pristine oil. The "squeeze" oil I keep for myself. It will give you the greenest eggs. The pristine oil I put up for winter and give as gifts. 

Separate the liquids. 

Here you get to choose your method of separation. I have tried  multiple methods. A gravy separator was the first, and I felt it just didn't separate well. There always was water left, or too much oil poured off. You must get rid of the water because it will speed the spoiling of your oil. Another method was using a ladle or turkey baster to get the oil off the top vs the water from the bottom. This took too long, and still was fiddly. Then I thought about a straw to suck out the onion juice... but no. The most precise and effective method I have found was using the baggies. If you feel uncomfortable using them, I completely understand. There are other methods available. But filling the bag, sealing it, tilting the bag so the water collects in a corner is very efficient. 

I process the "pristine" oil first. I prepare my collection containers close to each other before I cut the corner; a small one to catch the onion juice, and the larger to catch the clean oil. It needs to be a tiny hole at first to drain off the juice. Then I just pinch off the flow once the oil has started to exit and move the baggie over my primary collection container. The juice can also go down the sink if you don't want it, but its great to put in stock or to freeze into cubes you can add to recipes later. If you do keep it, be sure to label it.  

The onion solids you have left should not be thrown away. I put mine in a sealable container and use a tablespoon at a time in recipes. Its a green fibery paste. It is a nice addiction to salads, like a pesto, great for sautéing and stir fries. It has held a month in the refrigerator with great fresh flavor. In the freezer it has maintained flavor for 2 years so far. The oil works as a preservative. 

Below I took a picture to show the difference between the pure olive oil, the pristine, and the squeezed oil. You can mix the squeezed and pristine oil if you are going to use it all right away. But I recommend keeping them separate if you plan to use the oil through the winter. I recommend refrigeration of the oil, and freezing is even safe for easily a year.  I have left mine out a few days at a time when I have mistaken my Onion oil with my store bought oil, and it has been fine. It has only gone rancid on me when left out in a cabinet for months. It was very sad. So learn from my mistakes. 

Right is Clean EV Olive Oil
Bottom is Pristine Oil-No squeeze
Top is squeezed Oil

Please go out and get your onions and have some fun!! 

Black Lives Matter Banner Dedication

This Sunday, our Fellowship officially dedicated our Black Lives Matter Banner on the outside of our building. We had finished the second of our White Supremacy teach-ins the week before. I was asked to speak at the dedication ceremony.

Below is what I had written to share. 

........
10/22/17
We are standing here today,  in a working-class neighborhood,  in one of the most diverse communities in this country, on the weekend of the annual Alaska Federation of Natives, in the land of the Dena'ina people,

We are Unitarian Universalists, and we are well-meaning people, lead by our conviction of the First Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person. We believe in it, and we believe in taking action towards that end. 

In accordance with that principle, we have been asked by the national UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) to join with them, in hanging a banner in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is an outward symbol of the work we are doing as UU's to acknowledge systemic racism and to dismantle White Supremacy. This is not a comfortable time, and this is not easy work.

I am a UU because I want to be aligned with you people. We are a fellowship of people who champion social justice. We believe all lives matter. That is who we are. We wouldn't have it as our first principle if we were not serious, and didn't believe that it was an unmet ideal in society. Since we believe all lives matter, we stand with the Black Lives Matter Movement. I will say it again. We believe that all lives matter, and that is why we stand with the Black Lives Matter Movement. 

When I participated in the second BLM march, here in Anchorage, I heard the chant, "All lives matter", and I became very nervous for our safety. I had my 9-year-old daughter with me, and there were many other children. I thought we were being met by counter-protesters with bullhorns. But the people with the bullhorns were the leaders in the BLM march. I believe it was: Call. "Whose lives matter?" Response. "All Lives Matter!" Then together. "Black Lives Matter Also."  

Our friends in the BLM movement believe all lives matter, they are fighting for the first principle. When I hear someone say "All lives matter," I give an "Amen."  We may have a discussion after that, but I am clear. That is why we stand, that is why we kneel, that is why we march, that is why we hang our banner and support BLM, because our Black brothers and sisters do not feel that their lives are valued equally. That is not their experience. 

We know that we don't live in a country of liberty and justice for all. We know that people of color, indigenous people, people who express their gender and sexuality counter to the majority, people in poverty, and people with disabilities do not get to realize their potential. 
They do not get to realize their potential, and they surely do not live in this magical world of Liberty and Justice for all that we pledge allegiance to.  There is a dissonance between what we see, and what we pledge. But that is why we are here. 

National UU asked us to do this work, around dismantling white Supremacy and asked us to hang a banner in support of Black Lives Matter. We have done that. It was hard, and we have made some mistakes. We have hurt some of our own, and we have more work to do. 

In reference to our mistakes. As a white person, living on this stolen land, I think we should have given more value to the voices calling for equal representation of First Nation people. 

It should be known, that Native Lives Matter is a national movement that stands alone. It started in 2014 in response to and Solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. It represents all recognized and unrecognized Native American tribes, Native Hawaiians,  and Native Pacific Islanders.  They believe that the US cannot achieve social and racial equality without the vocal inclusion of its original inhabitants. The NLM movement has not gotten the press and the backlash that the Black Lives Matter movement has. I suspect that the Native Lives Matter movement is not as threatening to the establishment because there are fewer voices. There are strong voices within the First Alaskans community, but they aren't carrying far. We need to amplify their voices by adding our voices in support of our Native born brothers and sisters. Now is the perfect time. 

The leadership of BLM and NLM know that this is the same fight. They stood together in Standing Rock, they stood together in Ferguson. Each standing as a pillar in the struggle for justice.  Just as Oligarchy, the War Economy, and White Supremacy go hand in hand; They maintain power and control together.  The warriors of Black Lives Matter, and Native Lives Matter, march arm in arm, supporting each other, working together. They stand together, march together,  kneel together and fight together. We are not diluting anything by standing behind them and supporting them. 

Our culture was built on white supremacy, slavery, genocide, and the delusion of manifest destiny. So why weren't we asked to do similar work for Native Lives Matter? There could be many reasons, but I suspect the greatest is that there aren't as many voices. Our forefathers were very effective in their genocide and social suppression: too successful at breaking families, cultural ties, and spirit. 

I believe that in Anchorage Alaska, on the land of the Denaina, where poverty, homelessness, and violence are felt the heaviest on our hosts, we need to do more than stand with Black Lives Matter. We also need to stand and support our First Nations citizens in their struggle to survive and thrive. Since their voice is not carrying as loud or as strong, we need to advocate. We need to work, we need to make more connections, and strengthen our relationships, to help raise their voices. 

I believe that we can and should take up the call to hang a second banner or another meaningful action that resonates with our First Nations members. If we must measure; We know our first nation's people suffer more in poverty, violence, and oppression. On this day, they cannot be forgotten or made to feel they are forgotten.  Their fight needs to be our fight.

We decided, as a national organization and as a Fellowship, that the BLM movement is just, and appropriate. We were asked to act, and we did. I propose that we use our voices to take this call back to National. In our work to dismantle white Supremacy, we should give equal acknowledgment, equal focus, and equal support to First Nations people in our country.  

I, as a UU, a white person, born in poverty, another victim of the Oligarchy, I will stand behind Native Persons, and Persons of Color when they ask me to. 

We are not a country that stands for liberty and justice for all. But that my friends, is worth fighting for. It is worth marching for, it is worth kneeling for.  As long as we, as good, loving people, keep talking and listening to each other, we will be ok. We must trust in each other that we are all working together. 

We are standing on Denaina land in Solidarity with UUA in solidarity today with Black Lives Matter. We are patriots, we are Americans. We are the Anchorage Unitarian Universalists. We believe in Liberty and Justice for All. 

Impeachment March.

Today I am reaching out to fellow activists. I am asking you to help organize The Impeachment March. There is one being organized for July... I think that is a little late. How about you?

We have been organizing from day one working up to this event; with the Women's March, the March for Science, Black Lives Matter, Earth Day, the Climate March, the Indivisible actions, and so many others. We are on point, moving forward, towards our target.

When we strike, the evidence and path will need to be bulletproof, and it isn't, yet. We will leave that to the people in Washington. When they do their job and impeachment proceedings have been initiated, we will do ours; We will march.

To have a legal organized march, we need a permit. In most states we need a month lead time to get one. We won't have a date to base permitting on. So we need to do this march differently.

I propose an organized convergence, the biggest flash mob ever seen. We organize cells in our communities; in our neighborhoods, our churches, schools, parks, and community centers. From our cells we will march along sidewalks, and trail systems; and converge together in a designated community meetup point and rally. We will blast it on Twitter, Facebook, Emails, and News Organizations, the day before and the day of. People who haven't heard of our plans will join us.

We don't need funds and permits. We need organization, communication, cooperation and preparation. We need the biggest resistance groups to come together to help us plan. It is elegant, and simple.

We will March, and we will show our strength, solidarity, and resolve. The Impeachment March will roll with the time zones across the country. We will be the show of force and numbers that convince our leaders to stay strong and not waiver in their responsibility, We Will Be the nail in the coffin.

In Alaska, I am asking for the help of the sisters and brothers that marched across the state for the Women's March and March for Science. I am asking for the activists and partners in AKClue, and Alaskans Stronger together. Nationally I hope we can partner with the Indivisible, ACLU, NAACP, MoveOn, Black Lives Matter, Earth Day, and Planned Parenthood.

When we make the tweet, and activate phone and email trees, it will start.

We will move, we will March, we will congregate. We will show that we are done waiting. We are no longer going to be ignored. We will not just be the majority that did not win; we will be a highly visible, awoken, strident, standing and marching super majority.

It will take us all.

Lets be the nail in the coffin.

When we are done, and he is gone, we will adjust our sights to flip congress. But this comes first.

We have a world to love, wounds to heal, and communities to save from the Oligarchy.

Let's get to work.

Where do we go from here? We must move forward.

I saw this video today, KTVA Live Post of March for Science, Anchorage. I was running logistics for the event, and was not able to really listen to the speakers, so I was excited to catch some of what I'd missed. Let me first say, this is a great opportunity to hear Mayor Ethan Burkowtiz's speech. It is worth listening too. 
However, I found myself getting frustrated while listening to Eric Ruble interview the crowd. First, he fed a couple people the line, "you are here because of Trump." Trump was just riding the wave, he is a figurehead. We are fighting so more than just him. It is a nice tool to feed people the line you want them to parrot back at you, but I am glad to say it didn't work. They spoke their own words. 



Another thing that irritated me was a question he asked a few times about choosing between environmental concerns and jobs. People had a hard time stating why they felt the environment was "more important." One person stated that we could have both. I was glad to hear that, but wanted to hear so much more. It can be hard to think on the spot, I have avoided many interviews this year because of my fear of getting it wrong on video. However, on paper I can be very clear. 
To be asked to choose between jobs and environment doesn't make sense. It is a false equivalence.  We are being fed the line of equivalence in too many places, and too many people are swallowing it.  Even if it were an honest question, there could be better compromise than what the current administration is offering. 
It is not an either-or issue. It never has been. Either/or is a talking point, which is about an agenda of making certain corporations richer. Either/or is about dividing our country. It is scam being played on us, it's not real. 
I am frustrated that people don't know that solar power employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil combined in our country. That is not an alternative fact. 
I say again: Solar power employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. 
That can become the reality here in Alaska as well. We have wind, sun, and tidal flow to draw on here. We need to change the narrative that we are an extraction state. We don't have to be. We can be so much more. We are so much more. 
The biggest employer in the state is Providence. Our largest oil production company, BP, doesn’t even show up on the list until number seven of the top 50 employers in the state. Of the top 50, there are only 8 that are extraction resource based, and that includes the service companies. BP and Conoco employ about 3500 employers directly in our state economy. What percentage of those even live and spend money here? 
We don't need to be shaking in our boots that they are going to leave or desert us. Yes we are currently dependent, but we don't have to stay dependent. 
Renewable energy technology is completely functional and working right now in forward thinking communities all over the world. It's getting better all the time. And what are we doing? We are doubling down on yesterdays answers. Keeping our feet in this magical past where America was great. It is a devastating mistake. The future of energy production is renewables, period.

Other countries are going to beat us into the ground in renewable technologies. They know we are killing ourselves, poisoning ourselves, because of our dependence on the dole of the oil companies. They will have no competition from us. We are cutting off the knees of renewable energy companies, and literally paying the fossil fuel industry to stay and continue with their destructive technologies. We are paying the 1% to keep getting richer. 
We have the technology to make money with cleaner energy sources, we just have to choose the make the switch. There will be a hell of a lot of jobs involved in this. 
Unfortunately we are reluctant to change from what we know. We are reticent to act to protect future generations. We are left standing in obstinance, and fear which are predicated on false nostalgia of our country's past. We are doing the opposite of making America great. We are dragging ourselves backwards instead of moving forward. We are doubling down on a worn out bet, making ourselves more dependent on a failing system. 

We are the country of the first car, the first plane, the first humans on the moon, pc's, Apple, and the internet. We have done so much in the past, and we can do more.
We must look beyond this idyllic falsified idea of greatness that has us standing still in time, or trying to turn back. Let's turn away from that past, and move on to an amazing future. We have the technology to harness the energy of the sun, the moon, and movement. We already employ more people in these technologies then in extraction technologies. Lets keep moving forward. 
Move, change, learn, work, grow, work some more; then accept the gifts that will come.
The future is bright and clear if we make the choices to make it so. The options are out there. 
Get educated on renewable's. They are the science and economy of the future, if we want a future.
I want that future, and I am fighting for it. 

Team Building Struggles

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How will your garden grow?"

In the aftermath of the election there has been an explosion of energy and life. Seeds of resistance are sprouting everywhere. It has been heartening to see and experience. So many of us have stepped in and stepped up to civic activism. I believe we want to do more than just bloom, like the flowers in the California desert after so much rain. We want to do more than look pretty and die.
Most plants have phyto-chemicals; toxins, that actively kill other non-self plants. It gives them more room for growth, and reduces competition for nutrients. It is self preservation.
As our seeds are taking root, we are finding similar growths in competition with us. We have to decided if we want to work with, or against the others, what do we want to spend our energy fighting against? I believe most of us want to protect our planet, protect science, protect civil rights, and our constitution. I hope that it is enough that we can feel each other as similar. I hope that we can resist the urge to use our tools of self preservation on one another.
I am new to the scene of civic activism, other than behind the scenes. I am not new to group projects, and how difficult they can be to get through. But the group projects we are working on now have higher stakes than grades. We are trying to protect our planet, our country, and our families. I am very disturbed at how quickly people are turning against their team members.
We are not all going to have the same techniques, the same methods, and not all of the same values. However I believe we have enough in common to put in effort to work together. Right now I am seeing effective, strong people; insult, undermine, and exclude people that they don't work well with. I am seeing a lot of dividing and conquering in teams. The Machiavellian mechanization's could be comic, if it weren't for the stakes.
Insulting, undermining, and excluding are not very sophisticated forms of teamwork. It is effective to help amass control. You can get to your end goal. I just hope that we can have more value in each other. Human's can discuss concerns and disagreements. People can be managed, effective teams can be put together. We don't have to resort to back biting and undermining.
I don't want to have to step away because I can't stand the site of blood in the water. We should be working to lift each other up. Yes, divide and conquer can be very effective in strategy an battle, but we should not be battling each other.
Can we see each others as similar enough that we hold the toxins, hold the back biting and undermining, and try out different methods of conflict resolution and team building? The seeds growing next to you that are different than you could be helpful. Those around us with similar goals can be great allies. We really we do all have the same goals right now.
The differences are minimal. They can be worked through. This should be bigger than our egos, and concern about how "we look." We are people that have not worked together before. There will be difficulties, there will be poor communication. Some people won't work well together, It will happen.
We have to decided if we want to work with, or against the "others." What do we want to spend our energy fighting against? Can we see the person that is annoying us as an ally? Can we see the person that made a mistake as a colleague worthy of communication? Can we listen to words of people vs words repeated from another person?
Insulting, undermining, excluding; divide and conquer- they are effective. They will take you far. But please consider using your energy in team building. We need all the allies we can get in this battle. 
How will our garden grow?

In Defense of the Affordable Care Act.

I spoke a few weeks ago at the ACA rally here in Anchorage.

Below is an edited version of some of my reasons for supporting the ACA.

My name is Jeanna Duryee. I am a veteran of the US Army where I honorably served during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I went to school using the GI Bill, scholarships, and Student loans. I graduated from the University of Southern California in 2001 with my doctorate in Physical Therapy. I have been living and working in Alaska as a Physical Therapist since 2002.
I own an outpatient PT clinic. That means I treat people who need PT, but are not sick or disabled enough to be hospitalized or stuck in their home. I treat Alaskans from five years old, to 95 years old: People who have had accidents falling on the ice, in car accidents, or are hurt on the job. I work with people who have diseases that limit their capacity to move, work, and care for themselves or others. It is a very good job.
Many offices do not take Medicaid and Medicare patients. I do, because it is the right thing to do. Since I accept Medicaid, when many don’t, close to 50% of my patients are Medicaid clients. I want to tell you who those people are. I want to discuss the false narrative of the “welfare mom,” or lazy people who are working the system. I want you to know who will be losing coverage with the current plans to replace the ACA.

• I have many single parents that are working two jobs, neither job provides health care. They rely on medicaid for themselves and their children. I see injuries and pain that make it hard to get up every day and take care of themselves, let alone work 40+ hours a week. They just want to feed their families. 
• I have a client who worked as a CNA in a nursing home for 20 years, which is back breaking work. She didn’t retire with a benefits package, is too young for Medicare, but her body is broken.
• I have a patient who is in her mid forties who has been a PCA for 20 years, and her body is starting to give out. She works full time, has 3 kids, and goes to school 16 hours a week. She and her kids are on Medicaid.
• I have a client who worked 15 years as a fire jumper, and had to retire to an unrelated disease, and cumulatively, his body is broken. He is too young for Medicare, and broken.
• I have seen many who were injured on the job who are to loyal to their owners or to proud to file a worker’s comp claim. They are disabled, in pain, and can't get better to be able to find other work without medical care.
• There are many tradesmen in our state that are on Medicaid. If you aren't lucky enough to have a union job or work for the state, you have usually have no benefits. Most plumbers, electricians, and construction workers have no health care. 
• I even have had union patients who have paid me out of their own pockets or with barter, because they didn’t have coverage because of injuries incurred in between their contract work. 

Many business owners say, "laborers are like trucks, you run them till they die, then you get a new one."
Well, when the laborers “die” or when their bodies are too broke to work anymore, they have a lot of life left in them. Think about it. If you started work at 20, and you are "lucky" to work 25 years, that makes you 45 years old. That is 20 years out from qualifying for medicare. You might be able to find a low wage part time job to help you feed your family, but those jobs don't offer insurance either.
These are Alaskans in heart and spirit. They are Americans. They are hard working and proud. They do not deserve to be abandoned to sit crippled in their homes and rot, while their families fall into poverty. They deserve to be seen and treated. They deserve our respect, they deserve our protection, they deserve health care. These are Alaskans I am proud to call my friends and neighbors.

People who have health care because they have a full time job with benefits are not any better people than the people on Medicaid. They are not any more deserving of mobility and pain relief. Our brothers and sisters who are on Medicaid need their coverage desperately, because it is part of a fragile network that allows them to work and feed their families.

The ACA as bogeyman is a false narrative. It has been a talking point target demonized. It is a rallying cry. It was almost a mob-mentality the last 4 years in congress trying to take it down. It has faults, but those can be amended. You don’t have to blow up a bridge if you don’t like it’s structure.  Blowing up a bridge might feel good. But to blow up a bridge while people are crossing, trying to save their lives, Who does that? It is ugly, and vengeful.

We can fix the ACA. It is the right thing to do. Our Alaskan brothers and sisters deserve better than what is being offered by congress now, which will affect all of us. There are arbitrary caps on care, funding slashed, countless Alaskans will be plain and simply cut off the roles. There safety net from falling into abject poverty and homelessness will be gone.
You aren't safe from harm if you have insurance already. In Alaska each filer will loose an average of $10,000 in tax credits. This is twice what the next state's citizens would loose at $5,000.

Americans and Alaskans, our brothers and sisters, all of us deserve better. They ACA can and should be amended. We don’t have to blow up the bridges. We don’t have to destroy our people, and cannibalize each other. There is money out there, we just need to decide what our priorities are.

Please let us amend the ACA, and make a health care system that is not rated last in the industrialized nations. Let's make health care a right, not a privilege. Lets continue to work for Liberty and Justice, for All.

Civil Unity I

So am I getting an education in my social activism. I have long been a quiet activist for social justice. Since the election I felt that my quiet activism was not enough.

I recently took up supporting and promoting a commemoration of the American Civil Rights movement. In the process I have learned the term "civil rights" does not mean the same thing to every one. So I looked it up.

• civ·il rights noun: the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality

That is what I always have understood. It runs with my mantra: Liberty,and Justice, For all. However it does not necessarily run parallel with the Civil Rights Movement in many people's minds. The civil rights movement is more about the history of oppression and activism of African American's in our country that lead to the historic Civil Rights act of 1965. Which is not that long ago. The wounds of that time are real. The wounds of today are real. The Civil Rights Act is for the protection of all Americans, and came to us from the hard work of African Americans and their Allies. 

I am a white women, and limited in my world view by my experience walking through my life in privilege. My experience might be broader than the average white woman. I grew up very poor, with a mentally ill parent. I joined the military, and met people from all over the world. I have lived in a community where I was a minority for three years, I have traveled and visited five different countries, I have been called poor white trash, and a nasty white girl. I have seen the results of  racism in the uneven application of violence and incarceration to people of color in law enforcement in my country, I have lived through mass shootings in my country the worst being the Pulse night club massacre. 

When I look at all of the data of who is at the most risk of violence and discrimination in my country, it is very clear that people of color, and people of the LGTBQ community are the most at risk of murder. So the intersection of LGTBQ people of color are those who have the greatest need for civil rights protection. They are the most vulnerable, and live the most in fear. They are not a side note. They are not a tic mark box of inclusion. It is not about political correctness. For me it is about standing up for civil rights and civil liberties for my fellow human beings. I can not represent women of color. I can represent myself, a white woman, and the Anchorage Women's March. They are clear. I am clear. We will only associate ourselves with events that place LGBTQ heroes parallel with all others. 

We are in dark times for civil rights in our country. We are all under attack. We need to stand together if we are going to be effective, we can not afford to alienate powerful allies. In this town, the pride parade festivities had 10,000 attendees. That is a very powerful contingent of people. They know how to fight. We need their help if we are going to be successful at protecting health care, protecting our environment, protecting civil rights, and protecting our reproductive rights. My goal is that we move forward together in solidarity, in synergy. 

I will stand behind my sisters of color. I will give all the support I can. I will step away from those that will not support and fight with the LGBTQ community. I will stand behind those that will be inclusive.