׉?ׁB!בCטFFu׉׉ 7cassandra://6lfkwFh1g_JD3sF9bXeGfkg8CvJZtqCLRJSJjDuWQ90`׉ 7cassandra://aHyNV2fNaBUxnRKeFUF96vzrR2wM2xTAQiXINoce7lUv+`h׉ 7cassandra://mUmSKspLpxsPCF0iCwTnCrfgCwIKmv0AvBDAEqAdvZI*3`׉ 7cassandra://GxoRcgmWOBzt6NIgyDf7k9oF9vuoH60kqLgzSX4pSeQZJ͠4dlZ9טFu׈U׈EdlZ8׉E2 $ AUGUST 25, 2023 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 18 YOUR PURCHASE BENEFITS THE VENDORS. PLEASE BUY ONLY FROM BADGED VENDORS. Antibiotic Catch-22: Terri Demar's struggle to access medical care battling cellulitis. Page 10 MIKE JONES #113 ASK YOUR VENDOR: WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS HELPED YOU THE MOST? GROUNDCOVER NEWS AND SOLUTIONS FROM THE GROUND UP | WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICH. STREET MYTHOLOGY STREET THIS PAPER WAS BOUGHT FROM Shakey Jake, Ann Arbor street legend, outside of Pinball Pete's in 1998. Photo credit: Ann Arbor District Library Archive from the Ann Arbor News. • Proposal: Housing-development accelerator • Charbonneau: Open your eyes to housing inequity. PAGE 4 @groundcovernews, include vendor name and vendor # MYTHOLOGY ׉ 7cassandra://mUmSKspLpxsPCF0iCwTnCrfgCwIKmv0AvBDAEqAdvZI*3`dlZ8dlZ8 בCט u׉׉ 7cassandra://vvdMUSt4rgyowKhVKofqPlTAAXY98GWD6fM-AFE87ic `I׉ 7cassandra://NAckbpSrgifwMk90gxMBXzKSWn4P5WzwtNALmlfykGE#`׉ 7cassandra://fukM4bLH3HYJwgVsEI-9iMis5F8Pb1NKvf5qE2zZJC8P`׉ 7cassandra://-sZx1olp2wUHQl9aOoElAqb7UIUv6VU9JmYdXs5fIQsJt͠ idlZ9 נdlZ99׉H!http://www.groundcovernews.org%20Gׁ ׁ rנdlZ99׉H http://linktr.ee/groundcovernewsGׁ ׁ rנdlZ9 a9׉Hhttp://vfpgoldenruleproject.orgGׁ ׁ rנdlZ9 a9ׁHhttp://vfpgoldenruleproject.orgׁ ׁ Ј׉E2 GROUNDCOVER NEWS GROUNDCOVER welcome to this issue on STREET MYTHOLOGY ALEX TARBET Groundcover volunteer People bring themselves to mythology in different ways. Imagine you and I pass one another on the street and — just this once — a strange force compels us two strangers to stop, sit together just for a moment and tell a myth. What’s the first one that comes to mind? We might share a famous one from thousands of years ago, but get locked in debate afterward about who’s the real ‘hero’ or the ‘monster.’ Say, why was Medusa’s hair turned into snakes? Did she deserve it for what she did? Would you have chopped her head off like Perseus? (For more on that, see Teresa B.’s article on page 7). We can rewrite an old story, or even throw it out entirely, discard old patterns and reimagine our existence the way we choose. But one thing mythology does for sure is provoke us to talk to one other. In that spirit, this edition of Groundcover is a collection of conversations around the streets of Ann Arbor on what myth is and why it matters. As you read, ask yourself whether you agree or disagree. Juliano argues on page 4 that myth has been an opiate for the masses, keeping lower classes down all the way back to ancient Rome. For Cindy on page 6, myths are forms of cultural survival that preserve communities enduring down the generations. For Teresa, they are indigenous traditions of storytelling stolen and corrupted by shallow American consumerism. For James on page 4, imagination and science fiction evolved as therapy for hard times along with other forms of contemplation. To one person, myths are make-believe for children or propaganda for governments; for another, they are timeless symbols that get at real truths and teach moral lessons. Which writers do you find persuasive? Everyone has something to say about myth. In 2023, each of us responds in our own way with shock and disgust, curiosity or wonder, resentment or anxiety, skepticism or laughter. One way or another, how you think about old stories (even rejecting them entirely in favor of new ones) reveals something about you. It shows your concept of heroes and monsters in the real world, where you think this universe came from, where we are going, and how we ought to treat one another along the way. Into mythology each of us brings a self, a reality and a past full of love and suffering, joy and loss, following all the history we have inherited down the generations. But we also bring contemporary concerns for the world now and where it’s headed. Each Groundcover writer has a thoughtful perspective drawn from lived experience on the streets. Their theories about how myth works are similar to what you might pick up as a student in any university from scholars who have written about myth in relation to class consciousness, dream interpretation, feminism and social inequality. Groundcover writers offer their own street theories as they challenge and debate different ideas by drawing on their own instincts and reflections from unique lived experiences. Mythology has much to do with poverty and homelessness. Myth has always been about outsiders, the wanderers, exiles, outcasts, monsters, or exotic and supposedly uncivilized strangers. Writers who have endured transience or poverty tend to have more empathy for the monsters and less tolerance for some of the heroes. One common trend is a healthy mistrust for the idea of “mythology” altogether as a sort of scam, since the American economy we live in is itself a fairy-tale controlled and dominated by rich people on top. see WELCOME page 9  AUGUST 25, 2023 CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND A VOICE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE WHILE TAKING ACTION TO END HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY. Groundcover News, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in April 2010 as a means to empower lowincome persons to make the transitions from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. Vendors purchase each copy of our regular editions of Groundcover News at our office for 50 cents. This money goes towards production costs. Vendors work selling the paper on the street for $2, keeping all income and tips from each sale. Street papers like Groundcover News exist in cities all over the United States, as well as in more than 40 other countries, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people and combat the increase in poverty. Our paper is a proud member of the International Network of Street Papers. STAFF Lindsay Calka — publisher Cynthia Price — editor ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Mohammed Almustapha D.A. Teresa Basham Cindy Gere Mike Jones Elizabeth "Lit" Kurtz James Manning Ken Parks Earl Pullen Juliano Sanchez Scoop Stevens Alex Tarbet Kaden Watts GROUNDCOVER NEWS ADVERTISING RATES Size 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/2 full page Black/White $110.00 $145.00 $200.00 $375.00 $650.00 Color $150.00 $200.00 $265.00 $500.00 $900.00 Dimensions (W x H in inches) 5 X 3 or 2.5 X 6.5 5 X 4 5 X 6.25 5 X 13 or 10.25 X 6.5 10.25 X 13 CONTACT US PROOFREADERS Susan Beckett Elliot Cubit Zachary Dortzbach Anabel Sicko VOLUNTEERS Jessi Averill Luiza Duarte Caetano Glenn Gates Alexandra Granberg Robert Klingler Ruben Mauricio Holden Pizzolato Alex Tarbet Mary Wisgerhof Max Wisgerhof Emily Yao Story and photo submissions: submissions@groundcovernews.com Advertising and partnerships: contact@groundcovernews.com Office: 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Phone: 734-263-2098 @groundcover @groundcovernews DONATE, LISTEN TO OLD ISSUES + LEARN MORE www.groundcovernews.org linktr.ee/groundcovernews PACKAGE PRICING Three Months/Six Issues: 15% off Six Months/Twelve Issues: 25% off Full Year/Twenty-four Issues: 35% off Only run for two weeks/one issue: 40% off Additional 20% discount for money saving coupons ׉ 7cassandra://fukM4bLH3HYJwgVsEI-9iMis5F8Pb1NKvf5qE2zZJC8P`dlZ8׉EGAUGUST 25, 2023 ON MY CORNER ASK YOUR VENDOR What organization has helped you the most (not including Groundcover News)? Peggy's house and MISSION. — Mike Jones, #113 Community Mental Health. — Gary Leverett, #554 None of them. Only Groundcover. — Joe Woods, #103 Purple House. — Teresa Basham, #570 Toss up between the Buddhist Center and Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War. — Ken Parks, #490 Washtenaw Camp Outreach and Weather Amnesty. — Jim Clark, #139 Community Mental Health and First Baptist in Ann Arbor. — Pony Bush, #305 Churches. Especially the breakfast church. — Roberto Isla Caballero, #347 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Groundcover News opens the door for a new publication Hi, My name is Elizabeth Kurtz, but I refer to myself as Lit, a name I gave myself shortly after losing my housing and landing on what we call “the streets.” “Lit” is short for Elizabeth because I found that outside of mainstream housing, there is little room for extra baggage — including one’s name. I was shocked during the 20112012 school year to be among 4000 teachers laid off and forced to reapply for our positions. Like many other teachers, I was not rehired, and in what seemed like in the blink of an eye I was living in my car. The adjustment was difficult and although I was reluctant to admit that I was “homeless” just like others who were scavenging in trash for cans and bottles or even selling the “homeless” paper, the reality set in. If I had any chance of survival after my savings and unemployment were depleted, I needed to have an income. The street paper concept, which started in New York during the 1980s and arrived in Ann Arbor in 2011 under the directorship of Susan Beckett, was a viable option, offering an opportunity to begin LIT KURTZ Groundcover vendor No. 159 of my own entitled, The Fringe. It offers an even more in-depth look at the lives of those who are unhoused. Groundcover and the street paper association have given many of those who are unhoused an ability to share our voices. They indeed offer a springboard and training ground for a publication such as mine. As an unhoused person, I know selling right away. I signed up and started selling and writing for it in 2013. By 2016, I was extremely honored that an article I wrote for Groundcover entitled “Living Out Here” placed as one of the top five finalists in the category of Best Vendor Contribution when the International Street Paper Conference (INSP) was held in Athens, Greece, making me the first Groundcover Vendor to receive that honor. Jim Clark received the same recognition in 2019. A decade following the first year that I sold for Groundcover, I am editing and publishing a magazine that it is necessary for a publication to exist that is seen through the lens of we who have experienced living through the crisis. The articles will be contributed by people who have experienced it as well. The first inaugural edition is dedicated to Earth Day because who knows more about the Earth than those who have been forced to live directly on its soil? This magazine will not only be in print but also online so that your friends and family from across the world can enjoy it. To find out more information about receiving a copy, please scan the QR included here. 3 The people are the power! In the 1960s and 70s “POWER TO THE PEOPLE” was a popular chant at rallies and marches. You could say it was a common mantra that carried the essence of the many movements for freedom. We need to consider power and how it works. What is its source? Meditar y analizar, as Fidel described his style, reflect and analyze. From science we know power as the ability to move an object. I propose we think of power as the ability to get things done. Labor is the basic power to work on whatever project until completion. Study Marx and Engels to understand alienated labor and what the emancipation of labor looks like. Erich Fromm is among the many thinkers who studied and wrote about alienation. My understanding is that when labor is a commodity in the market you lose agency of your labor power to those who buy your labor. If you agree to a written or unwritten contract, you lose any real ability to understand the results of your labor. Your power enters a maze of corporate KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 processing which investors use to promote the greatest profit, regardless of the waste or damage. Dumping waste into the environment is a common practice. Landfills are a huge industry. Nuclear waste will be in toxic sites beyond any time we can measure. To take responsibility for the results of our actions means to use our power with awareness and not allow anyone to use our power for their capital accumulation fetish. Both Buddhism and Marxism use dialectics to understand the play of opposites, Buddhism focuses on the Middle Path between the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Marxism focuses on the analysis of data to understand the material world. Lenin studied Hegel to work from the assumption that dialectics begins with the unity of opposites. I believe this unity is also the Middle Path. Everything is interrelated and interactive. “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” by V.I.Lenin is an important study of World War One dynamics. The Introduction to “Medicine Buddha” by Thrangu Rinpoche is a good introduction to Buddhist thinking on the play of reality. Our imagination is empowered by words such as these and reality becomes a workable situation. I propose that “THE PEOPLE ARE THE POWER” is the slogan that best points to our shared reality. Labor power in particular has its source in the working class; to use our power to serve the Golden Rule is the way to live happily ever after. We all want our life to be in our own hands. Compliance culture demands that you use your power for the designs of others; this puts us in constant gridlock with our own aspirations. The system uses compliance to channel everything to march to the beat of empire as dictated by “the deciders,” as one or both President Bush(s) put it. Our body/mind unity can be experienced more completely as human beings if we practice natural breathing; it is the best step to a natural mind. There are many teachers of mind training. Both Zen and Tibetan spiritual friends have helped me. The power of calm and clear points to the importance of using our power to do creative activity with the intention to benefit all beings without exception. If we free our minds, the rest will follow. Patti LaBelle sang that song. If we share our labor power for the common good we can work to stop the march to nuclear war. Compost war, grow peace. Visit vfpgoldenruleproject.org. dlZ8dlZ8 בCט u׉׉ 7cassandra://LMi2hHbLmo0_8tRrNnc8PNJtuD-Gk1OlCBC_UbVXwoI `I׉ 7cassandra://xOzduL3gZotpTGNVydhD5y5OTKQhcfarDWP-ZMtgCp8!`׉ 7cassandra://Ptu4zEzsi9j7zRgpKleqh1NWgCCI3138b6NGx1Nx-_sP`׉ 7cassandra://FM6DDNj_DuumL_KATPzRTXPRgsAzpoL9sROsrEjqXWE͠ idlZ9נdlZ9 69ׁHhttp://ypsilibrary.org/exhibitsׁ ׁ ЈנdlZ9 ; }9ׁHhttp://ypsilibrary.orgׁ ׁ ЈנdlZ9 ;/9ׁHhttp://ypsilibrary.org/libraryׁ ׁ ЈנdlZ9 y9ׁHhttp://ypsilibrary.orgׁ ׁ Ј׉E 4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH Roman gods in America Mythology has always been about two things: money and power. It’s the same today in America. We still live in ancient Rome, but it’s 2023. We have the “gods” up on top, or at least men who think they’re gods, billionaires whose families own and control everything. There are these few rich men on top living like emperors, and then there’s the rest of us on bottom. Just like Caesar thought he was immortal and compared himself to a god, these billionaires get into government and can do anything they want, and they always want more and more, so they become bored and psychopathic and chase fame or power or immortality. They have so much money they make up wars and conflicts to keep society distracted and divided. Myths about gods have always been about them. Billionaires today want to believe that they are the gods. They are the ones who own the news machine, the propaganda you hear on radio and television and social media. People buy all the myths they tell you and believe everything they say is the truth. They keep us working for them, to keep us at each other’s throats stuck in the trap believing that one day we might make it up to their level. But we never will — it’s just a myth. We keep believing what they tell us, like the American Dream. And they’ve had people believing since their ancestors back in Rome. These sorts of myths divide us against each other, and stop us from loving and respecting each JULIANO SANCHEZ Groundcover vendor No. 174 other as human beings. Racism is one of those myths. Society keeps pumping this into your head and embedding it in your mind through propaganda, that there are categories like Black and White. But skin color is just a story people in power have told to control the masses, so that we go on hating and fighting each other, distracted so that we never understand each other. People are always more complex than the myth. I appear Black to most people, but if you learned a little about my family history, you would know I’m a mix of African, indigenous Taino Cuban and white European ancestry from Europe. And everyone’s blood is the same color — red — anyway. People are so caught up in the myth they just look at someone and see Black or white, but that's too simple. That’s what they want you to believe. For people of color or minorities, mythology is a story of colonialism. I remember when growing up that my mother and grandmother in Cuba were so beautiful, with long, silky hair, and beautiful bronze skin. They were descended from Taíno, the indigenous peoples who first settled Cuba. But I grew up in New York and knew nothing about the Taíno; we grew up learning Spanish because the Taíno language was wiped out, along with their whole culture, which was killed off by Columbus and the Spanish when they enslaved them. Nobody talks about Taíno myths, but we all know about the Greek and Roman ones because American society developed out of that. We are built on Rome and Greece and a history of people’s heads being chopped off. When you talk about mythology, what you mean is slavery, injustice, imperialism — selfish, evil wrongdoing and the stuff that men in power have used to take over the world. Mythology is a history of control. Who’s got the power to make you believe? Rich people at the top live in their own world, maybe twenty rich families that own everything: the Rockefellers, the Du Ponts, the Gettys. All their ideas go back to Roman history and Julius Caesar. The emperors at the top, the billionaires, think they are immortal because they want their genetic line to keep hold of power over civilization, and they get their kicks by watching it like a chessboard. When you look at classical statues of Roman and Greek gods, it can be beautiful art, but it’s really just about control. Powerful men have always used gods and religions to trick the people and brainwash them with propaganda so they can control planet Earth. People on the bottom — the mortals — keep trying to work their way up from the gutter, and as long as they have some security — a house and a car and food to eat, they go on accepting how it is and believing that they can become “gods” someday too. But nobody ever reaches the top. The “gods” of capitalism are the ones who make us all sick trying to believe this myth that we need to become rich to be happy in the first place, and it just keeps us working for them and hating each other. We need to see the promise of capitalism for what it is — a myth. Billionaires are not happy; they are all miserable and psychopathic because they live in a fantasy world. I’m happier and healthier right down here on the street than all the gods. I’m down here with a simple life, with the trees and fresh air, and just the sun on my skin, my Cuban music, a simple diet, friends and conversations, life without owning anything or trying to chase after money or immortality or fame or power. Just love in the heart, that’s all you need. I’m happier without anything than they are with everything! We are all the same anyway; in the end we all go right back to dirt on this planet, no different than one another. You don’t need to believe any myths. All we need to do is find love in our hearts. All you need is right here in front of you. AUGUST 25, 2023 Medusa and the real monsters What does it mean to be seen as a monster? Ask any woman who’s been raped and then blamed for it. Think about Medusa. In the myth, she was once the most beautiful mortal woman in the world with the most gorgeous hair. Poseidon wanted her so much that he took her in a temple and raped her. The gods were jealous and angry, but they blamed her and punished her by turning her into a damn snake. She became so horrible that the sight turned others to stone and nobody could even approach her. Perseus finally came with his mirror shield and chopped her head off. Today, people still think Perseus was the hero of the story. But that’s not the way I look at it. I’m here to tell you the real way to think about it. Nobody understands Medusa. People never think about her perspective. It’s easier to just call someone a monster by looks like a monster — actually ended up in the situation they are in. Instead, society blames them for what happened and only sees what’s on the outside. How are there so many myths and legTERESA BASHAM Groundcover vendor No. 570 what you see on the outside. People refuse to try and understand and ask the question, how did she get that way? None of it was Medusa’s fault. It was those gods and men led around by their sexual desires and big egos, not by their brains or their hearts, that turned her into a monster to begin with. People never think about how somebody they see — who’s different than they are and ends around the world about women being evil? I can tell you: you’re reading things written by men! If a woman in our society gets raped, or if a boy gets molested by a priest, they have to deal with it for the rest of their lives, because society sees them — and they see themselves — as monsters, as no good, as evil and wicked. But the evil force was the person who did it to begin with and the society and the churches that protect them. Myth and legend come down to the government controlling what people believe. In the case of women, those who benefited from patriarchy created myths to reinforce the patriarchal structure. So when you read about Medusa, what you’re getting is what somebody wanted you to believe about women’s nature. Some people have no choice from the beginning about how they ended up where they are, on the street. Lots of us had jobs, homes, kids, families, everything, and it was taken away for some reason totally out of our control, like a medical bill, or an accident where someone gets hit by a car or truck. Some of us were put out on the street because someone took advantage of us, or we were laid off and lost our jobs, or something bad happened that’s not our fault. The way someone appears from a certain race can make it worse. For people who are Native Americans, for example, everything is harder because of the history of this country and what was done to us, and it’s much harder to get out of see MEDUSA page 10  ׉ 7cassandra://Ptu4zEzsi9j7zRgpKleqh1NWgCCI3138b6NGx1Nx-_sP`dlZ8׉EAUGUST 25, 2023 LOCAL LEGENDS GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5 GET TO KNOW YDL! WHERE TO FIND US: Online at ypsilibrary.org Call us at 734-482-4110. Shakey Jake playing on the streets of A2 in 1976. Photo credit: Ann Arbor District Library Archive from the Ann Arbor News. Old 'I brake for Jake' Ann Arbor T-shirts can be found on Ebay. Street legend Shakey Jake Shakey Jake Woods was allowed on stage at the Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues festival in 1973 by one of the main acts and performed live. Shakey Jake claimed the people of Ann Arbor would not let him leave town, so he decided to make Ann Arbor his home. Shakey Jake was born on August 14,1925, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was once proclaimed to be born on Halloween October 31 — one of the many myths of our old friend, legend and storyteller. Historical fun fact: Shakey Jake was born the same year as Malcolm X. He arrived in Ann Arbor in the summer of 1973, from Saginaw, Michigan. This summer of 2023 marks 50 years since Shakey Jake came to live and perform in our beloved city Ann Arbor, Michigan. “On the move” was Mr. Woods’ favorite and famous saying. People of Ann Arbor, including myself, would holla “Shakey!” His normal response was "I'm on the move.” I would say he was about 5 feet 8 inches tall, dark skinned guy wearing a suit, bow-tie, a big top hat and scarf; you would never ever see Shakey Jake a youtube referral — yeah, check out Shakey Jake Woods on youtube! From those who answered “yes” I MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 without his guitar in hand. Jake and his omnipresent threestring guitar were seen daily on Main St. most often in front of Peaceable Kingdom, as well as Main and Liberty St., and State near Nichols Arcade. Among locals, he was the best known person in Ann Arbor. Everybody loved “We Brake for Jake” T-shirts. After he passed away in 2007, Peaceable Kingdom kept his guitar in their window as a tribute to him. Last week, I asked over a hundred people in downtown Ann Arbor if they had heard of Shakey Jake. Around 50% never heard of the Ann Arbor legend. Those who answered “no” got a brief A2 history lesson and got to hear Shakey Jake stories. One guy who is a townie said Shakey danced with his wife and daughter in the 1980s. One lady was so happy to learn that I was writing about Shakey Jake because it reminds her of the old Ann Arbor. Another townie, Dan who used to be a cook at Del Rio Restaurant, said Shaky Jake used to come to the restaurant everyday and order a bowl of chili and a hamburger on the house and as a result they never had tip money stolen from the tip jar because everybody knew, including the street people, that Shakey Jake ate there regularly. Overall, I enjoyed having conversations about our old friend, educating new Ann Arborites and those just visiting. When Shakey Jake passed away, in honor of him, Ann Arborites gave him a going home parade through downtown Ann Arbor. Ann Arborites deserve a statue or a painted mural to remember Shakey Jake Woods 1925-2007. TO GET YOUR LIBRARY CARD: 1) Fill out the easy online form at ypsilibrary.org/library-cards. 2) Call 734-482-4110 3) Or stop by any YDL location! DON’T HAVE A DRIVER’S LICENSE? We can work with a variety of IDs to get you your card. FEATURED RESOURCE Get YDL info in your inbox! Want emails about all of YDL’s great resources and events? You can choose the categories you’re most interested in to make sure you don’t miss anything! Scan below to get started or visit ypsilibrary.org. FEATURED EVENT “A Colorful Dream” Exhibit September 1 - October 20 YDL-Whittaker Regular hours  WELCOME from page 2 Real wisdom and creativity come from the streets, not trickling down from expensive but hollow institutions. Grounded ideas and healthier imaginations thrive among people most often passed by, excluded and ignored or silenced. We can also debunk false “myths” as false notions people go on believing: for example, that money, a big house, an office job or a fancy degree alone will make you happy. Or the myth that people experience homelessness because of choice or laziness, drugs or addiction, or lack education or culture. Or the myth of the “American Dream” that we all can fairly attain, like a heaven we can earn our way into, if we only work hard enough to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. For years, Groundcover writers have been debunking myths like these in creative work through essays, art and poetry. People have always narrated our journeys through life as heroes or victims in relation to other beings, whether animals, gods or monsters. Now in the 2020s, we are imagining ourselves in relation to tech and power, intelligence and AI, environment and migration, housing and work. What do we do with the old stories, and where do we go from here? Like an ancient mirror, mythology bends with reflections of living faces in a single fire-light of human experience. Imagine if we all stopped on the street just for a moment to gaze in and see what looks back at us. A family-friendly exhibition by contemporary fine art photographer Adrien Broom. Designed to evoke and capture a sense of childhood fantasy, Broom’s work is deeply rooted in fairy tales and mythology, taking the viewer on a journey through the entire spectrum of the rainbow. Visit ypsilibrary.org/exhibits to learn more. dlZ8dlZ8 בCט u׉׉ 7cassandra://55m49_4L2JCNsGYauJoMPyU-O9vnDrALsLfMNZmPnpIZ`I׉ 7cassandra://x8MvB7g6UtrTh9vUpoYqVTBhe5xbBhn9ZYpBgr6cP5IW`׉ 7cassandra://HwzM0yS_XyyczdQkcRtZQflbV36gP9patEW2pV5yd_ARt`׉ 7cassandra://Jjme-lpijjYYTZoDoYkFSAHePwOa9hD-rD22d-elQhc| ͠ idlZ9נdlZ9̧9ׁHhttp://washtenaw.org/millageׁ ׁ Ј׉E 6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH Bear myths and cultural power For me, myths and legends are the glue that holds a culture together. Traditional myths are all about protection and self-preservation in the face of invasion and industrialism. I myself am Native American, a Kaska from the Northern boreal forests of British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. I have two traditional names: one is Gasakadani King Salmon, and the other is my warrior name, Kuleima Fire Woman. My father came from the Tahltan tribe, but I was adopted into a Presbyterian family. Later in life, I returned to my ancestral people and lived with them. So I am the perfect example of the effort to destroy an old tradition, to take a person out of her ancestral world and deposit her in a new one. But I’ve always preserved and reconnected with the old myths, honoring and following my cultural traditions. My grandfather Mike Johnny was one of the last great medicine shamans, a hunter and trapper who lived off the land his entire life, the same way my people lived for thousands of years. He worked as a mule-driver on barges on the river train up the Erie Canal, but he was also a famous bonesetter and healer. The honor for me has always been that he was a traditional shaman. During the invasion of Christians, the Catholic and Protestant churches CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 tried to wipe out all the Native shamans in cooperation with the Canadian government. People don’t understand how devastating that actually was. Many shamans like my grandfather subverted them. Grandpa Mike shook the hands of the priests and said he wanted to be a catechist, but would still practice medicine in secret. He set up runners between tribes who would send secret messages when someone got sick, so that he could sneak out and heal those who were ailing. The Catholic church controlled everything and used religion to manipulate people, but the old Native myths survived even in the face of extermination. When my grandmother was 11 years old she went through the Great Disease, also known as the Spanish flu. Two out of seven families in our tribe died out AUGUST 25, 2023 Bear and babe. In her art, Gere often incorporates bear imagery. completely. There were full tribes that were wiped out. Our chief was smart enough to tell everybody to go to their separate hunting lodges, and everybody split during the pandemic and did as he advised. Religion was always about control, but what people call mythology was about people surviving in the face of religion by keeping traditional knowledge and wisdom alive. Grandpa Mike was called a Bear Shaman, since it was his totem animal. There were many myths and legends about bears. Some of the Native myths about bears came out of the similarity between human and bear bodies. If you strip a bear of its fur and its head and lay it out, it looks like a human body. That’s why they call it Brother Bear: it’s like a human being. So there are all these stories about animals and their similarities to humans. We had our trickster stories. We had Wolverine Man, which was similar to Coyote Man in other tribes. These sacred animal stories were passed down in our families for thousands of years because they taught people wisdom. Myths held culture together see BEAR MYTHS page 11  Mental health is health—and we’re here to help. TRISH CORTES — DIRECTOR 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage ׉ 7cassandra://HwzM0yS_XyyczdQkcRtZQflbV36gP9patEW2pV5yd_ARt`dlZ8׉E'AUGUST 25, 2023 STREET MYTH We use myths to cope Drawn from conversations with JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 Mythology is totally necessary on the street. You have to deal with reality in this world whether you like to or not. You are here on this planet. You are in it. You are part of this thing one way or another, so deal with it. Here’s your bed, now you have to lie in it. But in order to handle reality, you also need to cultivate an imagination. Just like music or art, myth is a tool that humans evolved so that we can handle living in this world. Whether you are trying to score a cup of coffee from McDonald’s in 2023, or a peasant in Egypt in 10,000 BCE trying to get enough grain smashed to make a patty of bread, you are stuck in that situation and there’s your reality — deal with it. One way is to use your imagination and spend time thinking about what you could be. Myth has power for people who are in tough life situations, because they relate to it in an immediate way. We have this ability to have dreams and visions or make up fiction and stories, or ponder in whatever form that takes. You can talk about science fiction, other dimensions, auras, magic or ghosts and the paranormal — any of that. When we think about possibilities of those things beyond us, in that moment we are not having anxiety about where the next meal is coming from. As far as somebody on the street or in some position of vulnerability, mythology speaks for itself. In a lot of myths, there are situations where a common man rises up to become the hero of a nation, or an underdog character rises up to affect the society around him, and his life takes on a bigger meaning, and a profound story develops out of his life. You could say that indicates delusions of grandeur, but the power dynamic is what makes mythology popular. It appeals to the common person, the underdog, the blue collars, lower classes or people on the bottom of society. Myth empowers them to imagine their situation differently and think of how they could potentially escape or resist whatever situation they happen to be in. No matter how they’re treated on the street by others, the person feels like they are part of some bigger story. And then it provides relief and therapy because you have at least one moment where you are off in this other world and not faced with some of the harsh reality. Myth can be used like medicine: the imagination is like a drug that keeps us alive. Mythology is closely related to music and art because you get some relief out of it instantaneously. You feel the vibes enter and spawn so much energy and bring so much relaxation and harmony to your mind. In that moment, when you read a myth or listen to a song you love or draw or create something, or you ponder what’s out there in space or beyond time, where we came from as beings, how we should live our lives, gods or science or the paranormal or what have you — in those moments, you are not thinking about your bills or how you’re going to scrounge for something to eat. I use mythology to cope all the time, even subconsciously without my own knowledge. I just let my mind wander. Humans have to have mythology because it’s in our nature. We evolved the ability to have creative expression to keep our minds functioning at any level as we get through life. Imagination is an unbelievably powerful and underrated tool. Sometimes it’s the only way you can get away from whatever situation you are in on the street. There’s one thing every sentient living creature asks itself during life at some point, which is, who am I and what is my place in the Universe? Mythology conveniently shows up to give you a nonsensical character without a real purpose, but it actually does provide meaning because it speaks to that point and provides some kind of answer for that question, so of course you find it everywhere. It’s a totally natural response to being alive on this planet, especially to somebody who’s nobody among the billions of the people in the world, to reimagine ourselves as heroes and gods. Originally the myths were meant to explain mysterious things, like natural catastrophes, earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning and that sort of stuff. People explained stuff using stories about gods and whatnot. But they also want to exercise their imaginations and imagine the greatness and the possibility of things beyond. We have fabulous mechanisms for stealing our attention away. But we always drift in our thoughts, and we like to exercise our imaginations and ask what could possibly be out there, beyond what we know, beyond what’s right in front of us. I think mythology is just a natural evolved occurrence, since it’s human nature to come up with stories and narratives about greater and better things out there, just so we can cope with the fact that we’re down here living in this really chaotic world. Our modern day rat race after material wealth and power in the world is just so pointless. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 Graphic by Adam Bowman, Bum Fabulous. You go after getting a bunch of stuff that you don’t need — you really don’t. You can appreciate the fact that you have sentience, that you are living, that you are here and awake. Just the sheer fact of consciousness is a blessing, not in a religious sense or anything, but just the ability to bear witness to reality. It’s an incredible gift that we have and we tend to squander because we get lost in these other things. The greatest lesson of the world is turning your back on temptations and riches for the sake of the greater good. Mythology has always been about that journey: turning away from desire and toward something better. That’s the basic journey of life and it’s what we are all struggling with, whether you are on the street or not. Everybody chases self-fulfillment, but you have to know where to draw the line and not just eat until you are sick. Spiritually, people on the street are more sensitive to the pain and the suffering and the reality in the world. I throw rich people a bone and forgive them, because in my mind they are all actually just stupid. Many rich people have never experienced pain; thanks to compartmentalized lives they live in an entirely different reality. There’s an alternate reality, but then people on the street who have actually suffered know things better, and yet we have to use our imaginations more just to stay healthy. We are living in a time of such convenience that there are people who are totally oblivious to what life could possibly hold beyond a Netflix subscription: their only encounter with the world is through some made-up television screen. dlZ8dlZ8 בCט u׉׉ 7cassandra://AcKW3mPycJ6P8W-6Xv25zJwQjNC2x7YmKpD1pwBmvAU`I׉ 7cassandra://Z7ZrKVwNloKej-7F36J8UggFOzq3Ug1NHmq6R-6bAO0`׉ 7cassandra://wFURpaKUCeBgsKJ-9YgfA7femqBa2nWXfkM-Zesgn1wN`׉ 7cassandra://SbyzfuRd47FLYlOslkzEcXOxnSSvGGAyQTNaem7i3yEwiX͠ idlZ9׉E8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY An ode to Claresha D.A. Groundcover contributor August brings the memories of holding and cherishing Claresha. It was just my baby and me as far as the family. Such a warm bundle of joy. Even though she was 2 lbs. 6 ounces and 13 inches long. After one day on the ventilator, she was blessed and breathing on her own from there you see! She is still to this day a fighter for better things. Still strong and a raving beauty! Like the art she makes, the music on her guitar that she plays and sings. Happy Birthday to my beautiful child! And by the way, kiss my Grandbaby for me! A day in the life of Earl EARL PULLEN Groundcover contributor I say amen you say Let it be I say it again And my thoughts are of Thee And when you fall He’ll pick you back up and hold you near You say oh my god and the Words are clear A man is a man Thus I can say it will only Happen on judgment Day He’ll pick U up and Take U away Thus it will be on That very day Amen AUGUST 25, 2023 ׉ 7cassandra://wFURpaKUCeBgsKJ-9YgfA7femqBa2nWXfkM-Zesgn1wN`dlZ8׉EWAUGUST 25, 2023 PUZZLES GROUNDCOVER NEWS 9 Groundcover Vendor Code While Groundcover is a non-profit, and paper vendors are self-employed contractors, we still have expectations of how vendors should conduct themselves while selling and representing the paper. The following is our Vendor Code of Conduct, which every vendor reads and signs before receiving a badge and papers. We request that if you discover a vendor violating any tenets of the Code, please contact us and provide as many details as possible. Our paper and our vendors should be positively impacting our County. • Groundcover will be distributed for a voluntary donation. I agree not to ask for more than the cover price or solicit donations by any other means. • When selling Groundcover, I will always have the current biweekly issue of Groundcover available for customer purchase. • I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling the paper or to panhandle, including panhandling with only one paper or selling past monthly issues. • I will wear and display my badge when selling papers and refrain from wearing it or other Groundcover gear when engaged in other activities. • I will only purchase the paper from Groundcover Staff and will not sell to or buy papers from other Groundcover vendors, especially vendors who have been suspended or terminated. • I agree to treat all customers, staff, and other vendors respectfully. I will not “hard sell,” threaten, harass or pressure customers, staff, or other vendors verbally or physically. • I will not sell Groundcover under the influence of drugs or alcohol. • I understand that I am not a legal employee of Groundcover but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income. • I understand that my badge is property of Groundcover and will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing the papers. • I agree to stay off private property when selling Groundcover. • I understand to refrain from selling on public buses, federal property or stores unless there is permission from the owner. • I agree to stay at least one block away from another vendor in downtown areas. I will also abide by the Vendor Corner Policy. • I understand that Groundcover strives to be a paper that covers topics of homelessness and poverty while providing sources of income for the homeless. I will try to help in this effort and spread the word. If you would like to report a violation of the Vendor Code please email contact@groundcovernews. com or fill out the contact form on our website. Lions need Kaepernick SCOOP STEVENS Groundcover contributor Autumn is near and another Detroit Lions football season is here. The Lions need two quality quarterbacks, not just one. The Lions should acquire Colin Kaepernick because he has Super Bowl experience. Even if the Lions were to have a great season and make it to the Super Bowl, they would probably lose. With Kaepernick on the team they are increasing their odds of winning. Kaepernick has been putting himself out there recently to attract offers from major league teams, but so far unsuccessfully. The likely reason for this is that in 2016 he “took a knee” during the National Anthem to protest police profiling and police brutality, which resulted in being blasted by the public, including presidential candidate Donald Trump. He was shunned by NFL owners after that. But times have changed since then. Trump is no longer in power, there has been a pandemic and reaction to it, and we are well into the World Economic Forum’s Reset 2.0 with its implications for human freedom and agency. (For more on this, see Robert Kennedy’s book “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.”) Wearing masks like subservient slaves became the new normal. The top 1% benefited greatly from people being homebound — think Jeff Bezos and Amazon. None of this would have been possible without the police state. For the first time white Americans have experienced something of what Black Americans have always experienced in America. The Antebellum slave patrols kept African-American slaves in their place; the postmodern police state keeps Americans under house arrest. It wasn’t legitimate back then and it isn’t legitimate now. Maybe there is a lesson for all of us in Kaeperick’s symbolic act of protest. And maybe the Detroit Lions could benefit from recognizing the legitimacy of that act. Time is running out for the Lions to win a Super Bowl. We are on the verge of a new-age consciousness; football will become obsolete. The Lions should sign a one year contract with Kaepernick and see what happens. dlZ8dlZ8 בCט u׉׉ 7cassandra://f-DA_B384HdxaWh18I5AOUWfE8uGPeHMMxN3gZci878 j`I׉ 7cassandra://Dcn0l8kwDBPJUuCkNqU2GodRFpalQa7c6-kRAn2AKNg8`׉ 7cassandra://o0wQv_B3nAlZS8Qqnah_IKEe0mYCfHs6q_Bh5SexTNIQY`׉ 7cassandra://XFK3PJb5X2qbts3FxbV8Evq8_3UajVJ0P94T5gpk7Sg`f(͠ idlZ9׉E10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HEALTH AUGUST 25, 2023 Antibiotic catch-22: Terri Demar’s struggle accessing medical care battling cellulitis LINDSAY CALKA Publisher Cellulitis may look like dermatitis, but it is actually caused by staph and strep infection, often contracted by bacterial infection, encouraged by low immune systems and large pores. Terri Demar, Groundcover vendor No. 322, was diagnosed with cellulitis at St. Joe’s emergency room in 2014. Over these ten years, it has cost her jobs, relationships and even housing. After struggling to get a proper diagnosis as of late, she now resorts to taking expired antibiotics to keep the infection and its side effects at bay. As a result, the medical conditions that prompt doctors to take her illness seriously, are hidden. “Doctors blame me for self-medicating but they don’t provide me medication. It’s a big, vicious cycle. I’m just trying to stay out of the hospital.” Demar discussed incidents in the hospitals,  MEDUSA from page 4 poverty and live in a system built on all that. And then society turns around and calls us monsters because of what was done to us, and tells us it’s all our own fault. People who pass by say, “it’s your own fault that you are the way you are,” when all they see is the outside. But often somebody in power put us in this situation to begin with, just like Medusa. In European myths, women are monsters or dangerous creatures who need to be watched and controlled. But it's men who have always been the real monsters. If you walk down the street today, you’ll see a man looking at a woman, and he’s led by sexual appetite, not by his mind or heart. All many men care about is getting a woman in bed. You can see it every day, a man looking at a woman, and a young woman who’s been taught by society to dress up a certain way, since she’s trained at a young age to get them to look, without knowing any better. And often once he gets her, he’s gone. He might take her out for a couple of days, a couple of years, but after that he’s done, and nearly every time he’s been cheating on the side. It’s the men in the world who have dark hearts, who are the monsters. But in the myths and legends like Medusa, it's the victim who ends up responsible. European and American governments are full of just those kinds of men, who have dark hearts and only take what they want from people below them. Just like Poseidon, men who think they are gods run the economy and control everything and put all the people into bad situations and create monsters in the first place. A few rich men at the top take advantage of everyone else, and of course they have always had control of the mythology too. That goes all the way back past ancient Greece. Governments have always made people poor to begin with, and then they make up myths to make themselves out to be the heroes like Perseus and convince people that everything is their own fault. As if people could only pull themselves out of it, they would stop being monsters — but that’s the real myth people believe. Myths about females are different in different cultures. In some of them, people respect the earth and women. African and Native American cultures and some Asian ones have more respectful versions of female figures like Medusa; for example, in Chinese mythology the half-snake mother-goddess Nüwa is a positive version of a snake and not a monster. I’m descended from the Navajo, and my people see the world as completely interconnected, everything is our brother and sister, and women are the life-givers, creators, leaders and heroes of the stories. If people could break stories like Medusa down and look at it the right way, they would better understand how women are treated in our society compared to others. Even nowadays rich men can rape women and there’s nothing she can do about it. People will deny things and protect him and say she is a liar — especially if he’s among the white men who run the government. Governments have always given the legends, the myths, the ignorance and propaganda down to the people. Men make up myths and believe women are evil because it covers up what is happening all over the world right in front of us, as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You see all these people who are homeless, and it’s the same everywhere from China to Russia to the Middle East. But people on the bottom are blamed for what happened to them by the people on the top. Up there they live by a myth that hides what’s really going on. I relate to Medusa more than any other story because I have seen things with my own two eyes. No matter which way you think the myth went, she’s the one who was condemned for it, but he gets away with it because he was this high god. Today in the real world it all boils down to the same thing: greed. Society wants to make up all these monsters, but at the end of the day it’s evil and good, plain and simple, and it all boils down to money and power one way or another. If it were a poor man who raped a woman like Medusa, he’d be sitting in prison. Think about it. Editor’s Note: The ancient version of Medusa was told by the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote the poem Metamorphoses in Latin. Ovid wrote myths about the woman’s perspective and was no friend of kings. He compared emperors and gods to rapists, and he was banished forever from Rome. Teresa and Ovid are on the same page and would have a great conversation! describing bad experiences of being traumatized and then being accused of misconduct and forced to leave or transfer hospitals and doctors. “When they don’t want to take the responsibility, they blame you. I got accused of talking to people in the lobby, for accidentally spilling water.” For the first five or six years, her first doctor prescribed her “non-stop antibiotics;” Demar was taking 20 antibiotics a day. But ever since that first doctor, she has struggled to receive medication and treatment that is aligned with her health problems. She was referred to the infectious diseases center at a local hospital but she claimed that her doctor never followed through by accurately conveying the severity to the infectious disease doctor — and consequently she has been denied the care she needed ever since. She explained that typical treatment for cellulitis is to get put on an IV and to take antibiotics. But that is disputed constantly for Demar. Yet she has never “met anyone with cellulitis as bad as [her].” Three or four months ago she was ordered a biopsy but she was still taking old antibiotics and it impacted the test results. Now, Demar describes her cellulitis as “systemic” in her body — but as of a month ago she is on her third doctor who doesn’t believe antibiotics should be a part of her treatment plan. Demar thinks her mental diagnosis of ADHD influences the medical gaslighting. “They’re saying I’m being delusional and that I don’t have cellulitis. People tell me the cellulitis is in my head.” “It is big, red, swollen — and I don’t rub on it — that’s an infection. If [my doctor] doesn't understand that, what is he a doctor for? I don’t want people hem-hawing around anymore. It’s gone on too long.” Medical gaslighting is a term to describe when medical practitioners in power dismiss health problems of patients, enforcing stereotypes that women are irrational and hysterical, or people with mental illness are delusional and have psychosomatic symptoms. “When it comes to physical illness, if you don’t get things in writing, your problems won’t be addressed. For mental illness, once you get labeled, you don’t get a chance to change it.” Demar has battled this cellulitis for a decade and knows what she needs. “I need a white blood cell count. I need to take seven days off my antibiotics so I can get a control pus test. But I’m being denied these things. I am scared to pause the antibiotics because I’ll go septic. And then I’ll die. Somebody’s dropping the ball. Demar hopes this article will motivate doctors to do their job. PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ׉ 7cassandra://o0wQv_B3nAlZS8Qqnah_IKEe0mYCfHs6q_Bh5SexTNIQY`dlZ8׉E"AUGUST 25, 2023 HEALTH GROUNDCOVER NEWS Navigating the path to healing: Tips to triumph over mental health challenges MOHAMMED ALMUSTAPHA Groundcover contributor I dedicate this article to all those who have had to endure, deal with, get well from, and take care of those who suffer from mental health issues, illnesses or syndromes — whatever they may be. The complexities of the world that we live in, this whole planet that revolves around the sun, all of the things that happen and go on around us as human beings can tend to overwhelm us and depress and stress and discombobulate our natural order of things — our mental and emotional homeostasis, I guess in a way. And it sucks, and it has to be dealt with. Some people are just genetically predisposed or predestined for mental illness. A great deal of others might acquire it through trauma — whether it be physical, mental or emotional. A great number of people will actually develop it from physical trauma (like car accidents). Heartbreak, betrayal, whatever drug addiction and negative experiences — all these things can lead to mental health issues, which range from narcissism and bipolar disorder, all the way to depression and psychosis. Now, I, as a human being who has suffered from depression and bipolar disorder, understand that in order for people like me to try to lead any semblance of a normal life, it takes a lot of effort, more than for the neurotypical person, because we wake up in the morning heavy and burdened. We don't just wake up happy, we have to force it willfully by doing certain activities, like exercising or listening to music or ingesting edibles, whatever it may be. This is what I’ve found to be healing for me: Number one has been exercise and going to the gym. That right there was 85-90% of getting well — getting moving, going to the gym, exercising, lifting weights, shedding my body of toxins, getting my circulation going, losing weight. It helps in many factors; the circulation alone gets hormones moving, toxins get kicked out. By exercising we're able to deliver happy hormones to ourselves faster, the weight loss leads to looking good in clothes, posture changes, muscles grow. The gym also takes up time; it's hard work, it's rewarding and you get endorphins. Number two is going to work; stay occupied working. If you're going through depression or mania, it's helpful to occupy a lot of your time with work, even if it’s a remedial task, like putting nuts on bolts, or lifting wheels, just make sure that you get a job and that you have a job to go to. Because when you have a job, you have to wake up in the morning and brush your teeth and brush your hair and take a shower and get dressed, to be presentable so that when you go out there, you end up making your money. Making money enables you to get the things you want. But that's not what we really gain from working. What we gain is that we're able to occupy our minds for eight hours or longer: for those eight hours we’re able to just be engrossed and focused on something (and that's eight hours of peace where we don't have to think about our demons). You know what I mean? So get a job after you work out. A third thing has to be practicing empathetic charity. When I say that, most people will misunderstand it. I don't mean charity as in financial giving and so forth. No, but as in giving people your time and sharing your experiences with people, even if it’s the knowledge of where good resources are. Initially, I used to help out those who are in a lesser circumstance than me, for the sake of making myself feel good by saying, ”Hey, look there's somebody that is in a worse situation than me.” But as I got older and developed, I realized, no, we don't do it for ourselves, we do it because: “Hey, this is a human being that's suffering. And if I were in his shoes, I would want somebody to come and help me to make me feel better.” Good humans still exist, and humanity is beautiful. So just trying to interconnect them to improve their lives and make people feel better, well, in turn, give extremely positive dividends. Actual realization and acceptance is just recognizing that you're human and you're here, and that the world will continue to go on and that whatever injustice or whatever maltreatment you faced did not end your world but only made you stronger. So once you get to accepting things, you can finally get to moving on and moving forward and being a better human being that contributes himself in society. So in conclusion just remember to know and avoid your triggers, both organic and inorganic, as in avoiding people who actively seek to destabilize our peace and mental health. “Striving to be a better man today than I was yesterday, and a better man tomorrow than I am today.” 11  BEAR MYTHS from page 6 because they were all about tabu: things you did and you never did. Stories tell us how we should behave or not behave. So, say winters were really harsh: there were myths told to warn people about being greedy and selfishly hoarding food. We had sacred stories told to children so they knew that it was customary when another tribe was starving during winter and came asking, you had to share with them. We had tripod caches set up in high places (to keep bears out), and a ladder, and the rule was that you only ate enough and never more than what you needed. But some of what we learned came from traditional animal stories that everybody knew carried some moral lessons about how to share with people and survive in a harsh environment. In some cases it’s 80 below zero and all you have is some wood and some fire. Myths came from pressures out of real natural environments. Bears are territorial animals and came to have personalities as legendary figures in Kaska myth, since each one could become old and famous in its own area. One of the stories about Grandpa Mike I love is the time he was about two inches from a bear’s face. He was cutting up a huge moose and slicing it up, and he had blood all the way up his arms. He looked up and a bear was right there - but his gun was on the other side of the moose! So my grandfather had to climb over the dead moose to reach the gun. But he still refused to shoot his own totem animal and just quietly walked away out of respect, even giving up his kill. This became a legend about him, but it tells us how we think about and treat animals and each other in the world. Sacred stories teach us how to live and survive in the world. There’s one famous Kaska legend about a woman’s encounter with a bear. The tribe was packing up to migrate for the season, and this herbalist was the last member of the tribe to leave, but it took her a while to get all her plants and medicine packed up. As she was going up the trail, everyone else had already left. Suddenly a massive Grizzly rose up behind her. The only thing she could think to do was grab her curved knife and as quick as she could, slice it all the way from the bottom up to the chest cavity. All its guts spilled out, and she grabbed her bags and ran down the trail to find the tribe. At first they couldn’t believe it, but they went back and found the body, tanned its hide and set out this huge bear rug. It made her famous, a well-known woman who rose into legend and then became a sort of mythical figure. It’s a really powerful story about a woman and her ability to survive on her own. Today, mythology is being wiped out and there’s this sort of social engineering to create a manipulated, controlled society using technology, without any mythology to tell us right and wrong. We must stand as one mind, body and soul, within a resistance of unity. We must come together as a human race and realize that each and every one of us is an individual who can say no, that we do not have to participate in the social experiment. Society will not survive, being bankrupt in emotions and community, if we have no stories to hold us together. So here’s a word I came up with for our modern society: illuminoligarcorpocracy. We are being strangled and yoked and controlled by big tech, powerful billionaires and governments in ways that nobody totally understands. The concept of mythology is a powerful people’s unification against the onslaught of a new ideology that has been thrust on to humanity. We must counter the reality of this new technological understanding of humans by not participating in the algorithm of insanity. Mythology is a way to get back to the roots and traditions of where we came from. Stories were a way of surviving in the face of the world, back to Greece, Babylon, Egypt, India, all of the world’s traditions. We as Americans have to decide what value the old traditions have for us, from our families and back to the ancestors we came from. dlZ9dlZ8 בCטFu׉׉ 7cassandra://HpA5rWpr0lsQprDK0eT0lgO7c_mR0qnR4GwMy9BKlZgt`׉ 7cassandra://MGcdAM490aU_W8Ub5JKfDMJZgeWhcglWn1IRZAov9kA͈x`h׉ 7cassandra://apx3N_MD8TwhHpxz3Nu6O0RbsAzlLE5m5VPznDE2LN4-8`׉ 7cassandra://RW2L5Rec94baH6kQzbGFxdUpmTgZL3JxOwp7aeq3vs05&Q"͠4dlZ9 נdlZ9"d 9ׁHhttp://PEOPLESFOOD.COOPׁ ׁ Ј׉E12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS FOOD Oatmeal raisin cookies KADEN WATTS Wolverine pathways student Ingredients: ¾ cup butter, softened ¾ cup white sugar ¾ cup packed light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon salt 2 ¾ cups rolled oats 1 cup raisins Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Beat butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat AUGUST 25, 2023 into the butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop teaspoonfuls of batter onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes, switching racks halfway through. Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. LUNCH OR DINNER WE’VE GOT YOU! Whether it’s $2 OFF NATURAL FOODS MARKET & DELI 216 N. FOURTH AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MI PHONE (734) 994 - 9174 • PEOPLESFOOD.COOP ANY PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE One coupon per transaction. Must present coupon at the time of purchase. Coupon good for in-store only. No other discounts or coop cards apply. Not valid for gift cards, case purchases, beer or wine. OFFER EXPIRES 9/7/2023 ׉ 7cassandra://apx3N_MD8TwhHpxz3Nu6O0RbsAzlLE5m5VPznDE2LN4-8`dlZ9׈EdlZ9dlZ9 ,August 25, 2023d*<2