2023 Issue 4 Jul/Aug Focus - Mid-South Magazine

faith+spirituality
Flower Power,
People Power
by Salamander Brandy
The Goddess calls for me to write another S.O.S. to you,
dear readers. We are in need of help here in our little corner
of the cosmos.
What the people need is public housing that is
better integrated with the environment; better public
transportation so people don’t have to rely on CO2
producing cars; bans on herbicides, pesticides and
microplastic-producing plastic bags.
As above, so below.
Flowers such as the dandelion are versatile in meeting
our nutritional needs, but are the most sprayed by
toxic chemicals. These same chemicals that pollute our
groundwater are trapped in our water cycle and rained
down on our heads.
In our “civilized” society, we see lawns that have no
nutritional value to us as assets but the flowers that grow
in aesthetically inconvenient places, despite the fact
they may be used for medicine, are quickly eradicated.
Please be reminded that this problem is compounded in
neighborhoods where people are considered weeds by
society. The rise of chemical farming has coincided with the
rise of neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases.
The food that we eat has us disconnected on a cellular
level. This disconnection has an echoing effect on larger
scales in our society.
As within, so without.
As people develop sickness or cancers within the
body and mind, their outwardly actions may also be
considered cancerous to society. People rob and steal
out of desperation. People kill because they may see
others as competition to the resources that they need to
survive. Because we don’t see ourselves as a part of nature
working as one with the land, we reduce it and therefore
other people to mere resources. Our public policies are a
reflection of devaluing life for the sake of capital.
The politicians that write these laws and codes are
disconnected from the rest of humanity and believe they
can treat Memphis as their private garden and the people
that live here as if we were weeds. They refuse to consider
that maybe every flower that they can’t sell shouldn’t be
poisoned or that every person that is unable to produce
capital for them shouldn’t be brutalized by their system.
Humanity's relationship with our home planet and to
ourselves has become cancerous. Cancerous energy is still
energy and like all forms of energy it coalesces, it builds,
and it swells. What I’m describing here is the rise of the
fascist movement here in America.
By projecting their vision onto the society under their
control, As within, So without. It almost becomes a
feedback loop of ill will. When we are unable to empathize
with our fellow people, we are more likely to not empathize
with the environment surrounding those same people.
It doesn’t really take much science or metaphysical
knowledge to know that if you poison a nearby water
source with sterilizing chemicals, the people around that
area are gonna get sick and have low morale. This is the
case in a South Memphis neighborhood off of Florida St., in
which the city has known about since 2012 and just recently
took the barest minimum action to rectify this grave wrong.
Instead of organizing the cleanup of toxic waste in this low
income neighborhood they order more police while city
officials sit on their hands and let people get sick.
If we want a safe city—a more green city—then we
need to meet the needs of its most vulnerable citizens. In
a city where 60% of the budget goes to the police I can
earnestly say, MORE COPS ARE NOT A SOLUTION!! The
police are not here to protect us. They are only here to
protect powerful people and to insulate them from the
realities of climate change.
As over here, so over there.
This is where I need you dear readers. As I type this,
powerful men are gathering to divide and further colonize
the city for corporate interest. No one is coming to save
us but us. I’m running for mayor under the name Brandon
Price, but I am only one person and I need your help. The
only way for us to lead our city out of the polluted muck is
for every citizen to get involved. I need you to know who
are the key turners of power and exert combined influence
over them. We need to take up as much space as possible.
Dear readers, each of us need to take a moment and look
at our society to see where we are in it. We need to end
this obsession to commodify and privatize everything and
come back to balance in order for our species to survive
into the next millennium. The garden that is Memphis is
worth saving.
30 Memphis Green | JUL+AUG 2023 | focuslgbt.com