Author: Laurel L. Russwurm

is a self publishing novelist and photographer.

“The Dark and Middle Ages! The Nineteenth Century had an impudent way with its labels. For there,…”

“The Dark and Middle Ages! The Nineteenth Century had an impudent way with its labels. For there, under the window in Arthur’s Gramarye, the sun’s rays flamed from a hundred jewels of stained glass in monasteries and convents or danced from the pinnacles of cathedrals and castles, which their builders had actually loved. […] Did you know that in these dark ages which were visible from Guenever’s window, there was so much decency in the world that the Catholic Church could impose a peace to all their fighting - which it called The Truce of God - and which lasted from Wednesday to Monday, as well as during the whole of Advent and Lent? Do you think that they, with their Battles, Famine, Black Death and Serfdom, were less enlightened than we are, with our Wars, Blockade, Influenza and Conscription? Even if they were foolish enough to believe that the earth was the centre of the universe, do we not ourselves believe that man is the fine flower of creation? If it takes a million years for a fish to become a reptile, has man, in our few hundred, altered out of recognition?”

- T.H. White, The Once and Future King.

Happy St Patrick’s DayRemembering the St Patrick’s Battalion, “Composed primarily…

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Remembering the St Patrick’s Battalion,

“Composed primarily of Catholic Irish immigrants, the battalion also included Germans, Canadians, English, French, Italians, Poles, Scots,  Spaniards, Swiss, and Mexicans, many of whom were also members of the Catholic Church.[2] Disenfranchised Americans were in the ranks, including escaped slaves from the Southern United States.[3] ”

—Wikipedia: St Patricks Battalion

Lyrics

“My name is John Riley

I’ll have your ear only a while

I left my dear home in Ireland

It was death, starvation or exile

And when I got to America

It was my duty to go

Enter the Army and slog across Texas

To join in the war against Mexico


"It was there in the pueblos and hillsides

That I saw the mistake I had made

Part of a conquering army

With the morals of a bayonet blade

So in the midst of these poor, dying Catholics

Screaming children, the burning stench of it all

Myself and two hundred Irishmen

Decided to rise to the call


"From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side


"We marched ‘neath the green flag of Saint Patrick

Emblazoned with "Erin Go Bragh”

Bright with the harp and the shamrock

And “Libertad para la República”

Just fifty years after Wolftone

Five thousand miles away

The Yanks called us a Legion of Strangers

And they can talk as they may


“From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side


"We fought them in Matamoros

Where their volunteers were raping the nuns

In Monterey and Cerro Gordo

We fought on as Ireland’s sons

We were the red-headed fighters for freedom

Amidst these brown-skinned women and men

Side by side we fought against tyranny

And I daresay we’d do it again


"From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side


"We fought them in five major battles

Churubusco was the last

Overwhelmed by the cannons from Boston

We fell after each mortar blast

Most of us died on that hillside

In the service of the Mexican state

So far from our occupied homeland

We were heroes and victims of fate


"From Dublin City to San Diego

We witnessed freedom denied

So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion

And we fought on the Mexican side.”

— St Patrick Battalion (David Rovics)

What’s important? View this post on Instagram A post shared by GLOBAL YOUNG…

What’s important?

What is important?

Do you want to live in a world in which money is more important than people?

I don’t.

That’s why, no matter where you live, there is a Green Party. That’s why I volunteer for the Green Party.

We need to stop messsing around.

Its time to change the world.

Maybe It’s TimeThe Green Party of Canada is looking for candidates. Have *you* considered…

Maybe It’s Time

The Green Party of Canada is looking for candidates. Have *you* considered running?

POLITICS AFFECTS US ALL

If you believe you or someone you know might be a great Green candidate, now is the time to

NOMINATE SOMEONE!

(before nominating someone else it is a good idea to talk to them about it first! 😏)

https://youtu.be/Gne-WVDKmvw

Signs of Spring? This sign stands in an empty spring LTC flowerbed. Field of text made up of a…

Signs of Spring?

This alt text only allows 200 characters, not enough to describe the sign planted in an empty spring flowerbed at the Long Term Care home where my mother lives, so the sign is described in the post.

This sign stands in an empty spring LTC flowerbed.

Field of text made up of a recurring list of front line workers, in differeny colours and sizes of text, including:

“Police, Health Care Workers, Nurses, Manufacturing, Pharmacists, Trades Workers, PSWs, Paramedics, Nurses, Hospital Staff, Firefighters, Day Care Workers, Paramedics, Truck Drivers, Gas Station Attendants, Long Term Care, Postal Delivery, Paramedics, Doctors, Couriers, Grocery Store Staff.

"In the centre is the outline of a maple leaf holding text that reads: To everyone making a difference… Thank You.

”#FLATTENTHECURVE #STOPTHESPREAD"

I took the photo because Grocery Store Staff was listed prominently, and as I’ve been working as a grocery store cashier, I appreciated it.

But looking more closely at the text for the purposes of this post, I became disturbed by the frequency of the word “police.”

Yes, police are front line workers, but bloated police budgets not only deprive valuable social services of funding, the stories of police behaving badly, abusing their power, have not abated despite the pandemic.

So I wouldn’t have this sign on my lawn if you paid me.

When we cut down trees…Ignorance Fuels the Climate CrisisThe reason we hear politicians…

When we cut down trees…

Ignorance Fuels the Climate Crisis

The reason we hear politicians promising to plant millions of trees to fight #ClimateChange is living trees store carbon. The bigger the tree, the more carbon.

Every perfectly healthy big tree that is wantonly cut down for landscaping reasons releases the carbon it had sequestered throughout its life.

It is positively crazy to be cuttting the tiny sliver of old growth forrest remaining in Canada.