Holiday gift ideas with the Occupied Spirit.

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The definitive gift for the season, Sudecon Decontamination Wipes (which drastically improve recovery time from exposure to pepper spray, CN and CS gasses) was sold out last time I looked, so the Holiday Occupier will have to get creative with gift ideas.

Here are my Top Four Last Minute Occupy-the-Holiday suggestions:

1. For double duty gifting, purchase gift certificates from local small businesses - supporting the business is a gift in itself. Think services such as massage, auto detailing, manicure and spa services, consulting services of various kinds, a class in salsa, cooking or painting. Purchase gift certificates to local retail stores such as your community bookstore (including used book stores), mom and pop stores like quilt shops, music stores, etc. Purchase foodie gift certificates to locally owned restaurants, delis or health food stores.

2. Purchase music CDs or downloads from artists who support the Occupy movement, like Makana, who, with some trepidation, wore an "Occupy with Aloha" T-shirt as he sang his political protest song, "We Are The Many" at a Honolulu dinner attended by President Obama and leaders of 18 other nations.   Buy from an artists' own site or from CB Baby where they make more on their music than other outlets. For a list of musicians, see www.occupymusicians.com

3. Support the arts if you feel that they enrich your life. Take a loved one to a cultural event as your gift, while you support local community theater and concerts. Or purchase an item at one of the many "small-arts/crafts-for-sale-for-the-holidays" events. Give a gift of art or craft supplies: arts and crafts activities relieve stress and enhance creativity, and we need both to move the Occupy Movement forward. It's usually art and artists that save the world, so we need to cultivate more of them. Einstein famously said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them," and that is the perfect reason to encourage creativity.

 

4. For every item of Union and American-made cold weather gear you buy, Firedoglake will donate an identical item to an Occupier in need. It's the perfect gift for the activist friend or family member - and an easy way to support the Occupy movement at the same time. You can even "Occupy the North Pole" by donating your entire cart to an occupation. (Already, 100% of the money raised so far by the Occupy Supply fund has gone towards purchasing and shipping over 9,000 items to occupations across the country to help them get through the winter.) http://shop.occupy-supply.com/storefront.aspx

'Tis the season to Occupy, Fa la la la la, la la la la.

RESOURCES

-Sudecon Decontamination Wipes www.defensedevices.com/suddecwip.html (accessed Dec 12 2011)

-Get a free download of "We Are the Many" from Makana at http://makanamusic.com/

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.