The Space Queen

By Sarah Jane

IG: @projectspacequeen

thespacequeen420@gmail.com

Space Queen in Humboldt is a series of events from the perspective of a chick working on a pot farm in the magical Emerald Forest Wilderness.

I need to explain the sadness and anger I feel in regards to this dichotomy unfolding each day that passes in this country, with most recently the Confederate Nazi rally in Charlottesville.

I live in the woods, obviously- so sometimes news takes a bit to circulate its way up the dusty mountain road. And also, we have wifi, so no need to envision a carrier pigeon swooping in and dropping little glass bottles with tiny notes in them. Yes, we are connected to the outside world, but this is a pot farm after all- naturally, many of us who choose this life also choose to disregard bullsh*t media and rarely feel the need to scroll endlessly through pages and pages of news that may or may not even be real. Contrary to popular belief we’re simply busy all day. We choose nature and a completely different way of life. But I digress… no need to get into pot farm politics at the moment. My point is, I didn’t know about this Nazi parade until the day after when we left the farm for the day to meet up with close friends in Arcata for some day drinkin’.

We pulled into town right around 1 pm, and as we walked towards the psychedelic town square of Arcata there was the distinct sound of some jam bands through a sound system, and we could smell falafel cooking up under a tent on the grass.

Since it was Sunday, I just was like “Oh, this must be the farmer’s market going off hard in this town, ” but as we all congregated at the bar, we realized there was a parade going on. My boyfriend noticed there were signs for a “Cannabis Hullabaloo” happening the same day so we put two and two together and realized this must be a POT PARADE. We had a decent little crew, drinkin’ our Bloody Mary’s, standing outside for a bit to check out the scene. Floats passing by, crews of farmers cheering on their platforms, the Humboldt Women’s Growers Association, a sea of tie dye, dogs with dreadlocks strutting their way through the crowd, home-made political signs, and an ever so slight scent of OG drifting by our heads.

As we watched this unfold, I couldn’t help but notice one central vibe- in few words, it was peaceful as f*ck. Smiles on everyone’s faces, friendly hellos, people genuinely proud of their hard work, and rightfully so. No sense of competition in sight, no crowd fights, no police presence. Just a peaceful community-oriented event on a Sunday afternoon in beautiful Humboldt County California. So as you can imagine when I take a quick look at my news feed in the midst of a Bloody Mary buzz on an otherwise perfect day, well, I just wanted to run away into Redwood Park and climb a tree and cry for hours. I had just witnessed something that was full of love and peace not moments before, and on the other side of this country, there was the LITERAL opposite occurring. An actual Hate Parade.

This deviation from my experience out here on the west coast kept my heart so fucking heavy the whole next day. I sat in my trim chair for hours trying to pretend I wasn’t completely losing it on the inside and just listened to David Crosby and Neil Young (because I’m an introvert and force myself to listen to sad music when I’m feeling feelings.) Nevertheless, the entire day I was plagued with one burning question: How the fuck is this possible? How are we living in a country where on one side there is the opportunity to celebrate growing weed and educating about agriculture and on the other an organized event supporting hate and death where people can wave their confederate and Nazi flags with pride? And kill people just teaching the word of love? No joke you guys, I’m waiting for this country to be re-named The Divided States of America. I would be lying to say I’m not in deep fear for our future on a daily basis.

Now, look. I’m very aware of the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech. As a nation, we can pretty much say and do whatever we want legally. This is always where this shit falls into the gray zone though; where is the line? It’s fucking 2017 and for a country that is so “advanced” how is it possible to wake up to the news of loud and proud Nazi fucks terrorizing a community that has already endured so much pain historically? What are we supposed to do from an individual standpoint? I may be considered naive because I think love can heal. But this is what I was taught as a child, and it proves to be the right way even now in my adult life. If you treat people with love and respect regardless of their background, it will most certainly bounce right back at ya’. But there’s always going to be a flip side to everything. The light and the dark. It becomes a much darker beast when we see this resurgence of hate breeding in this Divided Nation. It is no longer, unfortunately, a singular issue. Do we want uneducated, ignorant hate mongers taking control of this beautiful country? F*ck no, and we have to keep talking about this.

I have to stop here, for now, kids, but I’m gonna send you off with this Nelson Mandela quote:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Meditate on this. I’ll be back next time with a tale of parallel universe. Until then…

Love and peace from the Mountain,
–Space Queen