Colorado Cannabis, Golden Eagle and USS Liberty Remembrance Day

In July Colorado pot shops posted record-breaking sales topping $122 million.

From Friday the 9^th of September through 9/11, this reporter purchased and enjoyed recreational cannabis from Herbal Wellness at 400 West South Boulder Road in Lafayette, Colorado.

I learned the staff at Herbal Wellness are busy from 8 AM until 10 PM seven days a week and the clientele during my three visits in two days was predominately baby boomers who all went through the recreational and not medical door.

I spoke with Andy Snedeker and learned he is as knowledgeable regarding cannabis as a good pharmacist should be regarding opiates, tranquilizers and antidepressants.

I have never taken a tranquilizer or antidepressant but I experienced such intense gut pain after a dose of Oxycodone prescribed for dental pain, I switched to an over the counter analgesic for two days.

I was introduced to cannabis at the age of 15 and am now 62 years young.

I told Andy I flew from Florida on a mission to end a nearly 50 year USA Government Cover-Up by circulating paper copies of This Petition and in support and to report on a September 11, USS liberty veteran’s book launch in Denver.

I also told Andy I had traveled for the first time since my brother’s suicide [Feb. 2015] without Jax, my rescue dog. I was sorely missing her and I have a Dr. script for 24/7 emotional support dog, because Jax has been my main emotional support for my case of PTSD brought on by my brother’s suicide.

Andy looked me in the eyes and I felt his “I am so sorry for your loss” in my heart.
Then I told Andy I was in Washington State two weeks prior and in just two days without my daily self-care: Pilates, swimming, stretching, yin yoga and hours in silent meditation, I experienced a severe exacerbation of my end stage osteoarthritis in shoulders and new pains in my back and neck during the six days away from home in Florida.

I asked Andy for his recommendation of a strain of cannabis that would not interfere with my need to remain mentally focused and I wanted my body to feel as IF I had been practicing my home routines.

Andy recommended “Donnatella” which is 24% THC and that I should mix it with 100% CBD.

I purchased two grams of “Donnatella” and a large CBD pre-rolled joint that I rolled into six joints.

[READ what I learned about CBD while in Washington state  HERE ]

I smoked the last of my cannabis on Sunday, September 11 around 11 AM, which was four hours before I delivered the following speech at the FOSNA sponsored USS Liberty Veterans book launch:

Hi, I am Eileen Fleming, from New York but I live in Florida. Before that day we call 911, I was a comfortably numb Christian and privileged American.

I am also the granddaughter of a German Jew who died before I could learn how many of my relatives were gassed or fried by the Third Reich.

THAT DAY we call 911 irrevocably altered my life and shortly thereafter I realized my childhood dream of being a writer and reporter simply because The Media was NOT asking my questions!

I began to research America’s Middle East policies and being a follower of the NONVIOLENT Jesus,

I was led to join the Olive Trees Foundation for Peace founded in Orlando by a 1948 Palestinian Muslim refugee from the Galilee who made his way to the USA and realized the American Dream.

Dr Diab inspired American Christians, Jews, Muslims and others to learn about the Israeli Palestinian conflict and we raised funds for over 40,000 fruit bearing trees that were rooted on both sides of The Wall before the non-profit disbanded.

In 2005, Dr Diab was my shepherd on my first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall in the Holy Land and shortly thereafter I connected with SABEEL,

But I knew nothing about the USS LIBERTY until 13 October 2007, when I heard Phil Tourney speak in California at The No More Wars for Israel Conference, which had been dedicated to Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower, Mordechai Vanunu.

I was asked to speak at the conference because I met Vanunu while in Jerusalem in 2005, and we began a series of interviews that are freely streaming at YouTube and enshrined in hundreds of articles and four of my so far seven books. Before I made the trip to California, a few human rights activists warned me that I should NOT attend the conference because anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and white supremacists would be in attendance!

I thanked them for their concern and imagined Jesus would welcome the opportunity to speak to anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and so—I gleefully traveled from Florida and arrived in California to learn I did not even have a room at the Inn where the conference was scheduled to take place.

The hotel had also cancelled the event due to complaints that there would be anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and white supremacists in attendance.


The conference was rescheduled at a Church nine hours later and indeed, I did not agree with many things some of the other speakers said, but I uphold that all people have the right to think their own thoughts and speak their own minds.

But when USS LIBERTY survivor and then current President of the USS LIBERTY Veterans Association, Phillip F. Tourney spoke about that day in infamy on 8 June 1967, I KNEW why I had made the trip!

Tourney spoke in depth about the 34 Americans who were brutally slaughtered, 172 wounded [including himself] all because Israel attacked America’s virtually unarmed premier spy ship the USS LIBERTY while she navigated in international waters during the Six Day War.

When Phil said “It was God that kept the LIBERTY afloat” I knew I would do more than just listen to him.

In 2012, I ran for US HOUSE on a platform that included establishing every June 8 to be known as USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY.

I am here today, to ask YOUR help in establishing USS LIBERTY REMEMBRANCE DAY in the hearts and minds of your families and friends by sharing the USS LIBERTY PETITION, which will be delivered to Congress following the 8 June 2017, USS LIBERTY reunion in Norfolk, VA.

I am also here to remind you that September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Every 65 minutes an American veteran dies by suicide.

That’s 22 American Veterans a day and most are our Vietnam era Veterans and our 18-25 year old Veterans.

Thank you for your time and for anything you do to help end the epidemic of suicide and in honor of the USS Liberty.

 

The applause felt genuine and the crowd laughed at the appropriate times.

At the end of the event some attendees took petitions away and others signed and returned them to me.

The day before I delivered a few dozen petitions and practiced my speech at an open house at VFW Post 1771, which is about 1/4 mile from Flatirons Community Church and the Herbal Wellness cannabis shop in Lafayette, Colorado.

However, at the VFW post 1771, I added that my brother died by suicide and saying it aloud to the crowd around the bar made me cry;

So I omitted the mention of my brother at the September 11 event and remained calm within as I passionately and enthusiastically spoke my heart.

After my brother died by suicide in Feb. 2015, I added the daily Intention/prayer that “Jim’s pain NOT be in vain.”

At the top of my Daily Intentions/prayers since 2007, when I began to learn about the USA Government Cover-Up of the USS LIBERTY has been the declarative statement: “June 8 is USS Liberty Remembrance Day!”

Ever since 2005, during my first of eight trips to both sides of The Wall in the Holy Land, my daily prayer and topmost Intention and hope has been to see the End of the the US-Israeli Occupation of Palestine and Nuclear Deceptions.

Before my first trip in 2005, I had been a “church-lady” teaching Youth Sunday school, but when I returned home I could not find any church or parishioners who wanted to know what life was like for 21^st century Christians in the Holy Land.

Hearing the Gospel preached by a Palestinian Christian and after meeting Israel’s nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu;

My Jesus became a social justice radically nonviolent Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up [intifada] against the corrupt Temple and challenged the job security of Temple Priests by teaching the people:

NO need for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to get OK with God

Because God already loves every ONE just as they are!

That is not the Jesus I have ever heard preached in any Western church.

UNTIL Saturday, 10 September 2016, I had no desire and did not attend any church in America since June 2005.

However, on International Suicide Prevention Awareness Day, I was pulled to attend Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette, which was across the street from Herbal Wellness.

BACKGROUND:

My first stop after landing in Colorado on Friday the 9^th was to deliver a prayer request regarding the USS Liberty which included a copy of the Liberty Petition and the flier for the USS Liberty Veterans book launch in Denver on September 11 to the Flatirons Community Church.

My second stop was to the Herbal Wellness Medical and Recreational Cannabis store.

I learned “a lot of veterans” but only “a few” members of the Flatirons Community Church shopped there for cannabis.

The Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette is housed within an abandoned Wal-Mart and can seat over 2,000 at a time.

I connect most intimately with God in nature and in silence, and I have NO doubt it was a power greater than myself that compelled me for the first time in my life to go up to an ‘altar’ and ask for prayer.

There were a half dozen prayer people waiting to pray in front of the stage and I immediately gravitated to a woman on the left side.

I handed the prayer lady a paper copy of the LIBERTY PETITION and the flier announcing the USS Liberty veterans’ talk in Denver on September 11.

She told me her name was Sarah and that she had heard of the USS Liberty!

Other than the social justice Christians connected to Sabeel, I had not met any USA Christian who knew or cared to know about the USS Liberty!

I took it as a sign and Sarah took my hands, but before she said a word, I blurted out that September is global suicide awareness prevention month and that my brother died by suicide.

Then unexpected tears poured from my eyes onto the carpet as Sarah softly murmured. I could not hear her words I was so caught up in my flow of tears!

Without a conscience thought to do so, I soon found I was breathing very deeply and slowly which stopped my tears as swiftly as they had come on and the ‘peace that passes all understanding’ filled me.

I thanked Sarah for the cathartic relief and she gave me a hug and assured me she would share my prayer requests.

The following morning around 7:15, I was walking down a gravel road along side a six-foot high wood fence about ½ mile from the Flatirons Church and Herbal Wellness cannabis shop.

I had already expressed my daily prayer for the USS Liberty and that my brother’s suicide not be in vain and feeling grateful that I shared my heart with a stranger named Sarah whom I trusted would share my heart with other people of prayer.

I past hundreds of townhomes on my left and was gazing at my lone shadow reflected on the wood fence to my right.

I noticed how warm my back felt under the cloudless Colorado sky when a few feet above my head a giant raptor flew over and landed on the fence about thirty feet in front of me with its head pointed directly at my face.

I live in Florida and thought it was the biggest Red-tailed Hawk I had ever seen, but research revealed it was too big to be a hawk and looked just like this image of a Golden Eagle:

 

I watched that bird of prey intently watch me as I walked towards it.

I flinched first, but not until I was directly alongside the massive bird by dropping my head.

I felt that bird watching me and I thought about looking back at it for about ten steps;

But then I felt a rush at my back and saw the shadow of its tremendous outstretched wings reflected on the pine wood fence.

I looked up and saw the bird soar then disappear within seconds and I knew it was a sign or a message of some kind.

From “A Brief Exploration Of The Spiritually Of The Eagle” we learn:

That the eagle is present across a range of beliefs or philosophies and represents spiritual protection, carries prayers, brings strength, courage, wisdom, healing, creation…

The dictionary of scripture and myth, describes the eagle as:

A symbol of the holy spirit, which flies, as it were, through the mind (air) from the higher nature (heaven) to the lower nature (earth) and soars aloft to the self (sun).

Native American cultures sees the Eagle as a state of grace that is reached through inner work, understanding and passing the initiation tests that result from reclaiming our personal power.

Eagle Medicine is the Power of the Great Spirit.

It is the spirit of tenacity.

It is the gift of clear vision with which one can truly see the things one sees.

It is the patience to wait for the appropriate moment.

It is to live in balance with heaven and earth.

Eagle reminds us of our connection with the Great Spirit….

 

God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat”…And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good… (Gen. 1:29-31)

 

The above is an excerpt from Eileen Fleming’s 8^th book, “June 8 is USS LIBERTY Remembrance Day and Daily Intentions” to be released July 2017, HERE