RE: Rakiba and Love

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bigtreesfall

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Mar 26, 2014, 11:53:42 PM3/26/14
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Hey Emma and everyone!  
I will mos def be there tomorrow and i hope to see all of you.
Not to sound selfish, but i need it.  
I'm not gonna be sad.....I've been for almost a week now.  I want to rejoice our fortune to be in her mist as i am thankful to be in all of you guys  space at one time.
I look forward to seeing you all and reflect a bit, especially on our star, Rakiba.  :-)
One love


Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device


-------- Original message --------
From: "EmmaaAAAH! <3"
Date:03/26/2014 11:29 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: occupy-detroit-faci...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Rakiba and Love

Hello Dear Hearts! GOOD GRIEF!!!

Look, I don't know if anyone even gets these e-mails anymore, but I just took a pretty wild trip down memory lane via our outrageously human and wondrous google group, and it MADE ME MISS YA'!

The reason for revisiting good ole' facilitation was two-fold. One, Rakiba is no longer with us and I can't believe she's gone. I needed to see her voice pop out at size 600 font (slight exaggeration) in e-mail form and I knew I would find just exactly that here. Two, a radical educators group that I'm a part of wants to start practicing modified consensus at our meeting tomorrow and I realized I'd sort of forgotten how to do it. This seemed like a good place to brush up. Looking through our old e-mails has satisfied both those aims and way more. Although it just makes loosing Rakiba feel all the more surreal.

Anyway, y'all probably are already aware, but Rakiba's Memorial (I still can't believe this is happening) is going down tomorrow at Central Methodist at 5:30. I don't really have words about all this, mostly just really sad feelers and lots of disbelief, but I sure would love to see y'all. If not tomorrow, then maybe we can get drinks or somethin' sometime soon and toast our lady.

I know a lot of us aren't around any more, or have drifted, or it's been years, but I hope y'all know, I love you lots. I miss you, and I miss this time, even when it was awful hard. AND IF I EVER DO SEE YOU I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU A HUG. With consent of course, with consent. Just to warn ya'. :D

That's all.

Hey!! A relatively pithy e-mail from me! A first! And I didn't call anybody a "chickadee" (that was for Rakiba, y'all know how she felt about that particular term of endearment).

Okay, smooth. (As Wayne used to say)

Stay dangerous.
Emma

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Curtis McGuire

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Mar 27, 2014, 8:09:27 AM3/27/14
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HUGS! 

I haven't found the courage to write anything public about all this,  reading what everyone has been posting on Facebook, and the sheer shock of it all has been so hard on me and I have been unable to think about her for longer than a few second without breaking down.  Rakiba lived 4 houses away and I was over at her place frequently.  She would call me to help move heavy things or with house projects or whatever she needed and visa versa.  She become a close friend once we discovered we lived so close to each other . . .  

I miss her terribly.  

I will be there tonight. 

Curtis McGuire
National Lawyers Guild - Michigan & Detroit Chapter
Administrator / Organizer 
---------------------------------------

A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, a will to fight for a better world.  -Saul Alinsky

Emma Howland-Bolton

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Mar 27, 2014, 11:12:38 AM3/27/14
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Daymon J. Hartley Folks...there is a meme going around that indicates that the People's Potluck dinner tonight at Central Methodist Church Detroit is a memorial for Rakiba Brown. It also implies that there will be no other event to honor her life. No matter how well meaning the person/persons who put it up may have been this is false information. The People's Potluck meets the last Thursday of every month and has had a program scheduled to celebrate the freeing of the Enbridge-3. Since this was going to be a large gathering of her friends we decided to dedicate some time to remembering her. The family is in the process of planning a memorial which all will be invited to. Please share this info on your timelines and we hope to see you tonight. daymon for The People's Potluck
Emma Howland-Bolton
Teacher (5th Grade)

"Caminante no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar." 

"Do not embark on any undertaking unless the goal is manifestly important and its achievement nearly impossible."

"The duty of the student is none other than to seek her lost heart"

Emma Howland-Bolton

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Mar 27, 2014, 11:12:57 AM3/27/14
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Does anyone know if there IS going to be a memorial?

Reddi Red

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Mar 27, 2014, 11:25:10 AM3/27/14
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There may be an official memorial per the family.  They will advise details once arranged.

Emma Howland-Bolton

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Mar 27, 2014, 11:26:05 AM3/27/14
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awesome, thanks Joseph. <3

Ross J. Kuhn

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Mar 27, 2014, 2:03:48 PM3/27/14
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Hey yall,

I was shocked for a second to see an email from this group; seems like another lifetime ago. In some ways, I guess it was; and partly because meeting Rakiba made me a different person. I'm still in so much disbelief, I almost expect to see her at the potluck tonight, y'know? The few times I've shown up, she would always yell out my name and hug me when I walked in; only a week ago, getting to see her at the potluck tonight was one of the things I was looking forward to most this spring. I wish so badly that I could've told her that and so much more. 

I was so exhausted when I got home from NYC, I almost gave up and stopped coming to OD after the first couple days. It was Rakiba who convinced me to join yall in facilitation and stick around. Even after OD, she asked me to facilitate a few things she was working on, which I regretfully turned down. Even despite my continual insistence to her that I'm a terrible facilitator, for whatever reason, she always believed in me. I think that's how I will remember her most; not that she just believed in me, but that she believed in everyone. Even when she was in your face and breaking you down, she'd always make sure to build you back up, but better and stronger, because she believed in you. To be honest, I feel really lost without her. I wouldn't have done a lot of things or made so many friends doing those things over the last couple years if it hadn't been for her guidance and nudges to get out of the house and be somewhere. 

I'm glad she brought us all together, and even though I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around that this is real, I can't wait to see yall tonight as she brings us together one last time.
:')

Seeya soon,
-RJK
-Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 27, 2014, at 10:59 AM, occupy-detroit-faci...@googlegroups.com wrote:



      HUGS!
       
      I haven't found the courage to write anything public about all this,
      reading what everyone has been posting on Facebook, and the sheer shock of
      it all has been so hard on me and I have been unable to think about her for
      longer than a few second without breaking down. Rakiba lived 4 houses away
      and I was over at her place frequently. She would call me to help move
      heavy things or with house projects or whatever she needed and visa versa.
      She become a close friend once we discovered we lived so close to each
      other . . .
       
      I miss her terribly.
       
      I will be there tonight.
       
      Curtis McGuire

      ---------------------------------------
       
      A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must
      be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and
      therefore, a will to fight for a better world. -Saul Alinsky
       
       

       



        Hello Dear Hearts! GOOD GRIEF!!!
         
        Look, I don't know if anyone even gets these e-mails anymore, but I just
        took a pretty wild trip down memory lane via our outrageously human and
        wondrous google group, and it MADE ME MISS YA'!
         
        The reason for revisiting good ole' facilitation was two-fold. One, Rakiba
        is no longer with us and I can't believe she's gone. I needed to see her
        voice pop out at size 600 font (*slight* exaggeration) in e-mail form and I

      Emma Howland-Bolton

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      Mar 27, 2014, 2:37:03 PM3/27/14
      to occupy-detroit-faci...@googlegroups.com
      HOPEFULLY NOT "ONE LAST TIME!!" Haha, but yes! Beautifully said Ross. Excited to see you tonight. :)
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