Joshua Shepherd writes: I have a self-inflicted wound. I joined the United States military. I didn't know. I couldn't see. I couldn't hear. I was borne of wounded folk. I became wounded myself. Let us heal.

I am currently using a Twitter account @FortressBayArea to name militarisms past and present. People in our communities who love and are loved, are engaged in work that creates wounds. The easy road would be to condemn. This also creates wounds. I am trying to envision a situation where we neither condemn nor condone. I aspire to a kind of community solidarity where we challenge our neighbors to stop inflicting wounds for their own sake and that of others.

The foundation of the modern Bay Area was laid on conquest. Of land, of people, of spirit. One of UC Berkeley's cornerstones was shifted 5° to align with the Golden Gate and mark the coming conquest of the Pacific. War made this place, it remains to be seen if war can be unmade, in this place.

I'd like to dedicate this project to the Winnemum Wintu peoples whose land my great-grandfather's labor helped submerge behind Shasta Dam, The Yana peoples whose land he later settled and I was raised on. The Suisunes band of the Patwin tribe who were burned alive miles from where I now live, and to the Miwok, Wappo, Ohlone, and all indigenous people who continue to be dispossessed.

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