Be a Better Relative - Tuesday, June 16, 2026

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1. Anyone can have their car taken away. Cars, boats, motorcycles, any fossil fuel vehicle.
2. Leaf blowers? Not a vehicle. Call 877-KPFK-AUTO. Donate your car to KPFK. Help the station.
3. And commute by bike. There's no traffic on a bike.
4. so
5. well hello there relatives welcome back it is tuesday night
6. Time for Be a Better Relative here on 90.7 KPFK.
7. My name is Sunrose Ironshell.
8. I am here with my co-host, Lydia Ponce.
9. And our show, Be a Better Relative, is to inspire and to throw some things at you that maybe you never even thought of.
10. And all at the end of the day, just to encourage everybody to be a better relative.
11. Come and get your love
12. So thank you for tuning in once again.
13. We made it through the week.
14. How are you doing, Lydia?
15. I'm doing great, considering that this crazy weather in Texas is...
16. Like, somebody's just flipping the dial, I'm sure.
17. Left, right, left, right.
18. Hot. Not cold, necessarily, but raining.
19. We need the rain.
20. This is a drought state.
21. It's another country altogether, but looking forward already to going back to Cali.
22. You know, what can I say?
23. And much to be said about this coming week.
24. It's a busy week for your tribal peoples.
25. I love this whole celebration and this whole gathering of everyone.
26. It's really exciting.
27. Oh, yeah, it's going to be the 150th year anniversary of the Battle of the Greasy Grass,
28. also known as the battle of the little bighorn also known as custard's last stand
29. yeah and for everybody kind of feeling some way out there about the america's 250th year
30. anniversary i'd say come celebrate with us come celebrate the victory day of the greasy grass
31. because on their 100th year anniversary of America,
32. that's when we won the battle.
33. And so when America was trying to celebrate her 100th year,
34. we were there, we were like, uh-uh, baby girl.
35. You better remember where you at, whose house you're in.
36. No cake, but there's victories.
37. There's victories to celebrate in, you know, small and large.
38. You know, the local politics of city, state, and I don't know, this country altogether. Everybody's talking about the primaries and everybody's saying how it's not going to liberate us. Well, that right there, my dear, is everything. We've got to get on the horseback and we got to ride and we got to be on the front lines. There you go. That's the solution to everything, I think.
39. Yeah I talked to a few people who were like feeling a little glum that everything is all this celebration It very American It very Uncle Sam And they not really feeling it you know because America genocidal policies towards indigenous people
40. don't make us want to celebrate 250 years of that. So that's why it's really awesome. Like,
41. it's really cool. Like, I am so blessed to come from a people that has a celebration. And it's
42. kind of like a big like, yeah, so what? We're still here. Hello, we're still here, which is
43. always every generation's war cry. We are still here.
44. And that leads us to the representation of your people. It's so many people coming from all sides
45. of this Turtle Island. My influx on, I don't know, I don't have a flex on the World Games,
46. on the soccer games, real football, as we call it, and everywhere else. But these united,
47. divided states of America. I want to hand it off to you to talk about because I really don't know
48. much about it except for the families and women and mostly women leading the charge to use the
49. platform to call attention to the 43 to all the disappeared in Mexico. So my prayers are up for
50. them. And I know that it's a great way to celebrate brotherhood and sisterhood and peoplehood as far
51. as humanity and brethren, I would say, philos. So I'm waiting to learn because I didn't put a lot
52. of effort into learning about it because I really already knew that it's United States,
53. divided states posturing on being good people representing us. That's not true.
54. Words, man, words are a spell for sure, because the way they word things can lead to erasure of
55. us. And right now in the World Cup of Soccer, I've been, you know, my companion's a total athlete,
56. sports person. So I'm totally brand new to watching and being a fan and seeing what different sports
57. are, learning all the rules, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, what's really cool about the World
58. Cup is it is a place where people are united in cheering for a team. But it's also really cool
59. is everybody showcases where they're from. And they're always trying to make sure they have
60. local people on their team representing their team. But then also it's a competition. So then
61. there's all these different players that can go all the way around the world and play for a certain
62. team so this weekend's like japan versus blah blah blah and like the fans come and they show their
63. culture and it's just really cool so this past week was the opening games and right now we have
64. canada is a host america's or united states is a host and mexico is a host when it could have just
65. been America is a host and we stand united as Americans because technically speaking,
66. and that's why I said words are spells because they're not telling you that it's a unity.
67. They're telling you Canada, United States and Mexico is different, but really we're all on the
68. same continent. So yeah, I just want to mention that it's a spell. So in Canada, they showcased
69. indigenous populations in their opening ceremonies. They opened with indigenous things,
70. indigenous dancers music people representation It was awesome Along with other musicians like Alyssa Cara had a really awesome song and they brought out a big polar bear puppet And it was just really creative
71. Like it was really cool.
72. And it was like, wow, it almost feels like the Olympics, like these opening ceremonies, everybody wearing all of their flags and like their different teams.
73. So the Congo team, Congolese team, they came to the stadium all in their black tuxedos.
74. And you know me, I like the fashion stuff.
75. And I especially love fashion stuff when it represents who you are and your identity.
76. And so they had this jaguar leopard print kind of harness that would go over their black kind of tuxedo.
77. And they looked sharp.
78. And then they had bags that match.
79. they looked sharp so what I see you know is definitely not necessarily the game or anything
80. about that but it's all this other aspects around it so people being proud of where they are and
81. where they come from and then like Mexico their opening ceremony was really awesome and they had
82. a lot of different musicians but the opening was a traditional mexican cultural woman and she had
83. her long braids and she had like the linen dress and then all the mexican aztec dancers came out
84. with their um oh man there was like 50 dancers out there and it was all surrounding like the golden
85. trophy and so like there's this gold soccer ball in the middle and then they're all dancing around
86. it and then not only did they just like open it they came and they danced throughout the opening
87. ceremony like they weren't just a feature in the beginning they were there throughout so like
88. Mexico is like bravo Mexico like it was really cool and then they also had in the musicians
89. I can't really name them.
90. No worries.
91. But they had other songs.
92. That encourages us to look it up.
93. Yeah.
94. And then they had those Mexican ribbon dresses, the big, big ribbon dresses.
95. And they all came out.
96. Ocorico.
97. Yeah.
98. Ocorico that Gina DeBaca was talking about last week.
99. So all those dancers, they came out and they represented well.
100. And it wasn't like, you know, bang on the drums.
101. I think it was like super contemporary.
102. They were dancing.
103. in the backgrounds of the contemporary music and so yeah it was just really cool spot on shout out
104. to mexico hey hey that was awesome but then we get over here to the united states we got katie perry
105. and no indigenous representation whatsoever and i'm like dang that's legolas's ex
106. and look at this and um you know it's like she went up to space and came down so if i'm reading
107. the signals it's like that's the representation of america like the american woman blah blah blah
108. anyways yeah it ain't me i just feel so much erasure and such invisibility and it can make
109. you feel down and then also here in the states the medias did not show the indigenous representation
110. of canada or of mexico you have to find that on social medias and different things so if you go to the official opening ceremonies here in the states they did not show Mexico dancers And then they did not show the Canadian tribes either
111. So erasure, somebody is making an active decision to do these things for our people.
112. Somebody is making that decision.
113. So I don't feel too good about it.
114. One of my friends said that they were interviewing Brazil and they were demanding, well, asking or demanding, I'm not going to try to influence. They were basically conducting the interview in English and they wanted the football player to speak in English.
115. and I don't know what happened there but I'm just really interested now in the representation so now
116. I'm going to be doing my homework because I didn't feel like I wanted to or needed to prepare for the
117. show for this because I'm not going to fake the funk I'm not you can't fake the funk I am not
118. representing any part of this because I feel very strongly that my attention should be put towards
119. the future of the sports and or the activities of the children near where I live, that they
120. should have every opportunity to fulfill their dreams or play and practice and see if they're
121. good at it, if they're interested. They should have every effort put forth for them to kick a
122. ball around and see if that's something that they want to dream about. If they're interested in
123. something like that or even through college or high school, it's crazy because in Los Angeles,
124. You don't see the support for the soccer teams, at least not at the West Side.
125. They put the football games, the soccer games, really right after the bell rings after school within 45 minutes.
126. And they don't have concession stands.
127. They really support American football.
128. So I think this is a falsehood.
129. I think we're just faking the funk as a nation.
130. This is a United States opportunity to be the center of attention in a very narcissistic way.
131. So I don't want to unshine or take any shine away from any of the football players, any of the soccer players.
132. I think they're going to have better fun in, dare I say, Mexico and Canada.
133. I mean, Katy Perry is not the shiz.
134. Yeah.
135. Yeah, she can't.
136. She's not like that.
137. I think of America.
138. I'm over here thinking about the kids.
139. I'm still thinking about all the kids.
140. All of this other stuff is just out the window for me.
141. Anyways.
142. well okay so two things iran has a team and they do play in the states but they are not allowed
143. to stay here in the states they can't be here overnight their visas were revoked so the soccer
144. team of iran has to stay in tijuana and for their games they get flown in and flown right back out
145. so you know what kind of haterade is that yeah that's a whole nother level of yeah all right
146. somebody got dropped on their head as a baby someone's making that decision yeah yeah anyway
147. sentiment the team from senegal they just won their match and oh man it was a battle so
148. So our matches or the football matches here in the States, the NFL, are shorter than the soccer matches are.
149. And then time could even get added on.
150. I'm still not really sure.
151. But then because they're playing to 60 minutes and then like, I don't know, just the game clock just looks kind of crazy.
152. So I don't really understand that.
153. Anyways, so the goalie has some time.
154. they do specific water breaks where you have to, everybody goes and takes a
155. water break and so morocco and senegal have beef they got beef with each other supposedly
156. and this has just come to my attention and i guess morocco is really racist towards black people
157. and the morocco fans were actively trying to do stuff to the players and the goalie would come
158. looking for his towel and they would like harass the goalie so he wouldn't have his towel to wipe
159. his sweat and then at the end of it when they actually won they were beefing and they're like
160. chaos in the stadium and then there was some prince prince of morocco or something like that
161. didn't want to give them the trophy so there's things wait wait who won senegal won but morocco
162. was uh being hatered about it but i guess they be beefing yeah wow in my slang i'm a
163. but um yeah so soccer is definitely like bringing out different things to light and so i like that
164. it's exposing i'm watching some things you inspired me what can i say yes that's my tidbit
165. about the soccer.
166. Japan and who?
167. I don't know.
168. There's all these
169. different countries.
170. I'm like,
171. sportsy-ish.
172. Lowercase letters.
173. Yeah,
174. look.
175. Amen.
176. Now I'm going to
177. look it up tonight
178. because I'm curious
179. about the,
180. I'm curious about
181. other countries'
182. openings or grand
183. openings and reception.
184. Reception of the people.
185. I mean,
186. with good faith,
187. right?
188. Yes.
189. So,
190. also then,
191. as a,
192. I don't know,
193. it was an afterthought or I don't know how this coincided but in the state of Washington the
194. Paliope tribe had a parade and they were able to like open the parade and show their tribal culture
195. and then after that was all the different countries so I don't know if it was this like grand
196. walking parade or something but the paliup tribe of washington are a sponsor
197. for the yeah world cup so they're doing some soccer things so if there's any indigenous
198. representation of the state right there it's right there with the paliups but it was not
199. showcased in the opening ceremony well thank you paliups for representing and we're going to find
200. the video that the tribe took and we're going to post that on Be A Better Relative. And yeah,
201. I'm not surprised. You know, look at what's happening on Sunday the 14th. We have the UFC,
202. we have people fighting. And this is close to Running Man. This is close to the Running Man
203. and Hunger Games, right? Yeah. So we're just one step closer to all that green bologna. We are the
204. green bologna in the sandwich on Turtle Island. We've got delicious bread on both sides, Canada
205. and Mexico and here in the United States, we're the green bologna.
206. That's who we are.
207. The Neon, the green bologna.
208. Yeah.
209. Here in Iowa, there's a lot of sports, soccer representation.
210. There's these little Spanish-speaking stores.
211. One's Guatemalan and one's from Ecuador.
212. They're from different countries because the Spanish-speaking world is vast and huge.
213. So we can't just single out all this Mexican this and the Mexican that.
214. It's like, nope.
215. There different There different tamales There different tacos It pretty awesome Some use lettuce some don use lettuce but every one of those stores you can find soccer jerseys And some are really cool Sometimes like especially the Mexico ones they have like the Aztec you know and Olmec kind of things And we like oh that cool All this like indigenous design
216. I'm a big fan of Japan, too.
217. So I root for them in the Olympics.
218. And now I'm going to root for them in the soccer team.
219. And they had their soccer jerseys there.
220. They're Japan.
221. So I'm guessing they're good.
222. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
223. I just heart goes out to Palestine.
224. I haven't been able to access accurate information.
225. And my heart goes out.
226. And Lebanon, we have to pray for the children and all sides of this.
227. Yeah.
228. In Tokyo, there's been a Japanese man who's been protesting every day.
229. Yeah.
230. Yeah.
231. Yeah.
232. Every day it started.
233. And then remember the young man who unalived himself as a protest?
234. I think of him quite often because he was serving in the military.
235. and he wanted to peacefully object.
236. He objected to the genocide of that.
237. So shout out to him.
238. Sorry, I'm forgetting that relative's name.
239. I think that we have 30 minutes to really bring it back to the heart of these matters.
240. And these big events are supposed to bring out the kinship.
241. What a better way to discuss this.
242. And I admittedly will say truthfully that I didn't know much about what was coming up, but I just knew it landed, you know, as far as these World Cup games.
243. and because of the disappointment
244. in how we're not advancing humanity
245. that I was just going to leave it
246. for the news bits Democracy Now!
247. and or a handful of others
248. interpretation and reporting
249. for my ears and my heart
250. because there's only so much
251. that the heart can take
252. and I don't want to put my all into it
253. because I couldn't do it
254. and so anything you bring forward Sunrose
255. is not only welcome, I'm so thankful that you're bringing it forward because your perspective is
256. completely different than any other person that I know that you bring it real. And thank you for
257. that. You know, the haters are going to hate the hater nation. We have a small contingent in the
258. Venice canals. And even though we're bringing some of the World Cup games, United States,
259. West Side viewing parties and all of that, I don't know when that's going to happen. But I know that
260. It's happening in Venice, right there on the beach, on the boardwalk.
261. And I'm going to say that May 26th, the big news is the win for the Venice Dell.
262. The 120 proposed affordable units built a block east of the boardwalk.
263. And it's a big piece of property that the city was really considering for other things
264. post-agreements prior years.
265. It had been agreed upon and approved at least three different times from the history records and the planning department records.
266. The Venice Community Housing did a wonderful job at not giving up.
267. And the Hollywood Housing Organization, they defeated the Board of Transportation Commissioners and Tracy Park, CD11, who won her seat again.
268. and she didn win it by a landslide But I not about her personally because she doesn put anything in writing and she just blah blah blahs a lot like most politicians and she hasn done anything for
269. the black and brown community and stands with Pacific Palisades ad nauseum as she should.
270. They're her people. And the people in the canals are really upset because Legal Aid LA, Los Angeles
271. represented the case and won. The judge ruled in favor of the Venice community housing and ruled
272. in favor of the people having the Venice Dell. We cannot erase the state law for Mello, M-E-L-L-O,
273. and we need to have a mixed economy of people. We can't just have the haves and the have-nots.
274. And the Venice Canal people love to treat the canals as if it's a private street. It's a major
275. victory for affordable housing, supportive housing, and all the other council districts have had their
276. projects approved and built, ribbon cuttings and big fanfare for humanity. So the Venice Dell,
277. it will provide 120 affordable and supportive housing for individuals and families. And it's
278. a housing development that should have been built about a decade ago, 10 years ago, approximately,
279. give or take. So after all these delays, we're so close to breaking ground, and I'll be reporting
280. on that. I just wanted to give thanks to the Venice Community Housing Corporation for not
281. giving up because they could have. And it got really politically heated. And I'm going to say
282. that I have never had such a prouder moment of walking into Baja Cantina on Washington Boulevard
283. and disrupting the premature advanced party. The people had gathered and put together their
284. P's and Q's to celebrate each other and make these falsehoods, these lies about winning
285. that they struck down the Dell about a year ago, sometime July last summer, I believe.
286. And my friend, my comrade, John Wolf, we walked into their gathering and they wanted to throw
287. us out.
288. And I didn't go without yelling my little speech, which was that they're lying that
289. it was still in litigation.
290. They didn't win anything.
291. They slowed it down.
292. They slowed down process, but they didn't win.
293. They hadn't won.
294. It hadn't been decided.
295. And it was just decided May 26.
296. And the cool thing was, I said, if you love Venice so much, then why is it that you're
297. not honoring the people who built Venice?
298. All the people who came from Texarkana, from Arkansas, from Louisiana and Texas, who came
299. to have a new life and built Venice.
300. And now you're gentrifying the very people who are now in their sixth and seventh generation.
301. and honor the people, honor the indigenous people,
302. but more than once a year on indigenous people's month
303. or week or hour or five minutes.
304. It's incredible, but this is a win for the people.
305. This is a win for everyone and they just don't know it.
306. And it truly shows much like the World Cup,
307. who's going to hate and live in hate
308. and who's going to live in trying to build a better world
309. for the seven generations to come.
310. and everyone's deserving of the public beach.
311. It's not a private beach, a public beach that belongs to even you, Sunrose, way out in Iowa.
312. Anytime you want to come and visit, it's right there for you,
313. and you should have access to that beach.
314. It doesn't belong to anyone.
315. So that's what I want to celebrate.
316. Yes, the old people always say that we don't own the land, we borrow it from our children.
317. Mm And you know the next conversation we going to have next week is definitely environmental and we going to tie it all back to the children and what they inheriting especially the ones who want to be artists or sports or follow the ball and score and try to live a good life in this crazy upside down world
318. I can't thank you enough for going down this path of four years now. And KPFK is a community
319. that's being rebuilt. There's some elections coming up and nominations are being had. And
320. And I just want to put forth a good word towards you, Sunrose, because I know that traveling is challenging at best.
321. And we get to see other parts of United States that we hadn't seen in a long while, divided states.
322. I'm going to say it.
323. I kind of laughed about that Homeland Security thing that I went through.
324. I just know that Creator and the Ancestors blessed me with the passage through that area.
325. And I made a joke of it because I'm really extremely nervous about which direction that we're heading towards, who can be a citizen and who cannot be a citizen of this planet, let alone the space over there in your area code and my temporary area code and zip code.
326. It's becoming too fenced in.
327. It's becoming too encaptured and carceral.
328. So I'm going to put big prayers up on this new moon for everyone to really lean into humanity.
329. And don't go against your neighbor.
330. Don't go against your coworker.
331. Go with good intentions.
332. Oh, yeah.
333. And be a better relative.
334. Yes.
335. Kick the ball around.
336. Go outside.
337. Kick the ball around with your neighbors.
338. There you go.
339. we created our show in honor of a saying that was coined by a lakota elder albert white hat
340. and that was to be a better relative and that really inspired us and we feel that we can turn
341. that around and inspire elders because all on this earth as we know we are human beings and
342. with all the new stuff they're saying out there we're not alone so more than ever we need to be
343. united as human beings and people from the earth so peace and love y'all i'll see you next week
344. the world eagle and the condor north and south in the four directions much love
345. On the next Alternative Radio,
346. hear Taimur Rahman on Antonio Gramsci,
347. the imprisoned philosopher.
348. That's Alternative Radio,
349. Wednesday afternoons at 2,
350. right here on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles
351. and online at kpfk.org.
352. Tune into Cantos Sin Fronteras, that is, Song Without Borders,
353. the best music with a political edge from Latin America and the world,
354. every Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. right here on KPFK.
355. Sintoniza Cantos Sin Fronteras con lo mejor del folclor latinoamericano,
356. American, El Nuevo Canto y la Música del Mundo, con contenido social, todos los sábados de
357. 6 a 8 de la noche, aquí en KPFK.
358. .