Monica Charles has written a post on her blog Daughter of Tse Whit Zen about child abuse and how the European colonizers introduced violence and abuse to the Native Americans.
There are many things to consider and child abuse has been at the forefront of many blogs recently, but one of the things that Monica wrote particularly caught my attention.
Our world began going out of balance on October 12, 1492. Gold doesn’t make us crazy. It makes the white man crazy. He committed genocide for it.
It seems to be one of the fundamental problems that face us today. Gold makes our politicians, economists, CEO’s just plain crazy and then much of the population throw their children under the bus to play catch up. And the rest do not want to give up what little they have to protect the future generation.
It startled me a bit to hear it in such a matter-of-fact way.
Please read the whole post here.
As usual, Monica has written a thoughtful and thought provoking essay.
She gets down to the nitty gritty
We do what we know. Traditions, “place”, has been violently ripped away.
When I say “place” it is not a physical “place”, but where we belong in life. Women are the creators of life, men are the protectors of life, and of the women, children, and communities.
Equal status, but different action.
This has been ripped way from us, and in that vacuum, violence leapt in. The loss of equality of value in family standing. We have adopted the habit of looking at women as chattel and less than men.
Yes, we do what we know.
However, let us not overlook that women, too, can abuse. Abuse takes many forms, not just physical.
We also are thinking, reasoning, beings with conscience and the ability to change our habits.
That does NOT mean that I condone domestic or sexual abuse and violence.
It does mean that I see where it comes from, and believe that we all have to work against it.
Both men and women have to step up to the plate on this issue.
Pointing fingers at one person or another, pointing fingers at one community or another will not solve the problem.
We can no longer sit back and say, “Oh, the white man did this to us”.
That may be very true, but it is now time for us to take responsibility for our actions.
We know right from wrong.
We need to stop being victims and blaming others for our actions.
Two excellent essays on this may be found at:
http://iktomisweb.com/Wounded_Knee&Victimhood.pdf
http://iktomisweb.com/Let_Go_the_Chains_Victimhood.pdf
Whether we like it or not, our communities, white and Indian, are now intertwined, no matter how separated we think they are, or wish they were.
The abuse spills over from one to the other.
It is time for all of us to make the firm decision to protect ourselves, our communities, our children.
Perhaps I am suffering from confusion this morning…did you or Monica write this?? I couldn’t find it on her blog. I have many thoughts but need to sort them out. It might take awhile. Thank you for feeding my brain!