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Mankh's avatar

"Any ideas?"

While grieving is of course part of the healing process, it's such a vast, personal and sensitive area that all i'll do with regard that aspect is quote from John Trudell's "Look At Us":

"Look at us

We wept sadly in the long dark

Look at them

Hiding in technologic light

Look at us

We buried the generations

Look at them

Inventing the body count

Look at us

We are older than America

Look at them

Chasing a fountain of youth'.

As to the topic of genocide, am no scholar but i have studied loosely and written bits about it because to address the course of humanity through time, i had to ask: why does genocide recur? And part of the answer i got is... superior race stuff and the dehumanizing and domination that goes with that. As the word suggests, it is a desire to wipe out a people and their future generations, thus gen(e)ocide... with the superior race thinking that they have the better if not best genes. And at least some of the antidote is nurturing, of which i find a cue in that the root of “nation” is “gene-”, also for “generous”-- acknowledging and nurturing at least some aspect of each nation can be one starting point. And "nation" includes as e.g. the Lakota respect all nations e.g. Ant Nation, Cloud Nation, and so forth. And since genocide is certainly not generous, another starting point is behaving that way toward People one may not like, for whatever reason. Whether Original Peoples, Jewish People, Armenian People, Palestinian People, and more... it's as if it is the same ongoing maniacal genocidal behavior repeating in different forms...and it's high time that that sick pattern be broken, for the well-being of all Peoples, Nations, and the Earth Herself.

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Steven Schwartzberg's avatar

🙏 Thanks mankh, especially for the poem from Trudell, but also for the association of nation and generous. I interpret that association as fitting whenever a nation identifies with the people and its generosity as I think of peoples as capable of being generous, particularly if they are following natural law as it was and is understood by the elders of the Native peoples of Turtle Island. Once a nation has identified with a state, the possibilities for generosity seem to diminish radically.

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Mankh's avatar

Thanks for appreciating, Steven. And i agree, as for a another example, a settler example, if a family has an apple tree on their so-called property, it's more apples than they can deal with so most likely they would give some away.

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Steven Schwartzberg's avatar

Yes, long ago—when I was more favorably inclined towards the settlers—I wrote a piece on American planning for the occupation of Japan that suggested there was, among other motives and ideas, a measure of generosity to the imperial policy the United States was pursuing towards Japan in spite of the war crimes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When I think of how horrible American policy was towards the peoples of the Native Nations at that time, and how horrible it has been most of the time since and especially now more generally towards almost everyone, I am surprised at my naive hope that the generosity I perceived could be cultivated. I now see it largely as an echo of the New Deal. You might find it worth a glance: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273601891_The_Soft_Peace_Boys_Presurrender_Planning_and_Japanese_Land_Reform

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Mankh's avatar

Seems there are always some acts of human kindness and generosity even amid horrid times. And i think it's not atypical to look back at one's ideals and actions as naive. Tried link but got some security link verification to access which is probly ok but can u maybe email the article?

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Steven Schwartzberg's avatar

Certainly!

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Susan Stevens's avatar

We absolutely do need to metabolize "the grief of our misconduct."

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