I dunno, steve. You seem right in the groove to me! Thought full technologist. I don't even have the technological thread. So they'lll exile me long before they exile you.
-----Original Message----- From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 9:28 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] How to avoid shootings N - Yes, of course... the list is archived and (apparently?) open to the world and indexed by search engines, so I assume that the audience is the universe and the persistence is indefinite. I'm glad you found it of interest... I worry that my rambling anecdotal introspective missives are little more than eyeroll and <delete> fodder for many here... I understand that I *am* somewhat out of the range of the typical (and appropriate?) range for this forum... - S > Thanks, steve. There s somebody I would like to share this with, not > on th list. Is that OK? N > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve > Smith > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 11:30 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] How to avoid shootings > > N - > > Your point is well taken... > > It is out of the culture that murdered and displaced our native > population that our gun culture emerged and now thrives. It is still > glorified by many, some trying to live it past it's time and some > watching from the sidelines. You don't have to read McCarthy's Blood > Meridian or McMurtry's Comanche Moon to have a hint of how brutal and > thoughtless the dispossessed or displaced Confederate (and in some > cases > Union) soldiers were in the last half of the 19th, coming west and > trying to recover from that mess. If we think PTSD was invented in > our middle east or even Vietnam wars, imagine the horrors of the Civil > War, especially where cousins or even brothers found themselves on > opposite sides, crossing bayonets. > > I have lived among, and counted as friends, many of the *survivors* of > the native genocide, throughout of my life. It has always been an > incredibly delicate topic, the genocide, the displacement, the many > broken treaties and promises. None of my friends ever wanted to talk > much about it, even though they knew I was as sympathetic as anyone > not the victim could be. An overt apology to them felt quite empty and > hollow, and specious in too many ways. Being a friend was the most > (least?) I could do. > > I had a Navajo friend in college who was married to a Hopi woman > during the worst of the Navajo-Hopi resentments. They couldn't go > home, at least not with their spouses, so they became somewhat > unusually available for friendships with us, their white-eyed > neighbors. Our daughters played in the dirt together outside our adjoining apartments. > We shared meals. He was simultaneously studying the hydrology (MS > Geology, > NAU) of the Kayenta basin and working as an activist to get the > outrageous coal mining practices there at least looked at if not > stopped. I was helping find the dirt on their tribal chairman Peter > McDonald that eventually brought him down. > > One of my good friends in middle school was one of two adopted > brothers, also Navajo, living with their adoptive do-gooder white christian parents. > The parents tried, they cared, but they were oh so clueless. > They were "good boys" until the testosterone kicked in, and then they > became warriors without a cause. I remained friends as best I could > as they spun out in place, exploring alcohol and it's it's dangers to > their metabolisms and resorting to fairly random violence with others to try > to wrestle their own daemons. I lost track after high school. > > My first crush was a Zuni girl in my first grade class who was as tall as I. > To get the yayas out of us, the teacher made us run around the > building twice each morning. To avoid the crowd of other running kids, > I tried running the opposite way. I met her at the far corner, she > leading the pack and me going full tilt on my own. We collided > cheekbone to cheekbone (this is when I realized we were the same > height)... and I got teased mercilessly by my father that I had > gotten my black eye from a girl on the playground. LIttle did he know > that I cherished that bruise and missed her as much as a 7 year old can when her family moved away that year. > > A good friend of mine today is Lakota Sioux and is becoming a > successful (or at least surviving) artist in his own right after 40 > years of careening through wives, children, grandchildren, alcohol, drugs, > homelessness. He won't hear white man's apologies, there is just too > much water under that bridge to pretend to put it back at the headwaters. > > And what we couldn't do with smallpox and cholera, with swords, bowie > knives and repeating rifles, we did with boarding schools, then > alcohol, with white sugar, with white flour unto diabetes and organ/system failure. > > I feel mildly lucky to have lived places where the genocide and/or > displacement was not as devastatingly complete as it was in the > heartland, the South and much of the East and West coasts. I live > within the boundaries of a Tewa-speaking Pueblo and visited their > Christmas sale on Saturday and was surprised, shocked, offended and > relieved all at once to see no other white faces. The vendors were > not just San Ildefonso, but from all over pueblo country from Laguna to > Taos. I was welcome, even though most of the folks there do not know > me personally... I feel lucky to have known and called friend > individuals from many indigenous groups from the Dacotahs to northern > Mexico. Few, if any, are not *still* touched by the legacy of the > abuses by my own ancestors, the invaders, the murderers, the displacers. > And again or still, I don't know how to apologize to them. > > I am just now reading an oral history of the father of a childhood friend. > Now 98, he was the son of early homesteaders from England who were > coming in on the trailing edge of the US's suppression, enslavement, > and destruction of the Apaches in the area of Western NM > (near where the fires were last year). It is clear that they hardly > knew anything at that time (his youth, during the first half of the > 19th > century) of what had come just before... there was a myopia that came > with limited education and transportation and something like > desperation. I honestly don't think he knew what had happened except > for the last of the fierce geurilla battles waged by the few survivors > (Victorio, Geronimo, Ju, etc.) raiding and hiding in those mountains. > He spent his entire life in the back country raising sheep, cattle, etc. > His was a hard but innocent life. Perhaps not unlike those who > were displaced from the lands his family occupied. His son (my > friend) came to school in 3rd grade with his brother in 6th, neither having ever had > formal schooling. Their mother had decided to give them a life that > was more promising than theirs had been. They still spent summers on > the ranch and on the fire watchtower where their mother spent her > summers. My friend went on to become the county drug interceptor > (stealing drug drops from airplanes out of Mexico and selling them in > Arizona) while his cousin (another good friend) became the county sheriff. > > I at least try not to celebrate or romanticize the "consquistadors" or > the "indian fighters" that were the sharp-edge of that horror. But the > remaining abusers, the blunter edge, I think they were quite a bit > more innocent. And I think *we* are them still. The best I can tell, > better than an apology would be a change of heart. For us to learn > from those mistakes and pull back our colonial/empire which now lives > almost entirely in the corporate extractive exploitation of the third world. > My Lakota friend has an art project called "Not Afraid to Look" that > begins to address this. > > Apologies are important for the apologizers... but don't be surprised > if they can't be heard until we change our ways... ( said the man > filling his tank with gasoline from the middle east, typing on a > computer manufactured in China, eating grapes from South America, > watching movies laced with violence and exploitation...) > > - S > > >> Thanks, Russ. At least somebody had the grace to apologize. I don't > think >> the word apologize is in our national lexicon. Can you IMAGINE what >> would happen if Obama were to apologize on behalf of the nation for >> our > infection, >> slaughter, displacement, and confinement of indigenous Americans. >> [shudder] N >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Russell > Standish >> Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2012 11:08 PM >> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] How to avoid shootings >> >> On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 10:56:44PM -0700, Nicholas Thompson wrote: >>> And you forgot our genocide? For some reason I imagine that the >>> Australian genocide was less vicious. I hope the Australians on the >>> list will weigh in on that. N >>> >>> >>> >> Sadly, our treatment of the Aborigines was pretty appalling, right up >> to 1968, when they were finally given the vote and recognised as >> citizens of our country. And that included mass genocide, in places >> like Tasmania, and kidnapping of children by the state. >> >> It looks like our generation has finally made some effort to >> apologise, > and >> fix up the mess created by previous generations, but there is still a >> long way to go before there is true equality between aboriginal and >> non-aboriginal people. >> >> Cheers >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe > at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe > at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
