Question Everything You Have Been Taught

Question Everything You Have Been Taught

How long do we as a people ignore the wrongs that continue to be done to others? How have people been able to pretend that they don’t know how bad some groups have been treated for so many years? How can so many live in such a fantasy land way of thinking that, if someone does not have all that they have, it is not their problem? Is there a way to really make a difference?

Injustices have been waged upon people since the beginning of time, in the name of power, religion, money, hate, prejudice, fear, and desire for control. Too many times these are disguised under a misguided veil of righteousness. More people have been killed in the name of one God or another, than have been killed in natural disasters… (I’m going to let that sit there a minute). That only opens up more questions.

There are so many circumstances and examples that I do not even know where to start. One that stands out (the others are no less important) and is continuing to go on right here in the “Land of the Free” is the oppression and systematic destruction of the Native Americans aka Indigenous People. This began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus “discovered” the New Land, never mind the millions of people who were already living there. The events that took place over the subsequent four hundred years must be labeled what it was, genocide. Go ahead, I dare you to try and find that word in a US History school book, used to describe these events.

During the 1800’s, Manifest Destiny, this was the doctrine or belief that expansion of the American continents was both justified and inevitable probably eased the minds of some European-Americans. One means of control was the creation of reservations and agencies that were under the control of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Eventually it would be illegal for the Native American’s to live anywhere but on a reservation, and by the white man’s rules. Many if not most of their practices and languages were outlawed.

In 1890, there was what some called a battle; most called it a massacre at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. 150 Native Americans were killed including many woman and children. The Seventh Cavalry (which suffered defeat at Little Big Horn) was chosen for this attack. Some say that Jesuit Priests, who felt threatened by the Ghost Dance Movement, egged on the situation because this was a site of the Ghost Dancers. After the massacre the ghost dancer went underground and all but disappeared.

This short post only scrapes the surface of what happened but it was far from something to be proud of. The people who caused these events or looked the other way are not people to look up to. It is past time that true history be taught to our children and wrongs be righted.

There will come a day when people of all races will put aside their differences

~The Prophecy of the Rainbow Warrior~
"There will come a day when people of all races, colors, and creeds will put aside their differences. They will come together in love, joining hands in unification, to heal the Earth and all Her children. They will move over the Earth like a great Whirling Rainbow, bringing peace, understanding and healing everywhere they go. Many creatures thought to be extinct or mythical will resurface at this time; the great trees that perished will return almost overnight. All living things will flourish, drawing sustenance from the breast of our Mother, the Earth."

We can only hope!