Hey,
i posted the following on the "nativeamerican (the real deal)" tribe just now and thought i ought to pass it by here, to perhaps engage in a meaningful discussion even tho it likely isn't perhaps what you're at all used to, but which the Four Agreements may be applied to (or not?). All thoughtful input is welcome; and i happen to think the ideas i'm discussing here could be crucial along the agreements i'm designing for my *own* way. Perhaps there's something here for others here as well? (feel free to "privately" discuss this with me if you think public discussion might be problematic)

(Longer time members of this "tribe" will recall that i've levelled my own criticisms here from time to time; now's your chance to level some at me, if you think that's what i need!)

Anyway, do go see the thread (nativeamericantherealdeal.tribe.net/thread/bcb08ddd-62d8-41de-832b-a0ac5c284c87 (dang, is that url looong or what?) so you get a taste of what's going on o'er there. (I also seek input about Funbags' ideas, as i've engaged him critically and he says he's listening)

::::::the post:::::

angel, you're taking what i said way outta context, becuz i never leveled "apple indian' on anyone except in generalization (I was thinking of non-traditional native people like Dickie Wilson, the ex-Pine Ridge b.i.a.-subsidized tyrant). Maybe you *like* feeling offended, i dunno,,, just watch out that your knee doesn't jerk up too high and knock you out!

And, yeah, i will say that you're playing (or being played by?) the race card by reducing people down to ability to comprehend or not ***simply due to their race!*** So, you're offended? Then maybe that's a GOOD thing for you to be,,,,Perhaps it's gOOd for you in your life process-ingz,,,,(((i'm of the skooL that sayz *protect by strategies of enrichment, not restriction*)))

A "radical" example about your saying "all white people" cannot see because of their "cultural lexicon" ***can be turned on its head*** by recalling that there are traditional Laplanders and other traditional europeans (who are "white") who CAN comprehend being indigeneous. Why? Because they have not been completely separated from their traditions like most other DOMESTICATED white folks! So there. *****And this is what i'm trying to get at about analysis that remains stuck in PC-type superficial consciousness!***** (I'm assuming you're quite prone to Politically Correct (PC) thinking due to the reference to zmag; not exactly a "radical" publication (tho I'm glad they publish Chomsky as much as they do). --Just the fact that they don't seem to ever escape race analysis exposes their superficial analysis. ((You wanna go into that? Let's do it!))

So that's a quick example. A less easy to digest example, apparently for you --perhaps because your degree in White Studies ((grin)) comes from too much institutionalized thinking-- is that "white folks"/domesticated folks, like any other human being, CAN evolve their/our thinking! We CAN be radicalized (tho perhaps only by repeated stinging slaps/punches in our face with reality, and then either stumbling upon meaningful alts or being welcomed into de-domesticating communities, i.e. traditional indigenous folks). And we *can* experience and realize growing connections to Mom Earth in ways that our "cultural lexicon" doesn't teach us! Imagine that! (i for one got one type of connection when i was bicycle bush-camping in nw alberta, canada more than 20 years ago and saw a bear face to face; it wasn't the sighting that did it, it was how *something* took over my will and *froze* me. Consciously, i couldn't do anything but look "out of the corner of my eye" while staring straight ahead. And that gave me a paradigm shift that my "cultural lexicon" never even discussed!)


But you seem to be like so many strategically challenged PC proto- fascists who simply cannot allow yourselves to think beyond rigid, hysterified truths (so convenient for the games and tactics of perpetual domesticators, INCLUDING The Leftwing of domestication)--****WHEN you reduce human beings down to being simply the color of their skin!!!****

So BE offended. Maybe it's time you EVOLVED YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS beyond zmag-style superficial liberal analysis ***(not that the "conservative" side of domestication is any better!)***, and listened to, watched, or read someone like John Trudell! You folks wanna talk about "the real deal" so much,,,,or is that just another gimmick for AIM,Inc-style games?

I DO accept that people who look different than white, domesticated folks don't experience the "privileges" that we take for granted ****(tho I tend to question the idea of calling such "privileges", and think critical thinking folks ought to come up with words that *say what we mean* more clearly, so that we dileneate between false/alienated values and things like having clean, running water)****. And I also accept things like that y'all get profiled more heavily, and that y'all may well not be able to even nicely say no to cops who want to, say, search your vehicle. I can accept that; ***but at the same time I see that there's also A MANDATE, ordered upon cops from their 'superiors' (which can are being revoked more and more, as reality is more and more exposed; recall airport profiling of people like Cat Stevens) to treat white, domesticated folks (especially the rich, upper, and middle class-looking variety) with more "lenience". I can accept this. But I see that profiling, "unprofessional" cops, and shit like that is a decision not BASED in race so much as on policies made to keep people alienated, divided, and conquered! (and that goes for whites as well as "redskins"! Because if we were to informally get beyond the war of race (and the wars of so much else), and see each other as ALL tooled people, we would become "threatening"!

But as long as we submit to these constructs that "our leaders" have thought up for us, and as long as we get side-tracked by hierarchizing which group is "Has it Worst" and which group "Doesn't", we will continue to be fooled and tooled! We will continue to be ghetto-ized and incapable of coming together in authentic momentums of mutual liberation!

So, to conclude, i'm GLAD you're pissed. Maybe you (or others drawn to this real deal) will actually think things out after you get tired of foaming at the mouth!

Now, I'm saying all this and I'm sticking around here because I know I ain't got all the answers, either. But I'm not one of those fake Nice people who play all subordinate just becuz you are a different race, or becuz you say i had better. And so, no, i ain't going to follow your orders just becuz you're a claimed or real full or part Native! I ain't going to submit to *any* "authority" just because of what they say I BETTER do (or ELSE). Fuck that bullshit; I stand for a world where you are free to speak your mind/heart and so am i! i listen to my intuitions and consciousness and i stand by such, until someone comes along who can trip me out of that! (And it's happened before; i recall one time when a native guy was leading a sweat and he was drinking Pepsi...and i was all privately pissed and thinking he's going to be full of bullshit...but then during the sweat i was letting loose with my own stuff, yelling out, and suddenly he cut loose with a yell, which, with that alone, i understood was from the HEART. And it was something like i'd never heard or imagined!)

So i'm not claiming to have a monopoly on truth --like you. But i'm a three-spirit cavorts-between (aka natives hav called us "winktes") and i stick to my intutions, after a lifetime of experiences, self-liberation study, and speaking up no matter what.

Anyway, i don't mind being "made an example of" for how to deal with independent thinking that isn't PC enough for perhaps many of you. And at the same time i can admit that i may need some forms of "attitude adjustment" for some of my feelings.

daring to be "radically excellent" with y'all,
in "perfectly imperfect" wayz,,,,
touch-ahcity