Guilt

Today in class we talked about guilt.

We talked about how we should feel in the face of atrocity.  We talked about how we should feel about the past and the present.

I'm not very good with expressing myself in a classroom discussion setting, but this is my view:

For the past, I can't take any responsibility.  For things that happen that are completely outside of your control, I don't think I can take responsibility.  But what I will take responsibility for is educating myself and educating others.  I've blogged previously about the role of documentaries in my understanding of controversial topics, of historical topics, of everything.  Whenever I watch something, or read something, or learn something new that moves me and makes me want to do something--I share it.  I share it on Facebook, on Tumblr, on Reddit, on Twitter, on whatever I can.  I share it by word of mouth.  I share it in perhaps other discussions where it is relevant.

As a human being, I want to help others understand what has happened in our history.  I want them to understand what happened in this country not just the the blacks or to the Japanese, but also to the American Indians, to the Irish, to the Italians.  I want people to know that due to human expansion across the entire planet, there are species of animals that are being completely wiped out.  That due to human greed, there are so many wrong things happening on this planet.  And to share this information, I feel responsible.

I feel responsible because ignorance is plaguing humanity and allowing for bad decisions to be made, for detrimental things to happen to our environment, to our governments, to our people.  This class just has furthered my frustration that I am so ignorant, that I didn't know what was going on with the indigenous people of this country.  That the Reservations are some of the poorest communities in this country, that American Indians are not given the same opportunities as white people--all of it was at least semi-new information to me.  And with every new discussion I seek out new information.  Right now I have about five tabs on my browser open all about the history of American Indians.  Right now, specifically, I'm reading about the American Indian Movement beginning in 1968.  How in the 1960's John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson both made efforts to help the state of American Indian affairs.  Johnson passed Executive Order 11399 which established the National Council on Indian Opportunity (NCIO) which attempted to focus on the plight of American Indians, trying to connect the issue with the trusts of the tribes and nations to civil rights as Johnson was unfamiliar with actual Indian issues.  It initially began as a civil rights and antiwar movement taken directly to the American public by means of the press.  They developed a 20 point list of their goals, twelve of which specified that treaty obligations were not being met by the American government.   All of this can be found on the wikipedia article and others online link.

Here's a photo of the AIM flag

and here's a video of their anthem: