Fellowship of the Blog 2 - The Extended Edition

As I have mentioned before (See Fellowship of the Blog), I am a big fan of the read around activity because we are interacting with each other as a community of learners. Not only are we interacting, but we are seeing different perspectives of the content we have been studying all semester. For me, this read around has given me brand new outlooks on topics I have a tremendous level of interest in.

I have always been captivated by the idea of transcendence. A basic desire we have as humans is to feel like there is something more than our existence here. This doesn’t have to be anything huge. I get this feeling when I listen to great music or watch a film that truly moves me. We are taken someplace else by the things we love. There are other forms of transcendence as well. Prayer, dance, alcohol, and drugs are all vehicles that can take a person beyond the ordinary routines of life. So when I came across Amanda’s post about sweat lodges, I was immediately hooked. I learned that these lodges are used for many ceremonial and spiritual reasons. But, what struck me was the unknown. What happens in a sweat lodge? I don’t know but I definitely want to find out some day.

With transcendence and the unknown on my mind, I stumbled across Michelle’s post regarding dreams. Jackpot! Dreams have always intrigued me because they are such an unbelievable phenomenon. We are sleeping but our subconscious is still at work. Michelle brought up some interesting points about dreams being an outlet for our repressed thoughts and impulses. I found this to be a profound point because dreams are truly the inner workings of our mind venting when it thinks we aren’t aware. Another great thing to come from this post was that it made me think of the song, “In Dreams,” by Roy Orbison.

With Roy Orbison on the brain, I came across Cassy’s blog regarding Joy Harjo, land, and memory. Cassy brought up many great points in her post. But, one that stood out to me was the quote she cited from Joy Harjo’s introduction. It reads, “The poet cannot be separated from place.” This is beautiful statement because I know exactly what Harjo means. In my comment, I talked about how I returned to my high school recently and all of the emotions came back to me as I walked into the building. Even though I have been separated in time from that place, I have not been separated emotionally once I am on that piece of land.

A World Without Borders: My Experience at a Serj Tankian Concert

As you continue reading, you may think this post has nothing to do with our class content. I swear to you, it does.

Last summer, I attended a Serj Tankian concert on the North side of Chicago. Tankian is the lead singer of the rock group, System of a Down, and the concert I attended was the first show of his solo career. I will skim over the actual concert itself by saying that it rocked, and get to the part of the night that affected me emotionally and intellectually.

Tankian had just finished the last song of his set and walked off stage. This is the part of the concert where the audience becomes unified and chants for an encore. If you have been to a concert then you know the feeling. There’s nothing quite like the sensation of jumping and chanting with hundreds of people in unison who all want the same goal. Our cries were heard as Tankian walked back on stage minutes later and grabbed the microphone. A hush came over the crowd as Serj began to speak and set up his encore song. He started telling us how he performed the song in front of thousands of brave troops in Afghanistan and that he disagreed with the policies of President George W. Bush.

If you have been to a concert where the artist has mentioned Bush’s name, then you know the reaction that follows. The crowd erupted with boo’s and middle fingers as Serj nodded along in agreement. But then a weird thing happened. This is something I have never experienced firsthand before and it has etched itself into my memory in the “I will never forget this moment” category. After we (the crowd) voiced our displeasure for our leader, the chant of “U-S-A!” slowly began to percolate from the back of the balcony. The chant moved from back to front until everyone, myself included, was passionately emphasizing each letter with a fist pump in the air.

Then, Serj said something that brought tears to my eyes.

He stopped us mid-chant and said,

“I love my country, I love my country. But I am not a citizen of the U.S.A. I am a citizen of the world. I don’t believe in fucking borders. I don’t believe in Nationalism. I believe in unity and peace.”

For a moment, everyone in the crowd was silent. I had never, not once in my life, imagined a world without borders. The moment of silence hovering over the crowd signaled that I wasn’t alone. However, the silence was brief as the crowd started cheering once again as Serj Tankian played his final song of the night. I was in tears by the end of the song and, to this day, I can’t find an explanation why.

We are all citizens of the world, but sometimes we forget. For me, this moment opened my eyes to the tunnel vision I was living with and I feel fortunate to have this memory. That being said, this memory remained under the surface until one of the class presentations last week. In this presentation, the topic came up of North America being borderless until the colonists arrived. After I heard this, my memory of the Serj Tankian concert came rushing back and I was able to make a connection to this class. It seems to me like a world without borders might be a more peaceful one. We would all be united under one flag. I am not so naïve to believe a world like this would solve every problem. Even Native Americans fought among themselves in borderless North America. But, if we think of ourselves and others in terms of a world without borders, then just maybe we would treat each other better.

The Sins of the Past

In my previous post, I express some anger and disappointment that our ancestors used Religion as a pretense for invasion. I also condemn the colonists and refer to them as the real savages, as opposed to the Native Americans. However, after I let these thoughts sink in a little deeper, I began to feel remorse for even having them in the first place.

This entire class has been extremely thought-provoking and has helped give me another lens by which to view my world. My eyes have been opened to the struggles and history of Native American people and I will never forget what we learned here. I hear Thomas King in my head telling me that I have heard the story now. While this is true, I would not be here blogging right now if the colonists had not decided to settle and “manifest destiny.” American history is filled with violence, oppression, and ugliness. It is truly sad that these things happened. But, the one thought that creeps into my head and makes me feel guilty is that I wouldn’t be here right now if these terrible events never occurred; none of us would.

Right now, I feel like a colonist trying to justify sins with hypothetical statements. Maybe things could have been done differently. Maybe the colonists could have tried to coexist with the Native Americans. Today might be better if that happened. But, maybe not. Maybe the sins of the past helped create the present we enjoy today. The world is far from peaceful and we are all still struggling to get along. But, you are here and I am here. Let’s do what we can to make it better.

Rape of the Land / Religion as a Weapon

The article, “Rape of the Land,” truly struck a chord with me right from the start. First of all, I can’t get over how Indians were seen as occupants of the New Land by the colonists. The rhetoric of calling Native Americans “occupants” entitles the whites to claim (a better term would be steal) the land. The colonists felt they had a right to do this because the Native American communities had not been “established by God” (57). Translation: They are not Christians which means they are savages. But let’s take a closer look at the meaning of “savage.”

Dictionary.com defines savage as, “an uncivilized human being.” Ok, well if the Indians were uncivilized, this means the colonists considered themselves to be civilized. Civilized is also defined as, “having an advanced or humane culture.” Here’s the kicker. The definition of humane is, “characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed.” Now that these words have been clearly defined, who was really the savage; the Native American or the colonist?

The way I see it, the colonists played their role in the biggest theft in American history and brought suffering onto generations upon generations of Native American people. As “Rape of the Land” points out, the colonists justified their crime using the word of God by saying, “While Christianity may have been forced on Native people, millions of people are in heaven today as a result” (57). This statement is a fallacy because it is not a concrete fact, which means that it should never be used to justify the removal, genocide, and theft of Native American land and culture. Religion should never be used as a weapon and it is unfortunate that it was back then.

Joy Harjo's "Raining in Honolulu"

One of my favorite poems in Joy Harjo’s How We Became Human was “Raining in Honolulu,” on page 194. Before I get into why I love this poem, I want to point out a quote that struck me from her introduction. She states, “This earth asks for so little from us human beings.” This is very true. We exist because this earth supports life, bottom line. All we have to do is avoid destroying it in return (which isn’t working out so well). Anyway, this line got me thinking about colonization and how it relates to Harjo’s poem, “Raining in Honolulu.” The last six lines of the poem are as follows:

Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more than a season.

We stop all of our talking, quit thinking, or blowing sax to drink the mystery.

We listen to the breathing beneath our breathing.

This is how the rain became rain, how we became human.

The wetness saturates everything, including the perpetrators of the second overthrow.

We will plant songs where there were curses

I just love how she creates the image that we, along with the earth and everything on it, are drinking the same water. The earth and humans are both living organisms that need water to survive. I also love the second and third lines from above because we, humans, stop whatever it is we are doing and drink water every single day. We stop communicating and thinking for those brief periods of time when we are drinking with the earth. This poem really makes you stop and think about the little things that can be taken for granted very easily.

Yeah, water is water and it’s there. But we drink it and it keeps us alive which is mind blowing when you think about it. Why earth? Why us? Also, I love the “we listen to the breathing beneath our breathing” line. I interpret this as being the wind, which is always there but rarely appreciated. Granted, I don’t know how one can appreciate wind without feeling a little bit foolish. But just the fact that it is there and we feel it is a miracle in itself.

I know I have been rambling with this post but I was kind of blown away with this poem. The last two lines of this poem evoke the colonization of America and theft of American Indian land. The non-violent tone Harjo takes by saying, “We will plant songs where there were curses,” is very admirable. Harjo has a right to be angry and I don’t think anyone would blame her if she vocalized her rage. Yet, she remains an optimist and chooses music to spread her message, which is kind of an organic life form in itself. This is a fantastic poem that I am definitely including in the lessons for my final project.