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Saturday, July 21, 2007

ONE IN CHINA AND ONE IN USA…TWO FORGOTTEN GENOCIDES

Someone I know that I had always considered a person who shared my feelings and political views, said something about Native American Indians recently that changed my mind about her.

“All the Indians I know are drunks, don’t have a job, …”. This is a racist statement. And I know she doesn’t consider herself to be racist in any form. But here, you have it. Racism. Ignorance and racism all wrapped up together. I couldn’t believe she would say such a thing when we had always been so in harmony with our political and world views. Here I found she and I parted our thinking. 180 degrees apart.

MY VIEW
This United States government stole this land from the people who were here first and then systematically went about committing genocide on them. They forbid the Native population to stop living by their beliefs and customs, talking their native languages, using their own names, cut their hair, forced their children to leave their families and go off to boarding schools where they would be educated properly in the white man’s ways and beliefs - culturally raped them, in other words.

In 1830, President Andrew signed the Indian Removal Act, which forced over 100,000 Native Americans off of their own lands. In this video the producer, Keith Ryon, states “To celebrate this achievement, Americans put Andrew Jackson on their twenty dollar bill. Today, 25.9% of Native Americans live in poverty. The national average is 11%. 29% of Native Americans are without health care.”

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http://www.youtube.com/user/keithryon

Two genocides are always left off the list of genocides that have happened, I have noticed.

Native Americans
One is the one on the Native Americans by the immigrants that came from Europe and the government that claims to have built a Land of the Free for All.

http://www.aigenom.com/index.html

The American Indian Genocide Museum website
From the AIGM "Stereotypes" page:
From an early age the majority of Americans have imprinted on their brain the image of the "savage" Indian. In any textbook, the Indian is portrayed hostile and ready to take a life. From books,paintings, and
Hollywood movies one can easily come across this image. This image was used to dehumanize a group of people in order to justify taking their lives for land.

Unfortunately, this disturbing portrayal of the Native American people has been
accepted and promoted in our educational system and entertainment industry. When one race is portrayed only in the positive, at the same time another race is portrayed only in the negative. It is imperative to recognize these racist and stereotypical portrayals and correct it by teaching the truth.

American Indians are people-not mascots, not savages, not an option for a Halloween costume.

And from this website’s homepage:
The American Indian Genocide Museum has a vision to defeat prejudice and discrimination through education. In the beginning of American History a religious leader who claimed to speak for God gave all the lands west of the
Azores and Cape Verde Islands to the King of Spain, if it wasn't already in the possession of some other Catholic King. This decree issued by Pope Alexander Vl, effective from Christmas Day 1492 , is on display at the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain.

The bigotry and intolerance this decree created for Native Americans was realized when upon seeing the Tarawa Indians of the Bahamas, Columbus wrote, "They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want".

The problem with dehumanizing people in order to take their land is,

that the next step is to take their lives also. Genocide in the Americas

is not an easy subject to address- not for any American.

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Winds – This is an exellent video with a great song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvh-pelZN-4

by gomauro

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Nanking, China
The other is the one of the Chinese in Nanking, China by the Japanese in 1937.
“This year marks the 64th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre. The Japanese occupation of
Nanking, the capital of the Republic of China, lead to one of the greatest horrors of the century. Despite its far-reaching implications, much of the world remains unaware of the events which took place in the Chinese city of Nanking in December 1937.

The Nanking Massacre remains one of the most inhuman and horrifying crimes ever committed in the human civilization history. But despite the irrefutable evidence, since the end of the Second World War, especially in the recent years, some Japanese, including a few high-ranking government officers and so-called "historians", have denied the occurrence of the Nanking Massacre in public and tried to whitewash the atrocities that the Japanese army brought to China.” From http://prion.bchs.uh.edu/~zzhang/1/Nanking_Massacre/

An excerpt from http://prion.bchs.uh.edu/~zzhang/1/Nanking_Massacre/preface.html

“In the winter of 1937, an invading Japanese army entered the Chinese city of Nanking and proceeded to obliterate the helpless population. Two hundred thousand were killed, and tens of thousands of Chinese women were raped. In the midst of this mayhem, a small group of expatriate Westerners--missionaries, businessmen, college professors, and doctors--attempted to create an oasis of safety to protect the citizens they could. It is through their eyes, by means of letters, diaries, and other reports of the destruction, that filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman reveal the events of that terrible time.

Utilizing actors to read these accounts, including Jürgen Prochnow, Woody Harrelson, and Mariel Hemingway, and interwoven with chilling archival footage, testimony, and interviews with both survivors and perpetrators, Nanking exposes the all-too-familiar horrors of war but also affirms the extraordinary impact that individuals can make. This is a gripping and soul-searching chronicle of a calamity and a tribute to the people who tried to make it better.Geoffrey Gilmore”

Princeton and Fordham Universities’ online Nanking information:

http://www.princeton.edu/~nanking/html/nanking_gallery.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nanking.html

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-pCA5frBRM

about Nanking, the movie at Sundance

http://festival.sundance.org/filmguide/popup.aspx?film=4655

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Truth is truth and it never dies.

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DARFUR, SUDAN

STOPPING GENOCIDE IS A RESPONSITILITY FOR ALL OF US

If our leaders won’t lead on this issue of the

THE ULTIMATE RIGHT TO LIVING LIFE

THEN It is Our Torch to Carry

The President's Comment Phone Line is open Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
202 - 456 - 1111

email: president@whitehouse.gov

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Call your US Senators & Representatives at

1 - 800 - GENOCIDE

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Genocide flourishes when there is no accountability.

WE CAN’T SAY THAT WE CARE ABOUT JUSTICE

WHEN WE DO NOTHING TO STOP THE INJUSTICE

We each have a voice.

We each have a presence.

We have been called to be human
 in the most basic way
 on this subject.  
 Where there is a will - there is always a way.  
And where there is no will - there is no way. 

Let us not be silent.

Silence is necessary for genocide to go on.  
Our collective silence is a weapon used by the genocidaires.  
Silence kills.  
And we are responsible for our personal silence.

If Peace never begins, Genocide will never end.

Where does Peace begin?

One World.

One humanity.

One Human Race.

One.

BE INSPIRED

http://www.Savedarfur.org

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