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- From: duneman7484@iscsvax.uni.edu
- Newsgroups: talk.environment
- Subject: Re: Native People's leadership (!!)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul27.203754.5809@iscsvax.uni.edu>
- Date: 28 Jul 92 01:37:54 GMT
- Organization: University of Northern Iowa
- Lines: 43
-
- I think that something the people who responded to my post "Native People's
- Leadership" missed was what I was trying to say about holding the Earth as
- sacred and the EXTENT of our enviro-destruction. Yes, many cultures around the
- world raped the Earth just as we have. I'm not arguing against that (I always
- wonder why when someone speaks of, say, native American history and they
- disagree with the idea that they *might* have been right on in some aspects
- they throw in examples of other cultures that worked against nature instead of
- sticking to who specifically we're talking about. In this case, Europeans and
- Americans.) What I think is something we have to REALLY think about is why the
- only enviromental "leadership" making headlines are people like Germany and
- Japan's leaders when they go against the US at Rio. ".... Strong environmnetal
- stand by Germany ...." ?? I welcome any and all people, western, eastern,
- northern, southern, central, who will really live this. I wish I could to a
- much higher extent. What I'm talking about is living "in the absence of the
- sacred" as Jerry Mander called it in his book by the same title. Only since the
- WEST'S technology got hold of the world have we been at the brink of
- destruction. I am well aware that there have been enviromental disasters since
- "the beginning of time." But nothing can come close to what has happened in the
- last 200 years. We now have the toys to really make this place disgusting and
- we're doing a real fine job at it. I'm not blaming the "west," or the
- industrial revolution for this; it was a cycle begun long ago. But I must speak
- out when the same leaders who have hurried it along so much are being praised
- for their so-called environmentalism. There are people who have lived it for
- real. This brings me to another question: why, when speaking of how some native
- people's found a close balance between themselves and nature, is it pointed out
- that they had all these diseases and only lived to be 50 and had very hard
- lives... ?? Really now, tell me, do we really think that our QUALITY of life
- has become so beautiful that "it was worth it?" I see SO much psychological and
- other damage BEACUSE of this lifestyle we've created. STRESS.....!! Sure, we
- live to be 100 -- unable to walk, talk and in a old folks home. Great.
- "In the absence of the sacred." I'm talking about the Great Spirit and anyone
- who has really felt it in the warm breeze of summer. Leadership, heroes ...
- Sorry to ramble. These thoughts are scattered but I'm kind of piecing
- this together as I learn more about this subject. Anger is self-defeating in
- the end, but it also the spark that gets people to act and learn and change. It
- is not the same as hate. Communication is how we get to the middle that is the
- truth. I think ....
-
- PEACE!
- Jeff Duneman
- Duneman7484@iscsvax.uni.edu |--------|
- | VOTE! |
- |--------|
-