Fw: Ramadan peace fast: day 4
----- Original Message -----
From: carol wolman
To: peacemakers
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 9:17 PM
Subject: Ramadan peace fast: day 4
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
and your dominion endures through all generations.
Psalm 145: 13
Dear Friends,
Again, I ask you to join me in a fast for peace during Ramadan. It's easy- the days are relatively short, so one eats a big breakfast around 6: 30 am and a large dinner around 7 pm. Since I'm like a child in this practice, I've allowed myself some soy milk now and then during the day.
I'm realizing that getting closer to God means identifying with all people, past, present and future, of all religions, since He made us all. We Americans have lost touch with tradition and are acting as if there is no future. Today I received a reminder of another tradition, one our country is quietly built on also- that of the Native Americans. The following article tells about looking out for the seventh generation in the future. Doing this would solve most of our problems.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
----- Original Message -----
From: "E. F. Schumacher Society" <efssociety@smallisbeautiful.org>
To: <cwolman@mcn.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 2:03 AM
Subject: We Are the Seventh Generation
Dear Carol Wolman
"We can't afford, now, to have these national borders. We can't afford to
have racism. We can't afford apartheid. We cannot that we can't have anymore as human beings. We've got to think now, in real
terms, for that seventh generation. And we've got to move in concert. We've got to sing the same song. We've got to have the same ceremony. We've got to get back to spiritual law if we are to survive."
Chief Oren Lyons
in a July 3, 1991 interview with Bill Moyers
for Public Affairs Television
At a time when the citizens of the United States are probing the question of
what constitutes a leader, the voice of Oren Lyons, chosen by Clan Mothers as Chief of the Onondaga people, sounds a clear note of authentic leadership for his people and for our time. He is Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, tireless advocate for indigenous rights and sovereignty issues, professor, author, publisher, painter, father, and grandfather.
* * * * * * * *
Following are further quotes by Oren Lyons excerpted from the Bill Moyers'
interview.
"This painting is a depiction of the Great Tree of Peace . . . The Tree of
Peace, of course, is the great spiritual law and it sits on the back of the
turtle, which is our metaphor for this island. We call North America the
Great Turtle Island."
"When the Great Peacemaker uprooted this great tree, he asked the Nations to come forward and cast down their weapons of war, he said, 'We now do away with the warriors and we do away with the war chiefs. And in their place we plant the Council of the Good Minds who will now counsel for the welfare of the people.'"
"When we were given these instructions, among many of them, one was that when you in sit in council for the welfare of the people, you counsel for the welfare of that seventh generation to come. They should be foremost in your mind, not even your generation, not even yourself, but those that are unborn. So that when their time comes here they may enjoy the same thing that you are enjoying now."
"We have a long perspective. We've been in one place a long time. We've seen the sun come up in the same place many, many hundreds, thousands of years. And so we have a familiarity with the Earth itself, with the elements. We know about them and we know what it is to enjoy that."
"The ceremonies, which are as ancient as we are, carry forward this respect. Our people were always spiritual people, religious people. They always had ceremonies. This was our first instruction, how to carry on the ceremony. The ceremonies are our thanksgivings, every one of them."
"So we had these extraordinary rounds of thanksgiving every year; all the
same songs again at certain time, all the same dances at certain time, are
very familiar. Again if you go down and watch the Pueblos as they do their
Deer Dance, as they do their Bean Dance, and watch the Hopis as they do
their Snake Dance, these are old, ancient ceremonies. Everybody knows them and everybody participates in them. You continue because they are what you are instructed to do which is to give thanks."
"And so we have these well-springs of knowledge about places that only
aboriginal people would know because they have lived there. They have
intimate knowledge of what's there. And when people are destroyed and
languages are destroyed, you destroy that knowledge along with it. So what do indigenous people have to offer? Indigenous people have the long-term thinking required for proper context."
"What Indians are about, I think, first of all is community. They're about
mutual support. They're about sharing. They're about understanding what's common land, common air, common water, common and for all. They're about freedom."
"We are now. Now is us. We're the seventh generation. I'm sitting here as
the seventh generation because seven generations ago people were looking out for me. Seven generations from now someone will be here, I know. Each generation makes sure that seventh generation is coming, all the time."
"We can't afford, now, to have these national borders. We can't afford to
have racism. We can't afford apartheid. We cannot
terms, for that seventh generation. And we've got to move in concert. We've got to sing the same song. We've got to have the same ceremony. We've got to get back to spiritual law if we are to survive."
Chief Oren Lyons
in a July 3, 1991 interview with Bill Moyers
for Public Affairs Television
At a time when the citizens of the United States are probing the question of
what constitutes a leader, the voice of Oren Lyons, chosen by Clan Mothers as Chief of the Onondaga people, sounds a clear note of authentic leadership for his people and for our time. He is Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, tireless advocate for indigenous rights and sovereignty issues, professor, author, publisher, painter, father, and grandfather.
* * * * * * * *
Following are further quotes by Oren Lyons excerpted from the Bill Moyers'
interview.
"This painting is a depiction of the Great Tree of Peace . . . The Tree of
Peace, of course, is the great spiritual law and it sits on the back of the
turtle, which is our metaphor for this island. We call North America the
Great Turtle Island."
"When the Great Peacemaker uprooted this great tree, he asked the Nations to come forward and cast down their weapons of war, he said, 'We now do away with the warriors and we do away with the war chiefs. And in their place we plant the Council of the Good Minds who will now counsel for the welfare of the people.'"
"When we were given these instructions, among many of them, one was that when you in sit in council for the welfare of the people, you counsel for the welfare of that seventh generation to come. They should be foremost in your mind, not even your generation, not even yourself, but those that are unborn. So that when their time comes here they may enjoy the same thing that you are enjoying now."
"We have a long perspective. We've been in one place a long time. We've seen the sun come up in the same place many, many hundreds, thousands of years. And so we have a familiarity with the Earth itself, with the elements. We know about them and we know what it is to enjoy that."
"The ceremonies, which are as ancient as we are, carry forward this respect. Our people were always spiritual people, religious people. They always had ceremonies. This was our first instruction, how to carry on the ceremony. The ceremonies are our thanksgivings, every one of them."
"So we had these extraordinary rounds of thanksgiving every year; all the
same songs again at certain time, all the same dances at certain time, are
very familiar. Again if you go down and watch the Pueblos as they do their
Deer Dance, as they do their Bean Dance, and watch the Hopis as they do
their Snake Dance, these are old, ancient ceremonies. Everybody knows them and everybody participates in them. You continue because they are what you are instructed to do which is to give thanks."
"And so we have these well-springs of knowledge about places that only
aboriginal people would know because they have lived there. They have
intimate knowledge of what's there. And when people are destroyed and
languages are destroyed, you destroy that knowledge along with it. So what do indigenous people have to offer? Indigenous people have the long-term thinking required for proper context."
"What Indians are about, I think, first of all is community. They're about
mutual support. They're about sharing. They're about understanding what's common land, common air, common water, common and for all. They're about freedom."
"We are now. Now is us. We're the seventh generation. I'm sitting here as
the seventh generation because seven generations ago people were looking out for me. Seven generations from now someone will be here, I know. Each generation makes sure that seventh generation is coming, all the time."
posted by carol wolman @ 12:18 PM
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