Monday, March 13, 2017

What Ails Our Brother?


profile of an old man.



It is disrespectful to take someone's words and not trace, or point back to that someone and say he said this, or she said that. It is done a lot.

Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money..." is an old quote I am familiar with, but I cannot remember who said it in the long ago. I apologize for that lapse of memory.

We are still in those times when the man said those words in the long ago, and that makes time feel like it had stood still, or nothing changed. One man from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, Santa Das said, "The white man was not civilized. Look at the destruction he has brought to the world amongst ancient cultures! It's too kind to even call them brother!" A woman living on Turtle Island, Linda Davis said, "White man still not civilized, look at Standing Rock Reservation yesterday! (Feb. 23, 2017)"

A woman from Chicago, Julianne CeCe made a more probing thrust into this trouble. "Greed is not unique to the white man but he certainly seems to have perfected it." she said. "There is nothing civilized about the intentional smothering of the generosity of spirit. It remains a great mystery to me how brothers can be so different when they have the same mother."


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
March 13, 2017


Arazel N. Thalez by Craig Matthews in shadow.
There is a rebellion of sorts the photographer captured within a moment.



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