Prison Scandal chicken soup for the soul

[sarnewfie]

this was sent to me by a friend, it really made me think. it really made these men think to that were humiliated as they did to the iraqi women for decades, makes one think......
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There was this story in Chicken Soup for the Soul, meant to be uplifting, about a man remembering his childhood growing up in the depression, and he had to wear a pair of hand-me-down girl's shoes. His pain was palpable in the story. Finally, a cool male teacher came in and called them european cowboy boots, or something of the sort, and everyone tried them on, and the boy's ego was restored and his humiliation taken away. That story bothered me. And then like the next day in the paper there was a story about some teacher who was fired and sued for punishing a boy by making him wear a skirt, the worst punishment of all, to be a girl.

So then fast forward to this whole Iraqi prison scandal. UHOH, I know this, here it comes but I really want to say this.

I clicked into the story about the men being dogpiled naked, and the former prisoner saying he would rather have been hit than what happened to him. With a break in his voice, he said they wanted us to feel like women feel. I can take beatings, he said, but not this humiliation, to be made to feel that we were women.

We screw him. At that point, screw him. That was maybe the most valuable lesson he'll learn in a decade, how women in his presence feel. Totally degraded, and humiliated, and without value.

Screw him. That he was made to feel like he makes women feel, he gets no sympathy from me.

And for those who will now say do you really mean that? I really do.

 

[hawk]

Hi,
Another story with similaritie's'
Women and children being kidnapped and raped by their captor's. Bio-terrorism and the intentional use of weapon's which introduced new diseases.
Religious extremist's stealing children and forcing them to adopt new way's of living or be tortured and killed.
The inhumane/horrific condition's the prisoner's dealt with in pow camp's......
Beheading and puplic display of the head's so as to humiliate and further degrade...
This story has much more to it. The important part of the story for me is not what was done but what can we do to change the situation.
IMO the important thing is having knowledge and perspective which can help us understand all side's aof a given conflict and then to look for the underlying causation...why is there conflict?
How do I as an individual contribute to the circumstance's that perpetuate conflict? How do I contribute to the resolution of conflict?
The above story is about the relationship between native people and european/religous people.
It this country's foundation. How can such atrocitie's be a part of this great country's past? BTW some of these horrible thing's continue.
I am asked often if I speak my original language. I do not primarily because my great grand parent's were in the boarding school's that were designed to wipe out culture(genocide). It used to make me very angry! I no that anger can be a very useful emotion...it is there to protect us. When it seep's into all aspect's of our being and when we hold onto anger it can be detrimental to our well being and influence how we treat other's.
This can cause conflict to go on and on and on and on...
I hope to leave a healthier world for my daughter's and their children.........
If we consider the effect's of our behavior/thought's on our children's children we may lessen the pain's in the world.
Peace
Hawk

 

[Largo]

Hawk, do you know the statistics on how many native peoples have lost the knowledge of their language? For the past few years, I have been studying my people's history beyond the shores of America indepth. Those are interesting questions that you raise on why do we have conflict and what I am doing to contribute to it. We are witnessing evil at its finest. We must as an individual, do our part for good. Each one, teach one.

 

[hawk]

Hi Largo,
Indeed it is a very troubled world. I like your thought" each one teach one". That has so much value particularly when there is consensus as to what we are teaching. Unfortunatly there are so many who teach intolerance, sexism, racism, ageism, religous-ism .....etc
I have no stat's about the number of native people's who have been disconnected from various aspect's of culture but I feel it is too many.
I find it astonishing that so many people in this country have no clue about the true relationship between First Nation's People's and the USA.
Where do your ancestor's originate?
Peace
Hawk

 

[nice newfie]

I think it is called "sign of the times"Karen

 

[Largo]

Hawk, where do my people originate? Well thats not an easy question to answer. Being primarily of African decent whose ancesters were slaves there are no records. We are searching however to see if someone somewhere along the line kept some kind of record. We were traded like cattle so it was not common to keep family ties type records on us. And if they were kept, they were not commonly passed on to the slaves. Having our families broken apart and separted so, and having slaves of mixed african origins who spoke different languanges dwelling together, and being forbiden to read or wright in our own language or in English, made it very difficult if not impossible to pass the history of our origin and ancestery on. It is truly an arduous task trying to find out from where it is in Africa that we hail. We will probably never know. But we do have some interesting leads. I wonder if we are the only people on earth who are truly and utterly separted from the knowledge of their ancestry? There is also English, Russian(its looking more like Hebrew though) and Native Amercian in our ancestry. The English believe it or not were Lords and Ladies, Barons, Dukes, and Sirs on both the husbands and wives sides of the family all the way back to 1216 I think. I have to check that date as we have gone way back and are still going. That ancestry is through my mothers father. The most recent Knight being my great, great grandfather. Mind you my grandfather passed in 1968 at the age of 103. I think History is fascinating and our family search has been bitter and sweet.