[thechat] war phase 2

[Erika Meyer]

Hi Joe:

Yes, I tend to have a very holistic point of view and see 
relationships others don't see.

Violence breeds violence, but like a shape shifter, it manifests 
itself in many forms.

Child abuse is passed down through generations.  You see cultural 
differences in different groups regarding how they regard violence in 
child-rearing.

Example:  Traditional North American Indigenous culture recoils at 
the use of  violence against children.

However, once the tribes were rendered powerless (via war), their 
children were kidnapped and sent to US government boarding schools 
where they were beaten for speaking their language, for practicing 
their religion, and for various other cultural behaviors.  In 
addition, the employees at these schools often molested the children. 
There was no one to protect these innocents.

Meanwhile, other Indigenous women & female children were kidnapped 
and raped, or "married" to settlers who needed a woman/slave.  Some 
intermarriages were voluntary, others were not.  Domestic violence 
featured in.

(Through genealogical research I have traced a lot of problems -- 
including domestic violence, land theft, and child neglect -- back in 
my own Indigenous family, to intermarriage and boarding school 
kidnappings -- not hard to do as it all occurred within the last 3-4 
generations.)

This is all a result of the defeat of Indigenous nations by the 
United States via war.

The Indigenous traditional systems were (deliberately) broken to 
bits, and if you want to see the results, visit the rez.

I also think that the violence that exits in African American 
communities is largely a result of the legacy of slavery.

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And we shouldn't forget that white Europeans spent around 300 years 
terrorizing, torturing and murdering their own women for the alleged 
practice of witchcraft.

And oh yeah, there's the sex trade which services lonely soldiers. 
Is selling a 14 year old into prostitution child abuse?

This is all about war, power, conquest.   This is the legacy.  Maybe 
you don't see it, but I do.

Love,

Erika

>With each argument, Erika, you bring into it this wide swath of 
>injustice around the world - and I simply don't see how, say, child 
>abuse factors into a discussion about nation-states and warfare. 
>Perhaps that's my own lack of imagination - or perhaps it's a 
>measure of my desire to debate practicalities, rather than 
>idealities (is that a word?). Focus can make debate more 
>constructive.
>
>I'd love to be able to be smart enough to have 100% focus on justice 
>for everyone around the world at all times, but I simply can't hold 
>that much justice in my head at once. By parsing these issues down I 
>think we can make headway.
>
>At least, to my way of thinking.
>
>	- Joe <http://artlung.com/>

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