No one could track all that was going on, but a pink-jacketed woman horrifically, dangerously close caught it on video. Alex Pretti beaten to the ground, shot in the back ten times in five seconds she recorded through terror and confusion, and managed to escape without ICE seizing her phone. Helped by a woman who gave her a different coat for cover, the “pink-jacketed woman” vanished, escaped to explode the regime’s lies. When I hear the word “cowardice” I think of muscle-bound, gun-toting thugs claiming self-defense against protesters with signs and whistles, and how Homeland Security shields them from legal accountability. When I hear the word “heroism” I think of Stella Carlson, the “pink-jacketed woman,” who absorbed the trauma up close and with nothing but her bravery to shield her gave the whole world the truth.
THOMAS R. SMITH is an American poet, essayist, teacher and editor. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals in the U.S. and internationally.
Last month I wrote about the need to use power wisely, and the temptations that everyone faces when they get power over others. Power can be used for our own prestige and comfort, or for the good of others. We have plenty of examples every day of each of those options playing out in front of our eyes.
Since I wrote that article, I have been reading Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide by George E. Tinker. It is a wonderful example of using power well, along with being a great book on many other levels. Tinker looks at four missionaries who are revered for their work among Native peoples in North America, but he shows how they all contributed to the destruction of Native societies, and the results that still haunt us today. One of the missionaries he writes about is Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, an Episcopal clergyman who worked in Minnesota and after whom the federal building at Fort Snelling is named.
As Tinker notes, Whipple was genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of the Indians in Minnesota. He presented their case to various Presidents, including working to get President Lincoln to pardon over 300 Dakota Indians who were condemned to death after the Dakota War in 1862.… Read the rest “Grace in the Face of Destruction”
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Grace in the Face of Destruction
from the series Peace House Community Journal…
By MARTI MALTBY
Last month I wrote about the need to use power wisely, and the temptations that everyone faces when they get power over others. Power can be used for our own prestige and comfort, or for the good of others. We have plenty of examples every day of each of those options playing out in front of our eyes.
Since I wrote that article, I have been reading Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide by George E. Tinker. It is a wonderful example of using power well, along with being a great book on many other levels. Tinker looks at four missionaries who are revered for their work among Native peoples in North America, but he shows how they all contributed to the destruction of Native societies, and the results that still haunt us today. One of the missionaries he writes about is Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, an Episcopal clergyman who worked in Minnesota and after whom the federal building at Fort Snelling is named.
As Tinker notes, Whipple was genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of the Indians in Minnesota. He presented their case to various Presidents, including working to get President Lincoln to pardon over 300 Dakota Indians who were condemned to death after the Dakota War in 1862.… Read the rest “Grace in the Face of Destruction”