What an interesting subject I didn’t know this about the British involvement in
the arms history of the USA. It made me think about the fact that it would make
sense if you invade and take over land from the indigenous populations killing
many on the way that you as a society would be afraid of the repercussions and
therefore think you need arms to protect yourself.
I saw a similar situation in South Africa when I last visited several years ago
- huge opulent houses which looked liked prisons because they had bars up at
the windows, Alsatian dogs, burglar alarms, barbed wire fences and prickly
bushes.
In the particularly poignant scene I remember there was a line of Black
Africans opposite these houses sitting on the pavement singing. I remember
asking myself who was happier!
With the latest events at the North American Conference last October and the
ensuing articles that came from it on slavery and other themes (appearing in
the latest Knowing Field Journal) maybe the time is ripe to begin looking at
this thorny issue worldwide
We in Britain have so far only scratched the surface but some of us will be
inviting Anngwyn to Bristol in Oct this year to begin looking at this more
deeply for ourselves and would welcome anyone to join us. Please contact me
personally if you wish to go on the mailing list.
Bristol has a strong connection with the history of the slave trade as a major
port involved in shipping the slaves.
Constellations are a powerful tool for helping us begin to address these very
painful issues and face up to our history.
Warm wishes to all
Barbara
Sent from my iPhone
On 23 Feb 2018, at 20:53, Leah leah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Nina,
Thank you for looking into this. An email in my inbox this morning from Rabbi
Michael Lerner speaks to your question: “In a society which has never
acknowledged its violent foundation, from the genocide of Native peoples, to
slavery, the violent overthrow of governments around the world in order to
impose regimes that favor U.S. corporate interests, its brutal war against
the Vietnamese people, its recruitment of young people into a pre-army ROTC,
and its romanticization in movies and T.V. of super weapons and violence, it
is no surprise that it is easy to convince men that "real men" use weapons
and violence to get their way in the world.”
I also wonder about the American Revolution and the creation of the USA. One
of the key factors in the American Revolution was the fight against British
intentions to disarm the colonists – that’s what would have happened if
Britain had won the war. It’s a fascinating piece of history that I’m not
sure many of us picked up in U.S. history in high school. I remember the
focus was mostly that the colonists rebelled due to unfair taxation. But the
British would have disarmed the colonists and created a permanent standing
army. The majority of the colonists believed in the right to bear arms and
that no government or authority should have control over this right. All of
the colonies actually had laws requiring males to own guns: “Among the
Colonial militia statutes, Connecticut's 1650 code contains one of the
clearest expressions of the duty to own a gun: “That all persons that are
above the age of sixteene yeares, except magistrates and church officers,
shall beare arms...; and every male person with this jurisdiction, above the
said age, shall have in continuall readines, a good muskitt or other gunn,
fitt for service, and allowed by the clark of the band....” (source:
http://www.tulprpc.org/attachments/File/Colonial_Firearms_regulation.pdf)
The USA was not just born from a violent revolution, but the right to bear
arms seems to have been the issue that finally precipitated the full-on
revolt. Another interesting fact: it’s estimated that 15-25% of the
population during the American Revolution (300,000 - 500,000), loyal to the
British crown, migrated and settled in Canada.
The Yale research was shockingly high and has been criticized for including
young adults up to age 19 in a research project on “children”. The CDC
defines “children” as 0-14 years of age. I guess that when you include young
adults, it raises questions of much wider circumstances around the incidents.
(https://www.theblaze.com/news/2014/01/31/theblaze-fact-checks-abc-did-diane-sawyer-use-misleading-stats-in-2020-report-on-children-and-guns)
I’ve had limited experience with this issue in Constellations. I’m interested
to hear if anyone has any insights from their constellations, or plans to
address it?
Many thanks,
Leah Green
From: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of "ninaishtar@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk]" <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 7:05 PM
To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Children and Gun Violence in America
Hi Everyone
I am from Western Australia, a new comer still establishing my work in this
field. I am wondering if anyone has done any constellation work that has
touched upon gun violence and children in America? I have been commenting on
an interesting discussion on Facebook about a video of a young American girl
who looks about 10/ 11 receiving her first rifle, it seems from her parents.
She is so overwhelmed with emotion she is in tears. The discussion was
around the culture of American families and hunting. How this girl may have
been experiencing the strong emotion due to the "gift" representing
something like a rite of passage; old enough to be trusted with her first
rifle. The recent protests in America in relation to school massacres
stimulated this topic and sharing.
I just read a 2014 Guardian article about the culture of American families
and hunting. It quotes that 3000 children die each year from hunting
accidents. A Yale University study reports 7000 children are either admitted
to hospital with serious injuries or die from hunting accidents each year in
America. These figures do not of course include street violence, domestic
violence and school massacres. If this behaviour is so strongly apart of the
family institution in America I do wonder what the roots of this are all
about. The right to bear arms and hunt freely even if it's killing and
injuring lots of children, who in fact are not living in a war zone. No
disrespect to American culture but this stuns me.
Any experiences?
Thanks
Nina Ishtar
Denmark Western Australia
MC900023779[1]
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