Greetings from Arizona,
If the British had won the Revolutionary War of Independence against their
Imperial tyranny, the genocides would likely have continued unabated as they
were, at that time, an empire and this is what empires with colonies do,
worldwide as part of colonial settlements. The irony is now, after having
fought the tyranny of the British Empire, our American democratic republic has
become a tyrannical global empire, true to the old adage " You become what you
resist ".
Warm regards,
Anngwyn
In a message dated 2/23/2018 11:53:57 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
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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