Sharing Story with Paula J. Vaughan, M.H.

1. 4
   28
   Mar
   
   

   “The duty of the radical artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

   — Toni Cade Bambara

   (Source: alphahelicalhair)

   • human rights
2. 3
   29
   Apr
   
   

   “Democracy is not a spectator sport, it’s a participatory event. If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.”

   — Michael Moore

   (Source: reuters.com, via alphahelicalhair)

   • human rights
   • humanity
3. 4
   Apr
   
   

   Old Turtle and the Broken Truth written by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Jon J Muth

   I have read hundreds of children’s picture books in the past eleven years - they are a hobby and indulgent passion. Without question or hesitation and with deep awe and regard, Old Turtle and the Broken Truth is the very best book I have ever read, perhaps in any genre. It is exceptional in its wisdom, compassion, and truth. Never, not even as a mythologist enmeshed in cultural anthropology and religion, have I read a book that so truly expresses what it means to be human.

   For the love of yourself, your children, and one another - please read this book. It is sacred.

   “You are loved and so are they.” 

   • children's picture books
   • beauty
   • sacred
   • humanity
   • human rights
4. 55
   1
   Apr
   
   

   “I think the primary difference is that Indians experience and relate to a living universe, whereas Western people - especially scientists - reduce all things, living or not, to objects. The implications of this are immense. If you see the world around you as a collection of objects for you to manipulate and exploit, you will inevitably destroy the world while attempting to control it. Not only that, but by perceiving the world as lifeless, you rob yourself of the richness, beauty, and wisdom to be found by participating in its larger design.

   In order to maintain the fiction that the world is dead -and that those who believe it to be alive have succumbed to primitive superstition - science must reject any interpretation of the natural world that implies sentience or an ability to communicate on the part of nonhumans. Science insists, at a great price in understanding, that the observer be as detached as possible from the event he or she is observing.

   Contrast that with the attitude of indigenous people, who recognize that humans must participate in events, not isolate themselves.

   Ironically, although science prides itself on being a search for knowledge, Indians can obtain knowledge from birds, animals, rivers, and mountains that is inaccessible to modern science. And Indians can use this knowledge to achieve better results. Take meteorology. Scientists know that seeding clouds with certain chemicals will bring rain, but this method of dealing with nature is wholly mechanical and forces nature to do our bidding. Indians achieved the same results more peacefully by conducting ceremonies and asking the spirits for rain. The two methods are diametrically opposed. It’s the difference between commanding a slave to do something and asking a friend for help.

   Being attuned to their environment, Indians could find food, locate trails, protect themselves from inclement weather, and anticipate coming events thanks to theirunderstanding of how all things are related. This knowledge isn’t unique to American Indians. It’s available to anyone who lives primarily in the natural world, is reasonably intelligent, and respects other life-forms for their intelligence. Respect for other life-forms filters into our every action, as does its opposite: perceiving the world as lifeless. If you objectify other living things, then you are committing yourself to a totally materialistic universe - which is not even consistent with the findings of modern physics.

   The central idea of science, as it has been developed and applied, is to get machines or nature to do the work human beings don’t want to do. This is immensely practical, but in a shortsighted way.”

   — Vine Deloria, Jr.

   (Source: racismagainstindians.org, via alphahelicalhair)

   • Indigenous Peoples
   • native american
   • human rights
5. 3
   26
   Mar
   
   

   “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane.”

   — David W. Orr, Ph.D.
   

   (Source: stolaf.edu, via alphahelicalhair)

   • human rights
   • humanity
6. 9
   25
   Mar
   
   

   “First of all, as a student of culture and popular culture and the impact that it has on us all, I know this to be true: Seeing yourself represented in the popular culture is really critical in terms of forming your own self image.

   I’m old enough to have been around before seeing black people represented in the popular culture in diverse ways. When I was a kid, it was a big deal to see a black person on television. So that’s why it was important in a science fiction thing — in Star Trek — it was huge. I read a lot of science fiction books as a kid. As a kid of science fiction, Star Trek was important to me and seeing a person of color in a command position was hugely important to me.”

   — LeVar Burton

   (Source: Los Angeles Times, via alphahelicalhair)

   • media
   • television
   • star trek
   • children's literature
   • human rights
7. 9
   19
   Mar
   
   

   “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

   — bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins)
   

   (Source: alphahelicalhair)

   • women's studies
   • human rights
8. 10
   8
   Mar
   
   

   “Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don’t speak it out one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.”

   — Audre Lorde
   

   (Source: alphahelicalhair)

   • women's rights
   • human rights