"The Freedom of Real Apologies"

 

Above:  Layli Long Soldier and Pádraig Ó Tuama

"There’s an anecdote told about a person who asked a scientist how to make bread from scratch. Well, the scientist said, first you have to invent the universe. 

And there’s another anecdote, about a tourist who’s lost while driving around Ireland. How do I get on the road to Dublin? they ask a local. First thing to say is that I wouldn’t start from here, the local replies. 

They’re funny, those anecdotes, and also partially frustrating, which is where some of their humor lies. But they also contain profound wisdom: None of us are alone (you can’t make bread from scratch, you’re in a long-line of humanity that’s made bread) and there are poor places to begin something. "

From "The Freedom of Real Apologies"

"... Everything is in the language that we use ..." / Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota)

"... "Real" poems do not "really" require words ..." (Layli Long Soldier)



There is so much to learn about the Oglala Lakota.  I am learning.  Learning takes time.  Although I am relatively poor in terms of money, I am rich in time.

I hope you have time to listen.

As soon as you're born they make you feel small 
By giving you no time instead of it all 
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
(John Lennon, lyrics from "Working Class Hero)

Whereas / Centuries of Injustice / Centuries of Resistance / Survival Against All Odds

We are not defeated.  The so-called victory of those who claim victory is hollow.  It always has been.

Excerpt from interview:

MS. LONG SOLDIER: Just briefly, in “38,” it’s written to and for the Dakota 38, who were 38 Dakota men who were hung under the orders of President Abraham Lincoln as a result of the Sioux uprising, which came at a time when Dakota people, their territory, their land, was getting smaller and smaller, and finally down to something like a 10-mile tract. And the Dakota people, did not have hunting rights beyond that. They had no store credit with the traders, and so they were basically starving. So there was an uprising, and as a result, these 38 men were hung, and then Dakota people were moved west to the South Dakota area in different — basically, they lost their land in the Minnesota region.

MS. TIPPETT: This was the largest legal mass execution in U.S. history, and it happened the same week that President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation. This history we don’t know.

MS. LONG SOLDIER: That’s right.

MS. TIPPETT: Or we don’t teach. So this emerged, your patience, writing all of this.

MS. LONG SOLDIER: Yeah, absolutely. I think that I’ve learned through writing the reward and the joy that comes out of just being really patient with a piece and patient with yourself. I think, at least, for me, the imagination is something that I really have to really respect like its own little person in me. So I can’t demand too much of it. Sometimes I have to let it take a rest and then come back and be in conversation with it again. But it’s a beautiful process that I’ve learned through writing.

We are not defeated.  We are stronger than ever.  There are more of us than ever.  We are a diverse community.  Remember that.