Rock Creek Park by Dr. Jeffrey Fearing (c) 1990
Greetings Asiba here!
Autumn transitions to Winter
The Harvest Thanksgiving days of Nunowa are transitioning to Winter. The days are shorter and it’s getting colder. I love how the geese take flight and sing their song in the sky.
I’ve been pretty busy gathering and visiting with the folks. Some Shinnecock relatives sent photos of the folks in Narraganset sharing Thanksgiving dinner just like our ancestors did for hundreds of years. Shared news with Matinecoc cousins in California. Even had some new arrivals born down in Texas. We need so badly to be together. We see our ancestors in each others faces that say we are the people who shall continue. As if I wasn’t fat enough, lets say I’ve been enjoying the bounty from Mother Earth. Nisinuwuk (three sisters) enjoyed in succotash, Samp, corn soup, corn pudding, beans and rice, beans and more beans, Pumpkin soup, venison stew, turkey made in my sister’s famous brine, and that frybread! It is all good fat, yes good fat for the winter.
While I thrive off this time of year, I am sorry for being away from this site for so long. I am going to need more time to prepare a response to what I feel is a toxic matter in need of address. I will be back. This is what it is about:
The American holiday season has begun. The celebrations and festivities of the season start with Halloween and go through to New Years Day. It is a time filled with high spirited parades, activities, parties and special events that affirm the theme of the holiday and highlight American culture.
What I am working on is a response to a news report featuring a particular Halloween display in someone’s yard. The decorations included likenesses of bodies hanging from trees from by the neck. It was obviously supposed to represent mass hangings as part of the spooky theme of Halloween. Waving in the wind, the make believe bodies wrapped in black plastic that looked like body bags bound by duct tape that gave an appearance of lynchings. A woman who saw the display objected to the upsetting imagery and brought the matter to the county council officials. She was told by a representative that the homeowner did not break any laws, there was no ordinance that could result in legal action. There was an effort to appeal to the homeowner to change the display. The homeowner refused. They had purchased the hanging bodies as a kit online. It was not their intention to cause a disturbance.
There was a similar holiday decoration that caused concern and panic two years ago.Clark Griswold, a homeowner played by Chevy Chases in the comedy, Christmas Vacation was hanging Christmas lights on the rim of the roof while standing on a ladder. The ladder falls away leaving him dangling from the edge of the roof. As a humorous Christmas display, a real life homeowner put up a life-size mannequin dressed just like Griswold hanging from the edge of his roof. Of course anyone who saw the film got the joke. However, there was a problem. The dummy looked so life-like that a passerby thought it was a real person hanging from the edge of the roof in distress. The good samaritan jumped out of his car to rescue what was only a decoration. Following the panic, the homeowner reportedly agreed to make an adjustment by putting up a sign so as not to upset and cause any further concern to the public or first responders. The holiday decoration was meant to get laughs and good cheer. Any upset was unintended.
I am working on a response that explains how systemic oppression processes these scenarios. In both instances, there were holiday decorations that caused concern, panic and/or upset while no harm was allegedly intended.
The patterned behaviors are not isolated incidences. They are bourn out of the same rationale. There was another Halloween display showing skeletons hanging from trees with sombreros, surrounded by other skeletons dressed military gear with guns nearby. Two years ago, in a Halloween parade a woman dressed to appear like Kamala Harris was bound by ropes walking behind a moving golf cart as if to be dragged with a someone dressed like Trump standing in the cart with a secret service looking man in a suit with automatic weapon on top of the cart.
There is more to this (I’m working on it) but suffice it say at this point that renaming, dismissing, minimizing, or denying what is before us will not erase any consequences. What results from these consequences are reactive behaviors such as asking wrong, off topic, and irrelevant questions, useless investigations, warped assessments, and destructive accusations that generate simple minded, temporary and faulty remedies making things worse.
This is offensive. Apologize!
Halloween is being attacked
You hate America
You are attacking my free speech
It was only a joke - get over it
Get a job
Why don’t you complain about black on black crime
Don’t like it, don’t look
There are those who say they want to save democracy. Problem is, in my opinion the United States of America never was a democracy. It was only a billboard, a label, a corporate brand. The reality of a true democracy never existed. Working to establish one is our challenge and our collective responsibility.
I am working on it and I hope to be finished soon.
I’ll be back!
PS - Thank you for checking up on me.
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AsibaMatinecoc Nationspiritofjanuary@gmail.com
Confront oppressionAll it takes is a change of mind
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"Rock Creek Park" by photographer Dr. Jeffrey J.Fearing appeared on the very first issue of my print newsletter, “The Spirit of January Monthly”in 1990. Rock Creek Park is in Washington, DC where we both attended Howard University in the late 60’s. It was a golden time at a phenomenal institution where I met Jeff, a friend for life, Nemot - my brother. I am honored to share his photograph once again 30 plus years later.