I am a Mountain…

 I am a Mountain, I am a tall tree

 

 

 

Reinvention

 

re·in·vent  (rn-vnt)

tr.v. re·in·vent·ed, re·in·vent·ing, re·in·vents

1. To make over completely: “She reinvented Indian cooking to fit a Western kitchen and a Western larder” (Irene Sax).

2. To bring back into existence or use: reinvented the concept of neighborliness.

Idiom:

reinvent the wheel

1. To do something again, from the beginning, especially in a needless or inefficient effort: “School districts need not reinvent the wheel every time they try to improve their schools” (Washington Post).

2. To recast something familiar or old into a different form: “Call it reinventing the wheel or recasting old ideas, but these contemporary versions have a spirit and style all their own” (New York Times).

                                Thought I would look up the word  , ” reinvent” to see what the Dictionary  had to say on the word’s meaning. Thinking on how I was using the term and how I related to it.

I’m certainly not reinventing myself from scratch, with the exception of 

” sexuality”, which I did have to start from nothing. Being a Victim of Human Traffiking really messes one up and separates you from Normal Human Sexual Development.  In many ways I did go back to square one.

On another note,

” To recast the familiar into a different form”

  ” so that one can live with  the truth of one’s past , on a daily basis.”

 This is where the core of the work is done.

 Traffickers prefer to make their victims  very fearful.

Too Fearful to go and get help.  Create a fear of the Police

and other helping agencies.

Traffickers  prefer to  slowly and intentionally create  a relationship with thier victims  ,  in which they are dependent on them for everything. Food, The Bathroom, love , everything.

This last weekend I went into a store to shop , and a policeman was there doing

social media awareness.

I act as an adult.

talk about the info and take 2 pamphlets.

on the inside I know that this is a high trigger for me.

Fear and anxiety. I let the  memories of  a man  playing  Policeman and telling me to lick his boots to move thru me and beyond me  until the feelings have passed. The Game was Cop and Robber.

I  walk around the store looking and enjoying my shopping experience.

and out the door into a  sun-shiny Day.

Empowerment!

This is from a  Blog, ” I am convicted”.  Andy writes great  stuff.

Reinvention is more than just a

healing process … it’s a hard look at

the chains that bind.

I am convicted.

Where we started wasn’t where I was Born.

Image via Wikipedia

I was born in Manchester England  .  My Father  British and my Mother  : Welsh.She grew up in Rural Wales.  Dads’ father was a postman.  In  WW2  Dad was  a  Medic   in North Africa.

In  my heart I feelI was born a second time and that was  on the streets of  New York and t hen died again  when my father  when my father took me to a   K.K.K   rally.

Everyone hears about

, ” The American  Dream” .  Isn’t that what all

Immigrants wish for?

But the truth is that we don’t all  find  that.   On the opposite side of the American Dream is the American Nightmare.

Teenage Members of  Kurdish Gangs in Nashville

Gang Membership

Human Trafficking

The Immigrant owner of a  Store that is  robbed.

Murder

Anti Immigrant Sentiment towards the Mexicans

Anti-Muslim Sentiment.  Mosque Burnings. Bomb Threats.

This is an old quote from an early Italian Immigrant from the 1920’s New York.

“I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren’t paved with gold; second, they weren’t paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them.”

few gave up and returned home.

 

I feel the same way.

I was born here.

Related articles

• George Carlin: American Dream for Sleepers (stevebeckow.com)
• Goodie! A Brand New Shiny American Dream (badlandsbadley.wordpress.com)
• Joe Kutchera: Immigrating for the American Dream (huffingtonpost.com)
• Immigrant Attitudes toward Immigration (bigthink.com)

Women, War and Peace : Series Trailer

Image via Wikipedia

Women, War & Peace Series Trailer.

This Series will  begin showing October 11 ,  2011 .

I Am also including the website from PBS.

Truth to Power

 

In  a loud voice,

yes

Yessssssssssssss

oh

Yes

2

Truth to Power.

Today 9/11. The 10th Anniversary

Image via Wikipedia

Went to Bed last night late @   1:am after watching  a good foreign film ” Winter in War  Time” ,  exhausted.   Woke up to a wonderful sight . On my bed  lay my large dog, ” Cheyenne”  ( only a year old now) and  my cat ,  ” Zo-Zo”   together.  Quietly  and Peacefully.  Funny Creatures.

Up with morning Coffee.  Thinking of the day ahead.

Gotta Clean House .

Then to get Flowers  to give to a local Fire  Station .  In  Remembrance and to say thank you for the Community Service and  Work that they provide.  Maybe this year I’ll also do  Donuts or something.

I like to do my 9/11  Meditation and  Thinking at a specific Duncan Donuts on Thompson Lane.   When I was a member of the Peace and Justice Coalition, we had a member named  Ahmed Hassan Al-Uqaily.  Ahmed was from Iraq. I remember him as a quiet man.  He worked at the Duncan Donuts on Thompson Lane.

He had also been invited to our  Congregation  and worked with our  Youth Group. On his Van they had  painted  ” Peace” related Symbols .

From Being around him I knew that he was suffering from a high level of Post Traumatic Stress and that when  the information and pictures of    Abu Ghraib  ere released . It was a  major  Trigger.  I understand that he did take part in a protest down town and  as a member of a Theater Group  stood on the street as the ” Hooded Prisoner”

My emotions were mixed.   He was not a Terrorist nor part of some cell but was an emotionally wrecked man pushed beyond his limitations.  Yes. I believe that entrapment was involved.  On the other hand he was responsible for his actions, and am  grateful that he was stopped before  he might have done any major harm to himself and others.

and so i go to the Donut Den on Thompson  Lane to quietly think of 9/11, the fall out on individuals and groups (  Muslim Americans, Undocumented  Groups,   the individuals that died that day,   Ahmed who is now back in Iraq,  Today present Politics, Economics,   Tom Fox ( Quaker who was be-headed in Iraq and had Nashville links )  and a  Re-dedication  of self and purpose to all of these  spirits .

Tom  Fox    http://waitinginthelight.blogspot.com/

Ahmed A.    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1241811/posts      

Unitarians     http://www.uua.org/beliefs/

Related articles

• 9/11: Live tweets about the 10th anniversary (nj.com)

9/11

Image via Wikipedia

On 9/11 I was  working as a  Family Services Coordinator at Local Hospital up in the Trauma Center. My  Father was still alive and   had recently been diagnosed with  Late Stage Dementia.  My Brother was still living in England ,   had left the Air force, and was working as a Prison Guard . My sister and i were living separate lives and my brother and i had not talked or seen each other in years.

I  remember watching the news with my heart sinking . Thinking that everything would change.

Within a  few months  after 9/11 I joined the local Peace and Justice Center and became Political. I could not stand and watch as my fellow American Muslims and Mexican Immigrants Legal and illegal became fodder for  Hate.

Everything changed. I changed and grew and began to look fiercely at what I believed in.

When my Father and Mother had to go to an Assisted Living Facility : My brother left England and  arrived States Side to Help and lived in their House.

My  Father Died in 2005. The last person to see him alive was my brother .

Related articles

• Living with 9/11: the Muslim American (guardian.co.uk)
• Sherman A. Jackson: 9/11 A Decade Later: The Ironic Impact of Islamophobia (huffingtonpost.com)
• Adjusting to Life in Assisted Living Facilities (everydayhealth.com)

Good Video on Domestic Violence

It s a good Video. Of Course not all boys end up as abusers , they can become Victims too.

Faces

\\

            With my  Back on the  faux tile floor , The  walls of the kitchen look  aqua green/  an aqua green under water world/  like my brother and I are  dreaming .

            except  that         as he had been taught by  Dad/

N .  tries to  teach  one of his junior high school friends, Mike ,  what to do with his little sister/

                   as he presses the coke bottle  my eyes  look @  my brothers curly head  and upwards  @  Mike ‘s  dilated pupils.

                             His  Eyes  Wide Open

                            Staring

                           Saucers that take up his face.

                          Face Red

                         Disgust

                       Shock 

some one wears  penny loafers

but

( MIke  Never

 came

back to

Our

House

AGain )