Dear Sisters and Brothers;

As a member of the Aztlan Mexica Nation Harmony Circle – the Harmony Keepers – I want to thank all of you whose thoughtfulness, focus, spirit and power made Baldwin Park 2 a unified and potent expression of the heart and will of our People -- and we want to thank all of you who helped invoke and defend of the spirit of the land. Tlazocamati.

We came to Baldwin Park 2 embracing the spirit of the young Tongva medicine woman – Toypurinah – who united her people at a time when their ceremonies were threatened by the invading Spanish, and who led them to rise up in defense of their land of their self-determination.

We honor all who do likewise.

We are the red shirt people. You have seen us at Baldwin Park 1 and 2, and at Garden Grove, and at other batallas where the spirit and future of our people is in the balance.

You might have thought of us as “security.” But we are, in reality, something other than that.

We are a warrior society – an akicita, to use the term of the plains Indians – and our task is to safeguard the ceremonies and traditions, the cultural integrity of our Peoples.

Our outlook is indigenous, our leadership is indigenous and our practices are indigenous.

We come to keep Harmony – our work is an extension of the purposes of our indigenous elders and spiritual leaders. All indigenous ceremony is focused on Harmony. Our task is simple – to assure that the balance and power in the ceremony – as led by the spiritual guardians of this land - remains undisturbed. We do so by keeping harmony in the environment in which the ceremony is taking place.

Such work requires, first of all, a will and an ability to extend oneself to respect all those present. It requires a consciousness of the subtleties of the energies of people, of the environment and of events. To keep the harmony one must be attuned to it.

Our approach is, simply put, not European. It does not reduce to “security” - we are not security guards protecting anyone’s property.

We do our work, not for the hatred of our enemies, but for the love of our People.

We consciously and at a very practical and direct level follow the leadership of indigenous elders and of the traditions that have been maintained in the face of over 500 years of genocide aimed at destroying those traditions.

The traditions are strong.

They have withstood every effort to eradicate them. Our purpose is to ensure their continuation. As Tia Oros of the Zuni people has pointed out, “Indigenous peoples of the Americas live on intimate terms with the shadow of terrorism.”

In their “Basic Call to Consciousness: The Hau De No Sau Nee Message to the Western World,” the “Iroquois” people make it very clear: “The Indo-Europeans attacked every aspect of North America with unparalleled zeal. The Native people were ruthlessly destroyed because they were an unassimilable element to the civilizations of the West”

They tell us that Spirituality is the Highest Form of Political Consciousness.

We are in accord with them.

And the traditions teach us self-reliance. We rely on the spiritual powers, on the awareness of our People, and on ourselves.

We do not in any case rely on the powers of the state, or on the police powers of the colonizer to protect us. Five hundred years of genocide points clearly to the reality that we cannot, under any circumstance, depend on our oppressor for our well being, much less our liberation or rights to self determination.

Our purpose has never been and will never be to “tell the police about...intruders and to calm down the crowd in order to avoid confrontations.”

Finally, while we sought to avoid any situation in which riot police might be brought down on our people in a situation in which our children were present, we respect all forms of struggle, and those who engage in them. There were strong and heartfelt reasons why our people cheered and saluted the bravery of our returning warriors that day in Baldwin Park.

We respect all of you who came with good hearts, and recognize that, in the end, everything worked together, weaving a whole, in the way of nature, that comprised a ceremony of depth and dimension, one that honored the land and the ways of all our peoples.

In the Spirit of Toypurina,

A Harmony Keeper

Wow--powerful ideas, powerful statement.

Insights into indigenous culture like this remind me why the struggle here at LA-IMC, BP, GG, Victorville, and ultimately at the border are so important. They may be all that saves the planet from white Americans.

To the Harmony Keepers: stay strong, stay true, and know that you have friends outside the indigenous community, too.

> I want to thank all of you whose thoughtfulness,

> focus, spirit and power made Baldwin Park 2 a

> unified and potent expression of the heart and will of

> our People -- and we want to thank all of you who

> helped invoke and defend of the spirit of the land

"Our People." And what about people like me who showed up with our white faces? What about us?

One of the things about Baldwin Park #2 that was such a stark contrast to Baldwin Park #1 was the hostility and hateful glares that I got from my Mexican-American brothers and sisters whom I was standing in solidarity with.

While I was watching the skits being played out at BP2, I received a lot of hostile looks and even people gesturing to one another about me, all because I had a white face.

BP1 was quite different. We were all there to oppose the racist white supremists down the street, but this time out I found that my white face wasn't welcomed by everyone at BP2.

If there's to be a BP3, some effort might be made to reassure the participants that a white face doesn't mean "enemy," something that I found a number of people this time around has forgotten.

Fred, you are the source of the disharmony. I've seen it in you. The hostility and anger you keep insisting you experienced was a projection of your own mental issues. Like most people enslaved by dominant modes of thinking, you think the world revolves around you. Everything has to be about you. You cannot experience the communality of an event like BP2. For you there is only Fred Fred Fred. This is such a neanderthalic way of thinking, Mssr. Flintstone.

This more than anything is what drives me crazy about dominant mode thinkers. This egocentric self-centered pathology. I see it mostly in white people but even more than just white people, I see it in men in general. And full disclosure, this is coming from a part-white male. What is this thing of having to occupy center-stage in every situation anyway? "look at my penis! look at my penis! tell me I have a nice big penis!" is what it basically boils down to. "mommy mommy make me the center of the universe like when I was two years old!" for fuck's sake, grow the fuck up already.

Instead of having participated in a community event, Fred must insist that he was somehow the center of negative attention. Why? because that's the only way he can experience anything--from an egocentric, self-centered perspective. Fred, I can guarantee you that not one person at that event gave you even a second glance or passing thought, unless it was, like, "mmm, that guy has sandwiches, I wonder if I can get one..." Nobody gave a shit about you, postive or negative. You are projecting outward because your only sick, pathological way of connecting to people or participating in any kind of group activity is by somehow finding a way to be the center of some kind of attention.

Fred, seek help. You embody some of the worst of what it means to be a captive subject of the antiobiotic cage of the postmodern hypercapitalist spectacle world: Immature, selfish, ego-centric, self-centered, insecure, paranoid, unable to connect to fellow human beings in a meaningful, communal, cooperative way, more productive

comfortable

not drinking too much

regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week)

getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries

at ease

eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats)

a patient better driver

a safer car (baby smiling in back seat)

sleeping well (no bad dreams)

no paranoia

careful to all animals (never washing spiders down the plughole)

keep in contact with old friends (enjoy a drink now and then)

will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in wall)

favours for favours

fond but not in love

charity standing orders

on sundays ring road supermarket

(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants)

car wash (also on sundays)

no longer afraid of the dark

or midday shadows

nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate

nothing so childish

at a better pace

slower and more calculated

no chance of escape

now self-employed

concerned (but powerless)

an empowered and informed member of society (pragmatism not

idealism)

will not cry in public

less chance of illness

tires that grip in the wet (shot of baby strapped in back seat)

a good memory

still cries at a good film

still kisses with saliva

no longer empty and frantic

like a cat

tied to a stick

that's driven into

frozen winter shit (the ability to laugh at weakness)

calm

fitter, healthier and more productive

a pig

in a cage

on antibiotics.

Copying and pasting from a Radiohead Lyric webpage is not a take...

Get over yourself and your white face issues.

You and I were teeny, tiny, insignificant parts of BP2, and our comfort wasn't on anybody's agenda. White allies are afterthoughts, maybe more use than problem if we're there (or maybe not), not to be counted on, often not there. We are not the center of attention or the center of the universe. It's not our land, Fred, and the Harmony Keeper's message wasn't addressed to you, except maybe in the closing paragraph. Read carefully.

You didn't get jumped, insulted, screamed at, or evicted. That's harmony, Fred. There was a balance, non-violence if you will, for those at the celebration. The day was a success. Getting checked out is not disharmony, your discomfort is not disharmony. Half a dozen white provocateurs, including the National Vanguard, were milling through the anti-racist crowd, and we were all being checked out.

I hope I don't need to explain to you that the looks you got for four hours at BP2 were maybe a little like the looks people of color get every day, day in and day out, from white people. But at BP2, a smile and maybe a Hi got me a smile and a greeting back.

We white people aren't going to learn what we need to know by deciding and declaring that all the teachers are wrong. Listen, listen quietly, to the whispers of truth, like the note from the Harmony Keeper, that we are lucky enough to have come our way. When we sit still and put the truths together in our hearts, then we begin to learn the lessons.

I resemble that remark!

You embody some of the worst of what it means to be a captive subject of the antiobiotic cage of the postmodern hypercapitalist spectacle world: Immature, selfish, ego-centric, self-centered, insecure, paranoid, unable to connect to fellow human beings in a meaningful, communal, cooperative way.

...but I enjoyed BP1 and BP2. I was glad to have been able to attend. I was glad that it was multicultural, and also that it was Chicano led. Both aspects are important. Overall, it was a positive experience in my life, and even these bitter discussions here have been a real learning experience.

Fred - you should appreciate what you've experienced. It's not every day that hundreds of people mobilize like they did those two days. Especially not in the San Gabriel Valley!

> You and I were teeny, tiny, insignificant parts of BP2,

> and our comfort wasn't on anybody's agenda. White

> allies are afterthoughts, maybe more use than

> problem if we're there (or maybe not), not to be

> counted on, often not there. We are not the center of

> attention or the center of the universe. It's not our

> land, Fred, and the Harmony Keeper's message

> wasn't addressed to you, except maybe in the

> closing paragraph. Read carefully.

Look at what the consequences will be, however, if hostility continues to be directed at whites who stand in solidarity against these SOS/MM bigots, though. If there's further rallies and if within them there's further hostility, these events are going to consist of white racists on one side, non-white activists on the other.

From the perspective of people looking on, how will such a possible eventuality appear to be anything other than whites against browns? I can easily see such rallies winding up without any whites standing with the non-whites to oppose SOS/MM.

I also read a report from a light-skinned Mexican American who had a sign ripped from his hands and who was followed by angry, supposedly anti-hate participants who apparently objected to the American flag he had.

Yes, the rally wasn't about you or me, and it wasn't designed to keep white participants comfortable, but it _could_ have started with or even contained some commentary from the microphone that those like me aren't the enemy.

I was born in Baldwin Park. That's _my_ community as much as it's the community of those who live there.

You suggest I should listen closer to the Harmony Keeper who wrote the note. I did. I read the words "our People" which means that people like _me_ aren't who he or she directed his or her message toward. I read "our People" and see that it _excludes_ white guys like me who were there standing in solidarity with _human_beings_ to oppose what SOS/MM stands for.

There shouldn't be a "our People" or a "your people" when one's supposedly gathering to oppose white supremists.

yeah, I resemble that remark too... :-)

but hey at least I see it in myself, sitting here in my little cage on antibiotics. oink.

& didn't mean to pretend those were my words & not radiohead's...it was a little inside joke for other fans.

Fred, get over yourself. you have a world of fun and positive experience to gain. you have an existence of hell to lose.



>I resemble that remark!

You embody some of the worst of what it means to be a captive subject of the antiobiotic cage of the postmodern hypercapitalist spectacle world: Immature, selfish, ego-centric, self-centered, insecure, paranoid, unable to connect to fellow human beings in a meaningful, communal, cooperative way.

WE WHITE PEOPLE ARE NOT UNDER ASSAULT! No one's demanding I stop using my native language, celebrate my holidays, perform and show my art, or that I become other than what I am because I'm white. I'm not in that group, Fred. You aren't either. People with Brown skin and Chicano-Indigenous culture are being battered by SOS, so suck it up and stop whining.

No one was hostile to me or to you, I'm guessing, except the SOSers--and checking me out isn't hostile, or I'd have to consider every straight man I know hostile. As to announcing that "white people are your friends" from the podium, well let's try "and those Chicanos over there are our friends" at the next ANSWER meeting. And, for crying out loud, let Chicanos use Indymedia to write to their community--every post doesn't have to be for you, either.

>>I can easily see such rallies winding up without any whites standing with the non-whites to oppose SOS/MM.

which wouldn't change the event one iota. The Chicana/o celebrants didn't need us. And SOS/MM think we're all misguided race traitors anyway, and that we'll come to our white senses as soon as they can make us feel threatened by Mexicans. They seem to be succeeding.

Fred, you and I, as you say, "stand in solidarity." We're not Mexican or of Mexican descent--we are allies, on our better days. BP2 wasn't one of your better days--you felt out of control, out of sorts, different, and ignored. Nobody likes a grump at a celebration, even white people. But that's all it was, if it was anything at all. Next time, smile back, offer your hand, dance and laugh at yourself for dancing like a white guy. Then people will probably like you. To borrow from one of my favorite bands:

Just gotta get used to it

We all get it in the end

Just gotta get used to it

We go down and we come up again

Just gotta get used to it

You irritate me my friend

You can't always get higher

Just because you aspire

You could expire even knowin'

Don't push the hands

Just hang on to the band

And you can dance while your knowledge is growing

It could happen anytime

You can't expect to never cry

Patience is priceless

Not when you try to fly so high

Just stay on that line

Rock'n roll will never die

You can't always get it

When you really want it

You can't always get it at all

Just gotta get used to it

Gotta get used to waiting

Just gotta get used to it

You know how the ice is

Just gotta get used to it

It's thin where you're skating

This is no social crisis

This is you havin' fun

No crisis

Gettin' burned by the sun

This is true

This is no social crisis

Just another tricky day for you

Fella

Just another tricky day

For you

Just another tricky day

For you

Just another tricky day

Just another tricky day

For you

You'll get through

--The Who

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There was disharmony

> I want to thank all of you whose thoughtfulness,

> focus, spirit and power made Baldwin Park 2 a

> unified and potent expression of the heart and will of

> our People -- and we want to thank all of you who

> helped invoke and defend of the spirit of the land

"Our People." And what about people like me who showed up with our white faces? What about us?

One of the things about Baldwin Park #2 that was such a stark contrast to Baldwin Park #1 was the hostility and hateful glares that I got from my Mexican-American brothers and sisters whom I was standing in solidarity with.

While I was watching the skits being played out at BP2, I received a lot of hostile looks and even people gesturing to one another about me, all because I had a white face.

BP1 was quite different. We were all there to oppose the racist white supremists down the street, but this time out I found that my white face wasn't welcomed by everyone at BP2.

If there's to be a BP3, some effort might be made to reassure the participants that a white face doesn't mean "enemy," something that I found a number of people this time around has forgotten.



Author: Fredric L. Rice


It's because you're not Mexica...or Indigenous..LOL

All these different groups are writing their comments, but, they don't represent everyone. If you want to have a fight with the HK and their perspective, go ahead, but you're missing out on the rest of the movement.

One way to get around this is to join a local progressive group or peace vigil that mirrors your politics (somewhat -- people will disagree, but that's sometimes nice), and bring them to these demos. Then, you'll have a posse, and also a bunch of folks to lunch with afterwards. You can find them on meetup.com, on this site, at peacevigils.org, on google, in the papers, etc. Or you can join a local political effort, and meet other whacked-out folks :-)

With your group, you'll find your position represented.

I just flashed on something funny.

A while back, I was hanging with my friend, who is Mexican (and I'm Asian). Her brother, who's white, comes in and tells us a story about how he and his friend accidentally walked into this event earlier, and was all Latino. He felt really uncomfortable, so they split. It was a pretty funny story, even though I'm not retelling it so humorously.

(We didn't quite grasp the irony for a while, though. I guess we really didn't see race as this interpersonal thing, but something experienced between strangers and crowds.)

I think everyone's felt that at one time or other. However, for most white people, it's not a common experience, unless you live in the SGV or the heart of LA.

For people of color, especially Asian people, it's such a common experience to be the only non-white person in a room, it's hardly worth mentioning. Hell, it's almost common to be the only Asian in a FAMILY, so, it's something you just have to deal with. Discrimination is almost commonplace too, and it's often the friend-of-a-different-race who notices the everyday discrimination that the victim never notices. (The discrimination comes from all sides too, sometimes even your own group.) The worst, though, is when there's some kind of political event, and they start bashing on China (or in the 80s, it was Japan). You can almost feel the beat down coming on the way back to the car. What can you do though, besides argue a little for your own representation and justice?

So, Fred, just so you know, we can ALL relate to your feelings. Some of us have just dealt with the situation hundreds of times, so we don't think it's a big deal.

Fred:

There is, of course, a great deal of confusion now among our white sisters and brothers, as there is, at one level or another, among all peoples.

I hope what I say here can be of use.

There is a real and urgent need for our European brothers and sisters to take responsibility.

By “responsibility” I mean more than, and in a way, something other than, guilt.

I mean that it would be very good if a group, or groups, of white people came to take up their role as Guardians, and to do the hard work of opening to what that means.

We are at the verge of a cataclysm of immense proportions. Global warfare, global warming and the collapse of the global, oil based economy are on the horizon. Both European science and Indigenous prophecy are in accord on this. The Hopi, Maya and Kogi peoples, in particular, have made the message very clear.

Many indigenous peoples in what is (for now) the US hold the understanding of the need for unity between the black, yellow, red and white peoples. That understanding is embedded deeply in the basic symbols used by these peoples, including the wheel of the directions, which shows these four colors united in one.

To take one’s place in the circle requires accepting the burden of Guardianship, the original responsibilities given to us by the Creator, responsibilities inherent in us as an integral element of nature.

We must learn to stop misusing power, and to come to understand our relatedness.

This involves moving from a condition the Hopi call two-heartedness to a condition of one-heartedness. The more fragmented one’s cultural experience, the more “atomized” one’s culture has become, the harder this can be.

Our white sisters and brothers can only come to the circle, they can only rejoin us, by taking up full responsibility, their particular Guardianship. They can only come as equals in the task.

It is the pain of cultural, psychological, political and economic fragmentation, the pain of splitting from Mother Earth, that separates us. It is a matter of historical record that this condition was first imposed on the European peoples by the Roman and Catholic colonizers, and that the same process was then, in sequence, turned upon the rest of the world.

The profound suspicion with which the European culture approaches the world is a product of an immense pain, one you must seek healing for.

No one else can do the work, yet all who do the work will find acceptance, perhaps in very quiet, personal ways, through quiet and personal relationships. Ultimately, if enough who are doing this work are able to unite in it, then you may find that the place in the circle that is yours as a part of the whole has always been waiting for you.

This is a Laguna Pueblo lullaby, as recorded by Leslie Marmon Silko:

The Earth is your mother

She holds you.

The sky is your father

He protects you

Sleep,

Sleep.

Rainbow is your sister,

She loves you

The winds are your brothers

They sing to you

Sleep,

Sleep.

We are together always

We are together always

There was never a time

When this

Was not so.



Speaking on the Hopi and other indigenous prophecies Lee Brown of the Cherokee people said, “There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of the plant. And now we are in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of that and beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle of the human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will be released to us.

At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit came down and He made an appearance and gathered the peoples of this earth together "they say on an island which is now beneath the water" and He said to the human beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions and over time I'm going to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachings and you will call these the Original Teachings and when you come back together with each other you will share these so that you can live and have peace on earth, and a great civilization will come about." And He said "During the cycle of time I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets. When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast them on the ground. If any of the brothers and sisters of the four directions and the four colors cast their tablets on the ground, not only, will human beings have a hard time, but almost the earth itself will die." And so he gave each of us a responsibility and we call that the Guardianship.

To the Indian people, the red people, he gave the Guardianship of the earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings of the earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat, and the herbs that are healing so that when we came back together with the other brothers and sisters we could share this knowledge with them. Something good was to happen on the earth.

To the South, he gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of the wind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take that within ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with us at this time.

To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the water. They were to learn the teachings of the water which is the chief of the elements, being the most humble and the most powerful. When I went to the University of Washington and I learned that it was a black man that discovered blood plasma, it didn’t surprise me because blood is water and the elders already told me the black people would bring the teachings of the water.

To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the fire. If you look at the center of many of the things they do you will find the fire. They say the light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at the center of a car you will find a spark. If look at the center of the airplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and also moves. This is why it was the white brothers and sisters who began to move upon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family... So we went through this cycle of time and each of the four races went to their directions and they learned their teachings…

The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the "gourd of ashes. "They said the gourd of ashes would fall from the air. It will make people like blades of grass in the prairie fire and things will not grow for many seasons. I saw on television not too long ago that they were talking about the atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes. They said it was the best-kept secret in the history of the United States, the elders wanted to speak about it in 1920. They would have spoken of it and foretold its coming if they could have entered into the League of Nations.”



The Keeper of the Hopi Fire Clan Tablets said:

“Like the Hopi, original native peoples were placed across this continent, and given special instructions by a higher being. Each had special functions by which to hold life in balance, which they were still carrying out when the Europeans arrived. We know these foreigners once had similar spiritual means for promoting life, with which they were supposed to bless the native peoples. But they had apparently misused their power. Most of the native peoples were forcibly stripped of their culture, language and religious ceremonies, depriving them of their function as caretakers. Those that remain face imminent cultural extinction. Clearly these foreigners are not here to help, but to destroy everything the original people have left, and in doing so, destroy this world. The only hope for humanity lies in restoring true land title, which is inseparable from our function as caretakers of life.”

There is much left unsaid here, but I hope this is enough to speak the spirit, the heart of what needs to be said.

A Harmony Keeper

> WE WHITE PEOPLE ARE NOT UNDER ASSAULT!

> No one's demanding I stop using my native

> language, celebrate my holidays, perform and show

> my art, or that I become other than what I am

> because I'm white. I'm not in that group, Fred. You

> aren't either. People with Brown skin and Chicano-

> Indigenous culture are being battered by SOS, so

> suck it up and stop whining.

There are three things wrong with your rebuttle.

First off, non-whites don't have a monopoly on oppression and I -- as an atheist who opposes this fascist regime's theocracy -- am certainly the victim of the occult, superstitious morons which comprise the alleged majority here in the United States.

While it's not my white face that's the cause of it, if you're suggesting I don't know what non-whites are going through in terme of oppression and suppression, that's wrong.

Secondly, let's have some perspective. These SOS/MM clowns are utterly insignificant. They're little assaults against non-whites and against freedom of speech, art, and expression are completely pathetic. They must be opposed not because they're any serious threat to non-whites, they must be opposed because if they're left unchecked, they can grow in both violence and hatred to the point where they'll _become_ a legitimate, serious threat to the health and safety of not only non-whites but people like us who oppose what they stand for.

Finally, what's left can't be religated to the notion that it's "just whining." If whites can't feel comfortable standing in solidarity against these SOS/MM/National Vanguard et al. people, whites aren't going to participate. It's a legitimate concern that at minimum should be considered.

1) You were not oppressed at BP2, and unless you were there confronting the anti-atheists. Please don't get into competing oppressions--many of us can play that one, and it doesn't get anyone anywhere.

2) How can you possibly say that SOS/MM are "totally insignificant"!?! They are the link between the neo-Nazis and the U.S. white mainstream, the link that will carry the fascism from the Bush administration to the middle class, the connection between theocracy and the next racial holocaust. That's what it means for the average Joe to be holding hands with the National Vanguard on one side while waving the U.S. flag on the other. The entire totalitarian initiative could hinge on whether that connection is made or broken.

And the one great hope, as I see it, is that the masses of peoples of color will understand in time to save us all that their literal survival depends on breaking the alliance of white supremacists with the average Republican. White liberals, progressives, radicals, whatever, are both outnumbered, and not sufficiently at risk or motivated to take this on.

3) How many times do I have to tell you that I'm white and I felt comfortable? You don't speak for all white people. Get over that, too.

I've asked you twice, three times, to think before you go spouting off. That suggestion doesn't seem to have grabbed hold. So let me try this: step out, step away, take a break. White people who want to do the work have work to do, and making you comfortable remains very far down my agenda, especially since you seem incapable of even considering the possibility that you might be wrong.

Fred, I've been where you are, and I'll be there again. I walk into groups where I feel unwanted and the object of all eyes. But my feelings aren't the point of anyone being there. When a good friend got done pounding that into my head and I focused on the work, I found the people I was working with came to respect me, and some even liked me. It's an unpleasant situation I'll encounter every time I want to help with a cause that's not led by white people. White people, as a whole, deserve suspicion. But that's OK when the cause is just, when the people are dedicated and sincere, when the leadership and structure can make just a little room.

a big shout-out to the Harmony Keepers for their work and continued support.

muchos gracias