Tulalip Reads for Unity thank you

Hey All,

Words are not enough to express my gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the Tulalip Reads for Unity and all the beautiful work, engaged learning and inspiring moments that are coming from it. Thank you to the faculty, staff and students at NWIC-Tulalip and beyond, the Tulalip Tribes and Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund, community members and the people in various parts of the US and other parts of the world who have looked in at some of the work that was done on the blogs. A special thanks has to go to Paco Cordova and Kohl Younger for taking the time to share their experience, energy, hope and intellectual/academic knowlege with us. Jordan also gets a shout out of appreciation.

The work of the students is wrapping or wrapped up, now the grading begins. I'm actually pretty excited to read what people did for their final research papers. Even our CCC/UWB librarian commented on how seriously so many students were taking their work and how far ahead they were a few weeks back than you usually see at that time for many students. They also seemed to take things like the peer review more seriously and gave each other some good insights and reflected back to their own work in ways that I can't give enough points to motivate them to do.

Of course when you try something new you are learning as you go, so I see ways to do things differently and hopefully better, yet so many Cascadia students were deeply touched, angered and inspired to have a chance to learn more of a non-white washed version of history- that came from being able to start to buld relations. So my deepest appreciation for allowing us to at least make a start at rejecting the Myth of the Vanishing Race and knowing more than just Native American History, yet knowing what can also be considered on some levels our shared histories.

Go raibh maith agaibh(guh rev mah ah-gwiv) Paco, Kohl and Jordan!!!

Since it is St Patrick's Day I thought the thank you in Irish was appropriate. I'm behind on my blogging, slacking on my own assignment..DOH!

Anyways, while I should be out the door right now, I wanted to give a huge thank you to Kohl, Paco and Jordan, who came to my two English 102 classes and helped us connect how the information were are studying works for them and gave us names of books and authors to look for, which was great for for helping my students finish their research papers. We really appreciate them sharing their stories and knowledge with us and hope they enjoyed spending time with us as well.

I'd better get going, yet will blog more later.

Happy St Patrick's Day and remember DON"T DRINK the GREEN BEER. It is considered "Plastic Paddy"-ish and not someplace you really need to go. Have a safe and sane time and I look forward to seeing people at the open-mic.

What about human responsibilities? A universal declaration of.......

Kohl recently posted beautifully about Rigoberta Menchu, human rights and the United Nations amongst other things. It reminded me of a talk I went to by Dr Hans Keung back in 1999 about the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities, a companion or mirroring idea to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In its most basic form the idea is you have the right not to be tortured AND you have the responsibility not to torture, which is coming full circle.

There are many versions, yet I like the one by the Inter-Action Council called "UDHR-English" on search engines http://www.interactioncouncil.org/udhr/declaration/udhr.pdf and more about the world's religious and political leaders involved in this group is at: http://www.interactioncouncil.org/

Here are some excerpts:

The following draft of human responsibilities seeks to bring freedom and responsibility into balance and to promote a move from the freedom of indifference to the freedom of involvement. If one person or government seeks to maximise freedom but does it at the expense of others, a larger number of people will suffer. If human beings maximise their freedom by plundering the natural resources of the earth, then future generations will suffer.

                                                                       

There is no need for a complex system of ethics to guide human action. There is one ancient rule that, if truly followed, would ensure just human relations: the Golden Rule. In its negative form, the Golden Rule mandates that we not do to others what we do not wish be done to us. The positive form implies a more active and solidary role: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Bearing in mind the Golden Rule, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides an ideal starting point from which to consider some of the main obligations which are a necessary complement to those rights.

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If we have a right to life, then we have the obligation to respect life.

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If we have a right to liberty, then we have the obligation to respect other people’s liberty.

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If we have a right to security, then we have the obligation to create the conditions for every human being to enjoy human security.

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If we have a right to partake in our country’s political process and elect our leaders, then we have the obligation to participate and ensure that the best leaders are chosen.

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If we have a right to work under just and favorable conditions to provide a decent standard of living for ourselves and our families, we also have the obligation to perform to the best of our capacities.

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If we have a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, we also have the obligation to respect other’s thoughts or religious principles.

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If we have a right to be educated, then we have the obligation to learn as much as our capabilities allow us and, where possible, share our knowledge and experience with others.

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If we have a right to benefit from the earth’s bounty, then we have the obligation to respect, care for and restore the earth and its natural resources.