Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés: Dear Brave Souls, If you are so inclined, I ask you to read and to act in your own effective ways as your soul guides you.
Later tonight, I’ll put up my testimony here, that I gave before the Colorado Legislature two days ago, testifying strongly against a bill brought by a legislator to add gun toting teachers into every school in Colorado.
We know well what the issues are, and throwing mud is not the answer ever. But giving voice, standing up and for, is a far more effective way.
I know you knew before I told you, that I am standing with the brave young voices in our nation who are clearly, relentlessly, articulately beyond belief, confronting the preposterous same ol same ol unreasoned and inhumane gun laws of our nation– right NOW.
I know many of you stand too with those of clear thinking, clear voice and/or are thinking of active ways to join in with clarity and soul.
THIS TIME of aftermath of slaughter appears to be ‘THE TIME’ to move–because a huge continental mountain range of sorrow-momentum and unending calls for right-reason has accumulated and has been carried daily for years, from all those directly involved in the slaughters of our babies, children, teens, families, officers, citizens for the last many decades…
Whereas, over the last 20 years especially, unreasoned responses to wholesale slaughter prevailed– to insanely want to force their idea that MORE guns are the answer, as concocted by the monied few in power —
insisting they had power to do as they wished, rather than ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. The ‘monied special interest groups which are made up of people with names’ has tried to say only they have the right to say for the many who oppose them, what is best.
I know you have heard of the nra and its millions of dollars it gives to our lawmakers to attempt to influence them to continue to allow background checks to have as many holes as swiss cheese, meaning to allow persons charged with crimes, spousal and child abuse, deep mental health issues –to be allowed to buy high tech weaponry and ammo, or have it bought for them by an older person…
and the nra’s vociferous protection that high power, fast repeating ammo weaponry that is only used in war or siege be available for anyone to own… under their grotesque distortion of the second amendment– right to bear arms against an unjust government.
This particular style of ‘automatic weaponry’ has been the weapon of choice for slaughters of children, club patrons, festival goers, theatre goers, church goers, police officers and more– since the 1990s in our sad nation, the USA.
In one sentence; people of reason have fought for far over 20 years legislatively and otherwise to ban these weapons from civilians. And to create air tight background checks on any person wishing to possess firearms. That has been time and again blocked and overturned by weak bellied legislators in state and federal legislatures who take the hush money of nra and sympathizers.
Not the slaughter of teens and teacher at Columbine. Not the slaughter of babies and teachers at Sandy Hook. Not the slaughter of people praying in church. Not the slaughter of innocents watching a movie. Not a slaughter of college students in their own second home… campus. Not a slaughter of people happily listening to music… These were not enough for those in power, to see any reason whatsoever to act to change what is well known to be a p-poor background check and tracking system re gun buyers, not enough to severely screen and limit military and automatic weaponry re civiliian use.
For near 49 years I work in the shatters of what is left when the unarmed and the innocent have been preyed upon, slaughtered;
I work with the veterans who have no legs and no arms and are only torsos with heads … who have seen such horror that your nervous system thuds nearly to a stop as you listen and your heart threatens to give out.
I work with the persons who are victims of “gun” violence, whose children were just walking along from school or with friends, and all of a sudden, a man/boychild raised a piece of metal and made but a one inch long squeeze with their trigger finger, and a bullet penetrated and blew apart the precious thin envelope of the lung or the heart or an artery … and the beloved soul was gone.
Gone. Instantly gone.
Have you ever seen the dance of death of the survivor friends and families? It is a hopping dance, a bending over low, chest-to-knees dance, a jumping into the air dance while screaming …
it is the dance of death that mothers and fathers and loved ones do when they receive word that their baby has died, or their loved one’s been lost at war, or buried in a quake, or gunned down, or been killed in a terrorist act wherein the explosion left no remains but perhaps the engagement ring, or the name badge, or a piece of burnt rubber sole, and no more. I could go on. And on.
And so could you and your soul.
For, we are not removed, and the soul knows, from the dirt upward, what social justice principles are: to speak for the soul in all things …
to speak truth to power; to speak for those run over by the pretending-to-be-beneficent-because-I-say-so;
to pierce and expose the monstrous intentions of the unspeakably coddled and protected;
to shine high noon on the deadly dark unconscious people who have no insight into the “unintended consequences” of their reckless ideas or acts …
to speak truth to those who are out of touch with the reality of those who are suffering;
to speak up to those who resist being accountable;
to unveil those who refuse to be transparent for they’ve a pile of unburied corpses behind their velvet curtains …
to continue to insist on confidence with the poor and the downtrodden, the hurt and the maimed.
… Mercy and tending to others is not just “church” people’s work, it is the work of anyone who has a soul.
And merciful care is the work by which a nation is judged as to whether it has a soul … or whether it has lost its soul somewhere along the way and can no longer find it without help … help from the people … the people who speak, the people who will not cease speaking up … and speaking out … and speaking for.
Let us continue then and let it be said now, gently, in our own ways, and yet relentlessly in our own ways … let it be said, and let us not back away …
for all our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, abuelitas y abuelos, and for the young teens now rising up in sorrow and compassion and fierce commitment to change for the better… I send love…
HOW TO SILENCE A WOMAN: RETREIVING HER VOICE…
–When someone says, “We’re saying the same thing.”
Say, “We are not saying the same thing.”
–When someone says, “Don’t question, just have faith.”
Say, “I am questioning, vato, and
I have supreme faith in what I think.”
–When someone says, “Don’t defy my authority.”
Say, “There is a higher authority that I follow.”
–When someone says, “Your ideas are seductive.”
Say, “No, my ideas are not seductive,
they are substantial.”
–When someone says, “Your ideas are dangerous.”
Say, “Yes, my ideas are dangerous, and
why are you so afraid hombre o mujer? ”
–When it is said, “It’s just not done.”
Say, “It will be done.”
–When it is said, “It is immature.”
Say, “All life begins small and
must be allowed to grow.”
–When it is said, “It’s not thought out.”
Say, “It is well thought out.”
–When they say, “You’re over-reacting.”
Say, “You’re under-reacting, vato.”
–When they say, “You’re being emotional.”
Say, “Of course I have well placed emotions,
and by the way, what happened to yours?”
–When they say, “You’re not making any sense.”
Say, “I don’t make sense, I am the sense.”
–When they say, “I can’t understand you when you’re crying.”
Say, “Make no mistake, I can weep and be fierce
at the same time.”
–When they say, “I cant understand you when you’re being so angry.”
Say. “You couldn’t hear me when I was being nice,
or sweet or silent, either.”
–When someone says, “You’re missing the point.”
Say, “I’m not missing the point, but you seem
to be missing my point — What are you so afraid of?”
–When someone says, “You are breaking the rules.”
Say, “Yes, I am breaking the rules.”
–When someone says, “That’s not practical.”
Say, “It’s practically a done deal, thank you very much.”
–When it is said, “No one will do it,
believe you, or follow it.”
Say, “I will do it, I will believe in it, and in time,
the world may well follow it.”
— When it is said, “No one wants to listen to that.”
Say, “I know you have a hard time listening to that.”
–When it is said, “It’s a closed system,
you cant change it.”
Say, “I’m going to knock twice
and if there is no answer,
then I am going to blow the doors off that system
and it will change.”
–When it is said, “They’ll ignore you.”
Say, “They won’t ignore me and the hundreds of thousands who stand with me.”
–When they say, “It’s already been done.”
Say, “It’s not been done well enough.”
— When they say, “It’s not yet time.”
Say, “It’s way past time.”
–When they say, “It’s not the right day,
right month, right year.”
Tell them, “The right year was last year,
and the right month was last month,
and the right day was yesterday,
and you’re running behind schedule, vato,
and what in the name of God and all that is holy
are you going to do about it?”
–When they say, “Who do you think you are?” —
tell them …
tell them who you are,
and don’t hold back.
–When they say, “I put up with it,
you’ll have to put up with it too.”
Say, “No, no, no, no.”
–When they say, “I’ve suffered a long time
and you’ll have to suffer too.”
Say, “No, no, no, no.”
–When they say, “You’re an incorrigible, defiant,
hard to get along with,
unreasonable woman … ”
Say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes …
and I have worse news for you yet —
we are teaching our daughters,
and our mothers,
and our sisters …
we are teaching our sons,
and our fathers,
and our brothers,
to be
just
like
us.”
Go and do likewise in your own ways dear brave souls: Tribe of the Sacred Heart, many of us Scar Clan.
With deepest love for your soul who knows the way… has always known the way… Now is the time for deep prayer and effective actions…
Creator bless all the children who stand for us all, all the older people who stand for all the children, for everyone of learning heart and truthseeking mind.
dr.e
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CODA
“How To Silence A Woman, Retrieving Her Voice,” ©1980, 2008, 2018C.P. Estés, All Rights Reserved. {Parts of the preamble are from an article at ncr.online.} For permissions: projectscreener@aol.com…
This blessing, is a chant, a lyric form from my ethnic tradition. It is made to be spoken aloud, so not just meanings, but its heartbeat, can be discerned; enjoined. Colloquially, in the family, we’d call it a song rather than a poem, in this case, a “song for straight vision and strength.” The word vato, is a slang Spanish word, for a person who might know the streets, and also an informal way of addressing a man, such as in the street … e.g., “Man, don’t you realize?”
Over time, this prayer-poem “How To Silence A Woman, Retrieving Her Voice” has been put forth at the United Nations, and presented during a tribal women’s coalition in South Africa, as well as carried into session at the parliament in the Netherlands, and given before U.S. Congressional hearings on welfare reform in the 1990s.
Brief Bio
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is Mestiza Latina [Native American/ Mexica Spanish], presently in her seventies. She grew up in the now vanished oral tradition of her war-torn immigrant, refugee families who could not read nor write, or did so haltingly, and for whom English was their third language overlying their ancient natal languages.
She is a lifelong activist in service of the voiceless; as a post-trauma recovery specialist and psychoanalyst of 49 years clinical practice and missions with persons traumatized by war, including exiliados and torture victims; and as a journalist covering stories of human suffering and hope.
As a post-trauma recovery specialist, she served students, teachers, and familles at Columbine High School and community for three years after the massacre.
