An MLK Peace Walk Story

     For most of us, our elders had a front row seat to the civil rights movement and the changes in society that still impact our lives. Afterall, I can go eat at the same table as a white person. I've never been told, "We don't serve your kind." But, something that really isn't true is that racism is dead. I read stories everyday to the contrary. Like a previously unheard of 'dress code' prevented a seat at the table for a person of color.

     In the past year, the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) struggled to get through congress because it helped extend protection to women of color. Blood Quanta or race-based arguments were used by the Supreme Court of the United States to deny citizenship rights to a child, Veronica Brown. A few young men have been shot and beaten to death  because of their color or "class" situation made them automatic dangers to society, Trayvon Martin and Kelly Thomas.

     Across the country there is anger and fear. Yet, on Monday we will honor peace and forgiveness in times of strife. Because, that is the only way forward in order to live among the people you may hate. I don't claim to have discovered that truth myself, but I certainly seek it. I want to put my foot out to walk with those that share the idea, or may have found, peace and forgiveness.

      Personal strife linked to past tragedy can come when we are least prepared. Once, I was traveling through Georgia and I could have stopped, but all I wanted to do was keep going as far away as possible. For those of you who don't know, I am a Cherokee Nation citizen and many of my family were forcibly removed along with the thousands of Cherokees from the Old Country. I felt the whole way through the Georgia state border as if something was pressing on my chest. I handled my devastating emotion with fear and repression. 

     My angst as we passed city by city troubled me. I could see them, the people living there. I knew that they were just ordinary folks who worked hard and wanted their children safe. Did they go about their lives without any thought of how they became allowed to be there? How did they treat the prescious few Cherokee that got to remain, our sister band, the Eastern Band of Cherokees? The answers to my own questions troubled me deeply. At the time, I couldn't deal with being the haunted deputy of historical trauma. Later, I wondered how do we force ourselves into the conflicted past and come out on the otherside without being burdened by it?

     Our best answer is to make a way towards healing. The Cherokee Nation sponsors a bike ride called Remember the Removal to reflect and remember the Trail of Tears. It is a way to push for peace and forgiveness by remembering the oppresion and death of others. Recognizing that we are that legacy. Giving hope that we can live better lives among one another. A time where Cherokees are greeted, not by cursing settlers or those who watched from their porches for days as Cherokee walked through the winter, but by academics and volunteers are working to preserve the truth.

     Yes, sometimes it seems a one sided thing. We can not give into the despair that dominance feeds itself with. Hope and love are the things that live on. Truth and reason are the strands of light that pierce the darkness of ignorance and hate. I believe in that.

     I am no perfect being. I get angry and I have fears. I have given over to despair. I have felt no hope. I lash out without kindness or even thought sometimes. Who hasn't?

     What matters, in the end, is we recognize our failings and ask forgiveness from others and even ourselves. Anything less is us trying to get away from our troubles as fast as we can. We are all in the middle of those journeys to get to that place of peace. Perhaps ending one dramatic confrontation of despair and oppression to start a new one.

     No matter what journey we are on, when we all come together in the name of peace and understanding it is time to seek out the things that still divide us. To work through them as a Nation of many Nations, States, and Communities. Because it is the best time to show others that they have misunderstood and done harm. Also, to share what ignorance and hate have been doing to divide and honor what has been achieved so far that unites us.

     Martin Luther King, Jr Day is the time to start a journey for peace. It is a time to fight despair, oppression, and injustice by listening. It is a time to remember and honor the legacy we are descendants of. For we are alive, we are not voiceless, and we are human beings.