On Change

Posted by parhad on July 25, 2001 at 03:41:02:

In Reply to: Re: My Pal Wilfred posted by David Chibo on July 25, 2001 at 02:09:21:

What we couldnt do with a few good men and women. Nothing...NOTHING stands in our way in the West...and it will be here that we'll have our best chance at

securing anything for what remains of us in our homeland. But we need pride in ourselves and belief in our goodness and ability to do that. We have to go up against

people who don't run from challenges...don't turn away or delete what they can't handle...people who have faced life and made the place we now run to...because

"they" didn't LET us do it elsewhere. These people know what it means to fight for what you believe in, to prepare, to study, to think bravely and act forcefully.

They'll welcome us, listen to us, if we can match them. They will have nothing but for contempt for us if they see the way we behave. They WILL see, I can promise

you that.

We are so used to being "held down" by "others". We come here and hold ourselves and each other down. These guys actually don't want things to change for the

better JUST because they'd be out of a "job".

When I had the group home we got a new kid...sixteen year old boy in jail for over a year. The Friday he got released to us we all went camping by a beautiful river

in Eastern Washington State. Five other boys and the new one.

We all had a good time, swimming, campfires the whole bit. The new kid gathered discraded logs all day and built for himself a prison. That's the only way to

describe it. He made a wall over him and crawled underneath it. Slept there two nights and spent the glorious summer days in the shade of his prison.

He wasn't ready yet to be free. Prison is what he most remembered...it's where he felt most "comfortable"..it was easy, familira, no disappointments and no surprises.

He didn't even mind the misery of it...prefered it to discovering new things, building a new life.

He almsot insisted on returning...broke the law enough times that they finally sent him back "home". We have lots of people like that in our community. They carry

Turkey and Syria and Iraq in their hearts and minds. They might as well not even be here, except for the job. They are eager to remained walled up, in their own

private prisons.

Try to open the door and they'll fight you, hate you for showing them how afraid they are to live free, breathe free.