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Writer's pictureRebecca Jim

Possible Piece

The lives of the people of this earth joined almost in total unity over the peril the people in Ukraine are experiencing each moment, as they face the dangers of war brought to them, for nothing less than believing in democracy and for their country, their homeland. Just a week ago children were playing and going to school, their parents were going to work. Their lives are changed and those who live through this are changing the world, bringing countries to stand in a way I have never seen in my lifetime.


The United Nations were almost totally united. The national colors of Ukraine shine bright on the monuments of the greatest structures in most countries on this planet. Peace on earth, and the desire for it has grown and been a thing that even the hardest characters I know are sharing on social media.


It saddens me to know there are people dying, people suffering through the cold, sheltering without food or water, hiding in bomb shelters, being protected from what they were built to protect them from. Huddled in basements, wondering if each moment is their last, when last week they were trying to figure out their shopping list. Regular people stayed to protect their homeland, are standing with arms in the air trying to stop, or slow down the armored tanks coming down the streets and roads of their towns and villages. The stories they will tell, or the many stories that can never be told by the dead for the acts of courage that are occurring as we wonder when baseball season with get going or the price of a gallon of gas. There are lessons we can be learning. The value of life. The beauty a clear blue sky can bring. The peace of quiet.


I wish you that and more. I wish for the peace that ends all war. These acts of violence may invoke memories for those who have experience wars in our lifetime or for indigenous, native people who have historical trauma from the times we as tribal nations were those killed by invading forces on homelands we loved or made to leave in forced marches marked by graves and tears. No Facebook posts recorded what we endured. But our trails brought us to a new land, a fresh start, to a place with tall grass and clean water. Some of these lands held treasures and made men rich, but the lands that were left truly look as if they too had been a war zone, not just the source of the bullets that won both of the World Wars we are now so close to finding ourselves in yet a Third World War .


We are tied emotionally with the past and the daily news is heart wrenching, and while we could be standing in the cold, shivering and wondering for what purpose, I found myself simply on zoom in another meeting. Anymore you can meet people in a zoom and begin to feel like you know them. I spent some hours with a fellow who used to be in charge of a section of a federal agency that is set up with the express purpose to deal with wounded places like we have, wronged by long gone, bad deeds, by actual people who were good at making money and about as good as making messes for generations to come to clean up.


When people retire they take a lot of institutional knowledge with them, and because it's in their heads, they can walk right out carrying nothing but memories and perhaps regrets. There would be sites still left waiting on the guys who knew how and could have made lives longer and environments safer but who didn't get to do that work.


As you might know, I want to believe Tar Creek will get a fix way before your grandchildren get their first Social Security checks. So meeting a fellow with both know how and where it got done somewhere else and how, could help us muddle through a generation quicker on the fix we deserve.


In the meantime, I am wishing you time to reflect with me on the peace on earth I hope begins now, and that our piece of earth gets a few more possibilities made possible and gets some justice, too.


Respectfully Submitted ~ Rebecca Jim


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