You know, I wasn’t around during the Trail of Tears but my ancestors were and that is where my particular family history started. Torn from their fertile homelands on the eastern coast and set on foot to a new barren earth in “Indian Territory” or as it is called now days, Oklahoma, many Muscogee, as well as other tribes, died before reaching their destination. Exhaustion. Starvation. Exposure.

We all know it started even earlier than that. There were the people who came to these new "undiscovered" lands looking for religious freedom. Of course they meant their own religious freedom and not that of the people they would encounter already living on this land. They came here to escape persecution only to create it anew themselves.

And more recently, my family’s home and business were burned to the ground. Not because we had perpetrated some great terrorist act against this wonderful country, but because our skin wasn’t white enough, our religion wasn’t “Christian” enough, and because we refused to be something we were not. For these things did we deserve to be set afire?

I want my country back.

Let us talk a moment about the constitution of this country. I wonder, if presented with the basis for the constitution, could you read it? It was Iroquoian. The new people to this land took the Native rules for government, put it into their language, rewrote it to suit themselves… and now call it their own and demand that people speak "the language". Which language? Iroquois? Would that be Seneca, Onondaga or one of the other dialects? Oh, silly me, you mean English! Yeah, because we all know that when those little ships arrived in Plymouth we were all standing around speaking the Queen’s English and anxiously awaiting your diseases.

I want my country back.

The one free of disease. It wasn’t until those seeking religious freedom came here that this country knew true sickness. Filthy people who bathed only a few times a year brought us illness and death. I guess clean souls don’t necessarily mean clean people.

Yet the finger is pointed at us and we are called uncivilized.

I want my country back.

I want some semblance of what this country used to be. With true religious freedom. Clean waters and skies. The ability to see miles of land without the pockmark of landfills, tenements, and suburban housing developments. Those things were worth protecting, and they could be again, but why do people continue to pollute, bastardize and blaspheme everything?

Whether you like it or whether you don’t, God was a part of destroying this great nation. Unfortunately, He still is. It is in His name that people are mistreated, deceived, imprisoned and murdered. It was in His name that genocidal acts were carried out on millions of indigenous people living in the Americas. To remove Him is to take away the excuse many have for the atrocities they carry out and that would mean they would have to admit their self-serving ways. Are all thanks truly to God?

I honor my life giver without deceiving, extorting or killing in his name.

Let me state that I don’t believe your God is evil; I believe it’s the actions taken in His name that serve Him dishonor. He doesn’t want you to decimate for Him. He doesn’t want you to judge others. He doesn’t want you to persecute in His name. Set Him free. Honor Him. Respect Him. Stop hiding behind His name. Your God is pure. It is the organization that festers.

I want my country back.

It is not only within religion that blame needs to stop being passed, it is within families. Parents need to be responsible for their children. People need to tend to their children, teach them respect and honor, and help them navigate the complex world we live in. You cannot leave them to fend for themselves! They are CHILDREN! Can’t you see the damage this has done already? People need to stop blaming everything from McDonald’s to Television Shows to Websites and Rock Groups for the actions of their children. Raise your children. Protect your children. Teach your children. Blame yourself.

I want my country back.

But I realize I do not own her. She is her own entity. Those who live here can only be a symbiotic part of her survival. That is what I want back. I want to be part of that relationship where she provides for me and in turn I take care of her. I want to be part of the love affair between air, earth and all beings that reside about her.

I will hug trees, because they need my protection and I need their life breath. I will plant seeds within this hollowing infected shell in the hopes that they will grow and overtake the polluted highways. I will recycle what I use because I know my earth cannot continue to provide without being healed. Don't people see that by destroying the earth they are killing themselves? When you take action today always remember that the seven generations that follow will be the ones to suffer, or flourish. It is your choice.

I want my country back!

All that is beautiful is being killed off and it is not because someone crossed a border, or someone pledged their faith to a particular soul keeper. It isn't because someone spoke a language other than English. It is because of the greed of corporations and America in general.

I will not support the building of bombs. I will not condone the killing of innocent people in the name of ANY god or government. I will not support ignorance by recanting twisted versions of the truth. I will not close my eyes and follow blindly.

I want my country back!

I want the country where respect and honor meant something. I want the country where many religious and spiritual beliefs could mingle and cohabitate. The First Nations of this country have learned to share, it is time for those who come now to learn and share as well. And for the record, you can never close our borders to outsiders because, my friend, you are the outsider!

I want my country back!

And the only way we’re ever going to be able to get this country back to what she once was is if we can reach out to all our relations, to indigenous people everywhere, and ask them to stand strong in their culture, their faiths and their traditions. Indigenous people are the beauty that breathes life into this and all lands because we know the earth. We understand, honor and respect her. We honor and respect each other.

I want my country back!
But more than that I want the ignorance to stop.

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