As a child who grew up in a war refugee and deportee family, I know the hideous stories of what invaders do to the people they invade.
Calling them out of their houses
Shooting dead a child and an elder in front of the village
Taking away the Holy people, the artists, the writers, the helpers, the storytellers, the saints of the village, the elders who remember everything worth remembering.
Their bodies left to kiss the earth, mud in their mouths, their blood watering the crops not yet showing above ground.
Don’t be telling me that storytellers in particular are some trivial form of entertainment: it is one of the most unprotected and dangerous works one can be called to; for the storytellers, as in this egregious case, are journalists who are what a true storyteller is at rootstock: A truth seeker. A truth teller. A person who puts themselves on the line and who often skylines oneself to do so.
Sky lining is a hunting term in my family. It means to cross the ridge of the hill or mountain showing yourself fully as you lope/leap/cross, thereby being a clear target for beasts or humans with no regard for human life.
Being a teller of truths, hard ones, ugly ones, not ‘pretty ones’ is the heart of the storyteller/journalist/ photographer/ artist/ broadcaster at any time, and as much in conflagration / disaster/ murderous assaults.
This is why we have rules of conduct, rules to defend, keep safe the storytellers in places of fire from the sky, shells whizzing by, explosions, IEDs, armed conflict.
The storyteller journalists are to be spared, The photographers are to be spared. The artists are to be spared. The broadcasters are to be spared. THEY ARE NOT COMBATANTS.
They are people whose hands are filled not with a Lugar or AK, but with a little keyboard, or cell, or with a camera, or with a pad of paper and a drawing pen….while going in utterly perilously, not just close to, but INTO the smoking abyss of screams and weeping shrieking and bellowings.
Been there.
Why Netanyahu destroyed the tall building that Al Jazeera and AP had as headquarters, with real souls occupying the floors, following their callings as truth finders and truth tellers… reminds me of what my immigrant father said to me in his broken english:
‘In war, first they come for the story tellers, the teachers of tradition, the ones who remember the village courage and the people’s beauties.’ Thus, without the repetitive and breaking stories, the deep stories that belong to the entire village, the people have their mantle of knowing, how to, what to, when to, why to, where to, ripped away from them. Their radar and sonar go dead.
Netanyahu, really? Really? You want to come for and silence the storytellers? That’s your febrile plan? Might have worked in the year 1900. But now, there are far far too many alert, able, gifted Al Jazeera/ AP storytellers/ artists/ photographers/ broadcasters for you to be able to devastate all– by doing to those gifted souls of media– what you’ve done to the Palestinians:
Literally invaded without warning, blowing down their domiciles, scattering them, hoping they will not soon recover, that they will not say what they’ve seen, heard what they’ve heard, witnessed what they’ve witnessed.
Just saying ‘Bebe’ — You definitely don’t know the iron will in the hearts and the golden sense of justice in the mettle of the storytellers there.
Watch. You will see, and hear … I promise you, the TRUE truth-seekers, the TRUE truth-tellers are on the move. And I and hundreds of thousands of my journo colleagues, and PEN and Amnesty [and others who are definitely watching daily and nightly] will do all we can to make sure each and every single storyteller there is safe and accounted for.
I can see you forget ‘Bebe’. The world has means to watch you now from many different points on this planet, to interview many people far and wide by the means of the waves of communication that travel in the sky overhead. This is 2021, and it is impossible to hide ill murderous motives and under the table nefarious and illegal agreements, and assaults, for long.
Let us see how long it takes the brave storytellers to unleash all the stories; not the ones you try to bend to your advantage, but the true ones. The factual. The deep. The holy. And without you trying to come for the storytellers. Like you came for the families and their land, their homes.
Your m.o. is revealed now, and very clear: invade, steal, attempt to dishearten, destroy homeplace, flatten, murder.
May all souls be protected and continuan, that the storytellers at Al Jazeera and AP and others, continue to tell the stories, to see the truths, not propaganda and slogans which are like dead husks, rather to see the many truths and offer them for those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear– toward not path of rage, but a path of more understanding than ever, talking together more than ever before, the people, not the ones who unleash mayhem… SO that the people can alloy–together– the strong beauties inborn in all souls.
Surely you remember ‘Bebe,’ it is written into our holiest words to NOT DO WHAT YOU ARE UNLEASHING: Jeremiah said: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more …”
Stop your assault on the journalists, storytellers, truth seekers, truth tellers, stop trying to break the spirits of those good souls and STOP continuing to steal, pillage, shame and make the villages of the Mideast today as Rachel showed her blood tears on the hills of Ramah after the ‘slaughter of the innocents'[slaughter of the baby boys]; to sorrow and sorrow for another century.
Especially now regarding the storytellers in words, film, art and spoken word in the Mid East; leave them to their holy callings. There is a saying, as you know ‘Bebe:’ Do NOT interfere with another person’s parnassah, their livelihood. As you also know: It is a grave sin to do so. As it to murder innocents.
¡ARRIBA Y ANDELE!
___________
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a mestiza Chicana {Native American and Spanish with converso Ashkenazi and Sephardi ribbons in the family bloodlines} She strives to write and speak in service of the voiceless; as a post-trauma recovery specialist, psychoanalyst of 51 years clinical practice; and as a journalist covering stories of human suffering and hope. Her doctorate is in ethnographic-clinical psychology, the study of diverse cultural, political, corporate, and religious groups with emphasis on world indigenous history.
She is an author, poet, storyteller, a recognized world-wide initiator of the return of useful and healing stories. As post-trauma recovery specialist, she served at Columbine High School and community for three years after the massacre. She continues to work with 9-11 survivor families on both coasts, and is known internationally for her Estés International Post-trauma Recovery Protocol used to deputize citizens quickly to help in the aftermath of disasters.
Her books are published in 42 foreign languages and have been on the New York Times best seller lists for 144 weeks. She is Managing Editor and Columnist writing on business, culture at the political news-blog, The Moderate Voice. She occasionally writes for the Huffington Post, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and an archive of her columns on culture and social justice can be found at National Catholic Reporter online, under her work called El Rio Debajo Del Rio, “The River Beneath the River.”
She was Governor Romer and Governor Owens appointed Chair of the Colorado State Grievance Board for thirteen years for Department of Regulatory Agencies. She made her premiere in spoken word with Dr. Toni Morrison and Dr. Maya Angelou at Carnegie Hall in 2000.
She is currently writing post-trauma recovery protocol in Spanish, English, and with translators’ assistance, 3 Mayan languages for the thousands of beleaguered children separated from their families at the southern border of the United States.
She just completed with a translator, the translation of the Estés Post-trauma Recovery Protocol into Arabic for the people of Beirut [and now, Palestinians] who are suffering the aftermath of the huge explosions there recently.
She is completing ‘the rape recovery and re-blessing of the soul ‘manual from English to Lingala [via translators] for the Congolese people who have suffered heinous intrusions during the ongoing wars. The Post-trauma Recovery Protocol is also in the midst of translation into Luo, for Ugandans striving to help those who were once child soldiers, now in their thirties.
Her two forthcoming books: La Pasionaria: A Manifesto of the Creative Spirit [Sounds True Press] and La Curandera, Healing in Two Worlds [Texas A & M University Press]