My life is very precious to me. I am not hidden in any shadows. My life is for me, the most precious thing in my world. I have always lived under justice and honor to respect this great gift, the gift of being alive and choosing who and where and why you will stand in this life. I learned what many have sought, but never found, because I feel this way and live this way. My teachers trusted me, as I trusted them. Only a correct life can yield such results. That is the feeling that leads me in my work, my life, and in my words.
Hate groups and hate speech are everywhere now, and my work has sparked the clueless hatred of some of them. This is how I feel about that situation:
In any argument, when your strategy is to claim that the person you are attacking, or “exposing”, is a criminal, is a bad person, you have lost the argument. This tactic is toxic and unreasonable. It creates a manufactured “stink” that, in the digital age, lives forever.
Anyone who understands and lives life at a reasonably compassionate and aware level seeks to cultivate positive energy. The other side of the hate group argument is that they just make things up. Once determined to attack, they will say whatever seems most outrageous, as “proof” (woven from their imaginations) as to the low character and despicable deeds of their chosen target.
This behavior is a bit like rewarding a chained up dog for barking at the wind. Yet the noise of the chained up dog barking all night is impossible to ignore. The dog is sure he is accomplishing something important and vital, so he barks louder and longer at the wind.
Hate groups are populated with anonymous strangers who have no authority in any society, who are not police, government or medical, who have no public office, pay no salaries and employ no one. What reasonable person would listen to the voices from such a group of people? The more polished hate groups disguise their outrage by claiming to be for reform, or for protection of some minority or special interest. This is an old trick, anyway, a favorite of oppressive cultures.
Hate groups seem to be made up of people who enjoy programming themselves. The English poet William Butler Yeats called this entrapped form of consciousness “automationism”. These are people who are programmed to have a response put forward by other people, who hide their identities, with an agenda putting them at the center of attention and acclaim. It is behavior not at all based upon reasonable standards of truth, but on emotion and victimization ideas. In twenty thirteen, they exist in unprecented numbers and sophistication.
It is increasingly very common these days to throw the language of hate. Persons holding views on almost any subject may find their religion, their work, their reputations, even their work the subject of very low and vulgar attacks without any basis in fact. There are just so many people who will believe almost anything if it is packaged for them just right.
Society, history, court and medical archives are filled with examples of the consequences and destruction created by people who act upon fantasies, projections and perceived danger without evidence, investigation or sustaining facts to back them up.
When one looks through a medical eye at hate group members; they appear to exhibit behavior that is sociopathic in nature. Their natures are like starving animals in a pit, waiting for their “good intentions”, waiting for someone to “expose”. They are poor hunters. Their long hours of ranting and making things up and the reasons they express to justify their outrage does not produce food to feed their families, support of their community, or further any criminal or moral investigation. Their product is their loud noise, with no names attached attached.It is almost pavlovian.
In twenty thirteen, I became the subject of a hate group attack. They have proposed that I am no Indian of any kind, that I am a criminal, that I never served in the US Army, that I have abused my family and in many other ways shown myself to be a fraud, a liar, a criminal. Their portfolio of “charges” against me are a perfect combination of vile accusations to bolster their case that I am a bad person and that my work has no legitimacy in the world. Not one of these people use their real names. On their pages they have not posted a single piece of evidence to support their charges. I contacted them at the beginning of their hate campaign and told them that these so-called charges are nonsense and suggested they offer a single piece of factual evidence to support their charges. Of course, they were unable to do this, as these so-called accusations are entirely made up.
What do you say to a howling animal, driven mad by its own self-hatred? It is not an easy question to answer. In the digital age, any person can publish any statement of any subject and it is there more or less forever.
I ask myself what their purpose is. The answer is illusive. When large groups of people go off into hate-filled rants and accusations without any facts, in the internet age, there is not much you can do about it. Most of the reasonable people that I know in my life of course do not pay attention to the work of hate groups. Most people have never heard of these hate groups. They are a small minority of anonymous individuals who clearly receive some sort of thrill and satisfaction from their behavior. Much like US President Obama, who is accused daly, even after all these years, of being a secret Muslim and all the other strange “crimes” that extremists associate with his name, continue unabated.
The real victims of hate groups and hate speech are the innocent…those people who are afraid of trouble, want to avoid controversy at any cost, who fear any kind of bad publicity. The truth is that, these days, any public figure working in the world today can be and will be attacked by haters. It is part of the new normal. Every person involved in any work that is even marginally controversial must be prepared to face this possibility.
American Indians have been victims of fear and hatred from the outside world from day one. There have been so many attacks against American Indians trying to work in the world, that most tribes are withdrawn and very reluctant to make any public statements or projects out of fear of being attacked by people like this. Many American Indians are frozen in fear at what the modern world will say to them or do to them if they take a stand on any issue.
I have a long history, decades, of work and achievements with and for American Indians. I am absolutely satisfied about the integrity and truth of my work in the world. I am not afraid to be attacked. My work will not be stopped by a hate group and its made up, anonymous accusations. I trust the truth. I love the truth. I look at myself in the mirror every day. I look into the faces of tribal elders, into the eyes of those Grandfathers and Grandmothers, and together we understand the path ahead of us, and its dangers and risks.
Now that my time of being targeted by an anonymous hate group has arrived, I embrace it without fear. I addressed them directly, pointing out that their accusations are nonsense. They told me it does not matter what I say or do; they are sure their “evidence” proves that I am a bad person. I am hot happy about it. It seems sad and strange.
I will continue to celebrate and share my long and beautiful education and experiences with the tribal elders, with the sacred of the mystery life, and continue to keep my promises to those old Indians that redeemed me and educated me and loved me, placing me on this path, within this work.
Turtle Heart
Summer 2013
Draft Dodger who lied about being in the US Army:
link to official US Army DD214
Legal official discharge paper
Hate Group Charge
I am a criminal with a long criminal record.
Recent studies by many groups, including the Southern Law Poverty Center reveal a dramatic rise in hate speech and hate groups.
The racist and hate speech regarding Muslims and Obama, for example, receive the bulk of media and journalist attention.
The sad truth is there are several well established hate groups who target American Indians for many years.