Fwd: Who's to throw the first stone?

[Maura Santangelo]

> Xose',
>
> One of the reasons I am doing this walk is to raise funds for
> indigenous peoples of the Americas.  I have been involved with an
> American foundation which has developed and supported Sight programs
> in India, Nepal, TIbet and now Africa.  since I am an ophthalmologist
> the sight programs are what I have supported over the years.
>
> But since its inception the foundation has also supported clinics,
> small community projects in Native American reservations and community
> development projects in Mayan communities in Guatemala and Chiapas,
> Mexico.  Much as I had wanted to escape a sense of responsibility
> about the plight of Native Americans (I am european, I tell myself and
> am an economic refugee) it is hard to escape the fact that the current
> governments of these lands are the ultimate expression of European
> colonial history, and that much of Europe's wealth has come through
> the exploitation of other people.
>
> I found it interesting and a kind of synchronicity that Queen Isabella
> and King Ferdinand reconquered Spain with the help of Santiago
> Matamoros in 1492, just as they were funding an expedition of C
> Colombo to the Americas.  An event that my NA friends have neither
> forgotten nor put closure on.  They still feel that they live in an
> occupied country and suffer daily from the consequences of that
> occupation.  It is in recognition of this and to show them that I
> finally get it that I am doing this walk and raising funds for those
> projects.  Of course considering its role in the Reconquista it is a
> good opportunity to walk for peace.
>
> I am saddened by what the US has done, but that is because most of us
> who lived elsewhere have always had an idealistic and unrealistic view
> of what this country stands for.
>
> Respectfully
>
> Maura
>
>