Aoeletta

Aoeletta t1_iz0aim9 wrote

I appreciate you asking, and I will answer honestly and as gently as I can.

It is inherently racist to say, “or is there something really tragically useful that has been lost?”

Yes. The perspective and culture and first-person history of the tribal communities that existed in this land before colonization is fascinating, beautiful, varied, and we lost it because of genocide. That is a tragic loss.

To ask if it is “useful” is to say that you have no interest in cultural history and see it through a utilitarian lens rather than a human experience lens. It doesn’t have to be “useful” in a practical way for the loss of art, culture, language, history to be grieved.

Many of the tribal nations had a more oratory history tradition, so by killing people, killing the language, stealing the children, and relocation we lost all of that passed on history. To a historian, to people interested in other cultures, to people who study US geography… yes. That seems like a huge loss.

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Aoeletta t1_iz09fg6 wrote

As someone who watched far too many people slowly die when I was much younger than that lesson is usually learned…,

Agreed. Completely agreed.

I am not afraid of being dead. I am afraid of the painful journey that concludes in death. I am terrified of a painful death. I have seen “passed in their sleep”.

None of it is as smooth and painless as we pretend. I am convinced that we don’t show what death actually looks like because we couldn’t function if everyone truly saw it at a young age.

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Aoeletta t1_isthfpm wrote

Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze, surgery, pills, death.

How lovely. Definitely people who love animals get these types, not the people who are vain, selfish, and lacking of empathy.

/s

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