While reading, Listening to ghosts: an alternative (non) argument, by Malea Powell I came across this quote, “we are crying in a conference room...The simple knowledge of Native people speaking our languages again makes us weep with joy and with sorrow.”(14) This brought a really good question to my mind just exactly languages have we lost over the centuries. It’s sad to think people are losing a part of their heritage because they are losing the language there ancietories spoke. I think people should reclaim their own languages and not let more languages die out. Another part of Malea Powell’s book that stood out to me was when she was talking about when settlers came to America and their interactions with Native Americans. (17) This got me think when people encounter something different from themselves they feel threatened by this difference and try to change the thing that is difference or they destroy it out of fear. I find this very true to my life. I’m a Christian and I'm also a lesbian. Some people within the Christian community has the same views as our ancestors towards Native Americans, in the fact that because we are different from them they view us differently and try to change how we think, act and who we love.
In the reading, History of Disease, by Patti Duncan, when she stated, “The war claimed the lives of her husband….”(158) This part of the reading really stood out to me and hit home. I can relate to how it feels to lose a father and have a mother working hard to provide you with everything she can. I find it interesting that she saw her father as a rescuer of her mother and then when she states, “It took me years to realize that by rescuing her, what my really meant was bringing her to the United States as his war bride.” (159) I find this horrible that her father took her mom out of her native home, where she grew up and where her family was and moved to a place she was unfamiliar with and didn’t know the language spoken there. When the author started to talk about her mom being sick and when she state, “The girl puts on her grown-up face.” (160) It reflected really closely to my childhood. When children grow up with one parent sick they are almost forced to grow up faster, shortening their childhood. This shapes the way we turn out as grown ups, how we look and process things.
From the book, Loving In The War Years, by Cherrie L. Moraga, I can really relate to her when she states, “I was raised within a very strict brand of Mexican, mixed with Irish, Catholicism.” (110) Even though I was raised in a very strict Christian house where my parents didn’t believe in premarital sex and were against homosexuals before I came out. I never felt like I could be my true self to them, Like Cherrie I didn’t understand my feelings towards other women. It confused and scared me. My parents tried to shelter me from the world that included sex so the feelings I had made me feel shameful. I felt like an outcast in my family and community. When she states ….woman lover would never involve any kind of power struggle.” (116) I don’t agree with this. In same sex couples and hetterosexual couples there is always going to be some kind of power struggle if not in the bedroom, in some kind of aspect of everyday life.
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