This book haunts me.

All the best…

Jaliya

you might try global exchange’s sites on the banana republics and the atrocities of the banana business. i see it; i hear the stories. chiquita murders; the bananas on your breakfast table are fertilised by the bodies and blood of workers. feel free to email me. i used to have pictures of banana processing. the first time i went to take pictures the guard (with automatic big serious weapon) came to grab and destroy my camera. the next time i went, i hid with a zoom. those pictures and all my notes were destroyed in my recent computer crash, thanks to Chiquita Power and Light. there are US unions here trying to organise; i’ll give you those resources if you like. but not on a blog…

oonie

http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/jaco-har.htm

http://www.nchumanities.org/publications/newsletter/newsletter03b.pdf.

i discovered the life of harriet when i wrote a paper about slave women in seminary. because i chose to tell harriet’s story, i had to re-write the paper, specifically on “slavery”… but no matter….. to this day, i am haunted and empowered by the life of this courageous woman and her community.

the night i discovered harriet, i was looking at an exhibit from the univ of north carolina, an exhibit of slave stories written in their own words, in their own hands. there were even pictures of some of the slaves. i especially remember the women for that was my focus, regardless of what my professor thought. i remember sitting at the computer screen in the dorm room at the GTU in the “People’s Republic of Berkeley” and being carried back in time, back beyond my haunted MS roots. there was something other-wordly and awe-inspiring to see the handwriting. for too few slaves read or wrote.

i’ve preached this story, too. be prepared: stuff kleenex in your cuffs. i had to stop several times, my heart was so full and my voice so full of tears. not only tears of overwhelming grief but also tears of the power of life and love, and the will to survive and to live.

a very brief bio: this woman,a slave, was the focus of an obsession by her white master. so focused and obsessed and stalking was he that harriet was forced to hide in a tiny crawl space for SEVEN YEARS… that is just the very tip of the ice berg… i’ve dreamed about harriet so many times. and in times of great trial i’ve called on her as i call on a saint, for she IS a saint and a shero and one brave, strong, powerful, awesome woman.

please send me a copy of your semon, regardless of your topic. i’d love to read it.

en la lucha
oonie