in this world makes joy in the next, where comfort and ease bought at
the expense of others only brings sorrow. Fight those possessed with
greed. Fight those obsessed with hate. Oppose those who will have
only ignorance and you will find you have laid down treasures in Heaven.
Do not arrive, I beg of you, to an empty house .
*
* *
Our July interview will be with the Spirit of Patrick Henry, American
patriot and orator who spurred colonial revolt in the South by oratory.
Later he fought to add the Bill Of Rights to the
Constitution. Be sure to get any questions you have for him in by June
1st to be considered for publication in the next issue . If there are
enough questions sent in, we will offer a follow-up interview.
PRESS RELEASE
RE : RESPONSE CONCERNING
ATTACKS AGAINST INTUITIVE EXPLORATIONS AND GLORIA REISER.
I would like to thank Gerald and Linda Polley and VOICES FROM SPIRIT
MAGAZINE for the notice of support for INTUITIVE EXPLORATIONS and
myself, which appeared in the January 1990 issue. Support has
been·wide spread and wonderful within the metaphysical community. And
all of you offering encourage ment during this time have truly helped
me to survive the experience.
However, it has come to my attention that word of the situation (the
attack against INTUITIVE EXPLORATIONS and myself) is circulating
amongst editors and publishers with the recommendation that they think
twice and three times before accepting . submissions from or doing
other business with my attacker. In regard to that, I would like to say
this; the woman who tried to put me out of business was, until the
attack, my best friend in this business. She has a wonderful talent for
working with gemstones, and is an excellent writer. I understand she is
doing none of this work now. And that saddens me.
What happened between my friend and I involved some personal
misunderstandings and miscommunications. Because of those
misunderstandings and miscommunications she came to question my loyalty
to her
as a friend. Some how that escalated into a questioning of ethicalness
and everything else.
Why did it happen? I truly don't know. All I can say is that there is
not one of us so strong that there is not some set of circumstances
or events that COULD take us down.
We might hope we would not respond in this manner, but- who knows,
until it happens to you.
This gifted professional now more than ever needs to be writing and
continuing her other work. And she needs encouragement to do so from
the metaphysical community. What happened to me is not likely to happen
again. I would like to encourage another publication to take on her
articles or column....so that the positive work she was doing might
continue, and to help my friend and all of us to heal. Isn 't
that what spiritual growth is all about?
-Gloria Reiser, Editor, INTUITIVE EXPLORATIONS, P .O. Box 561, Quincy ,
IL 62306-0561.
AASK Oklahoma
Aid to Adoption of Special Kids
5150 North Harrah Rd., Harrah, OK 73045
ON PREJUDICE
I used to believe that prejudice was just plain ignorance. Now I think that it's willful ignorance.
My "rainbow family" includes three sons who are part Native American
and part African American, two Black children, and three birth kids.
Obviously, we have experienced a certain amount of prejudice.
Some of it can be ignored but there are certain kinds of phone
calls I receive as an adoption support volunteer that upset me to this
day. I get these calls several times a week, alway from
kindly-sounding people. It always goes like this:
ME: I need to ask some
questions in order to help with the "matching". Are you de siring a
child of your race or do you have no preference in this area?
CALLER: Oh, I don't care about
skin color. We only want to help a child in need. But, of course, no
Black children. Al though, we might take a bi-racial if the child were
light enough.
ME: Some social workers have a
problem with that. They prefer that you either want a same race child,
or that you are "open". Disregarding just one race can be construed as
discrimination, especially if you're willing to consider some
minorities just so you can adopt an infant or pre-schooler.
CALLER: But it's a very small town.
ME: So is mine.
CALLER: But my spouse!
ME: My spouse and I had to work
on our attitudes in the beginning, too. But we overcame unreasonable
reservations, and have seen many other adopters do the same.
CALLER: Well, it's not me. Our families would object strongly.
ME: Some members of my family disapproved, but almost all of them have since come around because they did not want to lose me.
CALLER: Well, it can't be fair to the child.
ME: And foster care is? It's
true that the same race placement is always the preferred way to go,
but it is currently not possible in every case, especially with older
and handicapped kids. (We need to recruit more minority families.) But
every study ever done on the subject that I have seen, indicates that
trans-racial adoption is much better for a child than any kind of
foster care. The bottom line is permanence. Even the Indian Child
Welfare Act recognizes this. Tribal courts can and do allow non
Indians to adopt special-needs Indian children when the child has no b
iological relatives and the agency cannot find an Ind ian family or
adult.
CALLER: Well, I think what you're doing is just wonderful, but it's not for us. Please put us down as "open" but no Blacks.
At this point, I give up, but I don 't stop worrying about how these
attitudes are damaging our society . Why is it that so many Americans
can "tolerate" Indians, Hispanics, and Asians, but treat African
Americans like dangerous outer space alins? Isn't it time