By Ricey Wild

So this is the 20-year anniversary of my column being published (give or take a few months when I was deeply depressed, maybe like six or so at the worst). Plz don’t correct me if I’m wrong…I have issues. I will bring that up in my next therapy session. JK!

Yooz are my therapy. I don’t feel so alone when I have many people who not only nod their head but take action, too. I wanna be out there in the forefront telling the ignoramuses exactly how they are voting their own selves out of existence. Some of ya’ll are the new slaves and yooz voted for that.

Wa’ll I didn’t mean to begin this way but I am caught up in my emotions.

During my childhood I imagined an easy life, like a dude who went to work, and provided for me and the kids…JK!!! I was born a hard woman-child and have never regretted a gosh-darn decision I’ve made… except for moving up here to Rezberry. I could’ve been SOMEBODY!!! I was even on the radio on KFAI.

Before and after Minneapolis was flush with culture, foods and music. There is a ‘hum’ the city exudes which I deeply miss every day. When I was 13 my friend showed me where the gerbil-runs (aka Skyways) ended up and we swam fully clothed in the Minnehaha River by the falls. Hey now! I coulda been kilt!

I qualified for my first scholarship to college at age 14. Hmm, it’s as if I’m bragging now, but no! It is in retrospect that I get that I could have, should have, taken a different road. I’m old enough for this crap now. I get it though… had I not done this or that, I wouldn’t be in this place now. It really, really sucks and is wonderful at the same time. No one plans for that.

Okay, enough about me. In this my 20-Year column I just want to thank my readers who have seen me through a whole lotta life’s sick circus acts and still stuck with me. The people who write to me are precious. I am really bad at getting back to people right away, sometimes I write the response in my head and then an earworm of “Come and get your love” by Redbone begins a loop. Know that I appreciate everyone and anyone who takes the time to write. I read them and usually cry because what you write means so much to me.

My journey has been a strange one. I imagine most people’s journeys are but that’s precisely what makes us interesting. So, I say share away and make other people feel good about themselves. LOL!!! I know the absurdities in my life have formed into my conscious because I am aware. No, I’m not even near being a Buddha, but I really want to get there so I don’t have to come back to this sad reality we are all currently living in. For the record no, I am not suicidal. That is no ticket to Nirvana.

I want thank particular people for writing to me. I usually ask permission to use names but I hope you know who you are. I have to get my printer set up so I can respond. (I’ve had four surgeries on my right arm and it’s hard for me to even sign my name.) It’s NOT YOU, it’s me. For real though. I am disabled. I wish you all the best and good things to happen in your lives. Most of all, you are not alone.

We are a sociable species and feeling alone is the worst. It turns out that if we reach out of our misery there are people who make it their life’s work to help those who need it. If I sound like a PSA, tuff! I am serious about all yooz and feel it every day. The very fact that we survived genocide to be here today (and making racist white people mad) is a major accomplishment. We will still be here after the colonists blast into space to go and destroy another planet.

I really like it here, Turtle Island. The Creator provided everything we need to exist and thrive as long as we don’t take more than is necessary for life. We Indigenous People get it and have not attempted mega-cities again because that way of life is unsustainable. We are much older and wiser than the bloody so-called “western civilization”.

I am voting and praying for everyone who is affected by this monstrous U.S. administration. Just know I did my part by voting. Twenty years ago I never thought this would be an issue. “They” will attempt to shut down every independent voice there is now.

Yes, yours too.

#resistance #loveourpeople