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The power of words - Alice Walker - Tthe Temple Of My Familiar 5/18/2005 9:40:47 AM
> 1.Today's Quote Featuring: Alice Walker
>
> Helped are those who create anything at all, for
> they shall relive
> the thrill of their own conception and realize a
> partnership in the
> creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible
> and cheerful.
> --Alice Walker, Temple of my Familiar, 1989
> I just wante dto share this story with you.
Back around 1990 (I think..it could have been 1992) I
was reading Alice Walker's The Temple Of My Familiar.
I had not read the back so I wa unaware and thus
pleasantly surprised when I discovered it wa a sequel
to The Color Purple.
There is a scene where the old woman who had "been
here before" was recalling a past life. In it she told
of how she her brother and mom had been taken by the
slave traders and taken to a place near the sea where
they were stripped sorted separated . many were raped
. She very vividly spoke of how the Africans who
worked for the slavers shore off their locks of hair
which had in the cowry shells and precious metals and
how these men who barter over the treasure stolen from
the now enslaved peoples. .. she then said that she
sees the same look in the eyes of the drug dealers
that sell their wares to our people today.
I took the tow pages (since it started in the middle
of one page and continued to the end of the other) and
Copied it. I then cut the paper and taped it together,
went back to the copy machine and enlarged it so it
fit neatly on 11 X 14 paper. I then took a ream of
paper and made 500 copies of it. No one was paying me
much mind so when I had a free moment I'd fold them
each neatly the same way.
Over the next few months I would talk to those persons
in the jail cells that were there for violent crimes
or for selling drugs
I wouls ask "do you read?" If they answered yes I
asked them "Will you please read this. If it means
nothing to you would you please at least either give
it back to me or pass it on to someone who might
appreciate it"
Surprisingly 90% of them agreed.
Many of them would pocket it. only about 30 or so gave
it back and I only saw maybe 5 tossed on the floor.
Several had discussions about it eiteher amongst
themselves or with me.
Finally a month os so after I had started doing this a
few co-workers asked me for copies. When the duty
captain asked me if I had been giving them out I was
hesitant but confessed yes. I thought perhaps I was in
trouble becasue it was the job's ream of paper and
toner I had used. But he thanked me. He said there had
been at least a hundred of these guys that came back
looking for me. I had heard and had spoken to many of
them. Some said they stopped selling SOme asked where
to get help for their individual issues
That to me is the ppower of the written word
Alice Walker has no idea what her words did. How many
of our youth she saved
