Spotted Eagle's friend Renée

Tonight at the Meditation for Black Lives, a Native American man currently living in the park where we had the meditation asked if he could take the microphone as we were closing. What I can remember of what he said is this: “You are bringing the light back to this land, and I thank you. This land was my people’s land a long time ago, and now it has been poisoned. These are dark times, but we see you, walking in peace and bringing light. We live here because we don’t have houses to live in, we sleep here. We say thank you. You give us a lift. Please keep coming back.”

After he spoke, we ended the meditation, and he said to us, “I want you to do me a favor and come talk to my friend Renée. She got beaten last night and kicked by some teenagers trying to prove they can beat up a woman sleeping in the park. She needs some light, some encouragement. Can you spare the time to come talk to her?”

We asked, “Who hurt you, Renée?” 

She said, “Oh it was just a bunch of kids. Nothing to do with the protests. Just a bunch of kids looking to beat up on somebody they thought was less than them. I’m out here having a manic episode, and I guess they could sort of tell. So they were threatening, and I didn’t know what to do. Somebody yelled, ‘Run!’ and I’m like, Dude, I’m fifty-three years old, no way I can out run these kids. So I’m lying on the ground and they’re kicking and I’m thinking maybe this is how I’m going to die. My whole face was blood, blood. But one of my buddies hauled me off to an emergency room, I don’t even know where we were. And they put a stitch in the top of my nose. You see it? And I’m OK. Nose is not broken. No concussion. I’m here , and I get to meet you guys and tell my story, right? Life is good.”