This comment from Toni Morrison has always pushed me to write about my own family history, in one form or another, whether as the book based on my walking tours, or as historical fiction. And to write in such a way that it touches on the continuing effects of that history, particularly with regard to sex trafficking. But does it really make any difference, or do any good?
She 
said, that the responsibilities of the black woman writer include writing:
“To bear witness to a history that is unrecorded”
But, why?
How does that work bring into being newer tools, more apt for the problems that we need to solve today?
What do you think our world could look like if every one of us worked to bear witness to what could be, rather than what is?
I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter, Thoughtful Readers.
We can really Do Better.
-Shira
Action Prompts:
Share your thoughts on how to build buy-in create a more equal, or at least less inequitable, society, please. Writing, by the way, is my personal contribution to Project Do Better.
What would yours be, if you had time?
*****************
Click here to read, if you like:
B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,
Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BsCs
Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Inspiring Critical Thinking and Community via Books, Lessons, and Story 
This is hard because so much of our population now wants to write off anything they don’t like as “fake news” or lies to just dismiss it from consideration. I don’t find the younger generation as interested in their family backgrounds as I was as a kid (and I was adopted but I still soaked up all the stories.)
I don’t have the answer. I think it *is* important, but I don’t know how we get through to people.
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Wow, that makes sense: even still, soaking up the stories. Thank you for sharing that, Patti. And I agree, it feels vital to bear witness, even if I have difficulty explaining why: that’s when the story of Anna & Willow comes to mind. I think that maybe only story can effectively explain and bear witness, even if it’s difficult to say why, logically. Maybe that is the point.
We need story. And we need to bear witness?
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I feel like what is and what could be have equal value in helping us all determine what kind of a world we want and deserve to live in. After all, the surest way to know our right paths is to see clearly enough when we’ve been led astray.
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Interesting.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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Thank you, Ned!
S.
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A pic of Toni Morrison would be good in this post.
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done
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I agree with Scifimike70, both are important. For example personal experiences during historical events (Anna&Wilma), as opposed to the official story, which often only is interested in political results, but not the suffering of the individual to achieve those results. (I think the politicians should do the fighting, and not the people. I am quite sure we would have less wars then … 😉 … The germanic and gaule tribes had the fight of the chieftains for example, very good idea. )
On the other hand it is important to point out what could be, and not only, as is the fashion now, the dystopic future visions. We form the future, we can have good visions and make them come true, if we choose to do so.
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I agree!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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On a different topic, back to Do Better, what do you think about removing chapter 6: would the book really be missing anything if I pull out that explanatory chapter?
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Let me have a look at it tomorrow, it is midnight here now, and then I will get back to you, o.k.?
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No worries, no hurry, take your time!
Many thanks!!
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Good morning, Shira. As I see it, chapter 6 is explaining the implementation of the four phases, and in which chapter it is being taken up. As this is indeed taken up in the following chapters, one could think that chapter 6 is not essential for the book. I would, however, make sure that references to other people in chapter 6 are mentioned elsewhere in the book. (I think they are, but, of course, I don’t have the entire book present in my head here and now.)
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