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HopeandChangeforObama
| Hello, my name is Rebekah LaSala. (The above photo was actually taken last summer, 2007.) | ||
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| Short Biography: My name is Rebekah LaSala. My maiden name is Rebekah Jane Baker. I was born in our Nation's Capital, Washington D.C. I grew up in Suburban D.C. I grew up with a father who took me on Civil Rights marches when I was really little and my mother who was passionate about Civil Rights. They raised me and my sister to be tolerant and to understand the meaning of words and compassion when it came to other cultures and races. This understanding only grew when I was seven years old and dug up a Native American arrowhead in our backyard. I asked my father and he explained that this arrowhead had a lot of history. I understood the importance of Native American culture and that there were many here before us. I began to see that the city I grew up needed a lot of work in understanding the people and getting down to real people and issues that affect them. So, I started protesting when I was fifteen years old across from the White House. This grew into me walking across the country for Native American rights on a Walk Across America for Mother Earth 1992. I became a Native American activist and was adopted by three tribes. I came back to my small college in rural Maryland with a message and a lot of passion and I spoke on campus about Native American issues and about the importance of acceptance and community, peace and understanding in all communities. Working closely with African American community, I became a student leader who was searching for a way to get across my message. I have always had a strong spiritual connection to Native Americans and I always will. I believe that we need new people in Washington, not the old order. Currently, I am a writer living in Seattle with my husband, who is a cartographer. I also continue to be active in the Native American community, pressing for change in healthcare and in awareness of issues affecting indigenous peoples. I am excited about this opportunity to take what I know about Washington D.C. and affect and cause some real change in this country! | |
WHY I'M A DELEGATE FOR OBAMA:
Hello all WONDERFUL OBAMA PEOPLE AND DELEGATES!!! I am hoping to go to the Denver National Convention. Your vote will very much inspire me and motivate me (which I have been already) to do THE MIOST AMAZING JOB running to make this country better. It will be the boost I need to get fully involved and have the ability to do at the LOCAL and COMMUNITY level. Please vote for me! I will support you too and let me know what I can do to do that, We are all a family and we are all in this together. I am a delegate for Obama because I feel this is a natural progression to who I am meant to be in this life and what I am meant to do. It would be a great honor for me to take all of my passion about unity and about the fusion of all beautiful cultures coming together in a representative rainbow and to represent my area of Seattle with great honor. I came out West because I felt I could make more of a difference here. I am proud to be a part of such a large diverse group of people. I pray and hope that I have the opportunity to do what I have been working my whole life to do. I look forward to meeting you and talking to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me at: Rebekah LaSala rebekahlasala@hotmail.com. I will provide my phone number if you contact me directly. Sincerely, Rebekah Please read my letter below about why I am a Delegate, and why I am running to be MORE of a DELEGATE! "Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hollowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. The very dust you now stand on responds more willingly to their footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.”- Chief Seattle May 6, 2008 Dear Friends, Delegates and Community Leaders: My name is Rebekah LaSala. I cannot afford colored paper for fancy logos or fliers, but what I can afford to do is to tell you why I should be a Delegate for Obama at the National Convention in Denver, Colorado. For me, being a delegate is a natural progression of where my life has led me to this point. I was born in suburban D.C, a child of a very special father who is very special in many ways: a loving, nurturing man who has overcome his own demons of alcohol to teach me a lot and overcome things in his own life. A goal of mine was to make a difference in this world from a very early age. My parents taught me to be tolerant, the one thing they always agreed on. My father took me to Civil Rights marches downtown. I loved making the protest signs with him, with my own creation and words for all to see. My father always told me how one person could make a difference and how powerful a sign really is. I always felt disconnected from the land and I wanted to spend time with the Indigenous people of our nation, but it seemed I would never have that chance. I grew up as a confused teenager, as my family broke off and I was a product of divorce. I always was on a quest to be a better person and this quest led me to where I am today. Since I was fifteen or younger, I had felt connected to Native American culture. In fact, when I w as seven years old, I dug up an arrowhead in our backyard, brought it to my after and asked him what this was all about. As I grew older and learned about the plight of what our Native American people had been through with the Battle of Wounded Knee and 500 years of genocide, I decided to make it my life mission to be an Activist for Native American rights. I started at home, in Washington D.C., where I became an activist for Leonard Peltier, who, to many, was wrongfully imprisoned during the second battle of Wounded Knee. (I encourage you to read his story if you do not know it.) I met people on the front lines. I met Native Americans who told me stories of horrible conditions on the Reservations where they cannot eat or feed their families and where abuse of alcohol is rampant and ravages their children. I learned that the suicide rate was 1 in 3 for Native American teenagers on places like Pine Ridge in South Dakota. I saw that the kids my own age were like old souls who had been through too much. I saw that many people do not want to see what is happening on our reservations. I saw that these things are not something that was discussed in my college courses, so I would bring it up and ask everyone to participate in the discussion. I started protesting this and many other issues when I was fifteen, all by myself, across from the White House. Eventually, I met people…and talked with them. I would talk to the politicians walking by and would ask them what they would do for change and what they want to do to change the conditions for Native Americans. At the age of 17, I came back to my English class telling the entire class they had no answer. This deeply gnawed at me, because I saw a beautiful culture, rich with history, connection to the land and oral traditions that made a huge impact on me and made me a better person. Nobody really had answers, and since I grew up in Washington D.C., where there really was not a huge population of Native American/Indigenous/American Indian people, I decided in my first year of college to walk across the country. I was almost ready to quit college, as my passionate message did not seem to fit where I chose to go to college. I chose Frostburg State University in Western Maryland as it was the only place I could afford to go to college. I had student loans, scholarships and grants and I worked hard to get there. I began to get frustrated, thinking that who I was and my message of peace was not making a difference at my campus. But then, the walkers came through. I was so excited and curious. My Philosophy professors had told me, “Rebekah, this is for you.” They had found out about a group called “Walk Across America for Mother Earth”, a grassroots campaign started by two Belgians to create awareness and discussion regarding conditions on Native American reservations. I left college for a year to embark on this amazing walk. This was a life changing experience for me. On my travels, I met this country. I met America. I met America in the face of every farmer in Kansas I met, every Kickapoo Indian at the local Reservation getting drunk while still trying to tell me their story (and in their faces I could already see the story), every brave and amazing Tribal Leader and Warrior I met, like Russell Means, Gayle Ross or Graham Greene. I met actors, authors, warriors, chiefs and medicine men and women. I also met myself: The Rebekah I knew I was meant to be. I had so much pride and so much sadness for what I was learning. I also realized I could be a voice for the people, that I had been given a gift of seeing. I felt myself and met America in the warmest hands of Hazel Little Hawk, the Native American medicine woman and leader of the Lakota, who inducted me into an adoption Ceremony for my footwork and my activist work and told me I was one of them. I was a Lakota in my heart. I understood at this moment what true diversity is and that I would need to spend most of my life spreading this message. She said, “Walk in Beauty, Go In Peace.” Whenever I would get frustrated along the way, (and as many of us do, I had some diversions) I would meet a Native American person who would tell me “Stay on the path.” Through several years after college, I was not sure who I wanted to be sometimes, but I continued on my path. I never forgot the lessons I learned on my Walk Across America. I continued, always protesting, organizing and being a Community Leader. I organized marches against this war since the year 2000 while I was living in New Hampshire. As a freelance writer for peace, I have written articles and award winning poetry about my experiences on the walk. It is time, though, for real change. I am about real change for real people. We are all real people, whether we know it or not. I am about change for all people. I put a special emphasis on Native American rights because this is where my heart lies. But through this, I carried that message back to college and became a leader for African American issues and worked in conjunction with the African American student union for issues that affected all of us. I became a Diversity Student Leader and wrote many articles for my student newspaper at my small college in Western Maryland and created a Diversity Column. I invited and welcomed speakers like Gayle Ross (Descendant of Cherokee Chief John Ross) to our university. I am now 35, and this is 16 years after my Walk and yet the message to me that I was trying to spread and that all of us were trying to spread is louder than ever: “WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. WE CAN CHANGE. WE ARE COLORFUL AND BEAUTIFUL WITH OUR NATIVE AMERICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, HISPANIC AND LATINO AMERICAN, ASIAN AMERICAN, AND ALL CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS RAINBOW. WE ARE AN AMAZING COUNTRY. LET’S STAND FOR SOMETHING POSITIVE. LET’S CHANGE, FROM ONE PERSON ON UP. LET’S BE WHO WE ARE MEANT TO BE, AS A PERSON, AS A COUNTRY AND AS A WORLD.” (By Rebekah LaSala) Let’s make this world a better place. I personally relate to Barack Obama on many levels. He reminds me of the potential of us all and of this country. I am glad to see so many in this amazing Precinct rise up. When I first moved to Seattle, I was writing a story on Tourism in Kitsap County. I made sure to visit Chief Seattle’s gravesite. It meant so much to me. I just sat there, talking to him, asking him what I need to do and what my mission is. The ferry ride back gave me the answer: Here I am in this great city and I have a change to make a huge difference, for Chief Seattle’s relatives and for all of us. My passion, sincerity and real ability to connect to other people will take me to where I need to go. I truly hope it is to the Democratic National Convention in August. I am glad to be a part of it and am honored to be a part of Chief Seattle’s city, his land and his world. I am hoping that I can be a positive force in Seattle, something I have been working for all my life. I can promise you that given this chance and opportunity for a lifetime, I will never stop working for unity and positive change for all of us. I will dedicate the rest of my life to it whether or not I am elected a Delegate, but being elected a Delegate will enable me to be who I am meant to be. I will dedicate myself to working on the grassroots and local levels as a leader dedicated to Civil Rights, healthcare and rights for all people. Sincerely, Rebekah LaSala rebekahlasala@hotmail.com www.obamadelegates.org/page/ HopeandChangeforObama#link |
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