The importance of partnerships has always made perfect sense to me because of the Cherokee cultural values that my mother imparted. Though people generally identify me as "white", I am of mixed heritage--Native American, European, and African. I had been raised with many of the cultural values of the Cherokee. All for one and one for all, the importance of taking care of the whole, compassion, and sharing each prepared me to internalized the value of standing with others when they are the targets of discrimination and bigotry such as racism or anti-Semitism.

When I gained more knowledge of Reevaluation Counseling liberation theory and understood societal conditioning and oppression of groups of people, it was only natural for me to want to figure out how to take care of the larger whole. Add to that, the hurts that I carried from being physically abused as an infant and toddler without my mother's knowledge, and I had a deep personal commitment that no one's suffering will go unacknowledged or without allies.

The twenty some years of doing this work has proven to me that my Cherokee cultural values and RC liberation theory are correct. As long as we tolerate anyone being mistreated, we are all at risk because the fear and powerlessness that forces us to tolerate that mistreatment is the same fear and powerlessness that was instilled in early childhood. Under the right circumstances, these unresolved childhood hurts can turn us into robots. Left unhealed, this early disempowerment can cause people to emotionally and intellectually shut down, to become unable to think or take thoughtful action, and even to participate in the mistreatment or destruction of an individual or group.