Understanding systems of dominance & oppression to strengthen systems of healing & Liberation
Channel: Daniel Christian Wahl
Date: 2023-04-24

On March 29th, 2023, I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Kimberley Young-McLear which was deeply insightful for me and humbled yet again with regard to the huge amount of privilege and 'relatively' easy sailing I have had in my life.

Kim had contacted me via Linked-In and asked:

"Over the last 12 months or so, I have enrolled myself into many regenerative and design courses. I have also followed much of the dialogue in these digital/online spaces as well. One observation I see is inequity of voice and agency under the term/language of regeneration. For example, who amplifies who on social media for regenerative design topics? Who decides what’s in a regenerative design curriculum? Who decides the panels or topics for regenerative conferences? I’ve seen what appears to be some groups that are intentional and therefore seems more inclusive to the global population representation. I have seen the opposite, too. "

Here is how Kim described herself:

"I’m an activist, whistleblower, engineer, designer, and tech/cyber professional. I grew up in Asia, America, and Germany. I am first Gen USA; my family ancestry is Trinidad & Caribbean. My teachers are kumus in Hawai’i, Brazil, Caribbean, and BIPOC pioneers who have conducted groundbreaking equity research in the US over the last 40 years. In my formal degrees, I am trained in areas including cybernetics, energy systems, cyber-physical systems, economics, systems engineering, regeneration, communications theory, and complexity theory.  I also lean on music design theory, psychology, sociology and other areas. I apply my activism to educate, ghostwrite federal laws, conspire with media, and be playful with artists and technologists toward regenerative, joyful, just, equitable futures."

And here is a link to an official bio from the United States Coast Guard Academy where she has been teaching for nearly a decade: https://uscga.edu/academics/majors/electrical-engineering/ee-faculty/kyoung-mclear/

And an interview with her about her whistleblowing and how it affected her life: https://whistleblowersblog.org/nwd/kimberly-young-mclear-tells-her-whistleblower-story/

"Kimberly Young-McLear, Ph.D. exposed gross misuse of power in how the Coast Guard handled bullying, harassment, and discrimination allegations. An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General substantiated that she had been retaliated against for her whistleblowing activity. As a result of her whistleblowing, investigative loopholes for these types of claims by Coast Guard service members and federally employed civilians were closed."

Here are some links from the 'National Whistleblower Centre':
https://www.whistleblowers.org/whistleblowers/kimberly-young-mclear/

We speak about her story and explore important dimensions of:

- structural violence
- integrity
- regeneration
- gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation based discrimination
- systems of oppression
- compassion with the perpetrators as 'voices' expressing an underlying 'field' of 'the story of separation' and rootlessness
- the continuity of language, culture and expressions in oppressed culture and what we can learn from it
- the need to appreciate and learn from the cultural wisdom of displaced people in the first, second and over many generations 
- place sourced regeneration
- using the right language in the right place to speak about regeneration to different audiences 
- healing, diasporas, cultural continuity and salutogenesis (Aaron Antonovsky research in Holocaust survivors in Israel and how the managed to live their lives as functional, caring, loving community members) ... 'Design for Human & Planetary Health' ... 'being rooted in a narrative'
- need for an Hippocratic Oath for designers and engineers
- 'cancel culture' ... "understanding non-linearity, nuances, complexity ... collective learning when people are at different points in their journey of learning ... having compassion with each other"
- need for synthesis, weaving, intertwine 
- Kim's 'symphony handbook' using musical theory to understand and build dynamic metaphors of transdisciplinary integration 
- the role of music and culture in regenerative cultural patterns re-emerging
-...

To say it in a few words: I simply loved this conversation and hope to have another one soon.


"Everybody, if we go back far enough, has a history where we are more connected to the Earth and we are in more right relationship with all Life. That is true for everybody! But because of the design of these violent structural systems, patterns and behaviours it teaches us that we have oppressors and victims of oppression ..." - Kimberley Young-McLear