Learn a little bit more about me and my journey

May global healing move forward!
How did I learn about global healing and why is it so important to me? How can we learn more about it, together?  

1. A virtual visit to Tamera in Southern Portugal (a small community that has been studying peace for about 40 years) 
2. Online classes at Tamera 
3. Experiences with restitution from Germany

• To learn more about the Tamera community, click here.

In 1939 I lived in a totalitarian society as a Holocaust victim.  Imagine playing in a local sand box when I was four and seven years old, being told because I am a Jew I could not play there. Imagine, riding to a nearby town on my bicycle and upon my arrival in the next town I was greeted by a big sign “Jews not wanted here.”  I escaped - to England first and then to the US and there was introduced to the four freedoms for all citizens: 1.(freedom of speech, 2.freedom of religion, 3.freedom of the press and 4. freedom from want). This was such a reverse way of living and learning. 

In the US, I attended both public and private schools that were enacting the four freedoms. The American schools valued the gifts that I brought to this country, myself. I attended one school in which I became a commissioner for the younger children, implementing care and play with them because I demonstrated an interest and talent in playing with younger children. 

I graduated High School in 1944 and the next day found myself to being drafted into the US Army going to Fort Dix and being inducted as an American Soldier. I became a “rifleman” with the rank of a Private and sent to another camp Wheeler in Georgia. 17 weeks later I was a trained rifleman sent back to Europe in the American Army, but while aboard the ship I was called into an office where they made me an AMERICAN citizen. Usually it took five years before a person could be considered for citizenship in 1944!

I also could change my name if I felt I wanted to do that. Of course, I wanted that badly and dropped my German identity. Our whole family had agreed to do that if their turn came up. I held on to two names my German one: Klugmann and my new American one Keen. (In retrospect I would not do that). 

As a High School Student Commissioner of Child Care, I also served on the Student Government. (I had never heard of a 14 year old being consulted about school activities and rules).  The teachers who placed that trust in me created high self-esteem, tapped resources within me and made me feel I belonged. 

I was fortunate that I met Hertha, my wife, who was born and brought up in the United States and modeled for me openness and self-fulfillment.  When we had our own children both of us practiced this kind of openness with our own children…. the schools they attended, the home practices and the environments we sought out were particularly those that that expanded their life space.

Much later in life I found out that I could not vote with my German name and when it came to marriage, I also could not use my German name. So, we had been married for many years, but the US Government only would accept KEEN. Can you imagine my wife and I had to get a lawyer and, in a sense, re-marry us to make us legal citizens?

As an American citizen we have many responsibilities implementing the four freedoms. If we do not, we are subject to totalitarianism, dictatorship and repeating the past. I feel responsibility toward my family and to the United States as I do not want to undergo similar experiences that I had in Germany.  I want to protect my children and grandchildren. It is a citizen's responsibility to stand up and be counted. I am hoping that this Blog will provide inspiration, community and opportunities for those who participate.