|
“It
does not require many words to speak the truth.”
Chief
Joseph (In-mut-too-yah-lat) Nez Perce (Chute-pa-lu)
There
exists a basic hard truth that a majority in this country
either denies outright, or buries themselves in the illusion of some
kind of a “sacred goodness” that comes with being that hybrid
known as an “American.” If the truth about this country is not
acknowledged, then necessary changes cannot be made, and the
domination of an already oppressive government will continue its
ongoing encroachment into every aspect of our lives.
That hard truth
is not a single isolated fact, but a series of realities. They
lead to the irrefutable truth that the United States, since its
inception, has been, and remains, “the greatest lie and hypocrisy in
history.” With very little stretching, you can also refer to the USA
as “the largest and most nefarious of criminal organizations.”
This country,
the government, (not the land), has in its relatively short
existence, been involved in and committed more acts of war than any
other nation. These wars, battles, incursions, excursions, police
actions, (by whatever euphemisms applied), are accompanied by
self-serving justifications and an outcry of (self) righteous
indignation.
The
USA has been responsible for the most egregious of human rights
violations. It has been responsible for the largest holocaust, and it
has committed the greatest number of acts of terrorism of any nation
in history. It is the all time champion of, (often laughable), spin,
and of putting on a “good face.” All amid its self–serving
justifications.
At
many pow-wows, when the Veteran’s Dance is being introduced,
you often hear a litany of wars: World War I, World War II, Korea,
Vietnam, the Gulf War, the “wars” in Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama,
Somalia, etc, etc, ad nauseam. And that does not take into account the
pre-20th Century conflicts, which included the massacres of the
Indigenous People, or the numerous so-called “banana wars”
involving the U.S. in the Americas south of the border, on up through
the 1960’s and 70’s to the present time.
This
country, this government, was born and founded on violence. It
counts bodies as tokens, as if keeping score in a sporting event. But,
war and violence leads to only one thing, destruction and slaughter
and sowing the disturbing seeds of hatred and mistrust. You do not,
can not, create peace out of war. It is a gross oxymoron. The very
concept of killing and destruction in the name of peace makes no
sense.
Bloodstained
battlefields are put forth as monuments of awe and worship. Of
course, the criminal acts at the Washita River, Sand Creek, and
Wounded Knee, (to name but a few), are neatly and conveniently swept
under the proverbial rug. How many of those whom the USA puts forth as
“heroes,” and to whom monuments are erected, can you name who were
not involved in violence?
This
government, while proclaiming such nonsense as “democracy for
all,” interferes with and sticks its nose into the affairs of other
sovereign nations, and then wonders why they are hated and spat upon
and become the recipients of the brutal nightmare of such incidents as
what is now known as 9-11. Why here, and why not somewhere else? The
answer is as obvious as it is simple. The families of those 9-11
victims, rather than looking thousands of miles away to lay blame for
their losses, need to do a 180 and look at their own government for
the root cause of their grief.
There
is also the unique historical US phenomenon of overkill, (which
is taking place at this moment in Afghanistan), as innocent people and
their land are burned and bombed into oblivion. All in search of an
enemy who whether good, bad or evil, was created by and put into play
by the very government now out to seek and destroy him.
It calls to
mind the prophetic brilliance of Orwell’s 1984, with the
endless parade of propped up enemies as Big Brother exhorts the masses
to cries of, “hate, hate, hate.” If you have never read it, do so
now. If you have read it, read it again, or find the excellent movie
starring John Hurt and Richard Burton.
To make it easy
for the masses to have a definable target for their hate and
outrage, those with whom we war, for the most part, don’t look like
white Americans and their cultures are vastly different than most of
our Euro-white population. These enemies, beginning with the American
Indian, have included a parade of Asians, Arabs, Africans and
Hispanics. This way you don’t need a scorecard. If they look or act
differently, they must be the enemy.
Remember,
we are talking about a country that espouses “freedom,
equality, impartial justice and peace.” Those, however, are the
words. The actual deeds are violence, mayhem, oppression and
destruction. In other words, it “speaks with forked tongue” –
always.
Note
too that in a classic example of the “tail wagging the
dog,” these intrusions into and overt (often covert) acts of
violence in other lands are now given titles on which we are supposed
to hang our hats. What we really need to be hanging are our heads.
Add to that the sanitizing of the war in Afghanistan, billed as
“The War Against Terrorism.” We get some numbers and fragments of
information, but where do you see any freedom of the press airing
images of the horrors and great costs of war as we experienced during
Vietnam.
The
United States learned its lesson in Vietnam, and since then
finds cause to suppress more liberties, such as freedom of the press
and freedom of speech, by suppressing the actual images of the
violence in Afghanistan. Why? Of what are they afraid? Could it be the
truth? Of course, they love to scream about national security? Even
though it is their policies which have created this global insecurity.
Never
lose sight of the fact that this so-called “land of the free
and home of the brave” was founded on acts of violence. It came
about on the back of the most horrendous human rights violations and
acts of terrorism ever committed on this or any soil: Lands stolen,
cultures, rites and customs forbidden outright, or viciously
destroyed, entire nations persecuted and slaughtered.
Chemical-biological warfare began right here, when smallpox infested
handkerchiefs and blankets were parceled out to Indians.
They,
the Euro-whites, came here, (we are taught), to escape
persecution: To live as free men and women. So what did they do?
Exactly what they claimed to be escaping. They persecuted, destroyed,
enslaved and denied freedom to the people they encountered -- the
First Nations – who, for thousands of years, lived on and with this
land we call Turtle Island.
Among their justifications, besides the
horrific, invented and asinine notion of “Manifest Destiny,” was
to make, (in their words and actions), “them” like “us.” The
“us” certainly being a people to emulate consisting as they were
(and are) usurpers, liars, thieves, kidnappers, enslavers, rapists and
mass murderers.
At
Powwows, I am often asked by spectators why we carry the stars
and stripes and honor it at all? My answer is, “I don’t know.” I
have never been able to understand figure that out. It is akin to
Jewish people honoring the swastika. Can anyone tell me how it is
different?
True, many American Indians fought and died for that flag. Why?
Again, I don’t know why one volunteers to travel across the world to
risk life and limb for the flag of the oppressor and the murderers of
your ancestors. Unless they choose my excuse; I served before I knew
better.
This
is, by the way, is not intended as a mass indictment of the
Caucasian “race” or to insinuate that “evilness” is inherent
in that “race” or among all Europeans. Negative references to that
“race” or European heritage refer to the particular mindset we
encountered over 500 years ago, and which remains to this day. They
are referred to here, for lack of a better term, as Euro-whites. They
are the true “savages,” a term they have attempted to falsely pin
to the American Indian.
It
is that particular Euro-white institution we know as the
Government of the United States, and its duped henchmen and
supporters, (far more than any other culture or “race,”) who have
been, (and are), primarily responsible for the destruction of our
planet, for the most wars and outright violence, for the extinction
and slaughter of numerous species floral and fauna and of human
cultures, and for the greatest number of and most outrageous acts of
imperialist behavior.
When
you check out white supremacy, (a true contradiction of terms
if there ever was one), movements, what you are witnessing is a mass
guilt and inferiority complex in action. We live on conquered, stolen
land, occupied by a government that claims to be a “land of
freedom.” Its behavior since its inception flies in the face of such
a claim. Let’s look at some of these “freedoms” they love to
flaunt.
Freedom
of Speech. Now that’s the big one they love to shove at you.
Where else, they scream, can you speak as freely as you can here and
as you are now? Well, most places for one thing. For another, the
right to express myself freely comes as a product of birth. It is part
of the inherent package of inalienable rights we are endowed with and
not something for which we need to fall on our knees to the government
for in deep gratitude.
And
speaking of freedom of speech, exercise it, really speak out
boldly, and watch how quickly you are monitored, observed and
otherwise harassed. Freedom of speech is as inherent a birthright as
are freedom of assembly and religion. Native Americans had these long
before the invasion of Euro-whites. The question still remains;
“what freedoms do they give me which are not mine by natural right?
Yet they have the gall to claim to have given these freedoms to me! I
am fortunate, perhaps, because I can travel from coast to coast. As
Chief Joseph said, “We may as well expect the rivers to run
backwards as to expect any man born a free man to be content penned
and denied the liberty to go where he pleases.”
Much as I
consider alcohol and other mind-altering drugs reprehensible
and stupid forms of recreation, who does and should own our very
bodies? That we must be held responsible for our violent and otherwise
criminal actions, (if and when they occur), is one thing. But, we are
paying for prisons to be filled with ordinary people serving hard time
because they chose to pickle their very own brains. Prohibition
virtually created a criminal class of otherwise ordinary, peaceful
people overnight with sweeping legislation. The same occurred when
other so-called recreational drugs were decreed to be illegal. What
didn’t work for the one drug doesn’t work for the others, that is
obvious. So why do it?
A
comparatively few people, to whom we refer as “the
government,” are somehow acknowledged to be imbued with divine
wisdom because they hold office. They then determine with whom we may
or may not do commerce, where we may or may not travel abroad, and
often what we may or may not consensually do in our own bedrooms and
with whom. A portion of the fruits of our labors, (our income), is
taken, (make that stolen at gunpoint with the threat of imprisonment),
as these people called “the government,” (erroneously referred to
as “leaders and public officials”), decide where and how our own
hard-earned money is to be spent. Always of course with the ever
present spin as to how much good it is doing, such as to put someone
else through school for example, and how moral and ethical are such
government programs are, (as if that was where most of our taxes go).
We
lose then, by decree, by force, our own morality and our right
to choose what causes, if any, are meaningful to us. Because one is
born within these borders, they are by dint of that birth obligated to
care for everyone else who is also considered to be an “American”
and happens to be alive at the same time. And, we are eligible to be
shipped around the world to kill and maim, and risk being killed and
maimed, by people of other countries for any sundry causes or excuses
our government gives, whether they are meaningful to us or not.
The
prevailing attitude of the United States from day one has been:
“Might makes right!” We have become strangers in what is now a
strange and strangled land. A landscape we cherished, respected and
protected has been overrun, not by a superior people and culture, but
by the sheer weight of numbers of ravenous consumers.
Unlike
our African-American brothers and sisters, to whom Africa
remains a vision to which they cannot return, we have been forced to
sit by and watch the “uglification” of America, as the blight spun
as “progress and development” destroys the land we nurtured and
that nurtured us. Their goals are always short term, quick fixes, with
never an eye or a thought to what lies in the wake of the
encroachment, pollution and destruction.
It
cannot continue, and if history is truly a teacher, the United
States will self-implode. As Indians, we have endured despite the most
horrific, off the chart odds. We must heed the truth presented in
articles like this. We must remove the blinders and open our own eyes,
and, through education, the eyes of all others who can be made open.
We must, above all, look back to Pontiac and Tecumseh and other great
heroes of our people, and stop the petty Euro-White style of bickering
among ourselves. We must take care of our health, so we are strong as
individuals who can then contribute to forging a strong, unbreakable
chain.
Forget
treaties and enforcing them. They were not only worthless then,
they were created under the false premise that you can forcibly steal
someone’s home and then under severe duress shove a contract down
his throat. We can prevail! We will prevail, and we will long endure.
Our greatest strength is the truth, and knowing that we are
right.
|
