MERRY CHRISTMAS

            &

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Best Wishes From
UR

Happy Thanksgiving.

That being said, in all honesty for many years I have always had a conflict of conciseness when it comes to Thanksgiving when it comes to Native Americans. Since I don’t want to be a downer I won’t go into it.

Besides being thankful for family and friends and being grateful for what I have I would like to take this time to thank the following.

I like to thank all those who serve in our military who are giving of themselves to protect us. 

I like to thank those who are police, firemen, caregivers, nurses, doctors, animal caretakers, utility service/repair workers, security guards and anyone who works as to work because it is a necessity.   

I like to thank all those who have to work in sales or food services on Thanksgiving and those who have to work in retail on Black Friday for they are all truly unappreciated.

I don’t think thanking  maybe appropriate so I especially would like remember  the Native Americans who ended up having struggle to survive due disease and war and had lose so much just to hold on to their traditions and identity and all the tribes who once were and are no longer.  

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not I still wish you all happy and safe holiday.

UR

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Open Discussion cont.

Friends,

We have a new comment at the Open Discussion post.

I was a little late in posting the comment and since it was a subject close our heart for many of us and to make it easier to find moved it here.


At October 15, 2012 2:48 PM , Mack said...
  

Scotland seals terms of historic independence vote -

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cameron-signs-deal-scottish-independence-vote-124329342.html

America the Hated

Yea we get it the Middle East hates us, Muslims hate us. Yeah, yeah we suck.

Strange thing is during the Arab Spring protests America was loved by the protesters then 18 months later America is hated and all this over a film that was at the time virtually unknown in America. I guess people in the Middle East and Africa are used to living in countries where the government control film making so of course they think the US Government must have given the okay of the making of the film. So much for their school’s education of World Government courses.

So let’s see, an anti-Muslim film creates in the Middle East and Africa anti-American protests, attacks on American embassies and the murder of 4 Americans including a US Ambassador which none of these 4 Americans had anything to do with the film. Yet in America with the attack of US embassies, the murder of 4 Americans including a US Ambassador everyone just goes on with their day. Including our President who went to a fund raiser and a had campaign speech that opens with “So I wanted to begin tonight by just saying a few words about a tough day that we had today”. Tough day? Attack of an embassy and the murder of 4 innocent Americans including an Ambassador is just a “tough day”. Wow.

There was a time which the murder of Ambassador could be considered an act of war, particularly if hosting country doesn’t stop it or bring the perpetrators to justice. Question is are Muslim extremist behind some of these attacks either overtly or covertly and using the anti-Muslim film to flame the fire.  No doubt that many of these countries have some kind of knowledge of the groups that are fanning the flames and making plans. I know many of these countries are now trying to protect our embassies and gently bring an end to the protest, but I believe it’s not because they like America but they like America’s money. 

Perhaps it’s time to close our embassies in those countries that hate us and kick out ambassadors and diplomats from counties that hate us. Cut off financial aid to those countries and even revoke visas. I’m not saying that we go to the extent of Ron Paul and becoming isolationist. All the money that we sink into countries that hate us could go to paying down our deficit, rebuilding our economy or provide aid to countries that want our friendship. Let Russia and China support those countries that hate us and see how long until the Muslim extremist turn on them.       

As for oil, we need to buy from Canada and look for oil within our own boarders and become the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. We need to continue to work on alternative energy and fuel efficiently.

Maybe it’s time that America to take care of its own domestic issues and deficit and be more supportive of its true friends and allies in the world. 

UR

Alligator posted a comment and I was going to simple reply but as I thought about I thought Gator’s comment is too good to let be lost in comments.

Gator said,

I have to cut down on the amount of news I watch or I get depressed. Things are getting wilder with people in general. Folks I live and work around seem to be ratcheting up in "drama" in their lives. I have the sense that this really isn't the country I grew up in...we've slipped from our moorings that much.

July 23, 2012 6:51 AM

I have to agree this isn't the country I was raised up in. It does seem to be something wrong with the world today.

From a song called ‘Living on the Edge’

“There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes

We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
The light bulb's gettin' dim
There's meltdown in the sky”

I see more self-center over reactionary aggressive behavior today than I saw 10 years ago. Everyone seems to have a major personal crisis.

What ever happen to being stoic?

I understand why Gator thinks the news is depressing. News reporting is based more on feelings than facts. This may seem cruel to say but feelings aren't facts. This also applies to peoples personal lives as well.

Thing are different today for sure. I wonder how much it has to do with reality TV.

It just seems people are lonelier today even if they have 1000 friends on Facebook. It seems a lot of people like to talk but no one likes to listen. I’ve listen to people complain about the same “crisis” over and over again and when you explain how to handle it they won’t do it. They just want to complain about it as if their crisis gives them some sense of wroth or importance.

When I have a personal crisis or problem I tend to say the Serenity Prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

UR

Supreme Court

I don’t ever want to hear a liberal say that the Supreme Court will favor the right especially  since the Chief Justice Roberts was a Bush appointee and he became the deciding vote on upholding Obamacare. So does this mean if there is an increase of people eligible for Medicaid will they be able to get it? The States are responsible for Medicaid.

Even though the President and Democrats keep telling county that this is not a Tax yet the Lawyers that argued in front of the Supreme Court in favor of Obamacare called it a Tax to justify it under the Commerce clause and apparently the Court agreed. So now this is the largest tax increase ever in America.

Now the question will be how Medicaid will be affected since the Court strike down the Medicaid expansion portion of the Bill.  

Chief Justice Roberts wrote: 

"As for the Medicaid expansion, that portion of the Affordable Care Act violates the Constitution by threatening existing Medicaid funding,"

"Congress has no authority to order the States to regulate according to its instructions. Congress may offer the States grants and require the States to comply with accompanying conditions, but the States must have a genuine choice whether to accept the offer. The States are given no such choice in this case: They must either accept a basic change in the nature of Medicaid, or risk losing all Medicaid funding. The remedy for that constitutional violation is to preclude the Federal Government from imposing such a sanction. That remedy does not require striking down other portions of the Affordable Care Act."

So does this mean if there is an increase of people who becomes eligible for Medicaid, will they be able to get it? Sure the US Government will fund the States for the first 5yrs but what happen after that since the Government can’t force the States to comply.

UR

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a time in the US to remember all Americans who died while serving in the US Armed Forces.

It was a tradition started after the American Civil War which people in the North and the South took a day to remember or visit the graves love ones and friends served and died in the Civil War. Now a days some still honor the falling but many others see it as only the start of summer.  

The following is a list of some Wars, Conflict and Operations which US Service people died in action. (Hopefully my list is correct and sorry if I missed any.)

American Revolutionary War 1775–1783

Franco-American War 1798–1800

First Barbary War (1801–1805) aka the Tripolitan War or the Barbary Coast War

War of 1812, 1812–1815

Second Barbary War (1815) aka the Algerine or Algerian War

Mexican–American War 1846–1848

American Civil War 1861–1865 (Remembrance of Union & Confederates)

Spanish–American War 1898

World War I 1917–1918

World War II 1937–1945

Korean War 1950–1953

Vietnam War 1955–1975

Multinational Force in Lebanon 1982

The Invasion of Grenada 1983

United States Bombing of Libya 1986

The USS Stark incident 1987

Support and Operations to Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988

The Invasion of Panama 1989–1990

Persian Gulf War 1990–1991
The Battle of Mogadishu aka Black Hawk Down 1993

Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti) 1994–1995

The USS Cole bombing October 12, 2000

War on Terror 2001–present

Also will I’m adding the US- American Indian Wars (Remembrance of US Soldiers as well as the American Indian Warriors on both sides)

I thank all those living and dead who served and their families for their scrafice.

UR

Open Discussions

Dear Friends,

A lot has been going on and I really haven’t had time to blog or maybe it’s more like I’m having trouble gathering my thoughts on any one particular topic.

Anyway I’m starting an open discussion section here for now where you can comment or discuss anything you like such as what’s going on in your lives or politics, news, movies petty much whatever, course it’s my blog so I will moderate comments. Remember right now my blog can be seen by anyone even though I really don’t get much traffic your comments can still be seen by others.

Also if you like to write something for my blog I’ll consider posting it just email it to me.

So have at it.

UR

Native Americans Still Fighting Poverty and Addiction

The following are rambling thoughts regarding a serious subject and are based on my limited understanding of Native American life and culture. I by no means consider myself an expert so I could have some things wrong and need to be corrected. I just want to note that not all reservations are in bad shape some have made great strides to combat poverty and substance abuse. It does seem the more remote a tribe’s reservation is the more social and economic problems they seem to have.

“Oglala Sioux Tribe sues Whiteclay stores, beer makers, distributors” Whiteclay is a small town with that boarder the Pine Ridge Reservation. Whiteclay has four beer stores and even though the population is like 14 people +/-the beer stores sell like 4 or 5 million beers per year which is like 11,000 to 14,000 beers a day. Because of alcohol reservations such as Pine Ridge have high incidents of violence, domestic violence, rape, health problems and fetal alcohol syndrome to name a few.

Now several reservations have issue with alcohol, drugs and crime but it seems that Northern Plains reservations tend to higher amounts of it which is due to that they tend to be more remote and impoverished. Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribe Reservation has about 40,000 members living on the Reservation and have an 80% unemployment rate and according to their law suit they claim that 85% of their members are affected by alcoholism. The last I heard alcohol was banned on the Reservation and I think that includes even consuming alcohol on the Reservation is illegal. In a NY Times article “Brutal Crimes Grip an Indian Reservation” Feb 2, 2012 discussed alcohol, violence and crime issues associated with the Wind River Reservation home of Arapahoe and Eastern Shoshone tribes in Wyoming and even with two casinos the still have 80% unemployment and issues with poverty, addiction and crime.

Alcohol entered Native American life by Europeans especially through fur traders. Many young adult natives typically ran the fur trade for their tribes or at least for their own interest with European. Euro/white fur traders found if they provided alcohol (which typically was partially water downed) before trading with Indians, at certain periods in time it was illegal to trade alcohol for furs but traders could give them alcohol before or after trading which in many case after Indians got a taste before trading commenced they ended up more interested in getting more alcohol which they would get after trading was done and usually it was even more watered downed. Tribes before reservation life had the culture/spiritual safeguards to keep alcohol from becoming an overall problem in tribal society even though they did have cases of domestic violence becoming the first sign of troubles to come. In European culture the abuse of alcohol was seen as lack of moral character if not the Devil itself but in most Native culture the drinker was never blamed for their action because they were under influence of alcohol, so it was alcohol’s fault not the individual.

There are many different types of tribes, east and west Coastal tribes, river and Great Lake tribes, Northeast and Southeast Woodland tribes, Southwestern semi-nomadic and agrarian tribes, Southern Plains nomadic tribes, Northern Plains nomadic tribes and a few others types. Coastal, river, Great Lake, certain Southwestern and Woodland tribes tend to less nomadic and had more agrarian capabilities compare to their nomadic Plains cousins. Nomadic Plains tribes did have some capabilities of raising food but it was more like gardening and not farming. Nomadic Plains tribes tend to be more hunter/gathers.

When the government put Indians tribes on reservations it really changed their lives. Government geniuses at the time thought that Northern Plains tribes such as the Sioux and Arapahoe as well as Southern Plains tribes like the Comanche who tend to be nomadic/hunter/gatherer/horse cultures could become farmers. Farming was difficult in most cases for Northern Plains tribes mainly due to the land they were usually placed on as well as other problems. So they ended up dependent on the government to feed them which also was not as simple as it sounds, mainly due to scrupulous government Indian Agents who tend to sell a portion of a tribe’s supplies on the black-market and in some cases supplies that did reach tribes maybe spoiled. During the American Civil War the Federal Government would redirect money that was owed to Indians on reservations to the Union war efforts. In one such case when annuities as per treaty agreement was held up that was due to the Dakota Sioux and local and Federal traders refused to extend credit to the Sioux so that they could get food and add in that the Sioux were starving ended up leading to the Sioux uprising of 1862. The government also banned many tribal traditions and rites which was the heart of their society and identity.

Before Indians were placed on a reservation they lived in tribal civilization which a lot people don’t understand. Everyone in a tribe had a job to do and the tribe’s survival dependent on it. Each family had to take care of themselves but also helping others in the tribe. There were all kinds of jobs that the able body adults did such as utilitarian jobs of getting, preparing and cooking food, gathering wood, making tools, weapons and weaving baskets and making clothes. Also military/security aka Warrior class which warriors would patrol tribe’s territory, yes Indians were territorial and claimed certain land as theirs own and even took land from other tribes if they’re were strong enough to do so. Then there were the spiritual jobs such as the Holy Man and Medicine Man. Then the artistic jobs such musicians, story tellers and dancers. Plus the tribal leadership and council such as the Tribe’s Chief, sub-chiefs, clan heads and elders. As soon as a child could walk they were being trained to work for the family and the tribe. Teenagers would be allow to do nothing, boys would be out on the hunt or practicing hunting or fighting skills or they would be put out on watch for the tribe or taking care and keeping watching on the horses or out stealing horses from rival tribes. Typically a boy will eventually replace his father whether it is warrior or Holy Man if they have the aptitude to do so. Teenage girls would babysit; help gather, preparing and cooking food and water. They would learn to make baskets and clothes. They might even be put on watch duty of the horses. Agrarian tribes of course had farming, herding and fishing add to the jobs to do. Only the ill or the very old were excused from working. The lame and very old still found something to do even if it’s babysitting, tribal or family history education. Tribes and members were self-sufficient, interdependent and communal. The number one job the adults and elders had was teaching the next generation about the tribe, tradition, rituals and how to survive.

So many Indians particularly the Plains/nomadic tribes who sat on a reservation with nothing to do but wait for their government allotments created the ideal environment for alcoholism which has its connection with abuse and violence then in modern time the addition to of drug addiction.

National Survey on Drug Use and Health, January 19, 2007

• In 2002-2005, American Indians and Alaska Natives were more likely than members of other racial groups to have a past year alcohol use disorder (10.7 vs. 7.6 percent)
• In 2002-2005, American Indians and Alaska Natives were more likely than members of other racial groups to have a past year illicit drug use disorder (5.0 vs. 2.9 percent)
• Rates of past year marijuana, cocaine, and hallucinogen use disorders were higher among American Indians and Alaska Natives than among members of other racial groups

Yet, the National Institutes of Health theorize that some Indians may "drink rapidly to induce an altered state of consciousness, a practice congruent with some Native American practices," which I don’t think is the reason for most Indians but maybe a few but I could see most using alcohol to alter their state of consciousness due to depression and hopelessness. But could it also be a predisposition to alcoholism/addiction or that Indians lack the large amount of enzymes in the stomach that would be need break down alcohol more efficiently.

I’m sure there are Native Americans who may drink responsibly but there are many who are not so lucky. Now the few Indians I knew didn’t bother with alcohol or drugs. I have no doubt that poverty and high unemployment have a part to play in this. Many Reservations have high unemployment even those with casinos. In a Forbes article “Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%” it points out that many Indians on reservation can’t take out loans against the homes because they don’t own the property that the land it sits on because most reservations land is communally owned. This of course makes it difficult for these Natives Americans to consolidate debt with a home loan or even get a loan to possibly start a business or by a reliable car to even get to a job. In the Forbes article when it comes to business Bill Yellowtail, a former Crow official and a former Montana state senator says this:

“Our people don’t understand business. After 10 or 15 generations of not being involved in business, they’ve lost their feel for it. Capitalism is considered threatening to our identity, our traditions. Successful entrepreneurs are considered sell-outs, they’re ostracized. We have to promote the dignity of self-sufficiency among Indians. Instead we have a culture of malaise: ‘The tribe will take care of us.’ We accept the myth of communalism. And we don’t value education. We resist it.”

But Yellowtail believes that the situation is improving. He says there are more entrepreneurs than 20 years ago as networks of Native American business people have sprung up in Montana and elsewhere. “We have to start with micro loans, encouraging small businesses. Then we have to make it okay to leave the reservation because the most successful are going to want to branch out. Entrepreneurs are going to have to stick their neck out, be a role model. We Indians are going to have to do it.”

There will be no easy answers especially during these times where most American are dealing with unemployment and economic hard times. But this can also be seen as a lesson about what could happen to a society that becomes dependent on the government to take care of them. Several reservations have to deal with high levels of unemployment, alcohol/drug abuse, violence, unable to get loans, poor education and high dropout rates. Are not these problems also seen in high welfare communities and government housing communities in America?

I know the alcohol/drug problem seems pretty bleak for Indians but there are many Indians who are getting sober who are now helping other tribe members and tribes are now putting focus on their youth and encouraging them to pursue education, sport and the arts as well as connecting with tribal traditions and langauge. But this still doesn’t resolve the immedite issues of high unemployment and poverty but maybe this next generation of warriors will win these battles for their tribes.

UR

Immigrant or Citizen

Mitt Romney continues to say his father was an immigrant.

Yes George W. Romney Mitt’s father was born in Mexico in 1907 but George was born to American citizens. George’s parents Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt were from Utah but they lived in a Mormon colony in Mexico. Actually you could say Mitt’s grandparents were immigrants to Mexico.

George age 5 and his parents had to flee Mexico due to the Mexican Revolution and they left everything behind and came back to America in 1912 with very little, but they were American citizens.

So in my opinion Mitt’s father George came to America not as an immigrant but as a citizen.

In 1968 George Romney ran for President if George was a true immigrant he wouldn't be allowed to run for President.

So maybe Mitt is stretching it a bit?

UR