When I read, and watched, the remarks Sarah Palin made about rural issues to the Kyle Hopkinns of the Anchorage Daily News, I nearly punched the screen. I had to leave my laptop and go fume for many, many hours - talking (venting) with my parents and grandmother and even brother - before I could return and be relatively sure I would not toss my innocent little laptop into the snow for being the bearer of bad news. Even then I couldn't trust myself to post without liberal use of curse words, which I usually try to avoid.
What got me into this murderous, computer-killing rage? Please read Mudflats and The Immoral Minority for more detail, but let me try and summarize some of Ms. Palin's points as she answered questions:
- Palin thinks youth need to consider leaving the villages.
This one is what really infuriated me. The Native people of Alaska have been fighting and fighting for generations to ensure rural communities thrive, thinking up solutions to get especially the young people to stay and contribute to the community. The boarding school times in which young people left "for a short time" were some of the most devastating to these communities. Did we learn nothing about what this kind of thinking leads to? Is there no thought to a real future? Palin shows a lack of the study of Alaskan and American history. So much time and energy trying to salvage these towns and villages from social and economic collapse, and the governor of our state can sweep them aside with one ignorant comment.
What these communities need is infrastructure, jobs in the communities themselves. Ironically, I just got a look at the Indian country provisions in the stimulus bill, and was thinking how forward we've come in our look at what Native communities really need. Maia of Own the Sidewalk forwarded me a link to a National Congress of American Indians page devoted to the Indian country provisions of the stimulus bill. I haven't been talking about the stimulus package becuase the last thing anyone wants is me commenting on anything to do with money. But I was incredibly impressed with the funding set aside for Native country projects.
Basically, it's all about infrastructure in these communities. Energy projects, building projects, roads and weatherization. Things that will not only create jobs and a viable economy in the short term, but ensure a future community exists at all. I don't know about the rest of the stimulus, but in this, they've got it dead on. Why are the only solutions Palin talks about all about getting out of the community? Helping out the oil companies? She throws out something about becoming VPSO's or teachers in your own community - but how can they when the whole youth of the village is now set on leaving? There's no one left to police or teach.
- Palin's reminder to villages: We're in a cash-based society now.
Does she think the village people are trading beads? Seriously, the amount of times Palin talks down to rural people in these remarks is nauseating. Attention Palin: The people of rural Alaska are INCREDIBLY aware that we are living in a cash-based society! My guess is more aware than Palin. What little money is trickling in has not been spent on Neiman Marcus clothing and $60 phone calls. THERE IS NO INFRASTRUCTURE = THERE ARE NO JOBS.
Regardless of the governor's solution to have the youth leave and find jobs, maybe even a better solution is to get the state working on a viable plan of creating jobs in the community. If we had a little leadership, Alaska could be the most forward, technological marvel of how to get both energy solutions and indigenous populations working to better, not only the state, but the nation. The resources out in rural Alaska are incredible, and instead of promoting that, we are currently squandering it and giving it away. In this case, the human resources are being encouraged to leave.
- As our leader, Palin is not going to make an example of what to do in this situation.
This comes right after she's chastised the leadership of these communities to do a better job of making an example of themselves. The inability of this governor to not practice what she preach continues to astound me. Why invite all these reporters to see you off, handing out food, if it's not to show them how "you" are helping? The only possible wayI can read this is, "I didn't do anything, so don't ask."
- Palin learned about this situation from the media, not from actually listening to the people of her state.
I will say it again - this problem did not just spring up six weeks ago. Not only has this been generations in the making, the whole last year Native leaders, state leaders, corporations, people in the communities have been speaking out, warning about this, and even asking for help before it "hit the web." I've posted this before, but I want to reiterate how far in advance the governor had to prepare for this, and did nothing:
In May, the Bristol Bay Times reported on rural residents calling for emergency relief and to declare an energy diaster.
In early August, the Anchorage Daily News reported prominent Native leaders directly talking to Paling about these problems, and the solutions that including building infrasctructure.
In early August, even USA Today noticed the problem and reported on it, referencing data showing just how bad it could get from a study done in May.
In late August, Sen. Murkowksi held a meeting about the crisis, and urged residents to stay in their communities (report by ADN).
"I urge you not to give up your way of life, your culture and your connection to the land and move into urban areas. We will find a creative way to beat this," she told Bethel residents...
In September, Sen. Begich (then Mayor) and Anchorage School Superintendent sent a letter to Palin (from ADN) regarding the migration from villages to the city due to high energy costs. Palin refuted high energy costs had anything to do with it, later.
In October, Native leaders continued their call for an energy emergency declared at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention (reported by the ADN). Of course, Palin was busy campaigning and may not have noticed.
In November, Indian Country Today did a story highlighting the Alaska Federation of Natives resolution to the energy crisis and village migration, as well as the incredibly poor response from Palin.
In late December, Indian Country Today reported on the dismal reaction of the Palin administration energy crisis, focusing on the rural subcabinet formed.
"The Rural Subcabinet formed by Governor Sarah Palin in response to what many consider a crisis in rural Alaska has reportedly met, but specific information about their activities has been difficult to find..." "The group has no fixed meeting time and the date of their next meeting is unknown." "...As of Dec. 8, the AFN had apparently heard nothing about actions or meetings of the subcabinet..."
Of course, this is only in recent months. This stuff goes back years, as far as addressing the real problems. Not to mention the other villages that have had true emergencies, including Adak. Once again, I point to the Alaska Native Commission Report done in the 90's that point out both problem and solution. Palin should think about reading it.
- Palin blames the villages for the probem, not the policies, restrictions and initiatives she can do anything about. So don't ask.
After stewing all night, I woke up this morning to a phone call from Celtic Diva. She and Mudflats pointed to an article in the Alaska Dispatch, praising Palin for "speaking from the heart" and being "thoughtful" about solutions for the communities.
You can only be thoughtful if you've met with the people from the communities and listened to them. Palin is calling for a change in leadership - with who? What are these leaders doing wrong? Who are they? When has she talked to them? And she gave NO solutions except to say these youth should think about leaving. So the solution is "leave the village"? She can't be a spark to "real dialogue" when she's never taken part in a dialogue! The dialogue has been going on, but Palin doesn't care to be part of it.
The article was also preemptively defensive about the race card being thrown at Palin. As if Palin needs to be a racist to make ignorant remarks about the state of rural Alaska. Personally, I believe Palin is willing to be pretty racially equal about throwing rural Alaska under the bus. For that matter, she's screwing us all equally in her painfully obvious stab for national attention. I didn't agree with the remarks about Ted Stevens at the time (don't think the guy was racist, just wrong) and it is interesting to note that the only people to bring up racism with Palin's remarks have been the people of the Alaska Dispatch.
To be very clear - Palin's remarks aren't racist. They are ignorant of the real issues, display a willingness to decide what is right having never had the dialogue, and take us back about 50 years in the struggle to maintain thriving rural and cultural communties. But in ignorance, she's being quite equal.
Once again, Palin offered no solutions to these problems. She talks about them getting jobs, but not about training, or the availability of them. Does she think every Native youth has a father on the slope and the governor willing to write a letter of recommendation to get them that job? It's really not that easy. It also displays an incredibly poor grasp of the situation. Some of these families are paying $2,500 a month just for their oil. Getting a job on the slope doesn't fix that problem, and it will continue to be a problem.
Again, she shows us she hasn't really looked at the situation. One of the men who sent a letter from a village just after Nick Tucker's letter was brilliant in displaying what they are trying. From Kongiganak, he talks about three projects that have the potential to help out the community. Yet:
The school project, AMI, told us that they will hire only 10 people from our village and the rest will come from the lower 48...about 20 out of state workers. We have many certified carpenters, welders, plumbers, electricians, and equipment operators that only a handful will work in these projects. What is wrong with this? Our legislators say that these projects are supposed to give our villages jobs and the people from Alaska.
Despite Palin's assertions that this is not the governments problem, this has everything to do with government. Lack of support for energy projects, restrictions on subsistence, laws about fisheries and over-fishing... The short-term problem is hungry kids and no heat. But the short-term problem could have been avoided completely by addressing these long-term solutions that Palin has been unwilling to even look at, much less be part of a dialogue about.
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31 comments:
Palin's comments are not racist. They simply showcase her thoroughly profound ignorance about living conditions in her own state. It is ironic that she would be that clueless though, since she loves to yammer on about Native Alaska! and Todd being an Eskimo! when it suits her PR purposes.
I completely sympathize with you as well. It makes me irate to say the least. I long since gave up denying that Sarah was a first class idiot and every day she proves it more. I too have seen the comments from outsiders who ask "why don't these people just move"- often from outsiders who most likely live in their hometown or near family. I came to Alaska 21 years ago from California and I am utterly unwilling to leave. However, I really wish my I could be with my family and have the comforts of home and all I grew up knowing, I just happen to be unwilling to live in that rat race. I admire those who stay in the villages in Alaska, not only for their strength and endurance but also (good lord I hate using that word anymore) but because they are willing to forego the material comforts and financial dreams of living in the city and working on the slope so that their families stay in tact and that generations to come will share in the beauty that is their culture. These people should be commended and supported in their pursuits- which by the way doesn't mean the guvmint handouts Sarah has in mind.
Hey there Writing Raven:
I am, once again, dazzled by your insight and passion on the political situation that our State is in with regard to the Native communities. I work with several young people that are being forced to look for work outside of the villages they grew up in and the ripples of this situation are vast and deeply felt.
As an Alaskan woman, I am ashamed to be dirtied by the Palin association, and as a voter, I am just plain angered by her inaction on this matter. Gratefully, we have Murkowski and Begich looking after the future of our First People, and we have caring and intelligent young voices like yours that will greatly effectuate how this story plays out.
Thank you and keep up the good work!
I am not afraid nor intimidated to say exactly that Sarah Palin IS racist - along with all her other unsavory mentally unbalanced characteristics. I am not assimilated enough, nor politically correct enough (hate that politically "correct" crap), to hold my tongue from saying it outright. Take a look at her IN TOTAL: Sarah Palin IS racist.
An Ahtna Dene (Athabascan) born and raised in Alaska
As a former social work major at UAA, I did some hours at ANS when it was in Anchorage. I got off the bus at the depot and walked over and met a woman with a double stroller and two toddlers navigating Anchorage-- I think her husband or mother was at ANS (it was over 15 years ago.) Many of us never think of how hard that is, coming from a village and entering Anchorage. I was late for my interview but forgiven :) as I helped the mom and her four kids reach their destination. Going to the city is not something that you just wake up and do-- it's not easy! She was baffled-- she had to have correct change to get on the bus.
Oh-- and she was overwhelmed by other things, not just the bus!
"Cash-based economy" is a technical term. The alternative is "subsistence" which is a communal economy. Subsistence is NOT "bead trading". Also, I watched the interview in question. Here is something she said that you may have missed:
"The long-term solution is for job opportunities in these areas."
Hello? Isn't she saying you need to have jobs there in your area?
She goes on to point out that many of Alaska's workers in *various* industries, including fishing and not just oil, are "imported". She would like for Alaskans to have those jobs and she thinks it would be a good idea if rather than importing them from out of state, they could be imported from the rural areas. Sounds like she is putting rural Alaskans ahead of out-of-state people there.
What you wrote is an erroneous tirade. Anyone who wants to be fair and investigate these issues can see that. I am sorry for your frustration, truly, and maybe there really is more that she could do to help, but you are being totally unfair in your characterization of what Palin said on these things.
I hope things will work out for all involved, but putting my grandchildren into debt and rationing health care for the elderly, etc, are huge national issues that I find to be evil. The states should exercise their tenth amendment right and these issues are local ones that should be settled on the state level, not the federal level.
Many blessings. I do hope the best for you, but what you wrote is obviously a grossly unfair mischaracterization of what her positions are on these things.
Lisa Graas, I agree with you 100%.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone - the response has been great. These are just the kinds of issues that need to have a public dialogue.
Deenaa - I see your points, but also think that racism, by definition, means you have to be focused on the race. Although the majority of rural Alaskans are Native, many, many are not. Some communities have a majority of non-Native people. The disregard Palin is showing rural Alaska is the same she is showing to Southeast Alaska - an entire region of both Native and Non-Native, a majority of non-Native. I don't think it's political correctness to say she's not acting in a racist way - I think that it is a word that gets thrown around too much when a minority population is affected. Sometimes it IS racism - sometimes that population happens to be affected with a bunch of other populations.
Lisa - I can appreciate your disagreement, but you also sound as if you aren’t very familiar with rural Alaska, and might not understand the sarcasm very well. Palin re-emphasizing the “cash-based” economy shows a lack of understanding as to the economy of the villages. Despite taking part in subsistence activities most Alaska villages haven’t been subsistence economies (in the technical respect you refer to) for longer than Palin has been alive. And much of the sarcasm of the comment was targeted toward Palin’s efforts right out of the gate to curtail subsistence activities in the first place. She is not a friend to Alaskan subsistence, and does not seem to understand the Alaskan subsistence lifestyle.
And for the job opportunities regarding oil companies especially, many people just don’t understand what this means. These are not “local” jobs. Taking a job on the slope is roughly the same as taking a job in Michigan when you live in California – and about as far. That’s what she was referencing when was talking about the two weeks on, two weeks off stuff, and not as simple as she might think. To go back to the town I was born, for instance, is an all day journey, requiring three plane stops, two ferry rides (or an additional plane) and someone with a car for the last leg - and I could (literally) more cheaply get a ticket to Hawaii. It’s much easier from Wasilla.
But some of it is not all about the journey, but the impact of the absence. Again – THESE ARE NOT LOCAL JOBS. Palin needs to spend time researching the effects of what happened in the many, many Native communities when this has happened before. Leaving for a job, education, or religion is not a new or innovative idea for rural Alaska – it’s been done before. Which is exactly why I, the generation to come after, and so absolutely repulsed she can consider such solutions.
It is ironic you bring up putting your grandchildren into debt and rationing health care for the elderly – I challenge you to look at just these instances in rural Alaska, and WHY they happened. Also irony that you are emphasizing working out at the state level – that’s what we’ve been trying to get her – and a long line of politicians before her – to do. Extreme irony there – as we celebrate our 50th year as a state, we are reminded that so many Native people wanted statehood because we figured we could work with a state government much better than a national. 50 years later – some of those same issues are still on the table, unresolved.
Just want you to know I linked to your piece in a comment at POLITICAL ANIMAL. If the election of Her Excellency, the Baroness Munchhausen as Governor. and her later National Extravaganza, has had few positive points, one is the well deserved attention it has brought to great bloggers from Alaska, especially you and Mudflats.
(I hope -- but time gets limited -- to put a post on TPMCafe on the problem, the solution, and the bloggers.)
Thanx for existing, Writing Raven. It makes the world a little better, you're being there.
Raven: I am speaking of the "majority" of Alaska Natives whoever and where ever they reside. There are approximately 220 some villages of ALASKA NATIVES (capitalize for emphasis)whether or not non-natives are mixed in. I also said look at Sarah Palin "in total". Our native peoples are just expedient for this woman as she sees fit to use us in any context for her own PERSONAL aggrandizement, i.e., even Todd Palin, her husband was used in her VP campaign. She even had the audacity to tell a black man in one of the many cities she campaigned in that her and Todd suffered discrimination in Alaska because of Todd's native heritage. Incredible! BTW, that particular man was the lone black person at that rally with a pointed question to her of WHY he was the only black guy there. Luckily, a video camera caught this snippet & put it on the internet. I do not believe she is only racist towards Alaska Natives, but being a true racist, all brown skins would be greeted with her charmy, smarmy smiles with the knife hidden behind her back.
We are basically on the same page, but let me clarify that using the words "politically correct" not to be construed to narrow meaning. I use it as I observe people DOING IT at all times, in all ways, and in all places - covering so much of peoples inabilities to speak out truthfully to the bone for fear that they will NOT be "politically correct". I don't toss it around ever nor use the terminology because I always try to speak directly and truthfully. Again, as I said before basically, political correctness be damned. My opinion and belief, based upon all observations of this woman by her deeds and non-deeds - plus some personal intuition on what I know of human behaviors - she is definitely, profoundly and without a doubt racist towards Alaska Natives and "others"... no matter they are thrown in among us and our rural brothers and sisters. BTW: We Alaska Natives are not in any majority of population in this state yet...
One last comment: It is also my personal opinion and belief that this american society is one of the most racist populations of people on this planet. And, one of the most violent. I don't call myself an "american" first. I call myself DENE!...first. It just so happens that I was conferred this "citizenship" after all facts. Our peoples have been here ice-ages and were naturalized citizens of our lands and recognized by EACH OTHER as "the real people", "the human beings", or simply, "the people". THAT is my first citizenship. I did not come into life FIRST as an "american". I say all this as an ending to my original statements regarding racism and in particular the racism of the person who fooled too many here in Alaska - Sarah Palin - the person who currently impacts the lives of our Alaska Natives in the most dire and derogatory of ways in the continuation of our displacements, sufferings and grievous social statistics. We are STILL "A PEOPLE IN PERIL" - all which have their ROOTS in the likes of the many faces of a Sarah Palin. She is just another manifestation of wild west mentality born of the GENOCIDAL "Manifest Destiny" mindset. You damned right she is.
Oh, I have so much more feelings, opinions, beliefs and research that could not be put here in this little box on this subject that far too few people would care to discuss in any way, but politically correct. There is no real discussions upon the roots of racism in america. That is perhaps why in 21st century america it is still a virulent characteristic of american society and it continues to breed the likes of a Sarah Palin. I also have my own deductions on the whys and wherefors of its ugly face ... here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I will, have and continue to observe what is observable. Especially on collective levels. Isn't that what any social scientist would or should do?
Another BTW: It goes without saying that individually all humanity has committed this great breach of inhumanity to their fellow man - most all of us fall into this trap so easily. It should therefore behoove us all to be AWARE of how easy it is to compartmentalize and to dehumanize and to stereotype the "other". I may sound like I am proselytizing, but I firmly believe that we must all fight against our own personal leanings to become or act as racists. I see how easily and dangerously it can happen. In words and deeds. I just happen to believe that Sarah Palin has very little to almost non-existent self-awareness of her own proclivities to behave very racist. Its apparent. It shows and when it is against the "collective" of our Alaska Natives, you can be sure I will speak out against it. It is just that dangerous for me NOT to speak out against it. If it is not recognized it will continue. It will continue to be glossed over with all manner of trickery and con artistry. I believe she is best at that con. That makes her a dangerous kind of "human" to me and to all of my people that she, in her supposed capacity as "leader" in OUR lands and state, poses. Doesn't the example of Emmonak speak directly to this? And yes, to South East and all our peoples there - whether or not we are a majority in that part of Alaska. We are no majority here in our own lands. I repeat.
Keep up your brilliant insights though. I put you on my own personal blogroll. Tsaen'ann seh'gue for your sharing & allowing this little box of retort.
TeamSarah & SarahPAC flooded the blogs with their divisive rheoteric regarding this crisis and it's all verifiable in the Anch. Daily News Blogs. The Governor's opinions didn't suprise me, I had been reading bits and pieces of it on the blogs for ages.
What did disgust me is her portraying her husband as moving out of the villages and finding his own way. NOT EVEN!
Deennas, help me out here, I know there is a technical term for people like you who consider their own self-selected racial group "the real people", "the human beings", or simply, "the people" and everybody else is inferior.
It's right on the tip of my tongue but I just can't recall what one calls people like you who spew their misguided beliefs in the superiority of their own little racial group.
To Sylvia:
Your tone is so very familiar... First, my name is printed clearly on this post. It is not "Deennas". REALLY look at the proper spelling.
Yes, I WILL help you out here as you, like so many, MISCONSTRUE, MISINTERPRET, DO NOT READ OR TALK OR THINK WITH ANY INSIGHT INTO WHAT IT IS ACTUALLY BEFORE YOU so that you MIGHT get the REAL UNDERSTANDING. Someone like you puts your big foot in your big mouth before you even have a grasp of what IS. I will ask you WHY you take such a mean-spirited attitude to commentary that is EXPLAINING something of which you MIGHT possibly get a little knowledge from? WHY would you so miss the whole point of the comment? I'll help you out with that answer: I sense you have some strong racist tendencies and MAYBE you don't like the fact that you are seeing the truth about it vis a vis my commentary. Just a thought. Although I have to say that if you are outright accused of being a racist you will certainly scream the loudest. What tips me off is the fact that you appear to be doing just that coupled with the nasty attitude you put in print.
You are (or at least showing me by your little nastiness here), EXACTLY the racism I am talking about. WHY? Tell me about that. You don't know an iota about me. AND, judging JUST from the few words you thoughtlessly threw in here - you don't have a clue about our "american" Indian/Alaska Native cultures. I assume you are an "american" (maybe not - who knows? You leave no real identity). Your response is rote. Its typical. Its generic. ITS NOT NEW TO US AS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THESE "america's"!
What offended you most "sylvias"? The fact that I call you as I SEE you? That I do not worship the creature Sarah Palin? Or that I personally don't identify myself FIRSTLY, as an "american"??? SAY WHAT YOU REALLY MEAN GIRL! Either way it would not matter to me except in your case the record needs to be set straight for any others out there who MIGHT happen to be swayed by your illogical, untrue, MISCONSTRUED, totally mean-spirited drivel.
For your enlightenment(and helping you out): Across this COUNTRY (and with CANADIAN FIRST NATIONS PEOPLES), Indian peoples EACH have their own languages, but ONE VERY COMMON INTERPRETATION of what ALL of us call ourselves in DESCRIBING WHO WE ARE and that interpretation - from each of the differing Native languages - had THE almost same, and in most cases, IDENTICAL MEANING IN TRANSLATION and that meaning was a DESCRIPTION OF OURSELVES AS NATIONS, i.e., "the PEOPLE", "the Human Beings", "the REAL PEOPLE". Go look that up. Do your research. Or, in case that is too much effort, just accept it as it is told by one of those "people" themselves!
For your other assumptions: there was no inference of "superior" or "inferior" in giving you some little tidbit of knowledge about WHO AND WHAT WE ARE and, WHAT WE CALL OURSELVES AS NATIONS OF PEOPLES. Don't you label yourself "american"? The hypocrisy is showing on you.
That word "self-selected" is ridiculous. WHO, anywhere, self-selects the race or nationality they are BORN INTO?!!
The issue here is not what we call ourselves as people, although if you were a TEACHABLE person, you might have picked up some small piece of knowledge of another culture other than your own. I could just as well call you on your own prejudices. I would say from your little blurb of insultive wording that you are an intolerant person lacking in insight into "others". Bottom line question: What so bothers you about the interpretation of what we call ourselves? Don't fret so much girl. There are plenty enough of "Indians" who don't mind being called "american". I am one who DOES NOT. I have ALL my personal reasons that apparently you could not decipher for your closed and trapped mind. Period. THAT's your real hidden issue. Not, "trying to find a "technical term...on the tip of your tongue".
Your catchword, "superiority of their own little racial group" is just kicking your hypocritical little ass isn't it? I'll give you that "technical" term that's on the tip of your tongue that you just can't quite spit out: its your face. Look in the mirror.
I will say about you: "I rest my case". YOU are the face of collective, insecure white america. Racist to the bone. Never able to glean the truth. Never able to overcome your own lack of identity. You have no culture to speak of. I call you CULTURE ENVIESTS. That's what your little, small, tiny, and as I said, INSULTIVE comment brought to my mind...again. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseum.
Not totally, but far too collectively(got that?), american whites(and some "others" who have ASSIMILATED) do not know who they are. THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. You all(those many many many many many,etc.etc.)run on infantile emotions. That's about the best I could say for you. It has nothing to do with "superior" or "inferior". It has EVERYTHING to do with WHAT YOU SHOW YOURSELVES AS. Everyone else of any of us here on planet earth has to go into "defensive" mode in any encounters with your ignorant racism's.
I suppose that would make a person like you feel "superior"? I think that's YOUR bottom line.
This is just one of the boundless reasons people hate "white americans": your rude, insultive, plow everyone under approach to anyone who you so erroneously believe is NOT YOU.
Lastly: Take that last comment of yours and "spew" it right back at you - where it belongs.
Technical terms you might want on the tip of your tongue: TEACHABILITY. RESPECT. HONOR. UNSELFISHNESS. MATURITY. TRUTHFULNESS.
I could have made this really much shorter. I have the mistaken belief that you MIGHT possibly have ONE clue as to the prematurity of your ignorant comment. I'm always told though, that you can't smarten up dumb. I'll give the benefit of at least ONE doubt.
I WILL say that you are way too judgemental before you get ALL the facts, knowledge and information. Set free that ugly little mindset. You'll feel much better and those little digging, irritating "technical terms" will magically appear to your mind instead of being trapped on the "tip of your tongue". Then you can "spew" too! ;-)
Deennaa, thanks for the clarification. I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt and your followup post removed any doubt or misunderstanding.
That term I was looking for jumped right out about halfway into your response.
It's a term you have used a lot in the brief time we have been together.
I have to admit to some small predudice against people who say the things you say. A lot of them wear those pointy white hoods on their heads and some of them have got those funny crosses with the bent ends tattooed all over their bodies. I've never felt comfortable around them. I'm sure you would find you have a lot in common if you were to hang out with them at a cross burning or something.
Writing raven, I am half Native American and my grandmother came from the James River tribe in Virginia, my grandmother always told me to accept all walks of life, never to judge the other person, instead to show them why things are,invite them to share in the life of Natives, and when you do that you give yourself a friend who has walked on the path with you. I understand you are young and that is a blessing,understanding is most important, listen with a open heart,Teach other's about the ways of Native culture. But never speak evil of anyone.You are wise and you need to show this in a positive light. Be Blessed Young one.
To Sylvia:
You are so far out in left field, I have to repeat, again, I rest my case about you and your commentary.
You've only ADDED to the impression of your hypocrisy: now, self-righteous. Ugly indeed. It appears you only are capable of "admitting some small prejudice..." Really, your post is about as clear as mud with no sign of any insight, I repeat.
You just can not tolerate a different opinion. Its not surprising YOU would bring up the "white hoods". Too bad for you. You missed ALL the points. I'll say it a third time: I rest my case about you. There is no other conversation to be had with you. Your intolerance for truths or other persons beliefs is blatant and further response would be like throwing pearls before swine. So take that and go off on it. Apparently, the topic of this post - let me spell it out for you literally - "Palin thinks the youth need to move out of the villages" - is beyond the scope of your intellect.
You just need to slither out from under that rock so everyone can see what they are REALLY dealing with from you.
Try sticking to the topic instead of attacking someone's personal opinions and beliefs. Otherwise, your continuing attempts to slander are just that: SLANDER.
There are, again, so many like you. They like to THINK they are thinking(thoughtful)but in truth, you've shown your rear end by your drifting away into your own lala land of imagined and false assumptions.
BTW: "we" haven't been together EVER nor for a nano second. As far as I'm concerned you can continue to blubber on and attack all you want. You will have changed no opinion or belief of mine. You will only keep re-inforcing my intuitions, opinions and beliefs about who you clearly show yourself to be - hiding as you are in this little box of words. Your barely covert hypocrisy is despicable.
Get back to the topic of this post and stop wasting your vitriol on something you have not one clue about.
The tit-for-tat is done with for you "sylvias".
Deennaa, a question you should reflect upon: is your elevated self-importance justified by your abilities or accomplishments? I know nothing about what you have done in life but in my experience, people who blog kneejerk, vitriolic, bigoted, self-aggrandizing screed rarely live up to their self-image.
I suggest reading the comment above from onewoman4justic with an open mind; you might learn something from it.
Your comment, "Your intolerance for truths or other persons beliefs is blatant..." shows an incredible absence of self-awareness.
Great article but jeez, the posts sort of prove the point I think AlaskaDispatch was trying to make. Which is that this debate so often turns into personal attacks on who is a racist, who has real compassion, who really understands rural Alaska.
I think these same basic points could be better made without the personal attacks on Palin. Yes, I share your critique of her, but holy smokes is she about a million miles from being the first or most powerful Alaska leader to miss the boat on village issues. It's not about her. These problems existed before the Palin clan ever heard of Alaska, and probably will for long after they've gone.
And for my two cents, while this is by no means universally true, I think that protecting subsistence is MORE important than building roads in villages. Subsistence isn't some dreamy-new-age-idyllic thing that is long dead. Subsistence is a real way of life that DOES persist, nowhere more healthy than in Alaska's villages. Build all the boondoggles you want, but if subsistence dies, the villages die.
A family member married a Eskimo and lives and works in a village.
I have seen and heard first hand what really goes on in the village, as well as friends who have been teachers and employed in the villages.
If your village is such a great place to raise young people , why do they kill themselves on a higher scale than youth in the city. Even though the population in the city for young people is higher.
If your villages are so great, why is there so much abuse toward women and children as well as sexual abuse and incest toward women and children.
If your villages are so great, why is there so much alcoholism, even in dry villages.
If your villages are so great, why do you not raise young people to become teachers so they can return and teach not only ABC's but their culture hands on. Why not raise pilots to fly food and supplies into villages, navigators, leaders political and spiritual. Seems manily non Native/Eskimo hold a-lot of these positions. These positions should be held by Natives/Eskimo's not outsiders!
If your villages are so great, why do many whales die from gun shot wounds than from a real whale hunt.
Whales are a dying breed and no one should be allowed to hunt them if more animal rights people knew how cruel villagers are to the whales there would eventually be an end to whale hunting as well.
(pun)
I could go on and on however what would be the point, it is so obvious something is terribly wrong with the villages.
There is a wonderful article on Butch Lincoln and Jeff Kinneeveauk in 1st Alaskans. Excellent reasons for leaving the villages. Thanks
Response to "Truth":
All of your questions & that comment "a family member married a eskimo and lives and works in a village..." reveals what is at the roots of all your questions regarding "what is so great" about living in the village. If your "seeing" firsthand and "hearing" what goes on in our native villages did not prompt any abstract thinking on your part about all the "whys" you put forth, then you never really SAW or LISTENED(heard) what was before your unseeing and unhearing eyes.
For starters: your terminology is race based. A very "american white" (caucasion if you prefer)commentary. I'm not going to coddle you. Northern, including north western Alaskan Native peoples are called INUPAQ or INUPIAQ. Western Alaskan Native peoples are called YUPIK. Southcentral and the Aleutian Chain Alaska Native peoples are called ALEUT or ALUTIQ. "Eskimo" is the white man's word derivative from mis-understanding of language. I have a "why" question for you: WHY didn't YOU know this simple fact? Ok. That's for starters.
The history of our peoples is that the whites came upon us and not the other way around. In that coming was our slow demise. Many times it wasn't even slow. Take the worldwide flu of 1918. It took complete villages in its death march. It was the ones who "came upon us" with all their diseases. Came with all their totally crazy beliefs of superiority about the indigenous peoples they encountered anywhere. Starting with destroying our spirituality with their version of christianity. Stealing our children was a part of their colonial schemes to make us into themselves. In that despicable theft was a breakdown in the most horrible way a culture can be broken down for its future survival. Our children were forced, yes forced, into schools far from their homes - thousands of miles in many cases. In these schools - either run by so-called christians or/and military style regimentation. Look up, for example, www.hiddenfromhistory.org. Listen to the people. REALLY HEAR IT.
In these schools our children - that FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE - you actually "looked at" but did not actually SEE, was the result of, and outcome of so so many of our people today. WE ARE THAT FUTURE. You have looked at us and STILL YOU DO NOT SEE US. You apparently haven't a clue of Generational Trauma. You have no clue of trauma period.
You can not steal, especially violently, a peoples way of living - their language, religion, social infrastructure, which infrastructure taught its children how to act, how to speak, how to subsist, how to worship, how to live in extended family socializations with LOVE and RESPECT for everything and NOT to see its disintigration and BREAK-DOWN in myriads upon myriads of ways. This is an oversimplification I give you, but it is exactly what has happened to our peoples. We were preyed upon by the worst of your predators from the seemingly christian to the lowest of your low who preyed upon our children sexually in your "superior" so called institutions of education. You beat and abused our children literally. They were only little "savages" afterall. If you could get away with it, you murdered them. Oh please. I'm so sick of whites who have no hearts nor minds to LOOK INTO YOUR OWN DARK HEARTS.
Then, you brought YOUR alcohol to us. We did not have YOUR history and longevity with that poison. It stole our souls and spirits in addition to all else that was so obscenely, violent and barbarically was thieved and thrust upon us. We only had ice ages without YOUR poisons and death dealing ways.
Do you understand the dynamics of what your so-called "progress" in the name of your ugliest credo "Manifest Destiny" has done?! You looked it in the face supposedly and never saw your own hideous impacts in all our villages and reservations across this land that is STILL STOLEN BY YOU AND THE UNCOUNTABLE LIKES OF YOU.
Your intent was to conquer us - and to divide us. To this very day, you have certainly divided us in sickening ways. Some of us think we are really "american" and are just like you. Imagine! Because of this division amongst ourselves, we have many among us whose identity is shame-based. Some of us even hate ourselves BECAUSE WE WERE TAUGHT TO in your vile education system. Otherwise, all we have to do is to look into the mirror of YOUR society and we always come up short - one of the reasons our youth commit suicides on such grievous horrendous scale in this land we cannot yet claim back as to its true ownership (look up international law): OUR LAND! Do you think that is ever out of the conscious minds of those of us who are AWARE of our true history? Don't ever fool yourself to think or believe you have CONQUERED THE REAL AMONG US WHO NEVER FORGOT OUR HISTORY AND HOW IT WAS SMASHED AND STOLEN.
BREAKDOWN. I wonder (totally doubt) you understand the TIME measure of what a culture breakdown IS, and more importantly, the vast and layered upon layered upon layered results of the conditions that slowly, unrevocably creep out of it, to show the likes of you who cannot, will not "SEE"" what is before your very face: family breakdown from the loss of our children and introduction of alcohol and later, your dirty drugs. We never had them. Now, it seems, we cannot get rid of ALL these horrific BREAK-DOWNS. It was YOU who gave us a mount Everest of ills that almost wiped us out.
Let us turn the tables in case you feel that this reply sounds "too whiny" and you cannot suffer the shame that BELONGS TO YOU.
Imagine(abstract think), IF you can, that WE had come upon YOU and made immediate claims to your homes and the lands you occupied for literally time out of mind. Imagine that we thrust you into stark raving hysterical cants of dehumanizations calling you "inferior", "wild", "savage" - so much so that WE had to immediately "change" you into something you were not. First, we try to massacre those of you who do not compliantly obey, follow, or concede to our demands that you cut your hair, dress in our clothes and eat our foods, oh, and drink our alcohol, which you had never experienced, adopt our language, and especially FORCE our religion (MANY in your case and NEVER in agreement with each other)on you. When we wiped most of you out from the millions upon millions that you once were, your remnants were forced upon the worst lands we could conjure up for you and called them "reservations" (reserves in Canada). Then we made you completely dependent upon us for everything we could dream up - from foods to special laws that we claimed were necessary because, like the inferior people we deemed you to be, you "needed" this special TRUST RELATIONSHIP - we had the POWER OVER YOU to declare these special domains and demands. You were, afterall, like children. Never fully able to care for yourselves. Yes, you would fight back....until our power and numbers all but swallowed you up. Imagine, if you can, how much desparation would creep into your lives. Alchohol would become your choice of self-medication to deal with all of these massive losses to yourselves. YOU WOULD BREAK-DOWN .... TIME WOULD NOT BE YOUR SALVATION for BREAKDOWN's meaning is DOWN NOT UP! There is enough IMAGINATION here to prick your conscience isn't there? NO? Well then you are among the millions upon millions of americans who STILL think you are superior. STILL DEHUMANIZE "others". STILL RACIST AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Time is no friend of yours is it? You will not catch its big picture nor understand its workings. I'm sure that you did not make it past a couple of paragraphs - if that - in this reply to your "why" of our peoples and their villages (include reservations and reserves). You proliferate in this 21st century and that is your shame and your crime. Sins of the fathers still passed down to you and you will not "SEE" nor will you use your misspent energies to amend or change your blindness and deafness. The absolute least you could do is to APOLOGIZE for your great, stupid crimes as they are just that. In international law it is called "Crimes Against Humanity". I would add war crimes to that which is also in international law. For me personally, I feel that if the laws of the Creator - the highest law of humanity - is dust in your mouths and ashes of hypocrisy in you, then no man-made laws will ever EVER legislate into you having loving, caring, kind and JUST deeds towards us or any of the "other" of OUR world's HUMANITY that has been so de-humanized, colonized and occupied as we have. Your "sight" and "hearing" have been honed to total dullness of heart and soul - bereft of what makes any called human a "real human being".
Your world is without true observation. It only sees what it is told and when it sees what is really before it, its mind shuts off. Reality cannot open/impinge upon/shove aside all pre-conceived and false notions/ideas/propaganda and passed on prejudices. We come against you in utter frustrations constantly. Unendingly. Tiresomely. Just like your post.
We have to refute your false ideas because it is apparent you don't understand HISTORY. Nor do you understand your fellow human beings. It is no surprise that this country is at war all over this globe and you can't bother yourselves to question WHY ARE YOU THE MOST VIOLENT OF PEOPLES ON THE PLANET. Point in fact: Has it never occurred to you that almost all remedies in your movies - no matter the genre - RESORT TO THE GUN? Notice that sometime. Point in fact: the word "terrorist" did not come out of OUR Native languages.
There is no scratching even the surface to this reply. Its too deeply layered. Just know that Time has brought forth its evidences - its results - to be seen by those whose eyes are not covered over with the veil of ignorance. THOSE eyes are in the smallest of minority here in the Lands our people called "home".
All who are Native Alaskans should be looked upon with awe that we have SURVIVED. Period. Those of us especially who did not fall between the cracks of your white "american" heart of darkness machinations of evil. I told you(anyone else who challenges)I will not coddle you nor anyone who is so blind to injustice and an injustice that is so rooted in YOUR WAY.
By the way: My impoverished family sent three out of eight of to college. I AM a teacher. I AM a counselor. I AM and have ALWAYS worked FOR and WITH my peoples AND with "others" as well as the whites. I can DISCERN differences. I CAN SEE REALITIES. Do you think the murdered EVER forget? They never forget. And the rest of that phrase, forgive? No, I will not forgive as long as I hear NO apologies at the very least - for what has BECOME of our people at the hands of destroyers. I will not. It is ongoing still, this destruction. HOW could I forgive? When the TIME comes for APOLOGIES for the brutalities and when that is followed with AMENDS, then it will be a possibility. When you can REALLY see(and the millions like you)our villages and UNDERSTAND WHY you see what you see and not question, but mourn and grieve as we do - along with us - then use your energies with maturity and purpose to try to change YOUR ways, then perhaps...
NO ONE SUFFERS BREAKDOWN IN A VACUUM. Remember our kind of survival. We survived in such harsh conditions for longer than your 'civilzation' had a name - and we did it with happiness within ourselves to perpetrate futures of our peoples who did not know alcoholism, social ills unending, suicide(UNHEARD OF), mental institutions, jails, drugs of all manner, wars(BWM -before white men), diseases, parents killing kids, kids killing parents, teachers, other kids - killing each other period. Our children did not act(were not taught to be)silly, immature, and name calling visciousness with each other. Their parents and extended families (as you call them) kept everyone together in harmony. Harmony could have been our middle name. We had government. We had socialization that did not pollute our minds nor hearts nor deeds. Yes, we could soar in what we were and that soaring was always fearful to the whites. That's one of the reasons to this day we dare not show too much brilliance against the whites. They do not tolerate "inferiors" SOARING BEYOND THEIR own LACKING CAPABILITIES. The whites will always insinuate themselves in the highest jobs among us. That's their "plow through that door approach". (Read sarah palin's exact usage of this phrase).
Take a look at YOUR world. Take a look at YOUR nation. Take a look at YOUR cities here. They all have their slum areas where your poor and disenfranchised dwell. TAKE A LOOK and SEE! As for our youth suicides, a terrible terrible terrible grief for us, yet there is one group that has an even higher suicide rate than our precious youth and that is YOUR elderly peoples of america. Go search out THAT issue. WHO also, has the most people imprisoned on this planet? america! Look it up. Do your research. LOOK AT YOURSELVES. Your cities are full of pollutions both literal and spiritual. Your religions rape humanity. Especially Catholic priests in the literal sphere spoken of. Which leads to other sick sexual issues of your white american society - the rapes, violence and murdering of your children! I say when you prey upon your own children sexually, your society is in deep decline - in the manner of the Roman Empire. Did I mention your INCREASE in human sexual trafficking? Your unholy and vile pornography? Oh, I think you need your little eyes opened up to WHO and WHAT you are o american white citizen. Everything pure becomes tainted in your hands. From our lands and peoples and children right down to YOUR own innocent children. I am not surprised. It was you who burned women AND men as "witches" a few centuries ago. Then, you cannibalized each other in a little over a century ago and still have your miscreants who committed more of the same into the last century before this one. Did I forget to mention that america, statistically(you DO love those statistics) has the highest number of serial psycopathic killers IN THE WORLD! Charlie Manson, Ted Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas, The Hillside Strangler, The Green River Killer, BTK(Kansas - Bind, Tie & Kill)killer - to mention just the tip of the iceberg of your well known ones...
To ask these "why" questions of our villages without so much as a seeming iota of understanding, notwithstanding "a family member married "a" eskimo", shows how steeped in ignorance you actually are. When you answer all the facts as to the degradations, pollutions of mind, body and literal lands you squatted on in the country you call "america" - that land YOU called PRISTINE upon which you "plowed" into - that PRISTINE condition we nurtured for ten thousand generations into the future you crashed in upon --- when you ABSTRACT THINK about the degradations you brought upon ALL OF US and ultimately now, upon your own selves, please don't come with statements or questions like those you put here until you put the dots together on your own ways - those very ways of YOURS that brought about so much ruination and death upon our peoples.
Actually what first came to my mind after reading what you posted was a saying from one orator of ours from a few centuries back - quite simply which was:
"...when you came we died.."
Deennaa, if you truly are a teacher and counselor as you claim it is a tragedy.
It is sad enough that you are so consumed by racial hatred that you feel compelled to spew it incessantly upon the world but the thought that you might be in a position to contaminate the minds of vulnerable others makes me grieve. I hope you find healing soon.
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” Coretta Scott King
ahhh slyvia.. First, this was a REPLY, not to you personally. Yet, AGAIN, you make your post another PERSONAL ATTACK.
I think you have NOTHING of importance to add but but some twisted need to scour the posts LOOKING to OFFEND.
And I say again, you show yourself as not having a clue. I get the sense that if anyone whom you've trashed doesn't slink off from your dirt-bag insinuations and accusations you will scream "racist"!
Righteous facts and TRUTH kicks your ass doesn't it?
Secondly, you don't read well. The reason is clear. You read like the poster who didn't know jack about our villages, but spewed THEIR true racism before your dulled out eyes. Do you think ANY human who suffered SUFFERED! what we suffered would write (live it)about it like a robot!
I would tell you a slice of our grief based upon our HISTORY and LIVING it, and YOU would grieve about me just TELLING IT? !! Of course you turned that into being "racist". Of course you did.
NO apologies. No amends. Just continual attacking the "messengers". Its your particular stupidity. WHICH PART OF MOURN AND GRIEVE DON'T YOU GET!?
What makes me most angry is your unrelenting and viscious stupidity. One cannot smarten you up. UNTEACHABLE you remain.
By the way: Get a clue about what YOU(and your ilk) call "healing". As long as a trauma has been committed to any human being, that trauma remains in the HUMAN MIND til they die. Go visit your mental institutions and tell those human beings there to GET HEALED! You are so unsufferably hypocritical. So infinitely self-righteous.
Another BTW: before anything(anyone) gets "healed", the sore has to "heal" FIRST! YOU ARE THE SORE! GOT THAT? If you aren't then APOLOGIZE and MAKE your AMENDS! Otherwise you need to shut your gob(mouth!)
MEMORY: its a living, viable and ALIVE phenomenom! It is there even when submerged(unconscious mind). You can not kill it unless you kill the person. Oh, yeah. That's right. That IS what you attempt to destroy in the form of peoples isn't it? YOU and those of you who HATE TRUTH AND WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO OTHERS NOT LIKE YOU. Your "american" history is replete with those of us you massacred. Yeah, I guess, blinded fool that you are - you would definitely like us to be "healed". Otherwise the MEMORY of YOUR violences, massacres and theiveries will ALWAYS BE THERE IN THE FORM OF SURVIVORS LIKE MYSELF TO REMIND YOU OF YOUR TRUE AND HATEFUL SELVES. Remind me again sylvia of YOUR ATTACK modes.
"...we come against you in utter frustrations constantly, unendingly. Tiresomely..."
We couldn't scream or whisper loud enough in our conditions for you to EVER "SEE" or truly "HEAR" not racism, but telling you like it IS!
You apparently will never get it. Hence, our conditions remain as the worst everywhere we live. Hence, we have this century's latest GENOCIDE in the complete destruction of the SOVEREIGN nation of Iraq. Other sovereign nations all over OUR WORLD. AD INFINITUM. AD NAUSEUM. I REPEAT! Then you whine "why do THEY hate americans! God, the ignorance of you stuns the mind. I could list an uncountable list of WHY'S and over half the world would stand beside me nodding their heads in agreements giving THEIR SAME LIST of HOW YOU american's DESTROY those not like you! IDIOTS. And then, at the very least so brainwashed by your own drivel, lies and hypocrisies. Call a spade a spade sylvia! But don't try to obscure YOUR great lack of intellect and character by calling everyone racist who TELLS YOU WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO THEM. Have the guts to stand in SHAME! That is what you NEED to experience. You've forced us to LIVE IN SHAME JUST FOR NOT BEING YOU! Then, of course, because you needed us out of your way so you could THIEVE AND ROB AND KILL for OUR LANDS AND THEIR RESOURCES. Which part of Manifest Destiny don't you understand!
There are no erudite platitudes coming from me, american sylvias. You will get my raw intelligence, feelings, observations and opinion. You WILL get what I have lived UNDER YOUR SYSTEM. You don't deserve to be even "coddled". Your meanness shows like a volcano blast.
You certainly and profoundly read without understanding. You make that quite clear. You are an instigator - one who "baits" another. We see the lean old carcass of you and your ILK.
You do NOT discern the difference between rage and hate. I don't have to hate you to rage against you. You, and the likes of you, do not understand PEACE OR HARMONY. You only pretend to. So, I call you pretenders. Phony. Liars and the REAL BONAFIDE HATERS. Now go ahead and scream "reverse racists". Thats your way isn't it?
Who the hell do you think you are that you could know even ONE thing about MULTI-DIMENSIONAL me? Hmmm? It appears, from the few posts you wrote that what we might be seeing here is a ONE DIMENSIONAL person in you. ALL your posts are an attack on me. THERE IS NOT ONE WORD FROM YOU ABOUT THE TOPIC OF THIS BLOG. NOT ONE.
I can tell you tons about village life. I lived the life. I also lived the life of "your cities". For my money, there is more REAL LIFE - with all its hardships - in the village. There, we know who is real and who is not. There is familial bond. There is tradition older than white arrival on OUR land. There, our children are not punished for speaking their languages. Ultimately, your kind moved in among us. Unlike you, O white american, we ALLOWED you in. WELCOMED you in. We even married some of you. But ALAS. Like the orator of old who said it best, I REPEAT: "...when you came we died..." In all the ways you attempted to break us down you have succeeded. You make me sick with your ugly words. Your stupid words. Your hypocrisy reeks. I've got unending poetry for you. You will never like it. NEVER! I don't care if you do or don't. As long as you have no apologies nor amends to make to us, you will reek of lies and hypocrisy.
Don't ever make the FALSE assumptions(claims) that you know me. You've now shown your a-- completely to me. You have a sick need to trash someone and you picked the wrong person. You remind me of sarah palin. Sound just like her. STUPID. VISCIOUS. VACUOUS. REVENGEFUL. - attempting to wrap it all in correct spelling and words that have no meaning or depth EVEN TO YOURSELF.
Go bait someone else. Your puny insults don't resonate. Its your stupidity that most enrages...and TIRES. The blogosphere is FULL of your kind. Never able to come to the truth....did I mention TIRESOME?
One last thing: among my people and among "others", I WAS recognized for leadership in caring for our Alaska Native children. It wasn't without its detractors - you know, people like you. If I were to take a quote, it would be from people who fought against injustice against people like you, say, Malcolm X for instance... since you are supposedly a christian nation, I would appeal from Jesus's point of view and ask you to obey the ten commandments, throw aside the money changers in the temple, and call down evil as evil IS. Your Jesus was a fighter for TRUTH AND JUSTICE. But we all know how that set with people who hate truth and justice. He was violently attacked, beat bloody and then crucified in agony. THERE YOU ARE.
Get off your high horse. Some of us will always speak up for injustices and truths with more force than you will ever be able to stomach. Yes, all those who spoke TO TRUTH AND JUSTICE were murdered. On a less extreme level, they were shunned, excortiated, talked against, derided, de-humanized, slandered, libeled, lost their jobs, back-stabbed, bullied, and verbally trashed.
I think your symbolic aim is the same as those mindless generic symbolic type murderers: you will attempt to kill all truths about yourselves; never to let the powerful air of the consequences of TRUE GRIEVOUS INJUSTICES show through the light of YOUR polluted air.
"...it is the time of the assassins and no mistaking it..."
---Taken From the forward to 'The Tropic of Cancer' author Henry Miller (this book was banned by the hypocritical white americans in his day) Book written circa 1930's.
One last BTW: youth and adults that I taught were taught THE WHOLE TRUTH. It was left up to them to find out for themselves if those stood or not. They were given FACTS - not infantile emotionality - for their edification. Winning vapid popularity contests was never in my style of teaching. There's an iota of fact for you to tear apart rather than use for information. But my teaching career and philosophy is not the topic at hand in this blog. Only my opinion on what I KNOW is put forth. Your negation and assumptions of those many years does not put a dent into A LIFE LIVED IN YOUR SYSTEM.
You are the loser here. You lost the entire gist of feelings and thoughts of another human being's existence. You made stupid assumptions based on your own lack of understanding and ability to SEE what was there to see. You remind me of those "bait and release" persons who call themselves "fishermen". POINTLESS.
Thus far, in total, I've said my piece politely. I haven't said what I REALLY want to say - not here, and not to you especially sylvia. To prove my point read this site:
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2009/03/year-7.html
THIS woman and all that she has to RIGHTFULLY SAY FROM HER LIFE, HER EXPERIENCE AND HER SOVEREIGN NATION - WILL REALLY KICK YOUR ASS WITH FAR TOO MUCH REALITY THAN YOU APPARENTLY CAN HANDLE. I am sure you will not get one clue, but at least, it is there for you to "see". You will never be able to say you weren't told.
But of course, she is an "other" and already condemned in your cobwebbed eyes and dim bulb understanding.
No, I don't hate you. I just rage against your stupidity. IF, IF, IF, you are more than one dimensional, there MIGHT MIGHT MIGHT be some redemption. I will wager there is none of either.
So your rageous and stupid insults do not surprise. THEY ARE JUST SO TIRESOME...
Other than that, you, IN MY OPINION, are of that american cloth that continues to keep our people and their lives in deadly peril. Can you even figure out those layers? I "see" you can't.
Prove me wrong. I KNOW that will make you feel good.
Deennaa, There are no reverse racists. There are only racists and you are one.
Your screed reads very much like "My Struggle", written in 1925. The author raged about the plight of his downtrodden, desperate and abused people which he considered the only real people. He also blamed a specific ethnic group for most of his tribe's sorrows and tribulations and focused his fury and righteous hatred on them. He longed for their well deserved karmic punishment and he eventually came into a position to administer retribution. I sincerely hope you never possess that kind of power over anyone.
You should read the book. You may be able to find some new vitriol you can adapt for your crusade. Even better would be if you can find a way to see yourself as others see you by reading another disturbed person writing in the same style you have adopted. The resemblance is uncanny if you are not already copying his work.
http://tinyurl.com/chcpcg
I knew I was right about you and your drivel sylvia. You ARE a "baiter". Come out from under your rock. Slither up close so everyone can see the REAL you.
I don't need to read any books to find "new" vitriol. You and yours(creatures of whatever color) have supplied enough evil to last more than 500 lifetimes.
You don't see, don't hear, don't look, don't find, above, below, around, your stinking mush for brains mind. YOU are always the most dangerous kind.
"Screed"! That made me laugh.
"reverse-racists" - white man's words. Sooo....it must be so!
Your just dumb sylvia. You can't "copy" someone you've never read.
"retribution": I repeat again, you don't read well at all. You just grasp for anything girlie don't you? I spoke of "APOLOGIES and AMENDS". How did you get retribution out of that? Talk about a twisted mind...
You just aren't getting through to me simply simply cannot, will not. Who is SPEWING here?
From you there is no empathy, sympathy, understanding, intuition, grasping of the elementary, TOLERANCE nor will there ever be. You aren't capable. It isn't possible. You show a SUPREME UNTEACHABILITY. (always capitalize for emphasis - not shouting).
My friend said it well about people like you. "Should ANYONE dare to protest, voice or complain, your dirty fingers are quick to point in his/her direction and your smelly moralistic tones are elevated(in your own mind)". Yes. She nailed the likes of YOU right on.
I would only say in conclusion that you will never, ever learn HOW I think and FEEL. Especially WHY I think and feel the way I do. Quite frankly I don't give a rats ass if you or don't. You - I REPEAT - have already shown your ass to me.
Your posts are pure crap.
Nice article
Alaska natives inability to integrate themselves into society in general is because of people like this writers attitude. They want and wish to cling to their villages, and their "subsistence" way of life, complete with all the modern convienences. As we all know it is virtually impossible to live a substinence lifestyle without a snow machine, an outboard motor, a diesel furnace, or of course, alcohol. For decades the federal and state have been pumping money into these villages, with very little return.
If you wish to live tht type of life, do it, by all means. Don't ask that taxpayers subsidize it. If a young person cannot find a job or a meaningful life in one of your villages, it is not the goverments fault. Kids leave small towns for the bright lights all over the world. Once they have sown their wild oats, they may come back. They may not. That is just being a human being. Constructive economies are made by capitalists, not goverments. If the resources you claim are so boundless, create incentives for businesses to go there. The only problem with that is some white people might move in and ruin that whole village thing yall are clinging to.
So let me get this straight, the rest of the state is supposed to bend over backwards so some of the residents can live the way they want to. There's nothing wrong with their way of life, but come on. If we're all equal, we're all equal. I'm not bending over backwards for anybody.
To Anonymous:
Which planet did you drop off of? NO ONE is "equal" in the world and especially on the North American continent where the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES originated that YOU live among.
You've never (we wouldn't know by your post) been to any of our villages? Ever been to an Indian Reservation? Know about the Federal USA government Trust Relationship with ALL NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES - a BINDING LEGAL INTRINSIC PART OF YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT??? You know, the root reason you can enjoy all the american so-called "equalities" on OUR LANDS that you and the likes of you in your own ancestry STOLE/ROBBED/THIEVED AND MASSACRED FOR so that you can sit on your lazy dumb ass and move your fingers in stupidity across that plastic keyboard to make egregiously erroneous and totally racist insultive comments towards a peoples you don't have one clue about. What a commentary for WHO TRANSPLANTED THEIR UGLY SELVES into and upon our ONCE pristine lands. You are a pathetic reminder - not that we needed it - your pollutions of mind, body and lack of spirit so reeking in our faces - you are a reminder and a poster person of what infests and ruins "the Last Frontier". Shameful your representation to the world of what OUR Alaska is made up of today. I've got much more to say. But not to the point of "pearls before swine". Oh yeah!
Enn zah'gah kheh Enn zee'eeh'Khah tsuu'dee lee'senn!!
It is tragic that there is so much pain in the world. If only we were better at listening and empathizing with one another and the world around us. We seem so disconnected and incapable of expanding our sense of self so as to include all other people and things. How can we become connected when we are trained to think in exclusionary terms? We are not separate in our humanity, all our lives are intertwined and interconnected. We allow the differences among us that should inspire awe, curiosity, reverence, mutual understanding and benefit to become monstrous vehicles of our own pain, fear and insecurity. We need a sense community now more than ever but why can we not strive for it to be an expansive and all-inclusive one? We seem to have a profound ability to judge one another without first trying to understand. We seem to see people as springing fully formed into existence as though there has never been any influence from the environment or circumstance. How can we pass blame without having fully lived the other person's life and were we to do so would we not then be blaming ourselves? Why have we become so content with telling when the magic seems to be in learning and teaching? Where is the enjoyment in perpetuating hurtfulness? I like to imagine that everyone who is posting here, whether I agree or disagree with some particular point or opinion, is someone I can learn from and grow with through the sharing of ideas and experiences. Does it have to be so painful? I like to think we have the most important lessons to learn precisely from those who we have the most difficulty being at peace with because it is in these relationships where we have the opportunity to move beyond ourselves and overcome the worst tragedy- the illusion of alienation and separateness. The dialogue is important because it is only through communication and connection that we as a species can be at peace, I guess I just wish the process was not so painful so often. Perhaps this microcosm allows us to see the larger socio-cultural tension more clearly and perhaps if we can come to appreciate one another here in some small way then it means more than we may think.
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