Reflections from the Ah­nish­i­nah­bæó^t­jib­way (We, the People)

Now that the two party conventions are history, they can get on with the real mud-slinging, name-calling, and allegations—so that the would-be leaders can avoid the serious domestic issues here in what they call “America.”  Seems to me that the Republican party has it down “Pat,” Pat Buchanan, Pat Robinson, these extreme right-wingers who call themselves the “Real Americans.”

The Democratic Party is called “Un-American.”  They call them “liberal,” whatever that means, and I supposed that if Communism was still in existence, they would call them Commie-Pinkos.  How many different categories of “Americans” are there?  And, what if you are on the unemployment rolls, what are you called then?  Lazy American?  This is the Helping Hand of Adam Smith and Hobbes: blame-the-victim Lazy-Fair economics.

Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson, who are so far right they’ve left their common sense, and want to run everybody else’s country, just like the Communists and all of the other Evil Empires of history.  They are so greedy that they can’t take care of the people and the land they claim here.  Like an Austrian Corporal they remind me of, they have megalomaniac dreams of grandeur and power.  They want to be the World Policeman, the World Leader Superpower, but they need get their head out of the clouds and their feet firmly planted on the ground.  They need Hillary’s home-made cookies and a warm glass of milk—and listen to some good advice from Ross Perot.  They claim that Bill Clinton is not an expert at World Affairs, but admit that his wife knows what an Indian Reservation is like.  War is not the final solution, and Indo-European “peace” is even more violent than their wars.  They are two sides of the same worn-out coin.

The five E’s that have to be addressed here in this country: Employment, Education, Empowerment, Ethics, and Environment.  These are the issues that the Republican Party is not addressing.  It seems that their Right-fringe diplomacy is accomplished through violence masked by mixed metaphors, elusive euphemisms and crooked and slippery English.  The present reality, after twelve years of “Dawn in America,” the Ninth European Crusade (hailed as the “American Crusade,”), and rigid linear militaristic thinking, is that the cities in America are disasters, the farms are disasters, and what’s left of the wilderness is a disaster.  Your voo-doo economics equals hip-boot deep doo-doo.  The Right Wing Crusaders are even talking about taking away Cuban Sovereignty, and giving it back to Europe yet again.  That old Machiavellian thinking, of beating somebody into “loving” you, is outdated and archaic, and cannot work in this day and age.

Those right-wingers who claim that they are the only “real Americans” should go look in the mirror.  From where I sit, they are the “Ugly Americans.”  They have no business telling other people how to live.  The Divine Mandate of Manifest Destiny is also archaic and outdated.

They should have held their convention here at Red Lake, in what was once called the northern forests, and sat on stumps.  There would have been enough seating for hundreds of Conventions.  Anishinabe Ojibway, We the People, have lived on this land, and kept it beautiful, for hundreds of millennia.  We don’t need these johnny-come-lately Europeans telling us how to live.  The Great American Crusader leadership is more concerned with their greedy G.N.P. than with the ecological and human infrastructure of this country.

How do “Ugly Americans” perpetuate stereotypes?  There were no “Indians” here until the Europeans created the ugly stereotype of “Indian.”  There is no word for “Indian,” nor for “Chippewa” in our language.  The English have been going around the world for five hundred years, giving other people labels and racist identities.

The role models for the “Indian” stereotypes are paid good money (or bad money, but lots of money any way you look at it) to promote this artificial identity.  Kevin Costner made millions of dollars producing propaganda; promoting stereotypes of a non-existent “Indian” race of people.  Chairman Brun and Former Chairman Jourdain are paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, plus fringe benefits, to promote this fake and racist Chippewa Indian identity.

If the Ugly Americans of the Religious Right get in, maybe they’ll try to solve the Civil Rights problems by creating a Bureau of Nigger Affairs, with “Tribal Chairmen” getting paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.  Or, why not “solve” the economic problems by creating a Bureau of Redneck Honky Affairs, and put a Tribal Chairman in, and pay him a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year?  You would have long lines of people eager to change their identity—no matter that it’s an incredibly racist, mythological lie—for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year.  Redneck Honkies, Niggers, and Indians do not exist, and yet the United States and England keep on funding, paying and promoting this racist label of “Indian,” as well as other ugly stereotypes so that they can steal other peoples’ land, resources, and Sovereignty.

There are the Ugly Americans, the Un-American, the unemployed American, the racist American, the Real American, the Native American and the All-American—I’m sure glad that I’m not an “American.”

Wub-e-keniew

Ripe heirloom tomatoes in Clara's garden