Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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Governor
Arne Carlson is “firmly opposed to any increase” in
Minnesota’s poverty-level minimum wage, according to the Tuesday,
February 20
Minneapolis Star Tribune. (If
Arne thinks the minimum wage is that great, he should be paid $4.25 an
hour for
being Governor.) The Strib also
reported that Republicans explained the increase would put rural
businesses at
a “competitive disadvantage.” But,
rural businesses are not all small businesses, and some of the “rural
businesses” which pay minimum wage are major, multi-national
corporations. The minimum wage for
small-town Ma-and-Pa
stores which have a high school kid helping out after school is one
thing, and
a livable-wage minimum wage law which exempted rural businesses with
less than
ten employees could be fair. But big
businesses which sell stock on the New York Stock Exchange paying the
minimum
wage to their 39-hours-per-week (and no benefits) employees, and
million-dollar
bonuses to top-level executives, is exploitation—sanctioned by the
State, and
subsidized by tax breaks for the wealthy and condoned with meager
poverty-programs for the “working poor.”
But, then again, the imported European Capitalist, Communist,
Socialist,
etc. philosophies advocate the concepts, “greed is good” and
“exploitation is
healthy,” although the people who are being exploited have never had a
forum to
air their grievances and broadcast how they feel about it.
BLOWING SMOKE: Since
Grassroots Party leader Arlin Troutt’s eloquent speech at his
conviction on
drug charges, the controversy over the Government’s role in
“morality
legislation” has become more public. If
the government is using selective prohibition to “protect the
citizenry,” why
don’t they also prohibit sugar, tobacco, coffee, chemical food
additives and
alcohol other than untaxed moonshine and Crazy Horse Malt Liquor. I detect a more than a hint of hypocrisy—it
looks like the Great White Father is using drug laws as social
engineering: to
keep the class system intact, to tear apart inner-city communities, to
divert
attention away from the shenanigans and rip-offs done by the elite and
their
henches the “democratic leaders,” and to make money for the good ol’
boys
through economic opportunities created by the criminal justice system
(like
sweetheart prison contracts).
In
the 1960’s, some of the Hippie Generation used a mild form
of marijuana as a religious sacrament.
The Generals in the Drug War are afraid that a new religion will
become
formalized, something like the “Peyote Cult” of the Native American
Church. If prohibition continues,
that’s probably what will happen... schisms from the Grassroots
Party could
form outdoor churches and little cults like “Rope-a-Dope,”
“Heap-Big-Smoke (but
no fire),” and “The Congregation of the Church of Good Shit,” to name a
few. The Good Christians use alcohol as
a sacred drug, burn incense, and have canonized some far out visions
described
in their Bible, so this kind of “new religion” would be
Constitutionally
protected.
Marijuana
is a medicinal herb, and like all medicines (even
aspirin), can be abused. Just as the
British promoted opium abuse in China, and rauwolfia in the water
supply in
India, the U.S. Government is tacitly promoting certain kinds of drug
abuse to
keep non-white communities subjugated in a re-run of the same kinds of
exploitive colonial thinking that they’ve been using for centuries. The present prohibition “drug laws” are
intended to create criminal behavior and social disintegration—and to
fragment
communities into powerless nuclear families.
THE “GOOD GUYS:” According
to the social science textbook, Theories of Deviance, edited by
Stuart
H. Traub and Craig B. Little, “Crime is a definition of
behavior that is
conferred on some persons by others.
Agents of the law (legislators, police, prosecutors and judges),
representing segments of a politically organized society, are
responsible for
formulating and administering criminal law.
Persons and behaviors, therefore, become criminal because of the
formulation
and application of criminal definitions. Thus,
crime is created.
... Crime is not inherent in behavior, but is a judgement made
by some
about the actions and characteristics of others. ... Crime is seen as a
result
of a process which culminates in the defining of persons and behaviors
as
criminal. It follows, then, that the
greater the number of criminal definitions formulated and applied, the
greater
the amount of crime. ... Criminal definitions describe
behaviors that
conflict with the interests of the segments of society that have the
power to
shape public policy.” [emphasis theirs]
From
an Ahnishinahbæótjibway perspective, many of the
actions and values of these
powerful “segments of society” are those of criminal con-artists. If the European culture and values which
have been imposed on this Continent had been balanced and harmonious,
then the
Europeans would have never had to cut themselves off from their roots
and leave
their homeland.
BROWNSHIRTS: Using
innuendos and allegations, the young Republicans are demolishing each
other
with “negative campaigning;” the anonymous alligators need to come
forward and
act responsibly. When all the bashing
is done, and the primary melée is over, will there be anybody
left? How about Newt?
To
solidify his constituents in the New Hampshire primaries,
perennial presidential candidate and former Nixon speechwriter Pat
Buchanan
reluctantly suspended militant right-winger Larry Pratt, who was adept
at rabble-rousing,
and getting out the riff-raff and redneck vote. Four
years ago, Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and neo-Nazi David Duke
was suspended by the Republicans, and because of his “tainted blood”
suddenly
dropped out of politics and went back to selling insurance in the Aryan
Nation. Both parties want the
reactionary vote, but don’t want their enthusiastic public support or
“kiss-of-death” endorsements.
Buchanan
is extremely sensitive to the mood of the
disenfranchised lower classes, and is effectively promoting issues
which
attract and motivate them. But, he is
also attracting another element—and creating scapegoats to blame for
the
economic woes of blue-collar workers.
Remember the last time such a charismatic and expedient leader
got
involved in politics: the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930’s was
accelerated by
his apparent sympathy to the woes created by high German unemployment,
and the
urgent need for scapegoats to protect the upper classes and motivate
the
working people.
Can
you hear the faint cadence of hob-nailed jackboots
marching through the distant night on cobblestones, to the strains of
Richard
Wagner. They say that music “soothes
the savage beast,” but Wagner’s is a wake-up call for the beast; it
stirs
nationalism and ethnic cleansing, pseudo-morality based on judging
others—creating unhappy groups and thus legitimizing hate.
As
long as the Westerners are prisoners of their
hierarchical, disconnected and violent language, their history will
continue to
repeat itself. Rodney King said, “why
can’t we all get along?” But then
again, it’s not a level playing field.
My
telephone number is (218) 679-2382 and my mailing address
is P.O. Box 484, Bemidji, MN 56619.
Wub-e-ke-niew
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