Believe What You Like But Know What You Must

People are free to be consumed with contemplating their existence, their origins, the origins of the universe, supreme beings, controllers of destiny or anything else. But solving "the Great Mystery" is neither a requirement of being Ohnkwe Ohnwe nor does it provide a path to righteousness. I maintain that spirituality does not require faith or the leaps that faith requires but rather awareness. If it helps to believe that "God has a plan" and we just must have faith that "He" knows what "He" is doing, then walk that path. My interest is in taking the mystery out of life by pointing to the obvious that is ignored everyday in the midst of fanatical ideology and the sometimes not too subtle influences of promoting beliefs over knowledge. I have said it before: “beliefs are what you are told, knowledge is what you experience”. I support a culture that prepares us to receive knowledge and to live a life with purpose. I am certainly not suggesting there is only one way to do that.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The 44th Rahnatakaias signs the PACT Act into Law 3/31/10

Well he did pretty much as we expected. Oh! And that seat at the table he promised..., well, let's just say we were promised a seat, but no one said we would be allowed to sit in it. We didn't hear too much out of Kimberly Teehee or Jodi Gillette either. I suppose they are only interested in posing as the White House token Indians to add diversity to the Obamacare campaign. They slipped this one through before the Jobs Bill starts being batted around. After all, how can you talk about stimulating jobs and addressing the "historically underemployed when you just signed into law a measure that will either kill 2000+ jobs or criminalize them. I guess Jodie and Kim will be kept out of the photo ops for this one. Indian Country has the highest unemployment rates on the continent but I can't help thinking that the historically under-employed that the Congressional Black Caucus obsessed over in this bill, does not include Native people or Native lands. Congress and the President made it clear once more that we are not a part of their system nor do they want us using any part of it. They don't speak with us, they don't respect us and they don't represent us or our concerns. We are still as much in their way as the day they landed on our shores. We don't have to look at a bunch of bullshit 200 year old treaties that offered false promises as our land was being stolen. We only have to listen to the bullshit uttered over the last couple of years by Mr. "Hope". I have hope too. I hope that all those Native people who bought into the Obamania will finally recognize him as the 44th to earn the title: Rahnatakaias. I don't care how many aspiring Indian girls he packs in the White House, he is still just another Town Destroyer in my book.

4 comments:

Gaile said...

I have to ask if you have ever been impressed with any leader of the US?

Gaile said...

I have to ask if you have been impressed with any US leader?

John Kane said...

If you mean presidents, many have had positive moments or have taken positions I support. But even Jefferson who marveled at how the Iroquois governed and who learned concepts like inalienable rights, servants of the people and a classless system without rulers from our culture, still did terrible things to Indians. He referred to us as "Merciless Indian savages" in the Declaration of Independence. He made illegal purchases of Indian land from the French under the Christian Discovery Doctrine. Every president has exercised bad indian policy. They have all tried to chip away at our sovereignty, if not our land. Obama offered a 3.7 billion dollar settlement for a 40 billion dollar misuse and loss of Native assets by the BIA and will have the BIA manage most of the settlement. He is as bad as most of them from a Native perspective. This PACT Act is a shot directly at us here in Western New York.

One guy I am impressed with was Edward Everett, an State Assemblyman from Potsdam. He wrote the Everett Report in 1922. Look it up. It is quite interesting

Cynthia said...

I wanted to say that, despite the government, many non-Native Americans are behind you and other Indian peoples. Not all judge, not all want Indians to be jobless, and not all support the PACT Act. You make excellent points about the unemployment rate and I do not see why the governemtn would want to take away any kind of employment, even if it is related to smoking. Smoking is not against the law, so why forbid people to sell it through the mail? What if I mailed a pack of smoke to a friend? Would I be a criminal, or does that apply only to Native Americans? I feel there is some descrimination here.