exZAKly
on 07/16/2010 at 07:36 PM
Not the best solution there Old Cat.
Depends which “our solution” you’re talking about. In the beginning, and up to about 1880 I’d guess, they were seen as, and often acted as, an enemy. The concept of the right of conquest was alive and well throughout the world, as it had been since before recorded history. To the victors went the spoils and all that. None now still live who took part in that, so I certainly won’t shoulder any share of blame or guilt. Opportunistic war and conquest had been the natives natural state, long before whitey showed up in boats. But in the end we came, we fought, and they lost.
Since then ... no, actually since within your own lifetime most likely ... the better parts of the world have tried to move beyond that primitive dictum. Very few, if any, wars of conquest have been started by the western-thinking nations since the end of WWII.
While I can not deny that the BIA, or whatever that rarely seen branch of government is called these days, seems far from beneficent or even capable, the fact remains that any Native American can prosper by getting some education and getting off the reservation. I’m certain that many scholarships exist to help the process along. In a very similar way to ghetto blacks clinging to victimhood, the key to making an honest go at being an American is assimilation. Right or wrong, the system currently in place is the system we all have to work with; an indian with a college degree, a suit, and no attitude would be in high demand by just about any medium to large corporation. Is that patronizing? Yes, yes it is. But it’s reality: a job with a good paycheck and a chance to get ahead. But for those who go to great lengths to not fit in, to carry that chip on their shoulders forever, life on the reservation - the prairie ghetto - exists, where they can pretend that their dead culture still have universal relevance, and happily live at the near stone age level of their ancestors with only minor adaptation to the modern world (eg double-wides and pickup trucks), enjoying the same short, brutal, and peril fraught lives that the old ones did. Granted that today’s perils (drink, drugs, gambling) are different from those in the distant past (starvation, raiding parties, utter lack of medical care).
PS - Lincoln set up Liberia just for that “back to Africa” reason. Funny how damn near all the former slaves chose to stay here instead. Quite a number of generations later, very few of even the most unruly blacks make the same choice. I remember seeing some stand-up comedian on TV once upon a time, Live From The Apollo or whatever. A black guy, playing to a black audience. It was a great routine and he told his tales well: he’d been to the motherland and he’d seen the truth: Africa sucks. No matter how bad you think you have it here, it’s 100 times worse over there, and there aren’t even any white people to blame it on.
Such a kind a delicate man OCM is.
I do want to toss one other comment out about Wilson. We mostly blame FDR for expanding Federal power but it was during the Wilson era that we got the beloved INCOME Tax that gave the Fed the income to become the pork/power monster its now become.
Wilson is the one President that truly deserved to have the lincoln/garfield/jfk treatment in my opinion.I have to agree with Drew - was always a tad bit on the side of the Indians - as we lived near a reservation for a while - I heard all the jokes and saw firsthand the poverty. Then came the advent of vhs, dvd and cable tv (Court tv) to be exact. And indeed the removal of children forced into re-education ‘schools’ was an abomination. However, that was then and this is now.
What change my impression was a simple trial. Seems in FL a drunken ex decided that he was going to get back at his ex and steal and dump her Tahoe (wish I even had the money to dream of such a purchase) - too bad 2 of the 3 spawn of these two losers were in the back seat - and where he chose to dump it was a canal. The ‘tribe’ decided that his apology was enough, since it was his own children he killed. The State, not so fast. Seems along with a lot of sane and rational education this loser never got - he did not get any local geography to realize that the canal was not on rez land. The State went after him - he lost, go directly to jail and do not collect your $80,000. Yes gentlemen, this particular ‘tribe’ - gets $80,000/per year per adult (actually $20,000/per quarter) and $20,000 per child per year [The ‘tribe’ was located where current day Miami is and was ‘relocated’ inland into the swamps, hence the payoff - forever.](Add it up, I am sure Momma ex was more concerned about losing that $40,000. grand a year). Momma and 3 boys lived in trailer (not mobile home), just a tad larger than the one we lived in for a summer while a new home was being built, and it was filthy and littered with takeout food boxes. Seems all Momma ex did was load the boys into her Tahoe and drive from bar to bar with the kids in the car - and buy some fast food now & then. $140,000.00 a year - and she is nothing but a loser. And when you multiply it by the entire ‘tribe’ - WTF.
It isn’t about money - it is about a people who wallow in their ignorance, their addictions (believe me - the evil white man did not inflict all the addictions on the hapless minorities) and their base ways - and then wallow in their victimhood against whitey as an excuse for doing not a damn thing to make themselves, their children and their lives better. Build a damn school and educate your children, build a center to teach you tribal ways to your children and your neighbors - build a decent house and then learn to clean and cook - just do one damn thing to improve yourself and stop blaming what happened a 150 years ago to someone else.
The good news is that the ‘tribe’ finally built a casino - now that certainly was a productive use of all that money. What a neat way to - improve their lifestyle and culture.
It’s their fault. I no longer have any sympathy for any race whinners at all.
