02 October 2011
Mia’s Peace Plan II
But sometimes people can get together and talk about things without resorting to hostility. I am a member of such a message board. Nobody attacks anybody for having a different opinion and everybody seems genuinely interested in what others have to say. Is this not the point of a message board? Why participate if you are not interested in any voices besides your own? Places where everybody tries to yell the loudest make no sense to me. If you are yelling the loudest that only means that you cannot hear anything.
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As much as I enjoy American politics, find myself inflamed or impatient over some issue that has absolutely nothing to do with me, I wonder exactly where in their development as a country that they find themselves now.
They had their independence and then somehow a civil war and then a general state of war against something or other, a great generation and then hippies and more wars and now the longest war.
Americans seem to be gravitating to relive their civil war with passion that can only be described as well, er, american. God has always been on each of the sides in their fights over their homeland against enemies that tended to be other americans. Is this the purest refinement of democracy.
The genocide of the Indians or as they are now known, the first americans has somehow found justification and slavery has been fought over and won by the non slave liking side.
I like Jefferson, but dislike the fact that he owned slaves. Not only that but he actually participated in whipping them when they were bad.
I like stonewall jackson who freed his slaves when he went off to war where he was killed by his own soldiers at chancellorsville. I like Lee and Abe Lincoln and know a great deal about the american civil war while knowing nothing of my own country canada. America is composed of Exciting stuff and heart wrenching and personal even though I am a canadian of north american indian heritage.
I can sort of understand the old americans, the marchers, the singers like pete seeger and the civil rights singers like joan baez and oddly i like the cowboy singers who sing of poverty and trucks and god and hate everything that i stand for although they seem to like indians.
I eat american stuff, i write with american products, i speak to my mom over american lines and rely on america for my television and my culture, yet i dislike them and they scare me a lot.
Nowadays, bush was awful, i pull for obama because he is black, i dislike romney because i dont trust the mormons and sarah palin is sweet and i like her because she married a man who was part eskimo and a woman like that is not a racist although she is also scary as hell.
and i had wonderful american friends but i am in mexico now and people here spend their lives in america and return home and getting angry if their children go out with gringos.
ah. life and such a large platter in the usa.
Another wonderful essay. You're right about all the demonification (is that a real word?) going on lately. One of my other blog sites has a fair amount of older and conservative bloggers, and according to them, Obama is the devil himself.
Seems like part of this is due to the media, which tends to hype conflict to get more viewers and higher ratings. Part may also be due to our modern society, where people are so busy with so many options and voices, that you have to do something extreme to stand out. The media may just be adapting to current conditions.
The moderators are sometimes needed when you have the anonymous foul mouthed, hate filled jerks that have nothing to add to the conversation. In other cases like your quiet board, I agree that it's better if you just let things play out as they will.
ER, not to complain Mia but where is your obligatory Steve Jobs post?
I've nothing to say about Steve Jobs. I was never an Apple user, I never had any ipods, ipads, iphones, istaplers. I think it's sad when somebody dies so young and cancer is a truly horrible thing but I've no special connection to the man or his work.
Most Americans will tell you that they're at the apex of their development without realising that they're on the way down.
The justification of killing indigenous peoples is not uniquely American. Every country in North and South America, Europe and parts of Asia have done it.
Skinny, I think a large part of the problem is a greater amount of information delivered faster than ever combined with an overwhelmingly undereducated and uninformed populace. When a million people are talking at once, most tend to listen to whoever is the loudest.
You know Mia, you are probably right. Us indigenous or aboriginal types, i.e., since the beginning as we folks say, should bow down, admit that we are subsumed and done and just accept the new reality.
But a person cant. I still feel a strong spurt of anger and injustice each time I think of it. Having worked in the field, I have met most of the indigenous peoples and their movements in the world, including those who espouse zionism. There is a settling to be done because I doubt most will not roll over and go away and will continue to irritate for example canadians and the canadian government forever with thier pathetic efforts to make 30 million people go away and to give the land back.
I was thinking that if a superior civilization came from the stars, and being civilized and advanced, they would go to the real owners of the land, and they would ask what they could do to help. I would support those who said, i want my country back. yes but what about the 30 millions who are also here. well, they could go back where they came from and they could take their land back with them. i.e., the dirt under their fingernails. it is a feeling that just wont go away. it makes folks mad, but there is no way the indians in general are going to ever change their minds and maybe, one day in jerusalem.....
I'm not sure how the indigenous people of Canada, America, Mexico, most of South America, Australia can take their countries back. I would doubt that most want to.
I would hope that any aliens who come to Earth are too advanced to care about our petty squabbles. I want them to laugh about how we all think we own the land. In the movies they used to want to meet the American president. I think they'd know better.
I met most of these groups (or at least their alleged representatives) while at geneva... (UN) and most want.
whether this want is realistic is another question. Whether it is impossible is a question of time immemorial. who knows what the future may bring. Maybe there is a God and one day he just might activate his old testament ire again at the malfactors. who knows. Maybe there is last judgement. Maybe one day Gabriel will blow his horn. Maybe one day we will all wake up Mormon. I saw my folks in the database and who knows if it is possible to get baptised twice. who knows eh Mia.
Most folks would probably disagree with you on the issue of ownership.
If aliens showed up, I would be the first to leave town. I just saw Aliens and Cowboys and boy, those aliens were sure mean.
I am reading your Shalit comments. Good Stuff. will give you my views later.
I wouldn't put anything past the Mormons. I might even be on their membership list.
I think if the American Indians want to take back the US now is probably the best time. I hear that country is in pretty bad shape. They elected a black man. Maybe in another 100 years they'll elect an Indian. Anything's possible.
But don't count on a Mormon Indian president.
And I can't post comments on your blog. It simply doesn't go through.
think i fixed the blog thing. no wonder i got no comments. (my vanity insists this all relates to a technical problem). I wrote a response to hero but i note it did not get through. i will resubmit once i pick up the spelling errors.
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