War is Hell: Viet Nam

Original Photograph

All Rights belong to Original Photographer (Or Other Rightful Owner)

Jihad

Original Photograph (All Rights Belong to Photographer or Rightful Owner)

Far beyond silhouette mountains

Beyond cities that exist only as metaphors for the delicate soul

In the slums and streets of these cities

One threat refused, Animosity denied

Those who run with the clan

Come to kick and beat her down

On one knee rising, She smiles a bloody smile

Shows her open empty hands

Only the glimmer of false pride of a fallen nation

She doesn’t cry, she doesn’t sigh

She refuses to lay down and die

With a few strong words and a broken sword

She stands alone in the field proclamation

The One that carries the gun as his pride

Made in 1947, Kalashnikov’s automatic rifle

Comes to say with his fist

A double negative with attitude

But she will not summit, She will not surrender

In between fault lines of the stars

One broken sword is her flag

He who possesses the words of the prophet

The holy man who prays

Comes to say words of salvation

The incorruptible

In one hand a gun, in the other the Quran

Now we fight with illusions of heaven

They ask why she makes a mockery of their struggle

She replies with fire in her eyes, Your Revolution

Is a cancerous fume, a self-destructive entity

So they kick and beat her down

She smiles a bloody smile

Refuse to lay down and die

One broken sword and her pride is her flag

Original Photograph (All Rights Belong to Photographer or Rightful Owner)

The Hard Time

The Sandalwood Project

Chapter 2: Hard Times

 

The paper has one major defect. It can only tell you what is going on today (or yesterday). The headlines read “Economy in Downward Spiral”, Government Extends Marshal Law”, and “Baby Elephant Escapes from Zoo”.

Not even great titles for my next book. So what is really going on? It was obvious to Asmodeus that things were not as he remembered. But then again he can’t remember anything, so what does he know. Asmodeus decides he has enough of reading the poor writing of so called news and feeling dumber afterward. He got up to pay for his meal.

The counter girl was the only other person in the cafe. She looked bored. More specifically she acted bored. With her elbows on the counter, her legs peeked out from the corner of the counter gate opening. Her eyes stared out the window. Asmodeus looked out the large reinforced security glass window. They were the sort of pathetic glass windows that one would see in prisons called schools. About every three feet on the windowsill the glass was separated by large iron bars. It seemed that they must have been bars in the sky too, the sun has not appeared for days. The moisture from the nearby lake created constant fog. After considering all this, Asmodeus slapped himself because he was getting depressed and walked to the counter.

“You look confused” said the counter girl no longer perplexed by the melancholy drama playing outside. In fact it was as if she realized for the first time that she had a costumer. She was overly ecstatic. Her eagerness to please and communicate with the only living soul other than her self that was moving on this morning frightened Asmodeus a bit.

“Huh” He said.

“You look confused” she repeated.

“mmm” Was all that he said. She seems disappointed. As if this few seconds of contact was her dose of hope for the week. But Asmodeus didn’t notice a thing, his mind was trying to decide if the universe was losing it or just him, if it should try to compute all the information gathered so far or just explode now while it remembers how.

“That’s $16.99” the girl says.The machine ignites, lights camera…where is that camera man!

“Are you mad! $17 for breakfast?” sputters Asmodeus. For her part, the counter girl is not disturbed.

“Its the hard time” she says calmly. She says it as if it is the phrase of the day or the week or maybe the saying of the decade.

“The what?” he says all of a sudden interested in this poorly constructed conversation.

“The hard time…you know the things that are happening…the condition the state is in…the collapse of…” she stops suddenly. None of this was passing on to Asmodeus.

“The what?” he says with a smile hoping that this time he will understands just enough to not look like an idiot.

“Where have you been the last few years” she counters.

“I’ve been out” Asmodeus replies smartly.

“Lucky you” she says and settles back down to her previous bored position. “So are you gonna pay or what” she mumbles.

“Hold it, wait a second. Before I don’t, can you explain to me what I missed?” he asks.

“Only if that ‘don’t’ becomes a do before I did” the girl remarks. Excited Asmodeus wipes out a twenty and says

“Here, keep the change”.

“Sweet. Thanks.” She says sitting straight up and looking him in the eye. “Okay. Well, I don’t want to blabber on so lets just discuss the short version. Five years ago the Federation of the United States of America collapse. The bubble had burst on the economic global empire. Of course we can just blame China but that was not the true problem with the United States. The true problem lied in its militaristic attitude, its hawkish agenda, its blind neglect of social and civil liberties, and its continued marriage with the industrial complex of the nation. The Corporation of the United States could not defend its people from other countries, it could not defend its people against its other people. It could not pave the roads, it could not pay the teachers, it could not built any schools, it could not meet its own standards of excellence. The corporation went bankrupt. And that brought the system down. The existence of the the old system lies in two places; the state structure and the small group of mostly southern and Midwestern states that still claim to be the United States of America. States that could govern themselves well were the ones to raise out of the ashes of the former republic. Vermont was one of them. Of course that gave us a lot of problems too. Large cities have serious problems with economic social divide. After the collapse some people were able to loot unguarded wealth of the nation, what was left anyway. Others had become rich through years of corruption. Anyway the cities was where these distinctions were most obvious. Its a war zone I hear. Boston, L.A., Chicago, New York City, Miami, you know the big cities. All those people that lost everything there came up here, where we were all poor already. Vermont population jumped from half a million to four million in the last five years. Anyway the State has pretty much declared its independence from the Union as soon as it was presumed dead.”

“Holy shit” whispers Asmodeus “That’s intense. Did you rehearse that”?

“No. I use to be a political science major” she said.

“Holy shit” whispers Asmodeus again.

 

-END EPISODE SCRIPT-

The Sound of My Creed

For he who loves death

I pillage, I steal

I command, I follow

Death betrays me

A sin by god

A nemesis of the devil

A sacred song for hope

Is this the sound of my creed

I have become hollow

In this company of hard knocks

A shallow hero

A morbid existence

A fighter with no manifesto

I see a torn map

It has been fixed before

Where is this silent cartographer

A soldier lost in a storm

A pigeon stranded in the wind

An angel trying to find his way home

A philosopher of the universe

A devil child of the Earth

What lie have I become

So loose

So strong

A ferocious beast

A rebel of the underground

A warrior for peace

Undeniably alien to my former

I seek no revenge

I have no regrets

What truth have I become

A wayward sailor

A crime by nature

A tale to tell no soul

Waiting for Columbus

When the original conflict between “Native Americans” and Europeans began it was largely an arms struggle. From the natives side it was a European invasion. From the European side it was a conquest. It is important to note that Europeans did not recognize the natives right to the land of the “Americas”. With this reasoning the Europeans did not consider themselves as a invasion force. The word invasion implies that the victim of such an attack is obligated to defend themselves. This was not the case for the natives according to the Europeans.
In this essay I will explain how the conflicts between Native Americans and whites have evolved not resolved. From the books Journey of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall and Mountain Windsong by Robert J. Conley examples of the past will be extracted. For a more contemporary perspective, the books The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie and Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson will be examined. How the relationship between Native Americans and the whites will judge is by way how respect, rights, and equality between the two groups have changed over time.
There is a photo on shirts and other merchandise that claims to be a picture of Geronimo and other Apache warriors. The subtitle under the picture reads “Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism since 1492”. While humorous to some it can be offensive to others. It may also be true. Terrorism can take many forms. Is forcing removing a group of people at gun point a form of terrorism? Is stripping away land from its native occupants and putting them in a reservation a form of terrorism? I would say it is. While America is today fixated on this “new” threat called terrorism for the rest of the world it is nothing new. Terrorism has been sponsored by both vigilante groups and governments. What is most disturbing is America’s lack of interest to resolve this conflict. It was once an arms conflict now it is a social conflict. Here in the home of liberty and justice for all we have not faced the continuing struggle of the Native American.
In the time of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas, the natives were regarded as savages and inferior. Though there was much talk about religion and the holy mission of the Europeans to “educate” and “civilize” the natives, the true intentions laid in greed for resources. This included wood, land, oil, and especially gold. But as Marsall says “the old men were hoping that the whites would keep going west. There was nothing wrong with trading they said’”. They were not savages to begin with. Although there were instances of mutual cooperation, from the beginning there was lack of respect, lack of rights, and equality was a silly idea. In the story the Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor, Alexie describes a confrontation with a state cop who pulled the characters Jimmy Many Horse and his wife Norma over. While the driver was not drinking, the officer asks whether Norma was. Norma responds that she is a passenger it doesn’t matter. The cop says “That don’t make a differences, Washington State has a new law against riding as a passenger in an Indian car”.
The US government made hundreds of agreements with the native tribes and broke all of them. As the Lakota leader, Red Cloud said “ They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they promised to take our land, and they did”. In Mountain Windsong it tells of Falling Over Man, a Cherokee, saving the life of Old Hickory (Andrew Jackson). In recognition Jackson said “For as long as the sun shines and the grass grows, you and me are going to be friends, and the feet of the Cherokees will be pointed East”. Jackson did not follow up on his promise. Even though being considered one of the most “civilized” of the savages, the Cherokee Nation faced one of the most painful ordeals of post-Columbus Native American experience. This would be the infamous “Trail of Tears” where thousands of Cherokees where chased out of their homes and made to march West. Even though so many died during the first journey, the remaining Cherokees were made to moving West in another group. However this time led by their own people.
The disunity between the the Native American tribes became a weakness. In most cases diversity is a strong point. But for survival the most important tools to the society as a whole is a large population and unity. Many native tribes joined fights with whites against other native tribes. I wonder if they would have done the same if they realized that the greatest threat to them was their new allies not their old enemies. It has been established that,collectively, the natives had no rights. However the most disastrous policy for the native tribes was not exclusion but inclusion.
The American people and other Western government previous to them collectively labelled all tribes as the “Native Americans” or “the Indians”. In many cases identity in times of struggle is as important as the battles being fought. For what else does one truly fight for? While not giving the natives equality in mainstream America, the native tribes where equal among themselves in the eyes of Americans. The right to be recognized as a unique and independent culture is the ultimate struggle of the Native American tribe. Even in liberal Vermont, the Abenaki tribe has to struggle for recognition from the State. The year long celebration in Vermont of Samuel De Champlain’s “discovery” of the the lake that bears is name is an example of social injustice. The idea that a group of people need to be acknowledged for their existence as a people is an example of lack of respect for native cultures and lack of recognition as a unique and independent nation of people.
The title of this essay is Waiting for Columbus. For the natives Columbus was an unexpected hurricane of horrendous proportion. It brought with it disease, armies, and the reservation. The creation of the United States of America in 1776 was like the second Columbus. The creation of the reservation system and the Bureau of Indian Affairs was the third Columbus and so on. Someone or something is always waiting to break open a horde of terrible problems. Talking about campaigns by the US government to wipe out native resistance Alexie states “They’re all gone, my tribe is gone. Those blankets they gave us, infected with smallpox, have killed us. I’m the last, the very last, and I’m sick, too.” He talks of a man in a desperate situation. The foundation of his society to which we would turn to in time of need no longer exist. Even if there were others he would still be alone.
Today, although it is widely known that Native Americans are not one group of people but consist of many tribes, people are less likely to recognize the significance of that. It is not taught in school and political correctness is thought of as unnecessary. If I was speaking about Sherman Alexie I would probably say that he was Native American before I would say that he was Spokane. In the same way I wouldn’t necessarily mention that Eden Robinson is Haisla and Heiltsuk, or the Joseph Marshall III is a Lakota, a subgroup of the Sioux Nation. Understanding of a culture can become a form of oppression if it is coupled with stubborn ignorance. In Robinson’s Monkey Beach, Lisa’s teacher “forced her to read a book that said that the Indians on the Northwest coast of British Columbia had killed and eaten people as religious sacrifices”. When Lisa referred to it as “….all lies” she got in trouble.
Anger never dies. Anger is like the monarch caterpillar. It changes with the time and the environment. It becomes a butterfly and maybe gets eaten by a bird. But anger can not be shared because like the monarch it is poisonous. Its all about survival. As Sherman Alexie says “Survival = anger X imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation”. This is comparable to the Cherokee approach being misunderstood, just smile and nod. When you can not win physically you fight your battles mentally.