[staff] And justice for all
A few years ago I was having a conversation with an Indian friend of mine about post-9/11 racial profiling of South-Asians. He was angry about it of course, but he also had an interesting perspective. “Yeah it’s wrong,” he told me, “but you know they’re just finally doing to us what they been doing to black people all along.” Yep, the oppression and suspicion weren't new, just the targets. Well, to every Sikh who’s been accused of being a terrorist, to every Iranian who’s ever been called Iraqi, I have some good news: there’s a new target in town.
Have you heard the news? Fox and CIA director General Hayden are all atwitter. Fear mongers start salivating: there’s a white Al Qaeda. It’s official folks: Goldstein is everywhere. White boy with the pierced nose, fatigues, and 9/11 Truth shirt, considered yourself warned.
Meanwhile, there’s a real uprising going on in Middle America. An association of the Lakotah People have reasserted their independence and announced the formation of the Republic of Lakotah. This is not a rebellion because they’ve always been a sovereign nation. It’s simply a rejection of all the unfulfilled promises and broken treaties the United States government has used to bind and bend a proud people. According to national and international law, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Republic of Lakotah is perfectly legal. This is not the annexation of new territory, only a demand to honor old agreements.
After the Holocaust we created Israel for the Jews. Liberia followed slavery. And now the United States supports independence for Kosovo. Who could possibly argue that the Lakotah have any less valid claim to their ancestral land? After all the diseased blankets and tearful marches, the racist Indian schools, corrupt tribal governors, and the systematic destruction of the American Indian Movement, how could the United States government say it is unjust to acknowledge ancient ownership?
A government that denies the validity of this claim denies the validity of its very existence. To attack the Lakotah is to shed the last scraps of legitimacy clinging to the Capitol’s veneer and reveal a naked fascist monster, it’s mind pure Thanatos. The audacity with which the elite insult our intelligence is outrageous. A steady stream of spectacle keeps us docile. Our nation is titillated by scandal and then moves on laughing to consume the next fetid atrocity like fattened hyenas. Televised tragedy should not be cathartic. “Hurricane Katrina laid our racism and iniquity bare. What a relief to finally face the truth. Ohmygawd! Paris Hilton isn’t wearing any underwear!”
We are not the stunted persons of Black’s Law Dictionary who share Constitutional rights with corporations. We are humans, and at our best we are humans with honor. There was a time when a man’s word was his bond and oaths were made of steel and shared judiciously. Now, every interpersonal experience is mediated through prejudices and dreams installed by hucksters for the entertainment-industrial complex. How do we reconcile integrity and game theory? How can there be justice when our legal code is more convoluted than the Gordian knot? Where’s Aaron Burr?
We live in a world now where language is no longer sacred. We live in a world where almost nothing is sacred, and that which is gets mocked by sardonic talk show hosts and elitist intellectuals. But the world was not made to be made bite size. Songbirds don’t sing in sound bites. The greatest artists, explorers, and scientists tremble before the Universe. I say, “All Power to the Great Mystery!”
There will be wrongs and bad bargains as long as there are humans. There will be errors and slights as longs as there are communities. Our goal, then, is to act with honor and to respect the inherent dignity of others.
My friends, now is our opportunity to mend our ways. End the wars abroad and end the war at home. I’m a white boy with a big mouth and I’m worried one day someone’s going to confuse my love of Life with hatred for America and decry me pale Taliban. I’m even more worried, though, that every coffee shop liberal is brave enough to hold a placard for Iraq, but too scared to support freedom fighters here.
First they came for the…
