I wrote the following blog 9 years ago. I decided to republish it after reading the news (Casa Grande Dispatch, March 5-6, 2024) about a federal court panel voting 6-5 to uphold a lower courts denial of an injection to halt the transfer of land in Northern Pinal County for a copper mining project. The land would be given to a Copper mining company in and area named Oak Flats that was ceded to the Apache Indians by an 1854 treaty. The Indians in Northern Arizona went to court to contest this denial of their property rights and lost in both a lower court and a federal court. If you are one of those who say “Well, yes, its too bad we screwed the Indians in all those treaties years ago BUT times have changed.”
Well, my friend, don’t count on it. We are still screwing the Indians. This is the second time in ten years, I have seen former treaties with local tribes stepped on and totally abrogated. We are still fucking the Indians 150 years later. Some things never change. The kicker is that the company petitioning to take the Indian land for a copper mine, is a foreign owned company named Resolution Copper owned by a conglomerate of investors mostly Australian and British. The spokesperson for this company told the news that “They will continue to work with and listen to the concerns of the local tribes.” I have made a few updates and changes to my original blog but I think it is still salient and has merit.
(Please listen to Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Now that the Buffaloes Gone”)
1964. A time of increased social consciousness: Civil Rights marches. Women’s Rights marches. Free Speech marches. Protests in the grape fields. The Indian Movement. The Free Love Movement. The Whole Earth Movement. Anti-war marches. Lots of social commentary and inspiring folk songs written during this period by musicians such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Buffy St. Marie, Sixto Rodriguez, Richie Havens, Leonard Cohen, Country Joe McDonald, Peter, Paul and Mary, not to mention hundreds of others. (Many others came before these, like Paul Robeson and Woody Guthrie.)
Can you remember the times
That you have held your head high
And told all your friends of your Indian claim
Proud good lady and proud good man
Your great great grandfather from Indian blood came
And you feel in your heart for these ones
The Baby Boomers (I sadly must include myself in this category) were going to change the world. But now Bob Dylan does commercials for General Motors. Jane Fonda married one of the richest capitalists in the world and makes a fortune on her exercise videos. Rennie Davis became a venture capitalist. Lenny Bruce died of an overdose. Abbie Hoffman committed suicide. Jerry Rubin became a business executive. To quote Mr. Rubin: “I know that I can be more effective today wearing a suit and tie and working on Wall Street than I can be dancing outside the walls of power.” Countless other “counter-culture heroes” joined the “establishment” and de facto “sold out.”
For my part, I never trusted any of these “revolutionaries.” It is easy to be counter-culture when you’re “daddy’s rich and your mommas good looking.” I knew I would have to earn a living and while my sympathies lie with the sentiments of these “revolutionaries,” my stomach lie with eating three meals a day. They say an army marches on its stomach. I guess a revolution will also rise or fall on the bellies of the revolutionists. My mother being a part-time store clerk at Woolworths and my father being a postman (In the sixties there were no post-people) did not leave a lot of table scraps left over to feed my revolutionary spirit.
Oh it’s written in books and in song
That we’ve been mistreated and wronged
Well over and over I hear the same words
From you good lady and you good man
Well listen to me if you care where we stand
And you feel you’re a part of these ones
I sold out. Joined the military. Served honorably. Got married. Got a job with a major corporation and have lived happily ever after. Except for the guilt, at not manning the barricades, my life has been pretty normal. No jail. No drug offenses. No charges for treason. No flag burning. No tear gassing. How much do I have to pay for taxes this year?
Nevertheless, I do get twinges of guilt from time to time (noted above). I feel sorry for the Indians. I feel sorry for the poor. I feel sorry for the underprivileged. I feel sorry for minorities. I feel sorry for the immigrants at the border. I frequently donate to selected charities, which I suppose helps to assuage my guilt. I would do more but I am too busy trying to pay my bills. Toys, cars, homes, vacations, clothes do not pay for themselves.
I know I am like many others. I regret how we treated and still treat the Indians. But I don’t want to give the country back to them. I regret how we treated African Americans but although I am for some type of reparations, I am not out agitating for them. I would love to do more for the environment but I find it very difficult to remember what plastic pails to throw out and which ones go in which bin. I want to help the global drought but I like my showers each morning. I am sorry we put Japanese Americans in internment camps but I don’t know if I would have done anything differently if I had been president in 1941.
When a war between nations is lost
The loser we know pays the cost
But even when Germany fell to your hands
Consider dear lady, consider dear man
You left them their pride and you left them their land
And what have you done to these ones
On my way to my exercise club (LA Fitness) this morning, I was listening to some radio commentator talking about how unfair it was too have put so many Japanese American citizens into what he called prisons for the duration of the war. He called it a “tragic mistake.” I thought about all of the “tragic mistakes” we have made in this country from slavery, to lynchings, to Jim Crow laws, to segregation laws, to water rights laws, to reservation laws, to the Trail of Tears, to anti-gay laws, to broken treaties, to anti-immigration laws, to laws protecting the rights of corporations over the rights of citizens. We have made dozens if not hundreds of “tragic mistakes” throughout American history. The good thing is we always feel really bad about them later on. Usually when it is too late to do anything about them.
True, we screwed the Indians royally but now every Thanksgiving we can feel sorry about it when we remember that they gave us corn on the cob and helped feed us until we could sustain ourselves. True we made a big mistake when we told them they could have all of the land west of the Mississippi. Then we made another big mistake when we told them they could own the land and mineral rights which we gave them when we put them on reservations. Today, we are rapidly realizing that it might not have been such a good idea to give them Casino rights. This is a “tragic mistake” that is being rectified in many states as I speak. Capitalism and profits always “Trump” everything else in the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”
We made another tragic mistake when we told women they would have control over their reproductive rights. However, many noble Americans have taken to bombing abortion clinics and shooting abortion doctors until our noble politicians can rectify this tragic mistake. (As I edit this former blog, this “rectification” has already taken us back hundreds of years.)
There is no getting away from the fact, that we freed the slaves. Some would regard this as a tragic mistake compounded by giving them the vote and letting them marry whom they chose. Of course, we have many loyal Americans doing all they can to put the “Negro” BACK in his or her place.
Finally of course, we let all those dam immigrants into the country. From the Indians point of view, this has been the most tragic mistake of all history. We let the British, Dutch, French, Irish, Scottish, Germans, Swedes and Italians in. Then we let the Somalians, Hmong, and Russians in. Did I forget the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and Filipinos? Don’t worry, I have not forgotten the Latinos. It is just that this last tragic mistake is one that many noble Americans are still trying to rectify. Right down here in Arizona, it is practically a right to help capture would be Latino immigrants and send them back over the border. Some other loyal Americans are demanding that we continue to build a large retaining wall to insure that they stay south of our borders. Of course, the wall must be porous enough to allow US tourists to visit Mazatlán, Cancun, Acapulco and other great South American vacation sites including Algodones for cheap but quality dental work.
Has a change come about Uncle Sam
Or are you still taking our lands
A treaty forever your senators sign
They do dear lady, they do dear man
And the treaties are broken again and again
And what will you do for these ones
It is a good thing to be able to learn from your tragic mistakes. I have a friend whose motto is: “there are no mistakes, only lessons to be learned.” So what are the lessons, we could and should have learned from all of these “tragic mistakes” that we have made. I will suggest three lessons.
First Lesson: Be sure to make your tragic mistakes with people who have less power than you do. If you are going to screw someone, be sure they do not have a gun, slingshot, bow and arrow or any other kind of an equalizer. As Samuel Colt said: “God made men, but I made them equal.”
Second Lesson: Always look to the past before declaring a tragic mistake. Never look to present actions that might imply current tragic mistakes because there might still be time to rectify them. If you only look at past tragic mistakes, you can express sympathy and remorse and not be overly inconvenienced with issues like giving the country back or financial remuneration.
Oh it’s all in the past you can say
But it’s still going on here today
The government now want the Navaho land
That of the Inuit and the Cheyenne
It’s here and it’s now you must help us dear man
Now that the buffalo’s gone.
Lyrics by: Buffy Sainte-Marie – Now That the Buffalo’s Gone
Third Lesson: Always try to deny responsibility and get the injured parties to move on. Make it clear that all of this stuff was in the past and they need to get on with life. Talk about how things are different now. We have no more racism because Obama was president. We have no more Indian problems because we let them run the casinos. We have no more women’s issues because we gave them the vote. We have no immigration problems because we have lots of immigrants already in the country. We have no more Gay problems because they are all getting to marry who they want now.
So you see, it’s clear all the problems that people had during the sixties have gone away. What about Global Warming you say? No problem, the Republicans are in charge the House now and they don’t believe in it so it will simply disappear like the mirage they say it is. Did you say, Oil Depletion Allowance, Solar Energy? No problem, the Oil companies have it under control. You can trust them to insure that the environment will stay clean and oil will remain affordable.
Time for Questions:
What policies are we pursuing today that we will regret 50 or 100 years from now? Does guilt and remorse matter if we do not make substantive amends? What groups do you think we need to make amends to? Why or why not? What kinds of amends would you suggest we make to African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Gays, Native Americans? How can we avoid having to say “I am sorry” in the future?
Life is just beginning.
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” ― Voltaire
PS: When I wrote this blog 9 years ago, I used Buffy St. Marie’s song and lyrics to illustrate some of my points. More recently she has come under severe criticism for one of the cardinal sins today. She has misappropriated Native American Culture by falsely claiming to be Native American by birth. I realize that for many this is an egregious sin.
The chief of the tribe that she claimed to be from has said that she would be forgiven if she acknowledged the appropriation and asked for forgiveness. For my part, I find it necessary to forgive her regardless of what she says (perhaps easier for me since I am not a Native American) because of the awareness of the Indian issues that she has brought to my attention. Buffy stood up for Indians and denounced the hypocrisy of White people in their treatment of Native Americans. She is among several that I have to thank for what I would like to think is my more progressive attitude towards the rights of our Indian tribes from Maine to California.
This years election is going to force people to decide between the lesser of two evils. Trump is undoubtedly the winner in being the most evil person to ever run for president in the USA. His former Chief of Staff said that Trump was the most vile man he had ever met. Kelly declared:
In 2021, we decided to sell one of our houses. We had small homes in both Arizona and Wisconsin, and we were snow birding between each. Six months in one and six months in the other. We started out snow birding in 2010 when we sold our Minnesota home and bought homes in Arizona and Wisconsin. The two homes reflected our disparate needs. Mine was for cool weather, plenty of green and blue and out in the country far from traffic. Karen’s preference was for sunny skies, warm days and somewhere she could lie in the sun for a good portion of the year.
Unfortunately, as they say time and tide waits for no man or woman. We both got older. We both quit working even part-time and the maintenance on both houses seemed to increase with each passing year. Thus, we stood on the brink of a decision. Which house should we sell. Did we want to go sweltering heat or frigid cold? No bugs and no water in Arizona or clean air and blue water everywhere you look albeit with bugs that could carry you away in Wisconsin. An older house with more space and room or what Karen called her “happy home” with everything on one floor in Arizona? Such decisions require the wisdom of Solomon. We decided to toss a coin. No actually, I decided to give into that old adage that “A happy wife makes a happy life.” Thus, it was goodbye Wisconsin, here we come Arizona.
One day while tossing things, I came to my tie rack. I had been a management consultant for nearly twenty years before going back into education. The needs of that job required that I looked like I could make money and even had some money. My suits were better than average and several of my shirts were custom made. However, it was with ties that I went crazy. I only wanted ties that stood out and looked like I came from royalty or at least money. All of my ties were made of silk and many if not most of them were designer ties. No micky mouse ties or ties with golf clubs on them for me. My ties were classy and artistic. When I picked up the rack of ties and looked at some for the first time in ten years, I could hardly think of donating them to people who I knew would never appreciate them. One of the ties I purchased while working with Chevron in San Francisco, I paid three hundred and fifty dollars for and that was in 1992 dollars. That’s what happens when you are making too much money and lose your common sense.
A few days later she told me that she had an idea. She had found a design for a kimono, and she thought she could slice and dice my ties into a number of what quilters call squares. Each square would use a tie and each would be different. Some would be female kimonos and some male kimonos. She thought using silk was great and that I had enough ties for the job. I wondered how long this would take but she was not sure. She estimated that she would need 80 or more squares for the quilt. I began to regret giving them to her. I would be dead and buried before I ever saw my quilt.
Aging Capriciously 