Not Politics as Usual

We woke up this morning to the news that we have a functional Department of Homeland Security for at least a week.  On the same front page was a story of a blogger being hacked to death because he had offended Islamic religious terrorists.  We also read about dozens of terrorist threats to Americans everywhere.  And we have a functional Homeland Security Department for only a week!

In 2014 the gerrymandering and millions of dollars finally worked, returning the bonus of a highly partisan, ideological Congress, packed with right wing zealots, driven superfically by ideological goals to downsize and reduce government and taxes.  The real motivation is good old fashioned pay back, since corporate money, Koch Brothers, et al, contributed millions creating a new Congress that will do their bidding.  This money was contributed with the goal of profit and in a cynical sense, economic growth.  The potential for quite the opposite result, economic disaster, is huge.  

And they got right to work, attacking the President's actions on immigration, voting to repeal the ACA, cutting taxes for the rich (payback).  

A major talking point during the election was elect us, we will end the dysfunction in Congress, we will not "be scary", we will govern, we will cooperate, we will end politics as usual.

They took office the first of January, and it is the end of February:  and we have already seen a government department responsible for keeping all of us safe defunded and the plunging morale of not being paid that thousands must be experiencing who patrol our borders, inspect our luggage, and stand between us and bombs.

And what did some of the new Congress do?  Why, they mocked government workers, saying they didn't work hard anyway, and by gosh, maybe we will eliminate them anyway.  

I was sickened by the snide comments about TSA Agents.    Just one inspector who would have caught a box cutter being smuggled on an airplane, and 9/11 doesn't happen.  It also will take just one disgruntled TSA Agent, who shrugs their shoulders and waves a suspect through, angered that they aren't getting paid, to lead to another 9/11.  Just one!

Will it happen?

Of course it will, if this lunacy continues.  

There is a majority of Republican congressmen and women whose primary goal is to disrupt and destroy the very government they were elected to run. They see themselves as revolutionaries; as the new Iowa Senator trumpeted, "We want to see them squeal".  Well, we are squealing, we are frightened and sickened by our representatives acting like revolutionaries.   That is terrorism by anyone's measure.

That is right, we foolishly elected terrorist revolutionaries to our Congress.  Our votes were bought and we were fooled.

And now, we have terrorists running the legislative branch of the Congress.  Anyone who has read any political science knows that revolutionaries are not always right, and make lousy governors.  

Often they destroy more than the injustices they seek to cure.  Isis, Nazis, the Confederacy, French Revolution, the Crusades all spring to mind.  

That is why the founding fathers built a Constitution that is so full of checks and balances.   Remember they had their own revolution as a guide, that gained freedom from Britian but led to a bankrupt and vulnerable Articles of Confederation, and the horror of the French Revolution was just playing out, demonstrating what I am warning about, revolutionalry zeal makes for bad government and the "blood of tyrants" often is innocents' blood.  

I was sickened by the clips of the recent Conservative Pac convention of the tea pary member walking around in colonial dress with his "Don't Tread on Me" flag,  This glorifies revolution and terrorism, NOT fair competent government.

It is NOT politics as usual.  It is terrorism!

And it will not be good for business either.  The very corporations that elected these terrorists will be victimized by them.  

Why?  Well if you remember the weeks and months after 9/11 what happened to the economy?  It tanked.  Fear does that to economic growth.  And who took most of the hit for this?  The poor and the middle class.  

Many other sectors were harmed, airlines for one, several actually went bankrupt because people were afraid to fly. 

Remember President Bush begging people shop, to go on vacations, to spend money, as the 9/11 recession deepened.  Terrorism did that.

And, he then foolishly pushed through a tax cut to stimulate the economy, while simultaneously attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, in an economic nightmare of cuts in taxes coupled with a massive increases in spending.

The imbalance that caused led inevitably to the economic meltdown of 2007 and the worst recession since 1936.

So don't think that for one minute that political terrorism, both self inflicted (like this awful Congress) or from attack, doesn't negatively affect the economy.  Revolutions, like the ones the Tea Party fools are pushing, will tank our economy.  

Redding is a good example.  We endured years of Tea Parry leadership with a majority of conservatives in control.  In the past we had a non-partisan Council.  The terrorists cut police and fire, ripped city policies to shreds, and gleefully "blew up the boxes" of government.  And what do we have? A mess of  crime and an outright hostile business climate.  

Every Chamber of Congress in this country should be calling their Tea Party Representatives and demanding they knock it off, because their  behavior is going to tank what was a pretty robust recovery.

That does not mean conservative goals of less government, frugal government cannot be pursued.  Not at all.  What it does mean is that "politics as usual" is not a bad thing, that compromise and deal making is the way the system was intended to work, and political terrorism and government shutdowns are dangerous and can lead to the end of our country.  

We need a return to politics as usual...

The Big Lie

The "We have discovered that in propaganda a big lie has more effectiveness than little lies". Little lies will get you in trouble...Sweeping big lies work."....Joseph Goebbles, Germany 1937.

Of late big lies have been publicized.   The most famous is  Bill O'Reilly, who famously has claimed that he was in combat several times, while a newsman, and understands what it is like to be in the military under fire.

Unfortunately for the truth,  he has no military background whatsoever and his most famous claim about being under fire has been discredited several times.  Recently "Mother Jones", yes a liberal magazine, brought forth information that has been known for years, proving that O'Reilly not telling the truth about his being under fire in the Falklands War.  This is old news.   CBS, not exactly a liberal outlet, has  published these facts twenty years ago.  

Rudy Guiliani recently claimed that President Obama "hates America".  He then goes on to wonder how that is possible since the President's mother was white.  

Conservatives don't understand the calls of racism coming from everywhere.

Really?  Really.   To imply that because you are African American (the black side in the President's case) means:  1.  You hate America.  2.  You are a communist.  3.  You are not born in America.  Then to pivot when people call foul and  call it the racism it most assurely is....Big Lie manipulation to the nth degree.  

Then there is the tobacco and oil industry.  

I use mainline newspapers and magazines as my sources.  Unlike the inevitable conservative website I am endlessly referred to, I refer my Facebook and Blogger followers to real news outlets:  you know, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine;  CBS News, NBC, ABC.... all liberal publications?

The latest is the tobacco industry:  under court order to admit they lied over decades about the dangers of smoking, they just  refuse to comply.  Mind you, they just won't admit it....ever!

 This is against a federal court order.    Of course fines are applied, and they just raise the price of cigarettes.  And people still buy the killer cigarettes.  

Two of the most loved people in my life, my mother and first wife died of tobacco related illnesses..So,  I am waiting for a mea culpa from the tobacco companies...Somehow I don't think we're going to get it.  Many of you out there are waiting as well.  

Big tobacco killed millions by denying and big lying for years about the tragic effects of smoking.  People bought the Big Lie that second hand smoke was not harmful; etc.  

They, not unlike the climate change deniers of today led by the oil and gas industry, told Big Lies....more efffective.  And people died like flies.  

And then there's climate change:  

A leading "scientist" who denies climate change, was recently outed because he has accepted thousands of dollars for years from the oil and gas industry.  As it turns out he is not even a climate scientist, and really doesn't evey qualify to make statements about climate change.  In short he doesn't know what he is talking about.

But he does it anyway.  The big lie is that the sun is responsible for the majority of climate change today.  This is absolutely a falsehood, a Big Lie, that I hear all the time.

 And he vehemently denies that the hundred of thousands of dollars he has taken from the oil companies has affected his "science".  In short, he is paid off and is lying.  And, of course, the lie is a Big One!

When I point these Big Lies out, I am sometimes accused of name calling, falsifying; etc. In short, of lying.  

Not a word to refute the big lies, not a word...only "evidence" that liberals "said bad things about George W. Bush", or the statement I get much too much of lately:  "I believe it, and nothing can change my mind".  Or, who are you to challenge my beliefs, they are my beliefs and I am not going to change them.

In Germany in 1945, the GIs, who were so sickened by what they found in the concentration camps, actually went to German villages when they were close, and forced the citizens to go into the camps, and dispose of the dead and see what the Big Lie brought.  Most of them said, I believed what Hitler was saying, now I see I was wrong.  But the Lie was too Big and too effective.  

It took 55 million dead, and 6 million killed in the Holocaust to have them admit they were duped.  

The Japanese, are even worse if that is possible:  They fought so hard at Okinawa, refusing to surrender as civilians, throwing their babies off cliffs and following them, because the Big Lie was that American soldiers "ate children".  Japan was arming its citizens with pitchforks and sticks, to resist the inevitable invasion that was predicted to kill maybe a million Americans.  

The result of Japans accepting the Big Lie,  was the decision to drop two Atomic Bombs on Japan, the only way to break the deniers, the "Big Lie" was that strong.  

I basically got that from a friend, who said....."Obama is a Muslim, that cinches it for me, I don't care what you or anyone else says...it is my belief".  The Big Lie is that strong.  

That belief has been planted by the Big Lie propaganda machine that the former mayor of New York and Fox and all the rest are working overtime to spread.  

Finally the other whopper:  Our famous ex-mayor of New York also claims that the President of the United States became a Communist when he was nine, since he was exposed to a known communist at the time in Kenya.  

Ok, I can remember when I was nine carrying around the "Little Red Book" and Marx, Engels and Lenin and  studying Communism.  Right....nine year olds do that.  

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life.  At nine, I was playing baseball and tag with the neighborhood kids.  I know there were politics, but only when Mom and Dad watched the nightly news, and barely then.  President Obama was playing tag when he was nine...

And my Facebook Friends, at least some of them, believe this garbage.  The bigger the lie the more effective the propaganda.  

As I have warned continuously here, many times:  we are losing our faith in democratic government.  This is by design.  The Big Lie is pepetrated by the Right Wing to discredit democracy and turn us to the alternative.  

Propaganda is essential to make this work, and conservative media, including Fox News, are working overtime to make sure they destroy democracy as a functional political remedy.  

They are succeeding, poll after poll shows the American People have lost faith in their government.  This is being done on purpose.  

And the tragedy is that good people, good God fearing, decent people, are buying the lie.  Some of my former friends believe so strongly in these lies that they actually have renounced me, and hate me for speaking out.  

The only thing than can stop this, is for you to turn off the damned T.V., get off your favorite website, and read the other side.  I am not trying, by the way, to convert you to being a Democrat....

I am trying to warn you that we won't have that luxury of democracy, if this lunacy continues.

The Wizard of Oz

The first color movie that captivated thousands of children's hearts in the depths of the Great Depression was The Wizard of Oz; written by L.Frank Baum, a  metaphorical mistive that was a social commentary with biting satire and wit.

And written by whom?  An unknown journalist of the late 19th century.

The movie was an immediate hit, though the author was probably long gone.

But the author had another side.  He was a commentator about the fate of the few remaining tribes of Native Americans post-wounded knee.

His commentary reflected the conventional wisdom of genocide at the time:

"The nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they should die. "

Stannard, David E. (1993-09-11). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (p. 126). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. 

Better they should die:  and die they did.  They died by the millions from the tip of South America to the frozen wastes of Alaska.  Whole cultures were deliberately killed, fed poison, given smallpox filled blankets, so that "nits  could not make lice".

Civil War generals, who had mastered the art of modern killing warfare, were unleashed on the Plains Indians after the Civil War, and in 30 years had basically extinguished them.

The Trail of Tears, that had occurred in the late 1830s, looked like humanitarianism, compared to the wholesale slaughter at Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, and numerous killing fields.

Women and children were targeted, with the logic that killing the babies and baby makers would eliminate the tribe quicker .

And this was not gentle euthenasia either.  Babies were smashed, children were shot with high caliber weapons, torture and sexual disfigurement were practiced openly.  Genitals were removed and used as  trinkets of conquest.  Postcards were sold showing "redskins" dead and rotting in the sun.

And of course, the Buffalo were exterminated to the point of near extinction to remove the food supply.

And hardly anyone said a thing.  Manifest Destiny had to be fed.  And natural resource were production resources, old grow forests were clear cut, watershed was destroyed in the mad quest for gold, pollution was everywhere, fouling the water and killing even more.

And the gun tamed the west, leaving a gun culture that today makes America the most dangerous place to live on earth.  And who is killed the most by modern gun violence: people of color of course.

And, the Redskins are a football team, its owner tone deaf to what using a Native American term of racism really means vis a vis "American Holocaust".

But there is a reckoning.  Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, and other predicted that the Great Spirit was very angry with the slaughter and the degradation of nature.

The Dust Bowl was a warning.  Pollution disasters was a warning.  The Ozone Layer Depletion was a warning.  And today, the warming of the globe is a warning, that a reckoning is coming.

It is not fun rooting for the destruction of my culture; but we have it coming.

We must reconcile, even if all it does is finally says we are sorry to the earth and its people. For in the end, and it will be the end...there will be a reckoning.  God save us all!

Beware the Snake Oil Salesman

In the Old West, the Snake Oil Salesman was a mainstay.  The "Wizard of Oz", that was a political commentary by the way, begins with a traveling Snake Oil salesman, seeking to sell rain making equipment.  It all turns out to be a con in the end!

During the Dust Bowl days, crooks masquerading as scientists, traveled the Great Plains, trying to get commuities to buy their con, taking bankrupt communities to the cleaners, while producing no rain.  

They were con artists, living barely inside the law, profiting on human misery.

We see those things today; politicians who put on a great show, make loads of promises, and back up half truths with "facts", but really are trying to pick your pocket.

It looks like we have that in my home town of Redding, California.  

We have a new police chief from Stockton.  He is handsome, a great talker, and seems to love having "public forums" where he paces back in forth, with his form fitting uniform, immaculately groomed, almost military (he brags about his service and present Reservist position), and wows the audience with his statistics and hyperbole.

And boy is it hyperbole.   The newspaper this morning, certainly no liberal rag, pointed out that some of the chief's "statistics" about the motivations for homeless people coming to Redding were shall we say, in the "snake oil salesman" territory.

The easiest way I make sense of it, besides just calling it plain old bullshit, is that of 3000 homeless in Redding less than 100 said they were here because of bleeding heart liberal give away services.

Now, Redding is accused of a lot of things, but bleeding heart liberal is NOT one of them.  

Redding is one of the most conservative places in California.  Shasta County was designated by the San Jose Mercury News, as the "gun capitol" of California.  We have not elected a Democrat to any major public office, save a couple non partisan seats on the City Council, for over thirty years.

But that is not reactionary enough for the Police Chief.  No, he uses barely laughable statistics to push for a wholesale deportation of homeless, raiding their camps, bull dozing their tents.   Some of the local mega churches in town even joined in, Christians smashing homeless camps (how there is a sermon title for you).  

But, and there is always a but, somebody crept into the Wizard's office, and drew back the curtain and lo and behold, there stood not a Wizard, but a Snake Oil Salesman!

None of the Chief's "statistics" make any sense.  First of all, he supposedly had his police officers collect statistical evidences about why the homeless came to Redding.  Now think about that for a minute, a big guy with a gun confronts a homeless mentally disturbed person, and while he is smashing your tent, asks you, "Oh by the way" why are you here?

And the answer is supposed to make sense?  And the answer might not be "doctored", in good ole snake oil traditon, to support a mean spirited end?

Come on...I mean come on!  Oh, next the Police Chief claimed he "gets a couple emails a week" from fishermen complaining that homeless camps next to the river ruin their fishing, "and they aren't coming back".  Now that might have some reality to it, but based on what...anecdotal evidence?  One of two emails?

Let's be real here.  Redding has a homeless problems like the rest of the United States has a homeless problem. The problem is a product of the greatest gap between rich and poor in the nation's history.  It's the economy!  And it is not simple.  And it will take actions on a national and state wide scale to address.  And it will be expensive.  

I have my own political opinions about what to do, as do my conservative friends.  The oppositional nature of that debate is at gridlock, so nothing is done and the homeless population just keeps on growing.  

Just like the Dust Bowl kept on growing, until it rained, and we figured out how to deal with soil erosion and farming practices that were the real source of the problem.  The solution was found, the Dust Bowl ended, and the snake oil salesmen went away.

I suggest that our current snake oil salesman goes away, and we all get busy fixing the real problem:  Income inequality and yes, income distribution.  Shipping our homeless off to other cities is NOT the solution.

Neither is closing our charitable institutions!   Moreover, who in their right mind thinks the police chief is somehow qualified to deal with the homeless?  This is a social-economic problem, not a criminal one.  To make homeless criminals is not only wrong, but viscious.

Pull back the curtain...who is this guy really????

How Much of the Past Are We Responsible For?

There are real and lasting scars in United States history.  They have such a large impact on some of our consciousnesses because of the lofty goals our Constitution and Declaration of Independence set.

America, as Ronald Reagan so famously stated,  has set itself up as the "Beacon on the Hill", hence the goals of economic and social justice that America keeps trying, at least spiritually, to attain.

And there are glaring exceptions in history.  February has been declared "Black History Month" and is probably ignored by over 50% of the American People. The reason is understandable, the history of African Americans is not pretty, including slavery, genocide, Civil War, and Jim Crowe (the old and the new).

Many Americans dodge the moral dilemmas posed by our lofty ideals by declaring that they weren't alive then so cannot be held responsible.

That is a point well taken, except when you look at the state of African Americans today.  True we have an African American President, that drives crackers nuts, but we also have an staggeringly high incarceration rate for African American males, no economic justice for sure;etc.  And we all are alive to try to cope with that!

And then there are the Native Americans.

It is true that Native Americans were left out of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  They ranked as animals in those days.  But subsequent Court Decisions have finally given them citizenship status.  And the history is one of brutality, genocide and even worse, cultural destruction on an unprecedented scale.  You have to compare it to the Cambodia massacre  after the Vietnam War to find the same scale and brutality.

Much is undocumented, much is, all of it makes a sane person sick to their stomach.

But, the proponents of the Washington Redskins say, the use of a mascot demeaning Native Americans really is an honor to their legacy, even though most Native Americans and those of "mixed blood" (which is actually most Native Americans today) want the mascot changed.

I was a Stanford Indian in the 60s.   I played on the football team and was led on the field for three years at every home game by "Prince Lightfoot" (a member of a tribe who used to own San Francisco), onto the field to do battle with Spartans, Trojans, and Bears.

And the song dollies dressed as Indian maidens, the band sometimes wore warpaint, all white, all unknowing the disrespect to history such behavior meant.

Finally in the early 70s Stanford alone decided to change the mascot BACK to Cardinal. I get criticism for that from my conservative friends all the time.  I wince each time, biting my tongue.

You see the Indians came when Pop Warner took the head coaching job at Stanford, coming from Carlyle Indian School, of Jim Thorpe lore.   This is the same Carlyle Indian School that systematically destroyed thousands of children's connection with their past.  Jim Thorpe was so traumatized by it that he eventually died a hopeless drunk, a victim of cultural assassination.  

And then, Disney studios designed a long nosed Indian cartoon character, that was depicted strangling Bear, stomping Trojans; etc.  I still have a doll that was sold in the 30s, in fact I am looking at it as I type this blog.   It is innocuous really, cute I suppose, and symbolic of total cultural warfare in the United States.

We are responsible for the past when it contains many aspects that cry out to be repaired in our nation's collective conscience.

There is such a thing as a collective conscience.  Martin Luther King proved that, as we again half celebrate Black History month.  His eloquence at the Lincoln Memorial still moves us to tears, as he called forth a massive outpouring of white guilt, that brought us the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action to try to live up to those lofty ideals set so long ago.

And to some extent we have made progress.  Talk to any conservative and will all say Civil Rights is no longer an issue.  Talk to most social scientists, and those on the left, and they will tell you otherwise.

There is, as President Obama likes to say, "More work to do", as we encounter one police killing of unarmed African Americans after another.  Lynching has pretty much stopped, the KKK is in deep hiding, but still economic and social justice has a long way to go.

Unless you talk to a conservative who decries the use of big government, specifically the Federal Government, to address issues of racial profiling, discrimination and violence.  They claim the problem was solved back in the 60s and adopt a "what me worry" philosophy.

And many American have adopted this, saying we are no longer responsible for our checkered past regarding minorities.

And then there are the Native Americans.  The growth of Indian Gaming is used by many as "proof" the problem no longer exists.  Meanwhile many reservations are some of the poorest places on the planet, with rampant drug and alcohol  abuse, suicide and general cultural dysfunction on a massive scale.

It is true many mixed bloods are doing well, I am one of them, a Stanford Grad with a Masters who put in a long career in education; teaching, coaching and administration.  I am a 1/16 Cherokee whose great great grandfather was lynched by confederate soldiers for stealing a shod horse (while being a blacksmith).  His name even graces the Texas list of executions, which includes thousands of people of color.  My great grandfather on the non-Native American side, was a teacher at an Indian School, whose institutional   Mu great great grandmother lived out he life a bitter woman.

You see, my great grandfather's  goal was to drive the Native American culture away.  This must have been interesting considering he was married to a half breed Cherokee!    This too is not a pretty picture for American History.  Children were beaten when they failed to speak and write in English. Children were sometimes killed for not cooperating.  Adults were, well, we know what happened to the adults: Wounded Knee is a glaring example.  Most often, the adults, who resisted, were fed alcohol until they died.

My grandfather was a functional alcohol for most of his adult life.  I had a drinking problem for most of my adult life.  We both shared Native American blood.  

It is a quandary to be sure.  How much do we bear responsibility to "reconcile" the wrongs of the past.

I would suggest, since the climate is now deeply affected by the rampant destruction of forests and CO2 emissions, endangering all of mankind, it might be time to reconcile.

When my grandchildren are directly threatened by the sins of the past, regardless of the morality of what was done to people, but mindful of the rampant destruction of habitat that threatens the very existence of mankind, it is time to do something!

Each of us has our own path to choose, we are a free country after all, As for me, I accept the past and my responsibility for it, not because of "liberal guilt" but because my grandchildren's lives depend on it!!!!!

Reconciliation or Reckoning?

I have been teaching a class at our church about the "Trail of Tears".  It is a study of what missionary Christianity did to Native Americans as Manifest Destiny conquered the North American Continent.

It is not a pretty story.  Aside from the outright genocide, a cultural war was waged against Native Americans,  destroying not only their society but their culture and religion as well.

Anthropologically speaking a "superior culture" engulfed an "inferior" one with disastrous results.  As it turns out the disaster was not only for the Native American culture, but to the invader's culture as well.  

For as it turns out, the story is not  over.   In fact is it has only just begun.   

Global warming and environmental damage threatens us all today; a by-product of Manifest Destiny's "conquer nature is a part of inevitable progress" approach.  The dominant culture is now in trouble:  for there is an inevitable consequence of disturbing divine balance.  

Native Americans  believed strongly in divine, natural balance, in leaving nature alone as much as possible, in not "conquering or exploiting" but in living in harmony with the environment.  Imbalance from this divine command will bring a reckoning according to Native American religion.  

Of course modern world technology might look a little different today if there was a balance.  Perhaps with more harmony in nature, the world would not be draining every last drop of oil, or filling the air with tons of CO2 and other pollutants.   Life might be a little slower, a little more like, as Native Americans often said, "life as human beings".  The wolves and the bison might once again roam the Great Plains.  Wintu might once again fish for salmon in the Sacramento River.  

The last part of the class is of   reconcilation.   That is, how do we attone for the horrors of the past, the Wounded Knees, the "Trail of Tears", the genocide?   The Methodist Church, where I am teaching the class, actually has an entire devotion to reconciliation with Native Americans, ranging from direct financial support to more cultural awareness.  

So reconcilation is part of our church mission.  

And then  there is the reckoning.    

We  actually have no choice.   Either we reconcile, with Native Americans and groups who have been victims of western culture prejudice and genocide, or there will be a disastrous reckoning.  

The reckoning  will not come from Native Americans or African Americans  (I am not predicting a racial war at all)  but from a reckoning with nature.  A reckoning with the Great Spirit.  Yes, a reckoning with God.  

Nature you see is part of the Great Mystery, according to Native People everywhere.  It is all connected, natural world and spiritual world. Again, there is no choice at all.  In fact the reckoning is already occurring.

In short  we must reconcile, else reckoning will continue with devastating consequences for the survival of the human race.

Global warming, climate change is a reckoning.  The horrors in Middle East is a reckoning.  The consequences to the global economy of the oil addiction for all of us is a reckoning.  The high percentage of breast cancer downstream from the Iron Mountain Mine is a reckoning.  The hanging of that Cherokee so many years ago brings a reckoning.  

The "Great Mystery" does not forget, because it is the harmony  of existence that has been disturbed.  Once that precious balance if gone, the consequences are dire and unfortunately irreversable.

Which means reconciliation is not  voluntary.  We must stop attacking Native Americans.  We must stop demeaning people of color, because they make up the majority of the human race.  We must stop demeaning and taking nature for granted.  

The stupidity of racism has consequences, a reckoning will occur unless we reconcile our differences through LOVE.  

Martin Luther King repeated this warning.   So did Jesus Christ.

Studies of ecological balance have shown us not only the moral imperative of reconcilation, but the imperative for survival itself of human beings on planet Earth.  

So, it is not just political correctness that is in play when stopping the Redskin mascot name from being used, or Braves, or Indians, it is the beginning to reconcile.  It is the beginning of love first.  It is a beginning to stop the reckoning.  

And the costs of waiting  are just too much.

Finally, how do we know this....the elders in the oral history tradition of Native American culture warn of it all the time.  So does the Bible.

Mindlessness and Luck

I can still see him at the podium.  The Coach of the Year Clinic was always held in San Francisco and most of the high school football staffs in Northern California attended.   Like most adult males in San Francisco, we also attended our share of bars.  So, the crowd that day had bloodshot eyes and were renowned for not paying much attention to speakers at the convention.  In short, we were rude.

The Stanford head coach was on the podium, he was gradually having success at a school not known for football.  But he too had sat where we sat, he had been a high school coach in the bay area and a longtime assistant.

So, nobody really paid much attention when he started tossing a football in the air and waited patiently for the crowd to quiet down.  

Bill Walsh then did the unexpected.  Partly in desperation to get the crowd to quiet down, he slammed the football point down into the floor in front of the podium.  Predictably the ball caroomed off at a weird angle and bounced into the crowd.

A hung over peer grapped it and lobbed it back to Walsh, who quickly slammed the ball into the floor again.  Once more it bounced into the crowd.  Once more it was retrieved and lobbed back to the speaker.

The crowd was beginning to pay attention when once more Walsh flung the ball down.  This time it bounded back to him.  

Now there was silence.

Coach Walsh then explained that many probably were wondering what in the hell he was doing?  He replied to his own question, that the ball was, unlike soccer balls, baseballs, basketballs; etc the only ball in competitive sports that was one, not round, and two had points on either end.

He then lauched into an hour long lesson of how to build "chance" into your game plan.  Incredibly he planned for chance, for the errant bounce, the crazy catch, the call that for some reason the opponent could be lucky enough to guess.

And his advice was as old as the game itself:  take calculated risks.  And when needed, go with the odds...especially near the goal line.  So don't pass coming out of the endzone.  Don't pass going in either unless you have to, in a strange way the defense has the advantage.  

Throwing the ball near the endzone is risky.  Why you might ask?  The answer is rather simple, the defense has far less territory to defend.  The throwing lanes can be risky, because the defense isn't worrying about getting beat deep.  And throwing coming out of the endzone is risky as well, the defense itsn't worried about getting beat deep because long passes take longer to develop, and the quarterback is standing in his own endzone; a likely target for a sack and a safety.  

Pete Carroll is known as a gambler.  He calls the unexpected play.  He also doesn't much believe in luck, as Bill Walsh did.  He is known for taking uncalculated gambles.  

So the call Sunday makes sense.  It was not a calculated gamble, it was an uncalculated gamble plain and simple.  And it backfired.  

And Seattle went home without a championship that was one yard away. And Bill Walsh is in the hall of fame and Carroll has a way to go.  

The ball is not round.  There is a huge element in chance in the game for that reason.

That is why we are all so obsessed by it.