It's Getting Too Serious Again - Let's Take an Okanogan Breather

I love reading about Native American Culture. Their culture of spirituality is second to none, transcending the typical boundaries of orgnaized religion. One of my favorites; "American Indian: Myths and Legends" a collection of Indian Folklore assembled by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. It pulls you into the mind of the true Americans, of their beliefs, their love of nature. If you're interested in relaxing and endulging in a sublime look into some of the most endearing ancient cultures, pick it up, relax and become spiritual.

CREATION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE

From the Okanogan People

Pacific Northwest

The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a woman. "You will be the mother of all people," he said.


Earth is alive yet, but she has been changed. The soil is her flesh, the rocks are her bones, the wind is her breathe, trees and grass are her hair. She lives spread out, and we live on her. When she moves, we have an earthquake.


After taking the woman and changing her to earth, Old One gathered some of her flesh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud or clay. He made the first group of these balls into the ancients, the early world.


The ancients were people, yet also animals. In form some looked human while some walked on all fours like animals. Some could fly like birds; others could swim like fishes. All had the gift of speech, as well as greater powers and cunning than either animals or people. But deer were never among the ancients, they were always animals, even as they are today.

Besides the ancients, real people and real animals lived on the earth at that time. Old One made the people out of the last balls of mud he took from the Earth. He rolled them over and over, shaped them like Indians, and blew on them to bring them alive. They were so ignorant they were the most helpless of all the creatures Old One had made.


Old One made people and animals into males and females so they might breed and multiply. Thus all living things came from the earth. When we look around, we see part of our mother everywhere.


The difficulty with the early world was that most of the ancients were selfish and some were monsters, and there was much trouble among them. They were also very stupid in some ways. Though they knew they had to hunt in order to live, they did not know which creatures were deer and which were people, and sometimes they ate people by mistake.


At last Old One said, "There will soon be no people if I let things go on like this." So he sent Coyote to kill the monsters and other evil beings among the ancients and teach the Indians how to do things.


And Coyote began to travel on the earth , teaching the Indians, making life easier and better for them, and performing many wonderful deeds.

Perhaps we need a few coyotes to kill a few mosnters and make our lives a little better

These miners lived — as they died — in pursuit of the American dream."

"These miners lived — as they died — in pursuit of the American dream." (President Obama's speech to the miners in Asheville, NC)


Joe Bageant wrote in his book "Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class Wars" (paraphrasing) that Americans are being duped by the elitists into believing the outright bullshit that there are no class wars, and that miners and factory workers are the soul of the nation as they seek a better future. The elitists and their puppets, the American government have sold a bill of goods to a class of people who rarely make it through high school, ending up in the mines and factories of the back-hills of Kentucky.

But the government does such an effective job at convincing these folks that they are "middle class citizens" they are determined to be just that. The brainwashing tactics of the elitists keep these folks, who'd normally be voting with the liberal call, so well convinced that their jobs will disappear if they don't vote republican, don't remove unions, the citizens are often heard repeating vehemently that it's un-American to vote anything but republican, despite the fact that republicans keep union benefits from the employees, that the republican comics take most of the hard-earned money out of their community, leaving little for life's improvements.

As I read about the violence of the extreme right and see some of the illiterate folks participating in the demonstrations and violence, I can't help but wonder just how many of those folks are the same Bageant was referring to. How many sod-poor miners adamantly vote republican because they've been convinced that "they are the heart of the nation?" That they are living the American dream, all while their fathers and mothers are dying from diabetes, CHF, lung cancer, etc due to the fact that they can't obtain health care - their wages are far too low and benefits are all but non-existent.

I can't help but wonder, when a mining disaster, or an oil rig explosion happens, just how many of those seeking the American dream are set back by hundreds of thousands of dollars by the cost of their health care, ruining their American dream for generations. How many new families buy a brand new mobile home and park it in their brand new mobile home park thinking that they've achieved the American dream? Until the bank forecloses on the young couple because the wages of the trade are so pitiful, they can't afford the payments after one of the couple becomes debilitated (if they're not lucky enough to hold down two and three jobs EACH).

Contrary to the neocon’s beliefs, wealth IS NOT being redistributed under the Obama campaign. At best it’s likely to stay the same wherein as of 2007 the top 1% own 42.7% of America’s wealth. The next 19% own 50.3% of America’s wealth and the bottom 80% own 7% of America’s wealth.

That is highly unlikely to change under the Obama administration, even if he is strong enough to hold onto 8 years, a very unlikely event in my mind. Financial redistribution of a country the size of the United States (economically) would take far more time than even a lucky two terms for Obama and when Obama is out of his Presidential Office desk chair, those who follow will very likely have, as their primary agenda to repeal any and all efforts Obama may have been successful in related to a fair redistribution of wealth to those “middle-class” folks pursuing the American dream with their minimum-wage, task-oriented jobs with little or no health insurance. The elitists OWN our government and the mainstream media (owned by those same elitists) influence those incapable, or disinterested in seeking truth, but instead, accept everything the mainstream media tells them. Ignorance is indeed bliss when all you can manage to do in life is to hold your head above water in the flood of bullshit from media, papal and familial influence passed from one generation to the next.

The neoconservatives have such a loud and strong voice in this country, threatening violence and intimidation, we’ll be damned lucky to keep the changes to health care reform, as watered down as it is.

But! If you ask any of these "down-to-earth country folks" about voting Democrat or Republican, the fire and vile will come from their mouths in southern drawls; "we're proud, god-fearin Americans and we vote the right way - Republican, for that's the party of America, the party of God." "Ill aggressively defend my home and liberty against anyone who thinks they can force me to do otherwise."

Well, there you have it liberals. As long as those who need it the most oppose redistribution of wealth so vehemently, where the elitists have all but enslaved them and made them thankful for being enslaved, we have one hell of an uphill climb to make against the tightly held redneck, Puritanistic right-wing hold over them.