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| Repost from November 05... because it's still relevant in 2009 and because as we think about the first Thanksgiving, we need to remember how much we owe them besides our survival in a foreign land. “It’s Not Your Money”  In a land where the Bison and other animals were once plentiful but was now barren, the Blackfoot Indians were confined by barbwire and legislation from 1883-1884. They ate the remains of their seed potatoes and waited for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to provide the food supplies they promised. By June, they were eating tree bark and watching the white man’s cattle grazing on the land they used to own before they were left to die behind fences. Almost-A-Dog cut a notch in willow stick as his people died, first the oldest and most revered, then the youngest and the most cherished. Notch after notch, and still they waited for eighteen months. By the time the BIA finally responded, there were 555 notches in the willow and the land was marked by their deaths.
It’s an old story, and it’s one that formed the young girl-child whose family told her the story of her ancestors when they visited Ghost Ridge. She continues the fight for her tribe’s existence today with the same government that has no remorse for their actions of the past. The problem started with the Dawes Act in 1887. There was “an Indian Problem” back then, and the solution was easy- out of sight, out of mind. If you gave them a plot of land and told them to farm it, then you could manage to make everyone happy (except the Indians, and they didn’t count). So they divided the reservation land into plots (giving families 160 acres and single adults 80 acres) and sold the remaining land to the white settlers who wanted it (about 2/3’s of the land was sold without the Tribe’s approval). However, the Indians didn’t get a 160 acre plot of land- they got a 50 acre plot here and another 50 acre plot fifty miles away, making farming the land impossible. Well, since the Indians weren’t using the land, those “in charge” decided that they were responsible for putting the land to good use. They “rented” out the land, promising the rent funds would go to the Indians. The Indian Trust started losing land almost immediately after the Dawes Act became a law and everyone got rich- except the Indians. Some years they got a check, some years they didn’t, and they never got an accounting of the use of their land from the federal government. Sometimes, the land was taken away under false pretenses (after they found oil on it or needed the timber), and if the Indians complained, they were told the accounting was too complicated for them to understand (as if they were stupid). Elouise Cobell asked to see her account when she was 18 and they told her you needed a degree in accounting to understand it, so she got a degree in accounting. Her fight with the Department of Interiors was just beginning. She has been fighting them since then, using their own tactics and legal system. Her class action lawsuit Cobell v Norton is suing the government for the billons of dollars they are supposed to be holding in Trust for her people. This isn’t about reparation for all the wrong doings. This is about a legal accounting of what is rightfully the tribe’s that has been in the care (Trust) of the Federal government. Therein lays the nasty web of lies and half-truths. You see, the Trust only keeps records for six years, and then they shred them (according to court testimony), and they claim that the problem is that all the descendents of the original Blackfoot tribes are so multiple that it makes the average check about eight cents, and besides, they don’t have the money. They never had the money, they claim, and the Federal government, while spending millions to defend themselves against this lawsuit, doesn’t have the money. So who has the Blackfoot tribe’s money? The BIA officials since 1887? The tenants who make tons of money and live in nice houses and drive new trucks while their landlords starve and live in hovels without heat? The Indian employees of BIA who were rewarded for not making waves? The Federal government who treated the trust account like a private piggy bank and the payments like a gift instead of a debt? It’s 2005 and the Department of Internal Affairs is still acting like there is a “problem with the Indians” and continues to act shamefully toward the tribal members. The judge hearing the case recently ruled that “The entire record of this case tells the dreary story of Interior’s degenerate tenure as Trustee-Delegate for the Indian Trust… a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and out right villainy, the end of which is nowhere in sight.” Still the Federal government stalls and delays instead of attempting to make things right, and in the meantime, the people are caught in the middle. But the girl-child is now a powerful woman, educated in the ways of the white man, retaining her cultural identity. Elouise Cobell has been given the designation of Warrior by her tribe, a rare honor for a woman, as she continues her relentless fight against those who persist in harming her people.
This is one of my entries that is googled frequently. It's still relevant! | | |
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Opens today in theaters near you... Rain's newest American release... I get to play with the baby today so I won't see it on opening day, but I will see it this weekend... Lemme know what you think. I saw clips of him training for this and it looked great... Serious post below this... | | |
| Part 2 in my series for believers... The gossip swirls around her presence like fog on an early fall morning. Sharp and biting, it's true, and the condemnation grows to a loud roar as the demand for justice grows and outrage overcomes the hypocrisy.  "She's pleasing to look at, but she sure has him fooled." "When it comes down to what really matters, she's a liar." "I heard she's an expensive whore." "Bet she's not worth it." "She'll stab you in the back and say it's for your own good." "She only wants you for your money." "Someone should tell the groom." "I heard him say that he loves her in spite of her flaws." "Those are some flaws to love her in spite of- unfaithful, mean, unforgiving, cruel, self-centered." "She's gonna make his life miserable." "How can he love her like that? Something's wrong with him." It's very easy to hate the ugly bride. Her behavior is outrageous and loving her takes supernatural strength. She's an easy target, with well-deserved hits against her. She tries to defend herself, but her record speaks for  herself. The question left is why the Groom doesn't break off with her. Why would he love and accept a bride who pushes him away, tells lies, and who defends her actions with sweet words? He hears her honeyed lies and knows the truth behind them. He sees her cruelty and cries. He accepts her back after countless episodes of harmful flirtations and affairs. He hears her harsh, condemning words about others and knows they are a reflection of her heart and of how far she is from him. He begs her not to cause rifts and hurts, but she ignores him and lashes out people she doesn't agree with. He watches her primp in front of a mirror while hungry children cry at her feet. And yet... he loves her. He forgives her. He sees the person she can become if she will turn from her ugliness and embrace him. He knows that in a corner of her heart there is a tiny place for him and as long as that part glows dimly, he won't give up. He prays that pure love will cleanse her and restore her and that she'll change.  This is the Church today- an ugly bride who pushes people away instead of loving them. And yet, her Groom, Jesus, continues to love her, accept her, and even work through her imperfections. Imperfect people, full of ugliness and sin, sit in his light and he begs them to turn to him and be cleansed.
A few listen, and then a few more, and a few more. In the meantime, her reputation has been ruined and the barriers raised high so that unbelievers have huge obstacles to overcome before they reach an understanding and a healing faith. The only hope is LOVE in ACTION. We are called to walk our faith in all we do- to show love through our behavior, not our mouths. If we can't love, then we are lost. Lost, lost, lost... and we will lead others into darkness. So, quit preaching, quit condemning, quit talking Christian. Get on your knees and repent- make things right between you and God... and then, only then, go out and show God's love in all you do- the way you talk to the person bagging your groceries, your children, the way you drive, the beggar at the intersection, the lady who stole your parking space. Let everything you do shout LOVE and then you've earned the right to say something- and when you do say something, say it softly, surrounded in love. That's your only choice, your only way to redemption and healing. You can't keep being the ugly bride because at some point you move so far away from the Groom that he can't find you in your chaos. Check your heart... are you living Love in Action? | | |
|  I wonder if the Dad ever forgets? My son showed a side of him that I've never seen as he coached his wife through a difficult and painful delivery. With each long, painful contraction, he was right there with her until everyone was concerned about him. His eyes rarely left his wife and he followed her lead from the beginning. Whatever she wanted or needed, he got for her as he uttered loving words in her ears, and he held her tight when the pain was unbearable. Twenty four hours of quirky labor- twelve of that hard- and they were both exhausted. We stepped out of the room while they gave her an epidural to help her relax a little and help her not to push until it was finally time.
Needing a break, the love of my life and I went to the cafeteria for some lunch since we'd been at the hospital since 3:30 am and it was nearly 1:30 pm. It was our first time alone since we entered and we needed to process the experience together to have the strength for the hours ahead. But when we returned to the birthing suite, the room was empty. When they put the epidural in, the baby's heart rate dropped dangerously low, so they did an emergency C-section. Within twenty minutes, my son was holding his daughter while his wife was in recovery. Her labor had been so difficult and non-typical because our little one is going to be a gymnast. She had wrapped the cord around her body twice and had a knot in it that kept her from progressing down the birthing canal. Each contraction tightened the knot and held her trapped. If her mommy hadn't listened to the nurse and pushed, it would have been very ugly- maybe even deadly. Mother and daughter are doing fine. Father is never going to be the same. As mother talked about how she wasn't sure she could do this again, father looked over at his dad. A look of understanding passed between them. During the brief time we had together, the love of my life talked about how bad our experience had been for him. I don't think I had listened to his side of the tale of before. I barely remember him being there. I know that our daughter-in-law will never forget how our son held her as she tried to cope with the pain hour after hour. Jokingly, I told my son that he could hire himself out as a birthing coach. "I never want to do that again!" he replied. They say the mother forgets, that as she bonds with the child, the memory of the pain subsides. However, I suspect that seeing the one you love hurting in a manner you can't fix changes you and that Dad's never forget. Our new granddaughter is beautiful, very precious. 7 lbs. 4 oz. 20 inches long, black hair, deep blue eyes. She looks like- her mother. My daughter-in-law will be very loved by us for the rest of her life. No matter what she does, we will cherish her. Her committment to her child and husband are things you read about books and rarely hear about in modern life. I'm grateful to her for being strong, for wanting to know all there is to know about any topic that affects her and the ones she loves, for loving fiercely, and for being a part of our family. My son is the kind of man I dreamed of being the day I first held him. Independent, loyal, committed, selfless, and loving. My respect for him grew ten times yesterday. I see his dad in his hands, in his voice, in his actions and I was grateful for his dad teaching him the critical things- a man does whatever it takes to protect the one he loves. And the baby? I'm paying for gymnastic classes as soon as I can find one that will take her because she needs to know how to do these things safely! | | |
|  I live in a media world where as soon as a show begins, dedicated fan subbers begin the process of subbing it for viewers who don't speak the original language. In some cases, they stay up all night to complete the process and less than 24 hours later, you can see something that aired yesterday. Within another 48 hours, their work has been seen by three or four times the original viewers- maybe more. (This doesn't happen for all shows, of course, only the ones that the fan subbers feel passionate about, and some shows take months or years to get fully translated if it doesn't have a strong enough of a fan bases).
But the problem is that their support doesn't count. It's not taken into consideration by the people who make the decision to extend a show or end it early. Those executives base their decisions completely on the number the episode got the night it aired- in its native country, on its own TV stations. Part of this issue has to do with how we fund TV (ie. the dreaded commercial spot). Fan subbers strip the commercials out for a couple of reasons. No one pays them to do their act of love and it takes time to sub the commercials. There's no reason to keep the commercial. If it's a great one, you can set it aside until later and then upload it to youtube. Otherwise, who would take the time to translate it? There's no benefit in keeping the commercials in- so they're gone. But TV commercials are still sold by the ratings a show gets- the higher the rating- the more you can charge for a spot and the more the show makes you. The problem of funding and ratings remains an issue we've yet to solve in the digital world. Shows that are wildly popular online are cut in the real world, leaving the netizens without any recourse but to moan and whine. South Korea has serious problems with the control the internet fans have over their stars, but it doesn't seem to leak over to their TV dramas. Recently, I've watched two that didn't get the ratings they deserved and who had their series shortened- one by quite a bit. Both of these dramas have a solid online fan base, but since online viewings bring in no profit nor ratings, they aren't part of the financial decision about cutting or keeping a show. Do I have any solutions? Not really. Maybe one... hire these dedicated fan subbers for a sponsored streaming channel and count the hits the way we count viewers. You can insert your ads (if you must) like Hulu does, but you maintain control over the content. You can make sure the video quality is first-rate (that'd be different). You can certify the hit counters and you can make sure that certain translations standards are upheld (like spelling the name the same way all the way through- although I've bought legal copies that didn't do that- more than once!). You will then have copies of your materials already subbed to release to the international audience sooner (and oh yeah- add a STORE so your international audience can actually BUY it!). But I do know that when you're cutting episodes on something that is getting subbed in Hebrew before the English subs are complete, that you need a different paradigm. Too bad more TV Execs aren't looking for one! I know I am! | | |
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