Observations and random thoughts Vol. 2018 1.4
By WILLIAM LEDFORD
I keep writing these things and they keep vanishing, volumes two and three have gotten lost in the ether of the internet and things that I wrote about then are old news now. So much stuff has happened since then that if l revisit any now this piece would end up being 2,000 words and I’d lose most of you halfway through. So, let’s get this show on the road. Again.
The king is dead, long live the king. New England was the king, now they ain’t. The booze store is coming and now I can’t wait for the first Rez bar to open. The Large Orange King AKA Cadet Bone Spur wants a big ol’ parade with tanks and missiles because France has one. We’ve had another mass killing at one of our schools by a clown with an AR. The Russians did meddle in the last election and it’s now official, it’s considered treasonous not to stand and applaud Trump’s every word. And how was your month?
Super Bowl 52 has come and gone. The reign of the New England Patriots, the dynasty of the 2000s, was snuffed and hopefully has come to an end at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles and backup QB Nick Foles. Tom Brady has gotten older and when flushed from the pocket, he’s become a very average QB. Also, Foles is a better receiver than Brady. Or maybe Trey Burton throws a better pass than Danny Amendola. Or maybe Gisele was right, Brady cannot throw and catch the passes.
A thing that’s become ordinary but never ceases to shock and amaze me, we’ve had another mass killing by a random American armed with an AR type weapon. As usual our NRA supported politicians are shrugging off any attempts to ban the sales of AR-15s and the like instead opting to do nothing. Or they want to arm teachers and staff.
I watched his first State of the Union address muted with close captioning because the sound of him applauding himself (who does that?) with those soft, fleshy little hands reminded me of someone smacking two big ol’ semi-fresh fish together. I miss the subdued eloquence of Obama…these next 3 years are gonna be hell. As for the state of the union? As usual, he simply stirred the pot of discordance and discontent. His slogan should be: Making America Hate Again.
Trump made an off-hand remark/command/directive that our military should have a great big ol’ parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, just “like the one in France, only bigger and better”. Sounds stupid but people are taking this seriously. I guess we should just stop everything we’re doing and simply bring some tanks, and missile launchers, and troops and don’t forget the fighters to fly overhead…easy peasy. In Trumpland, the fun never stops.
Council has approved a tribal referendum for us to vote on opening alcohol sales via a package store or ABC-type establishment on the Rez. Dunno about the rest of you but I kinda knew this was just down the road when we approved alcohol in the casino. I also kinda knew that maybe some people had/have already started their plans to open their own store or get involved somehow.
Before all of you start wailing and screaming…no…the sky won’t start to fall if we do this. No, we’re not all going to hell. Well maybe some of us are, but not for this. And none of this business will make our happy alcoholics any more alcoholiky (is that a word?). We’ve had easy access to beer, wine, moonshine and whiskey on and near the Rez since I was a teenager and that was a loooooong time ago. And, there is a place called the Catamount just a hop and a skip off the Rez that sells alcohol to everyone, even us tribal members. And we don’t seem to have problems scoring beer and booze at the Sylva, Bryson City or Maggie Valley stores and driving home with it. Agree or not, the issue ain’t going away and it only makes sense that we keep that money at home.
Well, that’s all I got for now. There’s a whole lot more fun and games coming to us daily from Trumpland but intelligent people can’t stay there very long without a whole lotta insanity creeping in. Hmmm…that sounds like a title for new song…Whole Lotta Insanity. Performed by a band named Dead Zeppelin. See ya next time.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member currently living in Albuquerque, NM.
