Observations and random thoughts Vol 19.1
By WILLIAM LEDFORD
It’s a new year! 2019! And nothing has changed in Washington. No, I retract that. The Democrats now hold the House of Representatives and record numbers of female legislators now hold office. President Trump ran into a buzzsaw named Nancy Pelosi. Trump is obviously not used to dealing with strong women. He seems greatly intimidated by women that stand up to him and so, has to prove he’s a man. Bigly. Most bullies have that reaction to people that push back. His actions prove that she, along with Hillary and Liz, are not gonna hide in the corner and say, “Yes Donald” in a heavy East European accent. Poor Donald.
We’re into a 30 plus days and running government shutdown. Wanna know why? The answer is so simple. Donald Trump is fascinated by “things”, bright, shiny objects. Things that people will point to years later and give him credit for. Now it’s a “big, beautiful wall”. One that Mexico will pay for. An impregnable wall. Or, a fence made of steel slats. I dunno, I can’t keep up. I do know that if built we taxpaying Americans will shoulder the cost of this wall, not Mexico. And I do know that walls don’t work. See below.
Trump envisions a grand wall like the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall, or more likely, Israel’s wall. News flash! Genghis Khan got through the Great Wall, with his entire horde of Mongols. And ransacked and occupied China. Fail. Hadrian’s Wall didn’t stop raiders from north of the wall from pillaging deep into England and was abandoned. Fail. And Israel’s’ wall is just an affront to common decency. So, major fail. Even with history proving that walls only slow the inevitable these MAGA hat wearing Trump supporters want one. Why? Because Trump told them that they did. I believe that they also probably wish they could wall Native people off just like the Palestinians are walled off.
So, you’re thinking, “Where do the members of NC’s congressional representatives stand on this issue?” Over in the Senate, Senators Burr and Tillis toe the party line, at least until 2020 when the next election occurs. And the shutdown continues, Congressman Mark Meadows is a non-issue and we’ll see if the Senators from NC can show some huevos and cross over to re-open the government. Stay tuned.
Speaking of MAGA hat wearers. A bunch of Kentucky Catholic school kids were in Washington during the Indigenous People’s March to protest women who were there supporting their right to choose. And they were sporting the MAGA hat. They interacted with individuals who call themselves Black Hebrew Israelites or some such. And then they interacted with Native people who had the actual permit to be there. That interaction was all over the internets on viral media. Now, the white kids are stating that they were misrepresented. Of course they were, they always are. I call BS. They are not misrepresented youth. We have to watch out for these types of people again, they feel empowered. I’m not paranoid and I hope everyone now sees what I see. Vigilance people, all that I ask.
I want to give kudos to someone who rights injustice in this world. Not Daredevil or Jessica Jones, it’s…Corey Blankenship. He merits a cape with a big ol’ S on it. Why? I’ll ‘splain. Albuquerque is known for its intrepid and skilled car thieves (they stole 2 cop cars recently), but we also have mail thieves. One managed to make away with a box of mail from the USPS truck with the check the tribe sends to us older ones for Christmas. And due to the long holiday break it took a little while to make the tribe aware that mine was missing. Anyway, once I got through and spoke with some people in Finance, I was still no closer to resolving my issue. One person instructed me to get a police report filed and it could be reissued. So, I did. And when I called back with news and spoke to someone else entirely I was told, nope, it was all on my shoulders. Dismayed. I did what any self-respecting member of the EBCI would do, I called my councilmember. He put me in touch with Mr. Blankenship, some investigation was conducted and although I still haven’t seen it, was told, “the check will be in the mail”. Hmmmm….that sounds oddly familiar…where have I heard that before…? Jokes! Thanks Corey…you get to be Superman.
Ledford is an EBCI tribal member currently living in Albuquerque, NM.
