April 4, 1999
For those of you who remember my writings last year, welcome back, for those of you who have not before welcome now.
Lets talk about the "action" over in the European theater. I am a child of Vietnan, a former member of the armed forces, a veteran of a forgien conflict and finally a disabled person due to said conflict. I was part of the Gulf War or as those of us who were there like to call it, experiment # 90-445. I was part of an experiment by our government and its allies and the results were favorable for them. For me I am crippled now, have cancer and hope to live long enough to see my daughter graduate high school. For them they are happy their weapons worked - chemical and otherwise - that their secrets are for the most part safe and that no one in power at the time got more than a dirty look because they hid it so well.
The conflict in Europe is much the same. There is no reason to continue bombing targets that we could care less about. When the guys took over and started this racial genocide where were we then? Watching and waiting. We jump into the conflict when it suits us - the government that is.
There has been racial genocide going on for so long and even in this country. I am an Indian, an American Indian that is. Look to your history books and they will not talk about it very much, how when Columbus landed in the "new world" there were estimated between 15 and 40 MILLION Indians. Now there are just a few thousand. What happened to them? Small pox blankets, mass exicutions, the Trail of Tears, forced movement to reservations (for our own good), taking away of who we are, forbidding us to speak to our creator, forbidding us our religion.
Sound familiar?
Check your copy of the Constitution, there is a specific amendment just for Indians to practice our own religion.
Who would do something like that which I mention? Hitler, the Czars of old Russia, old white men in power in the U.S.?
I served my country not out of loyalty to someone, not out of desire to get medals and gain power, but out of sheer desire to duty. This is my land and my home, I felt a duty to defend it. I got out because I got hurt and because I couldn't justify going to a far away land to fight for something that gave old white men more money. The Gulf War was about oil and money. Nothing more.
This conflict in Europe is over a show of power and to test new weapons.
Do our children really need bigger and better weapons to be happy? Or wouldn't a cure for cancer, a safe and healthy home and a loving society be better. I grew up in a time that you could ride your bike all day and not fear being taken by some sicko, where you knew your neighbor and the guy who lived 3 miles down the road. Can you say the same now? Or has our desire for money and power taken us so far out of the loop that we have forgotten that we are all the same inside.
Money and power are worth nothing, real strength comes from knowing that you have done something in your life simply because you could and it benifited someone else and you asked for nothing in return.
We need to come home and take care of our children, not bomb civilian (maybe they are military) buildings half a world away.
Its not worth it.