tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88255115309123888702024-01-12T19:09:59.406-05:00Wirelesshogan: Reflections from the Hoganby Mark CharlesMark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-85594918464715085122017-12-30T16:45:00.004-05:002022-12-29T12:16:51.048-05:00The Massacre at Wounded Knee and 18 Medals of DishonorOn Friday December 29, 2017 I came across a news article regarding Oskar Groening. Oskar was an accountant who served in the SS in Nazi Germany at Auschwitz, an extermination camp used in the genocide of Jewish people during World War II. In 2015, at the age of 93, he was found guilty of accessory to 300,000 murders for his role in providing administrative support at Auschwitz. He appealed his sentence because of both his age at the time of sentencing and, the fact that his activities came to light due to his decision to speak publicly about his service at Auschwitz in an effort to counteract and silence holocaust deniers. But, on December 29, 2017, several news agencies reported that his appeal had been denied and he would serve his 4-year jail sentence.<br />
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This story stood out to me because December 29th is also the day that approximately 200-300 Minneconjou Sioux men, women and children were slaughtered by the US Army in 1890. The event is known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Here is a short description of the massacre:<br />
<blockquote>
"From the heights above, the army's Hotchkiss guns raked the Indian teepees with grapeshot. Clouds of gun smoke filled the air as men, women and children scrambled for their lives. Many ran for a ravine next to the camp only to be cut down in a withering cross fire. When the smoke cleared and the shooting stopped, approximately 300 Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives." (<a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm" target="_blank">Eyewitness to History</a>)
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A few items should be noted about this massacre. First the US Army was using Hotchkiss guns, and some accounts report that a total of four Hotchkiss guns were utilized at Wounded Knee. "The guns were ideal for use in rugged terrain, such as the West, since the entire weapon weighed only 362 pounds, and could be broken down into parts so that a gun and its ammunition could be transported on three mules. The gun could fire quite rapidly since it was used fixed (but separately primed) ammunition. In fact, this was the first U.S. artillery piece to utilize fixed metallic-cartridge type ammunition. (<a href="https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-u-s-indian-wars-m1875-hotchkiss-two-pounder-mountain-gun-dated-1891?variant=31067479277637" target="_blank">International Military Antiques</a>)" Comparing their weapons to this, the Sioux never stood a chance.<br />
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Second, it was recorded that "many [Sioux] ran for a ravine next to the camp only to be cut down in a withering cross fire."<br />
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Most people are not aware of this, but the United States awarded 24 Medals of Honor to US soldiers for their actions throughout the Sioux Campaign of 1890, and 18 of those medals were given specifically to soldiers who participated in the Massacre at Wounded Knee.<br />
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The US Army website contains a section detailing the Medals of Honor that have been awarded throughout our country’s history, listed by war and conflict. Between 1839 and 1898, it records that a total of 425 Medals of Honor were awarded to US Soldiers who fought in the ‘<a href="https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/citations3.html" target="_blank">Indian War Campaigns</a>’ (but that unfortunate fact is the subject for another article at a later date). The site also records that 3 of the Medals of Honor from Wounded Knee were awarded for the following reasons:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Austin, William G.</b> - "While the Indians were concealed in a ravine, assisted men on the skirmish line, directing their fire, etc., and using every effort to dislodge the enemy."<br />
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<b>Gresham, John C. - </b>"Voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein. He was wounded during this action."<br />
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<b>McMillan, Albert W. - </b>"While engaged with Indians concealed in a ravine, he assisted the men on the skirmish line, directed their fire, encouraged them by example, and used every effort to dislodge the enemy."</blockquote>
So, let’s review. On December 29, 1890, the US Army surrounded an encampment of Minneconjou Sioux men, women and children. When peace talks broke down and shots were fired, the US soldiers opened fire with their full artillery, which included up to 4 Hotchkiss guns. Many of the Sioux ran for cover in a nearby ravine. And 3 US soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for directing fire into, and dislodging the Sioux out of, the ravine, where they could be more easily exterminated by the soldiers above it.<br />
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The United States and Germany have similar histories of white supremacy and racially motivated genocide. But while Germany is working hard to deal with their shameful history of ethnic cleansing, the US has chosen to publicly honor its.<br />
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On December 29, 2017 most of the major US news agencies, including ABC, NBC, CBS, USA Today, and Fox News, reported on Oskar Groening losing his appeal in the German Courts. A search, during the same news cycle, returned almost no references, on mainstream media, to the 127th Anniversary of the Massacre at Wounded Knee.<br />
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The United States of America needs a national dialogue on race, gender and class. A conversation on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that took place in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada. I'm calling it Truth and Conciliation, and the goal is 2021.<br />
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Because until we have such a dialogue, we will continue to be a nation that not only ignores its incredibly violent, unjust and genocidal history, but also brazenly honors and celebrates our war crimes, such as we do with 18 medals awarded to the US Soldiers who participated in the Massacre at Wounded Knee.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<div><br /></div><div>(Updated Dec. 29, 2022 to include more accurate information re: the Hotchkiss guns in paragraph four.)</div>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-15357444055419724462019-05-27T11:47:00.001-04:002019-05-27T12:01:35.515-04:00A Native Perspective on Memorial DayThere are four US holidays that both as a US citizen and a member of the Navajo Nation, I find difficult to fully celebrate.<br />
<ul>
<li>The first is Columbus Day. <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/the-hypocrisy-of-a-politically-correct-columbus-day/" target="_blank">For obvious reasons</a>. </li>
<li>The second is Thanksgiving. Do we really need a holiday celebrating a <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/11/26/mark-charles-from-now-on-its-a-day-of-mo.asp" target="_blank">mythical multi-ethnic potluck</a><span id="goog_2089063049"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_2089063050"></span>? </li>
<li>The third is the Fourth of July. Because the Declaration of Independence refers to natives as "<a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-dilemma-of-fourth-of-july_11.html" target="_blank">merciless Indian savages</a>." </li>
<li>And the fourth is Memorial Day. </li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Veterans Cemetery on the Navajo Nation</td></tr>
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Memorial Day is probably the most difficult of the four holidays to know what to do with. Memorial Day honors those who lost their lives fighting for the United States of America. Native people hold our veterans in very high regard. They are honored at nearly every Pow Wow, parade, council meeting and significant family gathering throughout all of Indian Country. The Choctaw Code Talkers, who fought in World War I even before natives were considered US citizens, and the Navajo Code Talkers, who fought in World War II before natives were allowed to vote in New Mexico and Arizona, were both indispensable to the Unites States of America in winning those wars.<br />
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Natives have served in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan...and the list goes on and on. On a web page honoring Native American soldiers, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian reports that at 18.6% "Native Americans served in the post-9/11 period in a higher percentage than veterans of other ethnicities." And today there are 31,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives on active duty, and there are 140,000 living American Indian and Alaska Native veterans." (<a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nnavm/heroes/" target="_blank">Smithsonian NMAI</a>)<br />
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My father served in the Marines. I have many relatives, on both sides of my family, who served in other branches of the armed forces, fighting in numerous wars. Members of my Navajo clans even served as Code Talkers. I honor them and am grateful for their sacrifice.<br />
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But I also know that very rarely, if ever, are all aspects of war as simple as right vs. wrong, or good vs. evil. No country is pure. No nation is perfect. The human condition is that we are all conflicted—capable of both tremendous love as well as devastating hatred. And the United States of America is no different. Our history is broken. Our past, as well as our present, is blemished.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cemetery at Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle PA</td></tr>
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American Indians were not even considered legally human by US Courts until 1879. It wasn't until 1924 that natives were legislated as citizens of this country. And prior to that legislation, most tribes were considered enemies of the US and inhumanely treated as obstacles to this nation's self-proclaimed Manifest Destiny. The Indian Removal Act, Indian Boarding Schools, countless massacres, the Trail of Tears, the Long Walk, the Dawes Act, etc, etc, etc. All of these events were acts of war against our people by the United States of America.<br />
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In fact, if you go to the <a href="https://history.army.mil/moh/indianwars.html" target="_blank">US Army Center of Military History</a> website and look up Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars Period, you will find that 425 Medals of Honor were awarded to US soldiers who fought in the Indian Wars. Over 12% of the total 3,515 Medals of Honor awarded were given to soldiers who fought against the indigenous peoples of this land!<br />
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To fully understand the impact of the Indian Wars, it is helpful to look at maps. The first map is of the United States in 1840, one year after the first Medal of Honor was given for the Indian Wars. The second map is of the United States in 1900, two years after the last Medal of Honor was awarded in the Indian War campaigns. During the 19th century the US population ballooned from 5.3 million to 76.2 million and the native population was decimated from 600 thousand to 237 thousand.<br />
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<br />
The only appropriate words to describe this history are “ethnic cleansing and genocide.”<br />
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Which is exactly what Peter Burnett, the first Governor of California, acknowledged in his fact State of the State Address in 1851.<br />
<blockquote>
“That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.”</blockquote>
That is why Memorial Day is such a conflicting holiday.<br />
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Countries, and their leaders, tend to speak in terms of absolutes. And the US is no different. On May 29, 2017 in his Memorial Day speech honoring our country's fallen soldiers, President Trump, in an overly broad statement, implied that all of our nation's enemies are "evil" when he said, "We pay tribute to those brave souls who raced into gunfire, roared into battle, and ran into hell to face down evil." And in a <a href="https://www.indianz.com/News/2018/05/29/mark-charles-i-see-trumps-definition-of.asp" target="_blank">2018 Commencement Address at the Naval Academy</a> in Annapolis Maryland President Trump went even further when he attempted to affirm and motivate the graduates by reminding them of America's past military conquests:<br />
<blockquote>
“Together, you are the tip of the spear, the edge of the blade, and the front of the shield defending and protecting our great country. You know, there is no mission our pilots can’t handle. There is no hill our Marines can’t take, and there is no stronghold the SEALs can’t reach. There is no sea the Navy can’t brave, and there is no storm the American sailor can’t conquer. Because you know that together, there is nothing Americans can’t do. Absolutely nothing. In recent years and even decades, too many people have forgotten that truth. They have forgotten that our ancestors trounced an empire, tamed a continent, and triumphed over the worst evils in history.”</blockquote>
Tamed a continent?<br />
<br />
The maps above and the nearly 12% of the total Medals of Honor awarded by this country, do not support President Trump’s broad, glorifying statements regarding our nation's military history. According to Governor Burnett, “taming a continent” literally meant a “war of extermination” against the Nations and peoples indigenous to Turtle Island. And throughout that war, the United States of America awarded 425 Medals of Honor for the genocide of American Indians, and the ethnic cleansing of this continent.<br />
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George Erasmus, a wise leader from the Dene Nation, in a press release titled “From Truth to Reconciliation Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools” wrote "Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”<br />
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This quote, that originated with author Helmut Richard Niebuhr, gets to the heart of our nation's problem with race. As a country, we do not share a common memory. White Americans remember a history of discovery, expansion, exceptionalism and opportunity. And people of color, starting with (but not limited to) Natives and African Americans have the lived history of stolen lands, broken treaties, slavery, Jim Crow laws, ethnic cleansing, boarding schools, internments camps, exclusionary immigration laws, segregation, mass incarceration and racial profiling. There is no common memory, and I think pretty much everyone can agree that the sense of community in this country is markedly low.<br />
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I think it's low because we don't want the moral conflict or the social confusion. Governing is simpler when leaders can make, and citizens accept, broad assumptions and sweeping generalizations.<br />
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But our history is checkered, our past is blemished, and our sense of community sucks. This is why I long for the day when all Americans, regardless of race, are as conflicted as we are as Native Americans, and other people of color, regarding our nation’s holidays and memorials. Perhaps, instead of endlessly arguing about how great we used to be, and when we will be great again, we can instead devote ourselves to creating a common memory, teaching our actual history, and rethinking how we celebrate, memorialize and honor our nation’s extremely broken and checkered past.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
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<br />
<i>May 27, 2019: This post has been updated from an article published by the author for <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2017/06/01/a-native-perspective-on-memorial-day/" target="_blank">Memorial Day 2017</a>.</i><br />
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Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-50055113818290978302018-11-22T15:55:00.000-05:002018-11-23T08:38:30.460-05:00Why I decline this opportunity for ThanksgivingI'm done. I can no longer in good conscience celebrate the national US holiday known as “Thanksgiving”. Over the past several years my ability to celebrate this holiday has diminished as I've learned more about the Doctrine of Discovery and the white supremacist, ethnic cleansing and genocidal history of our nation. But I continued to participate because, I told myself, "How can you decline an opportunity for Thanksgiving?"<br />
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I knew the story of Thanksgiving was false. The mythological tale of a cross cultural potluck between a group of pilgrims and their "Indian" hosts was merely a story perpetuated to soothe the trans-generational and communal manifestation of complex Perpetuation Induced Traumatic Stress that is easily observed in a vast majority of white Americans. Socrates notes that "the doer of injustice is more miserable than the sufferer". And I like to remind people that you cannot build a nation on 500 years of dehumanizing injustice without traumatizing yourself.<br />
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But every year on the fourth Thursday in November, our family continued to gather with friends and neighbors around a turkey. Like most Americans I had grown up with this tradition, and my wife and I continued it even while we lived on the reservation as well as after we moved to Washington DC. We did this because, I continued to tell myself, "How can you decline an opportunity for Thanksgiving?"<br />
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But no more. This past year I have learned too much and put too many pieces together. On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave a proclamation which declared a day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. This is the proclamation that helped establish our current tradition of Thanksgiving. In his proclamation he stated;<br />
<blockquote>
<b>(1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation)</b><br />
"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God."</blockquote>
President Lincoln begins with what seems on the surface to be a standard offering of thanks. The past year "has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies." And he does not want to "forget the source from which they come." He then goes on to note that "others have been added." And this is where his thanksgiving proclamation becomes problematic. The “others” that have been added refers to the bounties of “fruitful fields”. He’s referring to lands. Lands have been added.<br />
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In February of 1863, just 8 months prior to his Thanksgiving proclamation, Abraham Lincoln personally signed a bill which nullified the treaties with the tribes in the state of Minnesota. And in March of that same year, he signed another bill which granted him the authority, without treaty or negotiation, to remove the tribes from the state of Minnesota. That removal began in April and the Dakota, Winnebago and other tribes were rounded up, held prisoner at Fort Snelling (near current day Minneapolis) and then loaded on to barges, ships and trains and removed to the Crow Creek reservation which had been established in the Dakota territories east of Minnesota. The removal itself was inhumane, and Crow Creek was not sustainable for so many people. Both deficiencies resulted in the death of many Dakota and Winnebago people.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>(1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation continued)</b><br />
"In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union."</blockquote>
Contrary to President Lincoln's proclamation, in the early 1860's the Civil was not the only military conflict that the US was engaged in. In the fall of 1862, there was a brief but bloody war with the Dakota tribe in the state of Minnesota. At the conclusion of this war, half of the Dakota surrendered and turned themselves in and the other half fled north into Canada. Those who surrendered were immediately tried in military tribunals and 303 of them were condemned to death. But these tribunals were legal shams, as noted by historian <a href="https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/226/" target="_blank">Carol Chomsky</a> "The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation, and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status."<br />
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Outside the military theater of the Civil War, another war was taking place where laws (and treaties) were NOT being "respected and obeyed" and harmony had not "prevailed." Unless you call the hanging of the Dakota 38 and the ethnic cleansing of the Dakota and Winnebago from the state of Minnesota harmonious. Both event took place in the year for which Abraham Lincoln was giving thanks.<br />
<blockquote>
<b>(1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation continued)</b><br />
"Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore."</blockquote>
After he completed the ethnic cleansing of the state of Minnesota, President Lincoln turned his sights on the territory of New Mexico. In the fall of 1863, one of his Generals, General Carleton gave this order regarding the Navajo people in the Southwest “Henceforth every Navajo male is to be killed or taken prisoner on sight....Say to them 'Go to the Bosque Redondo or we will pursue and destroy you....We will not make peace with you on any other terms. This war shall be pursued until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject.” (Locke. "Book of the Navajo". Holloway House Publishing, 2001.)<br />
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Beginning in the fall of 1863, and in accordance with the policies of the Lincoln Administration, US Army Officer Kit Carson traversed the lands of the southwest. He burned our homes, slaughtered our livestock and destroyed our crops. Ultimately, he rounded up ten thousand Navajo men, women and children who were then forcibly marched to Bosque Redondo. Hundreds died of exposure and starvation along the route and nearly a quarter of our people died while imprisoned at this death camp. The creation of this camp was personally approved by Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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Just to be clear, in 1863 "the axe" did not "enlarge the borders of [US] settlements". The ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies of President Abraham Lincoln did.<br />
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<b>(1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation continued)</b><br />
"Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God"</blockquote>
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At the start of the 19th Century the population of the United States was 5.3 million. By the end of the 19th Century the US population had ballooned to 76.3 million. Abraham Lincoln was correct, but in all honesty, the US population had not only “steadily increased” but it was greatly multiplying (by a factor of 14). However, this stat only tells half the story. For also in the 19th Century the population of native people in the US plummeted from 600,000 to 237,000. For those who are keeping track, that is a decrease of 60%.<br />
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In 1863, Abraham Lincoln established a national day of Thanksgiving while his own ethnic cleansing policies and wars were contributing to a genocide rate in the 19th Century of over 60%. That is not only unconscionable but akin to Adolf Hitler declaring a day of National Thanksgiving during the height of the Holocaust.<br />
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So I’m done. I am no longer interested in reclaiming the US holiday known as “Thanksgiving”. From here on out, the fourth Thursday in November is set aside as a day of mourning. A day of lament. But I am not mourning the genocide of our native people. I lament that travesty on other days; such as Columbus Day, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Presidents Day and Lincoln’s birthday. From now on, in my calendar, the fourth Thursday in November is reserved to mourn the fact that we live in a country that, in 1863, established a national day of Thanksgiving for fruits of a genocide we were actively committing. And that is an opportunity for Thanksgiving that I am both morally and spiritually obligated to decline.<br />
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Mark Charles<br />
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Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-55172937150505947232018-08-10T12:07:00.001-04:002018-08-10T14:06:12.756-04:00Understanding America's Problem with White Supremacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This weekend, a group called "Unite the Right" is planning an alt-right, "white civil rights" rally at Lafayette Square in Washington DC. The organizer, Jason Kessler, had hoped to hold the rally in Charlottesville VA, but due to the violence that broke out last year, his request for a permit was denied. Last week he received final approval from the Park Service to host his rally in DC on Sunday, August 12.<br />
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Question: What is the difference between a white Civil Rights rally (which a majority of Americans condemn) and a national holiday honoring a Declaration of Independence that glorifies 'discovery' and dehumanizes native people as 'merciless Indian savages' (which virtually all Americans celebrate)?<br />
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I would argue there is very little difference.<br />
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Question: What is the difference between a white, conservative, Republican President who separates families at our borders and a white, female, progressive, Democrat Supreme Court Justice who writes the majority opinion for a 2005 Supreme Court Case that literally references the Doctrine of Discovery and goes on to state that the Oneida Indian Nation cannot have unification of lands they legally purchased because their "embers of sovereignty long ago grew cold."<br />
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I would argue there is very little difference.<br />
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Question: What is the difference between a national holiday that celebrates a 15th century explorer who claimed to have discovered lands that were already inhabited by millions and then went on to commit heinous acts of genocide against those people, and a national holiday honoring the birth of a man who stated:<br />
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"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."<br />
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And then that same white supremacist man was elected President and proceeded to ethnically cleanse tens of thousands of native peoples from the states of Minnesota, Colorado and the territory of New Mexico to make way for the trans-continental railway?<br />
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Again, I would argue there is very little difference.<br />
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If there is so little difference between these 3 pairs of supposed "contrasting" examples, why do a large number of US Citizens condemn the prior in each pair (white civil rights rally, President Trump and Columbus Day) and yet a vast majority of Americans celebrate the latter in each pair (Fourth of July, Justice Ruth Ginsburg and President Abraham Lincoln)?<br />
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I think the reasoning behind that inconsistency was best exemplified in the 2016 Presidential Election. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump promised to "Make America Great Again." Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton responded by telling her supporters that “America has always been great”.<br />
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Both candidates were attempting to appeal to our shared national belief in American exceptionalism. Both candidates agreed that our nation’s past, our history, and our founding documents are great. Think about that...<br />
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“Merciless Indian savages” in the Declaration of Independence? Great!<br />
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Stolen lands? Broken treaties? Great!<br />
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A Constitution that specifically excludes women and natives and counts African people as 3/5th human? Great!<br />
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Slavery? Jim crow laws, and the lie of white supremacy? Great!<br />
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Indian removal? Manifest Destiny through genocide? Great!<br />
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Boarding schools? Lynching? Segregation? Great!<br />
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Internment camps? Mass incarceration? Great!<br />
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Considering how contentious the 2016 election appeared, the two major candidates actually had a broad base of agreement regarding America’s past, our history and our white supremacist foundations. According to both, all these things were great. Where they disagreed was whether America was great in 2016. Hilary concluded that we were, while Donald’s campaign hinged on the belief that we were not.<br />
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Most Americans were led to believe that the 2016 election was, in part, about racism, white supremacy and equality. But that was not the case. What we were actually voting on, was did we want Donald J. Trump to make America explicitly racist and white supremacist again. Or did we want Hillary Rodham Clinton to work on our behalf to keep America’s racism and white supremacist beliefs implicit.<br />
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Our country is not white supremacist, racist and sexist despite our foundations. The sad truth is, the United States of America is white supremacist, racist and sexist BECAUSE of our foundations.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcC5_3B0QoSMO6s7RtweHySwP4ggE8sqA1f7KbKnkZhgo5fU3Xi32Xr5qnDn9y8ukCTLEUzCk1an5ywcVp0Q8-ME1CgLEP95wcngyXJaAKvdc7_NOYFfU6dhVF1Zw9EcROlJIubzjjXhk/s1600/1600px-Charlottesville__Unite_the_Right__Rally_%252835780274914%2529_CommonLicense_Fliker_AnthonyCrider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcC5_3B0QoSMO6s7RtweHySwP4ggE8sqA1f7KbKnkZhgo5fU3Xi32Xr5qnDn9y8ukCTLEUzCk1an5ywcVp0Q8-ME1CgLEP95wcngyXJaAKvdc7_NOYFfU6dhVF1Zw9EcROlJIubzjjXhk/s320/1600px-Charlottesville__Unite_the_Right__Rally_%252835780274914%2529_CommonLicense_Fliker_AnthonyCrider.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlottesville_%22Unite_the_Right%22_Rally_(35780274914).jpg" target="_blank">Anthony Crider</a> (Common License)</td></tr>
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Read the 13th Amendment. We’ve never abolished slavery. There is a clause in the amendment that keeps slavery legal and codifies it under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system.<br />
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Read the entire Constitution. From the preamble through the 27th Amendment there are 51 gender specific male pronouns regarding who can run for office, who can hold office, even who is protected by the Constitution. Let me repeat that, fifty-one gender specific male pronouns (he, him, his) and not a single female pronoun in the entire Constitution.<br />
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If you are planning to protest the Unite the Right and their “white Civil Rights” rally being held in Washington DC this weekend, I applaud you. But please do not allow yourself to believe that Jason Kessler, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller or even Donald Trump are the extent of our nation’s problems regarding racial inequality. The lie of white supremacy is an implicit, bi-partisan value that we celebrate in nearly all of our leaders and through our civic/religious national holidays year-round.<br />
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So if you are planning to protest something, please include that.<br />
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Mark Charles<br />
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Bio: Mark is the son of a Dine’ father and a mother is of Dutch-American heritage. He writes and speaks regularly regarding the Doctrine of Discovery and his proposal that “The United States of America needs a national dialogue on race, gender and class, a conversation on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that took place in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada.” Mark calls it Truth and Conciliation and his goal is 2021.<br />
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You can learn more about the <a href="https://youtu.be/XRRDuInkgrI" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a> and #<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TCC2021" target="_blank">TCC2021 </a>on his website – <a href="http://wirelesshogan.com/">Wirelesshogan.com</a>. Mark is also active on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarkCharlesWirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank">Twitter</a>,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank"> YouTube </a>and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.<br />
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Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-47811261457568663622018-07-17T12:22:00.002-04:002018-07-18T12:38:15.636-04:00It's Not Just the Emperor Who Has No Clothes*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It doesn't really matter what political party you align yourself with. For most Americans the past week has been somewhat surreal. Our President publicly criticized Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the nation he was then visiting. He labeled one of our closest allies and trading partners, the European Union, as a foe. And on Monday he publicly suggested that he believes the "strong denials" of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding Russia's meddling in U.S. elections, over the broad consensus and conclusion of the entire U.S. Intelligence community. And then he faulted the previous administration, once again stated his own innocence regarding collusion and finally, complained about the fact that some people still question the legitimacy of his victory over Hillary Clinton. All of this, at a press conference on foreign soil and while standing only a few feet from the leader of the nation charged with ongoing efforts to disrupt our democratic elections.<br />
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I would dare say, that at some point over the past week, nearly every American felt some sense of shame regarding the spectacle President Trump was making of our nation.<br />
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What was most difficult, was that President Trump aired our country’s dirty political laundry in a space, the international stage, that for centuries both parties have worked to exclusively, in fact nearly religiously, reserve for bipartisan demonstration of American exceptionalism.<br />
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Our collective tendency is to try to counteract the narrative which President Trump put on display. And this is exactly what most Democrats and even many Republicans are doing. Vehemently arguing that Donald Trump is misrepresenting us, because we want to believe, we need to believe, that we are exceptional. <a href="https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/7/statement-by-sasc-chairman-john-mccain-on-trump-putin-meeting" target="_blank">Senator John McCain</a>, as he so often does, stated this argument best when he wrote, "speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad."<br />
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But remember, Senator McCain is talking about us, the nation that separates families at its borders. The nation that has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The country where people of color get arrested for sitting quietly in a Starbucks. A republic that annually celebrates a Declaration which dehumanizes its indigenous population as "merciless Indian savages."<br />
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As someone who has spent the past decade of my life studying the Doctrine of Discovery and the past year uncovering and lamenting the blatant white supremacist views and vile genocidal policies of the man we celebrate as our greatest president, <a href="https://youtu.be/XRRDuInkgrI?t=48m19s" target="_blank">Abraham Lincoln</a>. I recognize that the way I felt this past week, is the same way I have felt many times prior.<br />
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The pain is not that President Trump is misrepresenting our country. The pain is that President Trump is representing our country quite accurately. Our history is colonial. Our most beloved leaders were brutal. And our stated foundational beliefs regarding who deserves freedom, liberty and justice is extremely exclusive.<br />
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And there lies the pain. Not in the misrepresentation. But in the honest reflection.<br />
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The temptation is to say, “the emperor has no clothes.” But the truth of the matter is, it is our empire that is naked. It is our belief in the mythology of American exceptionalism that is being exposed. President Trump is merely a reflection of our nation’s history and character. And when we see it on full display, so blatant and public, we feel ashamed. As a country we now have a choice to make. We can either begin the humble process of acknowledging and covering our collective nakedness, or we can increase the resolve of our denial and continue parading ourselves around the globe as if we were dressed in the finest of robes. Fooling no one, but ourselves.<br />
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I believe it is time we stopped senselessly arguing about when we were last great, or how soon we can be great again. And instead committed ourselves to having an honest conversation regarding if we truly want to be a nation where "We the People" finally means "All the People."<br />
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Mark Charles<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23TCC2021" target="_blank">#TCC2021</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AllThePeople" target="_blank">#AllThePeople</a><br />
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<i>*In reviewing the responses and comments to this article on social media, I realized the larger point being made in the body was getting lost due to the title and the final paragraph, both which stated "the Emperor Has No Clothes." Therefore, I have updated the title and final 2 paragraphs.<br />Updated July 18, 2018 at 11 AM EDT.</i><br />
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Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-1878937805843995442018-07-04T14:07:00.001-04:002018-07-04T14:49:33.626-04:00Regarding the term "merciless Indian savages"The other day I was asked if Americans can or should celebrate the country we aspire to, instead of the one described in the Declaration of Independence?<br />
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For the past decade, I have been working to educate our nation on the Doctrine of Discovery and the white supremacists’ influence it has on the foundations of our nation. This is especially evident in the Declaration of Independence, where, 30 lines below the inclusive and benevolent statement "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal", that document refers to the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island as "merciless Indian savages." Demonstrating very clearly, that the only reason the founding fathers used the inclusive term "all men" is because they had a very narrow definition of who was actually human. I have written many articles regarding the Declaration of Independence, and I did not intend to write yet another one this year. But I appreciated being asked this question, and so I decided to respond.<br />
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First, if you are aware of the lie of white supremacy that is rooted in the Declaration of Independence and choose to celebrate the Fourth of July anyway, without acknowledging, owning and correcting the meaning and intent that document was written with, you are perpetuating the myth of American exceptionalism.<br />
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Many Americans deal with our white supremacists and racists foundations in this manner. Even MLK and the civil rights leaders referred to these documents as "a blank check" for people of color. While I appreciate all that our Civil Rights leaders fought for, this concession was devastatingly costly. Instead of challenging the foundations of our nation as white supremacist and racist, they essentially told white people that the foundations they established were good, they just needed to be better Americans. In other words, instead of confronting the systemic white supremacy and racism that is embedded in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, they ended up affirming the bipartisan value of American exceptionalism. I'm convinced this is one of the reasons the Black Lives Matter movement is happening today. Because we never addressed the fact that it is our foundations which state “black lives DON'T matter.”<br />
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A second approach is to acknowledge the problems in our history but tell ourselves they have already been resolved. Let me give you an example: In his final State of the Union, President Obama spoke about our nation's need for a 'new politics'. He said "We the people. Our Constitution begins with those three simple words. Words we've come recognize mean ALL the people."<br />
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That statement sounds beautiful, and it definitely appealed to white people, and to the mythology of American exceptionalism. But it's simply not true.<br />
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The problem is, as a nation, we have never collectively decided that "We the people" now means all the people.<br />
Our Founding Fathers didn't believe it.<br />
Abraham Lincoln didn't believe it.<br />
The Civil Rights movement didn't get us there.<br />
President Trump definitely doesn't believe it.<br />
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Yes, you read the last section correctly, Abraham Lincoln did not believe "We the People" meant all the people, nor did he believe that the Declaration of Independence applied to people of color. On October 15, 1858, during his seventh debate with Judge Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln was accused of applying the Declaration of Independence to people of color, specifically to black people. To that accusation he responded, "I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity."<br />
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Unfortunately, the carefully constructed mythology of President Abraham Lincoln is just that, a mythology.<br />
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Now I know many people will point out that this quote comes from early in Lincoln's political career and therefore argue that he grew and changed in regard to his beliefs on race and equality. I do not have the time or space to respond fully to that argument in this article but, in July of 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. This act provided the resources and land to complete the trans-continental railway and telegraph line (manifest destiny). Within two and half years of signing that bill, President Lincoln had ethnically cleansed nearly all the American Indians from the states of Minnesota and Colorado, and from the territory of New Mexico (tribes who were in the direct path of the first proposed routes of the railway). So, during the time he was supposedly growing regarding his beliefs on race and equality, that is the exact time he was literally committing genocide against native peoples. In the 1860 US census, the count of "off reservation, tax paying, assimilated American Indians" was 44,000. Ten years later, after the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the population of "off reservation, tax paying, assimilated American Indians" was reduced to 25,713. For those who are counting, that is a genocide rate of 41.56% (and does not even factor in all the “savage Indians” who were slaughtered during that period). I invite you to watch the <a href="https://youtu.be/XRRDuInkgrI?t=48m16s" target="_blank">segment of a lecture I gave recently on the Doctrine of Discovery</a> which addresses the entire legacy of Abraham Lincoln.<br />
<br />
Denial is the challenge of our nation. We cannot fix a problem we falsely, and continually, tell ourselves never existed, or has already been resolved. EVERY road to healing begins with acknowledging and owning your problems. And contrary to popular belief, our nation’s primary problems are not individual, but collective and bipartisan. So let’s stop pretending that President Trump is the God-ordained savior or the ultimate demise of our union. The same with President Obama. Or even Abraham Lincoln.<br />
<br />
What our nation needs is not for Democrats to be better Democrats.<br />
Nor do we need Republicans to simply be better Republicans.<br />
We need Americans, ALL Americans, to be better humans.<br />
<br />
And collectively, we need to address our foundations.<br />
<br />
The United States of America is not white supremacist, racist and sexist in spite of our foundations. Our country is white supremacist, racist and sexist BECAUSE of our foundations.<br />
<br />
And until we fix the foundations, our problems will not get resolved.<br />
<br />
This is why, especially on the Fourth of July, instead of simply watching more fireworks, I am calling the United States of America to a national dialogue on race, gender & class. A conversation on par with the Truth & Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada. I'm calling it Truth & Conciliation and my goal is 2021. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TCC2021" target="_blank">#TCC2021</a><br />
<br />
Ahe’hee’<br />
(Thank you),<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
<br />
<i>Mark Charles is the son of an American woman of Dutch heritage and a Navajo man. He speaks and writes regularly about the <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2018/05/31/the-doctrine-of-discovery-a-lecture-by-mark-charles/" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a>. You can learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TCC2021" target="_blank">#TCC2021</a> on his website - <a href="http://wirelesshogan.com/" target="_blank">Wirelesshogan.com</a>. Mark is active on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarkCharlesWirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> , <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank"> Twitter</a> , <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><i>Video: The Doctrine of Discovery: A Lecture by Mark Charles</i>
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XRRDuInkgrI" width="560"></iframe>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-51205986544253020902012-05-15T12:03:00.002-04:002018-07-02T10:28:19.832-04:00A Laughing Party “Has your baby laughed?”<br />
<br />
On the Navajo reservation, that’s a common question posed to parents who have infants around the age of three months. The first laugh of a Navajo child is a very significant event. It marks the child’s final passing from the spirit world to the physical world, meaning he or she is now fully human and present with us. This milestone warrants a party, and what a party it is! <br />
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The honor of throwing this party, including covering the expenses, falls to the person who made the child laugh first—a parent or someone else. That person takes charge of butchering sheep, preparing food, gathering rock salt, putting candy and gifts into bags, and inviting friends from near and far. <br />
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Once a baby has laughed, training in generosity begins immediately—a value held in high regard among our people. At the party, where the baby is considered the host, the parents or person responsible for the first laugh help hold the baby’s hand as he or she ceremonially gives the rock salt, food, and gifts to each guest. The rock salt is eaten immediately, and then the plate is received. There are also bags of candy, money, and other presents that the child “gives” along with the food. <br />
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When our daughter, Shandiin, was a baby, my niece came for a visit and made her laugh for the first time. It wasn’t a burp or a coo; it was a definite laugh. My niece was both proud and horrified. Proud, because she was the one who initiated this significant step for our daughter. And horrified, because as a teenager, she knew she did not have enough money to pay for the entire party herself. My wife and I quickly assured her we would help cover the expenses.<br />
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So the planning began. A menu was prepared, a guest list written, and a date set. We had just moved into a small house in Fort Defiance, but for the previous three years we had been living in a traditional Navajo hogan in a remote section of our reservation. (Traditionally, the hogan is not only the center of family life but also of religious life. Even today when many Navajo families live in modern houses, they keep a hogan where important family celebrations and traditional ceremonies are held.) So we knew where we would hold the laughing party—at our hogan. It was farther away and, depending on the weather, could be difficult to reach, but it was by far the most appropriate place. <br />
<br />
Creating the guest list was a challenge. For the past ten years I have been involved in seeking ways to contextualize Christian faith and worship for the Navajo culture. Unfortunately, when the first Christian missionaries came to our people, they brought not only the Good News of Jesus Christ, but also Western culture and taught it as the most appropriate context in which to worship. I typically refer to this experience as being “colonized by the gospel.” And many other indigenous tribes in our country and around the world have endured similar experiences.<br />
<br />
Because of this influence, many Navajo Christians are strongly opposed to using many aspects of traditional Navajo culture in Christian worship. Some Navajos also argue that the traditional religion is deeply intertwined with cultural practices, making distinctions difficult. But I also have many Christian partners from our tribe who also question those views. When we get together, we like to share practices we have discovered that contextualize worship for our culture. Ninety-nine percent of the time, such sharing takes place in our homes or hogans, not in church. <br />
<br />
Now, I wanted to invite people from both camps to Shandiin’s laughing party. If we were only going to enjoy a dinner, give out gifts, sing hymns, and pray, there probably wouldn’t be any chance for controversy. We might even be able to get away with holding the party in a church because among church-going Navajo Christians, this is one of the traditional celebrations most widely practiced. <br />
<br />
But we wanted to contextualize this celebration as much as possible. We had asked one of my elders to sing worship songs that he wrote, which drew on our cultural traditions. He likes to take passages from the Navajo Bible and simply sing the words, allowing the natural intonation of the Navajo language to dictate the tune instead of the Western music. The result is that his songs sound like those sung by traditional medicine men, and many Navajo Christians believe that sound is inappropriate when worshipping the God of the Bible. He would argue that the primary difference is that the medicine man knows how to sing the Navajo language, while the missionary does not. Navajo is a tonal language, so intonation affects the meaning of words, while the opposite is true of English. English intonation can easily conform to the melody of a song and not lose meaning. Most Navajo churches sing songs from the Navajo Hymnal, which contains English hymns translated into Navajo. Unfortunately, the melody was not translated along with the words!. The result: many Navajo words in the hymns are no longer pronounced correctly, making them nonsensical or even take on different meanings. <br />
<br />
In the end, we decided to invite people with strong opinions from both sides of this issue. I have to admit that on that morning, I was questioning our judgment and felt nervous. I did not want a passionate, divisive theological debate dominating my daughter’s laughing party.<br />
<br />
As soon as our guests began to arrive, we put meat on the grill, and the celebration began. Our group was diverse: culturally, theologically, and even socio-economically. Navajos, Americans, and Canadians came. Indigenous people, as well as first-generation immigrants from the Netherlands. People fluent in English, Navajo, and Dutch. We had shepherds, pastors, political leaders, computer programmers, teachers, missionaries, and rug weavers. There were Christians and those who practiced the traditional Navajo religion. But we were all there to celebrate one thing: my daughter’s first laugh. <br />
<br />
Shandiin learned her lessons in generosity by giving food, gifts, and even blessings to everyone in attendance. She honored her elders and paid respect to her relatives. Then I invited my friend to share some of his contextualized worship songs. He took out his drum, tightened his headband, and led us in worship. His words were from the Scriptures, but the tune and melody of his songs came from the Navajo culture.<br />
<br />
I waited for people to walk out, but no one left. I watched for expressions of disapproval or discomfort but saw none. So we continued. After a time of singing, I invited people to pray for Shandiin—that she would grow up to be a generous and loving person and that she would know the joy that comes from the LORD. Beautiful prayers were offered in Navajo, English, and even Dutch.<br />
<br />
As conversations concluded and people began leaving, I once again listened for voices of disapproval. Instead, I received comments such as, “This was one of the best worship times I have ever experienced!”<br />
<br />
True worship, like true love, can be illusive. It cannot be demanded, concocted, or coerced. Instead, it must flow out naturally from a heart uninhibited in enjoying the presence of the Creator.<br />
<br />
Our worship that afternoon did not take place in a church; it was not led by a theologically trained member of the clergy. I cannot even know for sure that everyone present was worshipping in the name of Jesus. But I do know the Creator was there, and I trust he was pleased. We experienced a small taste of Heaven that afternoon, all because we chose to contextualize our worship, so it made sense for our surroundings:<br />
<br />
• We met in a hogan.<br />
• We heard the name of Jesus proclaimed in three different languages.<br />
• We worshipped with songs reflecting traditional Navajo ceremonial singing.<br />
• And we celebrated a gift that the Creator had given—the gift of laughter.<br />
<br />
(This article was originally published by the <a href="https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/a-laughing-party/" target="_blank">Calvin Institute of Christian Worship</a>.)Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-26087827749793683962015-06-11T14:42:00.001-04:002018-07-02T07:28:06.515-04:00The Dilemma of the Fourth of July<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYyIjjTw0UItFye9eYRnfse-69ooInJBtTb3aHKdfCZODEcQDWw_-JVosY4Re7sE93yXw_2K2oX28YrkBUgnw9Kg08m5CUgBRXM9wpLK2KrT2iyU0TWB2Qz4V_e1qXRyRivM-lK6e-QAM/s1600/GallupNM_most_patriotic_sm_town.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYyIjjTw0UItFye9eYRnfse-69ooInJBtTb3aHKdfCZODEcQDWw_-JVosY4Re7sE93yXw_2K2oX28YrkBUgnw9Kg08m5CUgBRXM9wpLK2KrT2iyU0TWB2Qz4V_e1qXRyRivM-lK6e-QAM/s320/GallupNM_most_patriotic_sm_town.jpg" width="320"></a></div>
The other day I was eating dinner with my wife in a restaurant located in Gallup New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo reservation. Gallup was recently named "Most Patriotic Small Town in America" in a nationwide contest. Soon after sitting down I noticed that we were seated at a table directly facing a framed poster of the Declaration of Independence.<br>
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The irony almost made me laugh.<br>
</div><a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-dilemma-of-fourth-of-july_11.html#more">Read more »</a>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-46601715091954120202018-06-15T18:32:00.003-04:002018-06-18T10:33:11.060-04:00Separating Families? It's What the US has Always Done.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9MJSjrzrEawvxf2Wx90IkslN5wE0wavd7lDP_nJpoM9hIN7YjxIHTzj2WFFc9CXuMCPNB0wnlaWWUFwStPUimvOEdkzdlcNer977Eo5OFQ6HJ3cN4VDVJThSxarixS5vb9teCYhjCYq8/s1600/CarlisleIndianSchool1885.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="1010" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9MJSjrzrEawvxf2Wx90IkslN5wE0wavd7lDP_nJpoM9hIN7YjxIHTzj2WFFc9CXuMCPNB0wnlaWWUFwStPUimvOEdkzdlcNer977Eo5OFQ6HJ3cN4VDVJThSxarixS5vb9teCYhjCYq8/s320/CarlisleIndianSchool1885.jpg" width="320" /></a>There is a crisis going on at our borders. Children are being separated from their families. Mothers are being separated from their babies. Many Americans are beginning to take notice and cry out, but the problem is not getting resolved. Democrats are blaming Republicans who in turn are blaming Democrats. And Christians from both sides of the aisle are quoting their Bibles to either force change or justify the situation. But most disturbing, are the voices declaring, "This is not who we are." It is for those voices that I share 5 excerpts of American history.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Slave trade:</u></b><br />
"Austin Bearse, a white man from Massachusetts...worked on a Massachusetts-based ship that transported enslaved people from Charleston to New Orleans…The ship sometimes transported as many as 80 people to plantations in New Orleans. Before setting out, Bearse said, 'We used to allow the relatives and friends of the slaves to come on board and stay all night with their friends before the vessel sailed. In the morning it used to be my business to pull off the hatches and warn them that it was time to separate, and the shrieks and cries at these times were enough to make anybody’s heart ache.'”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhrugC8ekvUXMR3VUr9kJNNQ1r6bBC0VTCLMfyTno8v60wyTkrhoqOy9FurUF6WV54yVVoLNLmGnnUwiy8KwYtxEjwTrYICdeCX2SehMgnoeqL6pWM53QK6J8Qg3JFJbPDZrS4yTKBT8/s1600/Drawing_of_a_landing_of_a_cargo_of_slaves_%25286174670915%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="By State Library and Archives of Florida - https://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/6174670915/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53523858" border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhrugC8ekvUXMR3VUr9kJNNQ1r6bBC0VTCLMfyTno8v60wyTkrhoqOy9FurUF6WV54yVVoLNLmGnnUwiy8KwYtxEjwTrYICdeCX2SehMgnoeqL6pWM53QK6J8Qg3JFJbPDZrS4yTKBT8/s320/Drawing_of_a_landing_of_a_cargo_of_slaves_%25286174670915%2529.jpg" title="By State Library and Archives of Florida - https://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/6174670915/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53523858" width="320" /></a>"In 1828, "while mate of the brig ‘Milton,’ of Boston, bound from Charleston, S.C., to New Orleans,” Bearse wrote, “the following incident occurred, which I shall never forget. The traders brought on board four quadroon men in handcuffs. An old negro woman more than eighty years of age, came screaming after them, ‘My son! O, my son!’ She seemed almost frantic.” Bearse recalled that when they left the port and were more than a mile out on the harbor, he could still hear this mother’s piercing screams."<br />
(<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=y3t7rtB-WkkC&dq=%22Help+Me+to+Find+My+People%3A+The+African+American+Search+for+Family+Lost+in+Slavery&q=%22Charleston+to+New+Orleans%22#v=snippet&q=%22Charleston%20to%20New%20Orleans%22&f=false" target="_blank">“Help Me to Find My People” by Heather Andrea Williams, pg. 114-115</a>)<br />
<br />
<u><b>Indian Removal:</b></u><br />
"By the middle of December most of the weak and aged had died. There is hardly a Navajo family that cannot remember tales of an aged grandfather, a pregnant mother or a lame child that had to be left behind when the camp had to be quickly deserted. The patrols were not interested in taking captives; it was too much trouble to transport them back to the forts. Any Navajo they saw was shot on sight. Mothers were sometimes forced to suffocate their hungry crying babies to keep their families from being discovered and butchered by an army patrol or taken captive by the slave raiders."<br />
(<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Book_of_the_Navajo.html?id=Z8e2mfFJa-4C" target="_blank">Locke, The Book of the Navajo, pg. 358</a>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3VFi_uGzPh4OORffW0SFzru-kNAbENl6tnEsSajTUUdDMDaMdspI-l1k3_mMR9DQ4eXd-GZQblxVFWs4ewqszy89tb53x-Lx_hg3KIiRj-mOWhKtShM76_XmKWxt8XNreLplNZSMiRU/s1600/Gold_seeking_river_operations_California.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="By Harper's Weekly magazine, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1344739" border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="988" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3VFi_uGzPh4OORffW0SFzru-kNAbENl6tnEsSajTUUdDMDaMdspI-l1k3_mMR9DQ4eXd-GZQblxVFWs4ewqszy89tb53x-Lx_hg3KIiRj-mOWhKtShM76_XmKWxt8XNreLplNZSMiRU/s320/Gold_seeking_river_operations_California.jpg" title="By Harper's Weekly magazine, Public Domain" width="320" /></a></div>
<u><b>Manifest Destiny:</b></u><br />
Even though California was admitted as a free state in 1850, that same year the newly established California legislature passed the Indian Indenture Act which “establishes a form of legal slavery for the native peoples of the state by allowing whites to declare them vagrant and auction off their services for up to four months. The law also permits whites to indenture Indian children, with the permission of a parent or friend, and leads to widespread kidnapping of Indian children, who are then sold as ‘apprentices.’" (<a href="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1850_1860.htm" target="_blank">PBS</a>) In his book “The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America,” author Andres Resendez writes, “According to one scholarly estimate, this act may have effected as many as twenty thousand California Indians, including four thousand children kidnapped from their parents and employed primarily as domestic servants and farm laborers” (<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&dq=The+Other+Slavery%3A+The+Uncovered+Story+of+Indian+Enslavement+in+America&q=four+thousand+children#v=snippet&q=%22four%20thousand%20children%22&f=false" target="_blank">pg. 2</a>). The wanton killing, enslavement and complete disregard for the lives of the California Indians was so pervasive that even California’s first Governor, Peter Burnett, acknowledged the following in his State of the State Address in 1851, “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.” (<a href="http://governors.library.ca.gov/addresses/s_01-Burnett2.html" target="_blank">Governors.Library.CA</a>)<br />
<br />
<u><b>Internment Camps:</b></u><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_re24H8cf8sjhlWgjNMLa1bE9NJgdw7crUrUmhaykdLetBhU2HlUJ36YzcJa16PH3ULhgokSdwqCLYW10VhW9M1nXy1PjGszZ29Nj0ClryeEc0iSJOgdp8LjQOTT95VqBqt3jsxqH_zg/s1600/Arrivals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="By The original uploader was Shep182 at English Wikipedia. - File:SanPedro to SantaAnita.gif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37462270" border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="350" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_re24H8cf8sjhlWgjNMLa1bE9NJgdw7crUrUmhaykdLetBhU2HlUJ36YzcJa16PH3ULhgokSdwqCLYW10VhW9M1nXy1PjGszZ29Nj0ClryeEc0iSJOgdp8LjQOTT95VqBqt3jsxqH_zg/s320/Arrivals.jpg" title="File:SanPedro to SantaAnita.gif, Public Domain, " width="320" /></a></div>
"Today, we call them 'internment camps.' A more accurate term would be “concentration camps.” They were called exactly that by then-President Roosevelt as he confidently endorsed them. The name “enemy alien internment camps” was also used to describe these centers...Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes and treated like criminals. They experienced enormous loss. They suffered great physical and emotional trauma. A racial minority was concentrated in specific areas for the security of the nation, imprisoned in deplorable conditions, and stripped of their dignity. They were living in concentration camps." (<a href="https://listverse.com/2014/10/25/10-shameful-truths-about-japanese-american-internment/" target="_blank">10 Shameful Facts About Japanese-American Internment</a>)<br />
<br />
"Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI began arresting the mostly Issei men flagged as security threats during the decade of government surveillance that preceded the war. Over 1,200 businessmen, Buddhist priests, Japanese language school teachers, and other community leaders were taken into custody within the first 48 hours. That number would eventually swell to more than 5,500. Many of these men left behind wives and children. They were picked up without warrants or charges, and families sometimes waited weeks to find out where they were being detained—in many cases learning that they had already been sent to Department of Justice internment camps like Santa Fe or Missoula. " (<a href="https://densho.org/japanese-american-mothers-wwii/" target="_blank">Densho Blog: Photo Essay: Japanese American Mothers During WWII</a>)<br />
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<b><u>Indian Boarding Schools:</u></b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgluNH1p3nuxCrkKdpX5F385vvj-AG9qEZdaHco0CcvD5g3TkJod4-i5veHpJUYNxy01HdU8HZi7qLe8umtqG7DhzECWeOnHteoqGFrlH5a4-ZHcm_ygec-1woe-cR78QrpfQoFPStWWwo/s1600/Kinlichee+Boarding+School.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="1600" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgluNH1p3nuxCrkKdpX5F385vvj-AG9qEZdaHco0CcvD5g3TkJod4-i5veHpJUYNxy01HdU8HZi7qLe8umtqG7DhzECWeOnHteoqGFrlH5a4-ZHcm_ygec-1woe-cR78QrpfQoFPStWWwo/s320/Kinlichee+Boarding+School.jpg" width="320" /></a>"In 1961, when I was six years old, my parents were ordered by the U.S. government and the BIA to put me in Kinlichee Boarding School. My father took me there and left me crying after him. I remember crying all the time. I was in Kinlichee for six years, Toyei Boarding School for two years, and Fort Wingate Boarding School for one year. When we arrived at boarding school, we were assigned a number, were given baths, and were dressed in identical clothes and shoes. I was stripped of my Navajo clothes and moccasins, which had been sewn for me by my mother, and they were thrown away."<br />
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"I was always lonely. Every chance I got, I would go to the laundry room. It had a big window, and if I sat in a certain place, I could see the road at the top of the canyon or mesa. I would watch the road to see if my parents were coming to get me. Kinlichee Boarding School was built near a wash and was surrounded by a fence. I tried many times to run away as I got older, but I was always caught. One time at Toyei Boarding School, I crawled through the sagebrush, dirt, trees, and cactus for miles, but they found me and brought me back for more punishment."<br />
(Written by <a href="http://dojustice.crcna.org/author/susie-silversmith" target="_blank">Susie Silversmith</a>, a boarding school survivor – quote taken from <a href="https://www.crcna.org/ministries/initiatives/doctrine-discovery-task-force" target="_blank">CRCNA Doctrine of Discovery Task Force</a> – “<a href="https://www.crcna.org/sites/default/files/doctrine_of_discovery.pdf" target="_blank">Creating a New Family: A Circle of Conversation on the Doctrine of Christian Discovery</a>” - pg. 55)<br />
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Throughout our history the United States of America has used the separation of families as a means of controlling people of color. Whether during Indian removal, the slave trade, Western Expansion, Internment Camps, Indian boarding schools or in immigration detention centers today - the U.S. government has been stealing babies from their mother’s breasts for nearly 250 years. It is who we are. It's what our government does.<br />
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But it's not who we have to be.<br />
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The first step towards change is acknowledging we have a problem. So while this may be who we are, it is not who we have to continue to be. But that is a decision we have to make together, both intentionally and collectively. Our systemic injustice, racism, and implicit bias of white supremacy are not partisan problems. It's a collective problem. And the solution is not for Democrats to be better Democrats. Nor will anything be solved if Republicans can be better Republicans. Instead, we need to call upon all Americans to be better humans.<br />
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<i>Mark Charles (Navajo) speaks and writes about the <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2018/05/31/the-doctrine-of-discovery-a-lecture-by-mark-charles/" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a>. He is calling for a National Dialogue on Race, Gender and Class. A Conversation on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada. Mark calls it Truth and Conciliation and his goal is 2021. You can learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TCC2021" target="_blank">#TCC2021</a> on his website - <a href="http://wirelesshogan.com/" target="_blank">Wirelesshogan.com</a>. Mark is active on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarkCharlesWirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> , <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank"> Twitter</a> , <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wirelesshogan" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wirelesshogan/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.</i>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-48636232944162740472018-05-27T18:59:00.001-04:002018-05-27T18:59:29.656-04:00When your President Motivates Military Graduates by Celebrating the Genocide of Native Peoples<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Friday President Trump gave the commencement address at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. About one third of the way through his speech he attempted to affirm and motivate the graduates by reminding them of America's past military conquests when he said,<br />
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“Together, you are the tip of the spear, the edge of the blade, and the front of the shield defending and protecting our great country. You know, there is no mission our pilots can’t handle. There is no hill our Marines can’t take, and there is no stronghold the SEALs can’t reach. There is no sea the Navy can’t brave, and there is no storm the American sailor can’t conquer. Because you know that together, there is nothing Americans can’t do. Absolutely nothing. In recent years and even decades, too many people have forgotten that truth. They have forgotten that our ancestors trounced an empire, tamed a continent, and triumphed over the worst evils in history.”<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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On May 28, 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal act. This was the Act of Congress that gave the military the right to remove native tribes from their lands in the east to more empty lands further in the west. This resulted in the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw. It also resulted in the Long Walk for the Navajo and Apache. All told about a dozen tribes experienced forced relocation due to this act, and tens of thousands of native people died as a direct result of this act.<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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Following the conclusion of the Dakota War of 1862 and lasting through the summer of 1863 the US military and the state of Minnesota paid bounties of between $25 - $200 for the scalps of Dakota people. In December of 1862, President Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in the history of the United States with the hanging of the Dakota 38. In January of 1863, President Lincoln signed a bill nullifying all the Treaties with the Dakota people in the state of Minnesota. In March of 1863 President Lincoln signed a bill granting himself the authority, without treaty or negotiation, to remove tribes from the state of Minnesota. This inhumane and forced removal began in April and was completed by the fall of 1863.<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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In the fall of 1863, General Carleton gave the following order to US Army Officer Kit Carson "Henceforth every Navajo male is to be killed or taken prisoner on sight.... Say to them 'Go to the Bosque Redondo or we will pursue and destroy you....We will not make peace with you on any other terms. This war shall be pursued until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject.’ Kit Carson began a campaign of terror against the Navajo people. He burned our hogans, destroyed or crops, killed our livestock and relentlessly pursued us throughout our traditional lands.”<br />
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"By the middle of December most of the weak and aged had died. There is hardly a Navajo family that cannot remember tales of an aged grandfather, a pregnant mother or a lame child that had to be left behind when the camp had to be quickly deserted. The patrols were not interested in taking captives; it was too much trouble to transport them back to the forts. Any Navajo they saw was shot on sight. Mothers were sometimes forced to suffocate their hungry crying babies to keep their families from being discovered and butchered by an army patrol or taken captive by the slave raiders.” ("Book of the Navajo" by Raymond Friday Locke)<br />
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On January 15, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln approved the creation of the Bosque Redondo Indian reserve, which, for all intents and purposes, functioned as a death camp. Over 10,000 Navajo men, women and children were forcibly marched there. Hundreds died in route, and once relocated, those who attempted to escape were shot. But those who remained did not fare much better as nearly one quarter of the Navajo people who were imprisoned at Bosque Redondo died.<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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In 1851, the United States signed a treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes, establishing their treaty lands in the area of the southwest that today is eastern Colorado and western Kansas. In 1858, gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains, and settlers and prospectors began encroaching upon the lands of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people. In 1862, the United States reduced the lands holdings of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes by 92% through the Treaty of Fort Wise. In November of 1864, Colonel Chivington of the US Army massacred nearly 200 Cheyenne and Arapahoe men, women and children while they were encamped on their own treaty lands. It was later reported that the soldiers paraded the genitalia of the massacred Cheyenne and Arapahoe people down the streets of Denver. Within 3 years, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes completely surrendered and were removed to Oklahoma.<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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What do the Dakota in Minnesota, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe in Colorado and the Navajo in New Mexico have in common? In May of 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. And in July of 1862 he signed the Pacific Railway Act. The Homestead Act provided 160 acres for any American citizen willing to homestead land in the west for 5 years. And the Pacific Railway Act opened land and provided resources to complete the transcontinental railway and telegraph lines. The Transcontinental Railroad had three proposed routes. A northern route that went through Minnesota. A central route that went through the territory of Colorado. And a southern route that went through the territory of New Mexico. Within two and a half years of signing the Pacific Railroad act, President Lincoln ethnically cleansed the Dakota from the state of Minnesota, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe from the territory of Colorado and the Navajo from the territory of New Mexico.<br />
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In his annual address to Congress in 1864, President Lincoln reported "1,538,614 acres were entered under the homestead law...The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives assurance of success."<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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On December 29, 1890, the US Army surrounded a band of Lakota people near Wounded Knee. During a scuffle, a weapon discharged (unclear from which side) and chaos ensued. The US Army had up to four Hotchkiss Cannons at Wounded Knee. These are 37 mm cannons that shoot up to 70 rounds per minute and are accurate to 2,000 yards. The US Army rained bullets down on the Lakota people, many of whom ran into a nearby ravine to seek cover from the gunfire. The US Army later awarded 18 Medals of Honor to US soldiers who participated in the massacre. Three of the medals, those given to William Austin, John Gresham and Albert McMillan, were awarded specifically for directing fire into and flushing the Lakota people out of the ravine.<br />
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Tamed a continent?<br />
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In 1500, there were approximately 4 million indigenous people living on the section of Turtle Island that today is known as the continental United States. By 1870, that number had been reduced to 25,713. That is a 99.36% population reduction.<br />
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The United States of America did not "tame a continent", it ethnically cleansed one. Nearly to extinction.<br />
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Mr. President, I am not going to ask you to apologize for your truly offensive choice of words. For I observe that they are deeply rooted in your white supremacists (and sexist) world view. In the speech announcing your campaign, you labeled Mexican immigrants as rapists and murders and promised to build a wall along our southern border. You were caught on a live mic before the campaign, telling a young protégé that celebrity and fame gives you the right to sexually assault women. You told a campaign rally in Iowa that you "could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and you wouldn't lose voters." You threaten other nations, via Twitter, with nuclear annihilation. You hide your taxes and hire lawyers to pay hush money to porn stars. You attack the press, humiliate your wife and sexually demean your daughter along with Howard Stern on national radio. And on Friday, you sought to motivate the 2018 graduating class of the United States Naval Academy by celebrating the ethnic cleansing and genocide of native peoples here in the United States. Nothing appears sacred to you, except your own fame and glory. I am not asking you to apologize, because I do not believe you are sorry.<br />
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Instead, I want to ask the American people. Is “making America great again” really what we want? American history is a mess. The Doctrine of Discovery, slavery, stolen lands, broken treaties, Jim-crow laws, Indian boarding schools, massacres, segregation, internment camps, nuclear bombs, mass incarceration, a broken immigration system. America's greatness is a myth, rooted in the lie of white supremacy. Do we really want to go back to that? Make America Great Again? And for whom?<br />
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In his final State of the Union, President Obama tried to address our national need for a new politics. He said, "We the people, our Constitution begins with those three simple words. Words we've come to recognize mean all the people."<br />
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Now that may sound beautiful. But I have studied American history and our founding documents extensively. The problem is, we have never decided, as a nation, that “We the People” means All the People. The founding fathers didn't intend that. Abraham Lincoln didn't believe it. The Civil Rights Movement couldn't close the gap. Even our first black President, Barack Obama, didn't get us there. And I promise you, Donald J. Trump does not believe that We the People means All the People.<br />
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I see President Trump's <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/01/americas-greatness.html" target="_blank">definition of greatness</a>, and I don't want any part of it. I would much rather work towards a future where We the People finally means All the People. I know it will take some incredibly hard work, and I believe we can get there. But not if we continue to demean and sexually assault women. Not if we continue to arrest black men for sitting in Starbucks. Not if we insist on criminalizing non-white immigrants. Not if we dehumanize anyone, including our enemies. And not if we continue to celebrate our ethnic cleansing and genocidal history.<br />
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We also won't get there by calling Republicans to be better Republicans. Nor will we get there by asking Democrats to be better Democrats. Unfortunately, the myth of American Exceptionalism and the lie of white supremacy are areas of <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-unfortunate-cost-of-bi-partisanship.html" target="_blank">bi-partisan agreement</a>. What we need is for all Americans to be better humans.<br />
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For the past 5 years I have had the privilege of traveling the country and speaking with people from all segments of society. Teaching them about the Doctrine of Discovery and the incredibly violent and dehumanizing legacy it imprinted on America. I recently gave one such lecture in Fresno California. It was recorded and is available on my YouTube Channel. I invite all Americans to watch it (posted below). Not because its easy to hear. But because it presents a history that we have buried, yet desperately need to deal with.<br />
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I thank you for taking the time to read this. Walk in beauty my relatives.<br />
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Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XRRDuInkgrI" width="560"></iframe>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-82372567858623707842015-04-04T11:13:00.000-04:002018-03-31T08:45:39.635-04:00Holy Saturday: What do you do on the day that the cross is empty and the tomb is sealed?Two thousand years later, we comfort ourselves on Holy Saturday with the reminder that "Sunday is Coming". But we forget, the disciples did not have that hope. Jesus tried to tell them, but they did not believe. They could not comprehend it. So imagine...<br />
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You just watched your master, the person you were convinced was the Messiah, die a horrific death on a Roman Cross. You saw the religious leaders and all of the people publicly reject him. You observed his beating. You followed his trail of blood out of the city. You heard his gasps for breath. You read his lips as he questioned why even his own Father forsook him.<br />
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And then you watched the unthinkable. His body went limp as he cried out, gave up his spirit, and died.<br />
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The soldiers pierced his side, his blood drained out and all hope was lost.<br />
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Still numb, you helped remove his body from the cross. You laid it in a tomb and you watched the stone being rolled in front of it.<br />
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And then you saw it sealed.<br />
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It was over.<br />
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The next morning must have been a daze. For the past 3 years you followed this man around. You walked with him, laughed with him, fed thousands of hungry people with him. You survived storms together. You even saw him heal the sick and raise people from the dead.<br />
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But now the cross was empty and the tomb occupied. And all you can think about is the way you ran away when the soldiers came. Even after you looked him in the eye and swore you would never do such a thing!!!<br />
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What a horrible day Saturday must have been.<br />
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Not only did Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God, die. But he died alone.<br />
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Because you abandoned him.<br />
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On a day like that, there is only one spiritual discipline that you can cling to. Only one holy practice that you could possibly engage in.<br />
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What do you do on the day that the cross is empty and the tomb still sealed?<br />
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You weep. You mourn.<br />
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You lament.<br />
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Friday has happened. And Sunday may be coming. But if we skip over the horrific pain, the absolute confusion and the utter despair that the first Holy Saturday must have been, we devalue them both.<br />
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Mark Charles<br />(Navajo)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Updated 3/31/2018)</span></div>
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Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-19007124042690754042018-02-19T17:25:00.002-05:002018-02-20T09:48:35.402-05:00The Historically Accurate Abraham Lincoln<meta property="og:url" content="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-historically-accurate-abraham-lincoln.html" />
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I've always wondered why Black History month is commemorated in February. So this year I decided to look it up, and learned that one of the reasons is because February is the month which contains the birthdays of both Fredrick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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Choosing February as Black History Month because of Frederick Douglass makes sense. "He was a prominent American abolitionist, author and orator. Born a slave, Douglass escaped at age 20 and went on to become a world-renowned anti-slavery activist." (<a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/frederick-douglass" target="_blank">History</a>)<br />
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But choosing to put Black History Month in February because of Abraham Lincoln? That makes no sense at all. At least not when you understand the historically accurate Abraham Lincoln. You see, there are two Abraham Lincolns. The historically accurate Abraham Lincoln and the mythological Abraham Lincoln. Most Americans know only the mythological Abraham Lincoln and are clueless as to his actual history, writings, speeches and military exploits as Commander in Chief of the Unites States armed forces.<br />
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The mythological Abraham Lincoln is held up by both Democrats and Republicans alike. He is a beacon of freedom and a champion of racial equality. In fact, in the spring of 2016, House Majority Leader Paul Ryan (R-WI) referenced the legacy of Abraham Lincoln when he publicly rebuked GOP Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump for not distancing himself from the political endorsement of David Duke, a well-known KKK member. He said:<br />
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"If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln. We believe all people are created equal in the eyes of God and our government. This is fundamental. And if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this." (<a href="https://twitter.com/speakerryan/status/704686780478390272">Twitter</a>)</blockquote>
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Speaker Ryan was, of course, referencing the Abraham Lincoln most everyone knows and loves, the mythological Abraham Lincoln. I however, would like to invite you to meet the historically accurate Abraham Lincoln.<br />
<br />
In the fall of 1858, Abraham Lincoln was in a brutal campaign for the US Senate. He was running against Judge Stephen Douglas, as well as against the perception that he was in favor of freeing the slaves. So, in the first debate, towards the beginning of his remarks, he sought to assure the white voters of where he actually stood in regard to slavery and racial equality:<br />
<blockquote>
"I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."<br />
- Abraham Lincoln (<a href="https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate1.htm" target="_blank">First Lincoln Douglas Debate - August 21, 1858 - Ottawa, Illinois</a>)</blockquote>
Several weeks later, during his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln reiterated his stance on both slavery and race, almost verbatim:<br />
<blockquote>
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."<br />
- Abraham Lincoln (<a href="https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate4.htm" target="_blank">Fourth Lincoln Douglas Debate - September 18, 1858 - Charleston, Illinois</a>)</blockquote>
In 1861, during his inauguration speech, President Lincoln felt the need to once again reminded the nation as to where he stood on race and slavery. He reiterated his intention to not free the slaves in states where it already existed, and in regards to his thoughts on race, he referenced the country back to his speeches in the Douglas debates:<br />
<blockquote>
"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that--I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."(<a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25818" target="_blank">1861 - Inaugural Address</a>)</blockquote>
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On August 19, 1862, Horace Greeley, the Editor of the New York Tribune wrote a scathing Op-Ed calling for the immediate emancipation of the slaves. President Lincoln had already written the Emancipation Proclamation but was not yet ready to issue it. He first wanted to assure the slave-owning states of the north (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware) of his true intentions and beliefs, so he responded to Greeley's Op-Ed with a letter <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm" target="_blank">which stated</a>:<br />
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<blockquote>
"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. <i>My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.</i>"</blockquote>
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It is the latter half of this quote (<i>italicized</i>) that is engraved on a marble plaque which today hangs in the museum at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. It boldly declares President Abraham Lincoln’s belief that black lives did not matter.<br />
<br />
1862 was a turbulent year for our country. It was the first full year of the Civil War, but that was not the only fighting taking place. In Minnesota, the US Government had recently signed a treaty with the Dakota Sioux nation, and in the fall of 1862, after the United States failed to meet its treaty obligations with the Dakota people, several Dakota warriors raided an American settlement, killed some of the settlers and stole food. This began a short period of bloody conflict between some of the Dakota people, white settlers, and the U.S. Military. After little more than a month, several hundred of the Dakota warriors surrendered and the rest fled north to what is now Canada. Those who surrendered were quickly tried in military tribunals, and 303 of them were condemned to death.<br />
<blockquote>
"The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation, and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status."(<a href="http://usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging" target="_blank">Carol Chomsky</a>)</blockquote>
Because these were military trials, the executions had to be ordered by the President. 303 deaths seemed too genocidal for President Lincoln. But he didn't order retrials, even though it has been argued that the trials which took place were a legal sham. Instead he simply modified the criteria of which charges warranted a death sentence. Under his new criteria, only two of the Dakota warriors were sentenced to die. That small number seemed too lenient, and President Lincoln was concerned about an uprising by his white American settlers in that area. So, for a second time, instead of ordering retrials, he changed the criteria of what warranted a death sentence.<br />
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Ultimately, 39 Dakota men were sentenced to die. And on December 26, 1862, by order of President Lincoln, and with nearly 4,000 white American settlers looking on, the largest mass execution in the history of the United States took place, making it abundantly clear that, not only did Abraham Lincoln not believe that Black Lives Mattered, but he did not believe that Native Lives Mattered either.<br />
<br />
Less than a week later, on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. But, if you look closely, this proclamation did not free all the slaves. The wording of the <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=34&page=transcript" target="_blank">Emancipation Proclamation</a> was extremely specific, and limited the locations from which slaves were to be freed:<br />
<blockquote>
"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued."</blockquote>
The Emancipation Proclamation exempted many areas and counties throughout the southern slave-owning states, and never even mentioned freeing slaves from the northern states where slavery was legal (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware). These states had not seceded from the Union and therefore were exempted by Lincoln from the Proclamation. Some have argued that because President Lincoln was using his wartime powers as commander-in-chief to make the proclamation, it was legally necessary to limit the jurisdiction of the proclamation to states and counties that were actively fighting against the Union. However, taken in the context of President Lincoln’s response to Horace Greeley, the limited implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation remained true to President Lincoln’s belief that Black Lives did not Matter. He fulfilled his commitment to the slave owners in Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware that if he could save the Union “by freeing some and leaving others alone” he would do that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitar3IXhkHwClaP6wBGns8aZ4oKWcr7WaZpeHKauKX2PVK2q8x2bD0KcUBwC7YCRrMnDEiP49NCGukhQYIpejzsIUSoO7lvOMehTGRy7zmaFZkcdnLw2zlYLjhYYWmjURD3fWfA1hO9Co/s1600/Navajo_on_Long_Walk.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="400" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitar3IXhkHwClaP6wBGns8aZ4oKWcr7WaZpeHKauKX2PVK2q8x2bD0KcUBwC7YCRrMnDEiP49NCGukhQYIpejzsIUSoO7lvOMehTGRy7zmaFZkcdnLw2zlYLjhYYWmjURD3fWfA1hO9Co/s320/Navajo_on_Long_Walk.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
In the 1860s President Lincoln also sought to put an end to the Indian wars being fought in the Southwest against the Navajo and the Pueblos. The military offensive against our tribes by the US Army intensified with the start of the Civil War in 1861 and steadily increased thereafter. In the fall of 1863, General Carleton of the US Army, the army of which Abraham Lincoln was the commander in chief, gave the following order to US Army Officer, Kit Carson, who had been brought into the Indian War Campaigns for the express purpose of removing the Navajo and Pueblo people to Brosque Redondo.<br />
<blockquote>
"Henceforth every Navajo male is to be killed or taken prisoner on sight....Say to them 'Go to the Brosque Redondo or we will pursue and destroy you....We will not make peace with you on any other terms. This war shall be pursued until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject.'" (Locke, "The Book of the Navajo", Mankind Publishing, pg. 356)</blockquote>
The strength and numbers of the Navajo people had already been depleted. Most of our crops were burned and our livestock killed. Raymond Friday Locke, once again, in his book titled "The Book of the Navajo" records the next step of the operation:<br />
<blockquote>
"with the coming of the first snows, Carson put his second plan of operation into action. He knew that, even with the loss of most of their livestock and crops, the Navajo people could still survive the winter on game and wild seeds and plants – but not if they were constantly kept on the move. Again breaking his command up into small patrols, he sent them out to crisscross Dinehtah (the traditional lands of the Navajo people) until the Navajos were broken up into small family units and scattered. They could never remain in one place for more than a few days at a time, camped in mountain crevices or caves without sufficient food, shelter or clothing…By the middle of December most of the weak and aged had died. There is hardly a Navajo family that cannot remember tales of an aged grandfather, a pregnant mother or a lame child that had to be left behind when the camp had to be quickly deserted. The patrols were not interested in taking captives; it was too much trouble to transport them back to the forts. Any Navajo they saw was shot on sight. Mothers were sometimes forced to suffocate their hungry crying babies to keep their families from being discovered and butchered by an army patrol or taken captive by the slave raiders.”<br />
(Locke, "The Book of the Navajo", Mankind Publishing, pg. 358)</blockquote>
Ultimately over 8,000 Navajo people were rounded up by President Lincoln’s army, and marched from Fort Wingate to Bosque Redondo in what is known as "The Long Walk."<br />
<br />
About that same time (1864), in Colorado, the US Army, still under their Commander in Chief Abraham Lincoln, committed the Massacre at Sand Creek:<br />
<blockquote>
"On November 29, 1864, approximately 675 United States soldiers under the command of Colonel John Chivington killed more than 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho villagers, mostly elderly men, women, and children, approximately 180 miles southeast of Denver near Eads, Colorado. Despite assurance from American negotiators that they would be safe, and despite Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle raising both a United States flag and a white flag as symbols of peace, Colonel Chivington ordered his troops to take no prisoners and to pillage and set the village ablaze, violently forcing the ambushed and outnumbered Cheyenne and Arapaho villagers to flee on foot. Colonel Chivington and his troops paraded mutilated body parts of men, women, and children in downtown Denver, Colorado, in celebration of the massacre." (<a href="https://legiscan.com/CO/text/SJR030/id/1022307" target="_blank">Colorado Senate Joint Resolution 14-030</a>)
</blockquote>
In 1865, the mythological President Lincoln was given credit for abolishing slavery. But that’s because most people have never actually read the <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=40&page=transcript" target="_blank">text of the 13th Amendment</a>. Here is what it says:<br />
<blockquote>
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."</blockquote>
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To this day, slavery in the United States is completely legal. The 13th Amendment did not abolish it, it merely codified slavery and put it under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system. And I am sure that the historically accurate Abraham Lincoln would be delighted to learn that, 153 years later, the United States of America now has nearly twice as many more black males over the age of 18 in prison, on parole and on probation, than were enslaved in 1850.<br />
<br />
As a Navajo man, I find many of the holidays celebrated by the United States of America lamentable. Every Fourth of July we celebrate a Declaration of Independence that refers to Natives as “merciless Indian savages.” Columbus Day celebrates a "discovery" of lands that were already inhabited. On Thanksgiving we celebrate a mythological potluck between natives and settlers (that never happened). But President’s Day. The fact that as a nation we celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday. and have white washed the exploits of a racist, genocidal, ethnic-cleansing president like Abraham Lincoln is morally, ethically, politically and socially reprehensible.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-47330241577260221092018-01-30T10:43:00.001-05:002018-01-30T10:45:09.859-05:00Chief Wahoo: A Mascot for the Lie of White SupremacyOn Monday, the Cleveland Indians <a href="https://tribevibe.mlblogs.com/cleveland-indians-will-remove-chief-wahoo-logo-from-uniforms-in-2019-87bdd6a1f44d">released a statement</a> that they will remove the logo of Chief Wahoo from their on-field uniforms beginning with the 2019 season. Many people on social media congratulated Major League Baseball for its commitment to inclusivity and diversity and thanked the owner of the Cleveland Indians for making this change. I do not share in those sentiments and here is why.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgtvAEEFQDrAXbL2QJLd6Eaizl5ZOXFur4GJj4Z8-de4OqWL7HdFtr1ZjRNta1FtlFpLksJ25Yo1yp6lMGydO4BhV5OP13I054jXPDLVgBFnihNGa_LdIvfJOZFKcCRqP4kkrKG1W29k/s1600/MRC_wallpaper.wiki-Free-Cleveland-Indians-Photo-PIC-WPC004389.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgtvAEEFQDrAXbL2QJLd6Eaizl5ZOXFur4GJj4Z8-de4OqWL7HdFtr1ZjRNta1FtlFpLksJ25Yo1yp6lMGydO4BhV5OP13I054jXPDLVgBFnihNGa_LdIvfJOZFKcCRqP4kkrKG1W29k/s320/MRC_wallpaper.wiki-Free-Cleveland-Indians-Photo-PIC-WPC004389.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Chief Wahoo thru the years </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Owner Paul Dolan only committed to remove Chief Wahoo after the 2018 season has completed.<br />
<br />
The nation was rightfully outraged that Michigan State University and US Gymnastics ignored, for years, the voices of women and underage girls who reported that Larry Nassar had been touching them inappropriately during his examinations and treatments. The pubic was outraged that many studios, friends, co-workers and executives were complicit, through their silence, in the long pattern of abuse and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein. Sexual assault is unacceptable. Period. And those who bury it, ignore it, and turn the other way are also complicit in it.<br />
<br />
When their actions came to light, Larry Nassar and Harvey Weinstein were not merely asked to phase out their behavior, nor were they simply told to promise to cease their behavior at a later, more convenient date. No, they were immediately removed from their positions, shunned by the public, and confronted by those they abused.<br />
<br />
White America has a long-standing history of violence and racism against native peoples. Discovery, stolen lands, broken treaties, ethnic cleansing, genocide, boarding schools, massacres, sexual assault, mass incarceration, reservations, #DAPL, and the list goes on, and on, and on. The problem is much deeper than a mere logo or a simple mascot. Native mascots in sports are dehumanizing caricatures rooted in our nation’s racist history, mascots for the lie of white supremacy.<br />
<br />
Looked at from this perspective, the statements put out by Commissioner Manfred and owner Paul Dolan border on the absurd.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><u>Commissioner Manfred</u></b>: "During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team. Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan’s acknowledgement that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course."<br />
<br />
<b><u>Paul Dolan</u></b>: “While we recognize many of our fans have a longstanding attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019.”</blockquote>
If you still don’t see it, try reading the statements again, this time with the implicit racial bias made explicit.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><u>Commissioner Manfred</u></b>: "During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the <b>white supremacist</b> logo and its place in the history of the team. Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the <b>white supremacist </b>logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan’s acknowledgement that removing it from the on-field uniform <b>by the start of the 2019 season</b> is the right course."<br />
<br />
<b><u>Paul Dolan</u></b>: “While we recognize many of our fans have a longstanding attachment to <strike>Chief Wahoo</strike> <b>white supremacy</b>, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the <b>white supremacist</b> logo from our uniforms <b>in 2019.</b>”</blockquote>
What is true for sexual assault is also true for racism and the lie of white supremacy. It is NEVER acceptable. Period. Not today. Not yesterday. Not 10 years ago. Not even 100 years ago. Racism and the lie of white supremacy are abhorrent whenever and wherever they exist.<br />
<br />
I do not congratulate Major League Baseball, nor do I thank the Cleveland Indians for committing to not remove Chief Wahoo from their on-field uniforms until 2019. I lament that it took them this long to commit to anything, and I call on owner Paul Dolan and Commissioner Manfred to change the team name and remove the racist caricature immediately, beginning with the 2018 season. Anything less communicates that racism and the lie of white supremacy are socially acceptable. And they are not.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-8481198523169913182018-01-12T18:15:00.002-05:002018-01-15T15:33:52.332-05:00The Abhorrent Lie of White Supremacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To be clear, President Trump's vulgar and racist comments on Thursday regarding immigrants from the continent of Africa were intended to appeal to his political base and rooted in the abhorrent lie of white supremacy. After hearing reports of President Trumps remarks I asked my two oldest children to read the following excerpt of a speech by another US President who also held and articulated white supremacist views. I did this because I wanted them to understand the pervasiveness of white supremacy and just how deeply it is rooted in American history.<br />
<blockquote>
"While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great Laughter.] While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."<br />
- Abraham Lincoln (<a href="https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate4.htm" target="_blank">Fourth Lincoln Douglas Debate - September 18, 1858 - Charleston, Illinois</a>)</blockquote>
Now, I know what many may be thinking. This is unfair, you are taking an excerpt from a speech early in Lincoln’s political life, 5 years before he issued the emancipation proclamation and six years before he gave the Gettysburg address. Certainly, Abraham Lincoln's beliefs in racial equality must have grown and changed over the course of his political career.<br />
<br />
Did they?<br />
<br />
In 1864, near the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wrote what is probably the shortest and most famous political speech in American history, the <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm" target="_blank">Gettysburg Address</a>. At 272 words, beginning with a reference to the Declaration of Independence and concluding with the often-quoted line "...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Many believe this speech to be the perfect capstone to his life and political career.<br />
<br />
But we must note that, like the inclusive language used by the authors of the Declaration of Independence ("All men") and the US Constitution, ("We the people"), Lincoln does not in the immediate context of his words, define who he is including when he refers to "All men" and "people". In the Declaration of Independence, 30 lines after the statement "All men are created equal", the authors refer to native tribes as "merciless Indian savages." Making it very clear that they had a very narrow definition of who was actually human. And Article I Section II of the US Constitution, the section that defines who is included in the designation "We the people". Article I, Section II never mentions women, it specifically excludes Indians and it counts African slaves as 3/5th human. This leaves only white, land-owning men.<br />
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If you read the <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=34&page=transcript" target="_blank">Emancipation Proclamation</a> you will note that President Lincoln was incredibly specific as to exactly where he was freeing the slaves:<br />
<blockquote>
"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued."</blockquote>
The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the slave owning border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. These states had not seceded from the Union and therefore were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation.<br />
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Some will argue that because President Lincoln was using his wartime powers as commander-in-chief to make the proclamation, it was legally necessary to limit the proclamation to states and counties that were actively fighting against the Union. However, President Lincoln himself provides detailed insight into his thinking regarding his reasoning for freeing the slaves just a few months prior.<br />
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On August 19, 1862, Horace Greeley, the Editor of the New York Tribune wrote a scathing Op-Ed calling for the immediate emancipation of the slaves. President Lincoln had already written the Emancipation Proclamation but was not yet ready to issue it. He first wanted to reassure the slave-owning states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware of his values, so he responded to Greeley's Op-Ed with a letter <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm" target="_blank">which stated</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
"If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." </blockquote>
This quote is engraved on a marble plaque that hangs in the museum at the base of the Lincoln memorial. Boldly announcing to everyone who visits the museum that President Abraham Lincoln did not believe that black lives matter.<br />
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On top of that, just a few weeks before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.<br />
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In the fall of 1862, after the United States failed to meet its treaty obligations with the Dakota people, several Dakota warriors raided an American settlement, killed some of the settlers and stole some food. This began a period of bloody conflict between some of the Dakota people, the settlers, and the US Military. After more than a month, several hundred of the Dakota warriors surrendered and the rest fled north to what is now Canada. Those who surrendered were quickly tried in military tribunals, and 303 of them were condemned to death.<br />
<blockquote>
"The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status." (<a href="http://usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging" target="_blank">Carol Chomsky</a>)</blockquote>
Because these were military trials, the executions had to be ordered by President Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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Three hundred and three deaths seemed too genocidal for President Lincoln. But he didn't order retrials, even though it has been argued that the trials which took place were a legal sham. Instead he simply modified the criteria of what charges warranted a death sentence. Under his new criteria, only two of the Dakota warriors were sentenced to die. That small number seemed too lenient, and President Lincoln was concerned about an uprising by his white American settlers in that area. So, for a second time, instead of ordering retrials, he changed the criteria of what warranted a death sentence.<br />
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Ultimately, 39 Dakota men were sentenced to die. And on December 26, 1862, by order of President Lincoln, and with nearly 4,000 white American settlers looking on, the largest mass execution in the history of the United States took place. The hanging of the Dakota 38.<br />
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Clearly, not only did President Lincoln not believe black lives mattered, but he also did not believe native lives mattered.<br />
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So how about his inauguration? The election of Abraham Lincoln as President, and his inauguration into office was what spurred several of the southern states to secede from the Union. Surely, he must have stated something in his address that made clear his belief in the value of "all men" and his inclusion of people of color in his definition of humanity.<br />
<blockquote>
"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that--<i>I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.</i>" (<a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25818" target="_blank">1861 - Inaugural Address</a>)</blockquote>
And, President Lincoln’s direct quote of a previous speech brings us back to yet another example of what is obviously a deeply held, and life long, belief in the lie of white supremacy:<br />
<blockquote>
"Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it, and anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. [Laughter.] <b>I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.</b> I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position."<br />
- Abraham Lincoln (<a href="https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate1.htm" target="_blank">First Lincoln Douglas Debate - August 21, 1858 - Ottawa, Illinois</a>)</blockquote>
After President Trump made his vulgar and racist statement regarding immigrants from Africa, a statement that was rooted in his belief in the abhorrent lie of white supremacy, I had my two oldest children read the above speech by another US Politician who deeply believed the same abhorrent lie. Throughout his political career, President Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist. I asked my children read his speech because I did not want them to believe that Donald Trump is the sole root of the problem. President Trump is obviously the most explicit and recent manifestation of the problem. But the abhorrent lie of white supremacy runs much deeper and is far more pervasive than most anyone is willing to admit.<br />
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I understand why so many white politicians hold up Abraham Lincoln as their political hero regarding matters of race. President Lincoln built and left a legacy that is the envy of many politicians. He won the support and admiration of generations of people of color, all the while blatantly, and repeatedly, reassuring his white base of the abhorrent lie that they were indeed the superior race.<br />
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Whether it comes from the vulgar mouth of Donald J. Trump or through the eloquent articulation of Abraham Lincoln, I lament, I weep, I decry, I denounce the pervasive and abhorrent lie of white supremacy.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-67079827996224849012017-12-26T22:26:00.001-05:002017-12-27T10:28:06.108-05:00The Hanging of the Dakota 38 and the Troubling Legacy of Abraham LincolnIn the museum located at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, there is a plaque hanging on the wall which states:<br />
<blockquote>
"I would save the Union. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."</blockquote>
I have stood near this plaque and watched lines of people pass by. Most simply read it and move on. Almost no one pauses or even raises an eyebrow. But when I stop them and point out that this plaque is literally stating that according to Abraham Lincoln "Black Lives Don't Matter," they look at me, turn around, read the plaque again, stare at it in disbelief, shake their heads, and then pull out their cameras to take a picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAhwuTtStCKHInp24ODD84yFUg36mMduzSEDFWouZMxu6MeK8T_I7xm-aA_xVONOz0sztgtTWYvCIFfMiqzaGhvQrVFmxFYDSLrkOlHvDLKU66_YM5EAr2VtUHrVWx9aKIeAOxG-7pm4/s1600/MRC_Dakota38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAhwuTtStCKHInp24ODD84yFUg36mMduzSEDFWouZMxu6MeK8T_I7xm-aA_xVONOz0sztgtTWYvCIFfMiqzaGhvQrVFmxFYDSLrkOlHvDLKU66_YM5EAr2VtUHrVWx9aKIeAOxG-7pm4/s320/MRC_Dakota38.jpg" width="225" /></a>I then educate them on even more troubling history regarding our 16th President.<br />
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On December 26, 1862, the largest mass execution in the history of the United States, the hanging of the Dakota 38, took place, by the order of President Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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In the fall of 1862, after the United States failed to meet its treaty obligations with the Dakota people, several Dakota warriors raided an American settlement, killed 5 settlers and stole some food. This began a period of bloody conflict between some of the Dakota people, the settlers, and the US Military. After more than a month, several hundred of the Dakota warriors surrendered and the rest fled north to what is now Canada. Those who surrendered were quickly tried in military tribunals, and 303 of them were condemned to death.<br />
<blockquote>
"The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status." (<a href="http://usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging" target="_blank">Carol Chomsky</a>)</blockquote>
Because these were military trials, the executions had to be ordered by President Abraham Lincoln.<br />
<br />
Three hundred and three deaths seemed too genocidal for President Lincoln. But he didn't order retrials, even though it has been argued that the trials which took place were a legal sham. Instead he simply modified the criteria of what charges warranted a death sentence. Under his new criteria, only 2 of the Dakota warriors were sentenced to die. That small number seemed too lenient, and President Lincoln was concerned about an uprising by his white American settlers in that area. So for a second time, instead of ordering retrials, he merely changed the criteria of what warranted a death sentence.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, 39 Dakota men were sentenced to die. And on December 26, 1862, by order of President Lincoln, and with nearly 4,000 white American settlers looking on, the largest mass execution in the history of the United States took place. The hanging of the Dakota 38.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMLqJTJvdLYxoZnElQQfUNG4W0wTx-0nwVzos49Bu-gcvOppp66OwsiWxzqJq-lMMCpUTja8GFXrUN0KLPn8LR9u9WwsRzLKUGM_-kUjhXSi6zbRUxZnexILdCz-1LRR56uQw2FZ8Sgo/s1600/MRC_830px-Abraham_Lincoln_November_1863-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="830" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMLqJTJvdLYxoZnElQQfUNG4W0wTx-0nwVzos49Bu-gcvOppp66OwsiWxzqJq-lMMCpUTja8GFXrUN0KLPn8LR9u9WwsRzLKUGM_-kUjhXSi6zbRUxZnexILdCz-1LRR56uQw2FZ8Sgo/s320/MRC_830px-Abraham_Lincoln_November_1863-1.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States during an incredibly tumultuous time. Disappearing were the days when explicit forms of racism, such as the enslavement of African people and the ethnic cleansing of Native people, were socially acceptable. The country was not necessarily growing a conscience, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to continually justify the actions of 'modern' American society that were so blatantly evil and racist.<br />
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And President Lincoln was a product of his time. He did not free the slaves because he believed Black Lives Mattered. Nor did he change the criteria of what warranted a death sentence for the Dakota warriors because he believed Native Lives Mattered. As the quote hanging at the Lincoln Memorial states, he was merely trying to save the Union, an institution with foundations that were written specifically to protect white, land-owning men.<br />
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And when you are the leader of a nation whose Declaration of Independence refers to natives as "merciless Indian savages"… When you are the government official constitutionally responsible for appointing judges to a Supreme Court that uses the dehumanizing Doctrine of Discovery as a legal precedent for land titles… When you are the Commander and Chief of a military that (ultimately) awards 425 Congressional Medals of Honor for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Native peoples… When you are the democratically elected President of a white male supremacist Union whose Constitution specifically excludes natives, and women, and counts Africans as 3/5th human… Then saving that Union comes at a cost…for people of color.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdU2eg8oxlQLB-kPmt4tRPaJGD-5UqH4Gca9hgJtnHKZYIx2tikBHWjDzx4cdHOtl9l0CCvL2XJcdoehuQH00H_KtpVTNvgHMhluwJyUqg9F8tXXNIkghl6Oz_GNWqm7VYAvevoUs3k7M/s1600/MRC_LincolnOnSlavery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="614" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdU2eg8oxlQLB-kPmt4tRPaJGD-5UqH4Gca9hgJtnHKZYIx2tikBHWjDzx4cdHOtl9l0CCvL2XJcdoehuQH00H_KtpVTNvgHMhluwJyUqg9F8tXXNIkghl6Oz_GNWqm7VYAvevoUs3k7M/s320/MRC_LincolnOnSlavery.jpg" width="184" /></a>So you free the slaves but still tell your base that black lives don't matter.<br />
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You reduce a mass execution from 303 to 38 but still trample the human rights of native peoples, and thus keep clear the path for your settlers and your nation to complete its self-proclaimed Manifest Destiny.<br />
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The challenge we face as a country is that we do not understand the fundamental flaws with our foundations. We think our challenges arise from corrupt individuals who we believe trample our values, like Andrew Jackson. And we think we are justified by other individuals who we believe hold true to the values of our foundations, like Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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But the problem is not the individual, the problem is our foundations.<br />
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To this day the United States Constitution contains <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2017/05/09/what-if-we-struck-racism-and-sexism-from-the-constitution/" target="_blank">51 gender specific male</a> pronouns regarding who can run for office, who can hold office and even who is entitled to all privileges and immunities of US citizenship. To this day, we have never completely abolished slavery (the 13th Amendment merely redefines and codifies slavery under the jurisdiction of our criminal justice system). And as recently at 2005 the United States Supreme Court referenced the <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2016/03/doctrine-of-discovery-we-dont-talk-about-that.html" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a> in regards to a legal question of Native American land rights.<br />
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The Unites States of America is not systemically racist and sexist in spite of our foundations. The United States of America is systemically sexist and racist because of our foundations.<br />
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We need a national dialogue on race, gender and class. A conversation on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that took place in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada. I'm calling it Truth and Conciliation, and the goal is 2021.<br />
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Because until we have such a dialogue, we will continue to be a nation that buries its troubling history, like the hanging of the Dakota 38. And we will continue to be a people that holds as heroes Presidents who literally stated, "Black Lives Don't Matter."<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-42156609326139190412017-12-21T00:19:00.001-05:002017-12-21T10:51:55.431-05:00December Nineteenth - An Annual Reminder <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSisXMsuWZsdgkcNYacKPq5IStmqIrXr3D8-KpMZ-6RSdk3ZMweVUQCsP7pZ1wCp0UfzJpuw_-jB6FSSVN4WKw8vNeaxFhVRCqoUlQyeErBnnnnPx8naVKHJNGxyEsNrh1dC4yRvnwi88/s1600/DC19Apology+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSisXMsuWZsdgkcNYacKPq5IStmqIrXr3D8-KpMZ-6RSdk3ZMweVUQCsP7pZ1wCp0UfzJpuw_-jB6FSSVN4WKw8vNeaxFhVRCqoUlQyeErBnnnnPx8naVKHJNGxyEsNrh1dC4yRvnwi88/s320/DC19Apology+008.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Painting by Navajo Artist - Elmer Yazzie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This past Tuesday I tried to have a normal day. I knew it was December 19. I knew that day was the eighth anniversary of House Resolution 3326.<br />
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H.R. 3326 is the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. It was introduced by Senator Sam Brownback (Republican), passed by the US Congress and signed by President Barack Obama (Democrat) on December 19, 2009. It is a 67-page bill laying out the appropriations for the DoD for 2010.<br />
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However, unbeknownst to most people, on page 45 is sub-section 8113 which is titled "<a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2012/12/19/apology-to-native-peoples-of-the-united-states/" target="_blank">Apology to Native Peoples of the United States.</a>"<br />
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What follows is a 7-bullet point apology. This apology mentions no specific tribe, no specific treaty and no specific injustice. It basically says, "you had some nice land, our citizens didn't take it very politely. Let's just call it all of our land, and steward it together." It then ends with a disclaimer stating that nothing contained in this section is legally binding.<br />
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To date, this apology has not been announced, read or publicized by the White House or by Congress.<br />
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I learned about this apology by accident on December 19, 2011 <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2012/03/apology-appropriations-bill-and.html" target="_blank">and was appalled</a>. How could our nation, and our leaders, bury something like this in a Department of Defense Appropriations Bill???<br />
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That day, I committed to do whatever I could to publicize this apology. And on December 19, 2012 I had the privilege of hosting a gathering of approximately 150 friends, partners and fellow citizens. We stood in front of the US Capitol and <a href="http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/19/native-american-apology/" target="_blank">publicly read this apology</a>.<br />
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We read several pages of the sections before the apology (to highlight how inappropriate it was to place this apology in an Defense Appropriations bill).<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3BArcGglXsBOsNYtTt4nqheuFJbiagQjXdPksIkmtFlbjhtLC-1IAfYR4hUIuxiVJbI4FOLy-qklco7W4cE6_lM5X5JDC4HWrjx_-zVBgGtyTIvWKGAI6tV_E7qMeSneSHiYYQG8pB0/s1600/DC19Apology_JimNorthrup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1600" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3BArcGglXsBOsNYtTt4nqheuFJbiagQjXdPksIkmtFlbjhtLC-1IAfYR4hUIuxiVJbI4FOLy-qklco7W4cE6_lM5X5JDC4HWrjx_-zVBgGtyTIvWKGAI6tV_E7qMeSneSHiYYQG8pB0/s320/DC19Apology_JimNorthrup.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim Northrup reading the apology in Ojibwe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We had the apology translated into the languages of Navajo and Ojibwe. This was to model for Congress and the White House, that when you apologize, you not only do it publicly, but you also make EVERY effort to have the apology as accessible and understandable to the offended party as possible.<br />
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We then gave people in the audience an opportunity to react and respond to the apology. Because that's what you do when you apologize. You let the offended party speak.<br />
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I respect President Obama and Governor Brownback. Both men have gone far beyond their predecessors in reaching out to native peoples. And I had hoped and prayed, up until the last moment, that one of them would step forward to take ownership of this apology. I invited them both to attend.<br />
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But unfortunately, they both declined.<br />
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So, in their absence, after the apology was read, and the people had a chance to respond, I stepped forward, took the microphone, and encouraged our native leaders, our communities, and our people to not accept this apology.<br />
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I was not trying to be divisive, nor was I trying to shame these leaders or our nation. But I did have an understanding of the situation and an appreciation for who our audience actually was.<br />
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This event was not about me, nor was it about President Obama, Governor Brownback, or the 111th Congress. This event was about the historic relationship between indigenous peoples and our colonizers throughout the world.<br />
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That morning, in front of the US Capitol, December 19, 2012, our audience was not just the 150 people standing in front of us, nor even the people watching online. That morning our audience was the entire globe. Our audience was history.<br />
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The United States of America is a leader in this world; its words are scrutinized, and its example followed.<br />
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If Native Americans were to accept this apology, in the vague, politicized, disrespectful, and self-protecting way it was given, then we would be condoning our government’s actions and making a model of their methods. We would be communicating to indigenous peoples everywhere that we are still subservient to our colonizers, that we are not their equals, and that we should just be grateful for whatever scraps they bother to throw our way.<br />
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I could not let that message get perpetuated. I have too much respect for myself, for my elders, for my country, and even for our elected officials. So, I took a stand, and encouraged our Native peoples to not accept this apology. Not out of anger, bitterness, or resentment, but out of respect. Native peoples deserve better and our country can do better.<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
It is now 8 years since this apology was given, and 5 years since we publicly read it in front of the US Capitol. But not much has changed.<br />
<br />
President Obama left office without ever publicizing it.<br />
<br />
And President Trump...well, you know...his campaign rhetoric, environmental policies, <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/charlottesville-the-most-egregious-thing-president-trump-said.html" target="_blank">blatant racism</a> and sexism, and his <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honor-of-navajo-code-talkers-and-shame-of-president-trump.html" target="_blank">unabashed love for Andrew Jackson</a>, all speak for themselves.<br />
<br />
To this day, most Americans do not know about this apology. And our nation still has not dealt with its history.<br />
<br />
December 19th is no longer just a normal day. It is an annual reminder. A reminder to not get stuck in anger or resentment. A reminder to press on.<br />
<br />
A reminder that there is much work to be done.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-86913780262719017352017-01-13T20:58:00.001-05:002017-12-19T11:02:56.512-05:00Decoding America's Greatness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgtlo8S1f69p7J4UB1twu8n_MYOLyQVbbVfehJtrE9czPCSMbUFHMxEZSZNwShQ5VUYSxMiDC_t32okGebOr3J_lYFUxIQOCP4fpq6QinDzj88xdv_irRdod4vuZ7x5n37f5AtFt4KVU/s1600/Great_Colonial_Publish_.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgtlo8S1f69p7J4UB1twu8n_MYOLyQVbbVfehJtrE9czPCSMbUFHMxEZSZNwShQ5VUYSxMiDC_t32okGebOr3J_lYFUxIQOCP4fpq6QinDzj88xdv_irRdod4vuZ7x5n37f5AtFt4KVU/s320/Great_Colonial_Publish_.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Great is a word many politicians use to describe our country. In his 2016 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to "Make America Great Again." Hillary Clinton responded by telling her supporters that America has always been great. And Cory Booker, an African American senator from New Jersey, in his endorsement of Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, acknowledged that in our foundations, <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-dilemma-of-fourth-of-july_11.html" target="_blank">Natives are referred to as savages</a>, women are never mentioned and black Americans only counted as 3/5th of a person. But he concluded that section of his speech by saying, "But those facts and other ugly parts of our history don't detract from our nation's greatness."<br />
<br />
So what is their definition of great? Apparently, it is a definition that both Democrats and Republicans agree existed throughout our history. And it seems this "greatness" is not affected by our racism, sexism or bigotry. And somehow, the greatness of our founding documents, which explicitly contain the offensive and exclusive language, is not impacted either.<br />
<br />
So how is America’s greatness defined?<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/great" target="_blank">Oxford Dictionary</a> defines great as "of an extent, amount, or intensity considerably above average." And <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/great" target="_blank">Merriam-Webster</a> defines great as "chief or preeminent over others." Both dictionaries define great in relation or comparison to something or someone else.<br />
<br />
So, comparatively, where is the United States of America great? At what do we excel above all others?<br />
<br />
Perhaps our greatness is found in our democracy? In July 2016, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/jul/11/paul-ryan/paul-ryan-claims-us-oldest-democracy-world-he-righ/" target="_blank">Paul Ryan claimed</a> that the United States was the oldest constitutional democracy in the world. Is that where our greatness lies? Since the end of the most recent election, the Electoral College, a constitutionally-mandated component of our democracy, has come under renewed scrutiny.<br />
<br />
The framers of our constitution faced a challenge; the land encompassing their proposed Union was large and communication was poor. They did not have much confidence that the average citizen could be properly educated on the issues and candidates to make an informed vote. So they proposed that the President be elected through an electoral college. The argument was that a few informed electors could represent the vote of the people in their states as well as act as a safeguard against poor choices based on inadequate information (<a href="http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/" target="_blank">Time – The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists</a>). The framers of the Constitution also argued over how representation in the states should be counted. The south, where 40% of the population was enslaved, wanted to include slaves in the total count (<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/electoral-college-has-been-divisive-day-one-180961171/" target="_blank">Smithsonian – The Electoral College has been divisive since day one</a>). This seemed unfair to the more densely populated north, some of whom did not want to count slaves at all, as they were treated as property (Michael Karlman – The Framers Coup). This disagreement ultimately resulted in the racist compromise which counted black slaves as 3/5th human, and was written into Article I Section II of the United States Constitution.<br />
<br />
Our nation’s continued reliance on an archaic system that is rooted in racism, sexism and economic privilege has resulted in 2 of our last 3 "democratically-elected” Presidents actually being losers of the national popular vote, with our current President-elect, Donald Trump, losing by a whopping 2.86 million votes. That is correct, 2.86 million more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. Yet, because of the way democracy within our Constitutional Republic is expressed, Donald Trump won the election. By any meaningful comparison, our modern-day reliance on the antiquated electoral college cannot seriously be considered an example of great democracy.<br />
<br />
How about our Health care? Doesn’t America have great health care? It may be true that we have some of the top doctors in the world, but our delivery of, and access to, their services seems to be lacking. According to a report by the <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2014/jun/us-health-system-ranks-last" target="_blank">Common Health Fund</a>, “In 2014 the U.S. Health System ranked last among eleven industrialized countries on measures of access, equity, quality, efficiency, and healthy lives.” And according to an article by <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/05/30/no-the-us-doesnt-have-the-best-health-care-system-in-the-world" target="_blank">Hagop Kantarjian</a> in US News and World Reports, the 2013 Institute of Medicine Report “ranks the U.S. near last among 17 high-income nations in several categories ranging from infant mortality and low birth weight to life expectancy.“ Below are several other reports and indexes which also give low rankings to health care in the United States.<br />
<br />
<table border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Organization/Index</th>
<th>Category</th>
<th>USA Ranking</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/press-releases/2010/jun/us-ranks-last-among-seven-countries" target="_blank">Common Wealth Fund</a></td>
<td>Health Care</td>
<td><center>
11/11</center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/u-s-health-care-system-ranks-as-one-of-the-least-efficient" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></td>
<td>Health Care System Efficiency</td>
<td><center>
50/55</center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/" target="_blank">World Health Organization</a></td>
<td>Health Systems</td>
<td><center>
37/192</center>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SPI-2016-Main-Report1.pdf" target="_blank">Social Progress Index</a></td>
<td>Health and Wellness</td>
<td><center>
69/132</center>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
How about Education? Is not education in the United States great? Once again, we may have some of the top educational institutions in the world, but our overall educational system is extremely average or even sub-par. “The most recent PISA results, from 2012, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 35th out of 64 countries in math and 27th in science.” (<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/" target="_blank">Pew Research</a>)</div>
<br />
How about in minimizing violence and ensuring the personal safety of our citizens? Certainly, with our obsession over security, policing and the strength of our military, we must be great at keeping our citizens safe? As it turns out, that is not the case either. According to a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/" target="_blank">CBS News report</a> Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than people in other developed countries.<br />
<br />
Well, how about freedom? Surely the United States of America is great at freedom? President Dwight Eisenhower said “If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.” (<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Dwight_D._Eisenhower" target="_blank">WikiQuote</a>)<br />
<br />
This quote makes it striking that for a country which trumpets its great value for freedom, the United States leads the globe in incarceration rates. According to the <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2016.html" target="_blank">Prison Policy Initiative</a>, the United States incarcerates people at a rate of 693 per 100,000. That is by far the highest incarceration rate in the world, with second place falling to Turkmenistan (583 per 100,000). And the US rate is more than 5 times higher than most other countries.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaRuAhPxIEYKYBNW1ub0NZ4vkrcbd6VPXkI5DZs_ORmiq5zwX5zaydfQaNqGjzkvxGpZKZtexjtZQ2E7lqo1hZTqLg6qZcDEzG5SasmEbQb39lbA0cN-MsJynJcPDyZ37WhFLO0uhIDY/s1600/USA_IncarcerationGlobally.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaRuAhPxIEYKYBNW1ub0NZ4vkrcbd6VPXkI5DZs_ORmiq5zwX5zaydfQaNqGjzkvxGpZKZtexjtZQ2E7lqo1hZTqLg6qZcDEzG5SasmEbQb39lbA0cN-MsJynJcPDyZ37WhFLO0uhIDY/s320/USA_IncarcerationGlobally.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prison Policy Initiative</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Diego Arene-Morley, president of Brown University Students for Sensible Drug Policy said "There are more African-American men in prison, jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850," (<a href="http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2014/dec/07/diego-arene-morley/brown-u-student-leader-more-african-american-men-p/" target="_blank">Politifact</a>)<br />
<ul>
<li>The Census of 1850 showed that 872,924 male African-American slaves over age 15 lived in the United States at that time.* </li>
<li>According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 526,000 African-American men serving time in state or federal correctional facilities in 2013. (That’s 37 percent of the overall 1.5 million imprisoned men.)*</li>
<li>There were 877,000 African-American men on probation in 2013, according to the bureau. And there were 280,000 African-American male parolees.*</li>
<li>In total, there were about 1.68 million African-American men under state and federal criminal justice supervision in 2013, 807,076 more than the number of African-American men who were enslaved in 1850.*<br />(*<a href="http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2014/dec/07/diego-arene-morley/brown-u-student-leader-more-african-american-men-p/" target="_blank">Politifact</a>)</li>
</ul>
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which "abolished" slavery, states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, <b>except as a punishment for crime</b> whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."<br />
<br />
In the United States, incarceration is the new slavery. Making freedom a horrible measure of America's greatness.<br />
<br />
So comparatively, where does our country excel?<br />
<br />
<b>1. Military spending.</b><br />
The <a href="http://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison" target="_blank">Peter G Peterson Foundation</a> reported that at $596 Billion, the United States spends more on military and defense than the next seven countries combined ($567 Billion - China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, UK, India, France, Japan), and according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United States spends nearly as much as the next 14 countries combined. (source: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/09/this-remarkable-chart-shows-how-u-s-defense-spending-dwarfs-the-rest-of-the-world/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>)<b></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFTDc3lzBdM3bOE_Irc1KcHXn0r5xyRF1-gHMSoPDQbXo-mHQi2a1YQfcQGPsT6Ks9J3Ef-ofAv1_3uqJdK7QJcn5JK_4oJyWDIQ7mnu7aT4PJq-HB6HiBhuOXf7C1CiF4maElJOOFuU/s1600/DefenseSpending_PPG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFTDc3lzBdM3bOE_Irc1KcHXn0r5xyRF1-gHMSoPDQbXo-mHQi2a1YQfcQGPsT6Ks9J3Ef-ofAv1_3uqJdK7QJcn5JK_4oJyWDIQ7mnu7aT4PJq-HB6HiBhuOXf7C1CiF4maElJOOFuU/s400/DefenseSpending_PPG.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison" target="_blank"><span id="goog_590038796"></span>Peter G. Peterson Foundation</a><span id="goog_590038797"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There really is nothing left to say. Without a doubt, in comparison, our military spending is great.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Energy and resource consumption.</b><br />
Americans represent 5% of the global population but we consume between 25-30% of the earth’s resources. Based on the Global Footprint Network's report, an article by <a href="http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/sustainable-earth/pictures-ten-countries-with-the-biggest-footprints/#/rio-20-united-nations-country-footprints-new-york-city_53581_600x450.jpg" target="_blank">National Geographic</a> stated "If everyone lived like the average American, the Earth's annual production of resources would be depleted by the end of March."<br />
<br />
It is true, in comparison, the U.S. is one of the greatest at over-consuming the earth’s resources.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Income Inequality</b><br />
Another report by <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/19/global-inequality-how-the-u-s-compares/" target="_blank">Pew Research</a> states "before accounting for taxes and transfers, the U.S. ranked 10th in income inequality. But after taking taxes and transfers into account, the U.S. had the second-highest level of inequality, behind only Chile."<br />
<br />
I think Bernie Sanders was on to something, in comparison; the United States of America is great at income inequality.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Mass Incarceration of Minorities</b><br />
This is another category where the United States of America excels. As stated above, at 693 per 100,000, our national incarceration rate is already 5 times higher than most countries. But those numbers get even worse when broken out by race/ethnicity (<a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/2010rates/US.html" target="_blank">Prison Policy Initiative</a>).<br />
<br />
Blacks....................2,306 per 100,000<br />
Hispanics..................831 per 100,000<br />
American Indians.....895 per 100,000<br />
<br />
Of course, whites in the United States are incarcerated at rates much lower than the national average (450 per 100,000).<br />
<br />
So once again, in comparison, the United States is great at incarcerating its people of color.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVcj6Mlt3tCsXN02zRoNma8F-oGmKqNCsd0o8K0gTIiswsKW2mTjq5wWx3fN_uLoJX-KDgnCN852I8QRSvvIgMzzEhQeawhC_xvP874vMCY3QrJa0UH8oFYQxl2Afkfe8mEIo0UKnZUo/s1600/20160715_101433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzVcj6Mlt3tCsXN02zRoNma8F-oGmKqNCsd0o8K0gTIiswsKW2mTjq5wWx3fN_uLoJX-KDgnCN852I8QRSvvIgMzzEhQeawhC_xvP874vMCY3QrJa0UH8oFYQxl2Afkfe8mEIo0UKnZUo/s320/20160715_101433.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>5. Military Bases on Foreign Soil</b><br />
A 2015 story in <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321" target="_blank">Politico </a>reported that "despite recently closing hundreds of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad—from giant “Little Americas” to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined."<br />
<br />
Yes. Comparatively, the US is great at building military bases on foreign soil.<br />
<br />
<b>Colonialism</b><br />
The United States of America was founded on colonialism. Using a <a href="https://youtu.be/N3oc84aLC-Q" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a>, European nations flocked to the New World to setup colonies for the purpose of exploiting, profiting from and subjecting the people and resources of this continent. Stolen lands, broken treaties, slavery, ethnic cleansing, Jim Crow laws, manifest destiny, Indian removal, massacres, boarding schools, segregation, internment camps, etc. The history of our nation is littered with wars, laws, attitudes and leaders deeply rooted in colonialism.<br />
<br />
The definition of <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/colonialism" target="_blank">colonialism </a>is "the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically."<br />
<br />
Colonialism requires a strong military, both in terms of spending as well as presence. And by definition, a colonial nation will exploit and oppress people (including its own citizens) as well as disproportionately consume resources. The characteristics of colonialism are precisely where the United States of America excels. Our military spending, energy and resource consumption, income inequality, incarceration rates of people of color, and number of military bases on foreign soil, dwarfs the rest of the globe. There is little doubt about it, when politicians refer to America's historical greatness, what they mean is our colonialism.<br />
<br />
Hillary Clinton was right. America has always been colonial.<br />
<br />
Cory Booker was right. The bigotry and racism expressed in our founding documents has not diminished our colonialism in the least.<br />
<br />
And Donald Trump campaigned to be the President who restores all momentum our colonialism may have lost since the Civil Rights Movement and during the 2 terms of our first Black President. Armed with a venomous Twitter account, authoritarian attitudes towards political opponents and news agencies, threats of a renewed nuclear arms race, proposals for punitive and isolating tax and trade policies, and a cabinet with a combined net worth greater than an entire third of American households, Donald Trump is intent to do whatever it takes to make America colonial again.<br />
<br />
But what if we don't want to be colonial?<br />
<br />
Times are changing. Millennials are now the largest voting bloc in the country. They grew up in a world more interconnected and diverse than any generation before them. They are graduating from educational institutions and moving into the work place and broader society. But they are finding long established colonial divisions in regards to race, sexual identity, religion and class that make little sense to them. They are shucking the traditional values of individualism, consumerism, exceptionalism and institutionalized religion that have long been held dear by our nation. Millennials appear less inclined to embrace characteristics of colonialism and seem to lean more towards values of pluralism.<br />
<br />
<b>An antidote to colonialism.</b><br />
<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pluralism" target="_blank">Pluralism </a>is defined as "a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization." Our founding documents contain veiled references to pluralism, but unfortunately, the Founding Fathers had little value for it. Their values were rooted in colonialism.<br />
<br />
In his final State of the Union, President Obama addressed our nation's need for a new politics. He quoted the US Constitution saying, “'We the People.' Our Constitution begins with those three simple words, words we’ve come to recognize mean all the people."<br />
<br />
Now that sounds beautiful, and I truly believe many Americans agree with his statement. But the problem is, as a nation, we have never officially recognized that "We the people" means “all the people.” The Founding Fathers did not believe it. The Civil War and the passing of the 13th and 14th Amendments did not result in our nation recognizing that "We the People" meant “all the people.” The 13th Amendment still condoned types of slavery, and Section II of the 14th Amendment specifically excluded natives and women. Even Abraham Lincoln did not believe “We the people” meant “all the people”, as is evidenced by his quote which is hanging in the museum at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4pcqsn0yLt-AHqL_cmDXjywIFvlajVkznxB92wy7aJRFu8GxbRRcacXlvpepZEbylpVftsESe26ni5F3M6wOo6rPHfIhZHNQNq7Ot4-RZqzMVOIVwfZx8WYIkVSPQ7pUz9yZ7UHk0jtc/s1600/AbeLincoln_BlackLivesDontMatter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4pcqsn0yLt-AHqL_cmDXjywIFvlajVkznxB92wy7aJRFu8GxbRRcacXlvpepZEbylpVftsESe26ni5F3M6wOo6rPHfIhZHNQNq7Ot4-RZqzMVOIVwfZx8WYIkVSPQ7pUz9yZ7UHk0jtc/s320/AbeLincoln_BlackLivesDontMatter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."</blockquote>
Nationally, we have never agreed that "We the People" means “all the people.”<br />
<br />
Our current President-elect Donald Trump, also does not believe it. Throughout his life and during his campaign, Donald Trump has made it very clear that "We the People" does not fully include Muslims, immigrants from the south or women.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWjz7iTeo4pTaPOOTprU6qvDILMYX8gKLsionNdMYB1jBXqmcMySvexxH5zVC2KlIVthJ0Oz-Y8HcW1rK5fTBz3voEdTQV1FlIXxB9y5RnyNRcW-AdDiH7ipn3slkhenB_u0OpoVULSX8/s1600/20170115_142631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWjz7iTeo4pTaPOOTprU6qvDILMYX8gKLsionNdMYB1jBXqmcMySvexxH5zVC2KlIVthJ0Oz-Y8HcW1rK5fTBz3voEdTQV1FlIXxB9y5RnyNRcW-AdDiH7ipn3slkhenB_u0OpoVULSX8/s320/20170115_142631.jpg" width="180" /></a><br />
Our founding documents may contain hints at pluralism, but unfortunately the Founding Fathers had little value for it. Pluralism is not a melting pot, it is a mosaic. The image of a melting pot is a reference to assimilation, making everything like the dominant. A mosaic requires maintaining distinctiveness, appreciating differences, and celebrating diversity.<br />
<br />
Over the next 4 years President Trump will bombard us with his visions for restoring America’s “greatness.” It will sound attractive, but we must remember, comparatively and historically, our country’s greatness is rooted in colonialism.<br />
<br />
We live in a world that every day, through technology, is becoming smaller and more interconnected. And colonialism is not sustainable, nor is it good global citizenship. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently stated, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”<br />
<br />
Perhaps, we can stop nostalgically yearning for, and working to restore, America’s past colonial greatness, and instead focus our attention to simply making our country more humane, more democratic, more equal and more responsible citizens of our increasingly diverse, interconnected and interdependent world.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-28097768219904864592017-12-09T12:43:00.000-05:002017-12-12T16:52:06.081-05:00Lamenting the Lost Hope of Advent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Advent is the season of hope, the season of waiting for the coming of Christ. As Christians we believe that our hope is found in Christ, and that the church, the body of Christ, is God’s chosen instrument of revelation.<br />
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But how do you offer hope when the Church itself is the oppressor? When the Church has committed countless violations in the name of Jesus?<br />
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About 18 months ago I had the honor of visiting an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) elder and dear friend. He was a Vietnam Veteran, an accomplished writer, and a boarding school survivor. Boarding schools were a forced assimilation tactic employed by the US Government and American Churches in their ongoing efforts to “kill the Indian to save the man.” My friend had been diagnosed with cancer and had only a few months to live. He and his wife decided that his limited days would be spent cherishing every moment and relationship. After a long journey, I arrived at his house to spend a few hours with him. In his weakened state he did not have the energy for prolonged visits, and most of our time was spent sitting on his porch, with me listening to his stories.<br />
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Over our years of friendship, I heard a trickle of his stories, but that afternoon the dam broke, and his stories came flooding out. And they were gut wrenching. Stories about how he "converted" to Christianity in the boarding school, not because he liked Jesus but because he learned that students who said, "the prayer" were given bigger portions at dinner. Stories about how the school used cigarettes to manipulate the behavior of the young native students. Stories about the suicide attempts of family members, the strict punishments by the boarding school administrators, and, worst of all, the sex education he received, in the form of statutory rape, from one of his teachers at this church-run boarding school.<br />
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I had heard stories like his before from second and third-hand sources. I had read stories like his before, of people I did not know. But that afternoon, the firsthand stories of my friend shook me. He was not angry, nor was he bitter. But he was honest. Brutally honest. And there were no words. There was nothing I could say. He was trying to make peace with his past and was deeply wrestling with his pending death. And there was nothing I could say. He knew I was a Christian, but he was not looking for Christ. Nor did I know how to offer Christ. So, we sat there. I listened. I hugged him. And we said our good byes. He died a few months later.<br />
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How do you offer hope when the Church itself is the oppressor? When the Church has committed unspeakable violations in the name of Jesus?<br />
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I don’t know, but I believe it begins with lament. And this Advent Season I invite the Church to join me.<br />
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<b>All of us have become like one who is unclean,</b></div>
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<b>and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;</b></div>
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<b>we all shrivel up like a leaf,</b></div>
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<b>and like the wind our sins sweep us away.</b></div>
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<b>Isaiah 64:6</b></div>
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Mark Charles</div>
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(Navajo)<br />
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This reflection was first published on "<a href="http://mailchi.mp/3b543614ff40/december-8-mark-charles" target="_blank">Keep Watch with Me - A Daily Advent Reader for Peacemakers.</a>"</div>
Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-78628755842276494722017-11-28T14:30:00.002-05:002017-11-28T14:30:19.629-05:00The Honor of the Navajo Code Talkers and the Shame of President Donald J. Trump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am ashamed of President Donald J. Trump.</div>
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On Monday, November 27, at an event honoring the Navajo Code
Talkers, President Trump took the name of a well-respected and loved historic
figure from the Native community, Pocahontas, and used it as a racial slur in
his ongoing and adolescent attacks on U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Let me
repeat that, in a speech meant to honor an incredible group of men, who not
only used their sacred language to help the United States of America win a war,
but many of whom are also boarding school survivors, who as young children endured
the pain of having the US Government literally attempt to beat their language
out of them in an effort to "kill the Indian to save the man." These
men endured those beatings. They held on to their language. And less than a
decade later they used that language to save the United States of America. And
President Trump could not muster the self-control to hold his tongue long
enough to honor their service.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On top of that, it is well a known fact that Donald Trump
considers Andrew Jackson to be one of his heroes. On March 15, 2017, President
Trump visited the Hermitage and, in honor of Jacksons 250<sup>th</sup>
birthday, laid a wreath at his tomb. In his speech commemorating the occasion,
President Trump referred to our seventh President as "the very great
Andrew Jackson...[who] was one of our great Presidents." And he concluded
his speech by thanking Andrew Jackson for his service and committing to build
on his legacy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But Andrew Jackson was a slave owner and his legacy as
President was the ethnic cleansing and removal of American Indians. President Jackson pushed for and signed the
Indian Removal Act. This was the act which allowed the US Army, in practice, to
forcibly remove native tribes from lands in the east to empty lands further in
the west. This resulted in the Trail of Tears for the Choctaw, the Chickasaw
and the Cherokee, as well as the Long Walk for the Navajo and the Pueblo. All
told, about a dozen tribes experienced forced relocation due to the Indian
Removal Act and tens of thousands of native people died as a direct result of
this Act. At the Hermitage, President Trump attempted to dismiss this horrific
history by calling Andrew Jackson “a product of his time.” That explanation may
work to excuse an elderly grandparent who makes a racially insensitive remark
at a dinner party. But it does not excuse a US President who knowingly and
intentionally enacted a policy of removal and ethnic cleansing against an
entire race of people. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And if you look at the picture of President Trump standing
with the Navajo Code Talkers in the Oval Office, you can see very clearly in
the background a portrait of Andrew Jackson.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am ashamed of President Donald J. Trump.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Long Walk occurred in the early 1860s. That is a mere 60
to 70 years before these Code Talkers were born. It was their grandparents
whose crops, livestock and homes the US army destroyed as they rounded up the
Navajo people to forcibly march us to Fort Sumner. It was their great-grandparents
who the soldiers shot along the way. It was their elders who died of
exhaustion, exposure, malnutrition and other unspeakable war crimes as the
United States of America worked tirelessly to complete its self-proclaimed
manifest destiny. The amount of pain, suffering, torture and dehumanization
that the men who stood before President Trump endured, not for their country,
but by their country, is beyond imagination.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And President Donald J. Trump could not hold his tongue. He
could not find the courtesy to conduct the ceremony in a different location
beyond the genocidal gaze of the seventh President of the United States. And he
could not control his incessant need to keep the spotlight on himself, no
matter what the context, or who his audience. <o:p></o:p></div>
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President Trump’s words and actions clearly demonstrated
that he does not honor the immense sacrifice and incredible service of the
Navajo Code Talkers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I am not primarily angry, nor am I foremost disappointed, for
both of those emotions would require me to have higher expectations of
President Trump. No, I am ashamed. Ashamed that the United States of America
has a President who conducts himself as a man who has no honor, no
self-respect, and no relatives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<o:p></o:p></div>
Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-33411036073947183672017-10-03T11:21:00.002-04:002017-10-03T11:21:39.942-04:00A Native Perspective on Monday Night Football and the Las Vegas Shooting<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrd483YB-swTeqBoYplFHS9eYim2j5LnUVanN0RePNjGdFA5RNF19MoLSOsEV6M6THd-eqBWRJuXTP6D0xiBD-ESRQ4x77UZsLuVmeJkLweTrvtxLdwjRHoGJa-CHNdPjROBQGiamwgQU/s1600/protest-at-kc-768x516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="768" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrd483YB-swTeqBoYplFHS9eYim2j5LnUVanN0RePNjGdFA5RNF19MoLSOsEV6M6THd-eqBWRJuXTP6D0xiBD-ESRQ4x77UZsLuVmeJkLweTrvtxLdwjRHoGJa-CHNdPjROBQGiamwgQU/s320/protest-at-kc-768x516.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Rhoda LeValdo</td></tr>
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Last night on ABC/ESPN Monday Night Football, the visiting team came out of the tunnel with a racist mascot on their jerseys and helmets, and mere minutes after the playing of the National Anthem, the host team's fans were still on their feet, mimicking the throwing of tomahawks and singing some sort of pathetic war whoop. Both team’s owners seemed fine with it. No one in the broadcast booth said anything. President Trump declined to tweet about it. And all the sponsors and advertisers like GMC, Geico, Applebee's, several beer companies and many other mainstream corporations (both foreign and domestic) shamelessly hawked their wares throughout the entire event.<br />
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This all happened less than 24 hours after a white man (Stephen Paddock) shot his, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/two-nevada-gun-shops-say-stephen-paddock-passed-background-checks-n806921" target="_blank">legally purchased</a>, fully automatic weapon into a crowd of people. Killing 58 in a horribly evil and incredibly tragic event in Las Vegas. But earlier in the broadcast, just prior to a moment of silence being observed, ABC/ESPN announcer Sean McDonough repeated a lie that many news organizations had been reporting throughout the day. That this shooting was the "deadliest mass shooting US history." Apparently, they forgot about the massacre at Wounded Knee, which left 350 dead, or the massacre at Sand Creek which killed nearly 200 men, women, and children from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Or perhaps they only meant massacres for which the U.S. Congress DID NOT award Congressional Medals of Honor.<br />
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On top of that, according to the broadcast, only one person (KC player Marcus Peters) did not stand during the playing of the National Anthem before this game. Unless you count me. That raised the count to a grand total of 2. Perhaps there were more. I hope there were more. But it was striking that less than a week removed from one of the largest stands of solidarity against racism the NFL has ever seen, and now at a game where both teams blatantly represented the implicit racial bias the league has against indigenous people, the cameras caught only one person protesting.<br />
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My mother is American of Dutch heritage, and I'm proud to be an American, but I lament much of our nation's history. My father is Navajo, from the Waters that flow together people and the Bitter Water clan. And I'm proud to be Navajo. The unspoken history of this country says that these two sides are fundamentally incompatible. I'm expected to stand for the honoring of a flag that literally represents a history of genocide against indigenous people. And then I must sit silently during a game where both teams, and their fans, openly mock and belittle native people.<br />
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But I don't believe being both Native and American are incompatible. The problem is our country doesn't know it's history. The United States of America has a memory problem, we also have a race problem, a gender problem, a class problem and, most definitely, we have a gun problem. Therefore, I'm determined to do what I can to teach our history accurately and help create a common memory. Because unless we address these problems head on we're going to destroy ourselves.<br />
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George Erasmus, an Aboriginal leader from Canada, says, “Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.”<br />
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I'm convinced that the United States of America needs a national dialogue regarding our history. A dialogue on par with the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that took place in South Africa, Rwanda and Canada. Beginning this week and over the next several weeks I will be traveling to Tennessee, Michigan, Washington DC, Arizona, Virginia, California, Alaska, Connecticut, and New Mexico. I will be speaking about the <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2016/10/12/683/" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a>, teaching American history, and inviting my fellow citizens to join me in initiating this dialogue. A national Truth and Conciliation Commission that I call #TCC2021.<br />
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Until we understand and acknowledge the racist and sexist history that our flag stood for, we will not be able to transform it into a reality that all Americans can stand for.<br />
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Mark CharlesMark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-52745571993107072172017-09-23T15:03:00.002-04:002017-09-23T16:09:44.882-04:00My Twitter Thread responding to @RealDonaldTrump for calling #ColinKaepernick a Son of a B*tch for kneeling in protest during National Anthem.On Friday President Trump was speaking at a political rally for Luther Strange in Alabama. During the rally he called Colin Kaepernick a "Son of a B*tch" because of his practice of kneeling in protest during the National Anthem. President Trump went on to state that any NFL player who kneels during the National Anthem should be fired by the NFL team owners. On Saturday, President Trump reiterated his statements on Twitter.<br />
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I travel throughout the country speaking about the Doctrine of Discovery and its racist and dehumanizing influence on the foundations of the United States of America. Over the past several years I have spoken to thousands of people, but I do not know how to get an audience with President Trump to speak with him about this history. So I decided to address him using his preferred method of communication. Twitter. I composed a thread of 36 tweets. This thread is my attempt to educate him on the Doctrine of Discovery and the work that needs to be done on our foundations. I welcome you read the thread. Some of the tweets are embedded in this post, some are shared as graphics and some are simply printed as text. You can also read the entire thread on Twitter by clicking on the embedded Tweet below. And if you feel so inclined, please re-tweet any of them. Who knows, we just might get his attention.<br />
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Mr. President (<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS">@POTUS</a>), at a rally in Alabama you called <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ColinKaepernick?src=hash">#ColinKaepernick</a> a 'Son of a B-' b/c he kneels in protest during National Anthem.</div>
— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan/status/911627128302718977">September 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
You state that you are not racist. So, giving you the benefit of the doubt, I must conclude you are unaware of our nations true history.<br />
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Please allow me to share with you a Native Perspective on American history and the Doctrine of Discovery.<br />
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Doctrine of Discovery was written 1452-93 by Church in Europe & used in US to justify white supremacy, slavery, stealing land, & genocide. <a href="https://t.co/Aj0aL1jV88">pic.twitter.com/Aj0aL1jV88</a></div>
— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan/status/911627477524598784">September 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
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The founding fathers embedded the Doctrine of Discovery deep into US Foundations (I.e. Declaration of Independence, Constitution & SCOTUS)<br />
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Making it very clear that the only reason founding fathers used inclusive term All men is b/c they had a very narrow definition of humanity.<br />
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Article 1 Sec. 2 of US Constitution excludes women & natives, it counts black people as 3/5th human. This only leaves white men.<br />
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The purpose of the US Constitution is to protect the interests of white, land owning, men (in 1776 only land owners could vote).<br />
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<br />
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment extends rights of citizenship to anyone born here under the jurisdiction of the govt.<br />
<br />
But Section 2 still excludes women & natives and places the full rights of citizenship under jurisdiction of criminal justice system.<br />
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To this day, US Constitution contains 52 gender specific, male pronouns re: who can run for and hold public office or even is a citizen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYSqOmDOFL2mZaqNhlNbPqkYGhsE-Y3rcCkjRR-QCpRPybgK2WK_MlY4nJPQSIzVyEPd8H5v0p41KCEv174iewW480WwJBQuxddnG5f-jKbuzO3xuJ0ICxx8X9OpmSNMuv7Gn_TCdpOE/s1600/7+-+SCOTUS+JvM+Twitter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1000" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTYSqOmDOFL2mZaqNhlNbPqkYGhsE-Y3rcCkjRR-QCpRPybgK2WK_MlY4nJPQSIzVyEPd8H5v0p41KCEv174iewW480WwJBQuxddnG5f-jKbuzO3xuJ0ICxx8X9OpmSNMuv7Gn_TCdpOE/s640/7+-+SCOTUS+JvM+Twitter.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
Marshall SCOTUS also references Doctrine of Discovery & rules natives only have right of occupancy while whites have the right of discovery.<br />
<br />
This legal precedent and Doctrine of Discovery are referenced by SCOTUS again in 1954, 1985 and 2005.<br />
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In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed Indian Removal Act which results in Trail of Tears, Long Walk & deaths of tens of thousands of indigenous people.<br />
<br />
19th century is filled with numerous massacres like Sand Creek in CO and Wounded Knee in SD.<br />
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Between 1839 and 1898 US Congress awards 425 Congressional Medals of Honor to US soldiers for ethnic cleansing of Turtle Island.<br />
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<br />
This is a hard fact to swallow, so here is the link to the recipients listed on US Army Center of Military History.<br />
<a href="http://www.history.army.mil/moh/indianwars.html">http://www.history.army.mil/moh/indianwars.html</a><br />
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<br />
Mr. President (@potus), The question is not "Why is Colin Kaepernick kneeling in protest?" The question is "Why aren't you?"<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Our nation is at a crossroads. We can either choose to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash">#MAGA</a> and solidify our nations historic and systemic racism and sexism...</div>
— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan/status/911630841930973184">September 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Or we can commit ourselves to working hard to make the USA a nation where we the people finally means all the people.<br />
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Colin Kaepernick is respectfully kneeling in protest, doing his part to draw attention to the deep seeded racial problems that we face.<br />
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And you called him a “Son of a b-“ and said any NFL player who also kneels in protest should be fired by NFL.<br />
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When you are President of a nation that is systemically racist & sexist and you seek to silence the voices of those working for change…<br />
<br />
you are either willfully ignorant or, blatantly sexist and white supremacist.<br />
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I tagged you in this thread so the prior will no longer be an excuse. But our nation needs you to decide…<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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As for me, I kneel with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ColinKaepernick?src=hash">#ColinKaepernick</a>, I stand with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BLM?src=hash">#BLM</a>, I protest with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dreamers?src=hash">#Dreamers</a> & I share wisdom of my native elders/relatives <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/noDAPL?src=hash">#noDAPL</a> <a href="https://t.co/YsgRQytDCK">pic.twitter.com/YsgRQytDCK</a></div>
— Mark Charles (@wirelesshogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/wirelesshogan/status/911634476605825024">September 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
The USA needs a national dialogue on race, gender and class. A Truth and Conciliation Commission on par w/ ZA, RW & CA. I call it #TCC2021<br />
<br />
Respectfully,<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />
And if you have a change of heart, my good friend <a href="https://twitter.com/LeroyBarber" target="_blank">@LeroyBarber</a> is hosting a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NFLKneelDown" target="_blank">#NFLKneelDown</a> protest in Detroit, Oct 8.<br />
<a href="http://nflkneeldown.com/">http://nflkneeldown.com/</a>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-12612312185664343732017-08-20T15:15:00.001-04:002017-08-21T11:35:05.267-04:00The Most Egregious Thing President Trump Said Last Week<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWx-PS4K_1kXXODMJ5tuMG9OWfSzs09zmaxcLIsdWndsvHu_JFsupJ9i7CbH7dxiDbataq8Fr2FhfIOEm4CPFiqkSgSbFjHpmns2ReKu1-4G36rNWdVRuPTaIjGC8M5bpXp24D_ZWtk4/s1600/StatementOnKKK_3.png" style="display: none;" />
Even in terms of the Trump Presidency, last week was a doozy.<br />
<br />
Even coming off the week prior, when President Trump threatened, on Twitter nonetheless, the citizens of North Korea with <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-call-for-president-trump-to-resign-indiscriminate-attacks.html" target="_blank">nuclear annihilation</a>, last week was a doozy. Even for a President who campaigned to the alt-right, hired a few of them as his advisers, and filled a majority of his cabinet with spineless white, land-owning <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-meeting/index.html" target="_blank">yes-men</a>, last week was a doozy. <br />
<br />
After a horrific Saturday, which saw the murder of a female counter-protester at a rally of white nationalists and white supremacists waving Confederate and Nazi flags, President Trump refused, on Sunday, to call out these vile and explicit public displays of racism and hatred. Instead, he merely condemned violence, and ultimately cast blame on "all sides." But those were not the most egregious words spoken by President Trump last week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL87i0RU9IBHSAYApqWCfKKLr20l9MdBPgx7-7Dq8MzXqiU50C425Oeex4M2xX5AcJOiiPgEosTrjvFCUambiwszefDgwM9CDwCCNfalE-6BbIpycUesclPnvPj2M6iLrE_TT6Xm1UdY4/s1600/TrumpTrain.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="614" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL87i0RU9IBHSAYApqWCfKKLr20l9MdBPgx7-7Dq8MzXqiU50C425Oeex4M2xX5AcJOiiPgEosTrjvFCUambiwszefDgwM9CDwCCNfalE-6BbIpycUesclPnvPj2M6iLrE_TT6Xm1UdY4/s320/TrumpTrain.png" width="320" /></a></div>
On Tuesday, President Trump began his day early by passive-aggressively using Twitter to lash out at his opponents, re-tweeting, among other things, an image of a news reporter from CNN seemingly being hit by a Trump train. An eerie, childlike and reckless re-tweet coming just 3 days after a white terrorists ruthlessly murdered Heather Heyer, a female counter-protester, by running her over with a vehicle. This was a tweet (later deleted) which caused myself and probably many others to wonder exactly where did President Trump fantasize he could have been on Saturday had he not had to worry about the secret service and other confining restraints of the office of POTUS. But that was not the most egregious thing President Trump said last week.<br />
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Later that same Tuesday, during a news conference that was supposed to be about infrastructure, President Trump, in response to questions about Charlottesville and racism, lost his composure. He went very far off script and once again blamed the violence on both sides, which he now termed the alt-right and the alt-left. But even these unscripted and from-the-heart words, which left the nation and the world flabbergasted, were not the most egregious words President Trump spoke last week.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWx-PS4K_1kXXODMJ5tuMG9OWfSzs09zmaxcLIsdWndsvHu_JFsupJ9i7CbH7dxiDbataq8Fr2FhfIOEm4CPFiqkSgSbFjHpmns2ReKu1-4G36rNWdVRuPTaIjGC8M5bpXp24D_ZWtk4/s1600/StatementOnKKK_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1306" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWx-PS4K_1kXXODMJ5tuMG9OWfSzs09zmaxcLIsdWndsvHu_JFsupJ9i7CbH7dxiDbataq8Fr2FhfIOEm4CPFiqkSgSbFjHpmns2ReKu1-4G36rNWdVRuPTaIjGC8M5bpXp24D_ZWtk4/s320/StatementOnKKK_3.png" width="320" /></a>Even when he was ‘good’ and simply read the script given to him by his advisers, President Trump’s words missed the mark. After being raked over the coals by US citizens, social media, the regular media, other politicians (including those from his own party), and the global community for his tepid response over the weekend, President Trump came out on Monday like a chastened child being forced by his parents to apologize for an act he clearly felt deserved no condemnation. He carefully read the statement crafted for him by his staff and advisers and took no questions. <br />
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In his remarks, President Trump called out racism and hatred. That was good. He labeled as repugnant the KKK and white supremacists. That was also good. Two for two. President Trump was on a roll. If only he had stopped there. If only he had ended his remarks with those two condemnations. But he didn't. He over-reached. President Trump tried to be a political healer and as a result he repeated the destructive and damaging rhetoric that all politicians, from both parties, use when they want to unite this nation. He repeated the lie of American exceptionalism.<br />
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"We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator, we are equal under the law, and we are equal under our Constitution."<br />
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This lie is smooth because it repeats a sentiment that Americans want to believe about ourselves. We want to think that we are a nation founded on the "truth that all of us are created equal.” We want to believe that we are all equal under the law and under our Constitution. But that is not even close to what the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution intended to communicate. Many of the founding fathers were white supremacists, and nearly all of them were white nationalists. They largely envisioned a racially homogeneous country where white men ruled over subservient women and people of color.<br />
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Many of the founding fathers owned slaves, they participated in the ethnic cleansing of natives, they broke treaties, they stole land. They were quickly becoming enamored with talk of Manifest Destiny. In their Declaration of Independence, they <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-declaration-of-independence-its-not-what-you-think.html" target="_blank">labeled natives as savages</a>. And in their Constitution, they never mentioned women, they specifically excluded natives and they all agreed to count Africans as 3/5th of a person.<br />
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Even when they tried to fix it, they didn’t. The 13th Amendment doesn’t actually abolish slavery. And the 14th Amendment still specifically excluded women and natives. Even today, the legal precedent for land titles is based on the dehumanizing <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2014/12/doctrine-of-discovery.html" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a> and the <a href="https://wirelesshogan.com/2017/05/09/what-if-we-struck-racism-and-sexism-from-the-constitution/" target="_blank">Constitution </a>is still peppered with 51 gender-specific, male pronouns in regard to who can be President, run for (or hold) office and, is a citizen.<br />
<br />
But his appeals to the mythology of American exceptionalism were still not the most egregious words President Trump spoke last week. That prize is reserved for this statement: "Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America."<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLtYwGEkKL_cLm2ERk7CajWxKsjrI4PIVkljHLXYuOgEg8c4McUm7lDviMxNnzY4CrMgCIqBAfBeEulsPw-uTgAEaP7S8c8g0p6D8A9IJMgGOJJvCVbyFGVa1o4lzEEsVqvzDK4pU37U/s1600/Charlottesville_-Unite_the_Right-_Rally_%252835780274914%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Alt-right members preparing to enter Emancipation Park holding Nazi, Confederate, and Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flags." border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLtYwGEkKL_cLm2ERk7CajWxKsjrI4PIVkljHLXYuOgEg8c4McUm7lDviMxNnzY4CrMgCIqBAfBeEulsPw-uTgAEaP7S8c8g0p6D8A9IJMgGOJJvCVbyFGVa1o4lzEEsVqvzDK4pU37U/s320/Charlottesville_-Unite_the_Right-_Rally_%252835780274914%2529.jpg" title="Charlottesville_-Unite_the_Right-_Rally_(35780274914) (Anthony Crider)" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">Photo by Anthony Crider</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
How dare President Trump state such an egregious lie! He campaigned to that bigotry. He exacerbated violence. It was the alt-right, white nationalists, and white supremacists who got him elected. And President Trump knows that. He rose to political prominence riding the racist waves of the birther movement. He boasted that he was the only one able to publicly humiliate the first African American President of the United States by forcing him to show his birth certificate on the global stage.<br />
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At his first campaign event, Donald Trump labeled immigrants from Mexico as rapists and murders. Throughout his campaign he continually demeaned and objectified women. He rallied his base by promising a Muslim ban. Before a conservative Christian audience at Dordt College in Sioux Center Iowa, he boasted that he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue (NYC) and shoot somebody and still not lose voters. He was even caught on a hot mike mentoring a younger, white land-owning male, that celebrity and status gives the right to sexually assault women.<br />
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President Trump is so dependent upon the support of the alt-right that in 2016, after he was <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-problem-republican-party-has-with-donald-trump.html" target="_blank">endorsed by David Duke</a>, the former grand marshal of the KKK, he stumbled and took his time to condemn such groups and their racism. And David Duke remembers that, because, last week, after President Trump tweeted "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one!" David Duke (whose Twitter account has since been suspended) rebuked him by tweeting, "I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the Presidency, not radical leftists."<br />
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<br />
Donald Trump fanned the flames of bigotry, intolerance, violence, hatred and racism. He knows our country is conflicted. He sees our racial, gender and religious divides. And as a businessman, turned reality TV celebrity, he made a calculated bet that he could use those divides to further elevate his brand and financially line his pockets. But his calculations were off. All Donald Trump wanted to do was feed his ego and enrich himself. He never wanted to become President. But he egregiously underestimated how alive and well racism, hatred and intolerance is in our country. And I believe he resents the fact that every morning he is reminded of his miscalculation, when he wakes up still confined to the Office of President of the United States of America. Because embracing bigoty, racism, sexism, hatred, and intolerance did something that Donald J. Trump never expected. It propelled him all the way to the White House.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Authors Note</b>: For the past six months I have mostly occupied a place of sorrow and lament, but am slowly moving towards a space of intentional, non-violent and prayerful action. I began to make that move about 10 days ago with two articles calling for President Trump to resign (re: <a href="https://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-call-for-president-trump-to-resign-indiscriminate-attacks.html" target="_blank">Indiscriminate Attacks</a> and <a href="https://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-call-for-president-trump-to-resign-christendom.html" target="_blank">Christendom</a>). And I am continuing that transition today with this article calling out the explicit racism and hatred that we have been witnessing for the past two years. I am convinced that Donald Trump is not fit for the Office of President of the United States and invite you to pray with me that God will give him the courage he needs to resign.</span></i><br />
<br />Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-59858601031048833512017-08-11T16:31:00.005-04:002017-08-12T08:00:20.144-04:00A Call for President Trump to Resign (2 of 2): The Destructive Role of ChristendomThroughout its history, the United States of America has considered itself to be an extension of a medieval institution known as Christendom. And it has continuously, and eagerly, engaged in religious warfare. Christendom is the prostitution of the Christian Church to the empires of the world. A plain text reading of the New Testament books of the Bible, especially the four Gospels, make it abundantly clear that Jesus did not come to earth to create, or even restore, <a href="https://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/07/where-augustine-goes-off-rails.html" target="_blank">an imperial religious state</a>. He came to make disciples, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and to care for the poor. And ultimately, he came to willingly surrender his life and die on a cross so that the entire human race might have an opportunity for restored relationship with Creator. Jesus both stated and demonstrated throughout his life that “his kingdom was not of this earth.”<br />
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In the fourth century, Constantine became Emperor, converted to Christianity and decided to “Christianize” Rome. In direct contrast to the teachings of Jesus, Constantine created a Christian Empire, known as Christendom. In the fifth century, Augustine of Hippo (later Saint Augustine) wrote, regarding the role of a Christian King in a Christian Empire, that “he serves Him (the LORD) by enforcing with suitable rigor such laws as ordain what is righteous, and punish what is the reverse.” Augustine also concludes that the subjects of a Christian King, when necessary, could be led to worship God after “being first compelled by fear or pain.” In the thirteenth Century, the theologian Thomas Aquinas, concludes that if the state has the right to execute people who forge money “and other evil doers”, how “much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.”<br />
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And that is Christendom. A heretical Christian state that considers itself empowered and sanctioned by God to use the resources of the state, through fear and pain to compel people to worship, and if necessary, to execute those who believe falsely.<br />
<br />
It was this type of heresy that led to the writing of the Doctrine of Discovery by the Catholic Church in the 15th Century. The Doctrine of Discovery is essentially the church saying to the nations of Christendom, wherever you go, whatever lands you find not ruled by white, European, Christian rulers, those people are less than human and the land is yours for the taking. This was the Doctrine that justified Europe’s colonization of Africa and the enslavement of the African people. They did not believe the Africans to be human. This was also the Doctrine that allowed the nations of Europe to claim the right of “discovery” over Turtle Island (later known as the Americas). If you think about it, you cannot discover lands already inhabited, unless you consider the people who are there to be sub-human.<br />
<br />
It was the heretical belief in Christendom that led United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall to reference the <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2014/12/doctrine-of-discovery.html" target="_blank">Doctrine of Discovery</a> as a legal instrument when writing the ruling, that later became the legal precedent of land titles, in the case Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823). This case distinguished the difference between Aboriginal Title, otherwise known as the right of occupancy which SCOTUS concluded is held by indigenous people, and Fee Title, otherwise known as the right of discovery, which the court ruled, is the absolute title to the land and belongs solely to white European “Christian” nations. This precedent, and the Doctrine of Discovery were referenced by the United States Supreme Court as recently as 1954, 1985 and 2005.<br />
<br />
It was the heretical belief in Christendom that allowed John Winthrop in 1630 to co-opt the narrative of Old Testament Israel and claim that the Christian colonists were in the New World to establish a “City on a Hill.” He then went on to imply that the lands of the Americas were their promised land. For white Americans, this re-appropriation of the identity of the people of Israel is critical, because it is the theology of Promised Lands that, according to commands of God in Deuteronomy and Joshua, orders and even sanctifies oppression and genocide. This is what morally paved the way for the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples from the continent of North America. For Christendom, Manifest Destiny is simply god-ordained genocide.<br />
<br />
And President Trump, along with most of the Christian right, believe adamantly in the heresy of Christendom. This is how he campaigned on a theme of religious liberty, while simultaneously promising a “Muslim Ban.” President Trump, and many Americans Christians, do not believe in, or even want, religious liberty. They desire Christian liberty. They don’t want just any prayer in school, they want Christian prayer in school. They don’t want a law that allows an LGBTQ baker to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a “Christian” wedding, but they will fight adamantly for the right of a “Christian” bakery to refuse to bake a cake for the wedding of an LGBTQ couple.<br />
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After the terrorist attack in London last March, Clay Higgins, the Republican Congressional Representative from the third District in the state of Louisiana posted this in his public Facebook wall:<br />
<blockquote>
“The free world... all of Christendom... is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”</blockquote>
Again, these are the words of a “Christian” United States Congressmen from the state of Louisiana in the year 2017.<br />
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On Monday of this week, after President Trump threatened North Korea with an attack of “fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before." And then followed up that threat with a tweet stating that “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely…” Robert James Jeffress Jr., a white evangelical Southern Baptist pastor from Texas, who has been a longtime supporter of President Trump and serves as an Evangelical adviser to POTUS, stated that "in the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un."<br />
<br />
I call on Donald Trump to resign as President of the United States of America. According to the teachings of Jesus, upon which the Christian Church is based, there is no such thing as Christendom. The heresy of Christendom is just as dangerous, and as threatening, to global security as that of ISIS and other radical religious extremism. The world does not want, nor does it need, another radicalized religious zealot with a short temper and an itchy finger on the trigger of a nuclear arsenal that is “locked and loaded”.<br />
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Religious wars suck. Religious wars have no rules. And religious wars bring out the absolute worst in humanity. Religious wars are not Christian, nor are they Muslim. Religious wars, whether fought by ISIS or Christendom, are nothing more than the justified and “sanctified” destruction of the enemies of one’s god based on the heretical interpretations of their founder’s teachings. And damned is anyone who gets in the way.<br />
<br />
I do not deny that the rogue nation of North Korea is an international threat that needs to be addressed. But I am certain that the solution to this problem will not come from any nation, or leader, who feels that they alone are fighting in the name, and the authority, of God. War is horrible, and at times, perhaps, maybe even necessary. But it should never be sanctioned by religious leaders. The church, the mosque, the religious, should always call for peace and be the prophetic thorn in the side of politicians, generals and other leaders, who, from time to time, may need to make the regrettable and lamentable decision of humbly and sorrowfully resorting to military warfare and violence to resolve conflict. But war should never be celebrated. The ability to destroy should never be flaunted. And the violence, the killing, and the horror of our unresolvable disagreements should never, ever, be religiously sanctified. <br />
<br />
After months of observation and long periods of lament, I have concluded that the sincerest prayer I can, and do, pray for President Trump is that he will have the courage to resign. I honestly do not believe that holding the office of President of the United States is healthy for him, our nation, or the world.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />
Also see: <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-call-for-president-trump-to-resign-indiscriminate-attacks.html" target="_blank">A Call for President Trump to Resign (1 of 2): Indiscriminate Attacks</a>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-83390047591958121322017-08-11T16:09:00.001-04:002017-08-12T07:23:26.526-04:00A Call for President Trump to Resign (1 of 2): Indiscriminate Attacks The United States of America has a history of extreme, indiscriminate, military violence resulting in the mass killing of civilians. This is most evident when our country feels threatened, provoked or attacked. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the US Military base in Hawaii. This attack killed a total of 2,403 people, of which 68 were civilians. Between January 1944 and August 1945, the United States firebombed the nation of Japan targeting some if its most populous cities. This included Operation Meetinghouse, a massive bombing raid of Tokyo that left 100,000 people dead. And of course, the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed another 120,000 people. The targets of these bombing raids were not specifically military nor were they precise and therefore most of the causalities were civilian. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) defines <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule12" target="_blank">Indiscriminate attacks</a> as those “of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.”<br />
<br />
By precisely attacking Pearl Harbor, a military target, Japan limited the number of civilian deaths to 68. Three years later, the United States of America retaliated with a 20-month bombing campaign that can only be categorized as "Indiscriminate.” How can I say this with such certainty? Because had Japan dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Honolulu and Los Angeles and firebombed Chicago or New York, there would be no debate, academic, intellectual or otherwise. Such bombings would most definitely be categorized as "Indiscriminate" and probably even decried as war crimes.<br />
<br />
On Tuesday of this week, President Trump threatened the country of North Korea with an attack of “fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before." Given our history, this can only mean a nuclear attack, which, by definition, is indiscriminate. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, reiterated the threat to the civilian population when he told North Korea to "cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and destruction of its people.” Also on Wednesday, President Trump tweeted, “My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before ... Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!” On Thursday, President Trump stated, regarding his “fire and fury” threat that “Maybe it wasn’t tough enough.” He also refused to take the option of a preemptive strike off the table. And on Friday, he tweeted that “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely…”<br />
<br />
This flaunting of indiscriminate military destruction and blatant disregard for civilian life and international norms by the Trump administration is appalling.<br />
<br />
I do not deny that the rogue nation of North Korea is an international threat that needs to be addressed. But I am certain the solution to this problem will not come through bragging about our nuclear arsenal or through our willingness to destroy an entire nation. Such rhetoric is evil and removes any shred of moral authority that the United States may have. If we preemptively, or even in retaliation, destroy an entire nation, we had better be prepared to live the rest of our days in isolation and fear. Because I doubt the international community will live without protest under the dictatorial threat of nuclear destruction by our nation that not only flaunts, but also exercises (will be three times), its ability to indiscriminately destroy entire populations whenever we feel threatened.<br />
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I call on Donald Trump to resign as President of the United States of America. Throughout his campaign and during his tenure in office, his public comments, tweets and unscripted rhetoric have demonstrated that he does not hold a comprehensive value for life, especially the lives of anyone he considers to be an opponent. And now he is touting his disregard for international law and threatening the entire civilian population of North Korea. The world does not want, nor does it need, an entitled American President with a short temper and an itchy finger on the trigger of a nuclear arsenal that is “locked and loaded”. We have already pulled that trigger twice and no one appreciates our President's perceived eagerness to pull it again. I ask Donald Trump to voluntarily step down from the Office of President of the United States before making himself, and our entire nation, war criminals.<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />
Also see: <a href="http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-call-for-president-trump-to-resign-christendom.html" target="_blank">A Call for President Trump to Resign (2 of 2): The Destructive Role of Christendom</a>Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825511530912388870.post-73960575092067428402017-07-28T16:47:00.003-04:002017-07-29T16:21:25.583-04:00The Unfortunate and Extremely High Cost of Bi-Partisanship in American Politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Early this morning, in a stunning rebuke of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer, and even President Trump, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) voted against the GOP proposed "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act. His was the deciding vote, joining 2 other Republican Senators and all 48 Democrats in opposition to the bill. Some were surprised by his vote, but anyone who listened to his speech on Monday, when he returned from receiving cancer treatment to make an impassioned plea from the Senate floor for bi-partisanship, had some inkling of his intentions.<br />
<blockquote>
"The most revered members of this institution accepted the necessity of compromise in order to make incremental progress on solving America’s problems and to defend her from her adversaries. That principled mindset, and the service of our predecessors who possessed it, come to mind when I hear the Senate referred to as the world’s greatest deliberative body. I’m not sure we can claim that distinction with a straight face today."</blockquote>
He went on to say,<br />
<blockquote>
"But they (our Senate deliberations) are more partisan, more tribal more of the time than any other time I remember.”</blockquote>
He even included himself in the rebuke,<br />
<blockquote>
"Both sides have let this happen...We’ve all played some role in it. Certainly, I have. Sometimes, I’ve let my passion rule my reason."</blockquote>
It was a stunning speech that earned him a standing ovation which extended across the aisle.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, towards the end of his speech, after he rebuked both Democrats and Republicans, and after he made his impassioned plea for bi-partisanship, he laid out what he believed their cooperation could be built on, American Exceptionalism.<br />
<blockquote>
“We are the servants of a great nation, ‘a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’</blockquote>
Senator McCain was of course referring to the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, which boldly states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."<br />
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However, he failed to mention that a mere 30 lines below those iconic words, the Declaration of Independence refers to natives as "merciless Indian savages", making it abundantly clear that the only reason the founding fathers used the inclusive term "all men" was because they had a very narrow definition of who was actually human. But instead of acknowledging that bleak part of the Declaration and the resulting black eye on our history, Senator McCain, who was building his theme of American exceptionalism, went even further.<br />
<blockquote>
"America has made a greater contribution than any other nation to an international order that has liberated more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have been the greatest example, the greatest supporter and the greatest defender of that order."</blockquote>
I am quite sure that many African Americans and other people of color, both descendants of, and current victims to, America's long-standing institution of slavery could raise legitimate exception to Senator McCain's claim of America's commitment to liberty. And yes, I did say 'current victims of slavery.' Because contrary to what most Americans believe, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiii" target="_blank">13th Amendment</a> did not actually abolish the institution of slavery.<br />
<blockquote>
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."</blockquote>
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The 13th Amendment did not abolish slavery, it merely redefined and codified it under the jurisdiction of our criminal justice system. And it should not surprise anyone that the United states incarcerates our citizens at the highest rate of any country in the world. And we incarcerate people of color at a rate 3 times higher than that of white citizens.<br />
<br />
But Senator McCain did not mention this travesty. He was too busy developing his theme of bi-partisanship, which required, instead of acknowledging the deep, systemic injustices of our nation, that he continue building his case for American Exceptionalism.<br />
<blockquote>
“We aren’t afraid. We don’t covet other people’s land and wealth. We don’t hide behind walls. We breach them. We are a blessing to humanity."</blockquote>
Really???<br />
<br />
From the years 1839 to 1898, the US Congress awarded 425 Congressional Medals of Honor to US soldiers who participated in the Indian Wars. This included 20 medals of honor given to US soldiers who participated in the Massacre at Wounded Knee, a massacre where approximately 300 Lakota men, women and children were slaughtered in a single day. During the period of the 19th century, nearly 30 states were added to the Union. The non-native population, a majority of which were white, ballooned from just over 5 million to well over 75 million. Meanwhile the Native population shrank from 600,000 to just under 250,000.<br />
<br />
It was during the 19th century that Congress passed, and President Andrew Jackson enacted, the Indian Removal Act resulting in the Trail of Tears, the Long Walk and nearly a dozen other forced re-locations. The Massacre at Sand Creek took place, Indian Boarding schools were instituted, the hanging of the Dakota 38, the Dawes Acts. The list of atrocities of the 19th century goes on and on as the United States of America fulfilled its self-proclaimed Manifest Destiny by ethnically cleansing this land from 'Sea to Shining Sea.'<br />
<br />
But Senator McCain knows this history. He represents the state of Arizona which is home to over 300,000 American Indians. An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/18/massacre-wounded-knee-medals-honor-rescinded" target="_blank">article in the UK in 2013</a> referenced a 1996 letter by Senator McCain, where he argued against rescinding the Medals of Honor given to US soldiers who participated in the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Senator McCain represents Native people who, to this day, are suffering from the Historical Trauma caused by the coveting and ethnic cleansing of our lands by the United States of America.<br />
<br />
So why would he say these words?<br />
<br />
Because American Exceptionalism is the single most unifying theme in our country, not only for the dominant white culture, but also for many segments of our minority populations. And the theme of American Exceptionalism is utilized by politicians nearly every time they want to build bi-partisan consensus.<br />
<br />
This is not helpful and is evidence of the poor job we do of teaching the true history of our country. Much of American history, while it may be great for white land-owning men, has been a nightmare for indigenous tribes, people of African descent, women, and countless other minorities who have had to fight the American government and the white male majority, tooth and nail, for every ounce of liberty and freedom that we partially enjoy. Instead of building bi-partisan consensus on the mythology of American Exceptionalism, we should instead work to increase our unity by creating what George Erasmus, an Aboriginal leader from Canada, refers to as common memory.<br />
<blockquote>
“Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.” (- Georges Erasmus, Dene Nation of Canada)</blockquote>
Our country is in great need of a common memory that is accurate and honest. A memory that appreciates our accomplishments but also acknowledging when and where we frequently fall short.<br />
<br />
Can we stop talking about when we were great and how soon we might be great again, and instead focus on working to build a nation where 'We the People' actually means 'All the People'? The prior requires the continued oppression of minorities, while the latter challenges us to learn how to both acknowledge, and learn from, the injustices of our past.<br />
<br />
Senator McCain was partially right and I appreciate his willingness to stand with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) as the only GOP Senators to vote against the “Skinny Repeal.” The US Senate does need more cooperation. Our country needs more constructive discussion on difficult topics. We need rigorous political debate. But I would add that, more importantly, we need common memory. Because without common memory, there is an unfortunate, extremely high, and even oppressive cost to our bi-partisanship.
<br />
<br />
Mark Charles<br />
(Navajo)<br />
<br />
<br />Mark Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04210437745178979457noreply@blogger.com2