Russell: Presidential snakes on the Indian plane
By
Steve Russell
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One of my students told me the other day that the presidential race makes her feel like she’s living in a B movie. |
Another issue on which the Millers gig Palin is that the governor had to be ordered by a federal court to provide election assistance in the Yup’ik language. Palin represents the political wing of American politics that is all “English first!”
This argument got started when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Chinese-speaking children had a right to begin public education in their language. No doubt, the court chose the Chinese case to keep a distance from the hot political papas: accommodating the Spanish language.
While I personally favor accommodating both the Chinese schoolchildren and the Spanish-speaking voters in the Southwest (who have an arguable treaty entitlement to their language under Guadalupe-Hidalgo), I cannot see that these are the same issues as are raised by indigenous languages. However, they get treated that way.
One of many issues where I agree with Cherokee Principal Chief Chad Smith is when he opposes all state policies in Oklahoma intended to dump on Spanish speakers, because Smith argues correctly that Cherokee speakers get caught up in the propwash of these misguided and racist policies.
English is the language of commerce and of education and we don’t need any government language police to insure that status. English is in fact first and it will stay first while most people speak it in important business. Can somebody ask Gov. Palin how it harms English if Yup’ik speakers get help when voting, any more than it harms English when the Cherokees sponsor Cherokee immersion classes in public schools?
These arguments over indigenous rights seem to me, well, a little nutty, if not quite as nutty as the general campaign discourse has become. You want examples?
McCain approved an ad that juxtaposes Palin’s “pitbull-hockey mom” joke from the Republican National Convention with an unrelated Obama speech in which he referred to McCain’s promise to change Bush policies as “lipstick on a pig.” The conclusion the ad draws is that Obama called Palin a pig when – even if he had been talking about Palin – she would have been the lipstick, since there was no question that Bush policies are the pig.
McCain approved an ad that claims Palin opposed the “bridge to nowhere.” ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked Palin how she could claim to publicly support the bridge but then never gave back the money even when she finally withdrew her support. She replied that all this was done openly and that her actual objection was conducting the business through lobbyists. Gibson did not follow up by asking why she employed a lobbyist to seek earmarks when she was mayor of Wasilla, but that did not stop the McCain camp from blasting the interview as unfair to Palin.
McCain approved an ad that accuses Obama of supporting explicit sex instruction for kindergarteners, a tactic recycled from Alan Keyes’ run against Obama for the U.S. Senate. In fact, the “sex education” for kindergarten was limited to “stranger danger” – keeping safe from pedophiles, reporting inappropriate actions to parents or teachers.
One of my students told me the other day that the presidential race makes her feel like she’s living in a B movie, and Samuel L. Jackson is about to step out and deliver his famous and profane line about the snakes on the plane. Indeed.
We are in a war longer than World War II with no end in sight and an economic downturn directly caused by federal policies, and we are supposed to care whether one candidate did or did not call another candidate a pig? Those are just the mainstream issues; the tribal issues are as urgent. Thinking of tribal issues, my best guess for the last time Indian policy moved a presidential election would be William Henry Harrison, who ran as the killer of Tecumseh.
I was discussing the idiot level of the campaign ads with my 80-year-old mother and I remarked, “If the American people are fooled by this nonsense, they will get the government they deserve.”
“Maybe so,” she said, “but we will also get the government they deserve!”
Right. So maybe when mainsteam Americans feel this way in this election they will understand how Indians feel in every election.
Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and an associate professor of criminal justice at Indiana University. He is a columnist for Indian Country Today. He lives in Bloomington and can be reached at swrussel@indiana.edu.
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Wednesday, Sep 24 at 11:10 PM Glenda Vigil wrote ...
McCain and his wife's alcoholic beverage distribution empire embodiment the blind inservice on native american communities especially in his home state of Arizona which he uses to represent. I say no more...Native American brothers and sisters, do not cast your vote for someone that is inadvertantly making a profit off you and casinos in Arizona. It destroys many native families and where are they when they need your vote!
7325729Tuesday, Sep 23 at 12:43 PM Concern Apache Woman wrote ...
People from my tribe are supporting McCain because they say Obama is a Muslim, Now who do you think gave them this Brainwashing idea, I have been sitting down with many Black people and have been tossing issues back and forth with them. Little do we Indian people know that all minorites are so similar and universal in the way they dealt with Big Brother.They still brainwash even to this day. During the Republican convention, Why were there no MINORITES in the backdrop? Tell me, Republican INDNS?
7262844Monday, Sep 22 at 6:59 PM Palinpro/con wrote ...
I live in Wasilla and not many people knew that Sarah's grandmother-in-law was native until she tried to curtail the subsistence for natives. Then we started seeing gramma in law posing in Sarah's ads. Also it seems to me that McCain was in the Black Hills this summer at the Sturgis Rally and as far as I know did not visit one reservation while there.
7240929Monday, Sep 22 at 8:49 AM ann souza wrote ...
Very informative article. As a native american I wondered how the Natives of Alaska fared under the Palin administration. Again we are pushed back and ignored on OUR land. To watch palin's campaign you would not think that Alaska was Native Land . They are trying to claim Tood has Native blood for political reasons. To grab more power.
7220369Sunday, Sep 21 at 9:14 AM Dianne wrote ...
Thank you for your thoughtful article. Note that in her acceptance speech Sarah Palin did not identify the other nationalities in Todd's heritage, nor did she specify what she would do to benefit Native people. Todd's ethnicity has nothing to do with her qualifications (or lack thereof) and the pandering is offensive to people of all races.
7200644Sunday, Sep 21 at 9:10 AM Seeking a better tomorrow... wrote ...
As a first time reader of Indian Country Today, I applaud the refreshing manner in which facts are presented and conclusions drawn. A manner, uncommonly expressed in mainstream political speak. BRAVO! As a disenfranchised Afro-American,I view the Republicans as masters of distraction and skilled at destruction.We can use history to determine what they will do to solve America's problems. They will use Christianity to kill and destroy anything that is counter intuitive to their capitalist greed.
7200599Saturday, Sep 20 at 10:51 PM comment wrote ...
when I read about Native republicans to me they are not natives.
7196024Saturday, Sep 20 at 3:52 PM Veronica Bright wrote ...
I enjoyed this article. As long as the Politicians can continue the stuff-slinging, they don't have to address the real issues. I write for another online paper, for the Native American Community, and it seems to me, they are torn as to whom to vote for.
7190274Saturday, Sep 20 at 2:02 AM FRED wrote ...
The article was very informative. But I would like one question answered. Is McCain bring back the draft? All other questions are on everyones mind except this question why?
7179999Friday, Sep 19 at 12:56 PM Anonymous wrote ...
I agree with this article, but no one has addressed the issues or any solutions to the problems.
7163484Friday, Sep 19 at 11:32 AM Shawna Macurio wrote ...
I agree with everything this article says. I'm sick and tired of the low-level mud slinging that goes on in politics and with presidential campaigns. The Republican ticket focuses on that, because that's all it has, while Obama focuses on the issues and his plans for changing the state of this country. He is far more enlightened, intelligent, and evolved than McCain and Palin are. While I wasn't raised in a tribe, I do have Native ancestors. I'm 100% on the side of all Natives of the U.S.
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