Tag: native americans

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Haiti, America, Priorities

This American spectacular of helping Haiti is generous. The tragedy there is terrible. It is wonderful that Haiti and its people are receiving the help they are. I believe we are raised to believe in helping others. I also believe that many of us help others for reasons that blind us to helping out poverty-stricken people in the United States of America. As of a couple of weeks ago, America spent over $300 million helping out Haiti. That is a lot of money to spend on another country, when the money is needed in America to help out America, particularly now, don’t you think?

There are hundreds of Iraqui war veterans without homes (this also occurred in the 1970’s when soldiers returned home from the Viet Nam conflict, can we learn ANYTHING from killing others as a means to solving problems?). Others are homeless because they have lost their jobs due to the ignorance of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of State Condelezza Rice, by causing the Iraq War. This war cost Americans billions of dollars. What was the reason for this war? Anyone? If a small portion of this money would’ve been spent to capture Osma Bin Laden, as President Bush said he was setting out to do, shortly after 9/11, America would be economically in better shape than it is today.

There are also other Americans who live in poverty because of other circumstances. Although American Indian reservations like Pine Ridge, which has lost people to starvation and the cold weather because of lack of resources to buy space heaters, stoves, food, etc. I have been confronted by others, primarily Native American people, who have told me that by “feeling sorry” for Native Americans, I am feeding into their needs, when they should be learning how to help themselves out.

It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m feeding into their needs, or not, what matters to me is that thousands of Native Americans are suffering poverty and other problems because many Americans have this shaded notion that helping people in other countries is helpful to these people as well as to themselves. To grab a bunch of Haitian kids and smuggle them out of Haiti to give them “good” homes in America is ignorance. Possibly overcome by the emotion of loss in Haiti, many Americans have bent over backwards, to use a cliche, to help Haitians out.

Meanwhile, thousands of Americans are in similar need. Why doesn’t John Travolta fly a plane full of space heaters, toilet paper, food, blankets, clothing, Church of Scientology people, etc. to Pine Ridge? Why? How many of you can answer that question? It certainly would be helpful to people on this Rez, similar to the help Haitians are receiving from Mr. Travolta’s mission to Haiti.

The fine point of this rant is that we need to, as a people, gather together to help out Americans in need, before we pour our emotions and hearts into helping out people in other countries. What will happen if we don’t, we will be looking to Haiti one day for their help. Do you want your children and grandchildren to have that experience? I certainly don’t.

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Haiti and Poverty-Stricken America

The tragedy in Haiti is unparalleled. The call for help
from around the world is needed, to say the least.

The question:

What does it take to get an equal call to citizens of the
United States to help out American citizens who
have, are and will be experiencing metaphorical
earthquakes of their own?

Native Americans. Homeless war veterans. The
homeless. Poverty-stricken people in the United States.
Those who have lost their jobs and homes and had
and are having their lives ruined because
of ignorant, fear-filled human beings like George Bush
and Richard Cheney, who plunged the United States
of America into a meaningless war that caused the
murders of thousands of Americans, Iraquis, and
others, and in turn, created the economic turmoil
that has placed the United States on the brink of
financial disaster. These two individuals live in
warm, safe, secure homes, and are revered in some
circles, as wonderful men. With what legacy will history
books credit them? Because America honors those who
serve in public office, for some strange reason, more
than any other American, they will prevail with
their new libraries, etc.

Who is going to create a text message number for
people to call in to donate money to help out those
Americans who were figuratively destroyed in the
past by greed and self-interest like these two men?
Who? And when?

The United States has always been helpful to
people in other countries. It has helped make
America, in many people’s eyes, the great
country that it is. It is almost cliche. What
about Americans who need help? Think
about it. Where is the outpouring to
help Americans in need, like what is
going on in Haiti now? Where is it,
folks? And that is not to slight Haitians
one bit. The horror they are
experiencing is unimaginable. We
must help them out. I’m simply
saying that we have Americans
in America who are experiencing
the same kind of horror.

Food. Shelter. Clothing. Possibly a bit of
recreation. Where has it gone for thousands
of Americans who have been, are, and will
be devastated by this metaphorical earthquake
that plagues Americans as a people?

It is time for the United States of America to
put forth the same effort it does to help out
Americans like Haitians are being helped now.

It is time, or, the infrastructure of America will
continue to decay, and die.

It is time.

And for those of you, after reading this, who will want to compare me to Rush Limbaugh’s bellowing about American citizens’ income tax money that goes to Haiti, forget it. Rush Limbaugh is a squeaky
conservative. Oiling his hinges would only be a beginning to turning
around his idiocy. For me, my hinges are oiled. I am tired of those who try to make a show by giving others money, when many Americans in their backyards are struggling to stay alive.

We have always given as Americans. So much so,
we are blinded to the fact that there are thousands
of Americans who need the same kind of help
Haitians are struggling to receive. If you want to
argue this point, before you do, I encourage you
to visit some Native American reservations in
the United States. Visit them. Roll in the dirt,
feel their earth. Go to the Conoco convenience
stop in Lame Deer, Montana. Stand in line
with what you want to purchase. Observe
those standing in line with you. Who are
they? They are Native Americans who live
on a poverty-stricken reservation where
drug and alcohol abuse stalks each Native
American who lives there, like actually,
forced to live there, because their ancestors
were shot and killed when they resisted
attempts at curtailing their rights to
follow the buffalo and to live free.

Go there, my friends, before you flap
your tongue about me, and my
pontificating. Sit and ponder there.
Then, tell me that America’s
indigineous people in addition to
those Americans who live in
cardboard boxes under bridges
do not need the kinds of help some Haitians
are presently receiving.

Tell me. Tell me. Churches who
spend all of their might on helping
people in other countries who are
experiencing plight, poverty, hunger,
disease, AIDS, and a host of other
horrifying things that most Americans
do not. Why is it that there are
Americans in America who live
in “Third World” countries, or as
some idiots say, “developing nations”,
which is hilarious to me, here in
America? Check out Pine Ridge,
folks, before you attack me for my
presence of mind here.

Check out parts of Los Angeles,
New York City, Chicago, Denver,
etc. Everywhere, and anywhere you
go in the United States, you simply
need to open your eyes, and you will
see human devastation.

So, close your mind. Kick me in the ass
for this article. Say that I am an idiot.
It doesn’t matter. My plea is simply to
open your minds and eyes to the
devastation in America as you have
opened your minds and eyes to
Haitians. Americans need your
help as well. They also need your
hearts and your love. Who is the
first one to raise their hand and
pledge, as you are pledging to
Haiti, to exude the same passion
for America’s people who are
less fortunate than you? Who?

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Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

Your work regarding diversity in the United States,
as well as globally, is well-recognized. Now, it is
time to address America’s native people by doing
what you can do to get Congress to legislate a
bill to require American native studies on all
school curriculums. This way, America’s
infrastructure will take on strength by providing
a vehicle for all Americans to learn about
Native Americans.

We’ve gassed up the Prius here in Colorado.
We’ve made a couple of short films about
the Sand Creek Massacre, which gives viewers
an in-depth view about how this tragedy effects
America’s indigenous people today, 145 years
after the massacre. It continues to effect their
abilities to live productive lives in America.
Poverty, disease, drug and alcohol abuse,
etc., prey on America’s native people.

Ignorance caused the Sand Creek Massacre.
Racial prejudice permeates America of its
native people. This can be changed. But,
we need your help. Put us together with
Congress so that we can get a bill passed
that will require American Native studies
on all school curriculums. When this is
achieved, it is then, and only then that
the ignorance will begin to fade away in
young minds, and be replaced with an
awareness of America’s indigenous people
that does not now exist.

Please contact me with your interest.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards,

Donald L. Vasicek
OLYMPUS FILMS+, LLC
The Zen of Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi