I hope that your Holidays were as refreshing and fulfilling as mine! Though I did not travel, I did:
1. accomplish a solo summit of a difficult peak near my home (after 5 failed attempts),
2. spend some great time with my family,
3. repair the roof after hurricane force winds did a dandy on the house,
4. make a resolution to summit 4 fourteeners and run 1 marathon before my 30th in September
5. give my daughter her first swim lesson
6. make some great headway into my genealogy project
7. have someone hit my new car - and subsequently be without it for over a week now
8. did I mention great family time yet?
And most importantly, I took special efforts to watch / read as LITTLE news as possible, so as to focus on clearing my mind/body/spirit and enjoy the family time.
Now that I am back, here is what is in the works -
Besides the usual commentary on developing world affairs, I will be researching a special topic requested by Russel Means of the Lakotah Movement - focusing on Indian Extermination Policy held by the US Government for two hundred years; I will be writing on other topics specifically geared toward Indian Affairs, International Affairs, and the changing face of the US.
Thank you all for your continued readership. As the major political news dies down, I am finding that the best focus of the blog is one of the "Untold News Stories". I will be increasing my articles on Indian Advocacy, as I believe this topic is the canary in the mine shaft of the US - an indicator of the direction this country is heading and the challenges it faces. For instance - the current battle in Gaza - The conflict in Israel (and I am an advocate for Israel) is ongoing with the Palestinians for the simple fact that the Partition of 1948 has not been upheld - similarly, the US/Indian wars of the 1800's were conflicts of broken treaties and territorial incursions (of course there is much more - but the fundamentals at this point are territorial).
Here is to a great New Year - and here is to a year full of interesting debate and dialogue.
Welcome back, Steven. I really do appreciate the work you're doing on the Lakotah issue. As a result of your blogging, I've started to research this issue a little more myself.
ReplyDeleteI posted something on the Israel/Gaza conflict yesterday: http://coloradoconfederatarian.squarespace.com/journal/2009/1/4/josh-sharf-announces-a-gathering-for-israel.html
Predictably, Joshua Sharf won't accept my comment to his VFH "Gathering For Israel" entry - http://www.jsharf.com/view/2009/01/gathering_for_israel.html - where I simply linked my responsive blog entry. And he deleted my identical comment from his Red County blog entry.
No matter. My opinion is insignificant in light of the *world* opinion that is overwhelmingly against Israel on this one, and rightly so. Most thinking people seem to realize that Israel's response has been totally disproportionate. And once again, the State of Israel is unconcerned with the fate of innocent Palestinian civlians who've gotten caught up in this mess. I guess that comes as no surprise, as the Zionists have been oppressing the Palestinians from the get-go. As Israeli historian Benny Morris has recently documented, the Palestinians didn't flee the country in response to urging from their Arab libertators, who promised that they could return once the Israelis were routed, but were instead ethnically cleaned by the victorious Israelis. The old Zionist propaganda is slowly but surely giving way to the horrendous facts of the matter, and as a result people are increasingly coming to the realization that "there is something rotten in Israel."
Morris' and the other Israeli "new historians'" revelations must be kept in view when we try to assess the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We must listen to those historians, just as surely as we must listen to the CIA analysts who say that Islamic terrorism is more a matter of "blowback" than it is them "hating us because of our freedoms", if I might quote the mythological hoo-haw spouted by the neocons.
It's simply a matter of bracketing mindless patriotism and jingoism, and for once trying to walk a mile in the other person's shoes. That there just MIGHT be another side to the story: gee, what a concept.
Rationalizing Gaza: How They Do It, by Justin Raimondo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14001
It never ceases to amaze me how Israel's Amen Corner will always pass the story off as one of an innocent country just minding its business when along comes the evil terrorists doing this or that to them.
As if the "terrorists" act in a vacuum; as if there's no history to this conflict that sheds some rather unfavorable light on the supposedly innocent party.
Welcome back, Steven. I really do appreciate the work you're doing on the Lakotah issue.
ReplyDeletePlagiarizer.
ReplyDelete;)