1789.

on to a little finer analysis:

THE SYSTEM, half hate and half ignorance, is no system at all 
the expression “the system” (as in, “fight the...” ) is a fairly recent formulation. in the past what was meant was a particular power group (a government) or class of people (women can’t trust men). different people learn different aspects in isolation, comforting themselves with some variation of the thought that, “surely things are different elsewhere.” most people react to a larger criticism of people with annoyance or outright rejection, saying “things are good here”, wherever "here" is, or “what can you do” in a fatalism so commonplace its not even expressed as a question. they submit to the routine of their lives, until they get hit personally and then their whole world goes cold and they learn that they’ve always been alone. power is only a crude, if ultimately dangerous, aspect of culture – every one can suffer, and pollution is going to kill us all, rich and poor alike. the main characteristic of all the bad things that happen to people is senselessness. so this section will be divided into two parts: A - power as senseless, and B – attitude as senseless. of course the distinction is not always clear, but this just illustrates its pervasiveness, hence many things are spread out.

do you put the tailhook scandel under "military" or "feminism", child labor under "childhood", "work", or "corporations", immigrant abuse under "international" or "prisons", military pollution under "military" or "pollution"? the bizarre prevalence of hysterectomies under "feminism" or "medicine"? it can't be ordered because "the system" is nonsense.

                                                             r.crumb?

POWER
aspects of the system: governments, corporations globalized or otherwise, cops/courts/prisons, mafias, church and religious zealots, news/media, bosses, landlords, specialists...

and “shadow” governments.

with a further link to a very boring article 
that contains a single salient fact:
in the event of an attack on the federal capital

only the executive branch of government will survive.

WE CARE ABOUT YOU
these people are not your friends: finance/banks/stock market, lawyers, medicine, drugs, construction, architecture, suppliers, “defense”, airlines, electronics, mining, logging, energy, transportation, beef/pork/chicken/milk/grain/sugar, alcohol/cigarettes/coffee, entertainment/sports...  

don't make the mistake
leaders feel superior and learn CONTEMPT of all mere citizens, and become INTOXICATED with SECRETS. beyond all sense of decency, leaders become obsessed with infighting, secrecy, deceit even among themselves and power for its own sake. everything else is all parlor games, charades, with a patina of social concerns. the survival of a plutocracy requires the colonization of minds and the media is the essential pulpit of corporations. news companies are part of the power/profit structure and do what they’re told. serious debate is not possible when cheap sloganeering is pandered by people who all come from the upper classes - "we must stand behind our leaders in these troubled times/this crisis." but the times always seem to be in crises. “the tyranny of public opinion” has become a common expression because of the obvious questions – who decides what public opinion is and why must we all think the same way? since WWII the “national security state” has slowly taken over most governments world wide, with innocuous legislation based on spurious threats giving the largest corporations absolute preference in all matters. politicians = executives through a blatant revolving door of employment. one example is that owners of nuclear plants sit on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. back room politics/old cronies/the contract fix, is the nature of all power, elections are just a sideshow for the people. road work and construction is the largest, most profitable monopoly, being solely the province of corruptible governments. insurance companies are some of the biggest in the entire world, along with the banks who have no function except to make money. what the heck are we being ensured AGAINST except our inability to live in peace with each other? these are anachronisms from a violent past that are quickly becoming our rulers. agri-business, corporate owned farms and ranches, have almost completely replaced the family farm, while the runoff of their fertilizers and pesticides poisons the water base.

impervious privilege
americans, like members of all large prosperous nations,  seem impervious to some simple facts. the u.s.a. has 50 percent of the worlds wealth yet only 6.3 percent of it's population. even having the resources of a whole continent does not justify the exploitation of smaller countries. there is no other way to put it: the comfort of the average citizen is based on the suffering of others. that this came about through the work of soulless corporations is not an escape from responsibility.

protected by "aura"
the aura of respectability, culture and privilege that has grown to be the PROTECTION OF ARISTOCRACIES, obscures the overwhelming fact that all aristocracies began as marauding conquerors, subjugating masses of peasants. a common custom in europe and elsewhere for ages past was “king’s right”, the right on pain of death of the king to sleep with each newly married woman. by the beginning of the modern era "assets" had been transformed into "investments." industry brought wealth to new classes of people. then corporations gobbled each other up. modern companies are wealthy beyond anything in history.
       corporations are the new

 lords and barons of the world.

 
 well, at least in this part of the cosmos.

YOU support the corporations
whether you like it or not, the government uses taxes from the people to pay for bailouts of failed gigantic corporations. this was never the case before modern times. 

consider:

1 percent of the population owns 37 percent of the country.

10 percent owns 86 percent of the country.

90 percent of tax money goes to the MILITARY budget, including the human tragedy represented by veterans benefits. 

5 companies own 75% of the audience and 95% of the news,

and the government is about to relax restrictions on monopolies. this was restrictions? (editors’ note: they’ve failed so far.)
in russia, under the new democracy, the last national news station was shut down.        

        is this democracy?  is it even remotely likely? 

"barefoot and pregnant"
it is a central part of IMF/World Bank policy on loans to poor nations that loans are conditional on the receiving nation cutting funding for education and SOCIAL services, including HEALTH, and raising the cost of NECESSITIES. does this sound like empire building to you? keep the peasants ignorant. see the web site list after the reading list.

in u.s.a. foreign policy no funds go to countries that support abortion or even counseling. why are rights denied to others that are given to americans? it’s only because of RELIGIOUS FANATICS. why doesn’t the general populace care about this discrepancy? this recently changed, 07, but there might be a veto.

kill their whole country
power brings a strange madness. with a victory in vietnam hopeless, hundreds of thousands are killed in vietnam, cambodia, laos, and every year american leaders say we’ll win if we bomb more, with the bombing each year more than all of WWII, and the countryside is a chemically defoliated desert, used “to deprive the enemy of supplies”, poisoning civilians forever. it is well documented that long before the “homeland security act” intelligence agencies were used against citizens that criticize the government, and are also the private tool of those in power. 

blank history
in the middle of the 20th century corporations and all sorts of agencies, in the event of being sued, devised the hideous tactic of offering great sums of money to the needy or those just unwilling to fight huge corporations, in exchange for dropped charges and a statement of non-responsibility. this created a blank history of violations and no change in the policies that engendered the suites.
       no matter how much it hurts,
                  and it will,
          don't settle "out of court"
         or generations will suffer.

states' rights, privatization and "voodoo" economics
very recently and increasingly, under the doctrine of smaller federal government, the government evades all responsibility by PRIVITIZING major government functions. there are then no automatic legal safeguards and all appeals for justice must go through MASSIVE legal channels, where you are fighting, not resonsible individuals, but lawyers hired by huge corporations. increasingly abroad and at home, military functions are performed by civilians. a large part of the prison system is already in private hands. it has been deemed not a contravention of "cruel and unusual punishment" to ship prisoners across the country, away from all family and social and even legal contacts - while lawyers usually are certified to practice in only one state.

whole industries have sprung up to replace government functions. 
we're not talking about outsourcing school lunch programs, but highly sophisticated intelligence and military operations, including "interrogation" - meaning torture, massive supply operations for government actions and domestic social programs. if this trend continues, in the future it might be very possible for politicians to claim even they have no recourse and no way to aid those injured because all "government" is in the hands of those who live and strive only for profit.

going backwards
similarly, one of the greatest reforms of the 70s and 80s was the elimination of "block grants" from the federal to state governments - because it was conclusively proved that there would be no oversight of the monies involved and outright theft, graft and DIVERSION OF FUNDS were rampant. 

a careful survey of news media reveal again and again smug politicians and businessmen wearing the shield of respectability declaring, "we don't need outside interference here." which translates in only one way:

another trick being played by the very rich is the push for the elimination for the "estate" or "death" tax, the reason given being that family farms are the hardest hit. yet the American Farm Beareau Federation says that not a SINGLE family farm has been lost due to this tax. the new motto is:

this policy was begun long ago in the reagan administration and has variously been called "supply side" or "trickle down" or, sarcastically, "voodoo" economics. a famous book that debunked this theory with simple and clear examples is called "mink coats don't trickle down." really it's nothing but blatant plutocracy. that politicians still openly try to hoodwink the people with these simplistic theories is an absolute measure of their honesty.

you'll never know
o.k., lets say there is a useful government program, something to help the average citizen and not corporations. what you will find is that: (1) you don't know about it (2) you can't find out (3) you can't get it (4) it isn't funded.

totally unbalanced
millions are stolen by white collar criminals but none are ever prosecuted because companies just want most of the money back. while new laws are constantly enacted to repress the disadvantaged:  “felony murder,” a very recently enacted law, allows a person to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for merely associating with a person who commits a crime. local variations in sentencing degrade all responsibility for human suffering. in one place a man’s face is brutally deformed and his assailant receives a sentence of less than a year. bounty hunters, super macho extra-legal police given sanction, function with almost no restrictions. they continually murder not only their quarry but totally innocent people “by mistake” and suffer absolutely no consequences.  

RACISM

 
right. notice the tanks and bayonets to make sure that they don't get out of hand.

for a documentary web site about lynching,
click:
http://www.withoutsanctuary.org

                                g
and in the endless horror that follows, MILLIONS DIE just in the holds of transport ships.

numbers
someone must have accessed available records, but we haven't found this yet, so figures are those popularly available:
(1) "contemporary historians estimate, as more precise records often fail, that some 12 million individuals were taken from west africa to north, central and south america and the caribbean islands by european colonial/imperialist powers." but also says 'citation needed'. - from wikipedia.
(2) “the atlantic slave trade” by johannes postma - greenwood, ‘03, has a chapter called "the statistics: origins, destinations, and mortality." figures "most frequently cited" are 12 to 15 million. on average 12 percent did not survive the crossing." that's 1.2 to 1.5 million as expendable property.

letters to the saturday evening post, 1956.

the contribution of the courts
later, before the civil war, the laws of the "free north" allowed the capture and return of escaped slaves. a judge recieved double the pay for a conviction!!! does this seem like a contradiction? also, in the time before photography who was to say any randomly chosen person was not an escaped slave?

      g                          g                 g                                   
    cornell west                                       malcolm x                                  this is no more an innocent lawn ornament
                                                                                                                 than the confederate flag is just southern pride.

our fault? - ridiculous!!
cornell west - recently of harvard, but who left after being censored for being "uppity" and being placed under literally unheard of strictures for a professor - refers to malcolm x for his thesis on the “negro problem,” as it was called before the civil rights movement:
 
the liberal’s government programs of aid are equal to the conservative’s demand for individual responsibility, since both see the problem as outside themselves and refuse to acknowledge the crushing effects of racism. 

for generations there has been poverty from an early age, broken families, hunger, pervasive effects of alcohol and hard drug use, extreme violence, overt racism – children hearing, “you little nigger shit” over and over and over, overwhelming peer pressure, gang mentality, life reduced to survival, no education. whether or not you want to believe it, a lot of pet food is eaten by people - after all, don’t you remember the monolithic cages of “urban renewal”? many of which have been torn down as breeding grounds for the kinds of situations they were built to alleviate. the “good people” of the country won’t like the hard truth, but under these conditions is it reasonable to buy food or save your little money or just do hard drugs? the privileged the world over don't understand the attraction of gangs. the answer is really very simple: for many, gangs are the only family many will ever know in a brutal world of enforced poverty.

 
in case you can't read it, the graffiti recounts how when gandhi first came to america a reporter asked him what he thought of western civilization. he replied,

what do you say to a mother whose child is dying of asthma, forced to live in an unheated room full of fungus, dry rot and insects, her child constantly bitten by rats, afraid to lose the little she has?

the census
far from being a simple collection of numbers, the census is the major tool used to construct federal aid programs. it has been shown in court to consistently greatly undercount minorities. how could this happened without a widespread officially sanctioned attitude?

i'm sorry - we just sold the house
many people, from academics to home buyers to police to the justice department, say the

g
left. rodney king was beaten by three police - while 23 watched. despite it being taped the court found the police innocent. the verdict was the very first news on B.B.C. radio in the morning, after which, of course, South Central burned to the ground. since then there have been about six incidents caught on tape, including one in which a policeman smashes a boys face into the hood of his car, after which all officers were exonerated. middle, a photo from the early civil rights days.

po-leese
only relatively recently, the last fifteen years, has the term "profiling" come into the public awareness, used to describe police stopping without cause especially one kind of person. both watch dog and government surveys have proved this to be rampant, giving rise to the popular expression
                      "driving while black,"
on analogy with "driving while intoxicated." nowhere has anything effective been done about this, and government officials from the president on down keep saying, "we're looking into this." how about just firing the cops? 

oh yea, you can't do that because they support a family
- and their family is more important than someone else's.

beating "techniques"
dick gregory was a gentle person and well loved comedian who always used humor and reason to deal with life. he grew up very, very poor, became a track star, and always looked after his mum. when he became famous, civil rights leaders began asking him to speak and participate in marches. before the first such, an elderly country gentleman of the harsh south approached him and asked if he could keep his temper during the troubles they expected, saying, if not, “then we can’t use you.” dick said this, “blew me away” and strengthened his resolve. one time he came home to find his little boy had died, and his phone was kept ringing for days by strangers asking for, “dick, junior.” even then he didn’t lose it. he became famous for his long civil disobedience fasts, which he continued right up until he was gray haired. a few great lines: 

“wouldn’t it be a hell of a thing if all of this was burnt cork and you people were being tolerant for nothing?”
“I know the south very well. I spent twenty years there one night.”

in his autobiography he recounts how at one demonstration,

“I was put in a cell built for twenty people. there must have been five hundred of us in there. there was a little boy, maybe four year old, standing in the corner sucking his thumb. I asked him, “what are you here for?” he said,

“TEEDOM.”

a little art

g                     g

"and freedom for all"
in 1896, thirty years after the civil war, the u.s.a. supreme court, in plessy vs. ferguson, decided that inferior accommodations on railroads did not violate equal protection under the 14th amendment, laying the basis for the                                        
                                 "separate but equal" doctrine of the Jim Crow laws.

"all these problems"
just a year ago  congressman trent lott commemorates strom thurmond at a lavish washington, d.c. diner, who was recently quoted as saying, "if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." a congressman from the south, he was the most vocal proponent of outright legalized racism, segregation, anti-miscegenation - mixing of the races socially or genetically - "mongrelization of the white race," a poll tax law, laws permitting lynching, the whole gamut from what people today think of as a very ugly past. why not just say slavery? among other news services present were the

none of whom raised any objections or even noted the occurrance.

if this is still possible at the highest levels of government, what person of african descent would believe any politicians' or activists' assertions of present or possible progress?

those subtle republicans
at a RECENT REPUBLICAN convention a delegate of afro-american descent, in a suit and wearing a conspicuous official identification tag, was repeatedly told to 

"carry my bag" and "fetch me a drink."

no matter which way you turn
almost every branch of the federal government has been the subject of class action lawsuits alleging racism, from the farm bureau to the f.b.i.

race in prisons
a supreme court case in 1968 disallowed racial segregation in prisons. however, prison officials contended that integrated prisons would lead to massive race riots, and it was not until 1972, four years later, that texas inmate allen lamar protested and brought about the first integration in that state. the process has been very slow, to say the least. there was a recent (2006?) case in oklahoma, and a california case that went to the supreme court in 2005. all surveys have shown that inmate-on-inmate violence is much more prevalent than racially motivated violence.

     

at the end of world war I, 1919-20, women and blacks hired to replace servicemen were summarily fired. there were white race riots in 26 cities. the klu klux klan marched through neighborhoods accompanied by jeering violent whites still in uniform. lynchings and home burnings went totally unpunished. on the right, the body of a five year old. all images above  are from "blood in the face" in the reading list.

after a WWII a black service man returns to his home town to be met at the train station - they knew he was coming - by a crowd of hundreds, is stripped of his uniform and burned to death.

american nazis

the germans have one law that obviously abrogates civil rights:
no nazis
because there is no such thing as "neo."

    

 g

this is not the distant past - the tuskegee experiments
for forty years, between 1932 and 1972, the u.s. public health service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men  in the late stages of syphilis. these men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in alabama, pleased at the prospect of free medical care—almost none of them had ever seen a doctor before - were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,” their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. the data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which includes 

even the Surgeon General of the United States participated in enticing the men to remain in the experiment, sending them certificates of appreciation after 25 years in the study. this experiment was the motivation for enacting "informed consent" laws. - this paragraph was lifted from infoplease.com.

old and not so old

 
the "police gazette" was the national scandal sheet of the day, 
and like today's rags, was full of the same sex, violence, exageration, and politics.
it seems "they" are always after "our" women.

"once in a hundred years." 
nice shot of the marble guy listening in the background.

nice faces, hu?

medicine
black skinned women are five times more likely to die in childbirth. black heart attack victims are 40 percent less likely to receive modern treatment proven to save lives, and five times less likely to receive drug treatment for strokes. is this a conspiracy? no, its an attitude.

a simple yet rigorous experiment
two professors,  from m.i.t. and the university of chicago, designed an experiment wherein employment adds from newspapers were responded to with a requested form letter. fictitious applicants had exactly the same qualifications yet some had "ethnic sounding" names. the people called for interviews were vastly more likely to have names like "jack"  rather than "tyrone."

glimer
everyone know but no one cares that the penalties for crack, easily "moved" in a ghetto, are three times as long as for cocaine, the white persons' drug of choice. there is not even a glimmer of hope for reform to equalize penalties.

to protect and
again, within the past ten years, in a suburb of  boston, massachusetts, a state priding itself on its liberal reputation, a university professor in a with a wallet full of three piece suitcredit cards passes through an upscale neighborhood looking for a new house and is pulled from his car and shoved up against a wall by the police with the assertion that, "we know what you're here for. you just want to rob houses."  less than a month later he returns and the police, who are now fully aware of his identity, throw him up against a  wall again. not wishing the controversy that could bring even more serious repercussions, he declines to take any legal actions. in the same town a person in a holding cell for a minor offense witnesses the warder come to a black skinned person, face him directly through the bars and say, "what are you doing in this part of town,  BOY?"

"old man ribba"
meanwhile, in a delightfully insidious study, a quiet  linguist examines the "missuse" of  the english language by brutalized slaves widely held in their day to be "incapable of  civilized behavior." he finds that in every single case the modifications of english used could be traced to the the grammar of the language of the home country  they were torn from.

three hundred texts still exist of novels or memoirs written by slaves before the civil war.

those
under slavery the black person is "a lazy stupid animal," but today its said, "slavery was long ago - they're just lazy, stupid welfare cheats."  hmmmm?????          

WHAT THE GHETTO DOES:

from "do or die" by leon bing, in the read list.

from a post card.
what the ghetto does to anyone.  "bandit's roost" in nyc.
care  for a stroll?

we're going to DUMP on you
an amazing percentage of toxic industries and toxic dumps are right next to ethnic neighborhoods. we're speaking of disease and genetic damage for whole neighborhoods, including children.

humor  in the board room
very recently a secret recording was made in the board room of a major corporation in which it was said:
  

“isn’t it funny how the black jelly beans always get stuck at the bottom of the bag?”

without the iron collar
america is the only large country to have slavery in modern times. a recent Scientific American article listed the u.s.a. as having the largest current number of slaves of any country.

a note on the court system
a radical black writer and organizer is framed for a relatively minor offence. if he had really committed the crime he would have received a much stiffer sentence, but, on threat of returning to jail, the conditions of his parole were:

                      (1) he may no longer express his opinions in print.

                      (2) he may no longer associate with his former colleagues.

both of these condition blatantly contradict the constitutional guarantees of expression and assembly. this is a basic form of oppression – the denial of knowledge to the people. he faces twenty years in prison if he violates parole. believe it. 

this is what happened to the first “freedom riders” bus. from “parting the
waters” in the reading list.

the joyous face of hatred at a lunch counter “sit in. also from “parting the waters”

 do you think slavery is gone? 

  
left. what do you think of the expression on this woman's face?
smoked any tobacco lately? do you enjoy your soft cotton shirt? the women on the right are 80 and 100 years old, have worked in the fields all their lives, cut their own fire wood, and pay rent to the man they work for. from “american pictures” - in the reading list.

serving honorably
during the vietnam war there were endless anecdotes of laughing grizzled platoon leaders ordering terrified black draftees to "go out on point", a term meaning to go ahead of the group to draw enemy fire. 

left. a jury that acquitted the white murderer of a black. middle. it has been proved that there is an overwhelming bias in the use of the death penalty. that means dead, as in, not alive. right. a comment on the extended bush family. here, jeb,  the governor of florida and his crack head daughter.

from “the makers of cajun music” by barry jean anacelot, elmore morgan jr.

do dreams end when a life does?

try this LINK for the story of
mumia abu-jamal
and conspiracy at the highest levels of government to suppress dissent with
state murder.

taming our great country
the building of the transcontinental railway, which signaled the final stage in the conquest and rape of the north america,  was accomplished with  virtual slavery, of the irish in the east and the chinese in the west. these people were herded out to a virtual wilderness where they had no hope of escape, were given little and often spoiled food, were subject to long days at hard labor and were brutalized and often killed.

                  
        "serve the people"
                 

NATIVE AMERICANS

                             g

the statue above right, “appeal to the great spirit”, appears in front of or in art museums and libraries across the nation, yet is nothing other than a maudlin romanticizing of a conqueror of his victim. it also appears at the start of several books on art written by native americans as an example of what is totally alien to their culture and art. the tacky doll on the left appeared in a magazine for “country” music.

not like the text books
the earliest settlers in north america were not, as history books at all grade levels proclaim, hearty adventurers seeking religious and political freedom, but the unwitting pawns of venture capitalists looking for a quick buck. documents and diaries of the time fully substantiate this, both in england and america. the attempts at colonization were cruelly poorly planned. they arrived at the beginning of winter with insufficiant supplies, with no seeds, livestock, or implements for constructing the necessities of survival, and more important, no knowledge of farming. they were often forced to resort to cannibalism and robbing the graves of the indians. the traditional national holiday of "thanksgiving" was based not on a harmonious meeting of english and native americans, but the indians taking pity on the settlers, who were perishing in great numbers from starvation. the native americans had extensive orchards and areas under cultivation.

the settlers said of the indians that, far from being uncouth savages with no technology, their armaments were inferior to bow an arrow in power, accuracy, and range, and houses were 

the hand of god
it is highly likely that plagues brought by the earliest explorers to the caribbean islands, transferred to the mainland by regular native commerce, decimated the populace, and the earliest records in north america described a populous and prosperous coastline. yet by the time the settlers arrived it was almost empty.

fifty of the earliest settlements were on emptied villages. 

one compassionate european eulogized,

g
oliver senior

ignorant savages
a linguist and biologist traveled to the amazon, deep in the jungles of south america, to examine indigenous classification of life forms. in EVERY case the local people had separate words for all the distinct species classified by western science.

truth today
american indians live in a crushing poverty unknown even in the largest urban ghetto, having had their culture totally destroyed, while their caretakers are historically unabashedly corrupt. “reservations” are nothing less than concentration camps, in many cases on land incapable of supporting any kind of farming. the statement “the only good indian is a dead indian” by general sheridan was the saying of the day, often quoted in papers. of any group of people, indians have the highest incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which reduces intelligence, and where on attaining puberty a person becomes uncontrollably violent. the B.I.A., bureau of indian affairs,  for generations has been the scene of graft in a fantastic proportion unseen in any other government agency, while forcing children from their homes to attend boarding schools where their heritage is brutally ridiculed. never forget the “Trail of Tears,” begun may 28, 1838, where a whole tribe of 4,000 cherokee, denied all of its possessions, was force marched in winter with little food to a supposed “safe new reservation”, and were given blankets infected with small pox. almost all died. there are documents proving that, at the very least, the

how can americans forget that their country was founded on genocide? there were millions of people living here from coast to coast.

cfree    

left. on a site sacred to the sioux, these sculptures were designed by an artist who was an
active member of the Klu Klux Klan. right. from a letter to a recent issue of smithsonian magizine.

the honorable military
in the words of a recent documentary, the army that committed most of this genocide, far from being disciplined and courageous, “were misfits, outcasts, criminals, the ignorant and drifters who were taken with no questions asked and received little pay and were without compassion even for each other, spending their time in loafing, drinking and fighting.” these characters were the willing pawns of greedy farmers and the indifferent, urban, racist easterners. this happened largely during the civil war, which was fought more to preserve national unity than to end slavery, which existed in no other modern country. while millions are being slaughtered it was common across the country to see newspaper headlines deploring the depredations of “savages.”

 

a metaphor of death
bison, the mainstay of the plains indians, were also almost exterminated. from 1800 to 1870 millions were killed, mostly for sport or the hides, leaving the meat to rot. by 1881 only a few hundred were left and it remains to be seen if this population is genetically viable. this alone reflects a culture totally without heart.

everything you know is wrong unfortunately, this book is very poorly written, which shouldn't mask its revolutionary data. he discusses the very latest findings in western hemisphere archeology and sociology, flipping between a narrated timeline and the work of specific scientists. among other things: the bering crossing theory is increasingly full of holes. there is a small collection of artifacts that seem to be of very great antiquity. population estimates for the "new world" could be raised by many multiples. it is possible that the very first explorers, those to the caribbean islands, brought plagues that destroyed almost the entire native population. recall what happened to all culture after the "black plague" in europe. there is definite evidence that physical culture was much more varied and sophisticated. viable economies have been deduced for the extremely arid west coast of south america, and the swamps of central america and the mouth of the amazon river. there was at least one high population urban area in north america, located on the southern mississippi river. ironically, they seem to have messed up the local ecology - by diverting rivers. regarding the more recent past, he quotes conveniently ignored colonists as to the culture that was witnessed at the time. there were extentsive croplands and orchards, very well built houses, and healthy, peaceful populations. he re-emphasizes the findings that trade routes seemed to span almost entire continents, and that south american cultures were extremely organized, lasting hundreds of years.

the "noble savage"
the saying of Black Elk - see the reading list - a sioux holy man who survived to early modern times, that “the hoop is broken” expresses the feeling that a people capable of this much destruction, the decemation of whole peoples, will destroy itself and the very earth itself. the editor of the book traveled to find the aged Black Elk only to find him living in poverty, having to carry water four miles just to survive.

this image is everywhere, from an old photograph.

     g

left. this drawing is taken from a CHILDREN'S BOOK on president andrew jackson. right. see jackson's quote below, to the supreme court. no one really cares to remember that andrew jackson's widely used nickname was

"indian killer."

this is what was
butchered:
 

black elk speaks
grandfather, great mysterious one
you have been always, and before you nothing has been
there is nothing to pray to but you
the star nations all over the universe are yours
and yours are the grasses of the earth
day in day out you are the light of things
you are older than all weeds, older than all things on earth
grandfather, all over the world the faces of living things are all alike
in tenderness they have come above the ground
look upon your children with children in their arms
that they may face the winds and walk the good road
to the day of quiet
teach me to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is
sweeten my heart and fill me with life
give me the strength to understand, and the eyes to see
help me
for without you i am nothing

hetchetu aloh!

give up this for smelly houses crowded together, alcohol, work detached from lifestyle, people ornery for no reason, a dull hypocrite god?

left. another from the "police gazette." again "they" are after "our" women. right. do you think "plunder" included rape?

the american "final solution"

the following is mostly taken from a kid’s book, “trails of tears” by jeanne williams. the chauvinist term for a group identity is “tribe.” here we will use “nation.” o.k., it's long, but not as long as what these people suffered. most people today have totally lost touch with these FACTS. the single overwhelming fact of these stories is not the removal of whole populations to concentration camps but the long term policy of inflicting torture. 

two events
(1) general george cook, for long the top commander of indian affairs, said publicly that he thought most indian outbreaks were due to indian agents, traders and bad faith by the government.

(2) after one georgia congressman said that the cherokee were mere savages who ate only “roots, herbs and disgusting reptiles” he found himself seated at a state banquet next to two polite and highly educated cherokee who continually called out for “more of those roots.” 

some general facts
white people broke almost every agreement made with native americans, in almost all cases repeatedly, time after time after time, with each nation.  in EVERY CASE  it was done simply because white people WANTED THEIR LAND, and in many cases for the gold that was under the ground, the “yellow metal that drives white men insane.” native americans were continually portrayed as savages, and though it is true there was a great difference in the civilizations of various nations, it was often the case that native americans were peaceful, accommodating, and in many cases, in both their economies and culture were superior to europeans. this is well documented but nowhere portrayed, and never in elementary schools. because of organized military genocide some nations survive with only a few hundred individuals. the conscious policy of both the average person and the federal government was a “scorched earth” plan, literally to starve people into submission, to destroy all their property, and to move these peoples far from their homeland, to a terrain and ecology that they were totally unused to, in effect to totally annihilate their culture. THOUSANDS of people died just in the process of establishing reservations. reservations in former times could reasonably be called concentration camps since you were not allowed to leave on pain of death, and were places of great sickness and crushing poverty where a person was unable to preserve a shred of pride. deliberate humiliation was the common lot of indians before, during, and after reservations were established. witnessing reservation life was a major cause of resistance by other nations. for many decades children were forcibly shipped to boarding schools, where they were given anglo names and forbidden to speak their native language and physically punished for not conforming to white culture. for instance, in one small nation there was a strong tradition that it was impolite to look at the person you were speaking to. for this young children were beaten.

the congressional General Accounting Office says that the Department of Ihe interior FAILED TO OLLECT, LOST, or LET SOMEONE STEAL ROYALTIES. a suit was filed on behalf of the native americans against the Secretary of the Interior.a federal district court held the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Treasury in contempt for ALLOWING RECORDS TO BE DESTROYED. they were fined 600,000, which OF COURSE was contested, even though the facts are clear cut.

today, the life expectancy in some native american nations is forty five years. alcoholism is the leading cause of death and on some reservations, and one half of babies are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, which causes severe brain damage and a violent personality, and this has been the pattern for generations no one tries to prevent this, despite modern knowledge that is common to white people, nor do those effected receive proper care for their condition. in canada the situation is worse, where many people inhale industrial solvents, which cause even worse brain damage and death.

the comanche
general william tucumseh sherman, commander of most of the u.s. frontier forces after the war, stated that until the buffalo were gone nothing could tame or settle the plains nations. in 1871 there were still huge herds, miles in their dimensions, despite sportsmen, hunters for railroad construction gangs, and commercial use. in 1872 just the first passenger train at one stop left 500 buffalo dead from wanton “sport” killing from within the train. in 1872 the hide business was begun in earnest by lone individuals seeking easy money because no equipment was needed besides rifles and wagons. crude unskilled skinning may have ruined two thirds of the hides of the buffalo killed. by 1874 the price fell from 3.50 to 1.00 a hide, and when kansas was emptied, hunters received permission, against treaty, to go to indian lands in texas. most comanche, after one organized foray, drifted piecemeal into the fort sill reservation. some hoped to winter hidden in palo duro canyon in texas, but colonel ranald mackenzie attacked them and when the surprised indians, who were totally unused to winter warfare, fled, he destroyed virtually all of their possessions that were needed for survival, and killed over a thousand horses and mules. those who did not submit to the reservation were endlessly harassed, with even robes and house hold goods taken. while women and children were separated and put in prison, the most able bodied warriors were put in an unroofed stone walled enclosure and were given only raw meat, like animals, and in winter were given only pup tents. any who retained their spirit shipped all the way to florida. many children died during the winter, but those who survived were allowed to go to the reservation. they were given seeds and farming equipment, but had no experience at farming, and for years promised rations were meager or absent. even when kindly, attempts at assimilation failed to take into account the strong traditions of a people. cloth was used for robes instead of clothes and sheep herds were despised and devoured by the starving former nomads. even when allowed off the reservation, they found game was scarce in a terrain that was changed by the white man’s civilization. no attempt was made to keep white rancher’s cattle off indian land, which further changed the land and drove off game and led to harassment of the indians, but eventually grazing leases relieved some of the hunger. many settled down on ranches to herd cattle, which at least had a physical challenge similar to their old life, but learning to farm was a much slower process. for many plains indians, and especially the kiowa, the sun dance was a primary religious rite, but it was despised by missionaries and feared by settlers, and in 1890 the kiowa were forcibly prevented from its use. most comanche, with strong memories of false prophets, refused to participate in the new ghost dance, but those who accepted it exaggerated its message out of desperation and their spirits were crushed when the buffalo did not return and the white man disappear. most tribes that were left, even those from the far north east, were squeezed together into indian territory, which would eventually become oklahoma. in 1892 the jerome agreement disbanded the reservation in favor of personal tracts of 160 acres, with four large tracts for collective use, one of over 400,000 acres, but in 1906, a year before oklahoma became a state, the large tracts were simply taken.

the cheyenne
the cheyenne often retreated before white settlers, avoiding all contact, including defending their home, but when pushed too far became raiders. in 1864 at sand creek in colorado jim chuvington led 750 cavalry with cannon in an attack on a village with a history of peacefulness, killing hundreds, mostly women and children. he later reported that he had fought “nine hundred to a thousand” warriors, but was contradicted by a few honest soldiers and there was an investigation by congress. after this many cheyenne lived on reservation that were poorly administered or even defined. the sioux and northern cheyenne defeated custer at little big horn in june 1876, which caused general mackenzie to again lead a war of harassment during the winter, destroying all possessions and driving away horses. the indians were given reservations at powder river and black hills, but these were soon taken by whites. most were moved south into hot, moist lands where quickly two thirds became ill, malaria and measles being most common, and there was no medicine and little of the promised food. promised farm equipment never arrived. at one point a mere three men escaped, after which the local indian agent demanded ten hostages until the escapees were caught, and brought cannon to the indian camp, but there was no way to resolve this ridiculous demand. of an entire nation only 200 warriors had remained to travel south, and now a mere 70 attempted to go back north, while orders from washington were that unless the indians surrendered they were to be attacked. miraculously, after a long journey most of the indians arrived in their homeland. a different band was detained and even treated unusually decently, even becoming friendly with their captors, but after hopes had been raised they were then ordered to return south and when they refused they were denied food, water. and firewood in the winter. when they attempted to break out their route was littered with the bodies of women and children. four troops of cavalry pursued the mere 34 cheyenne that were still alive.

the navajo
the navajo, as had many indians of the area, had lived in continual strife for hundreds of years, fighting, looting and taking slaves. after the u.s.a’s wars with mexico, some navajo chiefs signed treaties with white people, but they had no authority to enforce them. thousands of navajo were slaves in new mexican households, and indian children sold for 200 dollars, which facts did not promote peace. as always, traders were willing to sell indians guns and liquer and inflame indians with rumors. colonel edwin sumner entered canyon de chelly, long a lush safe haven, and destroyed fields and beautiful peach orchards. he retreated to form a garrisoned fort at the head of the canyon and by inhibiting illegal raiders and traders he induced the navajo to become more peaceful, and also gave them farming implements, seeds and sheep. gradually though, the navajo returned to raiding, as did the traders. in 1853, urged by settlers who wished to graze on indian lands, the district court ruled that there were no indian lands in new mexico, which denied the b.i.a. any authority to halt grazing, raiding or slave taking, though fort defiance was still instrumental in holding these practices in check. a treaty was signed that greatly reduced the navajo homeland, then an extremely harsh winter killed crops, livestock, forcing some navajo to raid on land which until recently had been their own. new mexicans killed navajo apparently without any cause and it was also learned that some claims of loss to raiders had been a total fabrication. the indian agent, captain henry dodge, put himself in peril by traveling alone in order to prove his honesty, and who had worked hard for the navajo, was killed by apache and a large force was sent to punish them but was unsuccessful in the broken, harsh country. with no strong proponent, smaller strifes flamed into major issues. the 1858 bonneville treaty took the best farming and grazing land for the whites, and said navajo must pay reparation but without a reciprocating condition for whites, and the whole tribe was held responsible for any renegades. the new commander of the fort was blatantly unjust, even killing people outright who had been sent to make peace, but who also refused either to enforce treaties or to attack in force, which led to state militias being formed. after an almost successful attack on the fort the secretary of war ordered the garrison to crush the navajo. after a war of harassment the navajo sued for peace, but were mercilessly attacked by melitia. the civil war brought total chaos to the region. afterwards a long war in full force was fought to bring the navajo far from their homes to bosque redondo in an area totally unlike their home, and where alkali soil and water inhibited farming. kit carson justified the slave taking by traders and enemy indians by saying that their lives would be better than those of people on the reservation. many people especially children, died in the harsh winter and the forced march of 300 hundred miles to the forts. the frozen bodies of those too weak to march and those who were shot for straying littered the trail. on arriving they were given flower, with no instructions for its use, and eaten raw or mixed with  water it gave them dysentary. in just one week 126 navajo died. frost caused lost limbs and horrible deaths by gangrene, and in this area there was literally no firewood. appeals from the fort for winter clothes and food were never answered by washington. the army appointed overseers that had the power of punishment and withholding of food. the very strong navajo tradition of fear of the place where a person had died did not allow them to be grouped into towns. children who attended schools were no better fed than the rest on the reservation. a concerted attempt was made to convert these beaten, miserable people to christianity. when it was decided that the land allotted could not support 10,000 people, a huge irrigation project of forced labor was begun, but crops were puny in the poor soil and water, and afterwards pests and storms destroyed more than half the crops. after this the forced labor irrigation project was expanded, but with no better results. finally emergency funds came from washington but schemers made off with two thirds of this. thereafter, instead of helping the indians, the military and bureau of indian affairs actively fought each other for control of reservation projects. two military officers even fought over their unauthorized, personal scheme to move the navajo to the far north. in addition, apache and navajo, long time enemies, were confined to the same reservation, and the original intent of the reservation had been to create a barrier to prevent northern indians from raiding southward, putting the disarmed navajo and apache directly in danger. haunted by peril, home sickness, dysentery, malaria and new venereal diseases, first the apache slipped away en mass, followed by navajo in small groups. there were enough honest soldiers and b.i.a. agents to motivate an investigation by congress, but true to type this only produced mountains of red tape. after four years of misery the navajo were allowed to walk home, a home that now by treaty was one seventh its original size, while of their original 250,000 sheep only 1,000 remained, and of 60,000 horses only 1,500 remained. they were given 15,000 sheep and goats, and in 1884 the reservation was extended by 8,000 square miles. not until after world war two did even a third of navajos obtain a white education. today they number about 200,000, the largest nation in the u.s.a. few find the white culture of shifting homes and small families attractive.

the cherokee – the trail of tears
the cherokee home was originally in georgia, the carolinas and tennessee.  they were living on the same level as the europeans, farming and raising animals, and quickly adopted the spinning wheels and looms and farming equipment. they were peaceful and cultured, and were commonly better educated than the whites who attacked them. a half breed sachem named sequoyah invented a syllabary and by 1822 most cherokee could read and speak both english and cherokee.  from 1785 to 1902 the cherokee signed twenty five treaties with the whites, eighteen of which gave up land. after the revolutionary war, because they had sided with the british they lost the carolinas and tennessee. even so, squatters went beyond treaty boundaries, and when the indians complained, GEORGE WASHINGTON said “ more than ten thousand people are seated on these lands and they cannot be removed…”  twenty one years after the  1798 treaty of tellico the lands they had been promised had shrunk to one third of its former size. in 1802 as part of georgia ceding land to the federal government, the u.s.a. promised to remove all indians from georgia. THOMAS JEFFERSON wanted to move all eastern indians to the louisiana purchase. in 1828 those cherokee living in arkansas were again persuaded to move west. in 1828 gold was discovered on the land of the remaining eastern cherokee, and georgia pressed its agreement with washington to remove all indians. with “indian killer” ANDREW JACKSON’S election to president, cherokee creek, seminole, choctaw and chickasaw were moved west to indian territory, which was to become oklahoma. georgia put cherokee under martial law to that they could be legally harassed and jailed on any excuse, and they were not allowed to to mine gold on their own land. at this point they had a national bilingual newspaper, many were large property owners, and had a long tradition of marrying with whites. after a missionary was imprisoned for working with the cherokee his case went before the federal supreme court, who ruled that georgia’s indian expulsionlaws were unconstitutional. president andrew jackson said,

under georgia’s martial law indians were denied the right to assemble. the treaty of 1830 gave up all cherokee land, parts of which were sold to gold seekers for 30,000 dolars for 40 acres. many moved west willingly, considering the circumstances. a general sent to oversee the removal of those who remained often protected them from marauding georgians and as a result was charged with disturbing the peace. the next president, martin van buren, said “no state can achieve proper culture, civilization and progress as long as indians are permitted to remain.” twenty three stockaded detention camps were set up and cherokee slowly gathered into them. people were taken from there homes and fields with no chance to prepare for the journey and families were often split up by circumstance. almost all lost all their belongings and many were herded like animals, prodded by bayonets, beaten and insulted. scavengers looted their homes and even their graves and burned their homes for mere vandalism. 2,400 cherokee were removed by boat on a long journey on the tennessee, ohio, and arkansas rivers. after that a severe drought rendered the rivers unusable and a arduous overland trail of 800 miles was planned for 13,000 cherokee despite wells and springs being dried up. while waiting in crowded detention camps during the summer, 500 cherokee died. the autumn rains made trails almost imoassable for travels, with wagons sinking into mud up to their axles. one greatly overloaded ferry sank killing 100 people. pnumonia, tuburculosis, small pox and cholera spread rapidly throughout the migrating people weakened by starvation and earlier epidemics. official contractors and profit seekers both at the beginning and along the trail charged incredible prices for food and, even with so many deaths,  the hunger of the people only increased. at this time president van buren said in an address to the senate that the migration had been

4,000 people, almost one fifth of the cherokee nation, died on the journey. the first settlers on the reservation, who had not experienced the horrors of the forced march, were deeply divided from later immigrants, who claimed that the earlier group had broken a sacred trust by giving up their lands, and long feuds sprang up that engulfed the whole nation. much later a public school system was arranged, which was much better than white schools, graduates attaining as high as princeton university and other eastern colleges. flat boats and steamers connected the nation to nearby forts and even new orleans. roads were built and farms were prosperous, towns settled, and there were salt and lead mines. they started the first newspaper in oklahoma, and continued their easter practice, with samuel worcester who had traveled west with them, of printing books, leaflets and bibles. courts and peace officers were established, and the national light horde police were well organized and fended off most of the lawlessness that was then characteristic of the west. however, they had no power over intruding whites, such as the bootleggers who caused much misery and destruction of families, and the army was called in to patrol the boarders but were often more trouble than the traders.  the civil war destroyed the cherokee nation, which was in between warring factions, partially because within it black slaver was legal if not universally practiced, mostly by the mixed breeds, and because encroaching southern victories made neutrality impossible, and this reopened old east/west rivalries. 7,000 died during the civil war, many at the hands of other cherokee. as a conquered territory after the civil war the cherokee were forced to accept railroads across their land, which brought more white settlers. the federal government forced the selling of large tracts of the reservation and pressed to disband land held in commona cherokee was the first senator from by the nation. oklahoma, for almost a twenty year term, and others were in the house of representatives. a cherokee was the chief justice of the oklahoma supreme court. the nationally renowned humorist will rogers, known for his horse sense and populist ideals, was a cherokee.

below. "five hundred" is a bit more than a radical clique.

let's not be dewy eyed about any culture. there is solid evidence for warfare, slavery and cannibalism in various native american cultures. among the nomadic cultures it was common for the very old to simply be abandoned. the aztecs sacrificed 20,000 people a year to their gods, or just to dedicate a new building.  while some reported an amazingly innocent and happy culture in the far north, tales are common of the old days where eskimo mothers kill baby girls to spare them an impossibly hard life.

back to the system 

a government says your poverty isn’t really that bad, while a mafia says give us what you have or we’ll hurt you. is the difference that great? the easiest way for mafias in the u.s.a. to avoid prosecution is to corrupt juries: one person, on being found innocent despite overwhelming proof, said, “i love the legal system in this country.” in an effort to circumvent the government, they have a decades old program to convert moneys from illegal schemes to legal ownership of large businesses. who really believes the propaganda that government prosecution has the mafias on the way out. after all, the f.b.i. under hoover said that they didn’t even exist!!!!! the russian mafia is MONOLITHIC beyond the comprehension of anyone used to the italians, reaching every place that isn’t black or oriental. hong kong was the financial center for the  oriental heroin trade. how many realize that with the communist take over there the oriental mafia moved to TORONTO, CANADA and DENMARK? canada lets anyone immigrate who has a large amount of money. do you think these are quiet business men who won’t bring a whole range of influences with them?

in EL SALVADORE IN 1932 the government began killing peasants to stop an uprising against poverty and injustice. over decades 30,000 die in a minute country.

failure begets a roman caste system
don’t raise your head in singapore, where you go to jail for chewing gum. in the later day roman empire, citizens were totally terrorized by the legionares in their daily lives, even in rome itself. as the economy collapsed under greed and unworkable expansionist policies, in order to stabilize the economy laws were passed mandating that children must work the trade of their fathers, and a childbearing quota was established. in a few hundred more years this may have looked very similar to the indian caste system. 

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