"There’s work to do, and lots to figure out. Everything is raw right now. I’ll be better after some rest; I might even be back to my usual cheerful self next week.
In the meantime, be kind to each other, walk in another person’s shoes for awhile. If not you, who?"
This is such a thought provoking piece of writing. There is indeed work to do. Your writing is part of that work. So, thank you for putting the words down and getting them out there and initiating these difficult but necessary conversations.
This has been bothering me for a little while now. I hear a land acknowledgement and I think it's a good thing. These last few years, I have been pleased to have the pre-colonial geography of this land more regularly remembered to my attention. It's good education.
But then what? I "nod gravely once or twice," honestly. And then I just...feel bad about colonialism? Well yes, I do that generally; it's a shitty legacy. But it's reality, and just disliking it won't mitigate it. So thanks for articulating why land acknowledgements are not enough.
The tax-based redistributions you suggest are so reasonable I had to check my (incorrect) reaction that insisted the US must already do those things. I *know* it doesn't, and also, why the heck not? I still make this mistake often: a basic logical and just thing must be policy already, right, here in the land of the free and the home of the automatically taxed-for-community-services? I grew up in that kind of naively patriotic worldview; it's a heck of a trip to come off of.
I live on an “open” Rez, Colville, where it seems easier for non-Members to open and operate a business than Members. The fact that the County is very conservative with few regulations while the Tribe tends to be more regulatory is a barrier. Another barrier seems to be the Council, whose membership routinely changes and, when it does, a new clutch of appointed bureaucrats follows them in. Appreciate the ideas in your article.
"There’s work to do, and lots to figure out. Everything is raw right now. I’ll be better after some rest; I might even be back to my usual cheerful self next week.
In the meantime, be kind to each other, walk in another person’s shoes for awhile. If not you, who?"
This is such a thought provoking piece of writing. There is indeed work to do. Your writing is part of that work. So, thank you for putting the words down and getting them out there and initiating these difficult but necessary conversations.
This has been bothering me for a little while now. I hear a land acknowledgement and I think it's a good thing. These last few years, I have been pleased to have the pre-colonial geography of this land more regularly remembered to my attention. It's good education.
But then what? I "nod gravely once or twice," honestly. And then I just...feel bad about colonialism? Well yes, I do that generally; it's a shitty legacy. But it's reality, and just disliking it won't mitigate it. So thanks for articulating why land acknowledgements are not enough.
The tax-based redistributions you suggest are so reasonable I had to check my (incorrect) reaction that insisted the US must already do those things. I *know* it doesn't, and also, why the heck not? I still make this mistake often: a basic logical and just thing must be policy already, right, here in the land of the free and the home of the automatically taxed-for-community-services? I grew up in that kind of naively patriotic worldview; it's a heck of a trip to come off of.
Ooohhh... a toll! That might wake up some people! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I live on an “open” Rez, Colville, where it seems easier for non-Members to open and operate a business than Members. The fact that the County is very conservative with few regulations while the Tribe tends to be more regulatory is a barrier. Another barrier seems to be the Council, whose membership routinely changes and, when it does, a new clutch of appointed bureaucrats follows them in. Appreciate the ideas in your article.