Bird Droppings September 15, 2011
A few ramblings

“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator.” W. Beran Wolfe

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” Voltaire

Sitting pondering and wondering as I think about all that is going on in the world. I went out it seemed every hour on the hour with our dog. A bark or two and we head back in I was ready to kill all four legged creatures about three this morning. However as I stared at the night sky about three in the morning, Orion’s belt stood out among the encircling clouds. Had I been a few minutes later or earlier and I would not have seen Orion. So I forgave my dog and headed back to bed.
Interesting as we listen to politicians argue over who is best at solving our economic issues, stopping illegal immigration, and or fighting a war, I have a student working up a detailed report on each of current presidential candidates. In recent days I haven’t heard a word over who will strive for peace and equality, just about how I and that is always a capital I can solve the economic issues and about how long it will take to get troops out of the various wars we are in. I have listened to far too many times that leaving Iraq would be a sign of weakness. It seems right now any effort at peace and solidarity is weakness.
Yesterday I was looking up information on Lawton Oklahoma, home of Fort Sill and next door to the Wichita Mountain Nation Wildlife preserve. It seems in early 1900’s Lawton was created in one of the last land rush’s of the old west. All of the area of what was then Indian Territory was put into one hundred sixty acre parcels. Most of this was divided out of Comanche and Apache lands deemed Indian Territory at the time, old maps still read that way. A lottery was held and land divided up and in an instant a town of over twenty five thousand was next door to Fort Sill in tents.
A few years later Oklahoma was a state. The Great War chief Geronimo is buried at Fort Sill back in a corner where an Indian gave yard was established. It seems Teddy Roosevelt in a politic move at the time refused the old man a last visit to his sacred mountains in New Mexico and Arizona to die and be buried. So one day he was found in a gutter drunk and dying in Lawton’s streets. It seems Roosevelt did not want to lose those western voters who still had memories of Geronimo’s last days as a free man pillaging and plundering settlers in his land.

“The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other.” Goyathlay (“one who yawns”), Geronimo

Only after battles with the Mexicans and his frenzied attacks did the name Geronimo attach, story goes he was attacking so fiercely the Mexicans were calling out to St. Jerome as he attacked, a local patron saint and the Indians heard Geronimo and so it stuck. In 1886 the last guerilla fighters of the west were sent to prison in Florida and a year or so later finally settled on the reservation at Fort Sill. Promises of returning to the sacred White Mountains were never kept.
How did I get into a history lesson on one of the most hated of Native American warriors to many in the south west? Each morning when I first start on the computer I check news and such occasionally weather. Today candidates for president are tearing at each other over who can stop the flow of money out of our government and stop the war in Iraq and or who can get troops home first. The whole concept of politics is built on who can provide the most compelling story to win the needed votes. It is about taking away that aspect of thinking for our selves, Voltaire was so fervently for. I loved the statement and promise of two dollar gas when I get elected. Most recently it was less than that for George W. Bush on his inauguration day and on Barrack Obama’s. During Bush’s term it went higher than any time in history, so how is getting gas to two dollars a vote getter if you look at gas prices historically.
Several years’ back I helped a fellow relocate to Odessa Texas seems he wanted to move again and Lawton came up. I have spent many days in Lawton and walked to the grave of Geronimo several times. Somehow Voltaire led to Geronimo and into and out of politics. Whether in 1900’s or today we are held hostage to politics, and the spin of the media. We sit and listen some argue the news is biased some will say one way and others say the exact opposite. An old man near death was refused visiting rights to his homeland and continued to be a prisoner of war till he died at Fort Sill because of politics.
I often wondered what if we had not gone to war to steal the lands of Native Americans what would have happened. What if those many years ago we chose to believe in racial equality and issues of them and us never occurred. What if there had been no slavery in the United States and those road side stands that sell giant confederate flags would not be around here in Georgia. The term red neck might truly mean sunburn on a farmer.

“I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.” Geronimo

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.” Voltaire

As news stories flood us with bits and pieces and politicians try and persuade us to vote for them we still have as Voltaire states “the privilege of doing so”. I would just hope that we could soon begin talking peace and truly try and resolve issues that have kept human kind in constant strife. Perhaps one day greed will be overcome. Perhaps one day having more than everyone else will be a thing of the past. Maybe one day the gold eagle that used to sit atop Geronimo’s grave will be replaced by those who took it years ago. Maybe until then please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your heart.
namaste
bird