Palaver from Persimmon Crossing
with Warren Faulk
Crazy Horse ... Terrorist
For whatever reason I find myself comparing the situation in the Middle East to what happened here between native americans and whites.
By today's definitions, Cochise, Sitting Bull and Geronimo would be considered terrorists. Back then they were called Savages. Give them a catchy name and it is easier to see them as something less that human, less than "us". Hun, Gook, Zip, Slope, Raghead. It's the American way ... the Great White Way. But racism isn't the bottom line. It is just a way of keeping things neatly grouped as them and us. The real bottom line is greed. They have something and we want it. With indians it was land and the earth's bounty. We took it and pushed them into remote corners and made it sound like they were the bad guys. Exactly how is the situation in Iraq different? Were it not for oil, would any of us have cared if Iraq invaded Kuwait? Give me three names.
So how will history treat this era? Will we be victorious? How will victory be measured? We will control the oil but it will still be running out. We may have the upper hand with the Arabs but they will still hate us. We may have pushed back the move to alternative fuels and finished off many of our cities with pollution by the use of brute force but what about the force of our intellect, our morals, compassion?
There is a telling line in the big screen version of the movie Tombstone. Val Kilmer, portraying the ailing Doc Holiday, with a tubercular voice says,
"Wyatt, given enough time you can rationalize anything."
Have you ever met a citizen of Iraq? Are all of them just alike? Could you tell one from a Hopi indian? Me neither, and I'm not ready to kill them all off without checking to see if they like to fish or ride horses or love their grand children like I do.
-- Warren Faulk
Smarr, Georgia
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