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Thursday, September 18, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I encourage you, as Native people belonging to the different tribes and nations in the East, South, West and North, to preserve and keep alive your cultures, your languages, the values and customs which have served you well in the past, and which provide a solid foundation for the future."
- - Pope John Paul II (Speaking to Native Americans in Phoenix, Arizona, Sept. 18, 1987 )
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 18th
1987 -- Pope John Paul II, whose authority rests solely on 2,000 years of Christian tradition, speaks to Native American leaders in Phoenix, Arizona, urging them to forget the past, including the centuries long array of brutality put on Indigenous peoples around the world by the Church's representatives.
RHINO HERE:
Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is another appeal by the slouchy looking but never a slouch activist, Michael Moore. You'll remember that last week he urged his faithful to email general Wesley Clark to RUN! RUN! RUN! We did, & he did. He announced today. I'm already getting emails with links to articles calling him a war criminal, which I'll read & offer at a later date if they seem credible, but right now I'm enjoying the thought of the shrub gang quaking in their boots over the prospect of shrub running against a 30 year military man who's not afraid to call himself a liberal. But I digress.
In today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE, Michael gives 3 simple talking points to help us convince our hypnotized friends & relatives that shrub must go. But first...
I ask a favor today, that if you have friends or relatives in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, that you let them know about the world premiere this coming Sunday (9/21) of the latest fruit of my day job.
A SEAT AT THE TABLE; Struggling For American Indian Religious Freedom
will have it's world premiere on the closing night of The Amnesty International Film Festival.
in Salt Lake City, Sunday 9/21/03 at 7pm at Roland Hall, Larimer Center, 834 Lincoln (945 E - 800 S)
MORE INFO ON THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AT:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/filmfest/slc/2003/
A free pre-screening event
will be held from 4:30 till 6pm at The Indian Walk In Center of Salt Lake (120 West - 1300 South)
Anyone mentioning "Rhino's Blog" to director Gary Rhine gets into the screening free.
Doc Summary
In December of 1999, seven thousand spiritual leaders and scholars from around the world converged on Cape Town, South Africa, to participate in the 3rd Parliament of The World's Religions. Legendary Professor of religious studies, Huston Smith (The World's Religions) attended, and hosted one-on-one conversations with a delegation of 8 American Indian leaders regarding the problems Indian people face in practicing their ceremonies in this day and age. The program includes excerpts of messages by His Holiness The Dali Lama, South African President Nelson Mandela and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anon. The ceremonial opening of the week long Parliament flamboyantly displays the rich variety of religious traditions from around the world including the performance of an Iroquois ancestral song by Grammy nominated singer Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida), who also serves as narrator for the documentary.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/filmfest/slc/2003/sept21.html#table
Today's quote of the day by the Pope might seem a positive & supportive message to America's Indian people & I guess he probably meant it that way. Trouble is that while he was uttering the words & ever since, there've been Vatican operatives tromping over the faith based beliefs of Indian people on several fronts, not the least of which is The Mount International Observatory, in defense of which some Jesuit Astrophysicists testified in court that a mountain, long considered sacred by Apache people, was in fact not sacred. This from their PhD in theology opinion. Its a years long involved story that we deal with in the new documentary and unfortunately, a battle that thus far the Indians have not won.
http://www.mountgraham.org
http://personal.riverusers.com/~apaches4cultural
But every once in awhile, Indian people win one for their ceremonies. Here's a recent example.
Harjo: Prayers to Protect Salt Mother and Sacred Places
by Suzan Shown Harjo, Indian Country Today, August 08, 2003
The Salt River Project, an Arizona utility company, announced this week that it would relocate its coal strip mine from a sacred place near the Zuni Reservation in New Mexico to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. The 18,000-acre mine would have been sited 10 miles from the Zuni Salt Lake, home to Ma'lokyattsik'i Salt Mother, causing her disappearance over time. Project plans included a 44-mile railroad corridor that would have destroyed shrines, burial grounds and pilgrimage trails used for millennia by Zuni and other Native people...
IT'S ALL AT:
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1060357108
In the recent Democratic Presidential debate in New Mexico, the candidates, all tried their best to speak Spanish, & apparently were mistaken by some for a mariachi band. But none of them said word one about the American Indian people who are also prominent in the Southwest. So now word has it that several of the prexy wanna be's are courting the Indian vote, promising to make efforts to understand contemporary Indian issues & even respect the appropriate nation-to-nation relationships. 1st to make headlines on this front is front runner Howard Dean.
Presidential candidate receives tribal advice
Dean learns about economic and health crises in Indian country
by Brenda Norrell, Indian Country Today, September 16, 2003
PHOENIX - Arizona Indian leaders told Democratic candidate Howard Dean that future presidents of the United States should be prepared to have American Indians at their side as advisors and enter into consultation on a sovereign-to-sovereign basis. Fort Mohave Chairperson Nora McDowell told Dean that it is not good enough to have a Native advisory committee. If elected president, McDowell said Dean should have an Indian advisor seated next to him at the White House. Urging Dean to protect the sovereignty of Indian tribes rather than erode it, McDowell said, "We are not a special interest group, we are nations."
CHECK THE REST AT:
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1063726980
7:23:06 AM 
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Three Easy Pieces for Any Decent American
by Michael Moore, michaelmoore.com, September 15, 2003
There are many otherwise decent Americans who are either still on the fence about George W. Bush or they actually profess to like the man. They are the ones who make up the 58% approval ratings and the 64% who say they still believe the war was a good idea. You know these people well. They work next to you, or they sit in the classroom next to you, or they may even be sitting at your kitchen table right now!
I think that we need to hold out a hand to them, not in a partisan sort of way, and not with any condescension. I think that if we share with them a few pieces of information, and do it with common sense instead of politics, there is a chance we just might break through and turn things around. Perhaps it's my foolish optimism in the goodness that is in every person, and in their ability to ultimately know right from wrong.
I would like to give you three little vignettes to share with them. They are so simple and so shocking in their very content that, if you pass them around the office, the school, the neighborhood or the bedroom, it may just do the trick. Here they are:...
READ THEM AT:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2003-09-15
"RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com)
Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged.
SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT:
http://www.rhinosblog.info
RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES:
http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG)
http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES)
Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
6:18:51 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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