After some thinking on this, I realized that this is the first election since Facebook really became essential to our culture. I remember joining Facebook in 2005, not really sure what it was and certainly not knowing that it would become so significant to the way that people spoke to each other. More importantly, I never thought I'd watch hundreds of "friends" bash each other on Facebook for months over this night, the night where the United States finds out who will be the president for the next four years. I'll be honest and say that I've actually removed easily ten "friends" from my Facebook Newsfeed. I support your freedom of expression, but I have the freedom to walk away from you when you're expressing yourself in an offensive way.
Let me step down from my Facebook rant.
This election process has been really interesting around Pine Ridge, since the tribal elections have been happening at the same time. Instead of expensive commercials bashing the opponents, I've seen cardboard or plywood signs advertising the different candidates alongside the road. Tribal members voted today for the representatives of each district, as well as the Tribal President, Vice-President and other representatives. These elections happened at the same time and place as the United States Government elections.
I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a new friend today, since she was on her way back from voting. She is a non-Native teacher at a school on the Reservation. I've experienced primarily Obama supporters in my travels, aside from one man, who said that God spoke to him and told him to vote for Romney. To this, a woman in the room said that God spoke to her and told her to vote for Obama. Interesting, huh?! I asked this teacher if the young people in her high school classes have much to say about the US Presidential election. She exclaimed, "Oh yes!" She went on to say that the students asked her, "What will happen to us if Romney's elected?"
Reading hurtful comments from middle and upper-class Facebook friends, bashing one another about politics, seems even more obnoxious when you hear that teenagers are actually terrified of what will happen to their lives, their families, their tribe and their land, should Romney be elected. Terrified.
This broke my heart.
I have no intention of making this a "political" blog post, since I refuse to have one more place where people say hateful things to each other, on both ends of the political spectrum. I do say this though as information, information about what a group of Indian teenagers thinks about their future.
In watching some of the post-election coverage, one announcer said that it was impressive that Obama was re-elected with the United States unemployment rate at 8%. This caught my attention, since I currently live in the third-poorest county in the United States: Shannon County. While the United States has an 8% unemployment rate right now, Shannon County, which is entirely on the Reservation, has an 80% unemployment rate. The teenagers aren't terrified because of Mitt's haircut or Obama's birth certificate, but they're terrified because their very lives depend on who leads the United States government in determining the fate of the indigenous people of this land.
I'm not sure what else to say here...again, so I figure I'll share an image that made me smile tonight. The kids that I see every day have some of the best smiles in the entire world. And they give the best hugs. And they make me laugh...constantly. One child came in with the word "poop" written on her face the other day. She's four. She has a big brother. You do the math.
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| Isn't he the cutest??? |
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| I let the kids use my camera tonight, so take this as a sign of my political beliefs. Peace, between all people. On Facebook and off. Let's work on it, folks. |
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