Richard Oxman

> “I go numb trying to settle scores. Help others? That’s a worse proposition for me. I look out for Number One the easiest way possible…on The Green.” — The author’s awful neighbor

> “If Bolivia’s indigenous see better days now, what astute political analysts are going to be able to dismiss the contribution made –so long ago– by Che’s violent escapades in that region?” — The author’s decent neighbor

Doug Weaver, Mark Wiebe, Jerry Pate and Nick Price each aced the 159-yard sixth hole at the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., within a one-hour, 50-minute span of the second round on June 16, 1989. Only 17 hole-in-ones had been recorded previously for the U.S. Open which began in the early 20th-century. That particular hole had never been aced before, and has been only once since.

Anyone who isn’t totally silenced/sliced-in-half by the above paragraph…is invited…to stay away from me…until they *play a few more rounds*.

And speaking of living…and the number “17,” some of you may have missed the following from a Reuters report (June 15):

**”Seventeen teens have killed themselves in recent months in Cheyenne River, and the deaths were typical of teen suicides among American Indians, experts told a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, as they asked for funding for programs to target the problem.**

**’Some of these suicides were young men who had made a suicide pact with one another. They drew numbers, and decided to hang themselves in that order. One by one their families found these boys, often hanging in their homes, as their number came up,’ said Julie Garreau, executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.”**

I don’t know the names of the seventeen youths, but…most of my readers are not going to even have heard of the…recent horrors. The suicides did not make the national news like the March 21 shooting attack by 16-year-old Jeff Weise, a Chippewa Indian living on the Red Lake reservation in Minnesota. That *made-for-TV* headline circulated ’round the world via our *scamcorders*. Weise killing 10 people, including himself, fit much more easily into a format that…soiled Amerikan brats could digest\*.

\*No, I didn’t have a *spelling lapse* in the last sentence.

It’s too bad that concerned Native Americans themselves still harbor faith in this country being interested in addressing reservation poverty, shame, alcoholism, drug abuse, and its sordid white-dominated history…or current sociological *schtick*. Consider the following:

“We are heartbroken that it may have taken an incident like the school shootings at the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota to bring national attention to the crisis our children are facing in Indian Country, but are so relieved that someone is finally hearing our voices,” Garreau told a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

The genocide and ecocide which expands geometrically now –using traditional Native American life as a point of departure– ignores what has long been on the table (dis)respecting Indian affairs, values. There is zero to look forward to with regard to our Feds riding in on a white horse…*to the rescue*.

Inuit hunters, according to another recent Reuters report, threatened by a melting of the Arctic ice plan to file a petition accusing Washington of violating their human rights by fueling global warming. Petitions. Paper. Fine and dandy. But a Scotish *randy* and/or fines and findings will not rectify the horrors underscored here. In fact, it’s suicidal to be involved in shooting for such a hole-in-one.

The federales’ fairway itself…is far too far away…to have a shot.

And speaking of shooting, the Wiese killings –why or why couldn’t his name have been Wiebe?– make me think of what –spiritual considerations impossibly put aside for the moment– …what would have been the result of my sending, say, $500 to each of those suicidally-bent youths…early enough…to enable them to fly to Los Gatos…where I live.

Assuming that I couldn’t have saved their lives…the 500 buckeroos (x 17) could have secured one-way tickets for them all to this Lexus Land of mine.

Why? Why what? For…what reason? Or…why am I being so… *disrespectful*? Flip?

Okay, let’s do be serious for a moment. Which means that readers too…have to disabuse themselves of silly notions…like ones which suggest that there’s hope on the horizon following traditional Amerikan values. Whilst leaving traditional Indians in the dust (to dust realm).

Ashes, that’s what I see. Ashes from the fires that could have come down…by having those Injuns come to town. Round the a) police station, b) real estate office #1, c) golf pro clubhouse, d) mayor’s office, e) hummer dealership…and so on. Blowing themselves up, one by one, taking something with them…as the international media discover something they can’t ignore, can’t explain…can’t bore us to death with….

Anymore. Starting something new…no worse than the holes we currently dig. [1]

Anyway…I’m open. Golf course toxicity aside for the moment (to deal with this larger issue), I’m open to how you think we can make ourselves whole. One.

Fatal Footnote:

[1] The Native American Genocide…our Mutual Ecocide…moves on, momentum increasing as a function of our not truly acknowledging what’s going on. Politically correct lip service is all that’s mouthed. To say that one would not want one’s own children to get blown up by some “terrorist” act, designed to improve *perception*, has zero to do with the value of every “monument to democracy” being leveled. And all the *innocents* who might be carried away in such carnage could not equal institutionally-sanctioned crimes…for 40,000 years hence.

Special Note: I almost titled this article differently, with the made-up word “Scamcorder” in the heading…making reference to a documentary I saw recently. The film was one of those which featured American missionaries helping kids overseas; this particular one focused on abandoned Russian children. It occured to me that –intentionally or otherwise– such fare serves to reinforce the notion that *all’s basically alright in America*. Anyone with the slightest clue respecting how bad it is for Native American youths would hesitate before using that passport for “good works” abroad. For a number of reasons.