|
 Randolph Runs After |
"Sanitarian's
Corner"
West River Eagle - March 13, 2008
by Randolph
Runs After
|
You want to celebrate the time honored virtue of bravery as well as humility of Staff Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble, a Sisseton Wahpeton tribal member who finally, although posthumously, received his well deserved Medal of Honor citation from President Bush on Monday, March 3rd, for heroic actions during an intense firefight during the Korean War. In doing so Mr. Keeble became the first Teton Sioux to ever achieve such a medal. The actions Mr. Keeble completed border on being "Rambo-like" in nature in single handedly saving men, eliminating entrenched enemy positions, and all the while being the main target of a lot of enemy firepower trying to stop him. Also a veteran of World War 2 and the Pacific campaign against the Japanese, Mr. Keeble exemplified his courage in protecting his homeland and people in a time where it was more clear who was trying to do what. In the presentation ceremony President Bush mentioned that Mr. Keeble who is deceased and whose wife is also deceased, and who were represented by 2 empty chairs, would not be able to know the feeling of receiving those medals, that his courage was being celebrated that day, and also knowing that things had finally been made right. Those with a little more insight know that Mr. Keeble was indeed very much there and actually sitting in his chair with wife at side hearing every word being spoken in his honor from those in attendance. It ain't all about sitting on a cloud playing a harp. That hitch in the step of those people wearing Vikings gear isn't an illusion as the main thorn in those Minnesota Vikings side in the name of Brett Favre, will no longer be around to break their hearts in the fourth quarter on Sundays anymore. Considered by the local Mississippi Choctaw, one of the more progressive tribes in the U.S. as one of their "own", Favre has retired and this time it seems there's no returning at the last minute. What can you say except the man has skills and was fun to watch except when it was your team he was using those skills against. Have a great retirement dude. Just about everyone who seen it said the Red Cloud
and St. Thomas More basketball regional final was one of the best
games ever played with the Crusaders advancing to the state tournament.
Good sportsmanship was also what you heard a lot of as the 2 juggernauts
went at it. Isn't that what it's all about? In college hoops, one
of the best games I've seen in awhile was a perennial favorite of
mine, U.C.L.A. beating Stanford who possesses a couple 7 foot Hispanic
twins who are as good as advertised. Don't look now but that fever
you might be getting minus the coughing, sneezing, phlegm, watery
cross eyes, and irritated looks from others reluctant to shake your
hand just might be, gulp, March madness setting in. One new research study I found that was on the edge of being interesting and borders on just plain freaky, is a malaria study being touted by the Seattle Bioresearch Institute that will pay volunteers 4 thousand dollars to be bitten by malaria infected mosquitoes. The study is testing vaccine response. Because malaria kills almost 2 million people each year throughout the world which a large chunk being children under the age of 5 you want to see it eradicated at some point. This disease is caused by a parasite and requires infected human hosts to move along it's life cycle and once you have it, unfortunately, it's in your body for good hiding in your liver periodically getting you ill whenever it erupts. Yeah, I know, don't mention mosquitoes yet. Happy Easter to all. |
"Sanitarian's Corner"
West River Eagle - March 10, 2008
by Randolph Runs After
Can you believe there's more than 8 months to go before national, state, and tribal elections and yet it feels like it's tomorrow with fast and furious attacks between the last 3 standing federal candidates. It's an election year of firsts. You have an older 70 plus year old war vet who many conservatives liken to a liberal in sheep's clothing on one side, a woman whose husband is a former, once popular president himself and an African American candidate whose energizing presence has belied the well accepted fact that he's considered "black" despite having a caucasian mother.
Attacks will undoubtedly get more concerted with every spoken word examined, and any tidbit of background information sought that could give the other candidates a perceived edge being careful to not have something backfire. Despite being born, raised, and graduating from Punahou High School in Hawaii, the same high school good friends of mine send their kids to, Sen. Obama already is feeling the sting of attacks with racial overtones insinuating his stance of being "soft" on Muslims.
Has this country truly advanced enough to elect a person of color or a woman to it's highest seat? Will that mean streak of finding others who don't match our ideals of a physical presence overcome the goodness I believe that is in all of us? You have some of the most racist people in this world in this country hating others different from them and yet they'll go to church on Sunday and worship a Hebrew man of long hair and darker complexion. Isn't that a trip. Time will tell.
In the personal nature of the game, the arena of national, state, and tribal politics is littered with the bodies of those who did the wrong thing, said the wrong thing, slept with the wrong person, or just plain screwed up in a hundred other ways. In this day and age of the internet, electronic mail, cell phones with cameras, digital photography, what one politician did the night before be it at the national convention, the town hall meeting, or the NCAI meeting is heard and passed among people the very next day to their chagrin and embarrassment. It's difficult in any manner to find someone who has a clean professional and personal record enough to even consider a run for any office with any skeleton being brought out by those who choose to and to just do it.You want to believe that people are looking out on your behalf as we pretty much are at the mercy of the elected. That all being said, I believe those meetings with junior and high school students by elected leadership that were initiated by some progressive souls awhile back need to continue. Not for people to get beat on but for that precious link to harvest ideas, concerns, hopes, and establish that we're in this thing together to bring prosperity and change in how we do things, how we treat each other, and how we want our future to be. Who better to plant those seeds in than those younger and not too old to not learn new tricks youth? If that doesn't give you a reality check you need to find a new line of work.
From politics to surfing: I'm going to make a similar analogy so bear with me. I'm a fire sign but I've always found the art of surfing interesting. No not just internet surfing. I've never been any good at it the times I've tried it since you find out quickly those large rocks under those waves hurt just as bad as falling on one outside water. And no, I'm not referring to those monster waves at Rousseau Creek. I've been fortunate to be able to personally witness (from the cliffs) the death defying big wave surfing on the island of Maui known as Peahi or "Jaws" where waves hit from 40 to 80 feet at times as seen in the documentary movie, "Riding Giants." It's those hardy souls challenging against nature, maybe similar to the adrenaline rush a skier on a virgin mountainside or a bull rider on a perfect ride might feel and sometimes nature say's not this time buddy.The point is those waves are huge, dangerous, and unstoppable and those hardy souls choose to face and be a part of them as a choice. Our own personal and professional lives on this reservation and others are currently on top of one of those big dangerous waves flowing in time, some of it our own choice, that will define whether we bite it and wipe out badly, ride the curl in unison, or simply bail off to fight another day.
Put the wax on folks, surf's up.
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