Well, Whatever: Speaking up in defense of Yellowstone buffalo
By JOHN POTTER
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/10/19/build/opinion/potter.inc
WARNING: There is absolutely nothing humorous in what you are about to read, and the opinions expressed herein, I'm pretty sure, do NOT reflect those of ANYONE at the Billings Gazette - its editor, delivery-personnel, stockholders or heirs.
Recently, my old buddy Roger Clawson (and many others) have hinted that my tirades in this column may be a sign that I need to learn to "move on," and perhaps find ways to relax.
I disagree. I have not tiraded. I have yet to tirade. Until now, I have only fussed and driveled. THIS will be a tirade. Perhaps even a fume.
OK.
Signs of bad winter
We Indians rely on many signs, provided to us by nature, to let us know when a bad winter is coming. For me, these include:
Increasing pain in my many-times-sprained left ankle
Changing to flannel sheets on the bed by late September
Seeing a lot of white guys in the hills gathering wood
Seeing that Montana Department of Livestock agents are already killing Yellowstone's buffalo by October.
Let the tirade begin.
Listen - if you are employed by the DOL, or any other like-minded, imbecilic federal agency, and you have harassed, hazed, herded, shot, slaughtered or even bothered a buffalo - or have promoted this murderous behavior (Gov. Martz) - then this column goes out to you. There are very, very few people in this world that I dislike. You people, I just plain despise. With a vigor.
I find it difficult to even imagine how you can live with yourselves, or look yourselves in the mirror, or honestly believe that you're doing something good for the world.
Prayers for enlightenment
For years I have prayed for your souls to be enlightened - that the Creator will lift the ignorance from your dark and twisted hearts - and that you'll lay down your anger, and your weapons, against the buffalo. I can no longer find a good place in my heart for you, and instead I find myself praying that you go straight to your white man's hell as swiftly and surely as possible - do not pass purgatory.
What you are doing is wrong. You are murdering a sacred being. You are destroying the last vestige of a wild and free America. You are causing irreparable damage to the buffalo, to their gene pool, to the health of the ecosystem, and to the hearts of many, many people - not to mention to your own pitiful souls.
Killing these animals is a crime. And, as Detective Carter says in "Rush Hour 2," behind every big crime there is a rich white man. I'm lookin' for you, boy.
Imperialist attitude
You are killing the People. All the People. To me, you're just the second (or third, or fourth) coming of the same old imperialist attitude that washed up on Plymouth Rock 400 years ago. To me, you're the same people who, 150 years ago, shot Indian kids for target practice and killed and butchered innocent Indian women. You called it "war."
Now your "war" is with the innocent women and children of the buffalo.
My own heart is heavy and sad with the horror that you inflict. These animals are just being buffalo, crossing some imaginary line on your map and in your heart. In my wild and free youth, I'd have gone out and killed every stinking cow I found anywhere NEAR Yellowstone in retaliation, and I'd drive an arrow through its heart into the ground until the country bristled like a porcupine with my arrows.
Mike Mease of the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group of young people who stand between the buffalo and the DOL, said it best. He said, "Folks with no wildlife management skills should not be managing these animals."
"Managing" equals murder.
Stop killing these buffalo.
There, Roger. I have spoken.
Space, and time, prohibits a proper tirade ... I've got to prepare for a long, bloody winter.
Ka dish day shila aash,
David
Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sign the Petition. http://petitiononline.com/Release/petition.html
==^^=============================================================== This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1ddNB.b2HgmN.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^^===============================================================
