23-01-2009, 05:59 PM
That Mr. Peltier was railroaded cannot be in honest dispute.
At its deepest level, this is a spiritual conflict. Mr. Peltier and AIM represent forces that stand in timeless opposition to the savage materialism that gave birth to this country.
On a more prosaic level, Mr. Peltier reminds us of what to flag-waving Americans -- or, more precisely, to those whose power derives from the perpetuation of the secular religion known as nationalism -- is the most inconvenient of truths: the genocide of North American aboriginal peoples as the sine qua non for the very existence and subsequent physical expansion of the American political state.
Barack Obama must be made aware of Mr. Peltier's plight and asked to commute his sentence to time served. A full pardon is for the future; right now, we must save a life.
At its deepest level, this is a spiritual conflict. Mr. Peltier and AIM represent forces that stand in timeless opposition to the savage materialism that gave birth to this country.
On a more prosaic level, Mr. Peltier reminds us of what to flag-waving Americans -- or, more precisely, to those whose power derives from the perpetuation of the secular religion known as nationalism -- is the most inconvenient of truths: the genocide of North American aboriginal peoples as the sine qua non for the very existence and subsequent physical expansion of the American political state.
Barack Obama must be made aware of Mr. Peltier's plight and asked to commute his sentence to time served. A full pardon is for the future; right now, we must save a life.
Charles Drago
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene
Co-Founder, Deep Politics Forum
If an individual, through either his own volition or events over which he had no control, found himself taking up residence in a country undefined by flags or physical borders, he could be assured of one immediate and abiding consequence: He was on his own, and solitude and loneliness would probably be his companions unto the grave.
-- James Lee Burke, Rain Gods
You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
-- Graham Greene