From a Dusty Idaho Window (March 1 2014)

And it is a very dusty Idaho window.  In our local winter that never really was, there's a lot of dust and little rain or snow. Temps have been very moderate. Our house is over 5,000 feet in elevation and we sometimes get "weather" that Pocatello itself does not.  But this has been pretty dry up here and down there. There's been a fair amount of snow in the higher elevations and avalanches have been occurring in this region.   But where we are, it is now Spring.  It's very hard not to feel guilty about the disasters in much of the United States.

It's painful to look at the Arizona legislature and the leadership of the state.  In the old days, when the population of Arizona was far smaller than now, the Democratic party had strong populist dimensions.  The old Republican party was much smaller and pretty moderate in tone.  Proportionately, Labor was fairly strong and Mine-Mill, the strongest union in the state, had about 10,000 members.  Then came the economic carpetbaggers and the resultant growth of Monster Phoenix Metro, some copper mines played out or were closed because of market fluctuations, and in time Joe Arpaio and other ills bloomed and blossomed.  Northern Arizona is still mostly OK and Tucson holds on well to rationality.  But the now shadow of Phoenix Metro has a far reach.

If the Arizona legislature is strange, so is that of Idaho. The state has scorned much Federal health monies, has just passed a law making it  a crime to photograph brutality on livestock for animal rights purposes.  The legislature is now currently debating a law that would allow hand-guns to be carried by students and faculty at the colleges and universities in the state.  This proposal has many supporters and many opponents -- and the latter camp includes a number of academic administrators,

I am, of course, very strong on the Second Amendment, and the First and others as well, but I stop short of guns being carried around on campus.  (No issue about firearms being kept in dorms and Greek houses.)  I see it as dangerous and a big chill on the teaching/learning process.  More security guards, fine,  While we are in this genre, I might as well indicate that I found Ted Nugent's comments about Obama to be just plain foul.  Nugent likes the 2nd Amendment as, again, so do  I -- and I don't like Obama.  But the pits of his vulgarity are extraordinary.  (Part of his rant involved "mongrelization" -- a favorite nightmare of the Old Segs of Dixie.  On that note, I believe Rick Perry, Texas Gov, is 1/32 Choctaw.)  About the most reassuring thing about Nugent is that he's a mostly Texas problem.

Finally, it's clear that we're having some message problems on our lists.  These are mostly on Yahoo and the origins may be several.  But Yahoo's latest incarnation can be frustrating.  It's difficult to find anything resembling real assistance in the Yahoo home complex.  The last time I tried to do so, I was taken in a meaningless circle back to my point of origin -- with a message that said in effect, "This is all we can do."

Please check to make sure that your respective messages have made it through to turnaround.  If you have any doubt, have no hesitation about re-sending.  Feel free to send me the message and I will do my best to post it for you.

Nialetch  (Wabanaki, "As it will be.")

In Solidarity

Hunter Bear


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org  The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

SHOOTING LUPUS --  Driving this oft-lethal deadly 
disease of mine back into its genetic cave and into
impotency in an eight year war:
http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm

See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

See my  new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," 
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual: 
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm   

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)