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Gary G Gach "Compassion" "Beginner's mind" "Close to the nose" "Speech as she is spoke" "Tailoring"

U N Indigenous Peoples Day

August 26, 2009, 6:50 pm

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dancer.gif

IN full regalia, Gus introduces his fancy dancing as "the oldest dances done on this continent ... oldies but goodies!  Yeehaw!!!"  50+ years, w/ 3 or 4 broken toe bones, he's doing alright. Never mind that he & 7 or 8 Aztec dancers from Mexico in full costume & all the rest of us were not even permitted in for 2 hours. Someone had booked the Veterans' building long in advance, but, the morning of the event, the older, blonde guard behind the front desk was holding it up over some alleged conflict.  
One native tried showing her his veteran's I.D., but she wouldn't look at it: it wasn't laminated! Ink-smeared dead tree, not enough: she wants non-biodegradable plastic ... and, in all places, here in Green San Francisco, right across from City Hall!  In this very building where the UN charter was signed into existence.  
"The problem is ... your European mindset," the vet told her, laughing at it all, and walking away.
A gal from across the Pond comments to me the US will never apologize for,  much less recognize,  the genocide of her First Peoples — because then they'd have to pay reparations.
Meanwhile, America's treatment of its indigenous has become a precedent cited by other nations.
Yeehaw?!