Peace of Pocahontas

I feel like I've got my life back. I deleted both my facebook pages four days ago after Donald Trump once again tweeted a racist remark about Elizabeth Warren following her speech at the Democratic Convention: Trump tweeted, "Pocahontas bombed last night! Sad to watch."

Apparently, Trump thinks it's funny to call Warren "Pocahontas." I do not.

My situation is not that different from Elizabeth Warren's. My family's story is that my great-grandmother on my mother's side was part-, or full-blooded, Native American; at least, that's what I've been told. But I cannot prove it. Once, I did find her name on some sort of Cherokee register at a Pow-Wow in Hopkinsville, Ky., but I don't know for certain that it was her. Nor do I know any way to find out. Warren's family story is that her great-great-great-grandmother was Cherokee; but just as myself, Warren cannot prove it. But why should she have to? And why should she deny it? Why should she stop telling the family story that was told to her? There is no reason to stop telling it. Warren has never used Affirmative Action or her assumed Native American heritage to advance her career. On May 20, 2012, The Atlantic reported that Warren, who graduated from the University of Houston in 1970 and got her law degree from Rutgers University in 1976, did not seek to take advantage of affirmative action policies during her education, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Boston Globe. On the application to Rutgers Law School she was asked, "Are you interested in applying for admission under the Program for Minority Group Students?" "No," she replied.

Harvard Law professor Charles Fried sat on the appointing committee that recommended Elizabeth Warren as a professor to Harvard Law School in 1995. He said there was never any mention of her Native American heritage during the hiring process. Yet despite that fact, rumors continue to circulate that Elizabeth Warren used affirmative action to get hired as a professor at Harvard Law School.

Warren is a member of the Democratic Party and a Senator from Massachusetts. She holds a seat on the Senate Banking Committee and doggedly fights to stop corruption in big banks, which has made her the target of attacks from the Republican Party, who openly wants very little regulation placed on Wall Street. But much to the credit of the forerunners to Trump in the Republican Party, they did not refer to her as Pocahontas.

I've watched Trump's followers on television laugh and jeer as he calls her Pocahontas, and I've recoiled at the sight of these arrogant, racist, bigots. Pocahontas, herself, was not a bad person. She spent much of her life promoting peace between the English and her Native American people of Virginia, the Powhatan. She converted to Christianity and married an Englishmen, John Rolfe. So, from one point of view, it could be considered a compliment to be called Pocahontas, but it is obvious Donald Trump is not complimenting Elizabeth Warren; quite the contrary, it is an obnoxious, arrogant verbal attack; in turn, he is attacking all Native Americans, and all those who have any Native American blood in their veins. Hence my anger: he is also attacking my heritage and me.  

But this is what we've come to expect from Donald Trump. He started his campaign by belittling Mexicans, calling them criminals, rapists and drug dealers; he mocked and jeered and made an unflattering imitation of Serge Kovaleski, a reporter with a congenital joint condition that limits movement in his arms; he's called for the United States, a country founded upon the freedom of religion, to ban Muslims from entering the country; he praises dictators like Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin, and even admired North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Un, for executing his uncle by stripping him naked and feeding him to 120 starving dogs. Just imagine what the Tea-Party would have said about Barack Obama if he had cozied up to dictators.

Rational people should ask themselves why they would want Donald Trump to be the President of the United States of America. Why would they want to elect a Hitler or Mussolini? Both were elected by a majority vote, I might add.

After Trump's tweet about Elizabeth Warren, I wrote on facebook that I was damn, sick and tired of Trump making racist comments about Native Americans. And then I went over the top, I must admit. I also wrote, "Fuck Trump, and if you like Trump, Fuck you, too." And therein I lost a moral war and Trump won. He achieved his goal: he succeeded in making me to sink to his level. Sure, I was ashamed of what I wrote, and I was going to delete it but I was in no hurry. I went to the kitchen and poured myself a strong one, because, as mentioned, I was pissed. I thought I needed a little something to knock the edge off. In my naiveté, I thought that none of my facebook friends would defend Trump for making fun of Native Americans. But I was wrong! I immediately got attacked for attacking Trump. And I attacked back. Before I knew it, I was in verbal war with an old friend, probably best described as an acquaintance. During this heated exchange, it suddenly occurred to me that I did not give a hoot-in-hell what he thought about me, about my opinion, or my comment, or anything. The man basically means nothing to me at all. And I wondered to myself, why am I verbally sparring with this guy? What a waste of my time.

And earlier that same day, I posted this silly comment on facebook:
"OMG, it's Monday. That means I have another week to witness the hatred, vitriol and vile political comments posted on facebook by people who claim to be good, decent, Christian folk. Post on, Brother; write on, Sister. God is our facebook friend."

Several comments were posted below mine. And the thread quickly digressed into an exchange about how churches abuse their tax-exempt status and openly dwell in politics and endorse candidates. Then a facebook friend of mine wrote, "I'll never forget seeing Gore in some black church in the south during the campaign. I'm thinking, how could someone do something so overtly illegal?"

This "so-called" facebook friend is a well-known conservative in our community. He and I got into a heated facebook debate several years ago that took several personal messages to mend the hard feelings on both sides. And here we are once again, back to square one, getting ready to go at it. And I thought, this is so damn boring.

So in my disgust, I responded to his Gore comment by saying, "Let's not take this thread into a mud slinging contest. You know both ( political parties ) do that. Good Lord, Trump spoke at Liberty University's chapel. Whew! This is the kind of debate I hoped to avoid. It's pointless. I'm too goddamn busy to go back and read how churches got introduced on this thread, but as a reminder, I was originally posting about the hatred, vitriol and vile political comments I see on facebook daily anymore. But, I must note that I have not seen you post those sorts of comments. I just wish love would prevail, and people would follow the better angels of their nature."

He responded and assured me he wasn't starting anything. He said he was simply recalling the first time he noticed churches abusing their tax-exempt status, and that both political parties do the same.

But then he went one step further. (Being the churchgoer that he is, I knew he would. ) He gave me the backhanded vocabulary lecture. "I purposefully do not post political posts," he said. "I do comment on other posts, but you will not see me get personal, use profanity, etc. I'd like to think I'm smarter than that and that I can, 1.) make a point without attacking the person; and, 2.) that I have a big enough vocabulary not to use the F word!"

Well, I didn't use the F word, but I did use the GD word and it was obvious he was talking down to poor little ole me, trying to teach me how to communicate with well-educated church folk, as himself. So I personally messaged him and said I hope he wasn't calling me down for cursing, and assured him that I wasn't cursing him. One thing I've noticed around churchgoers is that if you use the GD word or the F word or even the word "damn" during a debate, they immediately accuse you of cursing them. Then I furthermore explained that I grew up in an iron working family and cursing was par for the course. Thankfully, our messages were very cordial. It was obvious that he and I were both doing our best to avoid another heated conflict like the one we had over politics years before in the early days of facebook. During this exchange, it occurred to me that my conversation with him was a total waste of my time. I really didn't care what he thought of me. I barely know him. But while we were having this congenial conversation, he shared with me that some of his liberal facebook friends were causing him great distress, and that if he were not a man in a professional position, he would get off of facebook altogether.

*BING* A light bulb went off in my head. Why not? I thought. Why not get off of facebook? There are so few people on my "friends list" that are actually my "friends." And I have to be so careful what I write, careful not to state my liberal democratic views because whenever I do, I get attacked. The right-wing conservative trolls, many in my own family, come crawling out of their caves and sling darts and arrows and lash out jabs with their silver-tongued swords that probably even makes Satan himself wince. And it's a no-brainer that people who attack me for what I believe are not my friends, even if they are on my facebook "friends" list. They are just adversaries waiting to pounce, members of a social church waiting to publicly discipline me for stepping out of line, they are control freaks who want to make sure I say and do exactly what they want me to say and do, they are a lot of goddamn things but one thing is for certain, they are not my friends.

But my rational side kicked in and I didn't delete my facebook account that day. I do enjoy some of the things of facebook. I like people's travel photos and I love The Peter O'Toole Appreciation Page, the Keith Richards page, and many similar celebrity fan pages. So I went on about my business that day and forgot all about the temptation to delete my facebook accounts.

But as mentioned earlier in this text, later that night I fired off some nasty comments after Donald Trump called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas again. Then I once again found myself in another useless heated, nasty facebook exchange, this time my adversary even brought up the fact that I once openly stated that I like Jane Fonda, suggesting that was equally as bad as liking Elizabeth Warren. I quickly wrote my rebuttal:

"WTF does Jane Fonda have to do with Donald Trump calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas?"

But I did not post it. Instead, I sat and looked at it, and read it over and over, thinking this is just a total damn waste of my time.

Suddenly the congenial conversation I had earlier with the other "so-called" facebook friend came to mind. He had said he'd get off of facebook altogether if he were not in a professional position. And it occurred to me that I am no longer in a professional position. I don't need this shit. I could care less that a brainless idiot is defending Donald Trump for calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas. And besides that, I don't want to be friends with someone who defends an arrogant prick's right to make fun of Native Americans. And if I wasn't on facebook, then I would not get drawn into these needless, useless, mindless, senseless, wasteful wars that wreck havoc on my soul, steal my time, my life, my emotions, my sanity and my serenity.

And that's when I did it. I deleted both my facebook accounts. And I have Pocahontas to thank for the peace that has once again returned unto my life. The peace she brokered between her people, the Powhatans, and the English only lasted for eight years. So my peace may only be a temporary one. I might succumb to the darker angels of my nature and return again to the land of the trolls. If only there were a way to get back on facebook without the trolls ever finding out, that would be a beautiful thing. Then I could keep up with the Peter O'Toole page. But I've tried that before. They always find me. But thank God for Pocahontas. She set me free this week. I'm so thankful that I even wrote a blog about it.

                                                       Bernard Mitchell Plumlee, Jr.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/is-elizabeth-warren-native-american-or-what/257415/

http://www.alternet.org/video/cherokee-nation-chief-schools-trump-calling-elizabeth-warren-pocahontas-racist-put-down

American individualism is dead.

American individualism is dead. Just look at how all the Republicans are reacting to Ted Cruz not endorsing Donald Trump. Republicans tout themselves as the party of "individualists," people who believe in personal freedom. Ha, that's a load of crap. Individualists respect others who stray from the pack; individualists don't give a shit what someone else does as long as they don't tell them what to do; individualists respect someone who has the balls to go against the grain, to live by their own code and say, "fuck you," to anybody who tells them not to. The last individualists in this country were probably the mountain men. I'd like to see Americans have the balls to be individualists again, being able to "be" without belonging to a church, a fraternity, a sorority, a political party, a civics club, a country club, etc. We've been brainwashed as children that we have to "belong." Bullshit. Everybody's down on Cruz ... well, in my opinion, he should've said a hell of a lot more. If somebody called my wife ugly and accused my father of plotting to assassinate a U.S. president, I'd have gone on that stage and challenged the SOB to a duel.

Individualism, my ass. This country can't stand individuals. Me, I can't stand people who have to follow the herd. To be truthful, I can't even stand Ted Cruz. He's too much of a "party man" for me. My party is the wind and the earth that I will return to.

All these fuckers saying that they're individualists and they don't have the guts to stand up to someone who said John McCain wasn't a war hero because he was captured. I'm a democrat but I can tell you with certainty that if Hillary Clinton said that about John McCain, I'd have to balls to tell that bitch to fuck off. But you "party people" can't do that. You have to stay true to your school. Well, fuck you and your school, too.