People have asked me to diary about the situation on Black Mesa, a location on the Navajo Nation, where, for the past 30+ years, Peabody Coal Co., owned by a bigger corporate fish in Scotland, England, has been mining coal from one of the biggest, and richest, sources in all the world. It's a
beautiful place that is
badly scarred by the coal combine. In 1971, an article called,
"The Rape of Black Mesa" appeared in print in Mother Earth News. The title said it all.
After years of witnessing how the system works, I have finally figured it out. It can work great- unless it gets fouled up by over-politicization, fraud, or other kind of disaster. There have been great programs and policies that have contributed to the betterment of many people. And, in my opinion, many of these programs were run better than any privitized entity could have done. Or not. Especially when the money is doing the talking.
There's more....
Great. Good government policies and programs can work well.
But then there are the institutionalized concepts that resulted from injustice, and that are, to this day, enshrined in the very policies and programs of this United States. One of those concepts is Manifest Destiny, the belief that the theft of the US and all its resources is a legitimate thing on the "grounds" that some kind of God-given right makes it ok. Notice I say "is", not "was". One of the most egregious falsehoods taught to students in today's history classes is that Manifest Destiny was a 19th century idea not in use today.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It just became morphed into the present-day concept of Eminent Domain. Eighty years ago, geologists "discovered" (the Dine' and Hopi people knew about it all along) one of the largest, richest coal deposits in the US on a remote Southwest mesa called, Black Mesa. It then took a generation of legal maneuverings, with many twists and turns, until Peabody Coal Co. and the Good Ol' Boy Network managed to insinuate themselves into the region.
This resulted in the forced relocation of over 10 thousand people from their ancestral homes from the 1960s to the end of the last century, and yet today. John McCain has been a major player in this situation over the years, whose main goal is not so much ending cultural genocide as it is in ending the "problem" facing Washington. It should be noted, though, that this situation of injustice has been a bipartisan one right down the line. Few politicians stood alongside the People when they were evicted and forced to move to the predatious border towns, or to the uranium-flooded "New Lands" in Eastern Arizona. The people were evicted in order to make room for two huge open-pit coal mines, a pipeline, and a slurry line for the transport of the coal. To the people affected by the forced relocation, it became known as the "Second Long Walk". For every manifestation of Manifest Destiny, there is another label from the point of view of the victims.
Because of an incredible perfect storm of an environmental lawsuit over pollution in the Grand Canyon, the looming destruction of the pristine N-aquifer underlying Black Mesa, the lapse of certain lease rights for Peabody Coal, and a civil lawsuit against Peabody by the Navajo tribe seeking half a billion dollars in unpaid royalties, one of the mines, the notorious Black Mesa mine, closed down indefinitely this past January. The nearby Kayenta mine, which supplies coal via railroad to a huge power plant in Page, 75 miles away, remains open. The result has been a poignant mixture of cheers and jeers by those affected by the closure of the Black Mesa mine. Many workers are now laid off, and the budgets of both the Dine' and Hopi tribes are severely hard hit. But the medicine men, traditionalists, environmentalists, and sheepherders are all cheering a Peoples' Victory.
Of course, Peoples' Victories are seldom long-lasting, and this one is no different than most others. Already, Peabody Coal, California Edison, the tribal governments, and Uncle Sam are busily making back-room deals to get the Black Mesa mine, its water-wasteful slurry pipeline, and consequently the Mohave power plant, back in belching service again. And it looks like the GOB Network has been framing the news again.
Some of the corporate creep news:
http://www.latimes.com/...
http://www.usatoday.com/...
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/...
But, the reality of the situation is sinking into the reptilian minds of the GOB Network, resulting in this story that refutes the creeping hype about the reopening. Thus, like a person suffering manic-depressive disorder, the fortunes of Black Mesa swing from hope to fatalism on any given day.
It is so frustrating to discuss the situation that has existed among the people of Black Mesa. They have endured centuries of mistreatment. It still goes on today, with McCain's "final solution" bill squirming its way through Congress. Yet the remoteness of this area, combined with its underground mineral wealth, has made Black Mesa one of the national sacrifice zones in the eyes of policymakers far away from there. So much so that the executives and politicians are willing to conspire behind closed doors to defraud the peoples' will. Right here in the good ol' democratic republic of the USA.
So why now; why today? I just look around and see parallels in Iraq, where they even call the battles over there, Indian fights; I hear the Iraq bases are named after 19th century Army posts. The collective mindset of our nation is still locked into that old Manifest Destiny meme from the past, and acting it out in the Mideast, in Afghanistan, and in countless other places around the globe. When BushCo dreams about dropping a nuke on Iran, it is surely peeling back the altruistic mask of "doing God's work of extending freedom and democracy" there, and exposing the same monstrous demon of greed at any cost that has wiped out cultures, languages, and people from Plymouth Rock to the Pacific Ocean. When that dog don't hunt no more, maybe then we can resume the path of peace in the world.
The last of the elders and their children still facing and resisting eviction from Black Mesa are hoping that time is soon.
So, unless we as a nation really do intend to repeat the mistakes of the past in Iran and the rest of the world, as Billmon is so adept at pointing out to us, perhaps it would be wise to remember that, whether the old term, "Manifest Destiny" is used, or the modern counterpart, "Eminent Domain" is invoked, the end result can still be the same for individuals, nations, or entire cultures: involuntary dispossession. Oh, yeah- that's theft. Just ask any immigrant from Mexico about the irony of it all.