As I've mentioned, I'm publishing the inspirational stories emailed from my friend Carl who is volunteering at the Sioux Nation in South Dakota. Carl is a retired USN Master Chief (Marines), who is donating two months to the Native American Voter Registration and Education Project on the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Sioux people in South Dakota.
Kosians will remember that the Sioux Nation delivered the razor thin margins of victory in Johnson's 2002 Senate race, and Herseth's special election.
You can reach the project via the contact info at the end.
Here's Carl's latest, relatively short dispatch:
I read the responses to my Dispatches today, and I'm delighted that a small thread of conversation has started about the plight of Indians in general.
more below...
I heard someone say on television the other day that one of Dan Rather's problems is that when the probable errors in the Bush/Guard documents were pointed out by bloggers, he stonewalled. The man also said that Rather needs to understand that the blogs are an important source of information, and he should plug into it, rather than fight it, no pun intended.
Rather and Company need to get of their overpaid butts and do the research, talk to the little people for a change, and get it right the first time. There isn't a lot of difference here than what happened in November of 2000, when a Fox employee (the Bush's cousin) lied about "calling it" for Bush when there was no reason to do so. This seemingly small bit of disinformation had the power to throw the election into a recount and cause untold expense, heartache, loss of human life, national treasure, and three years and nine months (and counting) of pain. There will always be a question in my mind about whether Bin Ladin would have attacked had there been a duly elected president who was not an extremist with close ties to oil, and most importantly, who was not widely recognized abroad as the Crawford, Texas Village Idiot.
I also saw, on Bill Maher's show last night, the former editor of National Lampoon, a repub, state that the phony docs fed to Rather came form Karl Rove! He was kidding around, of course, but I'm almost certain he was right. Recall that Rove and his cronies have access to former CIA disinformation experts. The best way to embarrass decent people is to set them up to look like liars.
I haven't been out registering since last Thursday. I was sick Friday, and other than visiting with the [Navy] Chief, I stayed home. So I'm going to get my underpaid butt in gear and go get some!
Here are the earlier entries:
Dispatch I
Dispatch II
Dispatch III
Dispatch IV
Some of you have asked how you can volunteer, and here's the contact information:
Brian Drapeaux, director - 605-222-2220
Native American Voter Registration and Education Project
see, http://www.rlnn.com/ArticlesApr04/NatVoices.html
The SD races are seriously in play, and the Sioux need our help. If you're up for a once in a lifetime experience, consider volunteering.