Mitt Romney didn't win the first debate, no matter what the
pundits want us to believe. Winning a
debate is about presenting the truth and illustrating supported facts better
than one's opponent, and Mitt Romney failed miserably to do that because all he
brought to the table was an aggressive attitude and a passel of lies already
proven so, many times during the campaign.
Both participants failed, though, in another way. They didn't get to the real truths related to
the subject matter of the debate.
Romney and Obama both failed to effectively and objectively address
the questions asked relative to details of their differences on economic and
health care matters. Obama, while
certainly more truthful and forthcoming with his answers, failed to disregard
the past relative to the present and simply used his time to point the way
forward. Neither candidate addressed one
of the most glaring omissions of the entire presidential campaign--in fact, of
the entire American economic recovery debate, regarding financial improvement
in our society where the American Indian community is concerned.
American Indians always seem to get left out of the debate
where economic hardship, voting rights, racism, and health care needs are
discussed. American Indians are a vital
part of this nation's history and heritage"in fact, if it weren't for American
Indians' participation in a number of ways in this country's existence, the
United States may very well not have come to be what it has been. Yet, here they are, surviving still in
prisoner of war camps, without even the control of "Indian lands". Indian lands?
Where are they? Even in the
treaties, where Indians were promised this land, wherever they were, to be
theirs into perpetuity, before the ink was dry the lands were being
exploited. Even today; for example, in
1998, when a large coal deposit was discovered on "Indian land", rather than
the Indians being able to set environmental rules for its extraction and get
benefits from it, they were simply moved elsewhere. You want to try to close down Lubbock, Texas
and forcibly move everyone to the badlands of New Mexico, if 200 million cubic feet of natural gas are discovered under
it? Never happen"
Two thousand acres of some of the most sacred Lakotah land
belongs to a private entity who had it up on the auction block until
recently, instead of to the Indians, who
were once promised the Black Hills forever.
How can the rest of America lament the fascist Republican intentions for
this economy or the Democrats' lame efforts to foster a better economy for the
"99%", when many American Indians suffer in extreme poverty in prisoner of war
camps with no ability to benefit from the value that is in "Indian lands", and
no one knows or gives a damn. Let's
debate that one.
Let's have a debate about this issue: the needs of the portion of Romney's
"inelegantly expressed" 47% of incorrigible, lazy Americans who are the active
duty military members and their families, and the veterans of military service
and their families. We are a large part
of the American economy and of its potential.
Are we veterans, who, because we are in some way disabled due to our
service and cannot consistently or profitably function now in society, lazy or
irresponsible for our own condition? Are
we truly unimportant, Mr. Romney? We
volunteered to answer the call of duty and went where our government sent us
under the pretext of honor that covered up political and financial gains for
the powerful, and now when we need assistance and care, the Department of
Veterans Affairs, which President Lincoln envisioned as the agency with the
duty to "care for him who has borne the brunt of battle, and for his widow, and
his orphan", looks in our faces and tells us "we don't have the budget for
that", while billions are being wasted to move administrative space around in
existing buildings or construct buildings on contracts to the lowest bidder,
which, by the time the construction is finished, the building is neither completely
usable according to the original plan nor truly structurally sound. That money is sacrosanct to construction and
cannot be diverted to the real needs of veterans, while our medical budget can
be co-opted and wasted on "training conferences" for staff which are not much
more than huge party times in Florida. The
VA's motto "We Put Veterans First" is better translated "Delay, Deny, Until
They Die..."Veterans First" and nobody gives a damn, not even the major mainstream
media outlets to report about it, even when prompted. Let's debate that one.
Mr. President, Mr. Romney"your responses, please.
Yes, we need "Change" in America. The only way the change we need is going to
happen is if people wake up to the facts and get mad as hell and decide not to
take it any more, and be and make the change we want in government.
We all need your vote.
Do your part, today, and "yes, we can" make the change we need, without
further debate.
Dave Spencer
