Greetings to All Good People,
I am surprised to find there have been over 100 people who've stopped by to check out this blog. I don't know how to account for it. Earlier in the week I was seized by a whim to generate names for different blogs and web sites that revolved around the responses to the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLMM) and indigenous American topics. Since I didn't tell anyone about this and obviously have just started to make posts on some of these sites I can't make sense of the bit of interest. I probably came up with 15 different names for blogs and ten for web sites.
Assuming indigenous Americans will be most likely to stop by a blog by this name I imagine you immediately recognize how a blog with this title could be put to very good use. Also, I have about 10 web sites with similar names that remain available to buy for 3 dollars or so.
Perhaps it is an unusual time that might incline more people to pay attention to the plight of indigenous Americans. It appears that the Black Lives Matter Movement will continue to draw attention to the concerns of the black community especially as it related to their sense that police officers have siingled them out for horrible treatment. No doubt there are a fair number of instances captured on videos that document unquestionaby abusive treatment of black male youth. As you know there are some real disagreements about the methods and actions of the BLMM. It is unclear whether genuine leaders have emerged to guide the black community to guide folks during a very volatile period. It seems that the people getting the most attention don't show much in the way of leadership skills. Some more visible people encourage the black community to recognize it is "open season" on whites and white police officers. A few men call for "an eye for an eye retribution. The use of violence is seen as obviously necessary and justified under these circumstances. Minister Farrahkan and the Nation of Islam have been active in calling on all people to use violence and kill those who are viewed as the enemy. His message is kill or be killed and pre-emptive strikes just make sense.
No matter ones views on the BLMM it is fair to say that this type of approach can only fail and lead to a crackdown in cities where rioting and looting and killing have crossed a threshold. At this point police departments will adopt more militaristic garb, tactics, weapons including hummers and tanks and other very effective though hardly intended to demonstrate a desire to help the black community by patrolling the streets to restore order. For good or bad and whether right or wrong we may not be too far from witnessing our communities being occupied by the National Guard under martial law.
Point of all this is the American Indians have an opportunity to use this time to call medai attention to a wide range of issues that demand attention and assistance. Certainly American Indian youth are brutalized by the police at rates much higher than in the black community. How is it then that the concerns of BLMM have monopolized media attention while the indignous American communities have received no attention to date ? It is not hard to make the case that American Indian people have higher rates of being brutalized by police. However their communities have the highest youth suicide rate by a long mile than any other group in America. To add to such a bleak picture there are exceptionally high rates of substance abusem alcoholism, poverty, unemployment, and quite a few major medical problems most notably diabetes.
The leaders within the Indian community seem to have an unexpected opportunity to share with the media how terrible and devastating the lives of Native American have become. It is essential that the leaders within the indigneous community acquire effective and efficient ways to deliver messages in ways that coincide with how the media operates today. More and more social media is demonstrating that it has become a "player" in the movement. We live in the Internet age so we would do well to secure blogs and web sites to be sure that communication between the Indian community and the media are in sych.
It might be the case that more than a few web site and blog names could be put to very good use indeed. I encourage people to make contact with me via email: kevinkeough710@gmail.com to discuss the options. Meantime I humbly request that people submit articles or essay or videos that could be placed on the blogs and web sites that have been secured. We can identify such contributions as coming from "guest authors" until blogs and web sites that leadership wants can be transferred to the most appropriate person within the community.
To reiterate, my intention is not to hold on to all of these blogs and web sites but to find people who could put some of them to good use. I am not interested in selling them. I just want to turn several over to people prepared to invest time and energy to create useful sites.
** I will warmly welcome any input, suggestion, feedback, constructive criticism that you are willing to share. You can simply leave a comment in the comment section after a post or send to my email address: kevinkeough710@gmail.com
Please give some thought to sharing your ideas with me. Thanks much Kevin Keough
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