Spring season a time of renewal

It is once again springtime. Many good things happen in the spring.

In the Navajo way, spring begins when the first thunder is heard sometime in February. It rumbles and shakes Mother Earth ever so gently, awakening the hibernating animals and reptiles. It is a sacred moment for the people and the animals. When one hears and feels the first thunder at the beginning of spring, you should stop whatever you are doing and for a moment let your spirit communicate with the Gods of Nature.

My grandmother taught me to offer a prayer when the first thunder sounded. She taught me that you become one with nature by stretching out your arms as far as they will stretch and sweep in the renewed air, taking a deep breath at the same time. She would say, that the Rain Family Gods have returned and wise Grandfather Thunder ushers them in.

With the Gods’ return, the female rain will once again bring gentle rain, watering the young plants. Female rain is also aware of the baby birds and the newborn baby animals, which is why she brings gentle rain.

The male rain is accompanied by the loud thunder. Male rain brings water to the reservoirs so people and animals will not die of thirst.

Later, in the summer, thunder is caused by the children of the Rain Family Gods making their presence known by their loud clashing and crashing footsteps. They are only playing and their elders try to quiet them down by cracking the whip, which is the lightening.

“So my little one,” my grandmother would tell me, “remember to renew your spirit with nature in the spring. Always listen for Grandfather Thunder when he awakens Mother Earth with that low gentle rumble.”

I cherish the traditional teachings of my grandmother for her teachings help me understand who I am and make me proud of my Navajo heritage. As I live in so many overlapping cultures, her teachings have provided me with a cultural anchor and a harbor of security from which I can pursue my course in life.

As my grandmother taught me, nature’s gift of the spring season delivers new life to nature and may it also bring new life to our hearts and souls.

Náánágo Inda.

Lucille Mescale Hunt

Eagle Air Med

Blanding, Utah

Opposes snowmaking on San Francisco Peaks

Something stinks of rotten fish in this whole Peaks issue.

Why does the Forest Service need to choke off debate prematurely and smother opinion with brevity of forum?

What is the hidden deal making that we have not seen which connects the fake snow gambit with the congressional re-districting? If the Navajo Hopi are severed from this district, they will also be severed from their cathedral, the Peaks, and from having any local political voice in what goes on there. Wrong.

How is it that the Navajo Hopi are deemed to have more in common with Kingman, at the far side of the state, than they do with Flagstaff, which they are adjacent to, and where they spend their money?

Let’s face it, Flagstaff derives more revenue from Navajo Hopi commerce, in real time, than it might in some speculative future through a questionable propping up of a sagging recreational delight by means which are sacrilegious to the Native Americans.

If I were a Native American, I would boycott Flagstaff retailers, and take all my business to Page if the fake snow con gets rammed through.

How can a company in trouble, like Snowbowl, hope to pay us back for what can only be a boondoggle pipeline directly benefiting nobody but that company? It seems to me wildly theoretical to suppose that the effects of the recycled urinary snow will filter down indirectly to help Flagstaff economy more than the Navajo Hopi dollars do.

Besides, if the diminishing snowfall is related to global warming, no amount of cosmetic fixing will help for very long. I do not want one cent of my tax dollar dedicated to desecrating somebody else’s church, which the Peaks are unanimously to the Native Americans.

I can only see this issue as a continuation of 200 years of coercive behavior toward the original inhabitants, and the ongoing assumption of Whitey’s right to compel as Whitey sees fit.

Dion Wright

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Questions accuracy of recent job market stats

There seems to be some conflict between the various reports on the job market. The Federal Labor Department released its jobs report, saying that 308,000 jobs were created last month. Of course, you have to remember that we need 250,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with the market, so that this actually translates into a net gain of 58,000. Forty-nine states have not created enough jobs to keep up with population growth.

At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent last month, not including those who have abandoned hope of finding employment, or who have accepted Walmart/MacDonalds or part time jobs in place of their formerly lucrative positions. And Bush has once again refused to extend unemployment benefits.

It would be interesting to poll how many people have moved back home with their parents, or who are collecting substantially lower paychecks than they were, say, five years ago. The “economy improving” spin does not seem to be helping anyone who did not benefit from Bush’s huge tax giveaway to the super-rich.

Angela Bradshaw

Los Angeles, Calif.

Time for US to re-think its method of fighting terrorists

An ancient warrior Sun Tzu, stressed the application of overwhelming strategic power so furious that the enemy will lose the will to fight.

Unfortunately, when Mr. George Bush and Mr. Colin Powell tried this strategy, they called it “Shock and Awe” but ignored the key word ‘enemy.’ Instead, we dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs upon a city with over 5,000,000 civilians and gave Saddam’s troops a free pass.

CNN’s reporter, Wolfe Blitzer, called it “spectacular terror” as he witnessed the colorful fireworks.

For every woman and child slaughtered in Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Powell’s ‘spectacular terror,’ many new terrorists were created by their living family members. Some of the new terrorists were less than 10-years-old. Maybe using the military is not the proper way to fight a war on terrorism because of our excessive ‘collateral damage.’

Perhaps Mr. Clinton was correct in fighting terrorists as a police problem. We capture the guilty without killing the innocent.

As one anonymous bureaucrat said, “They are recruiting more terrorists faster than we can kill them.”

If we repaired our relations with over one hundred countries that we have alienated, and used our combined intelligence agencies for the purpose of tracking down guilty terrorist around the world, would we not be more successful?

Robert Perkins

Newport News, Va.

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