A Native American and Wife of Vietnam Veteran article picked up by IPS
Tuesday, 02-Jan-01 12:47:08

166.82.1.83 writes:

Let Me be Politically Incorrect - Here’s Another’s Thoughts
or Why I Did NOT Vote
 

I have been listening for what seems forever about the Presidential race and will continue until the race is decided finally. But I have a view that many may agree with or many will dislike. I feel it is necessary to express a different point of view though. That right is afforded me in the Constitution.

I am an American citizen by birth and a Native American by bloodline, it is my heritage. In addition I am a wife of a Vietnam Veteran. My statements may be small and possibly not note worthy but I have the same rights as anyone else here in this country.

I did not vote in the Presidential elections nor do I vote in any other election, why - you may ask, well here goes. Being a person who is proud of my native heritage I view the government as a big machine run by people that talk in circles, they broke promises in addition to treaties. Politicians tell the populous what a good job they will do for this town, state or nation. They talk a big talk that is empty when it boils right down to the “little man”. They speak of helping the elderly, the poor, the disadvantaged. My response is BULL!!!! In the forty-five years of my life I have watched the world of America’s people fall. It has fallen hard. There are still children that go hungry. There are peoples that live with discrimination. There are people that need regular medical help and can not afford it. There are people that live in our streets. People that live in abuse, who die from it, people who prey on others including children. We walk past these homeless people as if they were ghosts, no longer worth our attention. Something on the lines as being inhuman. We look at people who walk their dogs with more interest much of the time..

The Constitution starts so well - WE THE PEOPLE........, well, we the people may vote and think that it is the popular vote that gets the big man in the office but it isn’t. It is the Electoral College. When it comes to telling them this is who you “have” to vote for because so many people voted in this or that state for this person is an impossibility. Why you may ask, because the constitution says each person may vote how he or she sees fit first of all. It is called a freedom. But what about “we the people” that were here when that piece of paper was first written? You know way back in the beginning of this huge, self indulged country we now live in?

“We the people” who were run off our lands, had our food source slaughtered for its skin alone, the rest going to waste all because we loved what we believed was a gift from Creator, we respected the wholeness and balance of Mother Earth, our nation, our tribe, our family and our brothers. We lived with balance and harmony. Yes, there were times when we warred against each other but there was places of honor along with being an honorable individual. Things we just would not do! We did not start out scalping or killing from behind (in the back), we learned to do that from the man that came to OUR land from somewhere else. We protected our own, not just our wives or children but our own - the tribe, the nation of our peoples. We lived with justice, honor and commitment to all! We did not lie, talk in circles, cheat, steal, or kill wantonly. But because our skin was a different color, our ways different and we did not call the name of Jesus - we were heathens!!! As a Native American, we live our faith in our daily life each and every day. We are spiritual people. All things deserve respect, have spirits, have a reason for being and we are only a part of the whole. We do not center ourselves and think we are better or above everything else. We did not let others go hungry. We had order. We had rules to live by and a form of justice that was swift and fair. But the “man from the other place” never stopped to see, learn or even cared about any of this! He just took everything he wanted by any means.

Our people were driven to starvation. Our people where driven from our lands. This government lied repeatedly to our people. They talked in circles. We were killed by the thousands and no one forming this new world seemed to give a damn either. We were stupid savages. We died from the diseases they brought, we froze to death. Our women were taken raped, beaten and when we tried to fight we (our men) were killed. The man forming this new world didn’t care, he was doing his duty, Christian or otherwise, still his duty! We were animals! I have to ask one simple question, who was truly the savage here, huh?

Let me speak to my being the wife of a Vietnam Veteran now. I was a young girl when the war was going on. I lost people I knew through my Dad, because he was in the Air Force at this time. Americans lost sons, husbands, brothers, sisters, daughters. I don’t mean they only lost them by death, they lost them in many awful ways. So many that have come home are still in one way or another lost. They may never be found no matter how much help is given. Innocence was lost by all! But we lost something even greater than this and much of this country does not even know about it.

I was asked to read a book by my husband. He asked me to read it to help me understand his distrust and or dislike about this country’s government. He told me it would make me angry. Let me say this very clearly - IT MADE ME MAD AS HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The title of this book is “Kiss The Boys Goodbye - How the United States Betrayed its Own POWs in Vietnam” by Monika Jenson-Stevenson & William Stevenson, first printing 1990, published by Dutton Books.
I would like every American to read this book. The authors researched it completely. Ms Jenson-Stevenson had many things in her life threatened, went through hell to try and get the information correct and substantiated. This book was a real eye opener.

The book tells of how there were THOUSANDS of U.S. personnel left behind in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The last two place we were not even supposed to be in according to the government. The government had the knowledge. The facts!!!!! Pictures, POW counts, details of camps and their location. Death camps, places of torture, starvation just around the corner. People who believed in their country and were in a foreign land fighting for what they thought was right or because they were drafted and had to go. But either way they were there and they were OUR OWN people.

May I add this woman received many death threats, was not permitted to do a television show dealing with only a part of this story. She and her husband suffered much. Those that came to their rescue were not the police - they were Vietnam Veterans. This couple researched, tape recorded, had secret meetings to gain the knowledge and material needed to write this book. You will find as many references, cross references, and affidavits as they could get to stand behind the text and facts stated in this book. Government employees spoke off the record, handed over documents to be read. Then when a higher up official or individual learned of this - the previously “unclassified” records were either misplaced, never to be found or “re-classified” for no explainable reason. The only conclusion is that THEY did not want the REAL AMERICAN people to know the truth! Awful as it is and true as it was! It got buried!!!

So our country gave up, packed up and walked away. In my point of view the USA lost its humanity and its honor, plain and simple. Those service personnel’s lives did not count for anything. They were written off - ABANDONED!!!!!!!!!! What makes me the sickest is that “WE THE PEOPLE” - all races, religions, etc. were lied to by what is supposed to be a governing body. This is and was created by human beings with moral latitude, character if you will. What we have now is pot-bellied, pocket stuffing circles. All seeking self indulgence. Boisterous individuals that run things including - covert things - that let my brothers and sisters be left behind in a place they (the government) knew would look at these service people as lower than a dog. They would be treated even worse than a dog or worse still tormented, tortured, beaten, interrogated relentlessly, until release would only be found in true physical death!

There are parts of this country’s government that don’t exist on paper. They are buried deep, deep within one part of the government’s departments or another. The CIA, the FBI, the DEA, etc. It has been this way for sometime. They hide under the skirts of this country’s politicians. Not to mention national security. Presidents aren’t free to do what they may know is right, they have to listen to many people for tons of reasons and try to make a choice. The politicians are out for their own gain. Life’s question for them is how much this deal will give them or give to their cause. The circle is endless. Money talks!!!!!!! That is what this government works on - MONEY and who benefits from getting it! It is not based on how it can help the people, better the people, improve the resources of this nation or world. It is dollar power that runs this nation.

Those that did survive Vietnam and came home, were scarred for life. I do not mean the scars from being wounded only, I mean the scars from seeing things that no human being could forget. I mean scars that the government will not recognize like being poisoned by Agent Orange and other things that were used to kill not only the people but the plants and wildlife. These scars resurfaced in the years that pasted. Children born with deformities, strange cancers, miscarriages and the inability to have even a simple relationship with another human being that resembles something close to normal. Minds that would never be normal again. Terrors that came in the night, sounds that send them to the floor. The US government makes it extremely hard to get GOOD medical help, there is tons of paperwork, huge long waits to see a doctor, not being listened to when one is seen. The buck being passed from one bit of red tape to another. Personnel that seem apathetic. To them you are just you last four. For those of you that don’t understand what that means it is the last four digits of your social security number. How about that, being asked your last name and your last four. Boy, that’s my idea of caring and personal!!!! NOT!!!!!!!! I have seen this first hand, for myself. I have accompanied my husband to the VA. Whether it is the hospital or a local office, it is the same. Let’s see who can pass the buck the fastest. Or, how can I “not” have to deal with this person! How can I do as little as possible, because I have better things to do! These men and women fought for our government, our ideals and this system has no heart, no love, no compassion for them. They being VA hospitals and out reach offices have bottom line standards, not even up to par with the real world. You remember that one, it is the one most of you deal with. The local doctors, nurses, and hospitals. The civilian’s world. Places that can be held accountable!

Do I sound like I am not happy to live in this country, you would be terribly wrong, I am but I have no love for the government as it really and truly operates. I have no desire to vote, because in the end “WE THE PEOPLE” don’t have a say about much of anything that really counts to people like you and me. Us, the people who have to pay the bills, live from pay check to pay check, raise a family and try to have a home that is safe. Hopefully with love to fill it.

After educating myself more in the past few years, I will just live my life as full as I can but I will not vote in any election. I would if those who held office could truly be made to be accountable for everything they do while in office! I would vote if the big guys in D.C. were open, honest, and fair with the people that this country was first based on! I would if I saw that this government was based on honor, respect, and the betterment of ALL people! Where the word equality was a true standard that was followed. Where women, men, and children were fed, clothed, educated and respected, valued as the true gifts they are!!!!!!

I do not feel any of this is wrong because I continue to watch, hear, and learn of the cheating our government is doing today to the Native Americans. One big fact for you to look at is simple, check a map. Look at the land that is called Indian Reservations, how little there is, what kind of land it is. Not rich lands not places where crops can be grown to sustain the tribes. It is a poor and desolate land almost all the time. How terribly sad! As for our Veterans, I see the same indifference, rejection, and apathy continue. I have to stop and ask why to all of this!!!

I have to ask why don’t more citizens ask the same questions and demand the answers. It would seem complacency is the American dream for most citizens! Not this citizen and further more I am not going to hide behind a screen name in this article. I will stand tall with my brother the oak tree and my brother the Vietnam Veteran while saying loudly and clearly my name is Whitewind, Vickie Gilbert - Hampson. I will stand proud as a Native American, with my fist raised high in the air and I will shout “I WANT JUSTICE AND ANSWERS” because my heart hurts with the knowledge of all this; since I am still included in that opening statement on that little piece of paper that was written so long ago and begins -------WE THE PEOPLE............!!!!!!!!!!!

If you find this worthy, please pass it on. If you wish to make comments to me privately, go to my profile and feel free to email me at either address. I look forward to the comments, irregardless if you agree or not, from any reader very much. So if this makes me politically incorrect. I don’t really care! If you think it makes me a bad person because I care about humanity, truth, justice, natural resources and the future then so be it!!!!!!!!!!!
 

copy right 2000
Whitewind, Vickie Gilbert - Hampson
 

Whitewind aka Vickie Gilbert - Hampson