The Institute Bulletin

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

School shootings suspect apparently had neo-Nazi leanings
Native American National Socialist, there's a new one on me! It seems to me that this youth was obviously disturbed by the apparent apathy toward his nation's loss of cultural identity. Most if not all of his concerns should be valid for every member of his tribe. I would have to say that the fact that seemingly his only outlet was the eNazis just goes to show that he did not have the outlets among his family, friends, school, or tribal community to express or deal with his concerns in a positive way. This boy should not be demonized for 'neo-Nazi leanings' when clearly his feelings of cultural and ethnic erosion are justified and deserved a frank and open dialogue. Such complicated issues weighing on youth need guidance and respect. Lacking that he did as many of us do today, search for commonality on the Internet and inadvertently misplaced his worries about cultural purity/identity/ethnicity into the Nazi site full of confusing 'racial purity' sloganry. I doubt anyone there bothered to point out that the Nazi's would have just as soon threw him to the ovens as a Jew or homosexual. His community will now have to face that they failed to constructively help this boy, perhaps with cultural preservation programs and cultural/ethnic tolerance education. I think that they should take a long hard introspection about how they raise their children and balance their Native-American identity with their American integration. Unfortunately that will probably not be the case and the only significant reaction will be to make our educational institutions even more repressive and prison-like. There is no doubt that this is a huge tragedy for the community, but we must keep such things in perspective. Such events happening a decade and a half apart in a nation of almost 300 million persons should not be used to justify the inappropriate mistrust, inconvenience, surveillance, and prejudice against our youth who live day to day under pressures most prefer to forget once plagued ourselves. They are our legacy, our future, and we must not treat our progeny as criminals without basic rights, privacy, respect, and human dignity.

posted by raymond 15:26

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