Lakota Poet Thanks France, Germany and Russia for Opposing Unjust War
By Brenda Norrell
RAPID CITY – A Lakota poet, speaking out for the many American Indians who oppose the war in Iraq, is saying thank you to France, Germany and Russia for opposing an unjust war.
“I would want to thank them on a personal level, as a Lakota, as citizen of the United States as a poet and as a human being,” says Lakota poet Luke Warm Water.
“I want to thank those countries for not following dictator Bush in his greed for ownership of an oil rich country.”
Instead of being spoon-fed by the mainstream media, Warm Water says poets should question everything.
“As a poet you have this other energy to look at the world in a very different way, you certainly question it. And it starts with asking yourself ‘Why are we there?’”
Warm Water points out that most agree that Saddam Hussein was a dictator, but dictators rule countries all over the world. The United States shows no interest unless the country has something the U.S. wants.
In this case, it’s oil, with Iraq having the second largest oil reserves in the world, second only to leading Saudi Arabia.
Warm Water says, “Yes, I agree Saddam was a tyrant to his own people, so are all dictatorships that ever existed, but you don't see us liberating dirt poor African countries in this manner.
“Why? Because they don’t have anything we need. Automobiles don't run on sand. Look at North Korea, they’ve got ‘nukes’ and might just be crazy enough to use them, so we back off.”
Warm Water says there’s no difference between the Republicans and Democrats these days, so he calls them “Republicrats.”
“The far right ‘Republicrats’ want you and the trailer-trash with beat-up 4-wheel drives with an American flag sticker on the window to believe it’s for ‘Freedom.’
“Those people who don't believe it is for oil are stubborn, arrogant or just plain stupid.”
Warm Water says what is happening in Iraq has happened before.
“Look at the United States’ history, what they did to our ancestors!”
Those opposing the war in Indian country, say Americans have been duped by distorted media, paralyzed by fear and controlled by those in power. The Patriot Act and other laws have now made domestic spying legal and it is a return to the era of McCarthyism.
Warm Water says everyone should question the reasons for the war in Iraq. We should also question the current forced occupation in Iraq.
“So where are the weapons of mass destruction? Buried drums of garden chemicals! Was it to free the Iraqi people? C'mon give us a break!
“Look at it now, the Iraqi people have as much solidarity as a volcano in a fireworks factory. Ask and keep asking because the bottom line is oil! Plain and simple. Oil to burn in my car and yours.”
Warm Water said while the average American is paying the same gas prices at the pumps, Bush and his cronies, including Halliburton and Bechtel, are getting rich off lucrative oil contracts.
Warm Water said Bush’s refusal to allow France, Germany and Russia to bid on oil contracts is revealing.
“Like a little spoiled brat, Bush will not let them get their dibs to rebuild the new oil producing Iraq, because they didn't help with troops.”
Warm Water recently returned home to South Dakota after living in Oregon.
Kurt Schweigman, who writes and performs under the name Luke Warm Water, laughs outloud when asked about his pen and stage name, “Yes, I’m of Lakota and European blood, the reason I choose my Luke name is out of humor, I obviously look American Indian, but when I started reading my poetry in front of an audience (using my birth name) people thought it funny and strange I have a German name, so I thought I would give them something to laugh about, hence I thought to use a joke Indian name from my childhood.”
Warm Water has toured with his spoken word poetry performances throughout the United States, England and Germany. He published two books “Commods” and “John Wayne Shot Me” which are available at Prairie Edge Books in Rapid City.
“I have been extremely fortunate to have an audience with my style of poetry. It’s a blend of humor, political, poignant type poetry intertwined with the urban-Indian experience, which I am especially able to get across with my live performance” Warm Water has done so well in his live performance that he has won the last five poetry Slams he has competed in, from Oregon to Germany to most recently Denver. “Slam is a competition of spoken word poets where the audience judges them on performance and poem content. Slam is a subculture that started in the late 1980’s” Warm Water adds. He will be touring with poets from England in early April in cities of the eastern Dakotas.
“From the beginning, I didn't support this unjust war or any war for that matter, I stood with those picket signs at anti-war rallies in Oregon.
“Don't get me wrong, I stand proud of the veterans, and always will, my own father fought the Japanese in World War II and my nephew has also seen action in Desert Storm driving a tank, he even got the Purple Heart for injuries he sustained.
“Its just that the bottom line soldiers are mere pawns in King George II's bullshit agenda. I just don't support war; violence begets violence.”
Warm Water points out that while the United States is urging France, Germany and Russia to forgive Iraq’s foreign debt, it is not doing the same for Argentina.
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was dispatched to Europe to persuade France, Russia, Germany and others to reduce or forgive much of Iraq’s $120 billion in foreign debt. Baker received generally favorable promises, CBS reports.
At least 30,000 Argentineans were “disappeared” while former military leaders ran up the country’s massive debt. The United States insists that Argentina pay its foreign debt.
American Indians opposed to the war point out that the schemes are unraveling that have kept corporate money laundered for the Bush administration.
Those dollars are gained by exploiting indigenous people for their labor in sweatshops and “liberating” them from their resources of land, coal, oil and gas worldwide – for presidential campaign contributions and profits for the rich.
And while the United States seek to place Saddam Hussein on trial, it ignores the tyrants who tortured and murdered millions of indigenous people worldwide.
Brenda Norell
U.N. Observer and International Report
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com
http://www.brendanorrell.blogspot.com
For Luke Warm Water's books, please see:
Prarie Edge Books; http://www.prairieedge.com/
and
Powell's City of Books; http://www.powells.com/search/DTSearch/search?kw=Luke+Warm+Water&pokey=skeptopotamus&Search.x=67&Search.y=0
and
Laughing Horse Books; http://www.geocities.com/laughinghorsebooks/
Please also see:
The two faces of Rumsfeld;
2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0%2C2763%2C952289%2C00.html
Indian Trust: Cobell v Nobell;
http://www.indiantrust.com/
By Brenda Norrell
RAPID CITY – A Lakota poet, speaking out for the many American Indians who oppose the war in Iraq, is saying thank you to France, Germany and Russia for opposing an unjust war.
“I would want to thank them on a personal level, as a Lakota, as citizen of the United States as a poet and as a human being,” says Lakota poet Luke Warm Water.
“I want to thank those countries for not following dictator Bush in his greed for ownership of an oil rich country.”
Instead of being spoon-fed by the mainstream media, Warm Water says poets should question everything.
“As a poet you have this other energy to look at the world in a very different way, you certainly question it. And it starts with asking yourself ‘Why are we there?’”
Warm Water points out that most agree that Saddam Hussein was a dictator, but dictators rule countries all over the world. The United States shows no interest unless the country has something the U.S. wants.
In this case, it’s oil, with Iraq having the second largest oil reserves in the world, second only to leading Saudi Arabia.
Warm Water says, “Yes, I agree Saddam was a tyrant to his own people, so are all dictatorships that ever existed, but you don't see us liberating dirt poor African countries in this manner.
“Why? Because they don’t have anything we need. Automobiles don't run on sand. Look at North Korea, they’ve got ‘nukes’ and might just be crazy enough to use them, so we back off.”
Warm Water says there’s no difference between the Republicans and Democrats these days, so he calls them “Republicrats.”
“The far right ‘Republicrats’ want you and the trailer-trash with beat-up 4-wheel drives with an American flag sticker on the window to believe it’s for ‘Freedom.’
“Those people who don't believe it is for oil are stubborn, arrogant or just plain stupid.”
Warm Water says what is happening in Iraq has happened before.
“Look at the United States’ history, what they did to our ancestors!”
Those opposing the war in Indian country, say Americans have been duped by distorted media, paralyzed by fear and controlled by those in power. The Patriot Act and other laws have now made domestic spying legal and it is a return to the era of McCarthyism.
Warm Water says everyone should question the reasons for the war in Iraq. We should also question the current forced occupation in Iraq.
“So where are the weapons of mass destruction? Buried drums of garden chemicals! Was it to free the Iraqi people? C'mon give us a break!
“Look at it now, the Iraqi people have as much solidarity as a volcano in a fireworks factory. Ask and keep asking because the bottom line is oil! Plain and simple. Oil to burn in my car and yours.”
Warm Water said while the average American is paying the same gas prices at the pumps, Bush and his cronies, including Halliburton and Bechtel, are getting rich off lucrative oil contracts.
Warm Water said Bush’s refusal to allow France, Germany and Russia to bid on oil contracts is revealing.
“Like a little spoiled brat, Bush will not let them get their dibs to rebuild the new oil producing Iraq, because they didn't help with troops.”
Warm Water recently returned home to South Dakota after living in Oregon.
Kurt Schweigman, who writes and performs under the name Luke Warm Water, laughs outloud when asked about his pen and stage name, “Yes, I’m of Lakota and European blood, the reason I choose my Luke name is out of humor, I obviously look American Indian, but when I started reading my poetry in front of an audience (using my birth name) people thought it funny and strange I have a German name, so I thought I would give them something to laugh about, hence I thought to use a joke Indian name from my childhood.”
Warm Water has toured with his spoken word poetry performances throughout the United States, England and Germany. He published two books “Commods” and “John Wayne Shot Me” which are available at Prairie Edge Books in Rapid City.
“I have been extremely fortunate to have an audience with my style of poetry. It’s a blend of humor, political, poignant type poetry intertwined with the urban-Indian experience, which I am especially able to get across with my live performance” Warm Water has done so well in his live performance that he has won the last five poetry Slams he has competed in, from Oregon to Germany to most recently Denver. “Slam is a competition of spoken word poets where the audience judges them on performance and poem content. Slam is a subculture that started in the late 1980’s” Warm Water adds. He will be touring with poets from England in early April in cities of the eastern Dakotas.
“From the beginning, I didn't support this unjust war or any war for that matter, I stood with those picket signs at anti-war rallies in Oregon.
“Don't get me wrong, I stand proud of the veterans, and always will, my own father fought the Japanese in World War II and my nephew has also seen action in Desert Storm driving a tank, he even got the Purple Heart for injuries he sustained.
“Its just that the bottom line soldiers are mere pawns in King George II's bullshit agenda. I just don't support war; violence begets violence.”
Warm Water points out that while the United States is urging France, Germany and Russia to forgive Iraq’s foreign debt, it is not doing the same for Argentina.
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was dispatched to Europe to persuade France, Russia, Germany and others to reduce or forgive much of Iraq’s $120 billion in foreign debt. Baker received generally favorable promises, CBS reports.
At least 30,000 Argentineans were “disappeared” while former military leaders ran up the country’s massive debt. The United States insists that Argentina pay its foreign debt.
American Indians opposed to the war point out that the schemes are unraveling that have kept corporate money laundered for the Bush administration.
Those dollars are gained by exploiting indigenous people for their labor in sweatshops and “liberating” them from their resources of land, coal, oil and gas worldwide – for presidential campaign contributions and profits for the rich.
And while the United States seek to place Saddam Hussein on trial, it ignores the tyrants who tortured and murdered millions of indigenous people worldwide.
Brenda Norell
U.N. Observer and International Report
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com
http://www.brendanorrell.blogspot.com
For Luke Warm Water's books, please see:
Prarie Edge Books; http://www.prairieedge.com/
and
Powell's City of Books; http://www.powells.com/search/DTSearch/search?kw=Luke+Warm+Water&pokey=skeptopotamus&Search.x=67&Search.y=0
and
Laughing Horse Books; http://www.geocities.com/laughinghorsebooks/
Please also see:
The two faces of Rumsfeld;
2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0%2C2763%2C952289%2C00.html
Indian Trust: Cobell v Nobell;
http://www.indiantrust.com/