Last evening I watched the film “Inside Job”. There has been a proliferation of documentaries recently about the controversies surrounding big government, corporate dominance and environmental degradation. It is kind of like, alright already, let’s simply get some work done. We have stated and overstated the problems and issues so many times throughout history that, haven’t we had enough? As I was combing the shelves at the video dispensary I came across an HBO production of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. This is loosely based on the book of the same title that appeared on the scene in the late sixties. I remember when I read it back then and was absolutely brought to tears many times. It got into my craw in such a deep way and I have never forgotten what took place during a harsh winter in the late 1800’s in South Dakota. How could we forget something like this? So I watched these two flicks one after the other. And what I found was that they are basically telling the same story of human greed and the addiction thereof, fear and this uncanny argument that we are somehow “better than them” and by all means shouldn’t they be assimilated to our way of being in and seeing the world? Would it really make a difference if this were “Indians” against whites or whatever other ethnic, class, etc might feel as though they’ve got it and no one else deserves to be accepted for what and who they are: you choose. We treat the earth and all her resources the same way. I was astounded by the amount of “dollars” flying around in “Inside Job”. Have you seen this? Un-f———-g-believable. Who makes these rules? This film will not leave your system with this morning’s oatmeal. It will stay with you. It will work on you and it won’t let you be. And the mood of it: as though this is the most important topic in the world. As though by all measures we must protect this way of life. We must sell crap to “poor” folks and turn them into rotund inoperative clones so that we can pad our pockets with million dollar payouts for doing such a good job. How about another pat on the back, eh? Do we lack so much as a small corner of love in our hearts? So, the connection between these two flicks. Why these two? The slaughter and assimilation, the imperialistic habit of divide and conquer, of wiping out whole cultures by any means necessary, the degradation of the earth and resources, the willful violence of gold-seeking-got-to-fill-up-that-empty-place-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach. You know that queasy feeling deep down in there? Lest we forget, it is good to watch stuff like this, stuff like this that makes us distraught, stuff like this that keeps us on our toes and present to what needs presence. Do I recommend that you run down to the video haberdashery immediately and put everything aside and watch these tomes? Yep. And then we must not forget and we must work toward something like: Care of Earth, Care of People, Benevolent Distribution of Resources.