The Native Iowan

Sunday morn here. A blood-sports morning. Skies are overcast. Forecast is a number of days of rain.

I am becoming a bit concerned about the world in general, and people near and dear specifically. Like so many topics (BLM, open borders, nuclear power) folks grab a bumper-sticker slogan and chant as one mindless crowd… “river to the sea”… “no nukes”… “black lives matter”… “defund the police”…

I guess it is easy to be mindless in a crowd. Be a bovine following the herd. Can you say “mooooo”?

Even really smart folks I admire greatly, are falling into the pack mentality. Nothing new, I know, but golly-gee, when we all gonna learn that we’re having our strings pulled?

I am and shall fight to remain a centrist. I’m in the middle, often ill-informed, striving to make sense of what I see happening. I solve my informational inadequacies by reading. (yep, call me ol fashioned) We have soo much info available that it is shameful, if not criminal to be ill-informed. Do the research, do the reading, form your own thoughts, ideas and position. Be articulate, know your subject, have facts, then construct your informed foundation. Dont set all in stone. Be limber, nimble and flexible. Positions can change. Never stop building your informational foundation. Never stop learning…

I do not like “listening” to folks telling me what and where. I dont get my information through Utube or talking-heads. It is far too easy to simply listen and parrot what we hear. I prefer to work, to read, to feel as though I learned something. The old line was “read until it hurts”.

I’ll do the research and publish my simple findings, because a) I need to figure out my own thoughts and position, and b) believe that sharing my work may (may not) be of assistance to others.

I like the idea that some folks immediately decide that instead of me just being “wrong”, I am a bad person. A racist, a colonial, a selfish old white-man. Nothing new here. We all know, learned in 1st grade, that those who cant think and speak intelligently shall think and speak unintelligently. Nothing new at all.

In one of our recent incarnations of insanity, we see the Middle East on fire. And, predictably, we see the teams being selected, the lines being drawn, the slogans and bumper stickers resurrected. Violence begets violence. My team is right, is honourable, so my violence is justified. Your team is wrong, is dishonourable, so my violence is doubly justified.

Of course it is easy to label The Zionists as bad and their actions as atrocities.

Of course it is easy to label the Palestinians as bad and their actions as atrocities.

Are not all acts of war atrocities?

So, Russia and the Ukraine have been committing atrocities for many months, and we kinda just watch.

The Sharia world commits atrocities daily, multiple atrocities daily, and we kinda just watch.

A child going hungry in Florida is as much an atrocity of a child going hungry in Somalia, no?

I am both amused and appalled when we end up where we defend the Palestinian peoples as “indigenous”, or “native”, and thus claiming more virtue, or more sympathy. The Zionists are “colonials”, usurpers, thus claiming less virtue, less sympathy.

Then we get the “what about the dead babies”… “you cant be soooo heartless to ignore the dead babies”…

Which dead babies? The dead babies of the old testament/ passover? The dead babies of the Roman Empire? The dead babies of the Crusades? The dead babies of the Ottoman Empire? The dead babies from the Holocaust. The dead babies from the October 7th massacre of jews by Hamas soldiers? The dead babies buried under the ruble of Gaza?

I have spent my life traveling, moving, building, emigrating, shifting into and through multiple cultures, languages, life styles and laws. And as near as I can tell, no single place or culture is “right”, has moral advantage, is the best, better. We are all peoples with prejudices, fears, desires, needs, wants… we all share and possess ethnocentricity and foibles. No one is right. No one religion, no one system of governance, no one legal system, no one language… we are all, as near as my centrist position allows me to see, we are all flawed.

Sure, it’s OK to join a team. To feel affinity because of colour of skin or language or religion. But being mindful is better than being mindless… As we have seen… chanting stupid shit like “rive to the sea” is, in my mind, the same as saying “your mother wears army boots”…

Funny side-thought… “your Mother Wears Army Boots” is saying “you mother is a whore”… she got the boots by bonking soldiers, and in a time and place where foot wear was at a premium, a good pair of boots was probably well worth a bonk.

“River To The Sea” is the same as saying “Death To All Jews”.

I know there are folks out there that will argue with me per this but, sorry, you are wrong if you think its just a fun slogan, or as one braindead-bitch said “its a camp fire song”. You are wrong. Every time “river to the sea” is chanted we are advocating death to ALL Jews.

Like “lynch the niggers”, or “only good injun is a dead injun”… Put that in your pipe n smoke it, next time your out cheating “river to the sea”…

It saddens me when folks I respect dont have their brains turned on, when they join the herd, follow the crowd… say “moooooo”…

It saddens me greatly…

In ending: I posted this before but will explain it a bit more carefully…

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)

In the 1st century, the region known as Palestine had 1.25million residents, the majority of which were Jews. by 15th century (1500 years later) the population was 1.56million residents, 1.45mil being Muslim and 5000 only being Jews. Where did the million+ Jews go? Where did the million+ Muslims come from?

Year	Jews	Christians	Muslims	Total
1st c.	Majority	–	–	~1,250
4th c.	Majority	Minority	–	>1st c.[1][2]
5th c.	Minority	Majority	–	>1st c.
End 12th c.	Minority	Minority	Majority	>225
14th c.	Minority	Minority	Majority	150
1533-39	5	6	145	156
1553–1554	7	9	188	205
1690–1691	2	11	219	232
1800	7	22	246	275
1890	43	57	432	532
1914	94	70	525	689
1922	84	71	589	752
1931	175	89	760	1,033
1947	630	143	1,181	1,970

So, by 1947 there were 630,000 Jews, 143,000 Christians, and 1,181,000 Muslims in Israel/ Palestine.

Nope, no natives here to be found. No indigenous peoples here. Only descendants of conquered and subjugated peoples.

Hope this helps

More later