Rapid City Journal, July 25
RESPECT Act long overdue
For the majority culture, old federal laws oppressing Native Americans have faded to near invisibility.
Vestiges of a time before women could vote, before people of color counted as legal equals, these laws harken to an era most would prefer to think didn’t happen. One permits Native children to be forcibly taken from parents and placed in boarding schools. Another permits the forced labor of Native Americans as a condition of benefits.
They’re no longer enforced, many would say. They could never be enforced today. Let them fade like yesterday’s road signs. Let’s pretend they don’t exist.
It’s less simple for those living the legacy of that oppression, who know full well these laws remain on the books, and who know that some people still regard their intent as legitimate.
For South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, the repeal of antiquated racist laws has become a personal quest. Rounds says the personal relationships he made working with tribal leaders helped him better understand the challenges facing tribal communities and the emotional toll from centuries of hostility toward Native Americans.
The past bleeds into today and informs our tomorrows. We can’t change what happened. We can, however, try to make amends. We can reconcile with each other. We can erase the living symbols of oppression.
Remorse is one thing, but only the removal of lingering stains demonstrates sincerity.
Since 2016, Rounds has introduced the Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes (RESPECT) Act.
The RESPECT Act seeks to strike language from about a dozen places in federal laws that date to at least 1875.
Last year the bill made it through the full Senate but failed to negotiate the House of Representatives before the session ended. This year, with bipartisan and bicameral support, Rounds believes it could wind up awaiting the signature of President Donald Trump.
This year, Rounds has been joined by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota), Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) and Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Arizona).
The RESPECT act won’t undo the wrongs of the past, but it will demonstrate a necessary measure of respect for a culture and people treated badly.
In the historic clash, one side saw millions fall to disease and modern weapons, suffered treaty betrayals, lost the majority of a continent and saw their ancient cultures attacked. The victors then condemned them for not adopting quickly to modern lifestyles.
Gen. Phil Sheridan denied he ever uttered that the “Only good Indian is a dead one,” but it expressed a common sentiment. Later, Capt. Richard H. Pratt declared it was necessary to “Kill the Indian, and save the man” as he advocated for boarding schools to tame the “savages” and systematically strip away tribal culture.
Native Americans were not viewed as people but impediments. Pioneers dehumanized them to get them out of the way of gold discoveries or western expansion. Antiquated racist laws were expedient if inhumane means of dealing with the messy aftermath.
Removing the laws won’t remove the historical stain, but what does it say when lawmakers repeatedly cannot be bothered to repeal these laws? In life, we demonstrate our true values by how we invest our time and effort. A lack of time or effort speaks volumes about the lack of import.
Since 2016, Rounds has put in both the time and effort to advance the RESPECT Act. While the past can’t be rewritten, he said recently, “This is one way to show understanding and progress.”
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Madison Daily Leader, July 15
Has the tide turned for opioid abuse?
Opioid-related deaths dropped in South Dakota the past two years, a good result, although it’s clear more needs to be done.
Deaths peaked at 38 in the state in 2016, then fell to 35 in 2017 and 27 in 2018.
Most public health officials around the nation consider opioid abuse a serious public health crisis. Drug abuse is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, and for opioids in particular, more than 46,000 people died of opioid overdoses in the year ending last October 31.
But a multi-pronged approach to the crisis seems to be making a dent. Reducing the supply of opioid prescriptions is paying off, and education and awareness programs are helping as well.
Last week, we read that Minnesota’s opioid-related deaths has dropped as well, to 331 deaths in 2018 from 399 deaths in 2017. Adjusting for population, Minnesota’s death rate remains substantially above South Dakota’s.
For those concerned about the problem, we recommend going to www.AvoidOpioidSD.com , where there is a great deal of information, personal stories and a resource hotline.
While we are glad to see the two-year improvement, we all can agree that 27 deaths per year is still far too many. For those engaged in this battle, we encourage them to stay the course, perhaps increasing prevention methods that appear to be working.
More than professionals are involved in this battle. Each of us should keep any opioid medications away from family members or others who could take them. We should be aware of warning signs of abuse.
Perhaps South Dakota will continue to make substantial progress in years to come. We’d love to report five years from now that the opioid crisis has been beaten back.
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Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, July 16
Loving America means making it better
The words that flowed from Donald Trump this past weekend - words on social media that told four congressional representatives who are women of color that they should “go back to their own countries” for their criticism of conditions at U.S. border detention centers - were nothing new.
That ugly sentiment is almost as old as this nation itself. (NPR reported that, according to one history professor, it hails back to 1798 when the U.S. passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were designed to clamp down on immigrants and potentially boot them from the country for criticizing the government.)
The words were as familiar and as painful as any other racial taunt that has been uttered throughout our history.
We’ve heard this before, to be sure - but not from the president of the United States. Not from a person who is supposed to represent what this nation stands for and what America - a sprawling mosaic of immigrants - is all about.
And yet, this ugliness from this source doesn’t seem surprising. Even to supporters of the president, that fact is a shame and a disgrace, or at least it should be.
The president has drawn a lot of heat for his comments, but so what? That happens on a weekly basis. We seem to be suffering from outrage fatigue.
Some are defending him, but their justifications may say more about them than they do about the president.
Others say nothing at all. The members of South Dakota’s own congressional delegation, all of whom are Republicans like the president, haven’t said too much about Trump’s divisive, destructive, racially charged comment. (To be fair, Rep. Dusty Johnson reportedly told a Sioux Falls television station Monday that he thought the president’s tweet was “inappropriate” and the “wrong way to communicate,” which feels like delicate phrasing.) Until they fill that void, let’s insert these words by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a place holder: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
On Monday, President Trump doubled down on his weekend assault, telling the four female representatives he attacked, “If you hate our country, if you’re not happy here, you can leave.”
This, too, is a familiar rant from America’s history, an echo of the cry “America: Love it or leave it” that was often expressed during the turbulent days of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It meant you either stood by America’s policies (in that case, regarding the Vietnam War, for instance) or get the hell out. No middle ground was allowed.
The phrase itself is grounded in our history, inspired by the declaration, “My country, right or wrong.” This phrase, which many perceive as a profession of devout patriotism and unquestioning loyalty, also has an intriguing past.
It’s believed to have originally been uttered as an after-dinner toast by Stephen Decatur, a U.S. naval officer, just after the War of 1812. He said: “Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!”
In 1872, Carl Shurz, a German who migrated to America in the 1840s and then became a prominent member of the newly formed Republican Party, amended the toast to better fit his adopted, post-Civil War homeland: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” There’s nothing in those words about leaving America if you “feel otherwise;” there’s nothing implying that people should go back where they came from. Instead, it’s a plea to support and embrace America by making it better, even when it may require a change of direction, because that’s what makes this nation stronger.
That’s what love of country is really all about: If you care, make it right.
Trump’s words ventured into some ugly territory, but they really didn’t seem out of character, and that may be the biggest disappointment of all. But such sentiments must face a reckoning, for though they may be sown into the darkest corners of America’s soul, they cannot ultimately stand for this country’s ideas and ideals.
Americans are better than that. We have to be.
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