Turn off your lights; Turn on your spirit

Arvol Looking Horse is a Souix chief who, like Barack Obama, calls for people of all nations to pray - but there are significant differences between his call to prayer and the one Barack delivered in his speech the other night.

Barack Obama's speech from the Oval Office the other night wasn't bad, as far as it went, and given that he's talking to a great nation of idiots, Barack can only go so far. His entire presidency so far reminds me of the scene in Idiocracy where the Narrator explains why no one in the future can understand English:

Unaware of what year it was, Joe wandered the streets desperate for help. But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang and various grunts. Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them. (IMDB)

When Barack Obama asks a nation to pray, he speaks to a nation of idiots.



And many of these idiots still wish the Confederacy had won the Civil War exactly like in the movie The C.S. A.

When Barack asks these people to pray, he might as well be asking them to jerk off because that Church is a place where they pay a preacher to feed their egos. Prayer is emotional masturbation. When they need additional stimulation to get off, they have their own porn stars:











Certainly it makes sense that in this troubled time, Barack Obama would tell Conservative Christian Right Wing Republicans to shut up and jerk off. Their way of thinking led to Joe Barton's Capital Hill Apology to BP on Thursday morning. G*d knows Joe Barton receives plenty of capital from the oil and gas industry.

Jerking off is all well and good, but it does not lead our country away from an attitude of individual entitlement toward connecting with our fellow humans in community. Arvol Looking Horse, on the other hand, has a more productive message.

In Arvol Looking Horse Speaks, he says "On June 21, shut off the electricity and let's pray."

Barack could have asked us to live without gas or electricity for just one day - or to buy nothing for just one day - while we reflect on how a consumer driven lifestyle has damaged our individual and collective spirit as well as the planet. He just asked us to have faith that something will work out, and to pray about it. Nice words, but in my mind, that's not doing anything. Arvol Looking Horse is asking us to do something while we're reflecting - turn off the electricity. Simple and Direct.

Maybe Arvol Looking Horse has more freedom to speak what is in his heart and mind than Barack Obama. Arvol Looking Horse doesn't have to balance the needs of the people against business interests, particularly when it comes to mineral rights since we Europeans made sure no indigenous peoples were left with any mineral rights. Looking Horse explains:

When the first non-Indian came to this land, our people said, 'What shall we call this man?' and they called him Wasicu . . . It means 'takes fat,' which we know today means the white brothers are taking fat off Mother Earth. Long ago, when the first nations lived on Turtle Island, through our prayers and ceremonies, we maintained harmony and peace, a way of life where there's no ending, no beginning.
It's everyday life for us that we hold Grandmother Earth sacred, we hold the trees and the plants, everything has a spirit. We need people to be really respectful for each other. The Great Spirit put us here all together. If we're going to survive, we need to have spirit and compassion.

As it happens, the Celtic world view was much the same back in the days before The Church called our ancestors witches and burned them. June 21 is summer solstice - a time to celebrate Mid Summer. I have a feeling that Barack Obama is happy for support from any corner these days, and pagans with peace pipes would suit him fine. Sadly, we're all surrounded by the kind of Christians who tie The Word to their wallets. Until somebody takes them to task, nothing will change, and from where I sit, a preacher leading that Church in prayer is leading a circle jerk.