when 2009 is 1492

in peru, at this very moment, a crisis is ongoing. peruvian police recently slaughtered scores of indigenous people. this was ok, as it has been for centuries. the dictates of resource control and racial domination made this normal. for there is oil and gas to extract, and if thousands of indigenous people must be uprooted and their ancestral lands degraded, then what of it? we have been playing the game in this manner for many a day, and we are quite fine with it.

but then something happened. as the massacre played out, some among the oppressed fought back. several policemen were killed. then, and only then, did the peruvian state become horrified by violence. the murder of policemen? pure barbarism! proof of savagery! the brutal actions of the cops? patriotic behavior, pure and simple. merely men doing their collective duty.

in this world, only some get to be violent. only some can kill. when these men kill, they are not called savage for doing so. they are eternal heroes, whether they be soldiers in far off lands or cops keeping the local rabble in line.

today, it is still 1492. indigenous men, women, and children can still be killed, and their deaths excused as patriotic acts. but when they fight back, they are primitive animals, unworthy of a shred of our civilized sensibilities. for these resources are ours, even if they aren't.

at this moment, the old cree line about not being able to eat money comes to mind.

when will we learn that we need to learn from the people, and the land, that we insist on murdering?

today, the massacre was in peru. the next massacre could be anywhere, for we in the arrogant civilized west are all capable of committing one.

our very existence is proof of that.