02-12-2012, 06:11 PM
I'm conflicted about this issue.
The US government doesn't go into the ghetto and prohibit unemployed folks from downing Colt 45 all day. They don't monitor the prescription drug usage among the out of work entertainers and celebrities tucked away in the Hollywood Hills. Nobody's dictating how many calories are consumed by SSI-sustained shut-ins living in the suburbs. But, alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, and obesity afflict large segments of those communities.
So, is it right to take away alcohol from Indians on reservations? What's the difference? Because the land is owned by the government? Because the percentage of the Indian population suffering from alcoholism is easier to spot and measure since they live on designated government-owned land?
I'd like to see the mortality rate of the US Indians improved and the number of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome decline. I don't doubt that these problems exist and probably in a greater percentage of the population than other segments of society. Sad as hell. But I'm torn between helping by mandating laws that don't apply equally outside the reservation versus the rights of Indians to make the same decisions for themselves as everyone else in the country when it comes to legal substances that destroy people when abused.
The US government doesn't go into the ghetto and prohibit unemployed folks from downing Colt 45 all day. They don't monitor the prescription drug usage among the out of work entertainers and celebrities tucked away in the Hollywood Hills. Nobody's dictating how many calories are consumed by SSI-sustained shut-ins living in the suburbs. But, alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, and obesity afflict large segments of those communities.
So, is it right to take away alcohol from Indians on reservations? What's the difference? Because the land is owned by the government? Because the percentage of the Indian population suffering from alcoholism is easier to spot and measure since they live on designated government-owned land?
I'd like to see the mortality rate of the US Indians improved and the number of children born with fetal alcohol syndrome decline. I don't doubt that these problems exist and probably in a greater percentage of the population than other segments of society. Sad as hell. But I'm torn between helping by mandating laws that don't apply equally outside the reservation versus the rights of Indians to make the same decisions for themselves as everyone else in the country when it comes to legal substances that destroy people when abused.