NGS towers come down, and stop the racism

The Navajo Generating Station smoke stacks in Page, Arizona came crumbling down today.   The smoke stacks were created for the energy needs of Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and other off-reservation metropolitan cities.  But the demand for energy shifted toward renewable energy over the last years, making the generating station no longer profitable.  2020 has been a strange year with health pandemics, high death tolls, economic hits, and shifts in energy demand.  Peabody Coal made millions of dollars and some of the royalties were paid to the Navajo and Hopi tribes.  All that came to an end in 2020.  As you travel around the Navajo reservation, one begins to see that the pollution-emitting smoke stacks surround the Navajo reservation in the bordertowns.  Besides the Page smoke stack, there are generating stations in Joseph City, Arizona (near Holbrook) and Waterflows, New Mexico.  The smoke from these stations blow over the reservation causing respiratory problems such as asthma to its residents.  

Besides the smoke emissions  from these generating stations, there is also methane gas that New Mexico is known for.  The four corners region has the highest rate of methane pollution in the nation.  The map above shows how severe this problem is.  That is what educated people refer to as  "environmental racism," using the environment for racists intentions such as genocide.  

The federal government, through its mining, also released a lot of uranium into the air and water which to this day contaminates the water and air on the reservation.  And there's still people who want to mine uranium for profit.  This is not to mention the biggest nuclear disaster from 1970's occurring in Church Rock, New Mexico.  That was never really cleaned up by the government.  More recent, the San Juan River was contaminated in the Gold King Mine Spill, and the Trump Administration allowed the disposal of foreign nuclear waste near Aneth, Utah on the northern edge of the Navajo Nation.  America needs to stop this environmental racism.  Although some people may think that the racism is directed at certain groups of people, we all need to realize that this goes around full circle.  

Nez Administration represents Navajos as racists with virus comment

President Nez has made many poor choices.  The biggest one might be selecting Myron Lizer as his Vice-President because Lizer just committed political suicide by aligning with an unpopular outgoing president’s racist characterization of the Covid-19 virus.  Lizer called the virus the “China virus”, as Trump calls the virus.   Why would Lizer characterize the virus in that fashion and jeopardize the Navajo people by doing so?  During his term as President of the US, Trump destroyed many relationships with foreign countries.  That is exactly what Vice-President Lizer is doing now, destroying the Navajo Nation’s relationship with foreign countries, particularly China, a world superpower.  Lizer is bad for global diplomacy, and President Nez is not saying anything about his selection.  As a leader for the Navajo Nation using racial terms, Americans and other countries can now say that Navajos are racists, even though I don’t think most Navajos hold that view.  In fact, most Navajos (82%) voted against Donald Trump in the recent American election and many attribute Biden’s victory to the Native American vote.  (article)  Based on that, most Navajos probably disapprove of the Nez Administration and probably would rather see a President with real leadership who makes good choices.  It’s time to recall the Nez administration before he digs us deeper.

Navajo death toll at 711

The Covid-19 Dashboard shows we have reached 700 deaths on the Navajo Nation from this virus pandemic.  Everybody on the reservation either knows someone who has or had Covid, or someone who passed from it, or both.  The virus seems to be affecting retirement-age people the most.  We are losing people in theirs 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.  There is hope with the vaccine, but has not been tested long term.  The health authorities are saying that people are getting the virus by restaurants and bars (indoors) and on the reservation, by visiting and gatherings.  They say that this second wave was caused by family gatherings from the Thanksgiving holidays.  Many families enjoyed their last turkey together.  Many of our people have FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome.  They get lonely and get their fix with company and visiting with others.  This is how the virus is spreading.  Another cause of the silent spread is the pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic people who go around others.  These people don’t show signs of being sick so many of the 711 made the fatal mistake of thinking that they were safe.  They are gone now and we have to continue on.  It is a hard time, so the best way to stay safe now is to stay home, avoid public places, especially indoor public places, and no visiting.  Remember to wear your mask and keep cleaning your hands and cell phones.

Nez’s true feathers

Maybe be now, more Nez voters are seeing President Nez’s true colors.  Nez and some tribal council delegates are trying to decrease the amount of hardship assistance to the Navajo people.  They went back on the deadline to expend the CARES money.  The deadline was set into Navajo law as November 20.  At that time the unspent money was supposed to go into the fund for the people.  Instead, Nez tried to divert the unspent money into his own projects.   Supporting Navajo law, the Controller would not sign off on the President’s illegal memorandum and as a result, the Controller got some flack from President Nez.  Like Trump, Nez expects his administration to support his corrupt actions.  Some tribal commentators commented that Nez was out of touch with the people.  Nez does not see that the people are suffering!  The wool has been pulled over the Navajo people’s eyes.  Can he be removed immediately if the people want him removed?  

Ducey mutes Trump

In today's news, Arizona Governor Ducey got some courage to ignore President Trump when Ducey was signing the vote certifying the Biden and Harris ticket.  The definition of "insanity" is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.  But today, the definition of "insanity" is not conceding and still thinking "there's still a chance" in an election where all your lawsuits have been rejected.  Now Ducey needs to get on board and issue a mask mandate to #stopthespread.  

Virus spreads by asymptomatic people