LP>The Lubicon Cree in Alberta are facing continual extinction on paper.
  >Efforts have been made over the years and are still being made to keep
  >the membership list as short as possible.  I don't know the original
  >reason, other than devilry, but the reason now is that a lot of oil and
  >gas are being extracted from their land.  They're being 'encouraged' to
  >join the Woodland Cree.
Where there's money, there's almost always an extortionist in the
background, waiting and calculating ...
LP>-> He ended up writing it as a poem, and I replied more to the poem than
  >-> to the ideas in it.  Not all of his ideas were altogether bad,
  >-> although his concept that we already have a level playing field is
  >-> absurb.
LP>It sounds like, as he thought about it more closely, he moderated his
  >ideas.  That's encouraging.
Yep!  I think so!  Either that, or writing it as a poem somehow forced
him to mellow.  Sometimes writing poems does that to people.  Sometimes
a poem refuses to come out the way one intends it to.   They're a little
like children in that aspect.  (g)
LP>Sometimes people message that Canada shouldn't honour our treaties.  I
  >think that some believe a treaty between nations automatically expires
  >after a generation or two.  But a treaty is a contract, and contracts
  >don't end with the death of the signatories.
Agreed!
LP>We could default on our treaties, and make up excuses that would make us
  >feel justified, but we would still be defaulting.  I see nothing
  >theoretically wrong with re-negotiating treaties, but not if one party
  >is in a coercive position.
And the weaker party is almost always in a coercive position.
LP>Well, speaking from Canada, I've concluded that we don't have political
  >leaders.  We have our politicians too, and from what I read, there's a
  >lot of corruption, and we don't have the mechanisms to root out the
  >corruption even after it's been exposed.  It seems that our 'leaders'
  >are just very very successful parasites.  They don't lead; they exploit.
I think that's true in the US, also.  We have a bunch of people seeking
power and money and prestige.
LP>I wouldn't want to have 'spiritual leaders' who were leaders of this
  >sort   I know I wouldn't want to live in a priestly society.  I think
  >we're paying a heavy price for being a secular society, but I wouldn't
  >want to go back to mixing church and state.  The church can be corrupted
  >by power and lose its real spirituality.  Then we'd really be in the
  >dark.  I am, of course, thinking of examples from my own WASP
  >background.
When I speak of spiritual leaders, I am not really thinking of priests
and people like that.  I am thinking of people who seem to have some
sort of true spiritual power, people like Sister Theresa, for example.
We need leaders like that.
LP>I remember you in my prayers.  I was told I had MS and that it was
  >incurable.  There was nothing to be done but look sorrowful and lapse
  >into disability while singing hymns of praise to the doctors.
Thank you for praying for me.  I have remembered you in my prayers also.
I am glad that it looks like you have something besides MS.  Good luck
for a complete recovery.
                           Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ The touch of the Devine is everywhere.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
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