Archive for the Category »SnowDr.Dean «

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Family, Labor & State…

A few thoughts from behind the razor-wire in answer to some of my more conservative, navel-gazing friends: I agree with the concept of individuality and the idea of earned opportunity as one of the  driving forces in social evolution.  Unfortunately, so is war, slavery, murder, theft, fraud, greed and other patent evils.

No so long ago...

As prisoners in the largest mass gulag in the world, we have a more naked view of this reality.  It might be a good idea to ponder what might hypothetically be going on…

Ever since humans came out of the proverbial caves and established constructed dwellings and extended family organization, there’s been a tension between individual and social empowerment. more…

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Prison: Retribution vs. Reconciliation…

One  of the fringe bonuses I got out of 20 years in the federal prison system (there were many), was the year I spent as a cellmate with Peter MacDonald, former chief of the Navajo Nation.

Peter MacDonald & Friend

Pete led an interesting life:  From starting at his grandfather’s knee learning to be a medicine man, forced into a Christian Mission school, being a Marine Code-Talker in WW-II, to Oklahoma University on the G.I. Bill, to Hugh’s Aircraft as a Polaris Missile project manager, and back to his Navajo roots.

I spoke previously of this experience.  Here, I’d like to deal with another aspect of my education from celling with Pete.

Among intensive discussions and readings, I studied a variety of Indian lore, including the Iroquois Nation, a confederacy of six tribes in what later became the greater New York area.

Arguably, the Iroquois laws and political composition became influential to some of the Framers of the US Constitution, if not so accredited.  Clearly, the Iroquois had a significant level of socio-political organization.  I suspect it had a lot to do with the family formation. more…

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