Native Politics

One way, the best way, for me to tell that things are getting political is the sudden and continuing appearance of Indians all over my TV.

I have no idea if it happens elsewhere, in the rest of the states, but here in California it seems we can't hold an election that doesn't include at least one proposition about Indian gaming something-or-other. Every time an election rolls around, and at no other time, sad or happy Indians and their sad or happy non-Indian counterparts fill all available commercial time with ads predicting gloom and doom if some proposition either fails or passes.

By my unofficial and completely made-up count, we've had two dozen such propositions this century alone. In every one of them, the rights and rewards of Indians to build or keep casinos is it stake, along with the future of California, the nation, and the world.

These ads, which I routinely ignore, are very emotional pieces, as you can imagine, which explains the sadness or glee I remarked on earlier. The strange thing is, as critical and far-reaching the passage or defeat of such propositions is set forth, I have no idea how any of them were ultimately decided.

Nor have I seen any cataclysmic results. It's almost as if the dire predictions were inflated, but I can hardly believe that.

I have three or four Indian casinos that I can easily visit, and there's probably more than that I don't know about. I've been to a grand total of one, but only witnessed a mildly important prize fight there as part of research for a book I'd written and never gambled.

!@(boxing1.jpg:L120 popimg: "2ndPlace")

The fight achieved its mildly famous categorization, by the way, as serving as an example of how *not* to box. The one guy, Campbell, who was winning, dropped his hands to his waist to taunt his opponent in a demonstration of smugness that earned him a quick left that knocked his lights out. If I remember, we all went "Woo."

Anyway, some new proposition that will decide the fate of California Indians and the state as a whole must be on the new ballot. I have no idea how I'll vote on it, or how I've voted on any of the past ones, since my only criteria is which side has the commercials that annoy or pander to me the less.

I gotta say, tho, that things are looking up for my man Barack!