New Rights and Old Wrongs

This morning as I waited for my meds to kick in, I watched Book TV from the cozy comfort of my down quilt. The topic was the Japanese Internment Camp from a fiesty lady who lived those drastic times and measures. Following my usual routine, I logged on to the Internet and had a Google Alert on "South Dakota." Among the hits was one to the blog, "South Dakota War College." The entry indicated was Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, titled "This one will leave you silent. More on the Clinton/Obama South Dakota Connection."

I keep track of South Dakota politics a bit. They have been in the news since Dakota Territory days. I thought the Janklow jailing was justified but damning; I heard the other side of Janklow this morning. The story and audio link on the South Dakota War College blog, described as "South Dakota Politics, Campaigns, Personalities, Elections, Political Advertising, and a bunch of rambling nonsense from a smart aleck Republican," was interesting to me. The audio clip was a Public Television archieve from a Feb. 1, 2001 press conference.

He Who Must Be Obeyed has at one time been a little too willing to chase Omaha garage sales but like I once described, I am drawn to glass sparkling in the sun and the anthropological interests I find, HWMBO is always on the lookout for another tool. To get to the story here, we once bought a few bar glasses from a former Omaha Court Reporter who played poker with local FBI guys. One of them, he said, was in a wheel chair as he had gotten shot in the Wounded Knee confrontation of 1972.

Back to Clinton, Janklow, internment, empathy for ethnicity and fairness, and the Leonard Peltier pardon issue. According to Janklow, he was instrumental in President Clinton not pardoning Peltier the month he left the office. It is a first person oral history that I found very interesting. Maybe it explains some of the bizzare politics of my beloved home state.

As the old court reporter wrapped the heavy bottomed glasses in newspaper for us, he said that a generous jigger of burbon and a couple of ice cubes in one of these glasses was the beginning of a nice afternoon.