What It Means

Right now, I am trying not to be overly obsessed with the Constitutional election. Last night I received the call, the news was not good, and upon hanging up settled down on the couch in front of my fireplace and hit the play button. The film I watched was “3:10 to Yuma”, with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, two of my favorite actors, if anybody is interested. Back in 1996 I took a film class at the University of New Orleans, and the original “3:10 to Yuma” was one of the flicks we dissected, starring then Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. Appropriately, both versions deal heavily in psychology, which fit my neurotic mood after getting such depressing news.
I awoke this morning at 5:00 a.m., earlier than usual, and with less than 6 hours of sleep. My mind simply would not let go. For some reason a racing mind means a sleepless body. That was the case.
It is tempting right now to say something like “It’s hard to make sense of this mess!” The reality though is that it all makes perfect sense. Most Tribal members who cared to vote on this issue wanted change. In fact, if you average out the three percentages of amendments A, B, and C—78%, 60%, and 55%, what you get is somewhere in the mid-60 percentile region, which is a lopsided in any kind of election. But the old two-thirds majority requirement of our Constitution, that is matters the most.
The real question that people need to be asking themselves now is simply “Is that it?” Is it end of story, game over, etc.? Personally, I can’t quite buy that right now, for the simple reason that even the least successful of the amendments, Part C, at 55% is the kind of percentage anybody would take in their cause. I’m sure any of the presidential candidates right now would like that kind of percentage, as would anybody running for Council even. To say the “the people have spoken” or anything like that would not carry much weight because, once again, most who voted wanted change. Had the membership rejected the amendments, say 70% to 30%, I wouldn’t even be bothering writing this post. What could I say? But that isn’t what happened, and that’s what is so frustrating right now.
Given the circumstances, the amendments fared quite well. The neglected effort to clear up misconceptions about the enrollment issue by Tribal leadership, which I know includes me but my criticism still stands, could have very well been the difference in this election. I will always believe that the half-hearted effort put forth in all this was far from innocent.
I guess what I’m left with right now is “What next?” Does the issue simply die, or do the results speak to future opportunities? My own hunch is the latter, but then again I haven’t devoted the last nine years of my life to this issue as some people have. What I’m feeling right now is mild in comparison, no doubt.