PACT Distraction

Back in my freshman year of high school, I read a book which contained an interesting story. In the early 20th century an asteroid came close to hitting the Earth. It was big enough, I remember reading, to have caused an unheard of amount of destruction, probably killing millions. What I found funny about this story was that aside from the scientific community, and even then probably mostly astronomers, nobody really knew.
Google asteroids heading toward Earth and you'll get a number of interesting stories. Supposedly we might be hit by an asteroid again at some point in the near future. I suppose it is hard to forcast such a thing. What is not hard to do is to be so distracted as to forget how tenuous our existence might be, so enveloped are we with everyday life.
On Friday I drove down to Eugene to hear the oral arguments in a case of significance that has been simmering for years since 2003. The organization People Against a Casino Town (PACT) has filed a lawsuit against the State of Oregon arguing that Indian casinos are a violation of our state constitution. From a legal standpoint, of course it is infinitely more complicated than that, as the 90 minutes of arguments atest to. And this matter has been making its way through the legal system. But if I have to condense my interpretation to one sentence, that would be it. The PACT makes their points here.
We've been monitoring this lawsuit the entire time I've been on Council. The Coos Tribe have been the primary targets of this effort, but if the PACT were to win their suit that would obviously have repercussions for every tribe in Oregon. So for as much of a longshot as this case may seem, it has the potential to pull the rug out from under all of us. I don't believe that is going to happen. Even if they were to win this case I cannot for the life of me picture police and government agents showing up and forcing us to close shop like they did bars and speakeasies during Prohibition. There would have to be some sort of mediation, some middle ground.
We have a tendency to take our sovereignty for granted. So much so, we get sucked into things that in the grand scheme of Indian country and our Tribe are really kind of silly. Some time this next week, members will be getting a large envelope. In it will be a brief letter from our Director of Development talking about potential identity theft, and attempting to update members on an event that took place two years ago, for which nobody is being charged with anything. There will be a 16-page police report that casts suspicion on several people.
I am not sure how many members will care or even remember what this is about. But there will a number who will pack the room Wednesday night, provided they get it by then, demanding action, accountability, and maybe even ask me why I didn't vote to mail out this packet. My reason will be, among others, that we've spent too much time, energy, and money on something that really amounts to mudslinging. That answer probably will not satisfy them.
It saddens me that this will be such a hot topic in the near future, because while some might think the decision to send out this packet will hopefully bring the still-simmering incident to a close, my hunch is the two-year simmer will reach a boiling point, with more heated meetings and accusations flying. I could see this going another two years. I also see it getting uglier, much uglier.
I question the role we play in all this. After six years I think we create more problems than we solve by immersing ourselves in situations that are political and personality driven. Worst of all, this kind of "stuff", informational junk food, distracts us and our membership from the things that matter more, the possible asteroids heading our way-- the PACT lawsuits, the Supreme Court decisions, the things infinitely more important, and relevant.