34, part two

Continued...

34

Today is my birthday, 34 to be exact. We all know what that means: in one more year I can run for President. But it also means I am halfway through my 30's, which ten years ago seemed impossible.
I left work early today. Although I may not party it up in as in years past, as a habit I try to do something special and out of the ordinary. At this point I'm halfway there.
Also out of habit I still carry my new digital camera in my pick-up. You never know when something cool will appear and you'll wish a camera had been handy. Here is a medley of those moments from the last two months. Some of these photos are from the spectacular Tulalip resort north of Seattle, which makes Spirit Mountain look like an also ran. I've also included a sneak peak at our plankhouse, which should open up some time this year. The others are from the ride between Bend and Salem, a route I drove last week on the way to Sisters for the Candidates Forum.

Channel Chris

Okay, so it's not really called "Channel Chris". But YouTube, I guess, allows people to set up channels, which are really just like blogs, but rather than be writing-oriented, they are video-oriented.
I know it seems odd to be talking about another website of mine on this one. But it is easier just to go through YouTube for all the videos I've been producing as opposed to embedding them here. Perhaps this, like Twitter, will end up being just a fad or something. Nothing changes that in many respects, this new video thing has been fun, and while I am not ready to go primetime, a lot has been learned, about editing, sound, zooming, microphones, etc. Might end up being a new hobby.

The link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/cgmercier

Idle Hands

This week six Council members were supposed to be in Washington, D.C., for various reason, not the least of which is a meeting with Ken Salazar. I've never agreed with sending that many people on the same trip, especially one that revolves mostly around meeting with elected officials and political appointees. We tried that last year, and that is what turned me off to the idea. Try cramming six Council members and three or four staff along with the person you're meeting with and their staff, and the rooms can get crowded and half the people don't say a word. There isn't time.
And it costs a lot of money. The last time I went to D.C., April of 2008, we all stayed at the same hotel, the Hotel George, which charged roughly $400 per night, per room. Five or six Council members and your suddenly staring at a couple of grand per night just for our hotel rooms, and some of us don't even get in a word edge-wise in half the meetings. But sometimes these meetings turn into contests of who can impress people the most. So there is a little ego involved, which for me is all the more reason to not go.
Weeks like this, no quorum, are for me now a boon. I can catch up on emails, reports, letters, phone calls--all the things that go neglected while away from the office. My new G1, the offspring of T-Mobile and Google designed to provide an industry rival to the iPhone, helps me keep up somewhat; It's a defacto blackberry. But there just doesn't seem enough time, or maybe I'm just not good at rationing out my time. Probably both.
But the lack of a quorum means no meetings, except Wednesday when we will have a conference call to discuss the "Leno Letter" yet again, and that gives me time to try and get organized. But looking through my office, where to begin?
Wink Soderberg thinks I'm crazy to keep most of the reports and try and stay organized. Looking at all my shelves, he might be right. But a lot of this stuff I just can't bear to part with. It is more out of journalistic instincts than anything, I want reminders of past events, statistics that might be useful someday. Plus frankly, I saw a record years ago that looked tampered with, and some of the major decisions made before I got elected there seems to be no record at all, or if there is it might be hidden away who knows where. The words "needle" and "haystack" come to mind.
So this week will not be idle for me, even with the void of meetings and work sessions. I'll plug away at the unstoppable flow of information, file some of it away, shred the rest. Once in a while, I'll come across something important, even disturbing, that I knew about at one time, and then forgot. There is a lot of stuff like that.

Never Back Down

I just watched the 2008 film, “Never Back Down”, which in reality is just an update of a similar movie from my own childhood, “The Karate Kid”.  Towards the end of the movie, the hero and villain are about to slug it out in the parking lot, MMA-style, and the protagonist makes a keen observation while sensing the psychotic antagonist’s hesitancy.  The villain loves an audience.  It is not enough to win a fight convincingly.  He wants to beat somebody’s ass, and do it in front of a crowd of roaring fellow teens, and to have it broadcast on YouTube over and over and over.

He still has issues, that’s not questioned at all.  But he’s the kind of guy who whose hobby is to do exactly what he does in the movie, to pick fights and record the glory.  He goes to some considerable lengths at times too, using a girlfriend to lure the hero to a party where they can rumble.

There are some who will consider this idea far-fetched, but I don’t think it is.  Our Wednesday night Council meetings have become those fights.  The July 1 meeting felt, for all purposes, like a premeditated ambush.  Some of my co-workers already knew what they were going to say, chiming in right at Other Business.  Like the Karate Kid, Wink Soderberg and I happened to be around when others were itching for a fight.  The letter from our Director of Development about last year’s Leno Letter was like throwing down the fighting mats for a match.  Except I didn’t know it at the time.

When the ABC’s first got elected in 2004, that marked I think the start of these theatrical meetings, although the Tribe had its share during that period of legal struggles involving Ed Pearsall, Reyn Leno, Bob Haller, and Jan Reibach.  Poor Ed seemed all alone at some of those meetings, and I guess he was.  But I remember the first two meetings Angie, Buddy, and I had to endure as they were laden with accusations of…where to start, of buying the election, of being owned by “the Michigan Group”, and interfering in a hiring matter.  It took some getting used to, and I’m not sure one really does.

The trend continued into 2005, starting within weeks of Wink Soderberg and Kathy Tom getting elected as some anonymous flyer hit mailboxes describing our mythical plans to cut per capita, Elders’ security, etc.  The following meeting was packed, and there were a number of scripted comments that were also waiting in the wings, including one at me.  From a political standpoint, it makes sense.  There was a large audience then, all the more reason to try and make somebody look bad.

Last year might have been one of the worst, there was the matter of a letter some Tribal member wanted read into the record, a suggestion our acting Chair didn’t bother to mention until the onset of Other Business.  There was also the meeting where our acting Chair had the Tribe’s Human Resources Director stand up, sheepishly I might add, and refute the statements of a rival Council member.  It makes me wonder what will be in store for me this Wednesday, July 8, as we hold one ahead of schedule due to lack of quorum next week.

I ask myself this:  What is worse, that I’ve become so cynical and jaded as to expect these sorts of things, or that more often than not these things, these plotted attacks, can be counted on to happen?

All I can do is roll with the punches.

Council Elections 2009

We have 18 people running for Tribal Council this year, and in all honesty I have no idea what that means. Jokes were thrown around the SMGI Board meeting yesterday that person will be able to get elected this year with 20 votes. That is a gross exaggeration, of course, but at the heart of it all is some semblance of likely truth. We might not see any 600 vote candidates this year.
Every year you always have the three incumbents. And word gets to you of so-and-so is going to throw their hat into the ring. There are of course the people who approach you early for support. Lastly there are the unknowns and last-minute runners, those who think they have a chance, but don't.
I've gotten the sense that political alliances aren't quite what they used to be, which can always change for better or worse over the next month. I wonder if this supposed rift is fueling the bold actions of trying to take over the Tribal newspaper. A member told me the other day that when people in power feel that power slipping away, they resort to extreme behavior and actions.
Check.
And I'm not talking about the newspaper either, as in executive session yesterday I witnessed a Council member just about pop a vein in their head for the second time in a week. There is a lot of tension around Council these days, and I predict you'll see the usual political antics manifest themselves during Wednesday night Council meetings which during elections is almost like a theater. I tried to make plans for tomorrow night, but figured, "why bother?". What is the likelihood we'll have a short meeting, especially in thinking of how last year's election went.
Politics, I'm convinced, transcend gender, race, religion, and culture. I originally lamented that revelation, but over the years have grimly accepted it among the facts of life, even though deep down I still think tribes in America have a real opportunity to be different.
I still hope, and who knows, come September, I'll hope some more.

Memorial Day

Okay so these photos should have been posted a while ago.  But one of the disadvantages of the digital age, like 2GB memory cards, is that you can store so much on one card that you go months without uploading the photos, as I did here.  Our Veterans’ Memorial continues to be one of the best photo ops in the West Valley.  That man with me is Congressman Kurt Schrader.