i have always volunteered my time and skills when i have been able to do so. nowhere have i had a greater pull towards than the rosebud & pine ridge reservations in south dakota. i plan someday to find a way to assemble a team of medical volunteers to offer healthcare to the people of those areas... the level of healthcare that they deserve. not just for a day or a week or a month, but for a few years. long enough to help combat the serious health issues nai's face that often go untreated... alcoholism, mental health, obesity, diabetes...
maybe it's a dream, but someday i hope to somehow in someway make a difference for the lakota people in sd.
it really makes me sick to think that this sort of thing is allowed in this country. the conditions under which so many nai's are subjected to live seem so farfetched to the people who drive around in their nice shiny new bmw's and drive home to their multi-million dollar homes. how could there be such a huge socioeconomic divide? how could people only a few miles away live in homes with dirt floors when others get marble imported from italy to adorn their foyers? it's hard to wrap your brain around such a thing... to acknowledge how terribly wrong the government has treated the nai's. and how it continues to this day...
i know it happens to everyday to all kinds of people, but this is personal. i know i am only one person, but if enough people made enough of an effort to work towards positive change i believe something really good could come of it.
"you may say i'm a dreamer, but i'm not the only one." - john lennon
bridey
if filmmaker michael moore really wanted to shock the world about the lack of health care in the united states, he should have taken his film crew to an indian reservation for scenes in his recent documentary “sicko.”
imagine avis littlewind, a 14-year-old who was lying curled in the fetal position for 90 days before killing herself because no treatment center existed to help her.
on wednesday, the senate committee on indian affairs held a field hearing on the crow reservation to collect testimony from native people suffering at the hands of the indian health service, which is funded at barely half of its need.
