Complex Numbers

60 More Years!

Lots of great stuff happening in the U.S. right now - the last Democratic primaries are wrapping up in two of the flyover states, and now the press is going to switch from Obama vs. Clinton mode to Obama vs. McCain mode. In other words, five more months of whose hair is better-groomed and which candidate's grandmother or great-grandmother was a flapper during the Roaring Twenties, because, of course, that makes a huge difference in who should be president.

But enough about politics. Let's take a closer look at one of those flyover states: South Dakota, land of... land of... um. What the hell is in South Dakota?

Ah, yes. The Crazy Horse Memorial which, as it happens, was begun sixty years ago today:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFm-XObirp1WYOCQbKZBiof7uGzgD911QFQ00

CRAZY HORSE, S.D. (AP) - Sixty years after the first blast signaled work had begun on the world's largest mountain carving, the project is far from finished.

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The invitation to undertake the carving came from Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, who was prompted by Gutzon Borglum's carving of nearby Mount Rushmore to seek a memorial for Indian heroes.

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"Crazy Horse represents the values of American Indian tribes - of bravery, respect generosity, wisdom. So by being on this memorial he represents some of those struggles that he fought for a long time ago, of protecting our land base and our treaties. We're still in those fights today."

One of General Custer's descendants is a good friend of mine. I think I'll show her the article, see what she thinks.

I know I'd have put a different expression on his face. Something more evocative of how I know I'd feel if my people had been marginalized and driven into special enclaves far from their ancestral...

Oh, that's right. They were.

Anyway, I'll be raising one tonight to impossible odds, like Custer met at Little Bighorn, or a nonwhite man having a real shot at the Presidency.