The obscene Crazy Horse monument

The most obscene insult to Crazy Horse , sculpted in stone on stolen Indian land, is the so called “monument” being carved into the Black Hills. The Crazy Horse image is still sacred to the Sioux. The Sioux nation finds this tourist attraction the ultimate offense.

The Black Hills, Paha Sapa, “the heart of everything that is” was their sacred center, the most holy place of the Sioux nation. To blast out these hills, said the holy man Fools Crow, “is like us going into your St. John the Divine or the National Cathedral and carving up the walls and breaking the stained glass windows.” As holy man John Lame Deer put it: “good art is not made with a jackhammer. Anything in such disharmony with nature is evil. It fits into the sacred mountains like a red hot iron poked in someone’s eyes”.

It is the monumental ego of a sculptor inflated with a lust for fame. The Indians do not get one dime from the tourist money. This is a monument, once again, to the white mans arrogance, the same ignorance that destroyed Crazy Horse and raped the Black Hills for gold.
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Big city religious columns

This may come as a surprise to you, but there are actually readers of my columns who seem to think that some of my them are too strong. So, in the interest of enlightenment and information, I thought that today I would give you a taste of how the “big” religion editors in the “big” city papers write their columns.

Don Lattin is the religion editor and writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Several years ago for his Sunday column for the Examiner/Chronicle, he wrote about the violence that goes with the “religions of the book” (the bible), Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He wrote that “there is a very, very thin line between cult violence and the religions of the bible.” From here on, I am quoting from his column.

“Where do we get the idea that religion never endorses violence or terrorism? Certainly not from the Hebrew bible, which thunders: “I will send my terror in front of you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come” (Exodus 23:27)
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Steve Benson

Steve Benson has been the editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Republic of Phoenix for the past 18 years. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work there. He is the incoming President of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. He is nationally syndicated in more than 150 papers.

At the national convention this year of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Steve was given the TELL IT LIKE IT IS Freethought in the Media Award. What makes this so significant is that Steve is the first grandson of the late Ezra Taft Benson, the head of the Mormon church. Steve’s acceptance speech made the ruling elders of the Mormon church run for cover.

Steve and I go back a long way in our friendship. When he worked for the Tacoma News Tribune, and I wrote for them while living there, he would often take the subject matter of my essays and do his current cartoon to match.
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