10
OPINION
4.29.2015
THERAMPAGEONLINE.COM
Being a renegade Indian is my destiny and only path to happiness
BY CHRISTOPHER DEL CASTILLO Reporter cdelcastillo@therampageonline.com
When you think of the word “renegade,” what comes to most Americans’ minds? “Renegade” is a term for a person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles. What is really mind blowing is that to me no is a renegade anymore. The days of being right and true are all but gone. Today’s modern American does not recognize that this country started in rebellion; a rebellion that created a new country that defied an empire. But those days are over, America has changed since then. The days of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and Geronimo are long memories. Everyday during the sunrise and sunset I wonder what might have been. We live in a so-called democracy
that gives the freedom to express our rightful way of living but it comes with a price. It seems every now and then a new generation comes to challenges the old guard to change the very fabric of society. There are days I wonder walking across the city that I realized that am the last of the renegade Indians. In my very heart I believe that in this day in age that being anti-establishment and a renegade in the U.S. is a dying art. Today’s America is not the America back during the civil rights era of the ‘60s or that peace and love generation that we all know and love. More Americans are fed up with the phony democracy that exists in the United States. Across the nation people are engaged in democracy rebellions as many re-examine the nation’s roots. According to John Taylor Gatto, who upset many in attendance by stating “the truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. There are many hard cold evidences that we really don’t teach our young people to be free to express themselves because being open minded and questioning the powers of the establishment is very wrong and goes against what they see as downright criminals.” What really grinds and my gears is that that we teach history that has double standards and is Eurocentric from one point of view. From within
these teachings we are forced not to question history and that if we do we are bullied by the establishment of the system. To a person who is part of the anti-establishment and a person of free will it’s my dysentery to be a renegade Indian because it’s the only hope I have in this so-called free democracy of America. There are days I remember reading the pages of history and realized that the very culture throughout human civilization had some form of renegades living in a time of need. There were renegades in ancient Greece, China, and even in our modern times. Throughout history a people change the very fabric of society in order to find a higher purpose in life. What the Native Americans did during the last decades of the eighteenth century was act of rebellion because for example is the Apache way of life. I remember the great renegade Apache warrior Geronimo said “The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians.” with so much power that Geronimo had he show himself as a warrior and leader of his people. But the American establishment depicted him as savage and trouble maker. Like all who go against the establishment of the government they will paint a picture of false depiction
and give little evidence of what really happened. And the old saying goes in this country that is very unfortunate is that history is written by the winners. With no evidence of what really happens in history and all the hire garbage that is written, no one really knows what history is and what is it. It really funny to me to see that we are told to obey orders and never to question the powers at be. I remember a quote from George R.R. Martin the creator of Game of Thrones said “ and they all lived happily ever after, that’s not what I write.” America is not a Disneyland story or is it rays of sunshine and on a spring day. For most people it is and for some it is. Not to an Apache. For years I seen our freedoms being taken away like how a spiders web traps its prey. For over a decade I wanted to be a renegade Indian and if the powers to be wants me to be then so be it. As many as you read this think to yourself what is a renegade? What is purpose of a renegade? People have a higher purpose in life, my goal is to be one last free renegade Indian and that’s OK. And if being a renegade Indian is my path in life then I am the last of the last renegade Apaches because that’s who I am and that’s what makes the world around.