Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D., Tim Giago Column Story-Date: 11:09 a.m. PST Sunday , September 27, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D., Tim Giago Column By Tim Giago, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Sep. 28--CONGRESS IS CLINTON'S JUDGE, JURY, EXECUTIONER: I used to look forward to getting home from work each Wednesday, going to my mailbox and picking up the latest editions of "Newsweek" and "Time magazines. And then came Monica Lewinsky. At first I read the reports until I felt absolutely immersed in details I didn't want to know. Let's face it, King David had a fling with Bathsheba. It's in the Bible, right? So, it happened. Should I have to learn every sordid detail of how these two went about seducing each other and every minute detail of how they made love? The Bible said they sinned and that should be enough detail for anyone. At least it was in the old days. We are now becoming a nation of voyeurs. We are a nation of peeping toms peering into the bedrooms of the rich and famous. If it isn't the royal family of Great Britain, it's a movie star, politician or the president of the United States. The American public has an insatiable appetite for sludge. The death of Princess Dianna pushed the death of Mother Theresa to page 14. The Monica affair, as I have written in the past, left the leader of the Catholic Church standing on the beach in Cuba wondering why the media disappeared so quickly. Most relevant news stories were pushed from sight during the days of the chase, capture, trial and sentencing of O. J. Simpson. What is happening to the people we elected to serve in Washington, D. C.? The situation reminds me of a custom utilized by one or two eastern tribes long ago, called running the gauntlet. Tribal members formed two long lines and the accused or the victim had to run from one end of the line to the other while being beaten with clubs and other weapons. President Bill Clinton sinned and he is now running the gauntlet. The governing bodies of most Indian tribes are called tribal councils. They are patterned after the U. S. Senate. I have attended many tribal council sessions over the years and I do not recall a single council attempting to pass laws governing the rights of the women of the tribe to have an abortion. They believe this is a personal choice of the woman. I do not recall any tribal council questioning the right of a holy man to pray before the opening of a tribal council meeting. And I definitely do not recall a tribal council investigating an act of sex in the private life of a tribal leader in the fashion carried out by Kenneth Starr. As far as I know, there is only one medical doctor serving in the U. S. Congress. Then why are so many other members trying to play doctor by placing themselves between a woman and her personal physician? There are many members of Congress who are very religious, but does that give them the right to push their religious beliefs upon all of us? We have no political parties on Indian reservations. People vote for the tribal candidates as they see fit without party affiliation. This pretty much kicks partisan politics in the head. Tribal leaders have enough confidence in their own spiritual beliefs that they do not mind a holy man saying a prayer prior to a council meeting, meal or at a funeral. In many cases, they do not mind the religious affiliation of the holy man. We must remember that the Indian nations did not send missionaries to convert the heathens who landed upon this Turtle Island. They did not practice their spirituality: they lived it. I think it is time for Congress to get out of the bedrooms of those they would condemn, put away the collars they wear when legislating religion and take off the gowns and surgical masks because they are not licensed to practice medicine. They were elected by us to serve. They were elected by us to make laws for the white, black, red, yellow and brown people of this land. We did not elect them to be judges, juries or executioners and we certainly did not elect them to peep into the bedroom windows of other elected officials. If our elected tribal councils acted as Congress has of late, they would soon find themselves out of office. The Indian people expect much higher standards of their tribal officials. What Bill Clinton did was wrong. But how many more gauntlets must he run? Can we not get back to the business of this country? The poorest county in the United States, Shannon County on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, could have done so much with the $50 million dollars wasted by Kenneth Starr and his window peepers. What has become of this Nation's priorities? ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ (c) 1998, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------