Extra Credit Blog Post: Navajo honored and Course Wrap Up

I still can't believe how many topics I listened to on NPR that pertain to this class! Here is one that aired on Thursday on my way up to campus:

Last of "Navajo Code Talkers Dies" at 93
Here is an excerpt that stuck out to me:

NEZ: And the Japanese tried everything in their power to try to decipher our code, but they never succeeded.

MORALES: Nez and his fellow code talkers were faced with many cultural challenges at war. The Navajo believe when you encounter a dead body, that person's spirit stays with you.

NEZ: They were all around me. I actually see them alongside my bed.

MORALES: His family performed a ceremony to cleanse him. When Nez and the others had arrived home in 1945, there was no fanfare because the code talker program was a secret. It was so successful, the military continued to use the code until 1968. Still, it took six decades after the code was written before President George W. Bush awarded them Congressional Gold Medals.

There are many ironies in this story that are explicitly pointed out. Like the banning of the Navajo language for Chester and so many others growing up, is exactly what the USA relied on for covert operations and communications. It reminded me of Ceremony, and how hard it must have been for these men to be outcasts in a society that then forced to participate in killings that went against their traditions. Not to mention the confusion and frustration that went along with the loss of uniform and subjection to racism upon their return to the good ol US of A.

link: http://www.npr.org/2014/06/05/319030285/chester-nez-last-of-navajo-code-talkers-dies-at-93

While I have loved this class, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed by our last meeting on Thursday. The discussion of the Marshallese islands and the documentary was not only eye opening, but it was so, so painful to watch. All these injustices and horrors we have learned about, yet I do not feel like any solutions were proposed. Ceremony suggested healing through little acts of kindness being passed on and reconnecting with the world to make it a better place, but for the most part the topics were all pretty morbid. While there is no easy fix to the many direct and indirect consequences of war, and the atomic bomb, there must be some solutions. Solutions to making right what we've done to various indigenous peoples, or changing our history books to teach kids in high school a different perspective of the US military and US wars,  actions that can be taken through the court systems, or through activism, or whatnot. I recall hearing of cases that did not serve justice in full, as well as the problems with "humanitarian donations," but I would have liked more discussion centered around these solutions even though they have inevitable shortcomings.