What Price Are We Willing To Pay For Political "Pragmatism?"
Up here in northern Minnesota many people are mourning the death today of our friend and fellow activist Greg Paquin who we were forced to bury yesterday after he became the target of a massive campaign of racist hate initiated by the FBI working in cahoots with racist police, judges and prosecutor.
Several years ago we, about 50 community leaders and activists, had a meeting with the head of the Justice Department out of Chicago asking the United States Department of Justice to intervene and put an end to this ongoing racism and racist violence up here in northern Minnesota .
Obama’s Department of Justice refused to respond to our pleas for help and now one of the most influential civil rights and labor rights activists, Greg Paquin, is dead— buried yesterday in the Northbird family plot.
Where does “pragmatism” fit into the scheme of things?
Is there not a time when it becomes time to act to remove Obama from power because his horrendous dirty deeds are more important to take under consideration than his political “pragmatism” of failing to act in a conscionable manner?
At this meeting when I specifically asked the head of the United States Department of Justice’s Chicago region who is responsible for delaying the required investigations needed to bring federal charges for violating the civil and constitutional rights of Native American Indians by federal, state and county law enforcement agencies he specifically stated: “My boss.”
I then pushed him with another question: “Who is your boss?”
His response was: “My friend President Barack Obama.”
I am sure that many Minnesotans and many Americans— including very progressive Minnesotans and Americans at that— must surely be aware of the longstanding historic, structural, systemic and institutionalized racism now complicated by the “lateral racism” being imposed by the corrupt tribal governments created by the white racist political establishment that is taking a terrible toll on the lives of Native Americans… surely many of you must aware of this.
Well, how do you explain the United States Department of Justice has not lifted a finger to put an end to this but instead acted in collution and cahoots with these racists and bigots and as a result Gregory W. Paquin is now dead?
Come on, really; does political “pragmatism” trump human life?
Gregory Pacquin was buried yesterday because Barack Obama feared that ordering his Justice Department into northern Minnesota to put an end to this racism would somehow be bad for his political life.
Does the politics of “pragmatism” take on a different perspective now that there is one more victim of racist discrimination, Gregory W. Paquin, lying in a grave?
Yesterday we buried our good friend Greg Paquin who because of his determined struggle to enforce Affirmative Action in the most racist city in America— Bemidji, Minnesota— was targeted and harassed to no end by the racist power structure with the FBI and the Minnesota Public Safety Commission using the racist Beltrami Prosecutor Tim Faver to carry out their racist agenda.
This bunch of racists in the power structure targeted Greg Paquin with a vindictive vendetta and utilized the same government resources it used to enforce discriminatory racist employment practices that should have been used to jail drug dealers; but Tim Faver is known to be personally profiting from the drug dealing in Beltrami County where he has been known to refuse to prosecute these drug dealers and members and leaders of the Native Mob who have been terrorizing people living on Indian Reservations.
The racism of Tim Faver, Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp and Beltrami County Judges has been well documented by the foundation-funded Minnesota ACLU Racial Justice Task Force headed up by Audrey Thayer and her staff, which in spite of having spent over one-million dollars documenting Tim Faver’s racist policies using these viciously racist vindictive vendettas against civil and human rights activists like Gregory W. Paquin to try to stymie the movements for racial equality in Northern Minnesota.
Tim Faver jumped at the opportunity created by the FBI to maliciously— under color of law— prosecute Greg Paquin based on the most vicious rumors and lies initiated by the FBI itself in, what is fast becoming a pattern of repressive behavior aimed at destroying the most basic freedoms in this country protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In fact, these foundation-funded outfits like the Minnesota ACLU’s Racist Justice Task Force are serving as the cover enabling this racist and repressive atmosphere and activity to continue because they lead people to believe something is being done to try to resolve these problems when nothing in fact is being done; they are part of the larger scheme of things to enable this racism in employment.
Audrey Thayer, when recently questioned during a public forum as to what the results have been for all these years of “collecting data” has resulted in, hid behind that old excuse in evading an answer, “I am not at liberty to discuss what actions are being taken,” when everyone knows no action to end this institutionalized racism in northern Minnesota directed at Native American Indians is being taken.
Audrey Thayer sat in the courtroom smiling as Greg Paquin was being maligned and framed by Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver without so much as decrying this perversion of justice and gross act of repression directed towards Greg Paquin that culminated in Greg’s death.
Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp should be charged with the murder of Greg Paquin. These racist bigots should be removed from public office. Greg Paquin has not been their first victim and he will not be their last.
Anyone can sit in any Beltrami County courtroom on any day of the week at any time to witness the racism in the Beltrami County Court system as racist repression against Native American Indians is delivered under the guise of justice.
The FBI and Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver spun a campaign of racist hate against Greg Paquin which resulted in his death.
A federal grand jury investigation should be convened to determine all of the culprits responsible for civil rights and trade union activist Greg Paquin’s death at age 49.
Greg Paquin was a founder of the Native American Labor Union #12 and a determined activist organizing and demanding Affirmative Action in employment be enforced as a way to begin alleviating the disgraceful poverty plaguing Indian Reservations and urban Native American communities.
Greg Paquin became well known for making a very simple, yet very profound observation:
“Working people without jobs are going to be poor.”
Greg went on to point out that the majority of Native American Indians are working class people suffering unemployment on the huge Indian Reservations of northern Minnesota with unemployment rates ranging from 65% to 85%.
Gregory W. Paquin, a member of the Plumber’s and Pipefitter’s Union-AFL-CIO, initiated and led a grassroots effort to enforce Affirmative Action when the largest public works project in Northern Minnesota since the Great Depression, the Bemidji Regional Event Center (now called the Sanford Center), got underway without one single Native American Indian being employed in this sixty-million dollar boondoggle where individual wheelbarrows were rented to the contractors for $60.00 a day and individual sledgehammers were rented to the same contractors for $10.00 a day for over two years.
Greg continually pointed out that Native American Indians are being used as a pool of cheap labor to push all wages of all workers down. Greg’s research exposed how Native Americans are systematically being denied employment in the public and private sectors in Minnesota.
After reading Stewart Acuff’s book, “Getting America Back To Work,” in which Acuff calls on each and every worker to become a “warrior for justice,” Greg with his friends organized a new political party, “Warriors for Justice.”
For his activities in trying to get Affirmative Action enforced, Gregory W. Paquin, was targeted by the FBI working in cahoots and collusion with the Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp for a vicious and vindictive racist vendetta which ended up killing Greg Paquin.
Greg’s best friend, Curtis Buckanaga, a leader of grassroots efforts to improve the lives and living conditions of Native people declared at Greg’s funeral that a powerful movement to end racism and enforce Affirmative Action will continue being built in memory of Greg Paquin.
Greg Paquin’s remains were laid to rest by his family and friends in the Northbird Family Plot located in a peaceful forest setting beside a river on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation as his spirit soared like an eagle.
[Note: A photo journal of pictures taken at Greg's funeral will be forthcoming.]
Greg’s blog can be read at: http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/
I should point out that as a result of the bogus racist conviction on trumped up charges Greg Paquin was framed on resulting in imprisonment that included the intentional denial of health care for treatment of his diabetes which contributed to his death, part of the probation which Greg Paquin was placed on is that he must not blog for a period of ten years. Greg was ordered by a Beltrami County Judge not to continue working on this blog. And the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union and its Racial Justice Taskforce did not see this as a problem involving Greg being denied his constitutional rights.
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
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