Letters | ‘Drain the swamp’

‘Drain the swamp’

Editor,
The Navajo MAGA Republicans need to understand what their vote represents in the U.S. Trump Administration, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate. Their vote approves child sex trafficking victims and cocaine-fueled parties.

We saw former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) withdraw his nomination to be Trump’s attorney general, after being called out by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). MTG called for exposing all of the child sex trafficking allegations buried by fellow Republicans using an $18 million campaign contributions’ slush fund to mitigate, to squash those serious allegations.

If this is all fake news, then the U.S. Congress should release the criminal allegations against Gaetz, and GOP statesmen, since he, and they, are innocent.

Navajo voters, do not be fooled when Republicans reject that they are hiding child sex trafficking allegations. As MTG says, “If we are going to dance, let’s all dance in the sunlight.” Yes America! Let’s publicize the results of child sex trafficking so Navajo MAGA Republicans can see what they support with their sacred votes our warriors fought and died for defending this country in battle.

Our children are worth it.

Let us see the financial statements showing Gaetz, Trump’s first AG nomination, paying 17-year-olds for plane tickets, and to hush up about being used for sex by the 42-year-old that Trump and Elon Musk said would drain the swamp, because “Floridians know how to drain swamps and mount the dead allegators on the wall.”

‘Aoo’! Drain the swamp isss!

Patrick Murphy (Dibé Łizhiní, Kinyaa’áanii)
Albuquerque, N.M.

Excessive spending

The budget crisis at the Office of the President is uncalled for and not in the best interest of the Navajo people as reported by Eugenia Charles Newton Council Delegate from Shiprock via the social media.

I would like to comment specifically on the salary of the chief of staff’s salary of $140,000 plus which is way too excessive. It never used to be that high in the history of the Navajo Nation. It’s nearly triple the salary of the president and makes me wonder what the justification is behind the sudden rate hike in only two years. It’s the Navajo people’s money they’re messing with, and they need deserve every right to know.

There is another way to think about the $140-plus to get a better understanding of it. It’s enough to build one two-bedroom house here in Farmington or a three-bedroom house on the reservation. Or it’s the salary of the chief of staff for U.S Speaker of the House. It’s sick to think of this mess going on in our government.

We shouldn’t make the chief of staff a millionaire using our precious tribal dollars like Joe Shirley Jr. did with the Kayenta Township money. These kinds of tricks make us look like we’re really dumb and stupid. Let’s take a position to stop it while the tribal council is considering a six-month budget extension. This is sufficient time to fix the budget mess at the president’s office. What’s happening here needs a thorough investigation.

Additionally, there are staff assistants making $70,000 to $80,000 a year. What do they do to have this kind of salary? Most of the time you see them walking around drinking coffee or they’re sitting behind their desk dwindling the fingers. These positions use to be funded at $45,000 a year and how were they justified for the big boost.

Why are we paying for a disallowable cost for personal things for the president and his wife. Payment for baby shower and related cost should come out of their pockets. Does mean those pregnant ones can go to the president’s office to have their personal needs paid for?

Vern Charleston
Farmington, N.M.

News and crime

Editor,

I have not offered any of my rare perspectives in the Navajo Times lately. Here it is. Nowadays, we are hearing about all kinds of news and crime surrounding our society, in America, and in Indian Country – it comes in many, many different ways. It is breathtaking! It is daily, hourly bad news filtering human minds. On the Navajo reservation, crime is being reported on a daily basis with an increase of substance abuse.

In the Bible, Romans I says, “…they [people] became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.”

Lately, I have been hearing and reading about how different ethnic groups of people want to go back to the old ways of singing, rituals, ceremonies, worshipping created elements and offering human induced ways of worship. How are these groups reaching our younger generation? They think and speak the English language. In Romans I again, it says, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” Even further back in the Bible in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.” The human race is continually drifting away from God.

Now, the weather and severe storms. God is trying to get our attention but we are not listening! We are experiencing extreme heat across our country, flooding, damaging almost everything in its path with devastating effects! Hurricanes ripping through residential areas, cities; these locations are filled with immigrants and foreign criminals.

Where are the clear-thinking leaders? Here is a reference of worldly thinking of self-centered leaders. In the Bible, Isaiah 5 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, put darkness for light and light for darkness.” This is a reflection on our leaders and a majority of the people around the world. The people are becoming non-believing in the Almighty God of the Universe.

The healing/recovery will take a long time depending on whether the people are genuinely willing to “repent” of all their sins, which has been accumulated over a lifetime.

Are you willing to do that? I know only a few will do that because repentance is a strange word to society! “Pride” will hold them back. Today, we are suffering from our stupidity. Praying for families and the younger generations.

Milt Shirleson
Window Rock, Ariz.

Human life, a few words in Diné

Editor,
I live on the Navajo Nation. I am not Navajo. I am not Native American. However, I love the Diné. Diné are beautiful. Diné Bizaad is a beautiful language. I truly wish I could speak it fluently. I only know a few words.

The Navajo Nation has been my home for over 23 years. My family and I have lived in Fort Defiance for over 10 years. Some of you reading this may be thinking that I need to leave and that you don’t need someone like me here. I respect your opinion. I also hope that if we could sit down together, listen to each other, and you could hear my heart, that your opinion about me would change for the good.

I am writing out of concern for our children, who are the future of the Navajo Nation and the United States of America. The culture and some politicians seem determined to destroy the children, our most vulnerable. This is heartbreaking to me, for children are our greatest, most precious gift. One of the main things I love about the Navajo culture is the strong bonds of family, when there is k’é and hózhǫ́’. Since Navajo is such a descriptive language, I know I can’t fully understand the meanings of those words. But I am trying.

Some politicians talk about freedom and the right to choose. Specifically, I am referring to a woman’s right to end her pregnancy by choosing an abortion. Whatever you may believe about God, we all have a Creator. He does not give us the right to take the life of another human. We know that murder is wrong and against the law.

Plus, I have seen women and men on the other side, after they have made this choice. They aren’t experiencing freedom. They are slaves to uncontrolled emotions such as feelings of rage/anger, shame, guilt, and grief. They suffer after-effects of abortion like the following: bouts of crying, eating disorders, depression, emotional numbness, lowered self-esteem, drug and alcohol abuse, flashbacks/nightmares, suicidal urges, fear of pregnancy/pregnant women, anxiety/panic attacks, repeat abortions/crisis pregnancies, infertility, difficulty with relationships, inability to forgive self or others, and fears of punishment from God.

When people say, “It’s my body, my choice,” that is not scientifically correct. Yes, the baby does develop inside of the mother whose body undergoes significant changes. However, the baby is not part of the mother’s body. A pregnant woman’s body does not have four arms, four legs, and two heads. Abortion destroys the baby’s body — not the mother’s body.

Some ask what if a woman becomes pregnant through rape or incest, shouldn’t she have the right to an abortion in those cases? In those tragic situations, the baby should not be punished or killed for the immoral actions of the rapist. The rapist should be punished for his crimes. If the mother does not want the baby, due to the trauma of the rape or incest, this baby could be adopted by a loving couple who desperately wants children. These situations are rare and should not be used to justify abortion on demand at any time and for any reason.

The argument that the baby won’t have a good life because they will be poor, disabled, et cetera is not our call to make. Human value is not based on wealth or health. If a mother feels she cannot provide for her child, adoption is the loving option. If a mother decides she wants her child, but cannot provide for herself and her child, I would be willing to personally take them both into my home until the mother is able to care for herself and her child on her own.

I am pro-life, pro-child, and pro-woman. People often say that pro-lifers just want to control women’s bodies, but many people involved in the pro-life movement are women. Plus, more than half of aborted babies are female. The primary objection to abortion is that the procedure kills a human being.

You may not believe that an unborn baby is human. I will give you some scientific facts about the development of the fetus. Fetus is a Latin word which means offspring or young one. As I hope you will see, the fetus is not just a clump of cells. An ultrasound will quickly reveal what is actually happening inside a mother’s womb. At five weeks gestation, the circulatory system is beginning to form and cells in the tiny heart will start to flicker this week. Your baby is the size of a sesame seed.

At six weeks, your baby’s nose, mouth, and ears are starting to take shape, and her intestines and brain are beginning to develop. Your baby is the size of a lentil.

At seven weeks, your baby has doubled in size since last week, but still has an embryonic tail which will soon disappear. Little hands and feet that look more like paddles are emerging from the developing arms and legs. Your baby is the size of a blueberry.

At eight weeks, your baby has started moving around, though you won’t feel your baby move yet. Nerve cells are branching out, forming primitive neural pathways. Breathing tubes now extend from her throat to her developing lungs. Your baby is the size of a kidney bean.

When a baby reaches nine weeks gestation, her basic anatomy is developing (she even has tiny earlobes now), but there’s much more to come. Her embryonic tail has disappeared, and she weighs just a fraction of an ounce but is about to start gaining weight fast. Your baby is the size of a grape.

At 10 weeks, your baby has completed the most critical portion of development. Her skin is still translucent, but her tiny limbs can bend and fine details like nails are starting to form. Your baby now weighs a little over an ounce and is a little over 1 inch long from head to bottom.

By 11 weeks, your baby is almost fully formed. Your baby is kicking, stretching, and even hiccupping as their diaphragm develops, although you can’t feel any activity yet. Your baby is the size of a fig.

When 12 weeks is reached, your baby’s reflexes kick in: their fingers will soon begin to open and close, toes will curl, and her mouth will make sucking movements. Your baby is the size of a lime.

When a mother reaches 13 weeks, she is now in the last week of her first trimester. Your baby’s tiny fingers now have fingerprints, and her veins and organs are clearly visible through her skin. Her ovaries contain more than 2 million eggs. Your baby is the size of a pea pod.

I encourage you to read the rest of this article about the development of a fetus, or young one, which means baby. You will find the article online at: https://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/your-baby/fetal-development-week-by-week_10406730

I truly hope this information proves to you that unborn or preborn babies in the womb are tiny humans. He or she is a person with the same rights as all Americans. I hear so often, people will say, “I am personally opposed to abortion, but people have the right to do what they want.” Would you say something similar about slavery? “I am personally opposed to slavery, but it is a person’s right to choose.” Please think about that and consider what you are saying.

I realize there are so many lies thrown at us each day through the news and social media. It is difficult to know who to believe. Please don’t just listen to one source. Please do your own research. Please decide for yourself which candidates are best, based on his or her record.

Neither political party is perfectly right on any issue. I honestly wish that the United States would allow for a third-party candidate who would give us better choices than we have in this current election.

I wish that Native people from every tribe would be included in the conversations, especially regarding immigration and the issues that affect Native people more deeply. If you are Navajo/ Diné, Zuni, Apache, Pueblo, Hopi, Yavapai, Mohawk, Sioux, Seneca, Kiowa or from any Native American tribe, you are the First Americans. You should have the most input on all issues and be the most respected.

As I close, I want to emphasize that abortion is not a political issue. Abortion is a moral issue. We all have a Creator. It is his job to choose who lives and dies. The only thing we know for certain is that we will all die. No one leaves this earth alive.

Martha J. Stoner
Fort Defiance, Ariz.

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