HuffPo: Beer Sniffing Reporters Invade Pine Ridge

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. Re: I had hoped they would be closed down by now.

Last edited Mon May 14, 2012, 06:15 PM - Edit history (2)

Refer to: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101627884

or to: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/150544095.html#ixzz1uQaAYy00

The Times reported in April on an attempt by the Nebraska legislature to create “alcohol impact zones” that would limit sales of alcohol products in areas impacted by alcohol related crimes (the crime rates on Pine Ridge are also very high). That effort is stalled in committee. According to the Times, seven of eight Nebraska Senate committee members have received more than $21,000 in contributions from Anheuser-Busch over the past five years

.

Especially if one enters Pine Ridge from the Nebraska side, there is a surreal quality to it. One travels north on a highway, with little more than brush and cow pasture for miles -- broken up by the occasional farm home. Then, as one approaches Pine Ridge, there is an area -- calling it a town would be charitable -- with convenience stores and people sitting against buildings and laying down on sidewalks passed out drunk. It's as if a skid row out of a huge Eastern city suddenly appeared in the middle of the rural plains. But the skid row is entirely populated by Native Americans. I can never find the right adjective. Sad? Pathetic? Sickening? Horrifying? Disheartening?

Another question -- why Whiteclay? Is it simply because it's within walking distance of Pine Ridge? Why don't we witness this spectacle at other towns bordering/near the Pine Ridge Rez, like Oelerichs, SD, Kadoka, SD, or Martin, SD? Why don't we see this phennomenon in Valentine or Kilgore, NE which are close to the Rosebud Reservation?

Without making a judgement on legality or morality, I'd ask the Board Members of Anheuser-Busch this: You invite friends to your home, and you serve cocktails. After a while, you become aware that a particular friend is displaying the behavior of an alchoholic. S/He is behaving oddly or badly, and yet this person won't stop drinking cocktails. At what point does it become your responsibility to stop serving your friend drinks? At what point does decency demand you say "enough - I have to cut you off"? Now carry the analogy out further. Your friends in Whiteclay are buying 4 million cans of beverages made by you and your competitors. You've sold these same products to your friends in many other areas, with few problems. In Whiteclay, however, your friends seem to be struggling with your product. Many of them behave in the manner of people with a drinking problem. Does there come a time when you say to your friends "You've had too much -- at least for now. We're not serving any more"?

JMHO. YMMV.