The "Stop The Sale of Alcohol," sign up at the Blue got me having this conversation with myself this morning. I said, "Self, we need to stop the sale of alcohol."
My self said, "What are you talking about? Ours is a dry reservation."
So I said, "I mean we have to prevent alcohol from coming onto our reservation."
My self said, "How are you going to do that?"
I said, "Search every car that comes onto the reservation."
My self said, "Geez that will take at least two officers working three 8 hour shifts. Where will we get the funds for that?"
I said, "We'll find some funds somewhere."
My self replied, "Okay then, but what about all the back roads and trails? People will simply avoid the roads and bring alcohol onto the Rez that way."
I said, "Okay then, we will simply have to hire some more officers and buy a couple of ATVs to patrol those back roads and trails."
My self said, "With several officers watching the main highways and several more watching the back roads and trails, it will be really expensive." My self went on to say, "Our Rez is 40 miles wide and 60 miles long; that is a lot of ground to monitor. And, not to mention how many of those miles are shoreline. We will need speedboats to stop those smugglers who bring in alcohol by boat.
I said, "Well let's boycott the alcohol stores off the Rez then."
My self said, "But we don't drink so that won't do any good." Finally, my self said, "I have a better idea, let's take all money we are spending on interdiction and use it to build a treatment center and staff it with some top-notch counselors and stop alcoholism that way. We will treat entire families, not just alcoholics. That way, we will stop families from becoming enablers. Once we empower families to properly deal with the alcoholics in their life, then other people won't have to. And, this empowerment will spread throughout our communities, the tribal government will take steps to reduce alcoholism, program directors will be trained to deal with alcoholic workers in a manner that will help the alcoholic workers recover and retain their jobs instead of firing them. With fewer people drinking, law enforcement will not be spread so thin, and they will be able to respond to crises much more quickly and effectively. And, by reducing the consumption of alcohol, those places that sell alcohol will soon go out of business."
I said, "You know that is not a bad idea, why didn't you say that in the first place."
