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Show Circle the wagons! scentity, prostitution, Penrose Drive, long-haired stree twataj miscellaneous forms of corruption, and (for twelve years) J. Bracken Lee But San Juan County has a" commission that makes our seem a model of good sense and efficiency. One member ,s rancher Oal Black who is known mostly for his opposition to ecological sanity and has battled it for years with some success. .. Now comes the Indian threat, and the folks in San Juan sound like Bull Connor, Ross Barnett, and George Wallace facing the South s nigras a decade ago. Navajo Indians make up about 40 percent of the electorate, and they're making a bid for the two open seats on the county commission. com-mission. After an eternity of political apathy, the lnd!ans are gettm restless, and the settlers are gettin' jumpy. . One embattled white, county clerk Clytie Barber, was quoted in Sunday's Tribune as saying she's "gone backwards to help them (the Navajos) register." But (shades of the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi) "white agitators are trying to turn the Indians against the whites." . Even worse, them uppity savages are getting fancy ideas about politics. "They're (the agitators) telling them to start at the top instead of the bottom; telling them they should be commissioners now instead of educating them first," says the clerk. Imagine thatl Ordinary citizens who think they have the right to run for commissioner! Too bad San Juan County is still in the 1880's in this regard. The nation has gone through a lot since then, and learned a lot. One of them is that a democracy must allow its citizens to vote, and maybe hold public office whether or not they have the "right" color or religion or language or ideology. This is so obvious, so fundamental it seems silly to even write about. Federal law has now removed almost all legal barriers to voting, including in-cluding literacy tests, lengthy residency requirements, and property-holding property-holding tests. According to the Navajo's attorneys, some of these are being used to stop Indians from registering. At best they are technicalities. At worst they are a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. Hey, wanta go on a Freedom Ride to Mexican Hat? |