ambrosia of the gods

Gallup isn't what you'd call a wine-lover's paradise.  This is ironic, as McKinley County (of which Gallup is the largest city and county seat) has the highest rate of alcoholism in the United States.  I was invited to a colleague's house for dinner tomorrow evening, and thought I'd bring a few bottles of wine as a gift.  So I hopped on my bike, which in itself is an adventure; the Gallup street system almost seems to have been designed to keep away people on bikes.  My destination?  A liquor store that has a selection of wines from which to choose.  This proved more difficult than I imagined; Gallup seemingly has more liquor stores than people, but not a one of them has wine that isn't either in a box, a 2-gallon jug, or made using anti-freeze.  I eventually found a place that had more than the usual suspects, the Albertson's grocery store chain, and even their selection was a little stilted.  There is plenty of hard liquor to be found in Gallup, please to note.  What this says to me is that depression, alcoholism, and poverty all run together into a river that resembles Styx of the Nine Circles of Hell fame.  Where does this all come from?  The general assumption is that the alcoholism stems from the pervasive lack of quality education, as well as economic opportunities.

The Navajo believe that problems like drug addiction, alcoholism, and general lack of self-care can all be attributed to larger problems that are not being dealt with, and a life that is out of balance with the Universe.  If the alcohol weren't here (as some would have it, as is the law on the Navajo Rez and most Indian gambling establishments), it would just be something else.  At any given time, there is someone with the DTs withdrawing from alcohol in the ICU where I work.  It seems like this is a problem that isn't being solved.

I'm just putting it out there today as food for thought.  This is clearly a problem that has many different heads, not least of all that Indians in general seem to be caught between two different worlds; that of the white man (or Anglo) and the traditional, indigenous way of life.  This is a phenomenon that I hope to explore in more detail the longer I live here.

I want to end this entry with a snappy one-liner, but given the topic I just don't feel like that would be appropriate.