To the Editor:

Ruin your life. Paralyze your mind. Impair your higher thinking. Make poor judgements imbalanced by intoxication due to alcohol.

Should you vote “no” to legalization of liquor on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians land on April 12? 

I am Cherokee and I have three bottles of wine and two beers in my home, yet I believe making it legal will be like a match to dynamite. Ease of access to alcohol is beyond our moral thinking. What is the pure consciousness telling you in your heart of hearts? To be or not to be? Drunk, or just high? A buzz? 

We are a great tribe and ought to lead the nation. However, the list goes on of enormous problems due to alcohol on Native American reservations. This is no secret. Talk to your mental health authorities about the effects in particular on Native Americans. It doesn’t do anything except bring about problems you’ve never dreamed of and costs to repair the damages to our tribe. Forget the visitors, they go back home, and we have a weakness for alcohol that will be everlasting.Think about it, yes or no.

Alcohol is not native to this culture and it’s something not sustainable or healthy to ourselves. This is a type of spirit that doesn’t nourish our people as proven in the past and present. What would all our elders want us to do that lived here centuries ago.

Wealth can be a positive thing, but not at our people’s depredation. Think about it. If our economy is causing this desperation to bring in more capital, then shame on us. I strongly want us to be better examples to our youth, to earn money via education and wholesome enthusiasm about our culture and sobriety.

Spread the wealth. Don’t let your higher thinking depress you into believing we need to earn all the money in North Carolina. We are so fortunate to be allowed gambling and alcohol in our casino, so what’s wrong with us to keep wanting more, more, and more.

Janice Foltz Ander

Member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee,

Cherokee