Lizards and snakes

The sidewalk at my place is lined with hollyhocks and sage.

Three or four lizards and a garter snake live underneath the cement. On a hot day, the lizards zip to and fro. They are so fast and fearless you have to be careful not to step on one.

The snake, about 17 inches long, alternately lies motionless or scoots suddenly through the grass, like the brown dirt come alive.

They are most active when the sun is bright and hard and the cement is hot. They are agitated and wild, their inner engines fired by the heat.

As I walk by, I can see their reptilian sides pumping with accelerated breathing.

These creatures, not pretty or subjects of famous paintings or songs, remind us of the contemporary results of evolution, of heat and sun and rain - and money.

Yes, human beings can be the worst creatures in the same way they can be the best.

For example, why do we set up a government with staff, programs and services for the youth, elderly, veterans, low-income families, public safety, health, housing and a variety of other purposes only to bypass the whole system by giving discretionary funds to the speaker, delegates and president?

Instead of doling out millions of dollars to these politicians, shouldn't we give the money to programs that were established to meet those needs?

Why is Young Jeff Tom more qualified than a social worker with a master's degree to decide who should get money and for what reason and for what amount?

Tom, by the way, is the delegate for Mariano Lake and Smith Lake and has been re-elected time and time again by the voters in his district. But his claim to fame is that he is always the delegate who makes the main motion for the Navajo Nation Council to approve "emergency" spending bills.

As regularly as drought, high winds and muddy or snowy roads each year, Tom can be trusted to come up with a scheme to find money and spend it by giving funds to each chapter. And never mind what the money was originally set aside for and what rules or regulations apply to it.

In fact, that is the beauty - or the heat, in terms of lizards and snakes - that drives these kinds of proposals. By including all chapters, he virtually guarantees a majority of the council will support his proposals.

Some may argue that existing programs have too much red tape and bureaucracy. Some may say tribal workers are inefficient or unprofessional. Some may say the services don't reach the people who need it.

If this is the case, why not fix the situation? Use this time and money to improve the system so that the people will benefit today and into the future.

Avoiding oversight, ignoring rules and regulations, and spending money without a way to regulate its use or even record how it was spent apparently is the gravy train Tom loves.

Perhaps some might perceive this system - or lack of it - as acceptable if it weren't cloaked in secrecy. When documents were dropped in our lap that detailed how staff, relatives and friends received discretionary funds from the speaker and council, the outcry and anger was as hot as my cement sidewalk on a summer day.

But the fact remains that the speaker, the council and President Joe Shirley Jr. refuse to show how and why they have used this money. As we have said in this space previously, as politicians they should want to brag about how they are helping the people.

But our requests have been met with silence. Now a lame duck council and president must consider what they want to do in the remaining months of their terms.

And along comes Tom with yet another proposal to spend money with no regard for a system of accountability.

Money, it seems, is the heat that drives many of our leaders, like lizards and snakes panting on a summer day.

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