A Battle With the Brewers

[proud2BlibKansan]

AFTER seeing Anheuser-Busch's devastating exploitation of American Indians, I'm done with its beer.

The human toll is evident here in Whiteclay: men and women staggering on the street, or passed out, whispers of girls traded for alcohol. The town has a population of about 10 people, but it sells more than four million cans of beer and malt liquor annually - because it is the main channel through which alcohol illegally enters the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation a few steps away.

Pine Ridge, one of America's largest Indian reservations, bans alcohol. The Oglala Sioux who live there struggle to keep alcohol out, going so far as to arrest people for possession of a can of beer. But the tribe has no jurisdiction over Whiteclay because it is just outside the reservation boundary.

So Anheuser-Busch and other brewers pour hundreds of thousands of gallons of alcohol into the liquor stores of Whiteclay, knowing that it ends up consumed illicitly by Pine Ridge residents and fuels alcoholism, crime and misery there. In short, a giant corporation's business model here is based on violating tribal rules and destroying the Indians' way of living.

more . . . http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-battle-with-the-brewers.xml

[Archae]

1. I thought you were having a battle with the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

Seriously, it's not just your town.
Booze and beer makers do boffo business getting NA's plowed.

But what can we do?
We tried banning booze and beer once in this country, and that sure worked well, didn't it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I've been to Pine Ridge

Haven't enjoyed beer at all since.

It's a very sad place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. How about spending money on treatment programs and aid to families?

We'll spend the money anyway on consequences of alcoholism. The costs to school districts alone to meeting the needs of FAS kids are astronomic.

[Zax2me]

5. Anheuser-Busch is a Brazilian/Belgian owned company.

Part of a multi-national ownership.
They don't really care, apparently, about the harm they are doing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. They didn't care when they were owned by Americans

[edhopper]

6. All their products

are unadulterated CRAP. People drink them only to get drunk.
If you like beer you should be ashamed to drink that swill.

[Throd]

8. Apparently they WANT to buy beer. Nobody is forcing them.

If they stop selling beer in Whiteclay, the Indians will just go a little further to the next town.