I'm always stunned when people climb on a wagon I'm already on. Not because I lack confidence in myself or have a low level of self-worth, but because I continually hear how much courage it takes to say and do the things I do. I don't see that it does, but obviously, that's a matter of perspective, the same as is beauty. Anyway, WOPILA TANKA / HUGE, STRONG THANKS to all of you. Now - how do we bootstrap the business incubator I referred to earlier? How do we get more minoritys in micro-businesses of their own? How do we get more minoritys to this site, so we can help each other grow our micro-businesses? Etc. I'm a firm believer in "small" is Where It's At. Lousy English, but popular and people click with it. <<>> Not long ago - someone asked me how I learned so much about getting under the skins of previously unmovable people in the State Legislature, getting things done no one had been able to get moving in 20 years of trying. I told them, "I took a Master's in Chigger." Everyone always laughs, but it's true. Chiggers are so small as to be nearly invisible to the naked eye, but if you've ever had them under your skin, you know how incredibly big their effect is! You can't sleep. You can't find a comfortable position. You itch in places you didn't think would ever itch! Worse, you itch Big Time in those places. You get crabby. You will do nearly anything to get rid of those chiggers. How do they do these things? They don't make any noise.. They also refuse to 'just go away'. They keep picking at one tiny area - which is right in front of them.. they rely on their fellows to do the same. They don't smell, so can't be said to raise a stink.. but the people they 'bug' certainly do.. They can move anyone to fits if they get under your skin. We Traditionals are taught to study the tiniest People, especially the ones that have the big impacts. Chiggers caught my attention and they are definitely Tiny People, so I studied them. Yes, they are people, in our Ways. The net result is that I have some "big" enemies, according to some.. But you know, I'm not afraid of them or of anything they might try. I, like the chigger, decide on an objective, and then I keep after it until I reach it, they way the chigger does. Not bad for someone the Lt. Governor of ND once characterized as "having no money, no votes, no power, and she's and INDIAN, for gods' sake! Even 'if' she heard us, she wouldn't know what to do with what she heard, she wouldn't know who to take it to, and who'd believe her?!?" I LOVE being under-estimated. (Like the chigger..) I knew what to do with the information, and who to take it to. And how (covertly). And they believed me. Resulting in (a) the then-Senate Majority leader stepping out of his Majority leadership position with no warning, during a Session; and (b) taking a Federal job in his home district; which resulted in (c) he retained his power base while simulataneously throwing the existing Repuglican power-structure in the air like jack-straws; (d) the suddenly ex-Senate Majority Leader declaring me his "best buddy after his wife" - in public, on his own (!); and (e) after a patient, 4-year wait until the right opportunity presented itself, I got to expose the Lt. Gov. to his wife (his highest court) and the entire inaugural receiving line - when the Lt. Gov. refused to shake my hand, in his arrogance. Could one rank-and-file, not-a-member-of-tribal officialdom, inconsequential Indn female have more fun? Not often, and not much. What I did wasn't about 'getting even(er)', or about redressing an insult to me. Although it was about redressing an insult to Indns in general.. He is the Lt. Gov. after all, and sworn to work for the betterment of all the citizens of the state.. and about arrogant people who have a better opinion of themselves and 'their place' (and others' places) than they have earned. It was about getting his highness taken down a few pegs.. and having him put himself there. Like the chigger, I just waited patiently, and payed out more rope.... and irritated him simply by having what he saw as the audacity to be there, in the inaugural line, "like regular people" or "Like people with clout". Truly, the form of 'pride' we call 'arrogance' goeth before a nice, loud, SPLAT! He made such nice groaning noises as his wife reacted to the truth... I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when they were alone, and she laid into him, after finding out what a stinker he really is.. Ah well. I had fun with what the spirits cared to give me. In life and in business, to me, 'small' is definitely 'where it's at'. Chiggers, tnt, bacteria... Little people with no apparent power, but what an effect when they get in the right place. And I'm so glad you have a similar interest.