And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Whaling column prompts a
boatload of reader response
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/lifestyles/html98/jdl_19990527.html
You had a lot to say about the conflict over Makah whaling. There were more
than 100 e-mail messages and phone calls waiting for me Friday after last
Thursday's column. Dozens more have come in since.
Here are some excerpts.
"Amen, brother," wrote Jamie Alvarez of Des Moines.
"Watching a large, intelligent mammal roiling in its own
blood, I wondered if there might be another way for
the Makahs to revive their culture. But, I figured, what
the hey. If they use this as a rallying cry to point to the
future of the tribe, this is a fair price to pay. After all, I
have done a little fishing and hunting, and it was
federal and state sanctioned.
"All over the world, people are starving. People are
being killed for either ethnic purity or `moral
obligation.' In the United States, people are homeless,
and adolescents are acting out in horrid fashion. Heck,
maybe even Seattle has a few people who need our
attention. Can we please keep our eye on the ball?"
There was this from another reader: "Obviously, you
are just another black man who has realized his
insignificance in this world (as we all are in the big
picture) and has decided that the only way to make
yourself feel significant is by writing columns which
blame white people for just about everything that is
wrong in this world. I protested this whale hunt due to
the fact that it was not done by true traditional
standards and that the whale meat will sit in freezers
and rot."
A reader named Carol wrote, "My husband and I are
Native Americans. I am originally from Oklahoma and
my husband's tribe from Alaska."
She said she heard one radio host say "the
extermination of Indians by the white man was
`natural,' like the extinction of the dinosaurs! Is that
legal to say on the air?
"I was just disgusted with the people calling into the
NW Cable News station saying that Indians don't pay
taxes (wrong), and that we receive money from the
government on a monthly basis (where's mine?).
"They lump us into one category yet there are
hundreds of tribes all with different circumstances.
"Too bad we live in a society where we have to tell
our children that not everyone will like you and that it
may be because of the color of your skin."
Another reader, Diane, took issue with me: "Did you
see the kill I wonder? That whale was terrified, the eye
looking right at the camera. She knew what was
happening. What other kill would be allowed to go on
for 8 or 10 agonizing minutes? If it had been a less
intelligent cow or pig, the Humane Society and heaven
knows who else would have been there to stop it.
"I was not there with the folks shouting `whale killer'
but I probably should have been. What is it if not a
whale kill?"
Sarah Kavage, a masters' degree candidate in urban
planning and design at the University of Washington,
had this to add: "It's not about the whales, it's about
perpetuating a cycle of cultural domination that white
American culture can't seem to let go of. I have the
suspicion that if we just left the Makahs alone they
might choose not to continue hunting. Instead, we've
given them no choice but to continue.
" . . . The Makahs (are) being accused of disrespect
for animal life at the same time the American beef
industry is trying to push its hormone-fed beef
products onto the European community. It's all too
much irony for me to absorb."
There are so many other issues that I have to wonder
why this one so captivates people. Somehow who we
are is being tested. Our different views of morality,
diversity, history, all of those defining bits of society,
of our identities, are at play here and that unleashes a
lot of emotion.
<end excerpt
Jerry Large can be reached c/o The Times, P.O. Box
70, Seattle, WA 98111. Phone: 206-464-3346. Fax:
206-464-2261.
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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