[or-roots] Politically Correct by any other name

[CKlooster at aol.com]

It's interesting that people can and do rattle on about shoes and ships and  
sealing wax without "wasting valuable band width" but if a divergent opinion  
pokes up an unruly head, it must be stomped on forthwith under the guise of  
preserving genealogy storage space.  Okay, now I'm chuckling.   Smiley's and 
Walt's photo and cutesy colored backgrounds all occupying HUGE  amounts of 
bandwidth and ISP mail storage...and NOW we start worrying about  storage space??
 
I didn't make my comment to embarass the person who posted nor did I make  it 
to cause another uproar on this board.  I would not have said what I did  if 
I didn't feel strongly about it.  I wasn't thinking about being  politically 
correct.  I was thinking about my very good friend who opened  her heart and 
home to me when I came as a stranger to this Athatbascan  community.  She's 
funny, insightful, intelligent and kind.  She's not  a squaw, she's a beautiful 
woman, an artist with a name and a family and a  genealogy that she can recite.  
I was thinking about my other good friend  who makes sure that I my freezer 
is full of moose meat; that my kitchen knives  are sharp; that the snow is 
shoveled off my front steps.  He's not a  buck; he's an equipment operator; he 
owns a heating oil company and a gold  mine; he's a father and grandfather and 
he's an antique collector. He's a man; a  complex human being with a huge sense 
of humor and a caring soul.  I  was thinking of the beautiful babies that are 
born in my village; great big  smiles and big brown eyes.  They're not 
papooses.  They have names,  they have parents and grandparents.  
 
My post was meant to be about being respectful to each other and to  all of 
the people that make up our world.  It isn't simply that using such  words make 
people angry; it's that they perpetuate a stereotype that is not  accurate 
and never was accurate.  The words are hurtful.  It  hurts to hear of a family 
referred to in this way; as though they were something  less than people.
 
A man and his wife and their child.  A Native American man and his  wife and 
their child. Who were they?  Why were they there?  That would  be interesting 
to know.  What were their names?  What family did they  come from?  Who were 
their people?   These are the questions  we ask and answer on this list every 
day.  We have an interest in  our own families, certainly, but also an interest 
in the daily lives and small  stories that make up the history of Oregon.
 
I'm sorry if I've offended, but long ago I became determined not to let  
discrimination and stereotypes go unchallenged.  If we don't challenge  prejudice 
when we see it, there will never be a hope of changing it.  We  call people 
names to somehow set them apart from us.  Maybe that's so we  don't have to see 
them as individuals.  Our wartime enemies became Japs and  Gooks.  It made 
them less than human...and maybe that makes them easier to  kill.  But if we are 
ever going to advance as a civilization, we need to  stop dehumanizing people 
of cultures that we don't know or understand.   I've always felt that history 
has two purposes; it teaches us who we've been,  but it also teaches us how to 
be.  
 
If that's called being "politically correct", then so be it.
 
And for those who think words don't matter....a bitch is just a female dog,  
but see how your mother, wife, sister, or daughter feels about being called  
one!
 
Carla
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