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<DIV>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??</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If that's called being "politically correct", then so be it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Carla</DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>