Native Americans Love the Redskins but Should Hate Washington
A Muslim woman was offended because of a “Bacon” sign that was posted by Sneakers Bistro, a local restaurant in Winooski, Vermont. It read “Yield for Sneakers Bacon.” It was a street sign that was part of a city beautification program.
The owner took it down so as not to “offend” the easily offended.
The story went viral and a lot more people were offended, not because of the sign, but because the restaurant owner gave in.
Facebook would have to be shut down if easily offended Muslims got their way. Bacon this and bacon that are everywhere. The latest is a bacon taco where the shell is made out of woven bacon strips. Looks delicious.
People are tired of being pushed around by the easily offended. Facebook would have to be shut down if Muslims offended by bacon got their way.
It’s about time.
The debate over the name “Redskins” has gotten a lot of media attention. It seems that Native Americans across the nation are “offended.” Don’t you believe it. The usual suspects are offended: Liberal pundits, President Obama, and some very small Native American groups who are more concerned about a name than their own people.
Some newspapers refuse to use the Redskins name when reporting on Washington _______________ football games. Even some sports commentators refuse to say what has become the “R” word.
“CBS Sports broadcaster Phil Simms said Monday the he is considering not using the Redskins name when he calls the ‘Thursday Night Football’ Redskins-Giants game on Sept. 25 because he is sensitive to complaints about the name.”
Since when has a sport like football become “sensitive”? Men are crashing into one another trying to knock opposing players into next Thursday or retire them early, and Phil Simms is “sensitive” about a name that symbolizes honor and a warrior spirit? What’s the wide world of sports coming to?
Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka took on the easily offended who use controversies like this one for raw political gain:
“We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them, a Proudskin? This is so stupid it’s appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of an American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins. That’s the way it is.
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“It’s all the political correct idiots in America, that’s all it is. It’s got nothing to do with anything else. We’re going to change something because we can. Hey listen, I went through it in the 60s, too. I mean, come on. Everybody lined up, did this. It’s fine to protest. That’s your right, if you don’t like it, protest. You have a right to do that, but to change the name, that’s ridiculous. Change the Constitution — we’ve got people trying to do that, too, and they’re doing a pretty good job.”
Sarah Palin had a great line after Ditka came out in support of the Redskins name:
“Take the word ‘Washington’ out and I’ll agree the team name is a great source of pride.”
I also agree. The more offensive part of the name is ‘Washington,’ not the President (who had some good and bad dealings with the Indians, but don’t let the easily offended know this), but the seat of America’s governing power that not only regulated “commerce . . . with the Indian tribes” (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 3) but now regulates all of us.
There is a movement among Native Americans to support the Redskins name. Robert Doore of the Black Feet Nation says, “I’m proud to be a Native American. I’m proud to be an American. I’m proud to be a Washington Redskin.”
The following is from RedskinsFacts.com (see the two short videos that follow):
“More than a decade ago, in the authoritative linguistic survey “I Am A Red-Skin: The Adoption of a Native American Expression (1769-1826),” Ives Goddard—the senior linguist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution—concluded that the word ‘redskins’ was created by Native Americans, and that it was first used as an inclusive expression of solidarity by multi-tribal delegations who traveled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate national policy towards Native Americans. ‘The actual origin of the word (redskin) is entirely benign,’ Goddard is quoted as saying.”
Tony Woods, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe and manager of the Team Redskins Rodeo club, shares his thoughts on what the Redskins name means to him.
Many Native Americans do not find the Redskins name offensive, and instead are more concerned with other issues facing their community many created by our paternalistic government: