[ It was Michael McDonald. He didn't sign off the list, but just announced
that he didn't feel like continuing to contribute to the discussion of
this subject. I have since received personal mail from him to say that
I may have misunderstood his article. --Gary ]
Gary's assumption of meaning goes like this:
]There is a perception that I {Euro-Americans} cannot be held accountable for
]what is/was done by someone in my society in places/times distant from
]here/now, even if those actions/events benefit my present existence in some
]material way. Further, I am given by my society no incentive to investigate
]any possible connections..... As long as I can claim "plausible deniability"
]my conscience remains clear, it seems.
]Yes, there is no typical NATIVE person.....
But there is a "typical" European.....???? All Europeans are greedy,
materialist, domineering, gutless escapees of all moral responsibility??????
All Europeans, all European institutions, all European history, anything to do
with European anything, brands one as less than worthwhile, human, worthy of
consideration, dignity or respect???? An Eye for an Eye - you did it to us
so we have the vengeful right to do it to you - regardless of who YOU are???
IF you're European, you're "fair game"??????? IF you have one drop of
European blood, you're "guilty"?????
[ I didn't hear Peshewegunzh saying any such thing, and I would certainly
never subscribe to such a view. I'll deal with what I did say in a
separate article of my own, rather than taking advantage of the unfair
privilege of inserting remarks into articles which run the risk of mis-
interpretation, or which appear to others to be expressing an opinion,
regardless of what I think or feel. --Gary ]
I submit that those people who get on this net to learn and discuss do not
deserve this sort of hatefulness. I submit that those who get on this net
realize at least some of the magnitude of the problems facing the world today
and do not deserve to be the butt's of one man's misdirected rage...
I have a child coming. Do I raise him to hate his mother and half of himself,
and to love his father and half of himself????
I heard something at a lecture recently, from someone who was talking about
college students. The comment was that of all the values, hope, courage,
integrity, etc. that we need to teach our children, the most important value
for them to learn is tolerance; the ability to accept, appreciate, and
to BRIDGE differences, to reach beyond differences to find that which is
common between two human persons. Without tolerance, there is no room for
discussion, no respect between them, no reason to reach out beyond or to
transcend differences. If I tell you who the person was, half will damn
them for their ignorance, naivete; half will commend them for their insight
and adherence to native principle. Depends on what color they are, right...?
I had had hopes that a goodly portion of this net would be a discussion for
the purpose of learning about each other, a sharing of information, a way
to connect folks in widely diverse places, physically and metaphysically, and
to find ways to bridge the differences. To say that all Europeans are alike
is as ignorant, stereotypical, and narrow-minded as saying all Natives are
alike.. To say that Europeans are the root of all evil is to equally deny
personal responsibility. that the rest of Europe was out to shame and
humiliate him personally. I understand the frustrations of those of us of
European, mixed, and "impure" heritage.... Peshe's "preaching to the choir"
is both demeaning, patronizing, and insulting.... I, for one, am tired of
the message of hate.
All of us that Peshe tells to "GO HOME" are tired of the endless manipulation
by guilt he tries to employ, because we ARE home... Europe is not home,
Africa is not home, not even all of this land is home... If the message,
Peshe, is to go out and kill ourselves because by your definition, we don't
belong any place that YOU define as acceptable, YOU can go to hell and that is
my resistance. Perhaps it is unfortunate in your eyes that we are not all
"purebloods" - does that make us less human???
At this point, I am grieved and close to despair that any of us will ever get
beyond our own pain and fear, and am going nomail for a bit, or at least until
nn.edu. gets (I hope) a bit more active. While I accept the responsibility
for my own "knee-jerk" reactions to some of Peshe's conflagrations, I also
choose not to give him any more of my time. I think it's called voting with
your feet...
Mark Dewart, I hope things go well with your work in education. Caring
teachers are so desperately needed by all our children....