How about rising above one's circumstances, choosing the high ground,
and trying to end the discrimination in general? Learn from the past
how to improve the human race [and your own], not one-up the last
wrongs that were done to you. That's how we stay in this continuous
[global] spiral of tit for tat, you hit me I'll hit you back harder.
Life is hard; your choice how you respond to it. Constructively, or
not. Personally, despite the talk of laws and rolls, I did not care
for the implied or overt racism of this Cherokee vote. And I read
other things today that do suggest a racial component to it, no
matter what legal buzzwords they are trying to hide behind. A
blatantly racist email that was sent around, warning to "not let the
Freedmen back you into a corner. PROTECT CHEROKEE CULTURE FOR OUR
CHILDREN, FOR OUR DAUGHTERS." [their caps] Sorry, but this has
nothing to do with rolls and laws, it is racist fear-mongering, with
a large dollop of the old dread of black men raping wives and
daughters. Granted, the writer may be part of some fringe movement,
but it was reflective of at least a strain of thought there. Yes,
you'd think people would learn, but it seems not to be so. 'We had
the Trail of Tears because we were different; let's get these
freedmen out of our group, because they are different.' Or those
natives in CA. that were posted about here. Tribalism just seems to
be part of the human condition. 'We live on this side of the
mountain, we hate the people who live on the other side of the
mountain.' I've always felt that you can be as good a person as you
make yourself be, or as bad a person as you let yourself be. The
slippery slope is always the easiest way. But the world is an
increasingly crowded place, with ever more terrible weapons; we have
to get over this mindset that was ok when we were living in the Stone
Age. It's far too dangerous a way to live today. We have to learn
from the past, not keep repeating it.
my 2 cents
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Mar 3, 2007, at 1:54 PM, Clara Callahan wrote:
> What it demonstrates is that "minorities" care no more about other
> "minorities" than the "majority" does. Having been "discriminated"
> against, themselves, does not prevent them from "discriminating"
> against others. This is not to say that what the Cherokee are doing
> is wrong. They are not "discriminating." They are defining and
> enforcing requirements, not excluding because of "color." We just
> finished a couple of weeks of conversation about what those whites
> did to those poor Indians and what those whites did to those poor
> blacks. Now the conversation has turned to what those Indians are
> doing to those poor whites and blacks. So far on this board no one
> is championing either "minority" which, considering the past two
> weeks' conversation, I find quite interesting. What does one do
> when one "minority" goes up against another "minority"? Who you
> gonna root for, the descendents of slaves, the descendents of
> whites who married Indians, or the descendents of Indians?
> This oughtta be good.
>
>
>
> Basil Forest <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The Cherokee having suffered the slings and arrows (no pun
> intended) of
> racism, and the exclusion from the rights of the majority, I would
> think there
> would be some community of interest and sensitivity in this regard
> on their
> part.
>
>
>
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