A war on women. A war on Latinos. A war on gay and lesbian Americans. A war on African Americans. War on seniors. War on students. A war on young, old and non-white voters. War on the poor. War on the middle class. War on the Earth. War on the truth. Not to mention wars on Iran, Russia and China. Aside from the super rich, is there anybody the GOP has not declared war on?
How about war on the Indians? After all, isn't how it all started?
Republican National Committee leader Pat Rogers wrote emails to New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s staff asserting that attending the tribal summit of the state's Native American tribes “dishonored” Gen. George Armstrong Custer.
"The state is going to hell," Rogers wrote.
GOPers are finding ways every day to add new meaning to the term "reactionary." Rogers manages to return to those thrilling days of the 19th century--actually the 18th and 17th as well.
Here in Humboldt the wounds of Indian massacres are still healing. This won't help.
Sadly, this is not new. GOPers criticized President Obama for convening a national tribal summit. Though it was GOPer Senator Brownback in 2005 who first sponsored a congressional resolution to apologize to the Cherokee and Native Americans for the Trail of Tears, it didn't pass until 2009. When President Obama signed it, Bryan Fischer of the Rabid Right American Family Association objected that the US had nothing to apologize for. (The above watercolor, Shadow of the Owl commemorating the Trail of Tears is from the Guthrie Studios. Below is the Wiyot Tribe Sacred Sites logo by tribal member Leona Wilkinson, commemorating the massacre on Indian Island in Eureka, CA in 1860.)
Not that the American Indians are a big voting block. But this tidbit is sure to make the rounds. Another 0% group for the GOP?
Is there a form of racism they aren't ready to embrace? Look out, Asian Americans. You may well be next.
No comments:
Post a Comment