: First I claim: : : :Everything else is a communiqué issued from the halls of the privilege.
We've pretty much exhausted this issue as I see it, SDF, so let's tie up a few loose ends and move on.
: : :Can you imagine what the Hopi Tribal Council must think about the likes of MDG?
: : My concern lies with saving the eagles from torture. If the Hopi Council doesn't like that, too bad.
: My concern: Too bad for WHOM? Those who would protect Hopi self-determination? This is what I'm trying to say. Get THEIR reaction. Maybe they have something to say about themselves. Go be their teacher, see if they accept you.
That's an excellent bit of advice, and I as noted in another post, I'm attempting that. My angry first post on this subject aside, what I want is twofold: 1) the United States government should not abet the eagle sacrifice in those areas over which it has jurisdiction, such as national parkland, and 2) the Hopi cannot be forced to give up eagle smothering; instead, I'd like to convince them to voluntarily alter their rituals to exclude the use and abuse of animals. To this end, I've contacted at least one Hopi website.
: : : The point is that those who aspire to being more than "liberals" should be working with the working class, not criticizing their practices from afar under some false pretense that they "know what's happening".
: : You love to assume things, don't you? Better wake up. I happen to be a member of the working class. I may make more than a factory worker, but I haul myself to work everyday, take crap from the boss, and ASK PERMISSION for sick leave and vacation leave.
: My opinion: Wasn't this thread about the Hopi? Look, if you felt I was trying to unjustify your lifestyle, it was unclear to me that that was what you were trying to defend. As for a thread on lifestyles, no, I won't contribute to it. Sorry if you thought that's what I was doing. Future words are not (not intentionally, that is) to be interpreted as a claim about your lifestyle. My comments have been really about the White man's relation to the Hopi, and do we know what it is?
Okay, sticking solely to the White Man's relationship with the Hopi and other Native Americans: we know what it was -- genocidal, and what it is -- still oppressive, yet showing some signs of progress. More needs to be done.
: : Have YOU even entered the working world yet, or are you making lofty utterances from the privileged world of academia?
: And finally: I substitute teach in a district with no equipment. I've worked at Burger King and at Taco Bell. You know, Frenchy pulls this on me, too. Pol Pot was a working class guy. Did it justify what he did? Let's stick with the Hopi, unless you want me to repeat my disclaimer (above).
I know Frenchy pulls the old "your hands are as smooth as a baby's ass" macho shit on you. Without getting back into an old argument with you, I'll agree that the subject matter should have been only about the white man's relationship to the Hopi, AND about mankind's relationship to animals.
As a closing comment, I worked for Burger King too. My hands may not be as rough as Frenchy's (and we could have a jolly time speculating on why his palm skin is so worn), but I've worked the shittiest of shit jobs, and I don't apologize for escaping that level of employment. As Michael Moore once said, "Being working class sucks! The working class want to get the hell out of the working class!"
