An Open Letter to Beloit College And President Bierman(edited)

By Jeff Simpson 

A while back I wrote a letter to President Scott Bierman of my alma mater Beloit College, disgusted that Diane Hendricks is a trustee of my college AND VP of the Trump Victory fund.   President Bierman answered me, and I pointed out my disgust, had to do with hatred, racism and sexism not politics. 

Well Mr. Trump has not ceased his racist ways.  In a recent rally, Mr. Trump was introduced by local right wing radio squawker Howie Carr(sure it was not Trump himself but there was no denounciation):

Of course Beloiters know that Beloit College has a long history with Native Americans.   

The Beloit College campus features 20 conical, linear, and animal effigy mounds built between about AD 400 and 1200. One, in the form of a turtle, has inspired the symbol (and unofficial mascot) of the College. Similar mounds are found throughout southern Wisconsin and adjacent portions of surrounding states. They were built by Native Americans identified by archaeologists as Late Woodland people. These people may include ancestors of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people and other tribes.
Wisconsin Indian mounds were usually built along bluff tops adjacent to rivers. The Beloit College group illustrates this pattern, as it is situated on high ground overlooking the confluence of the Rock River and Turtle Creek. Early maps indicate more than 20,000 Indian mounds once existed in Wisconsin. Today, fewer than 3000 remain, the others having been destroyed by farming and development. The Beloit College group once totaled 25 mounds; five were leveled unfortunately by building and grounds projects many decades ago. See the 2003 Beloit College Magazine article by Logan Museum of Anthropology director Bill Green for details on the history, study, and preservation of the College mounds.
Midwestern mounds generally served as burial sites. Human remains have been found in many mounds, including the College mounds. The College mounds and many others in the state are “catalogued” burial sites, meaning they may not be disturbed without a permit from the director of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

At least he did not stop his offensive statements at Native Americans, he continued his attacks on Mexicans.   

Maybe Ms. Hendricks can come and explain why Mexicans would be attacking a Trump rally in a commercial airline and how that is funny.  She could do so during National Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Not stopping there, then he was part of alienating Muslims, yet again!  

 “and we are looking at that. We are looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things,” Donald Trump.  What exactly is he looking at?  

I wonder if getting  “rid of all these hibijabis they wear at TSA" was part of the Fight against Islamophobia discussion at Beloit College this year.  Or does that help Professor Majeed feel welcome at Beloit?

Ms. Hendricks, as a major representative of Beloit College, is sending a clear message to the people of the world that the above instances are totally acceptable 

Beloit College, President Bierman and Trustee Hendricks...we can do better.

We MUST do better.  

But wait there is more.  Shortly after I finished posting this, this happened.  

Donald Trump, a prolific tweeter, on Saturday tweeted an apparently photoshopped image depicting Hillary Clinton in front of a background of cash and alongside a red six-pointed star in the shape of the Star of David.
Inside the star, a sentence reads, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
Trump tweeted the image with the caption, "Crooked Hillary – Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst."
The tweet later disappeared from the twitter feed of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. It was replaced by the same image except with the six-pointed star replaced by a circle.

Mr. Trump tweeted it, left it up for a while, changed the tweet to a circle and then deleted it completely.   Honest mistake you can say by someone who tweets regularly.  

However, it seems he has stolen thsi tweet from a racist twitter feed.  But WAIT there is more, he has also retweeted tweets from a Neo Nazi account who likes to quote Joseph Goebbels, and an account with the handle WHITEGENOCIDETM.   

Maybe the students at Beloit College can celebrate the retweeting of neo-nazis by the possible future President of the United States, during one of the many Jewish Religious Holidays that are recognized on campus.   

If you do not want to listen to me, that is fine, but maybe the late great Elie Weisel can speak to it!  

Republican Redskin Racism

By Jeff Simpson


A group of fifty Unites States Senator's sent a letter to the NFL asking for the Washington Redskins name to be changed. 

“The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur,” the letter says. “We urge the NFL to formally support a name change for the Washington football team. . . .  We urge you and the National Football League to send the same clear message as the NBA did: that racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports.”

Bruce Allen, the Redskins president, sent a letter back telling the NFL - everything is fine, everyone loves the slur. 

''Our use of `Redskins' as the name of our football team for more than 80 years has always been respectful of and shown reverence toward the proud legacy and traditions of Native Americans,'' he wrote.
The letter references research that ''the term Redskins originated as a Native American expression of solidarity.'' It notes that the team's logo was designed by Native American leaders and cites surveys that Native Americans and Americans as a whole support the name.

 

The owner of the Redskins, Daniel Snyder, sent a letter saying "focus on reality":

  “Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder said Tuesday it's time for people to "focus on reality" concerning Native American matters instead of criticizing the team's nickname. "We understand the issues out there, and we're not an issue," Snyder said. "The real issues are real-life issues, real-life needs, and I think it's time that people focus on reality."

77 Native American tribes, have responded by sending a letter to every single NFL player asking them to publicly support a name change.

 

The National Congress of American Indians and the Oneida Indian Nation sent letters Wednesday to more than 2,700 players, asking them to speak out against a name that “does not honor people of color, instead it seeks to conceal a horrible segment of American history and the countless atrocities suffered by Native Americans.”

They also sent the letter to the Twitter accounts of the players, with the hashtag #rightsideofhistory.

“Because you are in the NFL, you command a level of respect and credibility when speaking out about the league’s behavior,” the letter said. “Indeed, players are the most publicly identifiable representatives of the league, which means your support is critical to ending this injustice.”

Not to let a good racist moment go uncommented on, GOP word guru Frank Luntz chimed in:

 

 

Luntz brought Reid’s opposition to the name up without prompt from host John Ralston during a larger conversation about civility in politics.
“He’s spending his time trying to get the Washington Redskins, which, the last time I checked my map, is 2,000 miles away from Nevada, and he wants to change the Redskins’ name. And he hasn’t done, if you use my language, crap for veterans on Memorial Day,” Luntz said, referring to the current scandal around the Veterans Administration.
When Ralston suggested that Reid and the Senate could multi-task, Luntz kept going.
“Every veteran who’s watching right now ought to be furious with him because he’s spending his time…attacking the name of a football team. And he hasn’t done squat for these veterans,” Luntz said. “This is part of the reason that I find it difficult to function in politics, that he would rather go for the soundbite, that he would rather make this political gesture to raise money from Native Americans, than to actually solve a crisis in the Veteran’s Administration.”

Apparently, there was not enough time in front of the camera, or ethics in his body, to disclose that the Washington Redskins have actually paid Luntz, to keep the racism going.  

 D'OH! 

 

The problem with the Washington Redskins debate, is that Snyder hangs his hat on false pretenses.  

 

 The team and NFL have claimed that then-owner George Preston Marshall picked the current name to honor the team’s Indian coach, William “Lone Star” Dietz, and some Indian players on the squad.
There’s a lot of controversy over whether Dietz was actually a Native American. Witten’s article doesn’t resolve that.
But it does refute the team’s contention that the name was selected to celebrate Dietz.
The proof is in a July 6, 1933, edition of the Hartford Courant, which Witten unearthed after the sports Web site MMQB tipped him off about it.
The edition includes a short Associated Press dispatch quoting Marshall saying: “The fact that we have in our head coach, Lone Star Dietz, an Indian, together with several Indian players, has not, as may be suspected, inspired me to select the name Redskins.”
Instead, Marshall explains, he gave up “Braves” to avoid confusion with a Boston professional baseball team of the same name. He apparently picked the Redskins name so he could keep the existing Native American logo.
Witten also reports that lawyers at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have rejected at least 12 applications to register “redskins” as a trademark since 1993.
The reason: The word disparages Native Americans.

 

 

Locally, we just had this debate with Steve nASS authoring a bill to allow high schools to slur Native American tribes, people and traditions, as long as a few white people in the community liked their logo.  A bill that Scott Walker gladly signed by the way.   It was Steve nASS' biggest accomplishment since he was able to skip out of paying child support for the out of wedlock child he fathered.   

Our really really dumb Senator, not having an original thought since 1971, echoed Frank Luntz's words as if they were his own and that made Kevin Binversie aroused!  

 

  

While Sen. Baldwin and other Democrats were out stalking headlines, it was Sen. Ron Johnson's quote that really stood out.

 

"We have enormous challenges facing America. Only some of them are the concern of the federal government,” he said. “The letter, signed primarily by Senate Democrats, concerns an issue that should be left to the team’s owners, its players, and its fans. I trust that they will do what is right. This is not a matter that requires congressional action. Congress should concentrate on its own duties.”

 

“And when it comes to football,” he said, “I will concentrate on the Green Bay Packers.”

 

Boom.

 

 Hey Kevin its Frank Luntz's poster you should have on the wall, he is the one spoon feeding thoughts into the ring czar's head!  

We at Cogdis, like to offer solutions and I think we have one that is fitting.  Since the Redskins are based in Washington DC, I recommend switching to the Washington Chickenshits.   Heck we even have your helmet designed already! 

 You are welcome! 

Mining For Trouble In The Northwoods

Three months ago, the state department of tourism came out with a lame commercial to promote the great outdoors of Wisconsin.  I pointed out that one of the issues with said commercial was that the Northwoods was again becoming the site of a lot of heated rhetoric:

The tribes are well within their legal rights to do this. The reasoning for these high declarations is also pretty clear, as blue cheddar succinctly points out:

Officially, the expanded spearing has nothing to do with
mining next to somebody’s sacred rice beds.

Officially the expanded spearing has nothing to do with the law to allow hunting of Wisconsin wolves with dog packs (the only bloodsport wolf hunt of that nature in the U.S.)

Officially the spearfishing has zero to do with disrespectful treatment of native tribes by a certain bullheaded Governor.

Unofficially we know it has everything to do with those things.

Listening to talk radio, you could hear them already ripping out a page from Tommy Thompson's playbook, stirring up the racism that is innate to their base. They already had callers ranting about those "Damn Injuns."

I have also heard reports from my friends in Northern Wisconsin that the usual suspects up there are really starting to grumble about the fact that their white supremacy isn't being observed.

Not once have I heard a conservative make the connection between their own actions and these consequences for their poor behaviors. And no, that doesn't surprise me one bit.

Sadly, in the past three months, the corporate special interests haven't slowed down one bit on their own Northwoods version of "divide and conquer" in order to advance their own agenda of raping the land.

Just last weekend, it was announced that Gogebic Taconite - the mining company who wrote the loathsome mining bill and then bought the Republicans who passed said bill - was ready to do exploratory drilling.

The sovereign people of the Bad River Band, of course, objected. The back and forth in the story was rather telling, in my humble opinion:

The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has asked state authorities to halt plans by Gogebic Taconite to conduct exploratory drilling on a proposed iron ore-mining site in northern Wisconsin.

But the Department of Natural Resources said Monday it doesn’t plan on reversing its decision to approve the company’s request to drill eight exploratory holes that will be used to evaluate the site for iron ore mining.

The tribe says the DNR failed to consult or to formally notify the tribe during a review of a drilling request by the company.

The tribe says the drilling activities may harm natural resources on ceded territories where the tribe retains certain hunting, fishing and gathering rights. Ceded territories are subject to treaties.

Ann Coakley of the DNR said attorneys for the agency do not believe that the tribe’s treaty rights come into play on the issue of exploratory drilling.

The tribes also objected to the drilling work on technical grounds and raised concerns about waste water and the effect of storm water when the work begins.

Coakley, the DNR’s top mining regulator, said that the agency believes the company is taking prudent steps to avoid environmental harm.

Egads! What a condescending and insulting approach taken by the mining company and the DNR (but I repeat myself)!

As if to draw attention to this issue, Tonette Walker decided to make one of her "Walk with Walker" stunts in Copper Falls Park which is right where the proposed mine is supposed to be.  Watching the news clip of the Tonette's little walk, one can see two obvious things:

1. The protests, albeit more mild mannered and more polite, are still going on.  No wonder Scott Walker still runs around like a thief in the night. He's still trying to avoid the very people he's supposed to be leading.
2. It's pretty obvious that no one in Tonette's group even knows how to walk through a groomed park.  If they actually went into the wilderness, they wouldn't make it a day without making some bears' tummies very happy.

But I digress.

It should also be noted that while Tonette and her paid staff hikers were trying to make it appear all was niceties, happiness and sunshine, the underlying and building racial tensions were also very much present.

At Bayfield High School, more racial tension was shown when called out by the valedictorian, Victoria Gokee-Rindal, a member of the Red Cliff Band:

Gokee-Rindal said her main concerns were about “basic human rights.”

She said she had also been influenced by the Canadian First Nations “Idle No More” movement in support of indigenous rights.

“There is a lot of cultural insensitivity at the Bayfield School District,” she said.

One of those instances of insensitivity revolves around the Native American practice of “smudging,” or burning sage and using the smoke as an aid to purify body and mind. According to Gokee-Rindal, the practice was banned for students before they came to classes in the morning.

Victoria Kokee-Rindal 

“It is a concern, but there are many other concerns that are basic human rights that we are concerned about. The whole smudging issue is just the single issue that put people over the top,” she said. “It seems to have gotten a lot of media attention, and it is giving the impression that it is the only issue at the Bayfield School, but its not.”

Gokee-Rindal said a teacher had personally belittled her in a room full of people because she was Native American.

“They had no right, it was very unprofessional, very disrespectful, and it was not handled in the right way at all,” she said.

Gokee-Rindal said that efforts by the school district to increase cultural sensitivity have not gone nearly far enough.

“Bayfield School receives so much funding because of the amount of Native students in the school. We are almost 80 percent of the school. They get money to do cultural things around the school, and if they really wanted to make an effort, they could do so much more.”

Among those efforts was an increase in the proportion of Native American staff at the school, Gokee-Rindal said.

“I would like to see the staff reflect the number of Native Americans in the school. I think it is only right that if 80 percent of the students are Native, 80 percent of our teachers should be Native American,” she said. “Hopefully as Native American teachers become more abundant in the near future, I hope that Bayfield will be able to create awareness of all the injustices that happen with teachers throughout the entire school. Don’t get me wrong; there are teachers who do support us, and they are amazing, but it needs to be a school-wide effort.

At the graduation, there was also an organized walk out by some of the members of the tribe to protest the racism and bigotry that is prevalent in the school. Yet as clear as they could be, school officials were as obtuse as they possibly could be. The most telling was this quote by the district superintendent, David Aslyn (emphasis mine):

Aslyn declined to comment specifically on Gokee-Rindal’s valedictorian remarks.

“The graduation was a day of celebration for everybody, and I’ll focus on all of those students and the good work they did and made graduation the pinnacle of their high school careers. Beyond that I don’t have any insights to share with you.”

Expect the tension in the Northwoods to continue to build.

 Walker and his Teapubligoons will continue to do what they can to maximize profits for their corporate owners, regardless of who they hurt or what rights they must trample.  They will continue to provoke the tribes and force the sovereign nations to take action to defend themselves and the land.

And speaking of the corporate overlords, expect them to continue their not-so-subtle whisper campaign and against the Native Americans, blaming them for everything from the poor fishing caused by the Republicans' disregard for the environment to the rampant, Walker-induced unemployment problems, pointing to the defensive actions taken by the tribes, whether it be through protests, educational rallies or through the courts of law.

They know nothing plays with the Teapubligoons like some old-fashioned racial fear and smear.  And given the poor economy, the high rate of unemployment and higher taxes, people are more prone to give in to their basic prejudices rather than look at the facts and admit that their votes for Walker and his Teapubligoon allies are now working against them.

For too many people, it's easier to falsely place blame on others than it it is to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own actions.

To Rep. Scott Suder - Legislator of Wolf Slaughter

Representative Suder,

My name is Meg Moen. I am not in your district, but I am writing to you today because of your legislation that legalized wolf slaughter in our state.

I am greatly disturbed by this law. It nauseates me. I'm not sure if you are aware of not only how important wolves are to our ecosystem, but how close they've come to extinction in our lifetime. I know that you are bound to your rigid conservative ideology and controlled by money and special interests, but there comes a time when we must be adults and do what is right.

I know you consider people who are against your law, people who respect Wisconsin's wonderful wildlife and outdoors like the Humane Society of the United States, "radical" (which is beyond ridiculous and falls into laughable) but I think it's time you sincerely take a look at the hard scientific data, and reverse course on what is bound to be a tragic outcome for a species that is already in danger of going extinct. Wolves have been on and off protected species lists since 1979. It has taken from then until now for their numbers to grow. This months hunt has killed near 200 wolves. If we keep this up, it's only a matter of time until the Timber wolf is gone for good. In doing away with this law, we should be strengthening penalties on hunters who kill wolves illegally, as there were 15 illegal wolf killings in 2010, and to hunters who taunt, tease, and inhumanely capture wolves and hold them in captivity.

What really sickens me about this as much as the kill itself, is the show of blatant disrespect you, Scott Walker and the rest of the GOP have shown towards Native Americans who have been asking the Walker administration to think twice about this. Wolves are an integral part of Native American culture and beliefs, yet, instead of respecting those beliefs, you toss them aside and do what you want. We saw this during the mining debate last year. It's the utmost in impudence.

I am very sincere in my words here. I am hoping that as a tax payer of this state, you'll listen to me and the plethora of other outraged Wisconsin residents. Please give real thought to the excruciating consequences this assault on the wolf species will have. So many worked so hard for so long to ensure that wolves had a safe place to live so they could bring up their numbers. We cannot regress now. Wolves are too important to Wisconsin. They are an important piece of Northern Wisconsin and they are so important to Native Americans. We need to continue to make progress, not regress. We don't want wolves back on the endangered species list.

To everyone who might not have signed my petition yet urging Scott Walker and Cathy Stepp to end this hunt, you can do so here. Please share it with everyone you know!