Police Should Serve And Protect
Dear Editor,
Just in time for Labor Day weekend the New York City Police Department has announced that it will use drones to monitor backyard parties and other large gatherings. Police departments should serve and protect citizens. Instead, many of them consider citizens to be “perpetrators” or “persons of interest.”
Chuck Mann
Re-Naming And Re-Re-Naming
Dear Editor,
Over the past decade, there has been tremendous pressure to change the names of many things. However, as time passes, we end up in similar places for similar reasons. We should then expect similar results.
For example, teams are not allowed to use Native American names or words as mascots. Some states have passed laws banning Native American mascots. At the same time, many schools have begun to rename buildings/halls and entire schools after Native American themes. California now has Nipaquay Elementary School. A Virginia college now has Kecoughtan Hall.
Individuals naming things after Native American themes today claim to be doing so out of honor, respect and inclusion. After all, nobody names something after a thing they find embarrassing or wish to ridicule. Of course, 50 years ago mascots weren’t named out of embarrassment or to mock either. Individuals named these things out of respect just as much then as now.
The common argument for dropping Native American mascots is that the names are targeted by opponents in demeaning ways. This can just as easily occur regardless of whether it is used for a mascot, building or school. Don’t underestimate a mischievous school child’s ability to turn the name of a school or hallway into something equally offensive for infinite non-racist purposes. As an example, opponents do not discriminate school names from mascot names. We replaced “go random name – beat Seminoles” with “go random name – beat Seminole High School.”
Another issue is that over time, word meanings change. Some words properly used 100 years ago are offensive today. Similarly, words that were cruel back then are commonly used non-offensively for other purposes today.
We seem to support judging everything from the past by today’s standards. We therefore encourage future generations to misinterpret today’s actions by currently unknown future standards. Therefore, when this gets out of hand, which it will, they may judge these good-intentioned individuals as racist in the future?
Alan Burke
Nipaquay Elementary School’s mascot is a bird. In other words, the school is Named after a local indigenous community out of respect for its community and history. Florida State University’s Mascot is the Seminoles and was often portrayed by some white guy running around with made up war paint and headdress with no historical perspective. You are comparing Apples and Oranges. (school name versus school mascot) Just saying.
To further counter your misrepresentation, the FL example shows how pushing back actually better aligns a schools’ traditions with history instead of fighting to maintain the status quo of how their mascot poorly portrayed the historical perspective of the Seminole tribe. They reached out and corrected the actions to bring them in line with the local Seminole tribe’s history and now use historically accurate portrayal of a Seminole warrior as their mascot. They did this back in ’78 which has earned them the exemption from any legal limitations of using a native American mascot and is a great example of working with affected groups when aligning mascots with historical characters or cultures.
Lol…ya think??
Chuck’s concerns should not be glibly dismissed, particularly by naive conservatives who smugly declare that we have nothing to worry about if we have nothing to hide. That’s beside the point. If you acquiesce in the descent to totalitarianism, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
And you’ll deserve it.
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If those drones hover over me, my family, or my property, I’ll shoot them down. It’s an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. But then, the Leftist authoritarians have largely disarmed the people of New York City, haven’t they? – Gee, what a coincidence….
Austin the drones make good target practice I’m speaking from experience
LOL !
I hope you got one!
How about 4 just waiting for the next one
Good job!
You’re a better shot than I am.