No Dogs Need Apply

This Don votes for the poodle...

Thanks to the Angry Poodle for pointing out the facts as well as his own insensitivity. Not since the the 2004 election have I been reminded that those on the more liberal side should not be sensitive to anything trivial such as ethnic issues or dropping 2K pound bombs on innocents.

Carpinteria is a example of most of America. Similiar to vast cultural wastelands Plano Texas and North Santa Barbara County. Suburban, simple and activated at the last possible minute and only when something really important comes along such as this issue. What is perplexing is that students were riled in such numbers....about this issue? Well, when I need an explanation in such matters I turn to the movie, slash, documentary "Idiocracy."

Well at least the Poodle is sensitive enough to send a card.

Hey Poodle! If the saying is true, your ignorance should be making you blissful, not angry. Cheer up, little buddy, mob mentality is on your side. :o)

I'm disheartened by what I just read. Why is that conservative Christians see more clearly than Mr. Welsh? In 2000, Wheaton College decided to change their well-loved mascot of the "Crusader" because of their Christian ideals and commitments. I quote here from the current President Duane Liftin (www.wheaton.edu/alumni/mascot.html):

"Forgive me if I must make the following account personal, but since I'm the one initiating a change in Wheaton's mascot I want you to understand the reasons. At the outset let me dispel two potential misunderstandings: First, I am not being pressured to make this change. There have been in every generation those within Wheaton's constituency who wished to see such a change take place, and this remains the case today, but I have not received undue pressure. If I were not convinced this was the right thing to do, I would not be bringing this forward. Second, this change is not about "political correctness." I am utterly unmoved by such arguments--in fact, those who know me well will tell you that I am tone deaf to this sort of thinking. As you will see below, none of what I am about to say is driven by fears of what is or is not "P.C." What, then, are the reasons?...

The answer is, two things have changed, seemingly right before our eyes.

First, our environment has changed. We live in a world vastly more aware of itself than ever before. Revolutions in the fields of transportation and communications have transformed everything. No longer do the world's peoples live in isolated enclaves. Today a war breaks out and the entire globe watches it in real-time on CNN. Jets whisk us to new continents in hours; missiles reach the far side of the globe in minutes; a telephone puts us in touch with distant lands in seconds. And then there's the Internet. Its global transactions occur in nanoseconds; your e-mail reaches me as quickly from India as from down the hall. Today as never before music and movies and athletics are universal media; celebrities become international figures, from Tiger Woods to Madonna to Billy Graham. Sometimes it seems as if everyone now knows what everyone else is doing. We can watch British television in Beijing or reruns of "The Beverly Hillbillies" in Beirut. No previous generation has lived in anything like our world-sized fish bowl.

As a result, secondly, we also have changed. In our globalized environment others are constantly exposed to us, and we to them. We discover a steady flow of viewpoints other than our own, viewpoints we might otherwise never have glimpsed. These perspectives are sometimes pressed upon us, whether we want them or not. Where before we were oblivious to our differences, we can be oblivious no more. Our new environment forces us into a consciousness of how other people think, including how they think about us. Often this is delightful, sometimes it is painful, but always it is educational. When we see through other eyes we often wind up seeing differently."

Dear Don: It's a little creepy to celebrate conquistadors, don't you think? But I like school pride, so I'm just making conversation.

And why don't people embrace super positive themes like, Dos Pueblos Humanitarians? Again, just for conversation.

Football is a bone crunching competitive sport...so is wrestling and woman's volleyball. Humanitarian sounds so wimpy. Look what happened in Somalia...You couldn't call them the "Poodles" either.

Halos to eteresaee! Major humanitarian points for you for going beyond provincial. Just don't get into any bone-crunching competitive sport because apparently that's all schools are good for (humanity takes a back seat in some communities... fyi).

Again, Challenge Day proves to (not) be a success for Carpinteria!

Poodle: Great article!

Others:
Insensitive? Bigoted? Racist? Wow! Really?

How about the idea that Elias (who's complaint is the genesis of this issue) is a "teenager." Do you remember being a teenager? It's a time in life when we try to establish our identities, and indenpendence. We've gained enough knowledge to be able to survive, and have grown enough so that we're able. We commonly gain a false sense of confidence in our own thoughts (We knew everything - remember?). However, our minds are young, and our experience and comprehension. To complicate it more, the ability to delineate emotional thought from rational thought isn't fully developed yet (this has been proven). Often, convinced that we're right, and trying to forge our indenpendence, we try to manipulate our world to come in line with our vision (manipulation), running off half-informed to make it happen. To top it all off, kids can be so mean. Amidst all of the other things going on at that phase of life, the mean kids are chipping away at one's identity, and ultimately one's self-esteem.

I'm not saying that Elias was wrong - he feels the way he feels for whatever the reasons are. Do any of you remember being fired up on an issue as a teeneager, only to reflect back and realize that your own emotion was the only thing making it an issue? How many of us still do this as adults? While Elias isn't "wrong" for his feelings, the 3 CUSD board members are wrong for a carrying out a public knee-jerk reaction to the emotional input of a teenager. The issue has been blown out of proportion by 3 people who are obviously unaware of how to avoid proceeding in a manner that will turn mole hills into mountains - parents, yet unable to separate teen angst from reality.

Carpinteria Warriors comparable to Conquistadors? The Conquistadors were one group of people, notoriously brutal, for the sake of colonizing foriegn land. Warriors, on the other hand, in the general sense that it is being used by Carpinteria, is not about the same brutality. Many who were "warriors" fought in defense of their land, their values, the preservation of their people - honorable, enduring, persevering. Carpinteria Warriors are associated with only the honorable connotations of the term. Maybe if Elias understood that, there would be no issue. The funny thing is that he's right there in the middle of it, and doesn't seem to get it. Is it a surprise? Not to me. He's a teenager.

How could it have been better? More discussion should have happened before the CUSD board polarized a community. Through wider and continued (proper) communication, maybe there's more to the issue that the community doesn't understand. Unfortunately, the CUSD board has severly impaired the ability for proper communication to occur, and therefore for Elias and his supporters to have the ability to share their points with an unbiased wider audience.

Oh yeah - and the Crusaders (of the infamous Crusades). Another single group of folks who did bad things - duh!

It's the same reason why there aren't teams with the names "ss" or "third reich" either - although you could probably find enough haters out there to want to form one.

As far as I know, there are no Huns either.

The point is that this is not how the imagery or anything else associated with the Carpinteria Warriors is portrayed or regarded.

C'mon people! Arrrggghhhhhhh!

Defender of Common Sense: You seem like a real decent person. You, and I'm sure others aren't in the business of intentionally being ignorant or disrespectful.

Good people are open to other viewpoints, so as much as Carpinterians would want to defend their views, perhaps opening up a bit to a little education would help. It's not just Eli who believes this so this shouldn't be just shrugged off as "one teenager."

Good people don't make threats. Good people don't invest an entire week in diversity awareness and "Be the Change" education and then chastise a young man for living up to the message. Common Sense is great, and we also need "Defenders of Integrity" and "Defenders of Moral Fiber."

Come on people.... a little decency! Take pride in values as much as in your high school mascot!

I was eating lunch at a Summerland eatery and heard 2 girls discussing this issue. I didn't know what they were talking about at first and admired their passion and firm stand on what they thought was "like, not right!" as one girl kept saying. They appeared to be well informed and armed to support their argument. Then when the topic of discussion became clear, I have to admit I was disappointed. Why couldn't they have this much passion about the Iraq War or Darfur or our current administration? My guess is because it doesn't touch their teenage lives directly. These girls admitted to crying and being "so upset" about the change to their school identity. The display was admirable and pitful at the same time.

Thanks, Indie, for the commentary and comments. It's made me examine my beliefs and rethink my opinion. I especially appreciate the quote eteresaea offered - very apropos.

BTW, where does the American Indian community stand on this?

Ms Wahine,

According to a commnet on a post at http://www.recallcusd.org/, the local tribal leaders aren't commenting. Fact or fiction? I don't know.

Hopefully those girls that you heard will become more empathetic and more passionate about global issues as they mature and their global awareness broadens.

Change "The Warriors" to "The Teenagers."

Dear Defender:

Correction. There is no "chief." There is the Coastal Band of the Chumash National Tribal Council, which DID write a letter of support for Elias in his efforts to bring awareness to CUSD, dated March 11, 2008.

Perhaps you can send this to the Recall CUSD group for a little bit of education.

Regardless of good or bad connotations for Native Indians (or as I prefer, "Amerindians"), I think it's preferable to at least have SOME reference, to the People that lived here before the European Invasion. At least then someone might question the reason it's there, and learn about some history.

If the mascost is changed to some boring, even "Politically Correct" thing, then that link to history will be lost--and that's even considering whether the reference is even canonically corrrect.

Then again, maybe they should just change over to be the Carpinteria Worriers.

Several things come to mind. What difference does it make if the person filing the complaint is Chumash or not? It's like saying "As a Black/White/Asian/etc. I feel this is offensive". One can be of one race/gender and make a cogent observation about injustice perpetrated on another.

Another thing: While I think it is crucial to tell history as it happened, and in conjunction with that though I think it's important to keep alive the language and teach about the culture of the Chumash, there are people trading on their "Chumash" heritage. How much Chumash blood do these folks actually have? 1/4?...1/8? Let's run some D.N.A. tests. I'm half Assyrian, does that entitle me to be angry about what the Turks and Kurds did to "my people"? (Answer, no it doesn't)

Finally: The celebration of Fiesta is to commemorate the arrival of people who came to Santa Barbara and put guns to the heads of the people that were here, and told them to enter into a state of absolute servitude or be killed. If one truly wants to honor the Chumash, they would not be celebrating the arrival of the conquistadores but rather change the meaning of Fiesta to some arbitrary excuse to get wild and crazy for a week.

Nick's line about King Solomon was a very astute one and describes politicians on all levels accurately.

So, in what context was this native American symbol conceived? Was it conceived with respect?...or with disrespect? Someone should know the answer to that. If it was the latter, then it needs to go.

As a native Carpinterian and someone who has (not Chumash, but) some Native American heritage, I can say that this issue is ridiculous to me.

I always felt pride when I drove to my alma mater and saw that great stone Warrior there. Even though it has been almost 20 years since I graduated from CHS, and times have changed, I don't find any merit in the argument that this icon is offensive in any way.

Had the team been named "Redskin" or something like that, I think I could understand it.

I'm afraid this is a case of one person being so eager to stir the pot that he's neglecting to realize that his own argument not only disrespects his own heritage, but also robs the local community of a symbol of Chumash pride.

To me, the symbol is a strong, proud and positive icon. Anyone who thinks otherwise is, while certainly entitled to their opinon, quite possibly bringing some extra baggage that need not be applied.

Sadly, there haven't been enough people willing to stand up for the causes of logic, heritage and indeed semantics....all issues that are wrapped up in this overblown controversy.

"does that entitle me to be angry about what the Turks and Kurds did to "my people"? (Answer, no it doesn't)" should have read "does that entitle me to be angry at Turks and Kurds" (no it doesn't)

Of course I'm angry about any injustice as I think we all are. I didn't want to come off as seeming that I'm indifferent to such injustices, no matter who committes them.

Dear Native1,

Perhaps it is more empowering to view this, not as "an overblown controversy" but as a teachable moment and an opportunity to create healing communities.

I encourage interested people to view, "In Whose Honor?" and engage in open, honest, and constructive dialogue. It may be helpful to take the magnifying lense away from oneself or one's immediate situation and watch events as they unfolded elsewhere in order to find new layers of understanding.

Finally, a bit of history: "It is interesting to note that most mascot names were chosen, and ceremonies using the feathers, drums, and clothing were developed, from the 1920s to the 1950s. During this period of time and up until 1978 it was illegal for Native people to practice their religion. Native people could be, and often were, imprisoned for using these same items in ceremonies. Ironically, while nonnative people were using sacred objects in mimicking the Indians at sports events, Native people had to stand by and watch their culture mocked while they themselves could not participate in the same activities in a religious way. This was not an honor then, and it is not an honor today. "