Oh no!

Aphephilia and I agreed on something!!!!

Is the world coming to an end?

Yes Kerry, the world is coming to an end, all because someone said the Vikings were historical and no longer in existance. Eric the Red is coming back with a band of Vikings and obliterating the world, or at least Tomahawk.

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Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.

Friends never lets friends drive drunk.

Nell, as long as the Vikings don't obliterate Tomahawk using HATCHETS they are OK!!!

So does the military have to rename the Tomahawk Missile or have they already done that?

Have you ever been here Nell?
http://www.vikinginn.com/index.html

<small>[ January 05, 2006, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: aphephilia ]</small>

By reading this it sounds like the Superintendant is being quite racist. And I think Racism should not be tolerated at all. I agree we should voice our opinion to them about it, because it will soon teach our children that racism is ok and it isn't. Whether it be to American Indians, African Americans, ect. It's not right at all.

**** rookies.

Amen Aph!!!!

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What if there were no hypothetical questions?

And furthermore...now that I have actually read all the comments here...I feel that this communtiy is slowly falling into Racism all together. is not the black community supposed to be referred as African Americans?? Not just "Blacks"! My god people. It's no wonder my best friend doesnt feel safe to leave her house. She is afraid of all the Racism here in Tomahawk. This is just wrong on all counts. As for the school being called the "Hatchets", I believe it should stay. Wisconsin may have been founded by the French, but it was us American Indians that ruled this land and gave the name to this town. I believe that it isnt Racist at all to keep the name and we should fight for what we believe.

Not to extend this nonsense thread any further than possible, but we really have two issues here. The first regards the idiotic attempt by a state politician to draw attention away from the real problems facing school districts all across the state by trying to focus our attention on this non-issue. Judging by the what I see on this thread, she has been very successful in that endeavor. Folks, there are far more important issues facing the Tomahawk School District than the name of the mascot. Why are we even talking about this? The second issue has to do with political correctness. This is a real joke right from the start. Nobody checks your lineage card on St. Patrick's day to see if you qualify to march in the parade and even us non-Italians get to take Columbus Day off. Rap music is performed by a whole bunch of white folks and most of the people involved in Tai Chi in this country are not asian. You may be a part of a culture, but in this country no one group owns it and we decided a long time ago that anybody could join anything they wanted to. Whenever we start arguing about who owns what we are in trouble. And that's all I have to say about that.

Dave,

All excellent points!

Rayne, it may surprise you to know that all "African Americans" are "black" but not all "blacks" are "African Americans". So why would we call them all "African Americans"?

How did the "hatchet" discussion evolve into this?

By George! Evolution DOES exist!

No I haven't but thanks for the site. I think I shall visit it with my grandson. He really likes that period of time. I have seen various Viking relics in Ireland.

_________________
Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.

Friends never lets friends drive drunk.

Aphephilia is absolutely right. I have several patients who have black skin and are from Africa but they are not black or African American. They are caucasian. They are from Ethiopia but way back when the Vikings ruled they had migrated to Africa from the Caucasus region of Europe. They are insulted when they are referred to as blacks or African American. There has been a lot of news stories locally about this issue. African Americans are those people whose ancestors came here as slaves. Recent African immigrants do not want to be called African American. We call people from Somali Somalis, those from Nigeria Nigerians, etc. That is their preference.Many people assume my younger son is African American, he is not, he is Afro Colombian.

In the end we are all people and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. We all come from various cultures and no one culture is better than another.

_________________
Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.

Friends never lets friends drive drunk.

We will know we have evolved from this foolishness when we finally get smart enough to just call them AMERICANS.

_________________
Yesterday is History !
Today will be a memory !
Tomorrow is a mystery;
Seize the Day !

Point well taken....I guess my concern is and will be racism. Forgive me for saying otherwise.

.

The name the Tomahawk Sunfish kind of grows on a you. We could have a beautiful sunfish with blue & gold hooks and sinkers!! I agree - the logo/mascot is a hatchet -- you can buy one at most any sporting goods store and I think anyone can use it (not necessarily safely!). If anything the name Tomahawk should be at issue - but change 1 town name - change all towns/counties, lakes, rivers, campgrounds, restaurants etc that have Indian names. We have already conceded more than necessary - the Indians weren't the only ones to use feathers as a design accessory. They actually dress up the HATCHET nicely (notice I didn't say tomahawk)- should we put peace/love beads on them instead?

While being mighty tasty, the Sunfish just isn't mighty enough. The Mighty Muskys would work, but I think the Indians caught Muskys. I think they chopped there heads off with a 'hatchet'. Oh no, now what?

quote "if any name should go due to racism it would be the name of Tomahawk, definitely not hatchet. "

I am sorry but isnt a tomahawk a hatchet and visa-versa...shouldnt BOTH names go then....I am also sorry, why do we have enough time to complain about a mascot or symbol name whatever, but dont talk about how many Americans, Native, Black or White are being killed....arent we a little outta place. Yes I know I am complaining now, but people are taking way to much time to talk about it. Somebody said that the Native AMericans arent bothered by "tomaawk hatchets", but whites are the ones that are trying to prove we arent racist, and i agree, we take way to much time to talk about color...if we arent racist then why do we talk about race and ethnicty, shouldnt we just leave it alone?
Again I am sorry, I just had to share my veiw.

I have to agree with ya there. So many people are dying and stuff like that. Racism is another big concern though. My best friend is afraid to leave her home because of it. Her daughter goes to the elementary school and gets picked on because she is of a different color. With me all of it is a big concern. Racism, the Hatchet thing plus everything else around us that happens everyday.

Don't know if moccasin is an Indian word, if it iswhoever named a snake "Water Moccasin" is in deep dodo.

What about barbers giving Mohawk haircuts?

This entire thread maybe nonsense, fluff and pointless in the minds of some. It really is nice that we can do such things to take us away from the bigger issues in the world.
How is calling a high school sports team Hatchets, which is actually an implement brought to this country by white settlers, degrogatory or rasists? Geez

_________________
Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

Quite a while back there was this UFO chaser, or whatever he was, on a TV talk show that was convinced that other life that's out there, or so-called aliens would never make themselves known to us earth people until they saw that we could get along with each other on this planet. His theory was that if we can't understand each other as races and live together as ONE HUMAN RACE we would never friendly accept them. If we can't get over the color of skin thing, what would we possibly think of, or do to a race that's two feet tall with three arms and one large eye in the middle of their forehead? Is he nuts or does he make sense?

I don't get what the big deal is about calling Tomahawk High School's athletic teams(there are other sports than football) the "Hatchets". To me it is a tool used to split wood...that's it.

Can someone enlighten me as to why this is derogatory to Native Americans? Also why is the Tomahawk Chop derogatory? Isn't it just a chopping motion made with one's arm?

I just don't get it I guess, like previously stated seems like there are bigger fish in the sea to worry about.

School Board members recently received the letter from a Native American interest group that sparked the controversy over the Tomahawk Hatchets logo. Apparently the main point of interest was in the eagle feathers that were attached to the hatchet/tomahawk. The letter explained that these eagle feathers had great religious and cultural significance to Native Americans and that having them on the logo was particularly offensive in a very religious way. Too bad that these people were not attentive enough to realize that the eagle feathers were removed from the logo several years ago. I suppose as important as the issue is to them they simply overlooked that fact. I was also surprized in my online ramblings to find eagle feathers adorning Native American sponsored ads for their casinos and smoke shops, among other things. I had no idea that these facilities doubled as cultural centers and places of worship. Based on what I read in the letter, I would have assumed that this would not have been an appropriate use for these sacred images, but then what do I know?