Originally posted by Tomahawk Leader:
[b]By Larry Tobin

Okay, Elizabeth Burmaster is a nice lady. The Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction and her husband own property near here and visit the area often. That is why I find her letter to the Tomahawk School District concerning our “Hatchet” logo so … befuddling at best.

There is politically correct and then there is ridiculous. Asking the “Tomahawk” school district to change its “Hatchet” nickname is ridiculous. Can you imagine our cheerleaders chanting, “Go Small Hewing Instruments”?

Certainly, there are Indian nicknames that are offensive. I find it ironic that our nation’s capitol has one of the most offensive nicknames available, the Washington “Redskins.” Just as using the “N” word to describe Blacks is despicable, so is applying Redskin to American Indians.

There are some school nicknames in Wisconsin that may not even be offensive, but they are silly. For example, “Apaches” – as one team is referred to – is stupid. Apaches are a Southwest American tribe, not even Southwest Wisconsin. How is “Apache” meaningful to the school or area that chose the nickname.

For much the same reason, I wasn’t as opposed to my alma mater, Marquette University, changing the school’s nickname from Warriors as I was to the name they chose – Golden Eagles! Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area are known far more for bald eagles than they ever were for golden eagles! I think nicknames should be something meaningful to the area they represent. And the way athletes like to shave their heads these days, Bald Eagles wouldn’t even be that bad a choice.

But then, there are even places in Wisconsin that are more offensive than the Tomahawk Hatchet. For instance, Squaw Creek travels through Price and Lincoln Counties. To Indians, a “squaw” is not the kind of woman that a man would take home to meet the family.

A hatchet – even a “tomahawk” – is simply a small cutting tool. How can that be offensive to a Native American? Does Libby Burmaster want us to change the map, too? Does she want us to rename our city? The term, “Tomahawk” is more apt to be offensive than is Hatchet.

If the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction wants to truly eliminate images that might be taken as offensive to Native Americans, then we must go further than asking school districts to take trivial, meaningless steps. Let’s rename the whole darned state! How about “Landmass Between Two Big Lakes?

We’d certainly have to rename Indianhead Technical School to Cheesehead Tech!

But why stop with mere schools? We’ll have to change the names of at least 20 counties, including the most populated – Milwaukee! Next we go for cities, villages and towns. There are at least 70 of those that will need to be retrofitted with new titles! And those are just the Indian names!

We have to be fair to all so we can’t stop with just Indian names? Blacks probably don’t appreciate “Coon Valley,” nor are gays liable to like “Gays Mills.”

Also, why should places in Wisconsin … er, Landmass Between Two Big Lakes … be named after other countries and foreign cities? People in Germany may not like us having our own Berlin, New Berlin or even Rhinelander.

Nor should Landmass Between Two Big Lakes have a New Lisbon or Cuba City or Denmark or Tripoli.

As you can tell, I think this whole politically correct thing has gotten out of hand. You should hear Larry the Cable Guy’s politically correct version of “The Night Before Christmas.” You can’t even say “Ho, Ho, Ho” anymore for fear of offending ladies of the night!

Frankly, I think our school district and the whole community should tell Libby and the Department of Public Instruction to take our logo and go sit on it – preferably blade first!