Re: Dear Rube: VERY OFF TOPIC ....

A lot of this is very off topic.... And those with blind patriotism
should not read this.
I happen to think Patriotism includes thinking.

At first I was very "off put" with Ruben's racist attacks, as I saw no
indication of
any overt racist statements in their comments about Millege.

Than, I thought about them in a larger perspective, and with that
larger perspective,
anger and attempts to weed out racism is very valid.

I too react when I see signs of racism. In retrospect, sometimes I am
wrong, and
on this group saw through this lens the comments about previous African
American
ball players previous to Jackie Robinson as an attempt to discredit
him, and
a racist remark. In retrospect, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG, it was
actually a
fascinating topic, and worthy of exploration. In fact, not only was
the topic interesting,
I would have loved to learn more about those players, their careers and
interactions and
since the racist gap had been overcome, why did it close again? It
appears worthy
of a book. Even a movie about these forgotten players, "Before Jackie
Robinson".
This movie could well celebrate both Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey.

While I generally love this nation. to ignore the warts, to me is
rather narrow minded.
This is sadly a nation that was founded on racism and exploitation.
This nation, pre and
post the establishment of the US engaged in several of the worst racist
campaigns
in history.

The exploitation of the Native American population is both sad but
illegal.
From the very start, the same tribes that saved the Pilgrims'
asses were latter massacred and exterminated in a genocidal campaign by
the
Pilgrims' children.

Of the 770 legal treaties and agreements between the tribes and the US
government,
all but 7 have been broken by the US government. For example, the
Treaty of
Fort Laramie, in 1868 gave the plains tribes the Paha Sapa as long as
the rivers run.
This basically was the lands west of the Missouri River.

However, Custer violated this treaty on numerous occasions, including
General William Tecumseh Sherman and Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota sign
the
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Colonel George Armstrong Custer attacked
a
Cheyenne village on the Washita River and killed Black Kettle and over
100 men,
women, and children. At the Battle of the Little Big Horn, described
in
US Military History as a Massacre, Custer was on an aggressive and
illegal campaign
and was defeated through brilliant military moves by Crazy Horse.
In response, in 1898 at Wounded Knee, the 7th Calvary
surrounded a wintering camp of Lakota, and massacred the man, woman,
child and even the dogs of the Oglala Lakota. Far from an isolated
incident,
this was the rule. The Trail of Tears is a sad parallel to the Bataan
Death March,
except the woman, infants and elderly were forced on that march, many
dieing along the way.
Until recently, in schools when a child spoke Lakota, an American
language,
they were forced to stand at the black board and keep their nose in a
circle all day.

Similarly, the South's wealth was acquired through slavery. The racism
of Slavery
certainly exists to this day. Infants were removed and sold from their
parents.
Reading was outlawed. Even after the Civil War, a policy of racism
against
the Black Population continued, and remains overt till this day.

Most every immigrant group faced tremendous discrimination, as if those
that
came over from the Mayflower were somehow better people than those that
came later.
This racism exists today, as we build boarders along the Mexican
boarder, and people
complain that people speak another language. As if this was some type
of divine
right, that English, like science fiction, is the language of the
cosmos. The amount
of immigration today pales in comparisons to the previous century.
Generally, most
immigrant communities continued to use their traditional language,
with their children
gradually adopting other languages. I remember walking to the store as
a child
to get my grandparents a copy of the Forward. The attacks on Hispanics
are no different,
the same people that attack them hire them to clean their homes and
don't
pay workers compensation. We all see the holier than thou emails
attacking
Hispanics.

Perhaps it's a throwback to primitive society that people hate a scape
goat to unite the
people.

We return to the attacks on a young player named Milidge. I have not
seen one
condemnation of his batting stroke, his fielding, his pitch selection,
but rather his style.

I don't agree with Ruben that most of these postings were racist, but
the undercurrent
of racism is evident, and I'm sure that the same player, blond, and
blue eyed, speaking
about Mom and Apple Pie would indeed be treated somewhat differently.

Yes, he should have a Pete Rose attitude of running his ass off every
time.
However, doesn't baseball need more displays of exuberance?

I remember the story of Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest athletes in
history.
Arguably the greatest athlete in history, the Olympic Committee removed
his
medals, put under a microscope that others were not.
This move was later reversed by the committee in 1982.

If anyone thinks the racist attacks on the Native American population
are a thing
of the past has only lived in the NY area. Having lived in South
Dakota on Pine Ridge,
the poorest county of the US, I saw the futility of fine Lakota trying
to get employment.
With a Falls River license plate, how often I was stopped by state
troopers and
other police for nothing but a Falls River plate.

Our Founding Father's are seen as Gods, and how many people often state
that to
do what was right, it is, how would our founding father's view this.
While Benjamin
Franklyn campaigned for the end and injustice of slavery, Washington
had slaves
and ordered the extermination of Eastern Tribes. Jefferson, a
brilliant man and
perhaps a more incredible architect, while condemning slavery,
continued not
only to own and sell slaves, engaged in sexual slavery, was applauded
for
freeing the slaves on his death, like George Washington.
Of course, the estate had few slaves to free, as most
had already been sold.


Our laws remain racist in nature. Cocaine used by the rich society,
including our
President has one set of laws, while crack, the same substance but used
by minorities,
has much stiffer penalties. I'm not saying these laws are racist in
design, but
the net result remains the same.

We don't go to war against economic human beings, which may well or
not be appropriate.
We go to war against Red Skins, Gooks and Rag Heads

So where does that leave Ruben? I think he jumps the gun, and saw him
make some
baseless assertions on me. However, this reflex is not unwarranted.
Hell half my
population was exterminated while in slavery in the 20th century, while
the US
did nothing. They even would not allow a boat of children to land,
their relatives crying
on US property, sending them back to certain death.

Re read his comments. The point he makes are the attacks on Millege
are all about
style and attitude. Perhaps he is overly sensative. We need more
sensativity to racism,
not less. If anything, after Ruben's attacks on me, it would be easy
for me to sit back and
let it continue. For the record, I also don't believe most of the
critisms on Milledge
were overtly racist, and that few of the posters were consiously aware
of any racist attitudes.

But the attacks on Ruben's post were not on his substance or address
his points, but
rather on his use of a spell checker.

This whole group would be far better if it stepped back and people
thought,
is this a personal attack, and held those posts for a day. How much
better this
news group would be. This applies to everyone, including myself.

.