<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Thanks Karen, sounds like deju vu all over again. Not sure what you all hoped for, or what you felt was gained by yr presence?<div><br></div><div>Any report on Friday's rally for choosing a new mascot? or an update on the issue in general?? We've already won "Chief" as Mascot, NOT... so imho, we should ignore all future post-mortem flashbacks and stop beating that dead horse (sorry, equinophiles). Those still wanting to bask in that victory could support the movement to find a new, non-racist mascot, an issue that's still viable. As I said, jmho.</div><div> --Jenifer</div><div><br>--- On <b>Sun, 10/24/10, Karen Medina <i><kmedina67@gmail.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Karen Medina <kmedina67@gmail.com><br>Subject: [Peace-discuss] quick report
from the anti-racist mascot demonstration Saturday October 23, 2010<br>To: "Peace-discuss List" <Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net><br>Date: Sunday, October 24, 2010, 8:30 AM<br><br><div class="plainMail">I had the pleasure of "working security" for the demonstration against<br>the racist mascot and thought you might like a quick report of the<br>event.<br><br>Approximately 4 police officers watched as we gathered at the Foreign<br>Language Building at 4:30 for the walk over to the Assembly Hall. A<br>handful of Native Americans were part of our group. It was early en<br>route when we first encountered people wearing pro-chief shirts. We<br>engaged and we began chanting.<br><br>We were running late, so the pace was a bit fast for the Elders to<br>keep up. As the group divided, I (as a security person) stayed back<br>with the Elders. I was also carrying the signs -- they were not<br>heavy, but it meant that the signs were late
arriving.<br><br>At the Assembly Hall, we gathered between the ticket office and the<br>west entrance to the building. There was "freedom of speech" tape on<br>the ground marking where we were allowed to be.<br><br>Hired security and police were there in addition to many police<br>officers. They faced us the entire time even though the pro-chief<br>people out-numbered us hundreds of times over. Many of the mascot<br>supporters were drunk. Some were angry. Few ignored us. Many people<br>lined up on the walkway above us and gave us the finger, glared in our<br>direction, and/or yelled "CHIEF, CHIEF" in deep voices.<br><br>The hired security person near me (I stayed near the Elders) was<br>pretty good for the most part. We talked about freedom of speech.<br>However, he dropped his guard when friends of his were in the crowd.<br>One of his friends actually threatened one of us. The security guy<br>did not notice this. But once told about it, he
apologized and<br>realized that he needed to do his job even with people he thought he<br>could trust.<br><br>One of the Native Americans donned a costume. I think he looked very<br>much like a Catholic Bishop. He had a pointed white hat and a rosary<br>around his neck with a large cross. I think his message was that<br>mascots were rarely people, unless they were stereotyping and making<br>fun of them. He spent a lot of time blessing people. And people<br>sometimes even said "thank you."<br><br>One man, a grandfather of a U of I student, was staring at us for a<br>long time. And was getting too close for comfort. I went and stood<br>between him and the demonstrators. He was very close to me, face to<br>face. I began a conversation because I was uncomfortable being so<br>close and he was trying to intimidate, not menacingly (he wasn't big<br>enough or young enough to be menacing). Let me share a little of what<br>I learned about him.<br><br>He had been
in the Army during Korea. He thought we, the<br>demonstrators, were stupid and had not experienced life. Two years in<br>the military would do us all a lot of good -- we would learn to make<br>our beds and other important life skills. The United States should<br>have stayed in Korea and beat their ... His grandson is currently a<br>sophomore in computer science. I asked why he was not in the military<br>and the answer was that there was not a draft. If there were, he'd be<br>there. Grandpa was from New Mexico and owned a business that employed<br>"Indians". He told me that the demonstrators did not know the issues<br>of the Indians -- though the closest people behind me were all Native<br>Americans -- he was staring at the long line of young people to my<br>right as if they were the scum of the earth.<br><br>He had been to China and to Russia. "China is going to take over the<br>world" -- the U.S. should attack them now. And the U.S. has a lot
to<br>fear from the Russians. I asked if he spoke Russian. He ignored me. I<br>asked if serving in the Peace Corps would be good experience and at<br>first he said yes. He talked a lot about "survival of the fittest" and<br>I asked if he meant survival of the biggest most populace. China is<br>going to gain more power than the U.S. and start making us do things.<br>Evidently the U.S. forcing others to do our will is fine and good.<br><br>At one point, as he was saying how powerful he was having been in the<br>military, I said that I had lived alone and isolated in a poverty<br>stricken area where English was not spoken and I lived there without a<br>gun. Which one of us was the wimp?<br><br>I never did find out why his grandson was not with him. He was there<br>because of his grandson.<br><br>After awhile, Diane, one of the Elders, decided it was time to take<br>the pipe and walk it around the building 7 times. She talked to the<br>security and told
them her intensions and her fear of the crowd. I<br>told her I would go with her.<br><br>Nobody bothered us except one young man who got really really close<br>and was filming us with his cell phone. Diane asked if he had taken a<br>picture of her. He did not answer but stayed firmly in his place. I<br>got between them (hard to do because he was very close) and asked him<br>to respond to her question. He had earbuds in both ears. He did back<br>up. I asked if he was intentionally trying to be isolated by having<br>the earbuds in. But I thought something was very odd so I did not get<br>any closer. After awhile, he signed the word "d-e-a-f". Ah, no wonder<br>he was not answering her question. A police officer came over. We were<br>trying to communicate by then. The young man was still filming us,<br>hand with cell phone held straight in front of him. We walked on.<br><br>On the east side of the building, a girl was lying on the cement. Her<br>mother was
with her. They had been inside and it was too hot. The girl<br>(probably 19) had felt ill and they had come outside to get some air.<br>An assembly hall staff person was holding the door open for them to<br>come back in, but the girl was really not looking like she was going<br>to get up. We offered water. They had some already. We walked on.<br><br>We saw a wood chuck walk up a little hill and then duck under the<br>cement walkway surrounding the Assembly Hall. There were no people on<br>one whole side of the building. It was kind of weird in an unbalanced<br>way.<br><br>Diane and I made it around the building 3 times before the<br>demonstrators were done and headed over to the Unity Party at the ARC.<br>We were going to continue, but it was getting to get dark and the<br>other Native Americans were also going to the ARC, so we joined them.<br>So we left too.<br><br>Anyway, I thought I would share my experience of the anti-chief<br>demonstration with
you.<br><br>Peace,<br>Karen Medina<br>_______________________________________________<br>Peace-discuss mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" href="/mc/compose?to=Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss" target="_blank">http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss</a><br></div></blockquote></div></td></tr></table><br>