What TNC said.
It’s Like These Guys Take Pride in Being IgnorantPost + Comments (143)
Wilma Mankiller, RIP
From the AP story, via the New York Times:
Former Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller, one of the nation’s most visible American Indian leaders and one of the few women to lead a major tribe, died Tuesday after suffering from cancer and other health problems. She was 64.
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Mankiller, whose first taste of federal policy toward Indians came when her family ended up in a housing project after a government relocation project, took Indian issues to the White House and met with three presidents. She earned a reputation for facing conflict head-on. As the first female chief of the Cherokees, from 1985 to 1995, Mankiller led the tribe in tripling its enrollment, doubling employment and building new health centers and children’s programs.
[…] In 1969, she got what she called ”an enormous wake-up call” and took her first step into Indian activism by participating in the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island. Seventy-nine Native Americans took over the site of the former federal prison to protest a policy that terminated the federal government’s recognition of tribal sovereignty and the exclusion of Indians from state laws. The policy was based on the belief that Native Americans would be better off if they assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society.
[…] As chief of the Tahlequah-based tribe, Mankiller was less of an activist and more of a pragmatist. She was criticized for focusing almost exclusively on social programs, instead of pushing for smoke shops and high-stakes gaming.
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Mankiller decided not to seek re-election in 1995, and accepted a teaching position at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where she held an honorary degree. Among her other honors was a Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian award — presented in 1998.
Seeing this reminded me that I need to replace my copy of her excellent autobiography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. And on her website, I found news of an upcoming documentary to which I look forward with great interest…
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“The question I am asked most frequently is why I remain such a positive person, after surviving breast cancer, lymphoma, dialysis, two kidney transplants, and systemic myasthenia gravis. The answer is simple: I am Cherokee, and I am a woman. No one knows better than I that every day is indeed a good day. How can I be anything but positive when I come from a tenacious, resilient people who keep moving forward with an eye toward the future even after enduring unspeakable hardship? How can I not be positive when I have lived longer than I ever dreamed possible and my life plays itself out in a supportive community of extended family and friends? There is much to be thankful for. Though I am an ordinary woman, I have been blessed with many extraordinary experiences. I have been privileged to travel extensively, meet world leaders like Nelson Mandela, represent tribal people in meetings with several United States presidents, and work with visionary tribal leaders and activists.
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I learned at a fairly early age that I cannot always control the things that are sent my way or the things that other people do, but I can most certainly control how I think about them and react to them. I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the negative. I believe that having a good, peaceful mind is the basic premise for a good life. — from “The Way Home”, Every Day is a Good Day by Wilma Mankiller, p. 148
Open Thread
Have at it. Don’t forget to get your Balloon Juice swag at the store! All proceeds go to pet rescue.
Straight outta comments
There were two very good links in the thread yesterday about Mark Schmitt’s TAP piece. (I think I agree with the critiques of the piece — Schmitt’s comparison is flawed and poorly phrased. Nevertheless, I think he’s onto something; a better, similar comparison would be between Wolf and the “radical chic” scene famously chronicled by Tom Wolfe.)
Link #1: Molly Ivins on Camille Paglia 1991 (via Phoenix Woman):
“In any situation, she establishes the lowest common denominator of a point. She says, `This is the feminist point of view,’ and overturns it by standing it on its head. She doesn’t go outside what she critiques; she simply puts out the opposite of it.”
(This is actually Ivins quoting someone else about Paglia, but it’s a perfect description in any case.)
Link #2: Some guy from a motorcycle chat forum on race and Tea Partyism (via The Other Steve):
The workforce may have been integrated, but you still knew who you were better than. Nobody dared yell “You Lie!!” at a white boss.
[….]And they say they want their Country Back.
Well, Bing-fucking-O.
Now we have it. They want to return to a time and place where they at least knew who they were better than.
Update: I agree with commenter Joey Malone:
Y’all go read that motorcycle guy’s post. It’s a thing of beauty.
Open Thread: Obama’s Pitch
Speaking of echo chambers, for some reason, Obama’s opening day pitch is headlining the local conservative blog:
This was posted without explanation, so I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out what’s un-American about it.
Early Morning Open Thread
Natalie Angier at the NYT tells us “Even Among Animals: Leaders, Followers and Schmoozers“:
[…] Scientists studying animals from virtually every niche of the bestial kingdom have found evidence of distinctive personalities — bundled sets of behaviors, quirks, preferences and pet peeves that remain stable over time and across settings. They have found stylistic diversity in chimpanzees, monkeys, barnacle geese, farm minks, blue tits and great tits, bighorn sheep, dumpling squid, pumpkinseed sunfish, zebra finches, spotted hyenas, even spiders and water striders, to name but a few. They have identified hotheads and tiptoers, schmoozers and loners, divas, dullards and fearless explorers, and they have learned that animals, like us, often cling to the same personality for the bulk of their lives. The daredevil chicken of today is the one out crossing the road tomorrow.
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Researchers are delving into the source and significance of all these animal spirits. They are asking questions like, when geese start on a wild goose chase, what sort of goose will lead the flock, and why do the rest choose to follow it? They are devising computer models to explain how different personality types can be maintained in a given animal population, and they are exploring the upsides and drawbacks of different personal styles.
[…] Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and his colleagues sought to learn why when certain barnacle geese would start moving, others would honkily follow. They could find no obvious correlation between leadership and standard pluses like large size, maleness or social dominance. The only reliable predictor of goose leadership was boldness — the willingness to approach a new item like a scrap of carpet. Geese are not stupid. The boldest birds also proved the most adept at finding new food patches, and if you’re looking for grazing advice in a crowd, why not follow the goose with the golden track record?
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Scientists suspect that small inherited predispositions are either enhanced or suppressed by experience, and computer models show that tiny discrepancies at the start can become enormous over time, through feedback loopings of positive reinforcement. Evidence is also emerging that certain physical setpoints affect temperament globally. Notable among such setpoints is the relative rate at which one’s nervous system processes sensory information.
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“There are low information processors who don’t attend much to their environment and bulldoze through life,” said David Sloan Wilson of the State University of New York at Binghamton. “Then there are the sensitive ones who are always taking things in, which can be good because information is valuable, but it can also be overwhelming.”
There’s an iPad joke in there somewhere… not to mention something about teabaggers… or we could just go with the obvious blogger parallels…
NCAA Championship Open Thread
I thought WVU won the title last week when they beat Kentucky, but I’ve been known to black out things I don’t like.