mikeandtim

work and Indians (alleged, not real)

well, sorry for sucking it up this week and being terrible writers. i have been mad wicked busy at work since i have had to pick up the slack from someone who is out on maternity leave. which is good because i get to do some new stuff, but bad because now it is saturday morning and i am back at work. plus i have been staying till circa 7pm every night on average. yuck.

now for the alleged Indians story. i say alleged because we are talking about Native Americans. i suppose Indians is an ok term to use, but i am not Native American so i am not really sure how Native Americans feel about that. regardless, these people are called Indians because sea-faring Christopher Columbo thought he had reached the actual India when he arrived at North America. and to think he was just trying to get his little paws on some Indian spices. curry isnt THAT good is it? sorry for the sidebar, i have ADD.

my wife works at a school where the mascot is the Indian. recently the superintendent has mandated that the mascot should be changed so as not to offend anyone and just to avoid any conflict of interest, so the principal has passed this along to the PTA. well, the PTA is supposed to have some level of say in issues such as the school mascot selection, so that is why they got involved. i should have prefaced this story by revealing that the parents of this school are in the 99th percentile of parent involvement at the school. this is an elementary school so of course none of these kids can do no wrong and are all massively overprotected-from-anything-negative little angels. many of these parents do not work. many of them live very close to the school, walk their children to school every day, then gossip in front of the school for long periods of time after school starts simply because they dont have much else better to do. this process repeats circa 245pm when the kids are nearly out of school. some of these are dads that dont even work. you get the point.

well, in a school such as this, parents have way too much power. they gossip, hang out in classrooms, eat lunch with their kids multiple times per week, etc. you can probably see where this is going with the Indian situation. since the principal passed along that the mascot needs to be changed, the parents have teamed up and have really turned this into a battle. i am pretty sure this is more of an exhibition of power/having their voice heard than it is something they really care about. a bunch of parents think changing the mascot is wrong and have been giving the principal hell for this change. saying "WHATTYA MEAN WE GOTTA CHANGE THE MASCOT?? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!! WE WANT IT TO BE THE INDIAN!" they have gone to extreme lengths to keep the mascot the Indian, including bad-mouthing the principal, the teachers, the superintendent, and privately forming a strategery to combat this change. they recently held a PTA meeting with principal and teachers and had a vote on whether to change it or not and were sour to everyone who they presumed was voting in favor of the change. some parents went to the trouble of interviewing a few Indians. some cited tradition as a reason to keep it. some just jumped into straight up mudslinging and accusations. this whole deal is out of control.

i would like to remind the parents of the following facts/points:
1. this is an elementary school mascot. in a few years, your kid wont even be there anymore.
2. your child is between the ages of 5 and 11, and most likely could give a rat's ass what their school mascot is. who freakin cares if it is an indian, emu, or a flippin pecan.
3. the elementary school mascot is basically nothing. does anyone dress up in the mascot uniform? no. do you have a sports team? no. please describe the duties of such mascot.
4. you actually wasted hours of your life going to interview a Native American (i would like to know what percentage Native American your interviewee was, by the way) so that you could solidify your case? thats just bizarre.
5. must we remind you people that many sports teams have changed their mascot, or been asked to because some actual Native Americans may be offended by the goofy Indian mascot you have in your gymnasium which mocks their culture? if you were a professional sports team you might have a better argument because people identify the team with the mascot and tens of millions of dollars of mechandise are produced and sold, sustaining the team's existence. however, you are an elementary school and should refer to point #1.

i actually believe this could hit local news pretty soon if it continues. and believe me, these parents are not about to give in on keeping their beloved indian mascot. isnt it usually people protesting to rid schools of these mascots? who are these people?

posted by mikeandtim @ 6:25:00 AM