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Very good and interesting description of some history and politics. Merits
remembering, methinks. But let me try to bring the conversation back to the
question of 'median stuck', which was asked by some worthy person in a far
off land. "Median stuck' is new to me too, even though I grew up in a
Northern US industrial area that often had snowfall. I knew of 'median
strip' but not 'median stuck'. Jim Jones
-----Original Message-----
... my wife being part Cherokee and many of my friends being American
Indian or Native Alaskans, I find your attempt at humor to be in poor
taste. Here in Vermont, the Abenaki Indians, who roamed these lands for
thousands of years before Ethan Allen set up his homestead, recently got
"recognition" from the state as being "an indigenous people;" although,
the Federal government still doesn't recognize them. One of the Federal
government's fears is that the people who were the recipients of our
country's genocide and ethnic cleansing policies would attempt to get
back what was rightfully theirs and build casinos. Yet, all they wanted
was a little respect. They don't want a casino...they want the same
respect we give decedents of Italians, Germans, French, and other
immigrants....people who came after the Indians to buy the land stolen
from them.
A bit of perspective. Did you know that the Iroquois Nation had a
representative democracy during the same period Cotton Mathers and his
crew were dunking and burning women for being "witches." and that an
Indian city located at the mouth of the Missouri River at the time
Columbus "discovered" America was larger than London, England? Did you
know that the Aleuts had a written language and history prior to the
arrival of the American? If you didn't know that, you probably didn't
know that many of the wealthiest landowners in the south were Cherokee,
and you probably didn't know that Andrew Jackson forced them out of
their homes at gunpoint then made them march with little provisions to
Oklahoma. You probably didn't know that a lot of them died, including
hundreds of babies snatched out of mothers arms and killed because they
weren't white. You probably also didn't know that Custer's Massacre
started when a soldier killed an unarmed 14 year old boy for picking up
a tin of hard tack that had fallen from a pack horse. (What would you
do if someone shot your son for being an inquisitive teenager?) Even
today, in some areas of our country, the American Indian is looked at as
an oddity instead of a fellow human being. Racism is racism.
My point is...your comment was in poor taste and it only promotes the
ignorance many Americans have for the very people who saved some of
their ancestors from starvation....
-----Original Message-----
James Barrow wrote:
>A 'central reservation' here is a place where American Indians go to play
>bingo......
> Bryan Sherman wrote:
>
> >> ... When there was icy weather I would invariably pass a number of
> >> vehicles in the median stuck.
>
> Ed D' Souza asked the question that was on the tip of my tongue: what
> is a `median stuck'? John Posada replied:
>
> > A median is a divider between opposing traffic lanes, often a strip
> > of grass or dirt.
>
> Aha! That's what we in the UK would call a `central reservation'. Is
> it traditional in the US when talking about a median ... (The fact that I
am responding to this post at all is indicative of the fact that I am
currently procrastinating!)
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