GIPPERGATE: Tribal leader to school namers: Reagan showed "outright contempt" for Native Americans

[Liberty Belle]

This school board tried to stack the deck by appointing an "independent" school naming committee that read like a who's who of Republican Party officials, including former Congressman Duncan Hunter and California GOP Party Chair Ron Nehring. But the board's clear intent to push for naming the new high school after Reagan ran into a fatal flaw when a local tribal leader went on a verbal warpath, revealing Reagan's dismal record on Native American issues. Exposure in a local news publication with an editor who's taken on GOP leaders before added fuel to the fire--and now my sources indicate that the GOP is looking for a face-saving way to back down. Since the GOP is on a systematic bender to name schools across America after Reagan, you may wish to see how "Gippergate" has been exposed in one local school district--and appears to be going down with flaming arrows.



http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/3351

May 19, 2010 (Alpine) – Short of smoke signals, Viejas Vice Chairman Robert “Cita” Welch couldn’t have delivered a stronger message to members of a committee appointed by the Grossmont Union High School Board to recommend names for a planned new high school in Alpine. Despite a “long and proud tradition” of working with the District, Viejas has "increasing concerns" over a proposal to name the school after Ronald Reagan, Welch said.



"Your actions WILL have an impact on our future relationship with the district," he told committee members, then added that former President Reagan “is NOT well-regarded in Indian Country. At best he didn’t really care too much about Native Americans. At worst—and in some well-documented cases—he showed outright contempt for Native Americans. This should matter to each of you."




Welch asked the committee to keep the Native American perspective in mind and to “SHOW US that this is not a rigged outcome, as so many believe” by being transparent in the naming process, creating opportunities for public input, and developing objective criteria known to the public, as well as ranking names recommended to the GUHSD board which will ultimately vote on a name.


Viejas has been a major financial supporter of district schools. The tribe is also the largest employer in Alpine--and many Viejas children would attend the new high school.

[Mopar151]

1. In my neck of the woods

(NH), it seems customary to name schools after local landmarks - which often have Native American names. I'm beginning to understand why......

[Liberty Belle]

3. The district's rule here is to name them after local geography, too...they want to waive the rule.

Personally I think they should choose a Native American name, but the best compromise will probably be simply Alpine H.S.

[Mopar151]

9. Tribal council already voted to back Alpine HS n/t

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[aquart]

4. San Diego Republicans. Sigh.

My sister has to put up with them.

[Liberty Belle]

6. They are a strange breed, indeed.

Corrupt and becoming fewer in numbers, thankfully - they are their own worst enemies.

[aquart]

11. They stole my sister's Obama sign.

She replaced it and put up another sign that said Thou Shalt Not Steal.

[Liberty Belle]

15. Good one!

[calimary]

5. I'd like to see a campaign started - to UNDO all the ronald reagan renaming that's

already gone on. Like for example, I'd like to see Washington National Airport restored, and I personally would like the Simi Valley Freeway back.

I think a push-back campaign is very much in order. reagan was NO saint. I still maintain that the only good thing about him at this point is the fact that he's dead. At long last.

[Liberty Belle]

7. Get your local tribes involved - local Dems here had no chance to stop this,

but money talks.

[Hekate]

8. Amen, sister.

At least we don't get those black helicopters flying overhead carrying His Highness to his roadless ranch in the mountains anymore.

Hekate

[calimary]

12. Yeah, no kidding!

I live on the Westside. That bastard was always wrecking the commute through here. HAD to come in on Marine One from LAX to Santa Monica Airport (a little community airport catering mainly to civil aviation). That was because most of the time the reagans stayed at the Century Plaza Hotel when they weren't going up to Santa Barbara. So streets all around the Santa Monica Airport would be blocked off for his majesty's motorcade all the way from Santa Monica to Century City. BIG-ASS commercial district with freeway on- and off-ramps that made for a ferocious amount of traffic on just even the average day without any reagan interruption. It was already dicey driving around there, and his need for passage just fucked everything up even worse. The 405 Freeway - HUGE freeway cutting through the busy Westside - ramps on and off there would be closed, cops everywhere, just MADNESS! And VERY frequently during rush-hour. Fucking bastard!

And he was ALWAYS coming out here. Again and again and again and again and again. They weren't living in Bel Air yet, so it was always the Century Plaza if they were in town. For extended vacations they'd go up to the ranch, but even then, they'd often stop for a couple of nights at the Century Plaza before heading up to Santa Barbara. That schmuck took more vacations than anybody I've ever seen or heard of - well, at least until george w bush - who basically took at least a full year's worth of his "terms" on vacation, once it was all added up. I was on the air at the time, and it really galled me, and while I was usually more meticulous about keeping my opinions out of it, I found myself many many many many times repeating the same phrase at the end of some news item about him - "... for YET ANOTHER California vacation."

HATED that bastard. I remember feeling such outrage at the time, watching what he was doing, watching while he systematically started killing the union movement, watching while his rat-bastard of an "Interior Secretary" was some born-again cretin who honestly believed that it didn't matter what you did to the Earth. Because "when the last tree is felled, Jesus will come back!" Swear to God he actually said that. :scared: reagan had this "Kitchen Cabinet" (an off-the-books, behind-closed-doors, private set of "advisors" - many of them based here in SoCal, all of them big-ass industrialists and business tycoons) who advised him in addition to the usual appointee suspects. One of them was a guy named justin dart. He had the typical reagan-gang rape-and-pillage attitude toward the environment. justin dart thought it was important to save about 100 acres of redwoods - "for the kids." Everything else in his mind was fair game.

justin dart's attitude drove me to develop one of my own. I think we should save about 100 of the justin dart types and put THEM in a nice tidy little sequestered zoo - "for the kids." Like he wanted to see done with our precious old-growth forests.

I absolutely and fiercely believe that the only good thing about ronald reagan is that he's dead. That's the only good thing I can say about that fucker. In many ways HE was and is our Worst President Ever - even more than dubya. He represents everything that's gone seriously wrong with America. He initiated it, aggressively nurtured it, and damn near sanctified it - really cemented our national image as "America the Money-grubber."

I HATE ronald reagan with a fiery passion. I will to the day I draw my last breath.

[Hekate]

14. Amen again. Bush the Lesser was so awful he made me almost forget how much I hated Reagan. Almost.

Politically and ideologically, Reagan was Dubya's real daddy.

Hekate

[Liberty Belle]

16. "If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all"

was another infamous Reagan quote, when he tried to open CA's redwoods up for logging.

[Sherman A1]

10. Precisely

This is an excellent idea and one worth pursuing. I would include the Navy's Aircraft Carrier as well in your list.

[bullwinkle428]

13. Ghost Reagan : "Well...I learned everything I know from cowboy & indian movies!!"

"Those indians always got what was coming to them in the end!!"

[Octafish]

17. And NAZIs, the Mafia and the KKK....

He should be on the back of the dime, all right.