Creative Writing Club

Well, I have many excuses for not writing. I have been very, very busy these past few weeks, what with Art Club, Yearbook, SAGL, driving, riding, training, and Creative Writing.
Speaking of Creative Writing, last night I had a poetry reading at the Confed Center. We all did very well. I look forward to being part of the group again next year!

The event ended at 9:00 pm, and I was planning on going straight home to go to bed, but my friend Al1 and Al2 invited me over to Al2's house to watch a movie. Well, I could not resist. Instead of going to bed early, I stayed up until 12:30. We didn't even end up watching the movie; we just sat around and talked for hours! That's how you know you have good friends: you can talk for hours about a variety of topics without getting bored. We don't need booze to have a good time, unlike the curmudgeons of my age group. Having a group of intelligent and zany minds is enough entertainment for me.
At any rate, Al1 told an awesome story. Here goes:
Al1's dad has a friend who has a son with high functioning Down Syndrome, enabling her to leave her son home alone while she goes to work during the day. On one particular day, she left for work as usual, leaving her son at home for the day. All was well until about two hours into her work day, when she received a somewhat panicked phone call from her son. "Mom! Mom! Mom!" "What's the matter, honey?" "There's a troll in the closet! A TROLL IN THE CLOSET!" Of course, she assumed that he was just doofing around as everyone is known to do on occasion. "Okay. I'll check it out when I come home, okay?"
A few hours later, she walked into her house, to find that the front hall closet had been barricaded by her writing desk, and her son was pushing against it to keep the closet door shut. The closet door was rattling and shaking, and her first reaction was to think 'Hmmm... That must be a big raccoon or something.' She convinced her son to pull the desk out of the way, and she carefully opened the door to find.... a midget in the closet! He was a Jehovah's Witness, and he had apparently been doing his rounds when he knocked on the door, and was pulled inside and stuffed into the front hall closet having been mistaken for a troll.

What a silly little person!

American Indians

The term "Native American" was originally introduced in the United States by academics in preference to the older term "Indian" to distinguish the indigenous peoples of the Americas from the people of India, and to avoid negative stereotypes supposedly associated with the term "Indian". Because of the acceptance of this newer term in academic circles, some academics believe that the term Indian should be considered outdated or offensive. However, many actual indigenous Americans prefer to be called American Indian. Also, some people point out that anyone born in the United States is a native of America, and that the academic who first promoted Native American confused the term native with indigenous. People from India who are citizens of the United States are called "Indian Americans" or "Asian Indians."

Criticisms of the term Native American come from diverse sources. Many American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, an American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed on the Indians by the government without consent. He has also argued that this use of the word Indian derives not from a confusion with India but from the Spanish expression "En Dio," meaning "in God". Some American Indians question the term Native American because they argue that it serves to ease the conscience of "white America"* with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. Both Indians and non-Indians argue that the term Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be capitalized in order to differentiate the intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin.

A 1995 US Census Bureau survey found that more Native Americans in the United States preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, Amerindian and Native American, and the terms are often used interchangeably. The traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Why classify people, and then worry about offending them? If only people would think before speaking.

Sources:

Jack Larkin (2003). "OSV Documents- Historical Background on People of Color in Rural New England in the Early 19th Century." Old Sturbridge Inc. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=2044. Retrieved 2010-3-21.

"I am an American Indian, Not a Native American!". Russell Means. http://www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/means.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.

"What's in a Name? Indians and Political Correctness." All Things Cherokee. http://www.allthingscherokee.com/atc_sub_culture_feat_events_070101.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.

"American Indian versus Native American." Infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmterms.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010.