Native American elder Nathan Phillips, in his own words

Capt Gregory Prickett - That's the problem, isn't it? Who do we believe. News has always been biased. Even the masters of journalism, a few of whom were still writing when I was young, had their biases. However, they at least made an attempt to keep them out of the news. Bias was for the opinion pages. Virtually every town had at least two newspapers divided by their opinions. Cities even more. But all were fairly honest in their news reporting. Their greatest asset was brevity. You can't go too far off the rails if you stick to the bare facts. These days, what we laughingly call journalists have their eye on the prize. They want to be pundits or anchormen, celebrities. So they use their words to aggrandize themselves rather than the facts. Reminds me of the ad biz. As I worked my way towards Los Angeles, advertising got worse. The ads became so artistic that the message was lost. It didn't occur to me until I arrived here that advertising was just a stepping stone to theatrical productions. Well, that's the way it seems to be in journalism. That leaves you and I to argue over reality without the benefit of honest journalists plying their trade to help us understand the world we live in. You call it "spin". I call it "propaganda". And that's what let's loose the vigilantes...
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2019/01/21/brother-of-maga-hat-teen-says-family-and-business-is-being-violently-threatened-by-angry-liberal-mob-715962?utm_campaign=bizpac&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get+Response&utm_term=EMAIL

Capt Gregory Prickett - Actually the kids showed up to a pro-life rally wearing MAGA hats. Their rally finished up early and they went to see the Lincoln Memorial while they waited for their bus. The Native American Mr. Phillips has acknowledged the HE approached the boys, not the other way around. And that is born out by the same video tapes showing him "surrounded," if one only watches the initial minutes that were edit out.

Source NT Times, Jan 20, 2019.

There are varying accounts, as to whether or not Mr. Phillips was confronting the boys to tone down their reaction to the "Hebrew Israelites" that were shouting racial epithets at the boys and the Native Americans; or that he was placing his predominantly adult male group in a position to prevent the confrontation between the boys and the "Hebrew Israelites," from becoming physical.

"if the kids hadn't made a point to show up at an Indigenous Peoples March wearing hats that many Indians believe support a racist, white supremacist individual, and who then begin chanting, then the incident wouldn't have happened." So freedom of speech...?

Capt Gregory Prickett - He smiled, anyone EVER in the military seen someone getting their ass handed to them who couldn't stop smiling? Particulary young recruits in boot camp?

"Because let’s make no mistake: By virtue of wearing MAGA hats, those teens are demonstrating that they embrace racist ideology." *****Road Apples!*****

Longer versions of the video later emerged that showed Phillips approaching the students as members of a group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites shouted insults, some of them sexual in nature, at the students. Phillips said he was trying to get between the groups to defuse the tension. Source - Cincinnati Enquirer Published 10:37 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/sports/ncaafootball/05blackout.html
https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/10/20/17998582/purdue-ohio-state-game-schedule-abc-primetime
https://www.cleveland.com/osu/2017/10/ohio_state_calls_on_fans_to_we.html

What did young Mr. Sandmann say that was racist and misogynistic?

Finally fans scream at opposing players. Its part of the"home team advantage." Are you saying the players aren't strong enough to take it?

Capt Gregory Prickett - I have the ability to laugh at myself.

I am the son of a legal immigrant from Mexico. I miss the Frito Bandito and all of the social justice whiners who ran him off the TV, or are offended can kiss the Mexican half of my butt. I am also part Irish, and I believe that God created alcohol to stop us from taking over the world. Anyone who doesn't like that joke can kiss the Irish side of my butt.

And yes, I have had people actually hold my "heritage" against me. My paternal Grandfather was the most racist SOB I've ever met, or seen portrayed by Hollywood. I had no name with him, I was always "wetback number 3. I have an older brother and sister. My maternal grandmother told me that I was likely to end up the way most Irish men do, face down drowned in my own whiskey laden vomit. As adults when she served wine or beer with a meal, there was none for me and my brother. She told everyone we were "Irish and predisposed" to be alcoholics. My brother and I would then break into loud faux drunken drinking songs.

I don't think that sports mascots are insults, they are caricatures/icons that people choose to represent themselves, rally around, and cheer for. Those caricatures give them for a few hours a common bond. The Kansas City Chiefs, The Atlanta Braves, The Washington Redskins, Chief Wahoo, and the FSU Seminoles were not selected at mascots out of disrespect. They are rallying icons. I would be greatly honored if some football team put a caricature of me, on their helmets, essentially Elmer Fudd and a goat. And just for you Greg, I'd be bearing a gigantic cross that keeps ruining my life.

I don't know what was going through those kids heads and neither do you. A surprisingly large number of College students/graduates cannot tell you who we fought in WWII. Do you really think these high school kids know what a minstrel show or blackface is? Yet you want to put them in the stocks and hurl rotten produce at them (figuratively). In all the video I've seen of the event, it is't even a common gesture through the boys, it doesn't really get any traction.

I don't think that the Tomahawk chop is any more or less offensive than your very deliberate choice of the word "delusional" when you talk about religious faith. It is either a joke, or it is a deliberate attempt to offend. Most jokes have a butt. If someone is the butt of a joke, it depends on the spirit in which it is told; and whether or not the teller has correctly estimated his position to the audience. Since when have teenage boys had good judgment?

I would not hesitate to participate in a tomahawk chop and chant cheer at a Cleveland Indians game, but I wouldn't do it at an AIM protest. I go to Traverse City Beach Bum Games in Hawaiian Shirt, Shorts, flip flops and every time one of the Bums hits a homer we all sing "Wasted Away in Margaritaville" I haven't had a single Key West Floridian confront me yet.

I keep waiting for the Georgia Bulldogs to come up with a Bulldog fart cheer. Ever spent anytime around a Bulldog? Farts and Bulldog stories...everybody has at least one and some of them are true. That doesn't mean people hate Bulldogs if they fart at a Georgia Football game.