Posted on 12/21/2006 10:22:26 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Blacks object to cows roaming near tribute to former slave
By Olivia Munoz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 21, 2006
ALLENSWORTH – Basque immigrant Sam Etchegaray had two seemingly perfect swaths for two large dairies: 2,000 rural acres of dusty fields in the Central Valley where thousands of cows would be at home in the No. 1 milk-producing county in the nation.
The only problem is the pastures were next to a state park that pays tribute to a freed slave who founded the community, raising the ire of environmentalists and blacks who objected to the pollution and stench that would come with the cows.
As the decade-old project moved a step forward Tuesday with Tulare County supervisors tentatively approving permits to house up to 12,000 cows, opponents said the decision was an insult to the history and legacy of Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, and those who live nearby.
“I guess they're ready to put manure on top of us,” said Nettie Morrison, 72, a resident of Allensworth, an unincorporated community of about 120 families.
If the board makes its approval final March 20, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, which helped mobilize Allensworth residents, is likely to sue to stop the dairies, said center spokeswoman Caroline Farrell.
The opposition wasn't enough to sway supervisors in a county where big dairy drives the economy and the county seal shows a pair of bovines in front of crops along with the jagged outline of the nearby Sierra Nevada.
After several hearings on the subject, the board voted unanimously in support of the special permits Tuesday. Supervisors said they accepted the environmental impact report and didn't want to delay Etchegaray.
“Somehow the perception is there that agriculture and dairying is disrespectful to a people's culture,” said Connie Conway, the Tulare County supervisor who represents the area.
The humble state park contains a cluster of buildings – a restored schoolhouse, barbershop, church, library and houses of pioneers who wanted to create a black utopia in the early 1900s.
The original settlement was started in 1908 by Allen Allensworth, a former slave and Army chaplain, and others set on founding a town where blacks – little more than a half century out of slavery – would not be second-class citizens.
The colonel's project in self-reliance all but died by the 1960s after the water supply began to dry up and an important train discontinued making stops. By 1973, Allensworth no longer appeared on the map, but supporters and descendants of the founders worked to gain historic status.
Talk about thin-skinned!
It's my understanding that in countries like India, cows are worshipped as gods. Maybe these thinned skinned grievance groups should look at it from the point that this historical park is being graced by the presence of a herd of divine cows.
Makes you kind of wonder...which came first, the bovine or the slave?
They could always BUY the tracts...
"It's my understanding that in countries like India, cows are worshipped as gods."
Hindus revere the cow as a matriarch who gives nourishment and asks nothing in return. The admiration of cows is religious rather than nationalistic and it is not worship.
So now you have a new understanding. :)
lol
That's harsh...
How about just calling the herd "Kwanzaa Kows" and then everybody will be happy?
And it is also the livelihood of certain, perfectly respectable Hindu folks in India to usher herds of these cows to the border of neighboring Muslim countries, who purchase said cattle for more conventional useage.
It is tough to have a dairy for a next-door neighbor. Imagine the smell of cow poop--24/7.
You only smell it for the first half hour, After that you get used to it.
They don't have to herd them out? It's legal to slaughter cows inside of India and you are right that slaughterhouses are usually owned by Muslims. Member of the pariah caste and other non-Hindu religions also slaughter cows and do leatherwork inside of India. As well as lapsed and less traditional Hindus, I'm sure.
India actually has US$1.7 billion/year leather trade. It is certainly not the most popular trade in India, and your Hindu neighbors would be shocked to hear what you do for a living, but it's quite legal.
The blacks and the enviros can STFU unless they want to BUY the pastures themselves.
Hmmm...
I'll bet that Kwanzaa Kows sh-t don't stink...
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