Respectfully, we'll call that team 'Washington' (Rampant PC in Lincoln, NE)

Lincoln Journal Star ^ | 1/26/03 | Kathleen Rutledge

[SoDak]

And, they spend the other half of their time trying to convince the people in question (in this case Native Americans) that they should be upset.

[RichInOC]

Oh, so many great taglines, so few that wouldn't get me suspended. Suffice it to say that if you like the name, just wait until you see the helmets.

[Argus]

When we're reporting on that team, we'll call it Washington.

What, and honor a rich, old, white, warmongering slaveholder who got himself "selected" President by undemocratic means? You gotta be kidding me!

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

dollars to doughnuts none of them have ever played sports and, thus, have never rallied together under one of the "offensive" monikers.

[Right Wing Professor]

First, their uncritical acceptance of the entymology of "redskins", without checking primary sources themselves, is suspect.

Agreed. The OED lists the first use of 'redskin' in 1699. While scalping went on before that - after all, the Indians themselves invented it - the first bounty, as far as I know, wasn't offered in English America until 1703, and the practice really didn't take off (so to speak) until the French and Indian War. The guy who first proposed the 'scalp' theory dates the word to 1800, which is way too late.

[MineralMan]

Well, considering that the University of Nebraska's teams are the "Cornhuskers," I can think of several alternative spellings of their team name. I'll leave it to your imaginations.

[clintonh8r]

Helmets....fo(u)rskins...a team that can rise to the occasion....stiff competition....hard to beat....swelling with team pride....

somebody else can take it from there.

[Argus]

call the team the fourskins

LOL, but you left out the gays, and that's homophobic and insensitive.

I don't even want to think about what that would do to Green Bay's team name.

[El Gato]

Vikings, Packers Cowboys...

Surely these must be insults to Nordic Peoples, meat processing industry workers, and Americans of every extraction who found themselves in the American Old West. My wife's family hails from Vik Norway, from whence the Vikings get their name, several relatives have worked in the meat packing industry and I've got a Cowboy hat, boots and buckle, so I guess I should be triply offended? NOT!

[Right Wing Professor]

A pcture is worth a thousand words..

[pgyanke]

> "Craig Kilbourn had a great comment about the post-game riots last night: After the game fans rioted in Oakland, setting fires, breaking windows and damaging buildings, causing over a million dollars in improvements."

I heard that one...and it was good. One correction for him and you... they weren't "fans." In fact, I'll bet most didn't watch the game other than to see when it was over so they could start rioting. They are the thugs, muggers and slime that cause trouble in any situation and only saw this event as a great excuse for mayhem and looting.

Other than that... spot on.

[monkey]

When we're reporting on that team, we'll call it Washington.

That's great. And we Washingtonians will continue to call you "place where airplanes dump their chemical toilets."

[berserker]

What is even better about the Washington Redskins is that you can get their shirts and stuff a lot cheaper than other teams, since they lost the trademark protection for their name.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

The one team you never hear any complaints about is Florida State - they pay the Seminole nation for the right to use their name. As El Rushbo always says, follow the bucks!

[JimVT]

Readers of this PC rag should be on the lookout for such racist expressions as "a chink in his armor"; "don't put that gook in your hair" and recipes with "sauerkraut."

[El Gato]

My Dad's high school teams, he made all city in BB, were known as the Havelock "Engineers", the kind that blew the whisle on the train! In those days I doubt there was an aboriginal American in the bunch, or at least darn few of them. Lots of Swedes though, at least on the Burlington. That was in the same city whose "Urinal and Star" now thinks that team names are chosen to "dis" some group or other. The school no longer exists, having been consolidated into Lincoln Northeast. I suppose they think that Lincol East's "Spartans" is offensive to those of Greek heritage?

[dirtboy]

This clown obviously does not know anything about that which he speaks.

Not only that, but the clown in question obviously isn't fit to be editor of a major paper, because she didn't verify this information with a second source, which in better days was a requirement for sound journalism.

[aculeus]

As long as we're on the subject:

"An Indian ... seized Henderson's daughter, 'sweet and pretty child of two, and beat her savagely over the head with a violin case, smashing her head horribly out of shape. Then he took her by her feet and dashed her brains out against the wheel of the wagon, spattering her mother with blood and brains. Another fiend took the nine-months-old boy, hacked off his limbs with a tomahawk, and threw pieces at the mother. Then they made a big fire and tossed featherbed, woman, and mangled children into the flames."

The Great Sioux Uprising, C.M. Oehler, Da Capo Press, 1997.

[Right Wing Professor]

I suppose they think that Lincol East's "Spartans" is offensive to those of Greek heritage?

My kids all went to East. At least it's better than the Trojans. Too many jokes about the Trojan protection breaking down, busting through the Trojan defense...definitely offensive to Americans who practice safe sex.

[gridlock]

Reminds me of an old joke news article from about the time that Washington's basketball team changed it's name.

WASHINGTON D.C. The Washington Bullets basketball team has announced that they are going to change their name because their image has become associated with urban violence. Henceforth they will be known simply as "The Bullets".