Awaiting the outrage

Date: 10/2/2012

I write to comment on the Sept. 20 senate debate between Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren. For 53 years I have enjoyed a range and mix of careers in the U.S. Army, human services, higher education, K-12 education, primary health care, and private business, meeting people from just about every culture in the world.

Over the years I have came to believe in a collective consciousness which reside in Americans, the American Creed, a sense of dignity and fair play for all which reside in our hearts and our minds. Every day I continue to await the outrage from the media and everyday citizens about U. S. Senator Scott Ryan's attack on Elizabeth Warren's ancestry. After stating that Ms. Warren "checked the box" indicating Native American Ancestry, he then stated, "As you can see she is not." Ms. Warren's employers have stated that her ancestry had not bearing on her hiring.

I ask any reasonable and prudent man or woman "how does a Native American look?" Is it the ones depicted in cowboy movies, those depicted in comic books? Is it time to have a national conversation?

What makes Scott Brown an expert on how a person with Native American ancestry look: is it Chuck Norris? Will Rogers? Burt Reynolds? James Earl Jones? or your grandfather or grandmother?

Some of those whooping it up mocking Ms. Warren at a recent rally may unknowingly have Native American blood in their veins. When foreigners came to these shores, whether from Europe, Asia, Africa, or any other continent, they found a people steeped in spirituality with a profound respect for nature and in harmony with their environment who taught them to survive the elements, how to plant, hunt, fish, and be one with nature.

Intermarriage over the ages created a population where few were, and are pure in any "one" cultural ancestry and heritage. Therefore, when we sit back and tolerate the mocking of Elizabeth Warren's ancestry we are show our own ignorance and mock ourselves, our parents.

The brilliant Irish philosopher, and father of conservatism, Edmund Burke, once said, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

For the past three and one-half years we have endured a steady stream on hateful lies, and racist rhetoric against President Obama, now our own United States senator is revving up the haters against a good and decent woman whose only sins are trying to help middle class consumers and questioning the senator's voting record.

Meanwhile, I continue to await the outrage for the outrageous bias and ignorance demonstrated by our sitting United States senator.

Fred Allen Swan

Springfield