Lenawee NAACP president offensive at special meeting

To the Editor,

 After reading your column and Mickey Alvarado's in the May 6th Herald, I felt I must respond.  What kind things you said about the Indians, NAACP, the Civil Rights Commission, and the Geigers.  WERE YOU TWO AT THAT MEETING?  I was.  And I didn't see any compassion for our superintendent who was verbally threatened and verbally attacked by Jeanette Henagan, as well as her yelling, sometimes screaming at our school board.  She was racist when she said to the superintendent "You need to CONTROL YOUR PEOPLE" and "You have NO CONTROL OVER YOUR PEOPLE.  Henagan was furious because some of the kids started leaving the gym. She was asked by the school board president to wait until the kids left before she continued.  She refused and started screaming trying to talk above the shuffling of feet as the kids left the gym. After all kids do have homework, it was getting late, and most of us have heard her same old speech, over and over again at the board meetings in the last 18 months. She started yelling "this is total disrespect, this was planned,” followed by her screeching about Mr. Pray "HAVING NO CONTROL OVER HIS PEOPLE,” and he "NEEDED TO CONTROL YOUR PEOPLE.”  She called us "SMALL MINDED" and "UNEDUCATED,” more bullying from her mouth. The other meetings I have been to she was always polite, and yes, saying the same old things, but she went out of control on this night and lost any respect I had for her.  Her words were racist!  And she is the head of the NAACP for Lenawee County?  Is this the way they act when they don't get their own way?  Bad enough she was disrespectful, she finished by threatening our school board yelling "This isn't over yet!  We'll be back again, and again, and again."  And by that I took it to mean they were going to protest our graduation proceedings again this year.  Can you imagine that your child has worked hard and is graduating from high school, only to drive up to the school and see these people carrying signs saying they are MURDERERS, RACIST, etc.  Would that not ruin your special day for you or your family?  No one was disrespectable at the Geigers' graduation.  But yet they feel the need to spoil the greatest day these kids have worked for.  

They are bullying our kids by going to away games to protest with their nasty signs, trying to harass the kids from Clinton who are there to play a sport.  Also before the big meeting, they were behind the school off of Kehoe Rd. smoking their peace pipes ON SCHOOL PROPERTY!  They know they can't smoke on school property because they were told they couldn't the week before by the police.  Doesn't sound very respectful to me.  And speaking of the police, who do you think called in all those policemen?  And guess who called in the news out of Detroit and Ohio...when  we ask the reporter and he said they got an e-mail from the Geigers.  Harassment?  I think so.

 One of the Geiger girls said "if something offends just ONE person, it should be changed"..........those 2 girls, their mother, and the following of Indians (?) and NAACP coming to our town to bully us OFFENDS ME!  So according to your words, you people need to leave town so as not to offend me.  MAJORITY RULES!  Those are two words these people refuse to understand.  Jeanette claims that in this case, MAJORITY DOESN'T RULE.”  So, if MAJORITY DOESN'T RULE why is Obama still in office?

 None of these people live in Clinton.  Cindy, the mother, tried to ram a lie down our throats saying that the girls live at the old Geiger house on US 12 outside of Clinton.  The house has been vacant for years and has been for sale for years.  The place is uninhabitable.  At one meeting a woman stood up and showed her Indian Card and asked to see all of theirs.  Only one boy from high school and this lady showed their cards proudly, and neither are offended by the word Redskins.  The word did NOT originate in America, but in Europe.  The Algonquins liked to take the bright red blood root and smear it all over their face and body.  Thus the Europeans called them Redskins.  This article from the Reader's Digest also says that the word Redskin "IN NO WAY MEANS SCALPING OR SKINNING INDIANS".

 For Mr. Alvarado, are you going to compromise when they come to Tecumseh and tell you your Indian signs offend them?  Are you going to take down all your Chief Tecumseh pictures?  How about the Indian ones around town, like at Indian Oaks.  They won't like that Indian picture, or the one on your gym floor.  As far as your "Native Americans are still surrounded by "the white man" (which I find offensive.  We can't say black man or red man, so why can you say white man?)  and told to just go away - where civil rights leaders are scolded by a school superintendent and NAACP representatives' voices tremble when speaking to a group that has already made up its mind against them,” WERE WE AT THE SAME MEETING?  Those people who come here never have shown anything stating they are real Indians;  the Geigers' relatives say they are NOT Indians; and the NAACP representatives' voices tremble when speaking......."  Did you not hear Jeanette screaming, and yelling at the board and screeching at the students who were leaving?  Trembling voices?  I think not!  It sounded more like she was trying to bully the kids into staying and bullying our school board to do things HER way.  Her statement "All of you came here with your typed statements ready to go.  This has not been respectful of the situation at all because it was planned......."  I have been to other board meetings and watched as she, and 3 or 4 Indians (?) got up and read off papers to the council.  I could see the papers from where I was sitting and they were all spaced the same, and had the same font, which leads me to believe that ONE person typed up these letters and passed them out to different people to read at the meeting.  

 In closing we will see how much laughing you are doing when you have to take down your Indian street signs, remove all your Indian signs from your school and McDonalds and the signs around town.  And if they don't come to your town, then they are discriminating against us if just our Indian offends them, but yours doesn't.  I hope you open your eyes and see what this whole thing is about.  It's NOT about Indians, the Geigers are NOT Indians, it's about two girls with nothing to do and a lonely mother looking for their 10 seconds of fame.  Time to get off the stage girls before this escalates farther than it has.  Let's see if you have any dignity and leave the graduates alone.  Let them have their day!
 

Joyce Cook
Proud to be a Clinton Redskin

Tecumseh Herald

 

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