Paul Watson has more compassion, more bravery and more intelligence than you.
What have you done to save the Great Whales? What have you done at all with your life?
You are taking up space that is better used by beings of compassion and intelligence.
Go away.
zJ | 12.28.09 - 12:34 am | #
|
|  Unfortunately these comments are doomed to disappear in two days, the reason being that Haloscan is now charging and I plan on reverting to the comment section offered by Blogger.
No doubt in my mind Paul is a brave dude. Compassionate, that is less measurable in this sense. Compassion is not a measurable attribute. And as far as your last comment, have you read anything else that I have written on this blog? What do you think of it if you have? My points were and are just what I stated in these posts.
It is seriously questionable Paul Watson was at Wounded Knee is '73. Wallace claimed he didn't remember Paul, did not name anyone during that siege, nor would he have given him the name already belonging to Frank Clearwater. No one that was actually there remembers Paul Watson. There is regular talk about some mysterious photos showing him there but no one will post them on the internet for the rest of us to see. We are just supposed to accept out of hand that these photos exist, that it is actually Paul Watson in them, and that it was of Wounded Knee in '73.
Eugene Johnson | Homepage | 12.28.09 - 3:41 pm | #
|
| Paul used "Binky" Thompson, IMO, as a way to pit Indian against Indian. A wonderful tool used from the good old days to the present to keep Indians fighting amongst themselves for the gain of a third party. It is done great and small. My wife and I have seen this type of behavior even amongst many local activists.
Paul also allied himself with some racist anti-environmental congressfolk at the time because he beleived the "enemy of his enemy is his friend." Slade Gorton and Jack Metcalf were there names. These folks openly expressed a dislike for Indians throughout their careers. Gorton made his fortune from the Gorton fisheries who purchased their fish from industrial trawlers out of Norway. Industrial trawlers lay waste to the ocean floor and thus, the environment of the whales I would assume, wouldn't you?
Paul did not go to the Makah in a peaceful manner. Like the U.S. government, he was there to FORCE his personal ideals upon a people because...well...isn't it obvious? If someone disagreed with you and you wanted them to see how you see things, wouldn't you have a talk with them? Wouldn't you open up a line of communication? Wouldn't you try to see things from their perspective? If not, would you try to force your own personal beliefs upon another or another group? What would you call that? Being superior? Arrogance? Warlike? Destructive?
Do you truly believe coming here and telling me Paul has more compassion than me changes the facts that he allied himself with powerful racist anti-environmentalists to further his attack on the Makah? That he used "Binky" as a tool for said gain like he used Slade and Jack? That he made some serious racist comments like "we've become the Indians and the Indians have become the cavalry."
In order to force his personal beliefs and opinions upon the Makah, he also did his best to disrupt ceremonies and celebrations that the Makah use. Tell me, if I came to you and whatever group/s you may belong to and try to forcefully impose my beliefs upon you, what would you think of me? What would you think of the folks that follow me?
Eugene Johnson | Homepage | 12.28.09 - 3:57 pm | #
|
| And as stated, what about the campaign of mis-information? What would you think if, say, I came to you and your organization and said that you are a bunch of meat eating capitalists. Then, even though you may or may not be either, started a campaign which is easily refutable?
The Makah have a treaty right to hunt whales. Treaties are the supreme law of the land according to the constitution, which means the Makah have a legal right to hunt whales and the U.S. and Paul and his buddies have no legal right to stop them. Even in the light of these facts, Paul and his buds continually informed the public without any substantiation that the Makah whale hunt was ilelgal.
The Makah, as stated got their quota from the indigenous Russian quota, a total of 120, but were held to 20 a year for five years. In that five years, how many whales did the Makah kill? One. Yet, Paul and his buds continually stated that since the Makah were going to whale again that they were going to hunt whales into extinction. Who was it that hunted whales into extinction? Was it the Makah whaling that depleted the whales to near extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Who was it that did that?
Eugene Johnson | Homepage | 12.28.09 - 4:04 pm | #
|
| I will probably always hate Paul. He has not truly come forward to discuss his alleged Wounded Knee II experience with any WKII vets. He has never come forward to any WKII vets to discuss the issue around his naming. He has never discussed with his own community openly why he allied with two of the most racist and anti-environmental congress types at the time. He has never discussed openly tokenizing "Binky" in order to do the age old method of getting Indian to fight amongst Indian (didn't work, BTW).
And, as with all...what do they call them...cult of personality?...folk will always hold on high Paul Watson as a great super hero without question as to any of these things. I basically have a hard time stopping myself even though I know issues such as the truth, racism, allying with racist and anti-evironmentalists, tokenizing Indians for you own gain, etc., will never stop. And folk like you will never question Paul. We all need our own personal Jesus so we don't have to take up our own responsibility. Someone else is doing it for us.
Also, never heard Paul speak out against industrial trawling. Has he? I don't know. I haven't listened to all the speeches he's made throughout his life, but those I have heard, until that event at e-law, he always talked about how the whale was killed and looked him in the eye and asked him to be the savior of all whales. No one else. I question that. No doubt he saw the whale, but he is not the whales personal savior. If he was, why'd he ally with Slade and Jack? Why doesn't he sit with WKII vets and stir their memories? Why doesn't he post those photos? Why doesn't he drag members of his crew along to tell their stories and experiences? His crew members are allgedly in it to save the whales, too. Why aren't their stories as important as his?
It is not just me whose motives you should question. It is everyone's, including Paul's. And what have his methods brought? Have the Japanese stopped whaling? Has anyone stopped whaling because of Paul? Has the environment gotten better because of Paul? What else does Paul do besides lecture and chase whalers to save the whales because it isn't just the whalers killing them? You do know that, don't you? Makes a damned good television show, though, doesn't it? How'd you like the way he was profiled then turns his face to the camera to record his great and personal glory?
Eugene Johnson | Homepage | 12.28.09 - 4:16 pm | #
|
|  Eugene, what is the deal with Indymedia?
vi | 12.28.09 - 9:00 pm | #
|
| Shusli corrected me and informed me that Indy Media did not censor her. They were having technical difficulties and a comment she made didn't show up for two days.
Me, on the other hand, have been rather inflammatory toward some of their great unquestioned heroes, in fact I believe it was Paul Watson. I pretty much said the same thing, but in rather colorful speech. I get a little tired of non-Indian types using Indians for their own gain. Happens all the time, great and small. Folk lie or take the little bits they want for their own. Indy Media folk told me repeatedly they were not censoring me and that they do not censor. I think what the fella called it, in fact, was "enhanced moderation" in order to keep right wing folk off of the forum.
Since then, however, Shusli and I have talked with several other folk who claim they have been censored as well by Indy Media.
Eugene Johnson | Homepage | 12.29.09 - 4:27 am | # |
|