By James Wilson
Amid all the problems that currently split our
republic and our people down the middle, the US Patent Office has unerringly
struck at the biggest of them all – the persistence of the Washington Redskins
Football Team in retaining the name by which they have been known for more than
eighty years -- NOT. The Patent Office
bowed to politically correct pressure from lobbying groups, the US Senate
Majority Leader, and the President himself and declared that the team name is
racially disparaging and therefore illegal.
They revoked the trademark status of the name, and in so doing they have
joined the long line of government entities intent on re-making our nation into
one governed by the whims of men and not laws.
The
patent office justified its decision with reference to an obscure section of
its mandate that permits denial of trademark status from the get-go if it can
be demonstrated the mark is offensive or disparaging to a definable group
within our culture – but only from the get-go.
In other words, if the Redskins name was deemed offensive to Native
Americans in 1933, when the trademark was first sought and granted, the Patent
Office would have had grounds for denying the petition. But the present controversy over the name
began in the early 1990s, and no one has offered evidence of any objection to
the trademark at the time it was granted.
So far as I can tell, there is nothing in the law governing the
patenting and trademarking process that permits a do-over sixty to eighty years
after the fact. But then there is
nothing new in this administration going lawless.
When
a similar action was brought before the feds in the nineties they revoked the
trademark at that time also. It was
overturned on appeal because the petitioners offered no documentation on the
impact of the alleged “discrimination” on the injured parties. The same deficiencies are blatantly evident
in the present action, but that does not exhaust the issues left unaddressed by
a longshot.
There
was no outcry at the time over the disparaging impact of the name; there has
been no substantial wave of protest even at this time. The action in question was brought by five
members of the Oneida Nation. If an
entire class of people were injured it would make sense to bring a class
action; the petitioners evidently could not find enough offended Native
Americans to make even a pass at establishing a class. The most recent polling to my knowledge was
done in 2004 and ninety per cent of Native Americans polled said they had
suffered no harm. (I get my information
from the Washington Post – hardly a right wing newspaper – and an editorial in
that paper written in June by Jonathan Turley.)
The only people who seem to have their knickers in a knot are the white
liberals – inside and outside government – who are grimly determined to make
their life business minding that of others.
Don’t
get me wrong. If I believed for one
moment that a substantial number of Native Americans were actually upset about
the Redskins I would be backing their play with all the strength and gifting I
have. But I would be advocating for
private citizens to pressure – through boycotts and such – the team to do the
right thing. I would not ask government
to trample the team’s free speech right.
Agencies acting outside the laws that justify their being only make a
bad situation worse. And God knows we
have bigger fish to fry – whether in terms of Native American issues or
education or health care or the destruction of American credibility worldwide –
than a trumped up spat over a name.
There is no
excuse for the damage – genocide is the appropriate word – done to Native peoples
through massacre, removal from their lands, infliction of infectious diseases,
and the destruction of their food supply and habitat – and much of it is still
denied throughout our culture. But if we
want to address the serious issues facing this portion of our ppopulace we
might start with the forty-nine per cent of Native young people who do not
graduate high school. We might even ask
the Obama Administration why it prevents nations like the Crows of Montana from
developing their energy and mineral resources – both rich and available – on
their sovereign and guaranteed-by-treaty reservation lands.
Jesus – the only unblemished bringer of
justice in history – calls Lazarus to emerge from his tomb in John 11. He does not stand around assessing blame for
Lazarus’ death; he calls the man – and all mankind – to accept abundant life
going forward.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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