Moonhowlings

David Letterman has fully apologized to Sarah Palin and her daughters.  For the past several days, the country has been consumed with the ‘knocked up by A-Rod’ bad Letterman joke.  Did Sarah Palin fail to notice the snipes and tasteless jokes last fall?  Why is she so outraged now?  The jokes really weren’t any less crude and Letterman was hardly the most frequent offender.

At any rate, here it is–the long awaited Letterman apology:

“I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception,” he said. “And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault. . . . So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke.”

 

 

I suppose for the next few days the cable news shows and others who have been getting so much press off of this bad joke can now analyze the apology.  One has to question why, after all the jokes of questionable taste, did Sarah Palin chose now to protest? 

According to the Washington Post:

Through mid-March, Leno had made 15 jokes about the Palin daughter’s pregnancy, Stewart had told four on “The Daily Show,” and Letterman checked in with eight, according to an analysis of late-night humor by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University.

Perhaps there is more to this than just a mother bear defending her cubs.  What do contributors think.

Full Story: Washington Post, June 16. 2009

Three days into the Invasion of Iraq, in the wee hours before dawn, Lori Ann Piestewa (py-ESS-tuh-wah) knew something was wrong. The convoy had taken a wrong turn. They were not in the desert but just outside the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. An ambush ensued. Eleven soldiers were killed and 9 wounded. Several, including Lori’s best friend, Jessica Lynch, were taken POW. Lori Piestewa was one who was killed. She was not only the first woman killed in the Iraqi War, but she was the first Native American woman killed in the Iraqi War.

Lori, a Hopi Indian, was born and raised in Tuba City, AZ which is in the Navajo Nation. Like many young Native Americans, Lori had been in the JR ROTC program during high school and after graduation, married, had 2 children, divorced, moved back home and then joined the military.

On March 23, 2007, The Lady Warrior was honored by the renaming of Squaw Peak near Phoenix, to Piestewa Peak. To think it took the death of the brave young Native American woman to get rid of the term ‘squaw’ when referring to a landmark is unconscionable. The highway that passes near the mountain peak was also named in her honor—Piestewa Freeway.

There has been much discussion on this blog of political correctness and the use of certain terms. I often think we gag ourselves over political correctness. Then again, 2007—Squaw Peak—how inappropriate—how insulting to women—Native women. Why should someone have to die to have the crap stopped? Is political correctness just good manners?

I went to Tuba City fairly shortly after Lori’s death, as a silent pilgrimage to a brave woman. Tuba City is worn. Like many Native American towns, it is rife with poverty and unemployment. The townspeople stared at my traveling companion and me. We do not look Indian. I am certain they wondered why we were there. I didn’t bother them. I just wanted to pay my silent respects to the Native Lady Warrior. Ray Powell does it with more class:

To learn more

To learn even more

To donate:

Lori Piestewa Memorial Fund
Wells Fargo
2625 N. 4th St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86004