But last winter, Robinson happened upon an advertisement from the American Indian College Fund that set her on a journey to expand her understanding of Native culture as well as the role of tribal colleges. Grabbed by the bold image of the “If I Stay on the Rez” ads and the campaign’s compelling statistics, she logged on to the College Fund’s Web site and made a $300 donation on the spot.
April 04, 2007
Indian ad inspires donation
‘On The Rez’Until recently, Robinson, a retired human resources professional who divides her time between Florida and Connecticut, admits that her knowledge of American Indian culture was derived from travels to places like Mesa Verde, Colo., and from Tony Hillerman novels.
But last winter, Robinson happened upon an advertisement from the American Indian College Fund that set her on a journey to expand her understanding of Native culture as well as the role of tribal colleges. Grabbed by the bold image of the “If I Stay on the Rez” ads and the campaign’s compelling statistics, she logged on to the College Fund’s Web site and made a $300 donation on the spot. Comment: Her Native knowledge came from travels and novels--i.e., the media.
But last winter, Robinson happened upon an advertisement from the American Indian College Fund that set her on a journey to expand her understanding of Native culture as well as the role of tribal colleges. Grabbed by the bold image of the “If I Stay on the Rez” ads and the campaign’s compelling statistics, she logged on to the College Fund’s Web site and made a $300 donation on the spot.
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8 comments:
That Rob Schmidt sure is a jealous
gay-guy! About Rez Dog Calendar:
Always someone trying to stop an
Indian's progress in his white world? Remember Indians were here first!
Two non sequiturs in a row...congratulations!
Jealous of what...the American Indian College Fund's success? Why would I be jealous of that?
FYI, I'm not gay. But you must be one of those idiots who thinks "gay" is a cutting insult.
Thanks for giving me a chance to plug my writeup of The Rez Dog Calendar: Role Models or Sex Objects? If you want to highlight any of my other pages, please do.
Meanwhile, do you have anything to say about this posting? Apparently not.
Writerfella here --
The posting implies that attendance at a tribal college is in any way equivalent to attending a mainstream college. But nothing is said anywhere about the level of accreditation that is attained by those same tribal colleges, or in fact if credits so earned are transferable in entirety to mainstream colleges. The devil always is in the details, all of which are lacking in what was written and then so presented.
Interesting that Robinson's traveling to Mesa Verde somehow can be taken by Rob Schmidt to represent a segment of the 'media'. How that would work totally is beyond writerfella. Unless Robinson is like Jim Carrey in that movie where the character's whole life was on TV without his knowledge. The ads in point of fact wish to establish that Native colleges are in exact competition with mainstream schools one-on-one. Otherwise, those schools would be without purpose or even students if Native young people decided to go elsewhere.
As an alternative, however, the opportunity at least is better than certain financial aid programs advertised in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Big Ten universities' advertising up to $20,000 in grant scholarships for Native students who decided to attend other-than-Big-10-schools. writerfella has the pamphlets that so state: don't come here, and we'll pay your way through any other college you would wish to attend.
Robin Scott Wilson, one of writerfella's first and most beloved writing teachers 'way back in 1968 at the Clarion College workshop in science fiction and fantasy, had become the head of the Big 10 advisory committee. Thus, with the pamphlet in hand, writerfella sought out Robin Scott Wilson to ask about the meaning of the scholarship offer. The man blanched when writerfella asked if it meant what seemed to be stated. "You're not going to write about this, are you, Russ?" he asked. "Of course, I am, Robin," writerfella replied. Whereupon, his admired writing teacher called security and had writerfella removed from the premises. That done, writerfella then notified all of the Native financial aid venues that the offer was a canard, and Native students stopped applying for such aid. Thereafter, the offer was withdrawn, and the matter was ended. Go anywhere else, and we'l0l pay your way, was what the offer said.
Rob Schmidt believes that Americans nowhere near are as prejudiced or biased or discriminatory as once they were. He is wrong...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
"Media" refers to the antecedent "novels," of course.
A scam that quickly disappeared 20-30 years ago isn't evidence of racism today. And it isn't nearly as bad as the killings and imprisonments that occurred a century ago.
Fortunately, I don't need your out-of-date anecdotes to note that racism and stereotyping persist. While you're sitting on your couch doing nothing, I'm documenting the ongoing problem in my Stereotype of the Month contest.
Writerfella here --
Fortunately for writerfella, his computer is in a well-equipped and well-accredited home office, and his couch is some 45 feet away. writerfella principally uses his time to conduct his own creative writing of short stories, novellas, screenplays,and teleplays. Whereas Rob Schmidt uses his time to flack writing efforts that he himself acknowledges have been less-than-of-superb-success and to attend paid-for conferences and meetings with the media. Behind writerfella is a shelf with an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, a Melies Prize, a Robby Award, a Newberry Medal, a Fantasy Film Federation Award, and a Palm d'Or from the International Television Film Festival of Monte Carlo. And below that is a three-foot shelf of works by Russell Bates, including newspapers, magazines, books, seven videotapes of movies in which he appeared plus five videos of his own teleplays, and resultant DVDs. writerfella might prefer to take to his couch and watch THE PRICE IS RIGHT, but he just doesn't have the time...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
POSTSCRIPTUM: Oh, and while writerfella was 'sitting on (his) couch' Friday afternoon, he received two almost-identical letters from the Writers Guild of America, west, informing him that the WGAw and some 60 movie/TV production companies/cable channels/TV networks, are being sued in class-action by more than 100 writers on grounds of long-standing age discrimination. The Guild letters apprised writerfella that the case finally was accepted for adjudication in Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles. Further, writerfella learned that the Court soon will subpoena writerfella's Guild employment records, along with the employment records of every other WGAw writer over the age of 40, for the litigants' use to prosecute and defend the lawsuits. And then the letters described the actions writerfella is allowed to take to object to such use of his records in order to protect what financial and personal information they may contain. Since writerfella long has been subjected to age, racial, and handicap discrimination by the movie/TV industry as is shown in such records, it became his decision not to object at all and even to seek status as an associate participant in the class-action. Should the case be decided in favor of the litigants, writerfella would share in the awards and/or settlements thereby decided and, in such event, class-action suits citing racial and handicap discrimination on the part of the movie/TV industry also would become feasible.
Amazing sometimes what merely 'sitting on (his) couch' can do for writerfella and his fellow older members of the WGAw...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writing science fiction about Indians doesn't necessarily do anything to thwart stereotypes. Neither does winning awards.
As far as I can tell, your biggest claim to fame continues to be your animated Star Trek episode. Most of your screenplays were optioned but not produced or appeared as B through Z-list movies.
My Eiteljorg appearance was paid for, but so is all your writing. While you're hacking for a paycheck, I'm doing this website because I believe in my cause. Readers can decide whose motives are purer.
I have 6-8 feet of the magazines my writing has appeared in, so I'm not impressed with your three feet. If size matters, mine is bigger.
In addition to the tens (millions?) of people who have read my 400+ articles, my comics and short stories, etc., this website is averaging 31,000 hits a day (as of March). That's almost a million hits a month or about 11 million hits a year. I've been doing this almost 10 years, so you do the math.
In short, I'll put my written output against yours any day. Moreover, my output and its popularity are increasing daily. And I'm 16-17 years younger than you. By the time we're both done, I'm confident my output will be greater than yours.
That doesn't say anything about the quality of the output, of course, or whether it has changed anyone's mind. But I often receive plaudits about my work. I'm satisfied that it's having the intended effect.
Even you must be spending 30-60 minutes a day reading and responding to my postings. Again, why are you spending so much time here if it's a waste of time? It does not compute.
Incidentally, since you keep boasting about your accomplishments, I feel free to offer a reality check. The viewers at TV.com have rated all the animated Trek episodes:
Star Trek: The Animated Series
I'd say they rightly picked "Yesteryear" and the "The Slaver Weapon" as the two best episodes. Here's how they rated all the episodes, including yours:
1 Yesteryear 9.26
2 The Slaver Weapon 8.38
3 Albatross 8.17
4 The Pirates of Orion 8.03
5 The Practical Joker 7.99
6 The Survivor 7.85
7 The Jihad 7.80
8 Beyond the Farthest Star 7.77
9 The Eye of the Beholder 7.70
10 More Tribbles, More Troubles 7.63
11 The Time Trap 7.62
12 The Counter-Clock Incident 7.56
13 The Terratin Incident 7.49
14 The Ambergris Element 7.49
15 One of Our Planets is Missing 7.33
16 The Infinite Vulcan 7.10
17 Once Upon a Planet 7.10
18 The Lorelei Signal 7.06
19 How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth? 7.06
20 Mudd's Passion 6.98
21 Bem 6.11
22 The Magicks of Megas-Tu 5.98
I'd say this ranking is pretty accurate. Does anyone want to disagree?
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