And crown thy good with brotherhood

By Phil Cauthon

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

It's Thanksgiving and, not to be a Debbie Downer on the holidays but... I can't help but think about the situation with the Haskell Wetlands. Perhaps you're all long sick and tired of this dead horse. But like I said, I can't help but think about it...

It's bad enough that the closest thing we have to observing Native Americans' contribution to our society is Thanksgiving, which doesn't exactly come right out and celebrate Native Americans—outside of the sentimental lessons of a grade school classroom, anyway.

It's particularly sad that on this Thanksgiving, we are again reminded—right here in Lawrence—of our continuing disdain for the importance of sacred lands and Native Americans' interests in general.

As was surely the case when lands were originally being stripped from Natives, Lawrence's decision to route the South Lawrence Trafficway directly through what Natives consider to be sacred grounds—the Haskell, or Baker, Wetlands—is ultimately an economic decision. It would cost, Commissioners say, an additional $19 million to route the SLT south of the wetlands. That would be an unacceptable 13% increase above the $166.9 million base cost for the new highway.

Of course, $19 million is no trivial amount. But to me it seems like a pittance for which to sell our soul—and to pave over the remains of our Native brother's buried family members.

It's unfathomable to think about some future generation paving over the East Lawrence cemetery or any other place where mostly white people are buried. Granted, there are no headstones (anymore, anyway) out in the wetlands, but that's not really the point. These lands are considered sacred by a group of people who should be, if anyone should be, given the benefit of the doubt.

Across the country, many sites of former American Indian boarding schools like Haskell have been turned into golf courses or the like. The first off-reservation boarding school, in Carlisle, Pa., is now a shopping mall.

Is convenience and a 13% savings on a highway really worth such a sacrifice?

Are we really going to let some jaded bean counter at KDOT decide the fate of a significant part of our culture and legacy as Americans?

Are we so cold and calloused to ultimately turn a deaf ear to this issue?

Call me sentimental, but Daniel Schorr's quoting of "America The Beautiful" on this story today seems fitting:

O beautiful for spacious skies, 
For amber waves of grain, 
For purple mountain majesties 
Above the fruited plain! 
America! America! 
God shed his grace on thee 
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

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Posted by Shelby (anonymous) on November 21, 2007 at 10:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, brotherhood.

This whole thing is pretty offensive....I'm sure we could find numerous instances in which $20 million or less was spent on something relatively superfluous.

Posted by Shelby (anonymous) on November 21, 2007 at 10:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)

($20 million or more)

Posted by DonQuipunch (anonymous) on November 22, 2007 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

>>>Is convenience and a 13% savings on a highway really worth such a sacrifice?<<<

Yes.

Build it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted by DOTDOT (anonymous) on November 22, 2007 at 1:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)

It's not over until it's over. I am curious to hear the arguments from the opposition. I grew up in Florida, which is one big wetland. Some of the damage is permanent (Miami), but there are an awful lot of roads through wetlands that did not 'kill' the wetlands.

I've been following this discussion since I moved to Lawrence, and can't get a straight story on the history of this project. So I don't know what to think, other than it is obvious to me that Lawrence needs a real bypass, not a two lane swamp tour.

As far as white man vs. Indians, well, what is there to say? Give all of Kansas back to the Indians, and maybe I'll start to see some meat in the argument.

And crown thy good with brotherhood

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