|
Safe Passing Update Newsletter (SPUN)
July 25, 1999 #1
______________________________________________________________________
Ok, so the first newsletter is a little late. Summer finally arrived here in Seattle and I had some important basking to catch up on.
SAFE PASSING
----------------------------------------
A new section has been added to Safe Passing: Picture of the Week. Each week a new picture will be presented with a short story describing the moment. We will have pictures from protest events, direct action, and hero profiles. If you have a picture and a good story to go with it, send it to mark@safepassing.org.
This week's picture is Lisa Distefano from Sea Shepherd behind enemy lines with their Zodiac and the Makah canoe "Hummingbird" in the background.
http://www.safepassing.org/pow/index.html
New documents from the U.S. Federal Register were added to the Government Documents section. Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary information, more propaganda from NMFS about the "subsistence" hunt, and Coast Guard regulations.
http://www.safepassing.org/govt/usfr.html
UPCOMING EVENTS
----------------------------------------
Ocean Protection Coalition is hosting its kick-off event on August 8th at Greenlake from 2 to 5 PM. More details about this new group will be in the next newsletter.
Makah Days are coming up at the end of August. Remember last year when Gary "Bats" Locke spent $800,000 to send the National Guard out to protect the Makah from all the protestors, and no protestors showed up? This year it's our turn. Mark your calendars for August 27th through the 29th. Details will be announced as they are finalized.
Every Saturday the Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales have a demonstration in Port Angeles to raise awareness and collect petition signatures. If you would like to help or want more information, they can be contacted at 360-452-6361 or 877-525-8336.
http://www.safepassing.org/pcpwinfo.html
NEWS
----------------------------------------
The Coast Guard has been holding Sea Shepherd's, SeDnA's, and Cheryl & Bret's boats for about 70 days now. Legally they can only hold them for 30 days. Instead of giving them back, they turned them over to the Attorney General to be used as "evidence". When our government wants something to happen you can yell "that's not legal" all you want and give them 10 reasons why, but it will fall on deaf ears. What chance do a few all-volunteer organizations and a schoolteacher have against the United States Attorney General?
On other news, the Safe Passing Corvette placed second at Seattle International Raceway on July 10th with a 12.758 sec. quarter-mile ET at 110.478 mph.
http://www.safepassing.org/pow/spvette1.jpg
http://www.safepassing.org/photos/rp_19990522_01.jpg
TRADITION
----------------------------------------
From "The Whaling Equipment of the Makah Indians" by T. T. Waterman, published June 1920:
Religious observances connected with whale-hunting.
Bathing. This is the most necessary part of the preparation for a hunt. The seeker after "power" goes early every morning to a freshwater lake or pond. Entering the water at dawn, he sits down until the skin is "soaked" well. Then he stands up and rubs himself with bunches of hemlock twigs, almost one span in length, beginning the operation on the left side of his body. When the needles are worn off of one bunch, and the bare twigs covered with blood, he wades ashore, takes a second bunch, and rubs his right side. He continues this until the four bunches which he has provided himself are all used up.
Imitating the whale. After rubbing, the candidate dives down, staying under as long as possible. Mention is made of blood bursting from a bather's ears from long submergence. He does this four times, and on emerging each time, he blows a mouthful of water toward the center of the lake, trying to make a sound resembling the blowing of the whale.
The canoe often launched at dawn, exactly when Wayne and Theron should have been performing this ritual. Wayne Johnson told the Seattle Times that they didn't need the whale for food. Plastic floats, steel harpoons, wetsuits, power tow and chase boats, back-flips off the whale, custom high-powered rifles, all show they aren't interested in tradition. So what is left? I believe Dave Sones, the Makah Fisheries Manager said it best in May 1995: "The tribe hopes in the future to do some commercial whaling. There are markets overseas for the meat and oil."
ACTION
----------------------------------------
What can you do?
- Write, email, call, and fax your elected officials and local newspapers. They have to be reminded that this issue has not gone away.
- Attend the events and demonstrations. If you are unable to attend, help out the various groups with donations. A list of organizations worthy of contributions can be found here:
http://www.safepassing.org/links.html
______________________________________________________________________
Safe Passing - http://www.safepassing.org
For questions, comments, and site contributions, email mark@safepassing.org
| 
