Those of you who read the paper each week will have learned a number of things about me in recent weeks.
Prior to Christmas you learned that I am a Scrooge and after Christmas you learned that I was cheap.
Well today let me tell you about me being a traditionalist.
I love tradition, I think it is extremely important.
In fact, when I was younger I used to go Christmas shopping with my grandma every year, and when we were finished we would go out for dinner.
As a young child I convinced my grandma to go out to Burger King.
Then we got a McDonald’s and we started going to McDonald’s for dinner.
Once I got older my grandma thought she would be clever and try to subtly convince me to eat somewhere better.
My response, “we can’t grandma. This is tradition.”
She never forgot that.
So of course, you could understand my frustration with the recent news that the Cleveland Indians are removing Chief Wahoo from their logo.
Chief Wahoo has been the logo in some fashion for the Cleveland Indians since the 1940’s.
In fact, the reason the logo even came to pass is that the Plain Dealer newspaper based in Cleveland used a cartoon version of a Native American character as a stand-in for a picture of the Indians after an important win in 1932.
The Indians as a franchise have been around in their current iteration since 1914.
In fact, the name Indians was applied to the Cleveland baseball team in 1914 after then owner Charles Somers requested that they change the name of the Cleveland Naps, after the departure of Nap Lajoie.
The name Indians was selected as a reference to the nickname that was used for the Cleveland Spiders when Native American Louis Sockalexis played for the Spiders in the late 1800’s.
So both the logo and the name have meaning, and have significant history.
Neither were done, as far as I can see, with any malicious intent.
So why is it we need to play with that?
Is Indian an appropriate name to use now?
No, of course not.
But that shouldn’t mean that we need to erase history.
The Indians have a rich history, we need to respect that.
Besides, if we start playing with the Indians, then it will not be long before we do the same with the Atlanta Braves, Edmonton Eskimos, Washington Redskins, or any other “culturally inappropriate” team names.
And that is a can of worms I would not like to see opened.
Tradition is important.
Let’s not play with it.
