Reading the responses to Ralph's original post I see a lot of mutual misunderstanding and not a whole lot of charitible readings. What Ralph was saying is that there exist a lot of people who are very much isolated from the watersports community, whether for reasons of geography, community, perceived social circle or what have you. Ralph is just talking about reaching out to these people and letting them know that there are no social barriers to joining us. I'm sure a lot of people look out on the crowds of kayakers on the Hudson and feel the way I do looking at a neighborhood pickup basketball game. They're not like me; I don't know if I'd be welcome there. Ralph is just talking about reaching out and saying come on, you're all welcome. -- mike --------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Edelman mje_at_spamcop.net http://www.foldingkayaks.org (nomadics) http://www.findascope.com (choosing a telescope) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
<< I'm sure a lot of people look out on the crowds of kayakers on the Hudson and feel the way I do looking at a neighborhood pickup basketball game. They're not like me; I don't know if I'd be welcome there. Ralph is just talking about reaching out and saying come on, you're all welcome. -- mike >> Well said. At the same time I can understand some peoples desire to be spared the well-meant intentions of the majority race. Much damage has been done in the name of virtue by the majority population. Witness the suffering of indigenous peoples in America (North and South), Australia, South Africa etc. After a recent paddle, I walked over to a minority couple that seemed fascinated with our foolishness (post trip rolling practice). They were full of questions, very articulate and a little surprised at the lack of elitism they had somehow associated with the sport. We here, all share a great passion for kayaking, a passion for me that grows in the sharing. I do not understand the reasoning behind all the demographics of paddling. Nor do I care. I do not feel guilty about the sins of someone else's forefathers. I love to paddle and I love to share my love of paddling with other people. If some of those people happen to have a different ethnic background then my own, I'm not sure that has such great meaning. But I will continue to share my love of the sport with anyone that shows interest. Jed (in nonracially diverse New Hampshire) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> Ralph >is just talking about reaching out and saying come on, you're all >welcome. Well, yes. I think (hope) we all agree -- race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, hair color (or absence of hair, thank you), and shoe size are all irrelevant, and we're all one on the water. But there was also this incipient "debate" about the underlying causes etc. Endless debates about why certain groups of people don't seem to appear in certain sports. . . . well, they are a waste of time, IMO. Every so often the issue comes up in sailing circles, as well, and there is always a huge fight that develops. The fight is never over the question of whether minorities *should* be welcome, or included, or encouraged in the sport. The fight is always over how it came to be that they don't seem to *be* in the sport. There are just too many social theories, too many truths, too many ugly facts, too much speculation. . . it's just too big an issue to think that we can tackle it without disagreement, even emotional disagreement. . . which is not worth it, given what we can accomplish by such "debate" (very little). And it really doesn't much matter. It's not up to us to come up with the final correct analysis of "the race issue" in the US. It's simply up to us to welcome all comers into the sport. IMO, that should be about all we can hope to do. My suggestion is to drop this issue now, not because it's "taboo", but because it's just likely to lead to hurt feelings and disagreement where there need not be any. Mark *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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