Dan's Papers -February 27, 2009

I am writing a response to your 11/7/08 article, "A Hope for America and What I Learned from Big Brother." I just witnessed the afternoon coverage on CNN of President Barack Obama's signing of the Stimulus Package out in Denver. In a short few weeks, Obama orchestrated and ushered in this economic plan, not without a great deal of obstruction. We don't know if this will turn the tide, but any positive action is preferable to the lack of action that we have witnessed on the part of the previous president.

Your November article referred to Janis Joplin's song, "Piece of My Heart," which has always been a poignant favorite of mine. You reminded us of the turbulent times of the 1960s and the improbability of the election of an African-American as President of the United States in the 2008 Election.

Your tone in the article exuded love, joy, hopefulness, anticipation and strong deep feelings about this turning point in American history. I clipped it out and kept it because your writing set off a spark in my heart as well.

Keep wearing your feelings on your sleeve, and sharing those feelings with your readership. Thanks you so much for writing and printing that glorious piece.

You know you got it, if it makes you feel good. - S.G.

So this is Fashion Week, and I would like to make a statement.

My name is CL and I am CK's neighbor. I do not reside on Meadow Lane, but we are neighbors nonetheless. We are bay neighbors. Since I was a child, "Dragon Head" has always been in my view. I am Shinnecock and I live on the edge of the reservation directly across from CK.

Now you often write articles incorporating the history about my nation's interactions with the community over the past 400 years, but not often is such an intimate detail given. Housing on the reservation is dependent upon a families' income. Housing loans do not apply on reservations and grant funding for such housing programs at the state level are dwindling due to program and budget cuts. As a people, we do what we can and have been for thousands of years. I am only one voice that comes from many and this is my story.

I live in a 12' x 17' cabin with no running water. I have an outhouse. I have a water pump and a coal stove. Up until a year and a half ago I had no electricity running to the land. Living in this manner I have come to realize the simplicity of life that we often overlook. When I had no electricity I used a roaring generator on occasion. The noise would cover the crashing of the waves as they exited and entered the bay at night or the whippoorwill calls in the summer evenings. I would shut it off and use candles just so I could keep those moments.

I have lived through many winters looking out my sliding door towards Shinnecock Bay. Dragon's Head became a symbol to me of excess and loss - of the "other side." This has become our new cultural landscape. Only a few windows were lit in the months prior to and after the summer weeks. I would often imagine and estimate that my cabin would fit in the room behind one window.

I have never met my neighbor and I mean him no offense in sharing these thoughts, but upon hearing of the recent "slay" of "Dragon's Head" (as some articles have termed the demolishing of the home) I began to wonder why and how? I mean in these times of loss, why ask for more? Then again I have heard of the phrase, "if you can't beat them join them." So, instead of demolishing the home I propose donating it?

I haven't quite looked into it, but is there any financial equivalency involved in moving a structure to a property close by versus demolishing it and disposing of the remnants? If there is, then I propose that part of the property be moved to the reservation. I have always wanted to know what it would be like to live in a castle and I think the history of collecting that Henry Francis du Pont held on the property would be carried over quite nicely if an indigenous art center could be built in the interior. I hear there is enough square footage to afford such a proposal.

Think of it like killing two birds with one stone or maybe in this case one really huge dragon. CK would be rid of the beast, CL would try to tame it, and the community can still view and possibly understand the notion of excess, loss and one "simplistic" move. Now how's that for fashion?