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Transcribed letter to the editor
According to the Pensacola News Journal, Dec. 27 edition, Michael Steward reported that Gulf Breeze resident Linda Lindsey and members of the American Indians Rights Association (staged) a protest at the new store, Geronimo's Spirits, owned by Fred Simmons, located on Pensacola Beach.
If Ms. Lindsey and her come-along gang are dying to have a reason to get their names in the media and protest, I will suggest the following on Pensacola Beach. Is it white sand, is it sugar or is it cocaine?
A licensed liquor store is legal on Pensacola Beach.
Choosing a name for that liquor store is a true American way. That comes under the umbrella of the First Amendment Rights-freedom of speech. According to history, Geronimo consumed his share of alcohol. I pulled the next paragraph from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, written by Jerrold E. Levy, University of Arizona.
The "drunken Indian" has been a subject of continuing concern in the United States from the earliest contacts between Europeans and Indians down to the present day. Popular notions about the nature of alcohol and excessive drinking, however, have changed radically over the years.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was thought that the "savage" nature of Indians was expressed without inhibitions under the effects of alcohol. From the nineteenth century until the present, the idea that Indians are physiologically unable to handle to handle alcohol as well as white Americans has become increasingly popular and is indeed, a belief subscribed to by many Indians themselves.
On the other hand, most contemporary studies of American Indians attribute deviant behaviors such as alcohol abuse to social disorganizations and the stress of acculturation. A number of deprivations, including confinement to reservations and federal wardship, are cited as causes for many Indians to feel inadequate.
My suggestion to Fred Simmons, owner of Geronimo's Spirits. Don't change the name. Let them circle the wagon of Spirts -
they might have enough money to buy a few bottles. If you decide to change the name, then change it to Buffalo Nickel Spirits.
On one side of the 5-cent American coin is a picture of a Buffalo, on the flip side is a picture of an Indian chief looking into the butt of the buffalo.
NOAH H. BELEW
Gulf Breeze
This was taken from the Jan. issue of "Splash" a local paper magazine from Pensacola Beach. I and others are asking that the name Geronimos Spirits be change and that the picture of Geronimo be taken out of the jail cell where it now hangs used as the wine tasting room. The owner of the store feels that he is honoring Geronimo this way. One can see what we are dealing with just with the statements made via the letter to the editor.
Shattuck
If Ms. Lindsey and her come-along gang are dying to have a reason to get their names in the media and protest, I will suggest the following on Pensacola Beach. Is it white sand, is it sugar or is it cocaine?
A licensed liquor store is legal on Pensacola Beach.
Choosing a name for that liquor store is a true American way. That comes under the umbrella of the First Amendment Rights-freedom of speech. According to history, Geronimo consumed his share of alcohol. I pulled the next paragraph from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, written by Jerrold E. Levy, University of Arizona.
The "drunken Indian" has been a subject of continuing concern in the United States from the earliest contacts between Europeans and Indians down to the present day. Popular notions about the nature of alcohol and excessive drinking, however, have changed radically over the years.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was thought that the "savage" nature of Indians was expressed without inhibitions under the effects of alcohol. From the nineteenth century until the present, the idea that Indians are physiologically unable to handle to handle alcohol as well as white Americans has become increasingly popular and is indeed, a belief subscribed to by many Indians themselves.
On the other hand, most contemporary studies of American Indians attribute deviant behaviors such as alcohol abuse to social disorganizations and the stress of acculturation. A number of deprivations, including confinement to reservations and federal wardship, are cited as causes for many Indians to feel inadequate.
My suggestion to Fred Simmons, owner of Geronimo's Spirits. Don't change the name. Let them circle the wagon of Spirts -
they might have enough money to buy a few bottles. If you decide to change the name, then change it to Buffalo Nickel Spirits.
On one side of the 5-cent American coin is a picture of a Buffalo, on the flip side is a picture of an Indian chief looking into the butt of the buffalo.
NOAH H. BELEW
Gulf Breeze
This was taken from the Jan. issue of "Splash" a local paper magazine from Pensacola Beach. I and others are asking that the name Geronimos Spirits be change and that the picture of Geronimo be taken out of the jail cell where it now hangs used as the wine tasting room. The owner of the store feels that he is honoring Geronimo this way. One can see what we are dealing with just with the statements made via the letter to the editor.
Shattuck
