The Inuit have a long tradition of blubbering in front of the camera...
Posted on 11/05/2007 7:41:19 PM PST by Graybeard58
WASHINGTON — Charlee Lockwood has never heard of Rush Limbaugh or listened to his radio program, and perhaps it's just as well.
On Monday, the talk radio king told listeners that Democrats were exploiting the 18-year-old Yupik Eskimo, and that her emotional testimony that day in front of a U.S. House committee on global warming made him "really want to puke. I just want to throw up."
"It's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone," Limbaugh told listeners of the 600 stations nationwide that carry his show.
Lockwood didn't let Limbaugh's comments faze her. Her upbringing in the community of St. Michael included learning "about respect and treating people the way you want to be treated," Lockwood said, during a brief interview just before she got on a plane to return to her village on Alaska's west coast.
And she had plenty of people willing to defend her.
"For Rush Limbaugh to make fun of young people coming in and trying to be a part of the political process, it really shows a disdain for political discourse and for the role of young people in that political discourse," said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for the chairman of the committee, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Limbaugh's attack on the teenager was "outrageous and grotesque," said Deborah Williams, an Anchorage environmentalist who accompanied Lockwood on the teen's first trip to the nation's capital in 2005. It's one thing to take aim at a public figure, Williams said, but it's quite another to attack someone young and eager to participate in the democratic process.
"I know Charlee really quite well and she is her own person," Williams said. "She got involved in this because she feels a big moral commitment to protect her community. She is passionate about this issue, and she has so much invested in this issue."
Lockwood was among 5,000 teens and young adults who descended on Washington Monday in what may have been the biggest lobbying day ever on energy and climate issues. Ten other young people from Alaska attended the event, through Alaska Youth for Environmental Action.
Organizers described the Washington gathering, known as Power Shift 2007, as "the first national youth summit to solve the climate crisis."
Lockwood, who hopes to study to be a health aide in rural Alaska, has already become something of a veteran environmental activist. She traveled to Washington two years ago to deliver 5,000 signatures from fellow Alaska high school students who sought to draw attention to the effects of global warming in the state.
On Monday, she and other students met with a staffer in Alaska Rep. Don Young's office, and with both of Alaska's senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens.
Stevens hadn't listened to the Limbaugh program Monday afternoon, although an aide burned a CD for him to listen to later at home. The senator had no comment on the program, said Aaron Saunders, a spokesman for Stevens.
The young people from Alaska spent about an hour Monday engaged in a "lively and frank conservation about climate change and global warming" with Stevens, Saunders said.
The senator and the students weren't in total agreement, Saunders said. Stevens has repeatedly questioned the causes of global warming, but acknowledges that climate change has had a disastrous effect on the state's remote villages. Last month, Stevens accompanied the chairwoman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to Shishmaref to survey the damage from coastal erosion.
On Monday, Lockwood offered an eloquent description of the effects of global warming on her own village of St. Michael. Moose once walked by the village; now, they've migrated farther north and are rarely seen. There are fewer fish each year at the family's summer fish camp, Lockwood said, and their favorite berry-picking spots aren't producing as much fruit anymore.
"Our traditional ways of life will die like the food we grew up eating, our hunters will have to travel farther to keep food in their homes," she warned in testimony submitted to the committee. "Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them to."
AGW™ ping
You’ve nailed it.
However, she is obviously inserting herself into the public eye by her actions and therefore perfectly open to criticism from those that disagree with her.
The reality is that young people are blessed in this great nation to have a voice in the political process but by no means do they reserve favored status just because of their age. I find her perspective interesting but feel it adds little to the overall debate. She, like anyone else, must work over time to establish her credentials in order for her opinion to be given more weight. This is just more of the same "impeachable victim" tactic used regularly by both sides of the aisle.
I saw a news special on that.
Its quite amazing and alarming how the ocean is taking the land.
The villagers love big government and the subsidies they get. Crap, it sucks living out there, everything costs an arm & a leg, why not beg for government money, huh?
Is this the thing that sounded like a wailing banshee? I thought he was playing something off Art Bell’s Halloween Special.
As usual, they twisted what Rush said into their own perverted talking points:
On Monday, the talk radio king told listeners that Democrats were exploiting the 18-year-old Yupik Eskimo
The democrats are such cowards and sissies that they cannot own up to the fact that they are putting this kid up for ridicule by using her for their own purposes.
They are using her, and when she is used up they will discard her.
Limbaugh's attack on the teenager was "outrageous and grotesque," said Deborah Williams
Another dim-wit(less) proving that it is the Democrats that are "outrageous and grotesque" to use this kid in this way.
Colmes should jump on this one...
Aren’t Eskimos traditionally nomadic anyway?
The Democrats trot out whoever fits their agenda in appealing to the un-informed that the "crisis" is caused by man; and that we are all guilty, and taxes MUST be raised to fund more beauracracy to pay off lobbyists and special interests.....FOLLOW THE MONEY.
The Inuit have a long tradition of blubbering in front of the camera...
Somehow, I just don’t buy that. Liberals aren’t honest.
Ohh, that’s good! :-)
BTW, any pics of the lil darling ? I want to see if she’s an Eskimo hottie or an Eskimo fatty. ;-)
These crying jags are getting old
Dingy wouldn't dare.
“Moose once walked by the village; now, they’ve migrated farther north and are rarely seen.”
Hmmmm...
I saw plenty of moose around Yellowstone this summer, and it was in the 90’s while there.
I have also seen them in North Dakota.
He was attacking the shameless exploitation...
I say to Rush...You are spot on target...now fire for effect!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.