City of Boston to Lift American Indian Ban

I don't quite know what to say about this


BOSTON - The Massachusetts Legislature on Thursday repealed a 330-year-old law that barred American Indians from entering Boston and has long irked area tribes — even though it hasn't been enforced.

Both the House and the Senate voted to strike down the 1675 law passed during King Philip's War between colonists and area Indians, and that has remained on the books ever since.

Activists and Indian groups have been trying for years to scuttle the law. Boston Mayor Tom Menino filed a petition last fall to dump it, and the city council passed it. But the legislature didn't act until this week, when a committee swiftly approved a repeal bill on Monday and sent it on to the Legislature for a vote.

The bill must still be signed by Gov. Mitt Romney. A Romney spokeswoman said he intends to.

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050520/ap_on_re_us/no_indians_allowed_1

That's all it takes to do the right thing. The possible loss of a few million got their attention.

Hey, I may live in a red state but at least indians are welcome here. Hell, they own about a quarter of the place. :-)

Idjuts!

This is not a city law, it is a state law.

See discussion in the Massachusetts forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x4568

that requires all men to carry blunderbusses to church.

the longbow on Sundays officially. You can also be (officially) hung for defacing coins, as they have the Queens head on them.

If a coin is of precious metal the only way to assure it has not been shaved for weight is by stamping it with a detailed design. Sir Isaac Newton invented the "reeding" on the edges of most coins today to solve a lingering aspect of the same problem.

To me it makes more sense to hang thieves than to jail people for smoking pot. We live with a ridiculous surplus today, but in former times stealing was not much different from murder. Peasants would die after wars, not in them, because armies passing through would eat all their stores of food.

invariably was. The rich stealing from the poor would have gone unpunished as it was lawful (feudalism), however "theft" of a deer or rabbit from the Lords estate resulted often in death.

Not much sense or morality in the killing there. And "stealing" a rabbit hardly equates to murder.

Law in medieval times was there to protect property and God. Property = ruling class God = ruling church

But rather that the law never actually makes sense except relative to itself. The law is a schizophrenic maniac rapist murderer in any century, on any continent.

writing. :eyes:

I seriously don't know if that is the case here, but ever since I read about it, I've been watching the print headlines.

in every city, town and state in the US. We've all heard about some of them involving the horse and buggy days. Might be a fun thing to investigate when I hove nothing better to do.

http://www.dumblaws.com/

it is often easier for states/municipalities to just stop enforcing many of the laws than it is to repeal them . . . so there they sit

You wouldn't believe the laws that are actually on the books, especially in New England, where laws from the colonial days have carried over. In Massachusetts alone, there are laws against using bullets as currency, having a gorilla in the back seat of a car, going to bed without bathing, and many, many, many more.

I just think it's rather sad that a law like this would stay on the books until 2005.

Especially in a progressive state like Massachusetts.

Just pointing out that stupid laws tend to just get swept under the rug and forgotten about.
For a fun time, check out www.dumblaws.com :)

Now consider that they will apply to build a casino in the middle of the commons and soon buy back all the open countryside that is for sale along with all the best value business properties. Just recall that they took better care of this country for thousands of years before a "white" came here or there wouldn't even be a few acres of wilderness left!

Wait; I'm getting confused.

i know the american indians have a lot of real issues with american history and society and their place in it (past and present), but this seems like a silly thing to be upset about. its even funnier that it took talk of lost revenue to get it done.

What, do they think Massachusetts is Israel and Boston is Jerusalem or something?

Now it would be nice if they found Metacom's head and gave it a decent burial. Supposedly it was kept, pickled, in a jar.

The Pequot War and King Philip's War are New England's gross atrocities before history.