Donald Trump has a problem with women, and he is a bully, who enjoys giving people names he considers condescending. Yet, two women senators have taken this bully by the horns. They have been fighting right back.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired Lt. Colonel in the Army, was gravely injured when the Black Hawk she was piloting was shot down. She lost both legs and partial use of one arm, but she has some biting criticism for the president.
The senator calls him “Cadet Bone Spurs,” referring to the five deferments he took from the Vietnam War, while others fought and died.
Then, there is Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Trump calls her “Pocahontas,” which is a reference to her claiming her Native American heritage. She tweeted:
‘I’ve noticed that when my name comes up, @realDonaldTrump likes to talk about Pocahontas. So I figured, let’s talk about Pocahontas. Not the tale that’s been twisted for centuries – but the real Pocahontas, and her story of heroism. And bravery. And pain. @NCAI1944 #ECWS2018.’
She spoke at the National Conference of American Indians, the oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. Warren did not apologize for saying that she had Cherokee blood from her mother’s family. Instead she said:
‘My mother’s family was part Native American. And my daddy’s parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped. The story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one — not even the president of the United States — will ever take that part of me away.’
Warren continued:
‘Pocahontas – whose original name wasn’t even Pocahontas. In the fairy tale, Pocahontas and John Smith meet and fall in love. Except Smith was nearly 30, and Pocahontas was about 10 years old. Whatever happened between them, it was no love story.’
‘In the fairy tale, Pocahontas saves John Smith from execution at the hands of her father. Except that was probably made up too. In the fable, her baptism as “Rebecca” and her marriage to a Jamestown settler are held up to show the moral righteousness of colonization.’
‘In reality, the fable is used to bleach away the stain of genocide. As you know, Pocahontas’s real journey was far more remarkable — and far darker — than the myth admits.’
‘As a child, she played a significant role in mediating relations between the tribes ruled by her father and the early settlers at Jamestown. Those efforts helped establish early trade relations between the two peoples. Without her help, the English settlers might well have perished.’
‘But in her teens, Pocahontas was abducted, imprisoned, and held captive. Oral history of the Mattaponi tribe indicates that she was ripped away from her first husband and child and raped in captivity. Eventually she married another John — John Rolfe. Her marriage led to an uneasy harmony between Jamestown and the tribes, a period that some historians call the Peace of Pocahontas.’
‘But she was not around to enjoy it. John Rolfe paraded her around London to entertain the British and prop up financial investments in the Virginia Company. She never made it home. She was about 21 when she died, an ocean separating her from her people.’
‘Indigenous people have been telling the story of Pocahontas — the real Pocahontas — for four centuries. A story of heroism. And bravery. And pain. And, for almost as long, her story has been taken away by powerful people who twisted it to serve their own purposes.’
Feature Image via Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis.
