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I am very passionate about this subject because my HS's nickname was the Redskins until my junior year. We always felt that we did nothing but honor the Native American people and we never did anything derogitory in any way, but they found our masot offensive so they sued us. My school was very small so we did not want to spent the money to go to court and fight for what we believed in because that is not why pople pay taxes. We had a lawyer willing to represent us for free but the school board felt it would be better just to change the mascot and got our school out of the spotlight. I have argued this subject with many people on different football message boards and of course in person too. For some reason when your mascot was a Redskin you feel pride and honor for it and the Native American people, but I also understand why they do not feel it is right for teams to have a mascot such as this. However when you are the person who goes to that school (an one of the most spirited!) you find it hard to explain to an outsider why you feel these things for this mascot. It upsets me that we had to change because we grew up with that mascot, that is what we identified with. (I know, many people have told me that it is not a good thing to identify yourself with a "derogoitory" word such as that.) However, no matter what my HS's mascot is I will always be a Redskin!
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