{"id":3110,"date":"2012-04-01T14:42:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T19:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2012-04-01T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T19:42:38","slug":"god-bless-april-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=3110","title":{"rendered":"GOD BLESS APRIL FOOL’S"},"content":{"rendered":"

ac breaking<\/strong><\/p>\n

gone native<\/span><\/p>\n

A coalition of indigenous North American tribes today announced a lawsuit against Golden Gate Yacht Club and Oracle Racing, saying they were denied entry to the 34th America\u2019s Cup on the basis of their background. \u00a0\u201cWe have as legitimate a right as anyone to defend America\u2019s honor for the 34th America\u2019s Cup in San Francisco,\u201d said celebrity politician and artist Ben Nighthorse Campbell, spokesman for the Native America\u2019s Cup Challenge (NACC). \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve assembled a team of tribal seaman, elder advisors and maritime warriors whose ancestors have been building and racing boats in North America for literally thousands of years.\u201d Campbell said. \u00a0\u201cBack when Europeans were running around naked in blue dye, and Maori were still eating colonists, our tribes were sailing around fishing for salmon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit asks the NY Supreme Court to require GGYC to set up a \u2018winner take all\u2019 defense trial in San Francisco this summer. \u00a0\u201cAs submitted to this Court in Africa Diaspora Maritime v. Golden Gate Yacht Club, the GGYC has a duty to the American people that extends far beyond providing a playground for a handful of billionaires and some obsessed Kiwis,\u201d the lawsuit says in its opening salvo. \u00a0\u201cFurthermore, GGYC has a duty as Trustee to all of America\u2019s mariners to hold the trials in boats that reflect the true history of sailing in the Northwest \u2013 the dugout canoe with crab claw rig.\u201d<\/p>\n

NACC includes members of the Salish, Makah, and Iroquois tribes from the mainland US, the Tlingit and Inuit from Alaska, and several Canadian First Nations, though they have chosen to remain silent partners in fear of never being allowed to cross the US border again if they anger Larry Ellison. \u00a0\u201cWe know how things work down there, and we don\u2019t want Ellison to send us to Guantanamo,\u201d one tribal elder said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Africa Diaspora Maritime founder Charles Kithcart welcomes the additional Defender Challenger, though the idea of traditional racing craft may throw a wrench into his plans to race against Oracle on catamarans. \u00a0\u201cSeeing another group working to defend America\u2019s Cup is truly rewarding, and I hope our campaign helped urge them to get into it,\u201d said Kithcart, whose lawsuit goes to oral argument in Albany on the 17th of April. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll just have to see what kind of boats the judges like best for the Defense, and maybe we\u2019ll need to learn how to sail those cool canoes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kithcart preferred not to discuss questions about discrimination in his lawsuit, though a NACC boatbuilder wasn\u2019t so coy. \u00a0\u201cYacht racing in general, and the America\u2019s Cup in specific, is, without a doubt, the whitest sport left in all the world,\u201d said the man known as Walks With Hammers. \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019d think they would\u2019ve learned their lesson and opened it up to native peoples after that Maori dude turned the Cup intro scrap metal, but take a look at the ACWS events \u2013 the only color anywhere at those events is on the wings!\u201d<\/p>\n

The new case is Native America\u2019s Cup Coalition v. Golden Gate Yacht Club. \u00a0NYSC45223-12C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ac breaking gone native A coalition of indigenous North American tribes today announced a lawsuit against Golden Gate Yacht Club and Oracle Racing, saying they were denied entry to the 34th America\u2019s Cup on the basis of their background. \u00a0\u201cWe have as legitimate a right as anyone to defend America\u2019s honor for the 34th America\u2019s … Continue reading GOD BLESS APRIL FOOL’S<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[1252],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-fools-day","tag-april-fools-day-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3111,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}