Editor, the News-Herald:

How much further does everyone need to bend over backwards for these individuals who claim Native American Heritage?

If they had made the effort to clearly spell out their desires, if they had made the effort to openly communicate with the community that they want to &uot;sponsor&uot; them,

if they were struggling to raise the funds for this project for more than recent (very recent) history,

if they had worked through their efforts to be recognized by the appropriate federal agencies,

if they were remotely conciliatory, If If If, then I would say be more flexible.

But they are not.

Why should the council, who will be spending our tax dollars, be required to work so hard for this special interest group who isn’t recognized as such by anyone else?

The burden should be on them not us, the taxpayers, to make this work for them.

If they don’t want to share information, why should we share dollars?

This seems like just another case of the mainstream having to be politically correct and sensitive to a minority. Be sensitive but be reasonable. Help them all that you possibly can but only when and if they make efforts to help themselves as part of the deal.

They come clean, completely, then we make every effort that the community feels is appropriate.

This shouldn’t be based upon someone’s fear of being labeled because they didn’t totally succumb to the political pressures of a loosely associated group of Americans with some native American heritage who want to capitalize on this with the taxpayers.

David Forsythe

Naples, Italy