Alaskan youth testifies on the Hill — and draws Limbaugh's ire

By Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Monday, November 5, 2007

WASHINGTON — Charlee Lockwood has never heard of Rush Limbaugh or listened to his radio program, and perhaps it's just as well.

On Monday, the talk radio king told listeners that Democrats were exploiting the 18-year-old Yupik Eskimo, and that her emotional testimony that day in front of a U.S. House committee on global warming made him "really want to puke. I just want to throw up."

"It's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone," Limbaugh told listeners of the 600 stations nationwide that carry his show.

Lockwood didn't let Limbaugh's comments faze her. Her upbringing in the community of St. Michael included learning "about respect and treating people the way you want to be treated," Lockwood said, during a brief interview just before she got on a plane to return to her village on Alaska's west coast.

And she had plenty of people willing to defend her.

"For Rush Limbaugh to make fun of young people coming in and trying to be a part of the political process, it really shows a disdain for political discourse and for the role of young people in that political discourse," said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for the chairman of the committee, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.

Limbaugh's attack on the teenager was "outrageous and grotesque," said Deborah Williams, an Anchorage environmentalist who accompanied Lockwood on the teen's first trip to the nation's capital in 2005. It's one thing to take aim at a public figure, Williams said, but it's quite another to attack someone young and eager to participate in the democratic process.

"I know Charlee really quite well and she is her own person," Williams said. "She got involved in this because she feels a big moral commitment to protect her community. She is passionate about this issue, and she has so much invested in this issue."

Lockwood was among 5,000 teens and young adults who descended on Washington Monday in what may have been the biggest lobbying day ever on energy and climate issues. Ten other young people from Alaska attended the event, through Alaska Youth for Environmental Action.

Organizers described the Washington gathering, known as Power Shift 2007, as "the first national youth summit to solve the climate crisis."

Lockwood, who hopes to study to be a health aide in rural Alaska, has already become something of a veteran environmental activist. She traveled to Washington two years ago to deliver 5,000 signatures from fellow Alaska high school students who sought to draw attention to the effects of global warming in the state.

On Monday, she and other students met with a staffer in Alaska Rep. Don Young's office, and with both of Alaska's senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens.

Stevens hadn't listened to the Limbaugh program Monday afternoon, although an aide burned a CD for him to listen to later at home. The senator had no comment on the program, said Aaron Saunders, a spokesman for Stevens.

The young people from Alaska spent about an hour Monday engaged in a "lively and frank conservation about climate change and global warming" with Stevens, Saunders said.

The senator and the students weren't in total agreement, Saunders said. Stevens has repeatedly questioned the causes of global warming, but acknowledges that climate change has had a disastrous effect on the state's remote villages. Last month, Stevens accompanied the chairwoman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to Shishmaref to survey the damage from coastal erosion.

On Monday, Lockwood offered an eloquent description of the effects of global warming on her own village of St. Michael. Moose once walked by the village; now, they've migrated farther north and are rarely seen. There are fewer fish each year at the family's summer fish camp, Lockwood said, and their favorite berry-picking spots aren't producing as much fruit anymore.

"Our traditional ways of life will die like the food we grew up eating, our hunters will have to travel farther to keep food in their homes," she warned in testimony submitted to the committee. "Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them to."

McClatchy Newspapers 2007

A crying shame:  Rush Limbaugh adds Alaskan to polarizing efforts

Published November 8, 2007

Radio personality Rush Limbaugh specializes in touching nerves that lay very close to lines others have the decency not to cross.

But this week he's been crossing lines, and he's doing it while exploiting the testimony a young Alaskan offered Monday in front of the congressional Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Alaskans — even if they tend to agree with Mr. Limbaugh's politics — should condemn what he's doing.

The young woman, Cheryl Charlee Lockwood, 18, of St. Michaels was one of several young leaders to speak during the "Youth Leadership on Climate Change" hearing. It coincided with Power Shift 2007, a national youth summit involving thousands from across the nation on what the student organizers called "the climate crisis."

Ms. Lockwood was there as part of her involvement with the Youth for Environmental Action program. Students in that program have visited our editorial board in the past. They routinely sit down with folks of differing viewpoints. It's part learning experience and part lobbying effort. While we didn't agree with their every point, at the time we wrote that we found them "thoughtful, thorough, obviously dedicated, and excited by their subject."

Ms. Lockwood, a political neophyte testifying before a congressional committee and a packed house on Monday, couldn't fight back her tears while describing coastal erosion and her concerns about the future of her hometown, culture and traditions.

Mr. Limbaugh's first-day reaction was to inaccurately and insultingly describe Ms. Lockwood as a 13-year-old Inupiat (she's Yup'ik) girl from Alaska and cast her on par with the white actor who played the "crying Indian" during 1970s TV commercials aimed at littering. He decried her emotional testimony as a nauseating Democrat ploy.

On Tuesday he added her to his list of "victims exploited by the Democrats" and joined callers in painting her as "brainwashed" and belittled her cultural concerns.

He continued to exploit her testimony, playing it time and again, and would not apologize for his attacks. He made it clear that anyone testifying before Congress was fair game for the same kind of national ridicule he has endured (Just Google "OxyContin & racist").

The coup de grace was Mr. Limbaugh laughing with a woman caller who claimed to be a former Alaska resident, now "a Texan by choice." Of Ms. Lockwood's testimony she said, "if they're losing their way of life, that would probably mean the liquor store was closing."

Under no circumstance is a reference to alcoholism in rural Alaska a laughing matter. Tasteless is a kind modifier for allowing it into a national radio discussion of a civic-minded young woman's testimony.

To steal from Mr. Limbaugh's vocabulary: It was nauseating. We wanted to puke.

His usual shtick centers on dehumanizing and belittling those with whom he disagrees — then blaming it all on the Democrats.

Cheryl Charlee Lockwood — and a lot of other people along Alaska's coast — truly have emotional and urgent concerns about climate change. Congress should hear what they have to say.

A difficult and sometimes emotional debate regarding climate change lies ahead, and we had better be able to count on young Alaskans to take that debate forward fairly and intelligently. Unfortunately for now people like Mr. Limbaugh dominate the national airwaves and not only distract us from what matters but keep the politics of polarization alive. And that, truly, is a crying shame.

Limbaugh says Teen-agers testimony about global warming "reminded" him of 1970s ad of "Crying Indian"

www.mediamatters.org 11/6/2007

Summary:

During the November 5 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, after airing an audio clip of part of the testimony of Cheryl Charlee Lockwood, who said that she is a recent high school graduate and works in the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program, before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Rush Limbaugh stated: "So, once again, it's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentleman, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over — I really want to puke. I just want to throw up." On November 5, Lockwood went before Congress to talk about the impact of global warming on her community. Later in the broadcast, Limbaugh said of Lockwood's testimony — during which she said, "I've seen so many changes in our community that it just hurts to not be able to have our — it's really scary to ... lose our tradition, our culture ... and it's not just that we're losing our food, it's losing our homes" — that "I'm just reminded here" of the 1970s public service announcement featuring a representation of a Native American. Limbaugh said:

LIMBAUGH: A lot of communities in trouble over a lot of things. Go to New Orleans. How about losing homes? Wah, wah — sorry. I'm just reminded here of the old — remember the old television PSA that used to run back in the old days when we were kids? Iron Eyes Cody, the Indian — the Native American, sorry — standing by the roadside as, you know, worthless Americans drive by on the way to their trailer parks and so forth, and throwing trash out of the window of the car — and they zero-in on Iron Eyes Cody, a founder of the country, a true founder — a Native American.

Turns out he wasn't — he was an actor, made up. But, doesn't matter. A little tear starts rolling down his cheek over what the white Europeans have done to his country. This stuff is — it's oppressive. It's always been around.

In a November 6 article, the Anchorage Daily News identified Lockwood as an "18-year-old Yup'ik Eskimo." During his show, Limbaugh described her as "an Inuit from Alaska."

Limbaugh later said: "If the children are crying, and if the children are upset — it's no different than showing adults pictures of crying children than showing children pictures of so-called stranded polar bears." He added: "The children say, 'Mommy, mommy, the polar bears are dying, and we're causing it. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?' In this case, you got all these adults, 'Aw, that poor child. Oh, that poor' — it's just Democrats exploiting — you want to hear this with me again, [caller]? I know it drives you nuts, but people haven't heard it in a while." After Limbaugh re-aired the audio clip of part of Lockwood's testimony, he adopted a tone of voice that made it sound like he was crying and said: "The Republicans are going to cut my school lunch money, too." He later added: "Nobody wants a child to cry. It's just an attempt here to tug at people's heartstrings. And, you know, to do whatever we can to make sure the child stops crying. And what do we gotta do? Well, we gotta stop global warming so the child's spiritual connection to her homeland and her communities and so forth doesn't melt away into the Arctic."

From the November 5 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Let's move to the final sound bite in this roster. This is this morning at the House Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee hearing with [chairman] Ed Markey [D] of Massachusetts. Student [Cheryl] Charlee Lockwood of the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action testified, and here is a portion of her remarks. This is this morning, at — before a House committee:

LOCKWOOD [audio clip]: Just through my lifetime, I have seen so many changes in our community that it just hurts to not be able to have our — it's really scary to live — lose our tradition, our culture, and we've been living here for thousands of years, and it's not just that we're losing our food —

LIMBAUGH: Oh, God! God!

LOCKWOOD [audio clip]: — it's losing our homes. And — 'cause we are spiritually connected, and emotionally and physically connected to our homes, and there are so many, so many communities that are in trouble.

LIMBAUGH: So, once again, it's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over — I really want to puke. I just want to throw up.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: And here — you gotta hear this 13-year-old [sic] girl — let me find her name here. I get the — I put it at the bottom of the stack. I thought we were through with it, but I'm getting requests to hear this again. And I know what — the requests really aren't to hear this. The requests are for my reaction to this. This is Cheryl Charlee Lockwood crying in House testimony — Ed Markey's committee today, the House Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee.

LOCKWOOD [audio clip]: Just through my lifetime, I've seen so many changes in our community that it just hurts to not be able to have our — it's really scary to live — lose our tradition, our culture, and we've been living here for thousands of years, and it's not just that we're losing our food, it's losing our homes. And — 'cause we are spiritually connected, and emotionally and physically connected to our homes, and there are so many, so many communities that are in trouble.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. A lot of communities in trouble over a lot of things. Go to New Orleans. How about losing homes? Wah, wah — sorry. I'm just reminded here of the old — remember the old television PSA that used to run back in the old days when we were kids? Iron Eyes Cody, the Indian — the Native American, sorry — standing by the roadside as, you know, worthless Americans drive by on the way to their trailer parks and so forth, and throwing trash out of the window of the car — and they zero-in on Iron Eyes Cody, a founder of the country, a true founder — a Native American.

Turns out he wasn't — he was an actor, made up. But, doesn't matter. A little tear starts rolling down his cheek over what the white Europeans have done to his country. This stuff is — it's oppressive. It's always been around.

Shreveport, Louisiana — this is Chad. Chad, you're up first today on the EIB Network. Sir, hello.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Here's Madeline now in Melbourne, Florida. Thank you for waiting, Madeline.

MADELINE: Pleasure to talk to you Rush on my day off, while I've got three lights on in my house, the air blasting, got the oven, the TV on, and using as much toilet paper as I want.

LIMBAUGH: Atta way, babe!

MADELINE: My comment is: This is just getting so nauseating already with this global warming hypocrisy, and I want to know why they keep putting these whiney, "wah wah wah" rugrats on Capitol Hill to be testifying, you know, for whatever matter. It's just getting ridiculous already.

LIMBAUGH: Why don't you try to take a stab at answering your own question?

MADELINE: Hmm. For the sympathy?

LIMBAUGH: Exactly right. If the children are crying, and if the children are upset — it's no different than showing adults pictures of crying children than showing children pictures of so-called stranded polar bears.

MADELINE: True.

LIMBAUGH: The children say, "Mommy, mommy, the polar bears are dying, and we're causing it. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?" In this case, you got all these adults, "Aw, that poor child. Oh, that poor" — it's just Democrats exploiting — you want to hear this with me again, Madeline? I know it drives you nuts, but people haven't heard it in a while.

MADELINE: Love to.

LIMBAUGH: Haven't played it since the first hour. This is from an actual House hearing this morning, chaired by Ed Markey, from Massachusetts, and the child is Cheryl Charlee Lockwood, and she's an Inuit [sic] from Alaska.

LOCKWOOD [audio clip]: Just through my lifetime, I've seen so many changes in our community that it just hurts to not be able to have our — it's really scary to live — lose our tradition, our culture, and we've been living here for thousands of years, and it's not just that we're losing our food, it's losing our homes. And — 'cause we are spiritually connected, and emotionally and physically connected to our homes, and there are so many, so many communities that are in trouble.

LIMBAUGH: "The Republicans are going to cut my school lunch money, too. I don't know what to do, Congressman Markey. Wah, wah, wah, wah." That's the last time they tried that, that I remember the Republicans out there — they got all these kids to go up there, they were going to cut the school lunch program. The kids said they were going to starve. Are your parents going to let you stave, or are they going to feed you before you go to school?

It was absurd, but it's — this stuff is — you're right, Madeline. This is to tug at the heartstrings of people, because nobody wants a child to cry, not even in Congress where everybody should cry over what happens.

Nobody wants a child to cry. It's just an attempt here to tug at people's heartstrings. And, you know, to do whatever we can to make sure the child stops crying. And what do we gotta do? Well, we gotta stop global warming so the child's spiritual connection to her homeland and her communities and so forth doesn't melt away into the Arctic. But we've all had to move for a host of reasons.

— A.I.

To find a link to the Limbaugh show go to www.mediamatters.org.

Contact information:

Rush Limbaugh
rush@eibnet.com

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Last updated November 13, 2007 11:37 p.m. PT

Rush demeans Eskimo teenager

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

The latest target for demonizing by right-wing talk radio is an 18-year-old Yup'ik Eskimo woman who traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to tell what global warming is doing to her remote home village of St. Michael, Alaska.

Charlee Lockwood spoke of how moose have moved north, berry patches produce less fruit and the catch is declining at her family's fish camp. "Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them," she told a House panel.

Over about 600 radio stations last week, however, talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh declared that Lockwood's testimony made him "really want to puke. I just want to throw up."

"It's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone," Limbaugh declared.

Rush, you falsifying, pill-popping gasbag!

Limbaugh didn't mention that Lockwood and 10 other Alaska students met with Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans. They were part of Power Shift 2007, a lobbying effort by teens from across the country billed as "the first national youth summit to solve the climate crisis."

The young Alaskans spent an hour with Stevens in what an aide called a "lively and frank conversation about climate change and global warming."

"Uncle Ted" has questioned scientific reports on human causes of global warming. But he has sought federal help for coastal villages enduring climate-caused damage.

Stevens and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., recently visited the village of Shishmaref — so badly damaged by coastal erosion that it's being forced to move.

Young people should be talking truth to power and learning of official blunders that dare not be repeated.

They stand to inherit a country whose national debt just passed $9 trillion. Some have been put in harm's way in wars designed by neoconservative intellectuals and politicians who never go near a battlefield.

They will need to deal with a planet whose climate is rapidly changing and whose natural systems are in decay and under assault.

Alas, those who dare question authority find themselves insulted, demeaned and lied about on the airwaves.

Limbaugh recently took out after the 12-year-old boy who appeared at the Capitol to argue for expanding health insurance coverage to America's children.

The hit on Graeme Frost sounded eerily like Sen. Joe McCarthy introducing "evidence" at a 1950s Senate hearing. He tried to depict Frost as a rich kid, saying: "I had some rudimentary information on this two weeks ago, and it wasn't enough for me to trust going with. But since then, it has been verified and most of it's been verified by a 'Freeper' at Free Republic."

He reported that Graeme and his sisters go to "one of Baltimore's most expensive private schools," and that the family owns a house in a decent neighborhood. "They send the kid out to lie," Limbaugh charged.

The truth is that Graeme Frost is a scholarship student and that his sister's tuition is paid by the state because of brain injuries from a car accident. The "luxurious" house was bought for $55,000 in 1990 in a Baltimore neighborhood that later rebounded.

The Fox News channel later gave Limbaugh 20 largely unchallenged minutes to repeat the smear, then deny it.

He derisively imitated Graeme's voice, just as he once mocked actor Michael J. Fox's physical effects from Parkinson's disease. And then Limbaugh declared, "I wouldn't attack a 12-year-old kid."

Rush is especially awful, but he isn't alone.

A bill protecting First Amendment rights of student journalists started to make its way through the Legislature last winter. It would have made students directly responsible for the content of school-sponsored college and high school publications. School principals could still exercise prior review, but not censorship.

I turned on KOMO-AM/1000, and conservative mouth John Carlson was arguing that this bill threatened school discipline.

Has Carlson forgotten his days as a University of Washington student, in which he blasted the UW Daily for liberal bias and fielded a conservative alternative paper?

The First Amendment lets you do something like that. What fear can Carlson have in the exercise of rights by post-Reagan youths?

And last week, Fox pundit Bill O'Reilly stoutly defended suspension of Chicago high school students who staged an anti-Iraq war demonstration in the school cafeteria.

" 'Talking Points' applauds honest protest, but not at the expense of the public good," O'Reilly said. "Interrupting the school day intrudes on others, who might not share your point of view."

Did the Founders declare that dissent was legal only if it served the "common good"? The very purpose of protest in American history — e.g., the civil rights movement — was to "intrude" on an unjust system.

O'Reilly is out with a new book, "Kids Are Americans Too." It's just that they have no rights.

Having devoted space to these boors, a graceful last word belongs to Lockwood. Unfazed at Limbaugh, she told the Anchorage Daily News that her upbringing in St. Michael helped her understand "respect and treating people the way you want to be treated."