This is the text of an e-mail sent by Charlestown Town Council President Katharine H. Waterman to town resident Joseph S. Dolock, and discussed at last night’s council meeting.

Subject: Re: Reverse Prejudice

Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 17:25:32-0400

I admire your steadfastness, your courage of conviction and your sincerity. And you are right in that people do not need to be scared. And you know what’s coming …

But, they do need to be aware. If you have not yet read Without Reservation, you need to very soon. The people were not aware and did not believe anything was going to happen. It is the most incredible tale of how things take place behind the scenes when nobody is looking, and the old folks just want to be left alone, and the families are busy raising their kids, and your own small corner of the world looks green and promising.

This is when those with an eye to make big bucks make their moves. We are not Ledyard. We do not have the space, the land, the roads and, more vital, the water to support a giant enterprise. We are an oasis in the eastern megalopolis, and we are exceedingly fragile.

I do not give a hoot if the Narragansetts, or the Mexicans, or the Cambodians build a casino over there on Narragansett Bay where there is a huge empty industrial park left over from World War II going to seed. Where four-lane highways already exist and will not fell any more trees, and where high-rise towers will not necessarily look so very out of place. If people want to gamble their money away, let them. If they want to buy tax-free cigarettes, let them, tax-free gas, go for it. Illegal fireworks, seems to me they get those anyhow, but please, please, please, not in Charlestown. Only about 100 Narragansetts live in Charlestown. The rest of the tribe lives in Cranston, Warwick, Providence, and they go to work, and to school like everybody else, and when they have a pow-wow they come and they dance and they celebrate their ethnicity with enthusiasm and pride and it is a joy to see.

And they have free health care. For life.

And they have a good-sized health clinic in Charlestown, even though there aren’t many of them here.

We don’t have one of those.

And we can’t use it, even though it was paid for with our tax dollars.

And if you look around, they have a lot of things that the rest of us don’t. I believe they have free college tuition. Not sure about that. They don’t pay taxes on their land, which was gifted to them.

There were given $4 million by HUD to build homes for the elderly. Nobody lives in those 12 homes, and the money ran out. Nobody knows where.

And just for chuckles, try to use your rights to open meetings and access to public records to find out how much money (ours) they get through the Bureau of Indian Affairs! Never mind how much they get from those who would profit from exploiting them. But these reparations are paid today — by us — to folks who simply by accident of birth can claim Native American blood in some fraction.

Does that give them the right to be a sovereign people within a sovereign nation? To be free of the laws of our land? Where is the equality in that notion? Ethnicity does not convey privilege!

Now this sounds a bit like a rant, and could be interpreted as a very strong bias. Perhaps it is.

But I feel as strongly as you do that we all have rights and the same opportunity to take advantage of our gifts, our education and everything America has to offer.

I detest prejudice as much as I am dismayed by those who victimize minorities with the rhetoric of “poor!”

No, you don’t need to be afraid, but you do need to be aware of what is going on behind the scenes. Our current government in Charlestown is not just weak, it is blind and I daresay it is more corrupt than you want to believe. They are carefully doing their scheming and they understand just how much money can be made through exploitation.

Read Without Reservation, please. Be aware.

I think I had better stop about here. I may have lost you, too! I hope not. I will be very interested in your response.

Kate