I think Zachary missed the point

If, indeed, it really is Zachary:

Dear Steve:
I wrote this note to a guy who had similar problems with my op-ed... It's a political issue really, and one that may have unintended consequences for the Maya . You see, my Mayan friends are outraged by this movie because Gibson has chosen to depict them in a rather unsavory light: noble/evil savage stereotype. They recently survived a decades long civil war in which mass murder was carried out as genocide in Guatemala. Some of my archaeology friends are presently excavating these mass graves in which men, women, and children were summarily executed. There is no such evidence for these activities having taken place in the Classic or Contact periods (as the movie depicts). Since the civil treaty was written and agreed to in the 1990s they have been trying to build their political capital and maintain their language and culture without being decimated. This type of film changes public opinion.. opinions which can ultimately be directed toward political ends. If one were to make a bad movie about Roman history, there are few to non political implications (what, are the Italians going to stop making pasta?), but when you make a movie about a people who have little to no political power, then it is unfair and irresponsible... in my opinion, and that is essentially what my piece was: op-ed. If you made a movie about how african-american slaves somehow deserved to be slaves (and then had Canadians in black face portraying them), I think there would be a riot on our hands.
Sincerely, Zac
See why I'm not relaxin', bro?

We can't really tell from this whether Zachary has suddenly discovered Hollywood's power as a propaganda engine, but it can be surmised from this that it definitely got his attention. Nothing like having your own ox gored, eh, Zachary?

Several years back, Dustin Hoffman was in a movie called Little Big Man, one of my favorites of all time. His character is a morally ambiguous White man who is kidnapped by Cheyenne Indians and raised among them. The theme portrays his journey from half-civilized barbarian to noble savage. The Cheyenne are shown as erudite philosophers whose seemingly advanced culture is being wiped out by the encroaching Whites. Great story, well executed movie, stupid premise. In reality, the "noble" Cheyenne regularly pursued the enterprise of stealing horses, women, and children from the Crow and Apache and trading them as chattel, even to the Whites. In some cases, they executed genocide against the Crow, riding into Crow villages while the adult males were hunting, slaughtering the women and children. One of their calling cards was to leave pregnant Crow women impaled and disemboweled in the middle of the village. The Crow, far from innocent victims, often repaid the favor in kind. Noble stuff, that.

I wonder why folks like Zachary never complain when the shoe is on the other foot? Why don't we hear them screeching in outrage at films portraying White American culture as evil and degenerate? What about some of these "fictionalized" pseudo-documentaries, North Country, for instance, that twist the truth and conveniently omit facts to fit their agenda?

My original point was, if you want to garner attention with your outrage over Hollywood's butchery of the truth, you really need to get in line, Zach.