In our last installment our heroes, the new Warwick High School basketball team was poised to win the Lancaster County League championship for 1957. The doors to the new "union" high school had opened in September and our school pseudonym was the Pretzels (carried over from the old Lititz High School).

Ivan Adams, who sold coal to the community, decided to put his pride along side his business budget and ordered a whole bunch of white buttons with black and red lettering listing, of course, the name of his business and the name of the team. "Warwick Pretzels". Fresh from the heady victory of the Ivy League pants buckle, the student body summarily rejected the moniker. We either never paid attention or it was never brought up or we just simply ignored the fact that the world was calling us pretzels.

A complex discussion ensued after which, almost by fiat, the name "Warwick Warriors" survived. It was probably the alliteration that made it the consensus entry but there were some serious discussions in the halls and in the clubs and in the "Pretzelette" (the school newspaper which soon became the "Teepee Topics"). The essence of the discussions centered on finding a name that gave a fair representation to the character traits that we were learning as we progressed through Warwick High School and life.

Some of the words brought forward were "strong", "mighty", "honorable", "considerate", "intelligent" and "fighter". A manual scan of the dictionaries brought us to agreement on Warrior. No only did the word define what we wanted to be, it sounded good and even the etymology of the word supported its appropriateness. Warwick Township was named by one of its earliest settlers, Richard Carter, a native of Warwickshire England.

Warrior is derived from a Middle English word meaning to make war. If the word is owned by any group it would be the Celtic warriors who overpowered the Druids in the 14th Century, when the word was born. By the 19th Century the Irish Fenian warriors were leading the fight against the English. The word was exported to Southern Africa where the Zulu tradition was best defined as warrior.

Warrior, the word, has a distinct meaning of its own derived from English history and culture. For Native Americans to claim the word as solely representative of their culture is just simply to ignore history and etymology. So the name Warrior is not only inoffensive, it is correct on the historical, cultural and geographic levels.

It was not until some years later that the "Indian motif" for the Warwick Warrior was developed. And even that was appropriate as, before the arrival of Carter and the other Europeans, the marsh and springhead in what is now the park was used as a campground for the nomadic Susquehannoc and other related tribes.

That some descendants of Native Americans are able to twist history, turn a blind eye to reality and find a way to be offended by high school students who decided they were worthy of emulation is absolute hogwash. My psychologist tells me that any given statement, fact or word can be interpreted in at least two ways-it is up to the individual to either accept the idea as a good thing or find a way to make it a bad thing. Don Juan (Carlos Castaneda) put it this way, "The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."

I have great respect for the various Native American cultures and do my best not to offend someone whose progenitors created great societies well before my ancestors hopped off the boat in Philadelphia. I am embarrassed that the ignorance of my government caused so many American Indians to suffer and die for our greed. But I will not condone the creation of an "issue" where all intentions are good and the outcome causes no harm. By naming our teams Warriors and creating a visual impression of a Native American we are saying that those warriors were mighty, honorable, considerate, intelligent fighters, which we wish to emulate.

Let's all lighten up or I will end up having to find a way to be offended that students at Hempfield High School call themselves Knights. I'd rather be honored.