Thinking
Of Thanksgiving...
A recent letter took us to task for not being more sensitive
to the Native American population in our midst. The problem
arose when a columnist for one of our publications wrote about
a talk she gave at Onteora about Indians and the environment.
She wasn’t Native American, and the word Indian is a
sore point.
The letter writer, a pastor for two area churches, noted that
there is a wealth of resources for giving such speeches in
the area. Point well taken. But we also must acknowledge that
while saying what should have happened after the fact has
an element of “crying over spilt milk,” the very
process of becoming aware of our actions, however inadvertently
they hurt, is a good one.
A second letter, in this week’s publication, ably answers
one of the pastor’s comments about ensuring that only
those expert in a subject, by ethnicity or background, address
it.
It’s a strong discourse and, with the background issue
involving the battles that racked our region a few backs over
the Onteora mascot now out in the open again, a particularly
apt one given the time of year… and the national and
regional changes recently embodied in the results of the November
7 elections.
When I first started framing how we would discuss these matters
here, in a paper set for official release on Thanksgiving
Day, I kept getting drawn back into a sense that what I was
witnessing was a classic “Us and Them” situation.
I was thinking in terms of the ways we cherish HOW we learn
something as much as what it is we are supposed to have learned.
Hence the continuing nostalgic value of Pilgrim hats, turkey
feathers and Indian headdresses this time of year… truth
to the story or not. Call it Santa Clause, if you will…
we pick the narrative out of history, the easy lessen, and
tend to leave out the hard truths.
The original letter writer, when informed of this frame of
thought, replied that “it is sad when the issue continues
to be framed as an “us vs. them” debate. Better,
he suggested, that everyone remember that instead of such
a split, all parties “are very much a part of the same
community.”
“This is an issue where, unfortunately, some members
of the community seem to fail to recognize other members of
the same community,” the dialogue continued. “What
we need is a larger sense of our entire community, and a larger
sense of its history.”
I really couldn’t have said what was driving our thoughts
on the subject better… both in relation to the Indian
issue, as well as to all the accusations of patriotism and
treason that have been bandied about over the past few years.
When we share our meals this week, let’s do so with
a sense of largeness that includes not only those at the table,
but those who share similar tables… as well, if our
hearts are big enough, all those who WANT to share our table.
After all, we made our tables as big as they are for deep
moral reasons, for an ideal we think it best not to forget
in the face of common fears. Or hurts.
Likewise, if some among us are still unawares how they might
hurt another, don’t try to hurt them back but be aware
that all change, all healing, takes time. Go gentle, in other
words.
“Either we are a whole community that recognizes the
fact that every part of the community is precious, and to
be respected, or we are a fragmented community in which one
part thinks it has the right to declare another part dead,
or to ‘honor’ that other part without permission,”
said our partner, this week, in discourse. “As a community,
it is OUR choice.”
It all comes down to compassion and empathy, in the final
rounds. Those are the issues all true holidays should celebrate.
PS
