Category: Social Issues - trish hermanson

Racial Wisdom from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for Today

6/4/2020

That’s me at the Monroe, Alabama, courthouse that served as the inspiration for the setting of an appalling scene in the book and movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It’s where white lawyer Atticus Finch defended an innocent black man in 1930s Alabama. In that prejudiced culture, the man was found guilty of rape.
     As we search our hearts about race these days, I’m drawn back to the wisdom of Atticus. When his young daughter wrestled with discrimination, he said, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
     That fits with the recent advice of African American pastor Marcus Doe from Providence Bible Church in Denver, Colorado. He says that the solution to eradicating systemic injustice is not found in gathering more voters in either major political party. “These avenues will NOT solve racism and systems of injustice in America. Political leaders are way too dull a scalpel to cut out systemic racism from the American body.”
     It takes something much harder, Doe says. “Let me urge you to find friendships with African Americans.… I urge you to pursue knowledge through reading. Read authors who are black, both male and female.”
  That’s a challenge. No matter what our race, our we willing to reach beyond our cultural comfort zone into someone else’s? As Atticus Finch said, are we willing to “climb inside of his skin and walk around in it?”

Cudjoe "Kazoola" Is My Hero

5/29/2020

The last known survivor from the last slave ship to enter America is my hero.
     At age nineteen, Kazoola and other tribe members were captured by fellow Africans and sold to white slave traders for transport to Alabama even though the trans-Atlantic slave trade had been illegal for fifty-two years. Kazoola became Cudjoe Lewis.
     For five years, Cudjoe and his fellow Africans labored, even rebuilding Mobile’s fortifications during the Civil War. Then one day, Union forces entered the city. The Africans celebrated to the beat of a drum - they were free. But they had no way to return home.
  Cudjoe asked his former slave master for reparations of land. He refused angrily. So the former slaves pooled their resources, bought land, and established a self-governing hamlet, African Town. They were safe there from the outside world that called them “savages” and “monkeys.” They built a school. Adjacent to Cudjoe’s property and facing east toward Africa, they established Old Baptist Church.
     I’m standing by a commemorative bust of Cudjoe outside that church, where congregants still meet and where descendants of the former slaves still live in the community. A plaque encourages “all citizens of humanity” to be like the former slaves and “choose perseverance and hope in the face of tremendous adversity.”
     That’s what we need today, isn’t it? As racism rears its ugly head again and tempers boil over, can we choose perseverance and hope?
     For the sake of Cudjoe, I hope so.

How Do I Choose My Battles?

5/26/2020

Look closely, and you’ll spot me hiding in the roots of an oak tree where Confederate soldiers sought shelter after Yankees captured Fort Blakeley in Alabama. Unbeknownst to the Rebels, General Robert E. Lee had already surrendered. The Civil War was over. But because they didn’t know this, about 225 men from both sides died and 650 were injured.
     It was senseless, which is how some of the battles I engage in tend to be. Verbal battles to make sure my voice is heard. Or to get my point across. Or just to vent.
     At this last major skirmish of the Civil War, Union Brigadier General Christopher Columbus Andrews described the conflict as “picturesque and grand.” Yet it was pointless. And now as I viewed this field where soldiers died, folks in t-shirts and shorts walked dogs and pedaled bikes. Where Confederates hid in tree roots, visitors snapped photos. A bloody battleground had turned into a placid park.
     That’s something for me to keep in mind: to choose my battles carefully; to determine whether something is worth fighting over; and to consider whether I can preemptively turn a field of conflict into a pastoral setting.
  Because some battles aren’t worth fighting.

What Beauty Did You Discover in Your 'In-Between Space?'

5/7/2020

Before mandatory sheltering began, Duane discovered this stairwell in a building and pulled me in to see it. As we climbed the three flights, we read along the way that muralists from a school turned this in-between space into an adventure of canoeing, camping, and skiing.
     That prompted me to consider some of the in-between spaces in our lives. Places that are as blah and utilitarian as stairwells. Or stop lights. Or waiting rooms. Or elevators. Or hallways. Or job hunts. Areas that get me from one place to another, but often have little appeal of their own.
     We’ve all waited restlessly in the in-between space of sheltering during this coronavirus pandemic. Now we’re beginning to venture forth to discover what life will be now.
     I’m thinking about some of the beauty I’ve experienced during this forced stay-at-home: the regeneration of quietness; the reward of simplicity; the richness of humor. What of these will I carry into this new life?
  And what will you carry into your new life?

An Old West Lesson in Covid Times

4/28/2020

When I read about the threat of deportation faced by some medical workers fighting corona virus I thought about a visit I made to Bent’s Old Fort. This Nineteenth Century Colorado fort thrived as it welcomed the contributions of Mexicans, Native American, blacks, French, and whites. In contrast, about 29,000 skilled health care professionals could be forced out if the U.S. Supreme Court rules with the Trump Administration to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
     These “Dreamers,” as they are called, were brought to the U.S. from other countries as minors and haven’t been granted citizenship. They grew up and became trained professionals.
     Their absence could have “devastating effects” on our health care system that already faces professional shortages, according to more than 30 organizations that filed a brief with the court.
     The Trump Administration seeks to deport all 643,000 registered in the DACA program. This could be devastating in our reeling economy. In 2017, DACA individuals earned $23 billion in total household income and contributed $4 billion to taxes, according to New American Economy, a bipartisan group studying immigration reforms.
     In a shared statement, more than 50 Chambers of Commerce said, “These immigrants are driving economic growth in our communities.” They quoted Cato Institute estimates that deporting DACA individuals would cost our economy $280 billion over the next decade.
  Perhaps we ought to pay attention to an Old West lesson from Fort Bent; it’s not only humanitarian to continue to welcome these Dreamers, it’s economically smart.