by Neena Strichart
This has been an amazing week. Among the local election news happenings is a new mayor and city attorney for Long Beach (congratulations, Robert Garcia and Charles Parkin), several run-offs to look forward to and the defeat of Measure U in Signal Hill.
Besides all the election excitement, my dear hubby had a little excitement of his own— a bit of a surgical procedure on his right knee. The out-patient operation took about an hour, and dear Steve was back home in no time at all. Although he is healing nicely, I still have a bit of nursing to do. Given that, I didn’t make time to write an elaborate column this week. Instead of thrilling you with my own words, I instead will share a conversation I found online between two of my Facebook friends: Ed Wilson and Judy Seal.
Judy’s message was in response to an image Ed posted on his Facebook wall. We have reprinted that image here.
Ed Wilson, an African-American male, is the mayor of Signal Hill. Judy Seal is a beautiful, red-haired Caucasian woman, serves as the executive director of the Long Beach Education Foundation for the Long Beach Unified School District and is a former high-school classmate of mine. Following their exchange on Facebook, I thought our readers would find it both interesting and educational. The only reason I mention race in their above descriptions is that it helps the reader understand the context of their conversation. I thank them for allowing me to reprint it for you. Enjoy.
Judy: [Ed], that is exactly right. For three hundred years. Generations of people who loved their families, their children, who wanted great things and dreamed great dreams not only dashed but came with it the most horrible atrocities ever. Yet today, we see elders in our Long Beach who suffer from post-slave-era stress disorders. How could they not? The 1960s and the Civil Rights movement happened while I was alive. That is recent history. And the 1960s movement occurred 100 years after the Civil War. We need to raise all of our children knowing the truth, not the CliffsNotes version, the really long story about this nation so our hearts open and respect and are humble to the past and openly change the future. Mom and Dad said every night at the dinner table, “You are the accumulation of your ancestors; know who you are. Be who you were born to be and nothing less.” And, night after night, month after month, year after year, until the final weeks of their lives, they would begin, “We are not English, we are Scottish. We lost the highlands to the English in 1749…. “ and so began American history, Native-American history, African-American history, all of it. They were both US history majors in college. All that “knowing” of the truth about Andrew Jackson and his deplorable “Indian Removal Act” to six native American tribes— why? Gold. That “knowing” the real history truly guided Mom and Dad when Mom was asked to create successful education programs for our refugees from Cambodia and Southeast Asia and Dad’s counseling programs for the parents. This tangent has a point. Why can’t we get the long story of American history— the good, the bad, and the ugly, no-holds-barred-into-kitchen-table talks, and education? How can we become a great nation with a huge population still suffering to more and lesser degrees of pain? We can’t do it. It still hasn’t happened. Mom and Dad died happy knowing they helped elect our President. But that isn’t good enough. I’m kind of apologetic, Ed, that I went this way on your FB page, my friend. My dear and precious friend. Your post made me very sad and sorry— so sorry because it is true. But I’m not at all apologetic for the heart of the message. I don’t want our friends and families to be so sad about the disconnects that exist in presenting US history at home or in schools.
Ed: Thank you for the post, Judy! I am glad that you elaborated. For anyone reading, it will give them a better understanding than a one-sentence sound bite! We view a lot of issues on the same level.
