The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

We have just celebrated Indigenous People’s Day. We have called this Columbus Day for far too long.

We have been taught for centuries that Columbus discovered America. As a people, we developed a word ditty that helps us remember this untruth.

When Columbus landed in the new world there were already over a million natives occupying the land.

In their eyes, his appearance and the resulting occupation of the country by the white man created issues that we are still learning how to deal with.

School boards are the most recent place to show anger, frustration, and poor citizenship.

I served on the local school board for 10 years.

While on occasion people would show up to raise issues, we were never threatened, and our board would not have tolerated it. People who interrupt public meetings should be asked to leave, and if they don’t comply, a police presence is appropriate.

The so-called issue at many school boards is what they call “critical race theory.” They don’t want children to learn about slavery and the many problems that are still going on as a result of it.

It is a deliberate attempt to revise history, or to whitewash things they don’t want to think about. One person was reported to say that it might make their child feel bad.

Dah! 

If whitewash was a commodity these people would be rich.

In today’s world, issues are often born of ignorance, a lack of understanding or a lack of education.

The other big issue is the facemask mandate.

People should understand that it might just save their child from getting sick, or worse.

The “big lie” has captured a lot of people.   

As long as I am at it, I don’t understand why some organizations feel they have the right to dictate to women how they should believe.

People who have lost their moral compass should be silent until they clean up their own act.

State legislators should stop acting like they are educators, telling teachers what they should teach and how to teach. I would take our local teachers’ judgement over legislators’.

You might make the case of the pot calling the kettle black.

One thing we shouldn’t do is let a mob control what we teach our youth. 

There’s more, but it will have to wait for another time.