The "Pilgrims and Puritans" were religious dissenters from England who fled to the "New World" where they begged, borrowed(?), stole, and extorted land held in commons by the indigenous peoples. It's not that long a jump from treating "heathens" as subhumans, living in an inhabited wilderness, to slavery of African-Americans, "Irish need not apply," Japanese internment camps, boarding schools for Native American children, and a variety of other behaviors many of us find repugnant and abhorrent.
One of the more honest but optimistic perspectives we've encountered on the challenges and failures of trying to behave in accord with our better nature comes from Howard Zinn. If you think, looking at the current regime, "we're better than this," you're wrong, read Zinn. If you believe "this is not who we are," you're wrong, read Zinn. If Zinn's writings are too heavy for you, Walt Kelly, some years ago, created a slight variation for Earth Day that identifies the same source of many of our problems as Zinn writes about but should be readily grasped by anyone.
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| we have met the enemy and he is us |
What Shall We Tell Our Children? An Addenda, 1973
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 1963. Then, my concern was particularly for my own people and this version was written especially for them. I am happy that it has done and is doing its job. However, I want it to be known, that I am not a proponent of the concept of cultural nationalism. I dearly love and am proud of my good, serious, sincere black people, yet at the same time, my concern is with all people of goodwill no matter the color. I make no mystique of blackness. I am a humanist. Indeed, I am a universalist. This truth, I know. The liberation of black people in the United States is tightly linked with the liberation of black people in the far flung diaspora. Further, and more important, the liberation of black and oppressed people all over the world, is linked with the struggles of the workers of the world of every nationality and color against the common oppressors, overlords, and exploiters of their labor.
Thus it was only natural that I should write "What Shall We Tell Our Children?" in 1973. I have tried to tell them the facts of life and the truth as I see it:
I hope I have succeeded.
What shall we tell our children who are black?What shall we tell our children who are white?What shall we tell children of every race and hue?For all children are the children of all of usAnd all of us bear responsibility for all childrenWhat shall we tell them?How can we show them the conditions of their livesSo they will see how they can change them?Those who are poverty stricken in the midst of plentyWho must live in rat-infested slumsWhile decent homes stand emptyWho go to bed hungryWhile grocery shelves are heavyWho huddle in tattered ragsWhile racks in stores are saggingWho yearn for a good educationBut languish in programmed illiteracyWhose intellectual growth is stuntedAnd whose ignorance is compoundedWhile the Academies produce more drones for the labor colonyWhat shall we tell them?How can we show them the conditions of their livesSo they will see how they can change them?What shall we tell our childrenThe men and women of the future?We shall tell them the truthIt is our bounden duty to tell them the truthIt may be painful. We must tell them the truthWe may be criticized. We must tell them the truthWe may be castigated. We must tell them the truthThe truth it shall be, shall show them the conditions of their livesOf a glorified way of life, the greatest in the worldWhich is not concerned with people, but with profitsNot with the well-being of many, but with the interests of a fewNot with the welfare and future of the peopleBut only with the profit-making presentWe shall tell them the truth about a way of lifeThe greatest in the worldWhere freedom and equality is granted to every man, woman, and childWhere everyone, providing he is willing to do what is necessaryCan become rich and wealthy by doing others before they do youWhere everyone, including youCan acquire life's most important goodiesLike split-level houses, with wall-to-wall carpeting completely furnishedAnd two cars and two color T.V.'sAnd the latest style clothes and minksAnd schminks and everything!We shall tell them the truthAbout a way of lifeThe greatest in the worldWhich rejects the wisdom of its seers and sagesAnd whose culture is dictated and delineated byViolent, vicious, destructiveMurderous, unfeeling, crudeAnd quick on the draw supermenWho deem the men and women of the futureAs expendable and shunt them off toPurposeless death in the name of patria and patriotismWho slaughter the innocents who protest or speak for PeaceWe shall tell them the truthWe shall tell them the truthAbout a way of life, the greatest in the worldWhose primal motivation is material acquisitionWherein the majority of the people derive happinessFrom having things which others do not haveWhose all high, omnipotentAll powerful Jehovah, Jesus, LordGod, Allah and all SupremeIs the adulated, sought after, live for,Steal for, murder for, Almighty D-O-L-L-A-R dollar!We shall tell them the truthAbout a way of life, the greatest in the worldWhich manipulates and expends young livesSo that parasites may live and surviveWhose aim is but to acquire and killAnd kill and acquire again and againAt home and abroad and everywhereWe shall tell them the truthWe shall urge them to examine their way of life,The greatest in the worldWhich deliberately depresses the conditions of lifeWhich offers no bright futureBut instead keeps people in fearInsecurity and in constant turmoilWhich decimates their ranksWith endless predatory warsWe shall tell them the truthAbout what life could be made to beAnd how they themselves can help to make itBright, happy and secure.We shall show them that lifeIs ever in motion, constantly going throughProcesses of change, shall strengthen them in the beliefThat it is possible for men and women,For they themselves, for all of usTo live in harmony with our environmentAnd the UniverseShall teach them that our knowledge increasesThe more we gain control over our envirnmentAnd exploit it not for private gain but for our own happinessWe shall tell them the truthWe shall encourage them to expand their knowledgeOf the known and the unknownTo destroy the cobwebs of superstitionTo find that there are no mysteriesEither in life or in natureAnd that above all there is nothing to fear but fear itself.We shall tell them the truthShall suggest this way of lifeCan truly be made to be among theGreatest in the worldThat through their own effortsThey can forge a new wayA superior way, a good way of lifeWhich is in harmony with the true purpose of lifeWherein the people themselves control the conditions of their laborWherein the people have the total benefits of their laborAnd where men, women, and childrenLive lives free from exploitation.We shall tell them that a way of life is possibleWherein the people may own the means and tools of productionAnd use them solely for the abundance of the whole peopleAnd not for the aggrandizement of a fewAs in the old way.We shall tell them the truthWe shall arm them with the knowledge of how to surviveIn an atmosphere fraught with danger and hostilityWe shall urge them to heedThe wisdom bequeathed to us by the eldersAnd to have faith. To have faith.In people, in themselves and their fellow human beingsAnd to have respect and love for all of humankind.We shall tell themTo keep the belief that the purpose of lifeIs to continue to grow and createAnd to contribute to growth and createAnd to contribute to growth andCreativity toward a better lifeFor people now and for generations to comeWhat shall we tell our children?We shall tell them the truthWe shall imbue them with the vision of the new tomorrowSeemingly far, but yet so nearWe shall tell them that they hold the power in their own handsTo make this new wayA reality in our own life time.
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