In my town, we are engaged in an intense and contentious battle heading towards the ballot box next Tuesday. The vote is a non binding vote to change the name from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
The opposition campaign leaders are mainly Republicans and some are racists who want to hold on to Columbus Day. They use Machiavellian tactics straight out of the Trump playbook. They lie and engage in personal attacks. If anyone stands up to them, they attack. The progressive leadership are in shock. People are frightened of them.
They have propped up a woman of color to be their spokesperson. This tactic is also straight out of the Republican playbook. She reminds me of T. No one wants to challenge her because of her race and her Trump-like mendacity. She lies brazenly, gobbles up media attention, attacks her perceived enemies, and blind-sides her allies, although without apology or admission of wrong-doing.
The diversity group in town that has dedicated itself for thirty years to raising awareness about diversity, asked her to leave their BLM subcommittee and now she attacks them and is smearing their name. The local media people and town leadership are afraid of her.
It is shocking and baffling in a place that used to be a safe haven from lies and partisan politics.
The election is Tuesday. I pray that we win this in the name of truth, fairness, and for our children who know that Columbus's landing began the genocide, enslavement, theft, and ill treatment of indigenous people that continues to this day.
And I just breathe through it all, knowing that goodness is all around me, good people, people of truth surround me, and that this streak of lies and viciousness, cannot last and will not hold.
@jeanne-mayell Prayers that the Light that is and the sweet winds of change leading to Love and honoring ALL peoples make it so.
Really good news on the battle for the soul of my town at the ballot box. Last night, we won the referendum to end Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day!
The positive significance of this outcome cannot be exaggerated. It will influence other towns in Massachusetts and it will help the whole state, named after the first tribe, to change the name of this holiday. Eventually the U.S. will change the name too, which will shift education of the true history of our nation.
Thinking of these words:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that has. -- Margaret Mead
The battle to win this vote was intense and painful. It was Trump all over again but at the local level which was hard for me. I got to understand how many of you feel who live in red states.
I had more than a few moments of lost faith and there is always much to learn from those painful moments. Thank you @deetoo for helping me stay grounded and laughing during the day yesterday as I carried a sign at the polls in freezing winds. You are a true heart warrior.
I also received the positive energy from all of you who posted here, from @lowtide and @journeywithme2, @lovendures, and from the steadfast strength of @bluebelle, and @gradual goddess, @opal and the beautiful community that has formed in our Circle of Light including @lizzie. And this whole community, this tribe of light. Thank you, all.
@jeanne-mayell. Congratulations! I know how dear this issue is to your heart and I agree that Indigenous People’s Day will gradually be established across the country. I’m so proud of your being at the forefront of this movement. Just three days ago, I participated in a local dream group (Zoom, baby) in which the major topic was our country’s history of racial injustice. Racial inequality started at the beginning of white colonial settlements in New England, in the enslavement of Africans across the South and persists within our culture with the rise of white supremacists today. It’s all connected. The first step in changing direction is to face the truth of our history and to recognize importance of Native Americans, their cultures and their relationship to Earth.
I can just picture you out there in the winter winds, carrying your sign! Heartfelt congratulations!
Congratulations Jeanne! I was just thinking of you and wondered what had come of the vote. I am so happy to hear that it came through on the just side of things. Every little step in the direction of justice and fairness helps and will encourage others to do the same.
What were the referendum results, as in what percentage of voters chose to change the name?
Congratulations! I hope this wave continues throughout our nation too! I look forward to the day being changed from Columbus day. Weirdly though for me, it generally falls on Oct. 12, which happens to be my late mother's birthday. So perhaps mom will give it a gentle push in the right direction. ? ?
Definition of a Heart Warrior = Jeanne Mayell.
I am so happy for you my friend. Happy for your town and state too. Thank you for showing us how it is done (yet again) so we can gather our own inspiration through your example.
Thank you for letting us support you as you battled this just cause.
You have carried the whispered prayers from generations of Indigenous People with you as you traveled this emotional pathway to honor them. Their gratitude and love holds you now just as it fortified each step of your journey. You were never alone, even as you held your sign through the freezing windy day in Massachusetts.
We all were with you.
@coyote, the spread was 53.4% in favor and 46.8% against. I was surprised we won given the intense campaigning of the opposition. But the wording of the proposed bylaw was compelling and probably helped to win the question.
Question #1: “Should the Select Board, with the understanding that since 1977 Indigenous people of our country have requested Indigenous Peoples Day as a recognition of their humanity, culture, and history and further, that our country was built on Native lands, proclaim the second Monday of October henceforth be commemorated as Indigenous Peoples’ Day and cease to recognize Columbus Day in recognition of the position of Indigenous Peoples as natives to these lands, and the suffering they faced during and after the European conquest? This question is not binding.”
@jeanne-mayell Congratulations, Jeanne! What a wonderful outcome for all of the hard work you and your town put forth.
@jeanne-mayell. In honor of your town’s great victory, I would like to post this picture of a Wampanoag woman at Plimoth Plantation that I took a few years ago on Thanksgiving Day. (It won’t let me, the file is too big.) She told us stories of her people and of life close to the English colony there. I’m so very glad that honor and decency won the day in your town.
I wonder what the name of the Wampanoag woman is. If she’s older, there’s a decent chance I know her.
@coyote. She was probably in her 30’s. There were several other ladies working with her but I don’t remember them as well.
darn, I spent a great deal of time writing a response to @lovendures and then took out everything to do with my wife's nations language, natural law, how it all tied together - it fascinates me.
It made sense to me as I was writing it, but before I posted it, I pulled it because it didn't follow the thread quite so well. Maybe that part was supposed to be here :) but I got so involved I missed the obvious.
@jeanne-mayell I am glad the vote went as it did.
For anyone who wants to know more about how Columbus Day came to be in the first place, and why some Americans still hold it so dear, here is an article that sheds some light. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/christopher-columbus-racism/ .
Warning: If you are passionate about holding on to Columbus Day, you won't like this article.
The gist is that in spite of the historical record showing Christopher Columbus was a bad guy, Columbus Day was a way for Italian Americans, discriminated against during the early 20th century, to claim that their culture had a sacred role in discovering America. In 2021 America, Italian Americans no longer need Columbus. They have now made it into the highest ranks of whiteness.
Still some Italian Americans will fiercely defend Columbus Day.
It is perhaps safe to assume that most of the Italian Americans who so idolized Columbus in those early decades only knew the mythologized character...But today, the history is well-established. Any ignorance that Columbus massacred, tortured, enslaved, and traded Indigenous American and African people is willful. by Chris Gelardi, The Nation. To read on: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/christopher-columbus-racism/ .
@jeanne-mayell I hold no affection for Columbus and I wholeheartedly agree that he should not be celebrated, and that replacing "his" day with a day honoring indigenous people is absolutely right and just and overdue.
I do have a Libra-type thing nagging at me and I'm going to risk putting it out there.
I have read that some people would prefer to replace Columbus day with a generalized "Immigrants Day". While I think it would be inappropriate (kind of like twisting the knife) to schedule this on the former Columbus day (and I think indigenous people ought to have their own day) I was thinking maybe having an "Immigrant's Day" at some other time of the year is not a bad idea. All of us in the Americas (except the native peoples) have ancestors who came from elsewhere within the last millenium (I'm lumping the Norse in there). Not only could we celebrate recent immigrants, but also remind people who've been here since the 1600's that they are from immigrants, too. Might it be a way to celebrate the commonalities between Mayflower descendants and recent Latin American and Asian immigrants, and thereby encourage unity while we all learn about one another?
I was thinking maybe having an "Immigrant's Day" at some other time of the year is not a bad idea. All of us in the Americas (except the native peoples) have ancestors who came from elsewhere within the last millenium (I'm lumping the Norse in there). Not only could we celebrate recent immigrants, but also remind people who've been here since the 1600's that they are from immigrants, too. Might it be a way to celebrate the commonalities between Mayflower descendants and recent Latin American and Asian immigrants, and thereby encourage unity while we all learn about one another?
I love that idea! Immigrant's Day.
I wonder what the name of the Wampanoag woman is. If she’s older, there’s a decent chance I know her.
One of the most active members of our group is a young Wampanoag named Keisha James whose grandfather Wamsutta Frank James, led the Native American movement to call Thanksgiving a National Day of Mourning. Keisha and her mother have attended our meetings. You might know her mother. Keisha is a Wellesley College student and has been quite vocal. There is another Native person but she's not a public figure, like Keisha, so I can't name her here.
Last night my town completed the final stages of my group's quest to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Up until now, both our Town Meeting election, and our town referendum (town wide election) results had been by law non binding.
Last night was the final vote of a five member board. I showed up and spoke, along with two colleagues, to urge the Board to carry out the will of the people and vote to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
I had urged my other colleagues to show up lest the meeting be overrun by adversaries, but our leader, a soft and trusting person, was just so sure that it wasn't necessary.
Well, it turned out to be a painful bitter night in which only three of us proponents spoke and the Select Board was besieged by a large number of bitter, angry, pleading, attacking pro-Columbus advocates. They did not care about democracy or the town votes, but only about their cause. For them, democracy does not matter if they don't win. Sound familiar? But still I felt their pain and I want to acknowledge that.
But the Select Board, all people I know -- the wonder of small town politics-- went ahead and voted the change to Indigenous People's Day.
I lay in bed this morning wondering why I am so passionate about swapping Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples Day. I'm not Native American but this has been so important to me. My head turned to the window and I stared out at the woods behind the house. I saw them in my mind's eye, Native people, walking among the trees, fishing and hunting. It's about the land and the truth of that land and how they were here for 10,000 years and how they loved it.