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Linda Querry's avatar

Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha.". I think you should do do something with this poem to honor James Earl Jones, Discrimination comes in so many forms as the MAGAs have been so proficient in exhibiting. That poem reference brought back memories for me, My Granny’s father, Jacque LeVrone jr. was the son of a French Canadian, Jacque LeVrone and as the family story goes a Cherokee woman whose name was not known. She died in childbirth, 5 years later, Jacque remarried a white woman who did not want a halfbreed with a club foot around so he was given a way to a neighbor, They had a child who they also named Jacque LaVron jr, thus also giving away his name, He later married and became a farmer but struggled with alcoholism. As you are parented so you partner. granny married a man who while he didn’t drink, was a womanizer and hit his wife and children, Granny had managed to go to college and was a teacher and loved books, but was required to quit teaching when she married, Her Catholic priest told her that her treatment was her cross to bear in this life and she would be rewarded in heaven as marriage was a sacrament and could not be undone, She was treated like a brood mare having a baby every three years. She was pregnant or nursing for 24 years. My memories of her are fond. As children, each summer we would each spend a week on the farm. Granny didn’t talk much, but always wore moccasins and gave us Indian dolls.I suppose to honor that part of her heritage. One of my fondest memories of her entertaining me was when she took out her false teeth and lisped her way through reciting Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha.".

How many others has this poem comforted and inspired and in what ways?

Both of my children were born with a 1/3 club foot reminding me of our ancestors and the threads that tie us all together.

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Gloria J. Maloney's avatar

We can't apologize enough for the hurt that prejudice has caused individuals and minority communities. I only recently found out how racism caused us to have this fragmented, patchwork mess of healthcare we call a system here in the U.S. We could have had a single-payer universal healthcare system starting early in the 20th century if not for many prejudiced people trying to keep blacks from receiving life-saving care and wanting to keep white hospitals to stay white. When are we going to have equality in healthcare, at least if not economic equality?

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