There will be unwelcome visitors in Lewiston on Jan. 11.
On that Saturday afternoon at the Lewiston Memorial Armory, members of the World Church of the Creator will hold a rally, anticipating they can raise enough support to drive non-whites from Lewiston. This Illinois-based group sees an opportunity to anchor its racist beliefs here.
A diversity celebration, in peaceful protest, is being planned for that day in another part of the city, one organized by people who live here that will focus on love and welcome, on acceptance and understanding.
On this Thanksgiving Day, January seems a far way off. The busy holiday season has just begun and it would be easy, for now, to ignore the intrusion of this violent group into our community.
A number of people have suggested that ignoring them is the best way to handle this supremicist group because members are seeking attention and publicity. If we don’t pay attention, they’ll go away. And we can continue our lives with only a small interruption on a Saturday afternoon in January.
We can and should certainly ignore the rally, but ignoring the message would be a mistake.
The message touted by the World Church of the Creator runs contrary to the culture of unity we enjoy in these 50 states. The best way to counteract that message is to confront our personal and national history.
This day of thanksgiving offers a perfect opportunity to begin a family discussion about the foundation of this country and the philosophy of acceptance and welcome that dates back to the Colonial period.
In every grade school in this community, at some time children are assigned to diagram their respective family trees. Children post names of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents on various branches. But do children really know their family roots?
Do they know that their grandparents migrated to Lewiston from Boston, or that a cousin may have immigrated here from Mexico, or that their favorite aunt is Vietnamese? Do they know that an uncle moved away from Maine and now lives in Atlanta, or that a parent was born overseas on a military base? That people move around in search of jobs and good communities?
While many of the people who now live in Lewiston were born here, many were not. Each person has their own story to tell about why they live here, and what makes Lewiston so special.
We are a community built on diversity of culture and experience.
People who say they are open to the World Church of the Creator’s message deny they are hate-mongers. They say it’s a matter of loving their own traditions, their own cultures, their own people more than they care about others. About separating themselves based on racial differences.
Whites employed the same argument to justify Indian massacres, Chinese railroad labor parties and black slavery. As the ruling class, whites repeatedly repressed others throughout history for their own – our own – benefit.
It seems to us that people have ample opportunity in America to appreciate their own culture without hating others.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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