You Just Didn't Understand!

The caller on the other end of the line was apoplectic. "Why won't you let us run the ad supporting you?"

"You don't understand," I said, "I just. . . ."

In the background in my office, my boss waved for my attention: "I didn't make myself clear," he coached. I had to take responsibility for the misunderstanding.

That very important lesson is one columnist Phillip Morris might want to take to heart. His earlier column claimed it was time to do away with Black History Month now that Barack Obama has been elected President. His follow-up column asserts: "Black history (let's get used to just calling it history) should be studied and celebrated contextually 12 months out of the year -- not just in February."

I agree 100 percent that American history should be taught in a way that incorporates the contributions of all the groups making up this country. However, I also think that Americans aren't to the point that each major group will get its just due quite yet. For that reason, I'm still for the special emphases we put on different groups.

I don't want less black history scholarship. I want more. Just don't call it black history. Don't confine it to February. . . .

Many argue that America's greatest strength is its freedom and diversity. If that's true, then it's time we perfect the embrace of the diversity by studying it intensely and understanding its historical and contemporary connectives.

Our global standing and our children's fortunes depend on it.

I'm with you there, Phillip, but you lose me when you continue,

Perhaps it's time that we choose a month for reflection and simply call it, "Thank God I'm an American" month.

Let's stop squeezing our past into convenient historical ghettos.

That sounds strangely like jingoism [Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism] and is not what we need. We may be proud to be Americans (despite what has recently been a disastrous foreign policy), but we also need to understand the entire world and our place in it.

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’

But the tax collector, standing far off, would beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” -- Luke 18: 9-14

Our prayer (for those who believe in prayer) might be better if it is thanksgiving for our luck at being born in a developed country and having the advantages we have, then asking forgiveness for what we permit our country to do to other countries in our names.