“What’s a Pilgrim, shaynkeit?” Mama asked. “A Pilgrim is someone who came here from the other side to find freedom. That’s me, Molly. I’m a Pilgrim!”
                                       . . .
     “I’m going to put this beautiful doll on my desk,” Miss Stickly announced, “where everyone can see it all the time. It will remind us all that Pilgrims are still coming to America.”
     I decided it takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.
                                                    from Molly’s Pilgrim
                                                      by Barbara Cohen
                                      illustrated by Michael J. Deraney
                                Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1983

       My grandparents were Pilgrims, too. All four of them. They came to America for religious freedom and for opportunity. They were astonishingly brave. They each, in their own time, left their families, everything they knew, put behind everything they feared and sailed into a future full of strangers, strange languages, strange food, strange money. They each learned English. They learned how to buy groceries, set up a bank account, build a business. They became citizens. They adopted America and America adopted them.
       I am grateful for their stalwart acts, their courageous ventures, their self-sufficiency. This Thanksgiving, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.
My grandparents exhibited:

• Self-reliance
• Determination
• Ability to comply with rules that are fair
• Capacity to stand strong and speak out against rules that are not fair
• Generosity
• Compassion for those less fortunate

       I like to think those character traits flowing through my own veins, too. 
       My grandparents did not give up everything for their own selves, for a better life for themselves. They did it for their (future) children, and for me and for my kids and my own grandchildren and even their grandchildren. 
       Today my grandparents would not be called Pilgrims, even though they were. They’d be called immigrants, which they also were. 
       This Thanksgiving I will define immigrants as people whose courage, self-determinism, and faith in a bright future, allowed them to pull up the roots of everything familiar and re-plant themselves into the unknown.
                             Happy Thanksgiving!
                                          --stay curious! (and thankful)

…if you plant a seed of kindness
in almost no time at all
the fruits of kindness will grow and grow and grow.
And they will be very sweet.
                                               from If You Plant a Seed
                                 written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson
                                      Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2015 
                                             found on YouTube 11/16/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TH44VOz7Y&feature=emb_logo 

    I don’t think I was an unkind child, but Mom’s voice still echoes. “You’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar,” I can still hear her say. It took a while for me to understand what she meant. I was young. 
    Kindness seems to be blooming, lately, though.
    I wonder, am I really tuned in to the kindness of others more, or is it easier to spot since we are comparing its opposite every other minute on news reports and media posts? People do seem more aware of the need to be kind. Kind to ourselves, to others, to our pets, to our plants, to our planet. It’s not that hard, as these websites show.
    Many of us just celebrated World Kindness Day. It is celebrated on November 13 every year. https://inspirekindness.com/world-kindness-day 
    National Kindness Week, also called RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Week falls in February each year. https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/rak-week 
    Last month, The Cleveland City Club teamed up with several local libraries for a Five Days of Democracy Challenge. https://www.cityclub.org/about/five-days-for-democracy Although not directly about kindness, being informed and making good choices bodes well for us all. 
    I made a few decisions this past week.

• I’m leaving the vitriol of election season behind.
• I’m working on not being afraid of COVID-19.
• Gratitude is my new watchword.

    It will take some work, but I’m willing. 
    Sometimes the world aligns. I was thinking of these ideas when I tuned in to a weekly radio broadcast, “On Being.”  https://onbeing.org/programs/remembering-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks/  Krista Tippett interviews prominent thinkers in all walks of life. Last weekend she re-ran a conversation she had with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, who sadly passed away last week.
    “How can we be true to our own convictions while also showing love towards the stranger?” she asked Rabbi Sacks.
    Of course he turned to the Bible as his authority. Rabbi Sacks believed one of the things we fear most is the stranger. For most of our history, people lived in homogenous groups. They talked the same, they looked the same, they thought the same. 
    As the world shrank and we started interacting with more and different people, we became fearful of strangers, called them the other. 
    To help us overcome that fear, we have instructions dating back three or four thousand years, Rabbi Sacks reminded us. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and one directly from Moses, “Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person.” Science has proven that when we are able to see the welfare of the other as somehow linked to our own, we’re able to rise to high moral ideals. 
    And doing good to and for others, having a network of strong and supportive relationships, and feeling a sense that our lives are worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness.            
    Since Crick, Watson, and Franklin showed the world that everything alive or once alive is made of DNA, we can look at biodiversity through a different lens. We humans are more alike than we are different. Color (hair, skin, and eyes), political ideologies, religious doctrines we hold sacred and dear aside, we all need to give and receive love, we need to feel our lives have a purpose, we need to feel validated.      
    Everyone’s role model, Fred Rogers, said it best when he asked each one of us to be his neighbor. His neighborhood really was the whole world.
                                        -—stay curious! (and neighborly)

    When Mississippi’s ma and pa named their baby, they called her Magnolia. She was a beautiful sight. Magnolia later became the official state flower, and the whole place was known as the Magnolia State. So pretty, that place.
         from Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It
                                      written by Andrea Davis Pinkney
                                            illustrated by Brian Pinkney
                                     Little, Brown and Company, 2020

    My dad was a philatelist. He collected stamps from all over the world and all over the United States, too. Two framed maps hung in our basement rec room. One was a world map, the other a map of the United States. It was a long time ago, so Alaska and Hawaii probably were not inset to the west of Texas, confusing third graders who tried to figure out the difference between east and west, on a map anyway. Alaska is not an island state, really.
    When I was in college, our sociology professor asked us to fill in a blank map of the United States. Easy peasy! But not for everyone. I was one of only two students who labeled every state correctly. Even Wyoming and Colorado. Even Alabama and Mississippi.
    On our honeymoon, my husband and I drove the girls to Florida, admiring the differences and the sameness of the states along the way. Later on, we took the girls to New England. Years after that, we drove across the northern states to Montana to pick up my younger daughter. She had decided to move back home after September 11, 2001. I’ve been out West visiting several of our National Parks. I’ve been to Kentucky, Washington State, and Oregon, but I’ve never been to Mississippi.
    Mississippi’s history is complex. With a total population of just under three million, Mississippi has the highest poverty rate of all the states. And the poorest education system. 
    One of the most powerful symbols of any state is its flag. Even though Mississippi achieved statehood on December 10, 1817, it did not have its own flag until right before the Civil War. As the story goes, on the eve of the Civil War, just before secession was to be declared, someone on a balcony overlooking the State Convention handed down a Bonnie Blue, a large, white star framed on a square, blue field. The Bonnie Blue was moved into the top left corner and a large magnolia tree was placed in the center of a white background. The flag may or may not have been outlined in red. The magnolia tree may or may not have been in bloom. Variations abound in the sources I consulted. But the Magnolia Flag served Mississippi for the duration of the War. It was not flown much. The Confederate battle flag was preferred. 
    After the War, another State Constitutional Convention nullified many of the ordinances and resolutions passed by the State Convention of 1861, including the provision for a State flag.
    So, in 1894, the Mississippi legislature replaced the Magnolia flag with a new one. The Confederate battle flag replaced the small Bonnie Blue. Thirteen stars represented the original thirteen states. They may also have represented the eleven states that seceded plus Missouri and Kentucky. Three horizontal stripes; blue, white, and red, replaced the magnolia tree. They may or may not have reflected the colors of the Union. 
    This second flag, with a few minor variations, flew over Mississippi until very recently. In 2001, the governor appointed a commission to design a new flag. A referendum was put before the voters, but they voted down the new design and the 1894 flag, the one with the Confederate battle flag embedded in the corner, continued to fly. 
    And even though the Confederacy was defeated and Abraham Lincoln tried to knit our country back together, some ideas die hard. White privilege is one. The Confederate flag is another.
    Condemned by organizations as diverse as the NCAA, Walmart, and the Mississippi Baptist Convention, the flag brought unwelcome controversy. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, weeks of protests, and a lifting up of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Mississippi voters finally said “no” to promoting racism on its flag. Exactly one week ago Mississippi voters finally gave up the Confederate flag.
    One hundred and fifty-five years and 7 months has passed since General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. President Andrew Johnson finally declared a formal end to the War sixteen months later.
    Mississippi is the last state to replace its flag with one that does not venerate the Confederacy. On Election Day, 2020, the people of Mississippi chose their new state flag.
    Please have a look. It’s beautiful, in so many ways. https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/new-mississippi-state-flag-election-results/6061248002/ 
    Since Mississippi was the twentieth state to join the union. twenty stars ring a large central magnolia blossom. A single gold star at the top represents the indigenous people of the land that would become Mississippi. The magnolia blossom represents hospitality. Two vertical parallel, gold lines flanking it and the gold stamen of the magnolia blossom itself symbolize Mississippi’s rich cultural history. 
    In January, Mississippi’s Legislature will formally enact the new design into law. The new flag will be flown around the state shortly after. 
    If we ever get to drive to Florida again, I’d like to detour through Mississippi. I’d love to admire that beautiful flag! 
                                     -—stay curious! (and wave strong)

    The peaceful transfer of power shows that the real power isn’t in the office or the elected official, but in us, the voters. And that’s why it’s important to vote on Election Day and also stay active all year long, paying attention to what our leaders do and say, because in the end, we’re in charge.
                                 What’s the Big Deal About Elections?
                                                written by Ruby Shamir
                                             illustrated by Matt Faulkner
                                                             Philomel, 2018
    
    Today is the 59th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-Third Amendment. It allows citizens of Washington DC to vote for president and vice president. Three years later, in the first presidential election after ratification, the people voted for Barry Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson. The election was significant maybe not so much for itself, but certainly for what followed.
    While he did not legally need to (as soon as 3/4 of the states ratify an Amendment it is certified and recorded making it part of the Constitution), one of Johnson’s first acts in his own full term as president was to sign, as a witness, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.
     Until January 23, 1964, when the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was ratified making a poll tax illegal, many Southern states and some other states, too, required it. The poll tax was a registration requirement in those states. Everyone paid it. Because of the poll tax, people who did not earn enough money to be responsible for income or property taxes were still able to help fund the federal government. It was in actuality, an effective way to suppress the vote of poor citizens, mostly Black and Brown people, but poor whites, too. If you did not pay the poll tax, you did not vote. The poll tax became illegal in 1964, with the ratification of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, but voter suppression was alive and well.
    Even though the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) declared “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote …  not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” (but not gender) the facts proved a different picture. It was not uncommon for some Southern states to require literacy tests, even until 1965. While the questions were (mostly) legitimate, answers were often obscure. Sometimes potential voters were asked to write portions of the Constitution from dictation. Spelling counted. For an interesting discussion on literacy tests see https://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm 
    For a moving and entertaining first-person account try https://themoth.org/story-transcripts/voting-day-transcript 
    In 1965, there were 15,000 black citizens of voting age in Selma, Alabama. Only 335 were registered to vote. On March 7, 1965, six hundred or so peaceful civil rights marchers began to walk their way from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital. In Selma, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police used night sticks, tear gas, and whips to stop the march. “The marchers were protesting the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper. They were protesting the lack of voting rights for Black people in America. They were protesting the lack of freedom for Black people in these United States of America. They were marching to Montgomery in search of freedom.” https://www.wave3.com/2020/06/30/column-rename-edmund-pettus-bridge-bridge-freedom/ The day became known as Bloody Sunday.
    A week later, March 16, 1965, President Johnson listed for Congress the many devious ways voter suppression was taking place. A week and a half after that, March 25, the marchers reached Montgomery. They were led by Martin Luther King, Jr. John Lewis was there, too, causing “good trouble.” 
    Less than six months later on August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists were present for the signing. Here’s a picture: https://www.nps.gov/articles/votingrightsact.htm 
    A legislative masterpiece, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, banned all discriminatory voting practices. According to history.com, <https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act> the Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in United States. 
    But voter suppression is alive and well in 2020. According to the Carnegie Corporation, for a variety of reasons it has become harder to register and even to vote. https://www.carnegie.org/topics/topic-articles/voting-rights/11-barriers-voting/  
    So what has changed since 1964 when the poll tax was abolished, really? Black people are still targets of police violence, many times resulting in death. This is not a problem for “law and order” to solve. 
    Black and Brown people are still living in poverty at many times the rate of the white population. This complicated problem can only be solved when government agencies work with non-profit organizations and regular people to recognize the disparities and address each one.
    Racism is a 400-year-old problem that can not be legislated away. We need to recognize each other’s strengths and build on them, to lift up everyone. 
    Bob Dylan’s 1963 lyrics sound like a breathless hope. I wonder if his vision is still possible? https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/thetimestheyareachangin.html 
    John Lennon’s “Imagine” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnlennon/imagine.html tempts us all with a blissful future of living together peacefully. I hope it’s not too late. 
                                             -—stay curious! (and patient)