This is the key point isn’t it. My favorite Jodie Piccoult book, Second Glance, tells the story of the American Eugenics movement. A homegrown, church supper, morally righteous, all-too-scientific version of racial purification. Set in Vermont, based on the seldom-told and tucked-into-an-attic-corner history of the we didn’t really mean it that way, and that isn’t us variety. But it is and we need to own it as much as all the glory, glory, bombs bursting in air. Last night I watched a Cold War story. An early cosmonaut was not recognized as a hero of the Party because he was not loyal enough to hold his breath long enough to survive after the failure of his ship. Dark humor, but this is how history is written. Stories picked and chosen, labels applied. The wider perspectives that might yield a greater sum of truth squelched, disregarded, ignored so long they become just unwelcome ghosts at the banquet. We know how that worked for the Macbeths. We need strong courageous voices, yours is one.
Cheers,
B
