Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, February 6, 2021

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FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Mountain View News Saturday, February 6, 2021 


SUSAN HENDERSON

Editor/Publisher

Making History

“The Hill We 
Climb”

Amanda Gorman

When day comes we ask ourselves, 
where can we find 
light in this never-ending 
shade? The loss we carry, 
a sea we must wade. We’ve 
braved the belly of the beast, 
we’ve learned that quiet isn’t 
always peace and the norms 
and notions of what just 
is, isn’t always justice. And 
yet the dawn is ours before 
we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we’ve weathered 
and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply 
unfinished.

We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny 
black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single 
mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself 
reciting for one. And, yes, we are far from polished, 
far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving 
to form a union that is perfect, we are striving to forge a 
union with purpose, to compose a country committed to 
all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

So we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but 
what stands before us. We close the divide because we 
know to put our future first, we must first put our differences 
aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out 
our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony 
for all.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as 
we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even 
as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together 
victorious, not because we will never again know defeat 
but because we will never again sow division.

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under 
their own vine and fig tree and no one should make them 
afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory 
won’t lie in the blade, but in in all of the bridges we’ve 
made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we 
dare it because being American is more than a pride we 
inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. 
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather 
than share it. That would destroy our country if it meant 
delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. 
But while democracy can periodically be delayed, but 
it can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our 
eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us, this is the 
era of just redemption we feared in its inception we did 
not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour 
but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, 
to offer hope and laughter to ourselves, so while once we 
asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now 
we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us.

We will not march back to what was but move to what 
shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent 
but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or 
interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction 
and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, 
our blunders become their burden. But one thing 
is certain: if we merge mercy with might and might with 
right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s 
birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we 
were left, with every breath from my bronze, pounded 
chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous 
one, we will rise from the golden hills of the West, we 
will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers 
first realized revolution, we will rise from the lake-
rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from 
the sunbaked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover 
in every known nook of our nation in every corner 
called our country our people diverse and beautiful will 
emerge battered and beautiful, when the day comes we 
step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn 
blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re 
brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.

 Amanda Gorman is America's Youth Poet Laureate who 
delivered this poem at President Biden's Inauguration


BLACK HISTORY IS AMERICAN 
HISTORY AND WHY WE STILL NEED TO 
REMEMBER IT.

“Black history isn’t a separate history. This is all of our history, this 
is American history, and we need to understand that. It has such an 
impact on kids and their values and how they view black people.” —
Karyn Parsons 

Several years ago, I wrote an editorial in this paper regarding Black 
History Month and why we still need to remember it. I re-read the 
article the other day and decided to publish parts of it again because nothing has changed 
since its initial publication, in fact, it has gotten worse. Since that time African Americans, 
and all other minorities have been through four years of the most racist President ever. His 
words are not only responsible for too many police officers feeling empowered to kill as was 
the case with George Floyd, and countless others, but escalated to the point that he incited 
a riot that killed 7 (the two officers that committed suicide are on his tab also.) But his 
demonic behavior ironically may have actually been good for America, especially African 
Americans.

Back then I wrote, (2017,) "Just today (Friday), the person holding what used to be the position 
that was held in the highest esteem, manipulated race and human weakness in order to get 
his way. It doesn't matter that Donald Trump's particular target this time was not African 
American's, his hatred and bigotry is becoming a metasticizing cancer in our society. He stirs 
the pot of hatred constantly and seasons it with lies and half truths. Case in point: His flat out 
lies that illegal immigrants are murderers, rapists and thieves, responsible for the crime in this 
country totally ignoring the FACTS that do not support his claim. He is quite satisfied to paint 
all illegal immigrants with a broad brush in the same way he took great pride in spreading the 
lies about President Obama's citizenship. And that, dear people, is the reason why we need 
Black History Month, Mexican American Heritage Month, Asian American History Month 
and a month for every ethnicity that history and misfits have attempted to distort their value 
in this society. 

Since then, starting in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and too many 
others, the nation's deep rooted racism was uncovered - something our community had 
been saying for decades. However, with the advance of technology it is no longer possible 
to hide many of the abuses that go on. When America saw Mr. Floyd's murder on the 
news, there was irrefutable evidence that racism was indeed alive and well, and that Black 
Lives Really Didn't Matter. As a result, the nation took a look at itself and many began 
to see exactly why Colin Kapernick 'took a knee' to the flag. And while talk is 'cheap' we 
saw actions and attitudes begin to evolve and take steps toward changing things. That too 
became a part of our history. 

“It’s important for us to also understand that the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ simply refers 
to the notion that there’s a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be 
addressed. It’s not meant to suggest that other lives don’t matter. It’s to suggest that other folks 
aren’t experiencing this particular vulnerability.” —Barack Obama

And then, the election happened. The 2020 presidential election broke records for voter 
turnout, including the number of minorities that cast a ballot.. Through the years many felt 
disconnected from the process that put powerful men in control of our future so they just 
didn't vote. When Barack Obama became the nations first Black President, the flame of 
hope was shining and the future seemed to show signs of progress. Then Trump happened, 
but as it turned out, despite all of his despicable policies, 30,000 plus lies and abhorrent 
behavior he became the ultimate motivator for the 30 million African Americans who were 
eligible to vote. And that is the latest chapter in our history, along with the election of Vice 
President Kamala Harris! 

So you still ask, “Why do we need (or still need or ever needed) an African American 
History Month? 

Reprinted from MVNews 2/4/2017

“....For some, particularly 20-somethings born in what has been called the post-racial era of 
America, there is no need to continue that month-long observance that grew out of Negro 
History Week in February 1926. To them, it's nothing more than a robotic tradition that trots 
out the same figures and facts every February.

For others, older generations and historians for example, there is a fear that facts about African 
Americans in U.S. history will be lost without Black History Month. As an example of that 
fear, that group can point to 2015, when McGraw Hill had to do some serious damage control 
after its high school world-geography textbooks included an embarrassing map description as 
part of its lesson on U.S. immigration patterns that read : "The Atlantic Slave Trade between 
the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to 
work on agricultural plantations." (If you can’t see what’s wrong with that statement, call me!)

The annual debate about the need for Black History Month likely won't end in 2017. Yet no 
matter which side of the discussion you land on, we would all do well to remember that Black 
history is American history and there remain lessons to be learned from our past. Lessons that 
can help us understand one another and perhaps bring us closer together.

President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, and he called upon 
the country to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of 
black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history."

This month is in remembrance of them, of the indomitable American spirit. The need for Black 
History Month remains and the lessons we can learn about our country and ourselves during 
this observance are clear.”

 That article sums it up very nicely. We all need to know about each other's culture and 
history so that we will become immune to the lies and misinformation people use to suppress 
and otherwise destroy those they wish to demonize. 

 So this month, February 2021, we should all try to learn more about each other, learn to 
respect other cultures and their contributions, learn to accept and embrace what we have in 
common. And more importantly immunize ourselves from bigotry and hatred that seeks 
to destroy. 

After all, Black History is American History as is the history of all other cultures that make 
up the fiber of this diverse nation. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com