Better yet: what do you do with what\u2019s hard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday the Randolph Board of Education in Morris County, New Jersey, a little more than an hour northwest of Manhattan, voted unanimously to remove all holidays from their academic calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month ago the board made the decision to rename Columbus Day in a motion not on the public agenda nor discussed in any depth; it was admittedly, mostly just voted on and passed. Unfortunately, their later-apologized-for hastiness offended multiple members of the school district, especially the Italian American community, for whom the discovery of the Americas by the holiday\u2019s Italian namesake is a source of tremendous meaning and pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an effort to hopefully extinguish the uproar, the board crafted a perceived solution to the controversy. As reported by their local neighborhood news source, Tap Into Randolph:<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026 A motion was made to remove the names of all holidays that mention ethnic or religious groups, to not exclude or offend any other group. Realizing that some groups are still \u2018left out\u2019 and they cannot and do not recognize everyone, the board suddenly decided to vote on removing all holiday names and simply calling them \u2018Day Off\u2019\u2026 As the vote went down the row with a unanimous \u2018Yes,\u2019 the stunned and confused public erupted once more, with some shouting at the board, \u2018What just happened? What did you just do?<\/em><\/strong>\u2026\u2019\u201d [emphasis mine]<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDay off.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not just Columbus Day, but Christmas, New Year\u2019s, Rosh Hashanah\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Memorial Day, Thanksgiving\u2026 even teacher convention days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note one board member\u2019s explanation thereafter: “If we don\u2019t have anything on the calendar, we don\u2019t have to have anyone [with] hurt feelings or anything like that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, we ask once more: what do you do with what you don\u2019t know what to do? What do you do with what\u2019s hard?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My sense is we have three options. One, we discuss the difficult with fact, grace, and sensitivity to all it may affect. Two, we distort the difficult \u2014 typically minimizing or maximizing for select purposes. Or three, we simply refuse to deal with it. The Randolph Board of Education chose option three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Intramuralist hopes to always select option number one. In fact, on most everyone else\u2019s calendar this coming Saturday is Juneteenth. While the Emancipation Proclamation declared freedom for all those enslaved in the United States, enforcement was dependent upon Union troops, and Texas was the most remote of the slave states. Juneteenth marks the day in which freedom from slavery was proclaimed in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hard reality of how the above played out is that there were two and a half years between when Pres. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s proclamation became official and when the last of America\u2019s slaves were set free. It is estimated that there were 250,000 persons still enslaved at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a tough reality, friends. It again reminds us that there is a good, bad, and an ugly woven throughout our nation\u2019s history. Thankfully, however, as Sen. Tim Scott poignantly reminded us last April, \u201cOriginal sin is never the end of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s not distort the difficult. Let\u2019s not minimize nor make it either all good or all bad or all good or bad now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s not rewrite history. Let\u2019s ensure we wrestle with fact, not fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let\u2019s not refuse to deal with it. Let\u2019s not erase it from our calendars. When we erase it \u2014 when we tiptoe through topics, through original and recurrent sin, through hurt feelings and holidays \u2014 we miss the opportunity to learn and grow from the totality of the issue\u2026 from Juneteenth to Columbus Day\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n May we always, therefore, uncompromisingly discuss the difficult\u2026 always with fact, grace, and sensitivity\u2026 generously so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Better yet: what do you do with what\u2019s hard? On Thursday the Randolph Board of Education in Morris County, New Jersey, a little more than an hour northwest of Manhattan, voted unanimously to remove all holidays from their academic calendar. A month ago the board made the decision to rename Columbus Day in a motion … <\/p>\n