How long will it take to right a wrong ?

"How long will it take to right a wrong ?" A wrong, this wrong, probably unintended started thousands of years ago by being told as a story, basically conjured up in the minds of the more influential men of the tribe. Most likely these men were the leaders of their villages, in fact, they probably were the spiritual leaders feeding off the unknown trying to weave some sense of meaning out of life for whomever they influenced.

I'm sure, "The Garden of Eden" went through numerous revisions as the stories of it were verbally passed down through countless generations. The same goes for the concept of an omnipotent God : an Almighty Jehovah, a single God rather then multiple ones. As people were able, they began a written tradition to record life as they observed it. Then the clerics of the church needing to solidify their high position sought artists and artisans to sculpt figures and paint images that exemplified the church.

All over Europe, seemingly all at once, this cultural renaissance exploded in exclusively white churches under control of white skinned clerics. All the statues, all the paintings, all the written words depictd life, especially influential lives, with images of white people. Why ? White is all they saw at home, at work, at church, in paintings, through statues, all, everywhere. The all white European churches then became so highly successful their influences swept the World and the goodness of being white was their standard. From Europe to the World this word spread even to America where white missionaries pressed the white supremacy to all indigenous people they encountered.

I'll ask again, "How long will it take to right a wrong ?" Unintended, probably, but so highly effective that "white supremacy" has polluted thinking forever. An American school child even today can't get away from it especially in a white church affiliated school. Dumbed down schools, as found these days, won't change the facts but only broaden the abyss. "The way a twig is bent so grows the tree" is a familiar phrase that tells what happens all the time in nature. The same is true in youth. At a highly impressionable age young minds soak up numerous sights and sounds from school and their surroundings, the church being one of the most influential contributors.

"How long... ?" Only through you, one person at a time, can a worldwide error be remedied. It is in your own best interest to do so. If left to fester further in time surely more turmoil will occur, more barriers will be erected, and finally a tipping point will be reached ---beyond which the unknown.

Ronald C. Downie

A Grand Marshall's Lament

I am truly sorry !

Yes, if I could turn the calendar back, I would. You see, last year, I was chosen to be the Grand Marshall ( the very, "First Grand Marshall"  ) of the Fourth of July Parade held here in Pottstown. Whatever I did, It must have been something wrong because, this year, there was no parade. Am I to go down in Pottstown's history as the very first, as well as, the very last Grand Marshall in our town's hundreds of years of history ?

Little did I know that last year I was setting the town up for a fall. Poor John Potts would roll over in his grave if only he could have known. Me, one of the chief champions of the town; one, who has lived here over eighty years, now turns out to be a loser.

How does a town our size die ? Our's has outlasted Indians, plagues, floods, wars, loss of industrialization, and loss of population but still has survived. The problem still remains that the town can't survive me.

Surly as ever, Pottstown is a structured governmental unit which works as well as its present personnel allows it to. But, the spirit, the character, the essence of a town lies in incalculable intangibles pent up in its citizens which reside there at the moment. It is in these ordinary citizens, the simple ones who love a parade, the ones who love fireworks, those who honor a place to live, not for structure of governance, but for a few intangibles found there which trumpets the spirit.

For these people, I am truly sorry that I let them down !

Ronald C. Downie,
Former Grand Marshall