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I have tears in my heart with the Trump administration’s Orwellian (whitewashing) DEI program’s erasure of women and people of color achievements from the public record.
When I was going to school to become an art teacher in the 1970s, the gold standard in learning was “History of Art” by H.W. Janson. Unfortunately and disgracefully, it listed no famous women, the likes of Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe and Faith Ringgold. It wasn’t until the ‘80s that some of these women artists and others were included.
We are fortunate in this state to have and had women — politicians like Margaret Chase Smith to Olympians such as Joan Benoit Samuelson and astronauts in Dr. Jessica Meir to actors like Anna Kendrick — who have pursued their dreams and have made a difference for their community, state and country. By ignoring contributions made by all, we weaken and damage ourselves by not acknowledging the struggles and historical references that women and people of color have endured to achieve benefits for us all.
I have stood on the shoulders of many — friends and community — who passed on their history, to get where I have gotten today and I am truly grateful.
In Lincoln, the community has a school named Ella P. Burr after a fourth grade teacher who led her students to a newly constructed grade school called Ballard Hill in the fall of 1920. How sad and tragic it would be to erase a historical reference due to being a woman.
Sarah Stuart
Lincoln
