Social Issues
Genocide - Will we learn from the mistakes of the past
I am in an airport in New Jersey, by accident. Accidents like that can happen in the United States, much more so than they can happen in other places, I am told. It’s called Newark, after the city it’s in, after the city the people came from hundreds of years ago, I’m guessing. It’s shiny; the floor squeaks under my feet as I approach the terminal, and there is enough neon lighting there to open a casino. I am flying to Seattle to coach basketball, and I am waiting for my flight. I acknowledge that I am very blessed. I sit down to have a beer in a dimly lit airport pub; it costs eight dollars, but that doesn’t improve its taste. The pale woman next to me, perched awkwardly on her stool, is from New Jersey, the first and, of yet, the only state to have mandated “Holocaust education” in the state school’s curriculum.
In praise of cultural diversity
This summer I had the opportunity to return to my native New Mexico. I got to spend some glorious days in Albuquerque and parts north. While visiting, I extolled the virtues of New Mexico, its people, its communities, and its marvelous diversity to whoever would listen. There were many who did. They in turn spoke to me about what they perceived to be the considerable amount of cultural conflict in the state and were interested in hearing my perspective on it, both as someone who no longer lives in New Mexico and as a cultural anthropologist.
