home ground 4
Letter to the Editor, The Morning Times, Sayre Pennsylvania, October 1, 2021
Dear editor and readers:
I am writing to join my voice to the diverse and numerous people calling on schools, institutions and professional sport teams to end the use of the racial slur “r*dskins” as the name or image of their mascot.
I believe dreaming is a form of planning, so let’s fast forward, to Fall 2022 and imagine the Sayre Areas School district has adopted a new mascot: the Bears.
Bears are local to the area. Bears can be quite fierce or cuddly and sweet. There are Wildcats and Wolverines nearby, why not some bears? And it has a great ring to it, doesn’t it?
Go on, try it. Say it, you know you want to …
Go Sayre Bears!
The memory of the Sayre R*dskins will be preserved in the pages of history, where we hope one day all out-dated and anti-humane practices dwell so we can study and learn from them. Improving the conditions of our collective story and growing our mutual understanding of our stories all along the way.
Now and then, there will be healing work to do so everyone feels seen and heard, but meanwhile, let’s take a deep breath and do this, people. Changing the name is overdue and growing longer overdue.
Yee-haw, yippee-kay-ey-oh!
Go, Sayre Bears!
Denise Drake
SHS / Class of 1986
Today the newspaper in my hometown published my letter to the editor. But because of data protection and different rules in different “calendars and geographies” I can’t view the website.
That’s fine, I understand the situation. Yet it is just one more indication of the upside world we inhabit. The (false) realities that we create for ourselves. We (or at least I usually) generally think we are all connected and we live in a global village. Information, goods, money, people freely move around. But it is not like that. There are barriers to overcome, hoops to jump through, funny rules for some and easy, or no rules, for others.
Anyhow. I digress. Sorry.
Here’s the report I get when I try to reach my The Morning Times from Valencia, Spain.
We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact editor@morning-times.com or call 570-888-9643.
Nothing else to say really. I have thought about writing that letter for a long time and I am glad I did and it was published. Now let’s see what, if anything, happens. Or if I even ever hear about it.
If you haven’t signed the petition, why not? I encourage you think about it. And for others, GET OVER THERE, and do it. Please and thank you.
TAKE ACTION
Join your voice to the campaign to replace my high school’s mascot to something else! Please sign the petition here. Thanks for reading, and go Sayre Bears!
previous posts in the series “home ground”
home ground 1 – thanksgiving
home ground 2 – the susquehanna river
home ground 3 – today 173 years ago …
act, believe, change 