Opinion: Black and Native people are kindred spirits in adversity. Deb Haaland understands that.

[demmiblue]

The first time I saw Deb Haaland cry, she was a congresswoman from New Mexico, and she was standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

It was 2019, during a civil rights pilgrimage led by John Lewis. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) wailed out as a hymn was sung, and Haaland reached to comfort her. It was impossible not to be moved standing with Lewis on the bridge where he was almost killed in 1965.

So it wasn’t a surprise to watch tears well this week for Haaland, now the interior secretary, as she stood outside the Mississippi courthouse that once set free the murderers of Emmett Till. For Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, visiting these sites doesn’t just mean remembering the injustice inflicted upon Black people; it means walking the ancestral lands that were home to Indigenous people long before the slave ships came. Long before the boundaries between the races were drawn, and then reinforced by Jim Crow. She knows what it means to come from people who experienced prejudice and violence — the kind of violence that killed Till when he was just 14 years old.

A 2017 act of Congress spurred the current effort to incorporate existing sites that honor the history of Till’s 1955 lynching into the National Park Service, and it’s what brought Haaland to the Mississippi Delta to listen. What she heard was pain from a community that wants Till’s story told truthfully.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/18/deb-haaland-emmett-till-sites/

[panader0]

1. She was an excellent choice by Joe.

I live in what was the Gadsden purchase, an area that was once all Hispanic, like so much
of the Southwest. Hispanics are kindred spirits with Blacks and Natives too. I wouldn't rule out the
Chinese, largely forgotten for their role in developing the West.

[brush]

3. Chinese immigrants were instrumental in building the intercontinental railway.

It was dangerous...what with the blasting thru rock and all. Many died.

[Demovictory9]

2. K&r

[Diamond_Dog]

4. K&R

[marked50]

5. Deb Haaland represents the core of myself as to why I live in New Mexico

I have never put this journey of my soul into any forum or even written form. But I feel I must tonight, for some reason.

I am 68 years old and would consider self as someone growing up in the 70's as being liberal in my thinking and lifestyle.

When I came to the time to "make" something of my life; for most- when they graduate from High School or something similar or simply; "Do I want to do this for the rest of my life", I decided that it was my time.

I had recently graduated from HS but had nothing going except.....

I worked at a Vet (during HS and after)-This was early '70's; cleaning kennels-Vet Assistant + more, -nice job, loved the people, animals, customers but wondered about the next the few years.

Real clear that I wanted something else. Didn't have a clue about that but figured I needed to go college to move ahead. I had good grades in HS, high in school achievement ratings, even National Honor Society.

So, I decided to select some place to go for that college education. Grades, etc, would have made it easy to go to some really prestigious place (not a brag here- but a descriptor to my thinking of decision making).

I lived in Kansas. So it was place and not Kansas or some academic credential that was important.

How to proceed? I went to my alma matter HS because I knew they had File cabinet with a drawer full of Colleges/Universities arranged alphabetically.

Started with "Alabama"- no way ,"Alaska"- nope- too cold, "Arizona"- yeah sounds neat......Went through all the states and decided on the ones in the West and narrowed them down to few. No real known criteria other than "Would I want to live there".
Applied to 5, and accepted to them all.

Decision time. I went on a road trip to the campus of all the potentials- I had narrowed them down to 5-all in the West.

Trip was Bus ( a wonderful experience of people- and weirder than anything I knew), Hitchhiking ( also a learning thing- I would not recommend), and trains and friends.

After all this, if you're still with me, I arrived at what my decision would be.

New Mexico. This was entirely based upon my experience with the people I interacted with on my visit in the city/university. I felt a connection to everyone- acceptance, friendliness-- it was a somewhat serene experience. People looked you in the face and said "Hi".

I visited the other campuses and felt nothing like what NM felt like, to be a place to spend at least 4 more years of my life.

I planted myself in NM. Lived a full rich college life here, with all the diversity it presented.

Nothing is perfect in the area of diversity acceptance but I know of no other place in the US to experience it's attempt and at least it's feeling of that attempt.

It is a place where you could interact with Native Americas, Latinos who are either new here or who out-date any Europeans in this place, and Anglos (oh, by the way I am a Kansas Swede/German/English--3rd Gen transplant)--( not a high population of Blacks but I made up this miss for myself by having a long time roommate of that ancestry- a good friend) and it all works on a basic level of humanity.

After getting that "Degree" I didn't have much luck in finding a place in NM to use it. Moved out-of-state, but that only lasted a few more years before I could "par-lay" my experience to return to the place where my soul feels complete and at peace.

I will most likely live the rest of my days here and I am solidly with Deb Haaland, and all those who know of this magic of "The Land of Enchantment".