I think it’s important to expand a little more about my school years and the importance of community, the current events of the time, and of math and science. I grew up in a tumultuous time in this rural county in the south. My pre-college school years were from 1961-1972. It was a time of discovery and baby steps into space. It was a time of transformation from the man-centeredness or anthropocentricity (as Edward Abbey called it in his book, Desert Solitaire). Abbey was right when he advocated that the world did not exist solely for the sake of humankind. The two key events that expanded this opinion into depths we had never seen before were the race riots and space exploration. Our civilization was changing whether we liked it or not.

At first, my small rural community didn’t experience as much racial tension as was occurring in the larger schools such as Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, and in the bigger cities in the mid-west and up north. However, the general opinion among most adults and many of their children was zero tolerance for differing opinions among the races and the sexes. Most people in positions of power would have preferred that we remain as we had for the past two hundred years, since the inception of the colonial states.

Some of the earliest horrible memories of high school were listening to the male students in high school trying to impress me with their tales of chasing down Black men and hurting them. They followed their parents’ lead and would chase these Black students into the woods, in the middle of the night, and unceasingly beat them – sometimes beating them to death – with sticks and chains. We were afraid to speak up in case we got burned out. We saw it on the TV, the burning of churches and crosses.There were talks of hanging these same men in front of their families. Those were the memories that stick out of my early education years, and the people I grew up with.

I had vastly different opinions about who was a part of our community. I believed back then and still believe today that everyone should be treated equally and fairly. Thus, the few friends I had in elementary school dwindled to a minimum, since I didn’t believe in what they did.

My school was the only school in my small rural county. Since it was one school for the whole county, one simply moved up the hall to high school. There were two schools, one for people of color, and one for whites. We didn’t see complete integration until 1971, my junior year in high school.

I suppose I could say I was a crusader, an early civil rights activist, in the south for rights of all people – especially women, people of color and anyone who the southern white male felt was inferior to them. I wasn’t a physical demonstration-type of person, but I continued to write about it in my high school reports as well as to the local paper about what was going on in the world and how we should just Wake Up!

It’s hard to believe how far we still must go and how racism and women’s rights have vanished vigorously in these past few years. I have believed in women’s rights since my birth, but I didn’t like the harshness of the feminist movement. You cannot hate the entire male race for what they believe. Unfortunately, that’s the way they grew up and so many women bowed to that way of thinking. We made some changes, and now it seems to be reversing. I still believe that everyone must learn by doing. I felt that if you did an exceptionally excellent job, didn’t do inappropriate things with men to climb your way up the ladder and expect respect as a result (this was a popular at the time to get promotions through side benefits), that you could do anything. I did learn that from my naivete, I didn’t get as many promotions, but I tried to stay on the path and do the best job I could in the circumstances presented to us. I had to come home and respect me no matter what others said.

I always kept that idealistic belief of how the world should really be in my mind throughout all the struggling times. I continue to work towards that ideal today. We must get beyond that deep-seated prejudice that will rise up inside us when we are afraid. We are ready to unite in one cause to keep our loved ones safe, our fellow human beings alive, our environment clean, and reach for the stars.

We must help everyone, no matter their race or who they represent. We should unite in one cause to keep our loved ones safe, our environment clean, and reach for the stars.

To be continued tomorrow……

I love you all and want you to be happy! Hugs and Kisses!