The Tulsa race massacre casts a shadow that persists in spite of our best efforts to deny what occurred in that Greenwood neighborhood one hundred years ago.
I continue to be shocked by the viciousness of the assault, and by the fact that I did not know anything about this atrocity until my mid 60s. To his credit, President Biden traveled to Oklahoma on the anniversary to stand with survivors. By doing so he belatedly began to fill the appalling silence with truth.
Where was Tulsa when I learned my American history in school? There was so much left out that I needed to know, so much omitted expressly so I wouldn’t know.
These stories need telling, and we need to listen with a contrite heart.
Ignoring trauma does not undo the fact that it happened, nor that it may continue to damage each one of us and the psyche of our nation. What we avoid we nonetheless carry. It is a great weight.
Observation: The Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is a present-day example of an event of consequence being written out of history in order to prop up a favorable narrative by not reckoning with the truth.
George Mason
Nobleboro
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