Letter to the editor: On Tuesdays we march against fear, hate

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Editor’s note: Ginny Tonsi Showman is the Democratic candidate for the Greene County Board of Supervisor from District 5.

To the editor:

On Tuesdays we march. Signs are carried for all to see: “Black Lives Matter” and “Silence is Violence” and “I Can’t Breathe” among them. We have been asked “Why? Why do you march?” We have also heard “All Lives Matter.” We recognize, yes, all lives should matter, but the truth is, all lives have not mattered, and so we march.

Marching is personal to me. I march for my father, my grandfather, for my father’s story:
My dad was born in 1928 in southern Iowa to Italian immigrant parents. My grandfather found his way there to work in the strip mines.

If you are unfamiliar, strip mining was prevalent in a large part of Iowa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strip mines usually ran close to the surface. Most tunnels were shallow and ran parallel to the ground; often the tunnels were barely tall enough for a child to stand in.

It was dirty, back-breaking work. Miners bent over all day. Despite all that, my grandfather was proud to have a job that provided for his family.

Many times over the years, Dad told us The Story. It happened when he was 6 or 7 years old, and every time I heard Dad tell it, I could see the scared little boy reliving that night. It changed his view of the world for the next 75 years.

One cold night, my grandmother heard a commotion on the front lawn of their modest house. My dad vividly remembered looking out the window with his little brother at his side. What they saw was terrifying. Men in white hoods were burning a cross in their yard!

My grandfather, though, was not going to let this happen. Against Grandma’s pleading, he went out into the night to confront the hooded gang. Not just confront them as a group, but he called them out by name.

During the Depression, most people had one pair of shoes. They wore them to church, to the barber shop, and to work in the mines. Bent over all day, my grandfather knew their shoes better than their faces. The hoods and robes could not hide the one thing he identified with them.

He asked how they could work beside him every day, doing the same back-breaking work, and then come to his home and frighten his wife and his family.

Hoods could make cowards feel brave. But once outed, those hoods just served as shameful representations of their prejudices and fears — fear that the mines would dry up and they would be without jobs, fear these “others” would be the ones to “take their jobs,” fear of anything different.

After he called them out, the hooded men walked away in shame, but the memory of that burning cross stayed with two little boys for the rest of their lives. It is the reason my dad spoke up for those who could not. It is the reason he was involved in causes for justice. It is the reason my sisters and I became the people we are.

What I do not know is how my grandfather continued to work side-by-side with people who terrorized his family. Jobs were scarce, and he had mouths to feed. His only choice. Dad’s family stayed in their small town until he went to high school. The mines had quit producing. The jobs were gone. The miners moved on.

My dad’s skin was white. It did not matter. Some 85 years ago, the lives of a young Italian family did not matter to the men who tried to scare them into leaving. Their lives did not matter to people who saw them as “less than” because their name ended in a vowel.

The Story changed lives for generations. The Story was told not to scare us or make us hate. It was told to remind us no one is less than anyone else. No one deserves to be terrorized. No one deserves to be treated with anything less than dignity and respect.

Until we recognize the truth that, in the entire history of our country, all lives have not mattered, we will continue to be there on Tuesdays. Until we can honestly say, “Black Lives Matter” without hesitation or modifications, we cannot say, “All Lives Matter.” And so we march.

Ginny Tonsi Showman
Jefferson

2 COMMENTS

  1. I agree all lives matter. But maybe you should delve into the BLM organization and see what their founders stand for and some of their leaders are saying. They are Marxists bent on destroying America as we know it. If you deny those facts, you are just naive and a pawn for them.

  2. That was a nice history lesson, but you are a candidate for office; what do you plan to do?
    Do you have ideas about school reopenings?
    Do you have any ideas on how main street businesses can reopen and operate safely?
    I did not read a word about taxes nor a word about the upcoming shortfalls in budgets because of the added expenses the virus has caused.
    How about the upcoming influx of migrant workers to process the area’s corn seed producers crop? We are about to have hundreds of people coming from Texas and further south coming into our State to detassle and husk/sort at the end of this month but you did not even address those folks and the lack of quarantining they will not do.
    Like I sharede, it was a great history lesson but you are running for office today and nothing you wrote addresses today’s very serious issues that are not something we can ignore.

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