Learning Truth
November is Native American Heritage Month, and I am again struck by the feeling and experience in our collective journey of learning truth. It feels like in every story I read or hear, there is something about our history and heritage that I never heard before. Or if I heard it before, I never really understood what it meant.
As we learn truth, we can see a bigger picture than the history that we learned “growing up.” We can hear the same facts and data with a perspective that does not have the burden of trying to sugar coat or save face that our ancestors had. Each of us individually and those of us here now collectively did not cause or do these historic acts directly. But we certainly have been impacted by them, and at a bare minimum we can start by learning about their significance.
It is understandable that those alive at the time of the events in our history, and those that survived, tell the stories from their perspective. We have a competitive culture and history, so it is not surprising that in order to compete we must demonize those we are fighting against. We do this every day in our careers, jobs, businesses, politics, and any other place where it is one against another for some limited outcome.
Whenever we put judgement into a conflict, though, we form a wall and stop progress. We use that wall to justify all kinds of bad acts. In our history, we continue to discover that many of those acts were quite atrocious. We do not need those judgements anymore though, and we have learned they were arbitrary and erroneous. Now then we can approach these history lessons with empathy and understanding.
With an empathetic start, we can begin to understand how best to move forward. What are some of the traditions and heritages that were quieted over history that still have value and purpose today? How can we remain respectful and celebrate our diversity as an asset, not a hindrance. In any population in science and humanity, the more diverse it is, the more powerful it can grow to be.
Learning truth is a constant and lifelong effort. Sometimes it is painful. But with learning truth we can find our best future built with clear understanding of the lessons of the past.
