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An Incomplete Country?

Two of the participants were new members of Pasadena Village and some time was spent with introductions and biographical information sharing.

The recent local Los Angeles City election was discussed briefly with one participant noting that historic patterns of racial separation were noted in an initial analysis of election results.

The group next discussed an article by Clint Smith in the December edition of The Atlantic.  The article titled "Monuments to the Unthinkable" addressed the author's recent trip to Germany to explore how Germany approached acknowledging the Holocaust. He related some of what he learned to his work in his book "How the Word is Passed" and how slavery is acknowledged and discussed in the United States.

A participant suggested reviewing the work of Thomas Hubl on Collective Trauma. The participant noted that the group working with this material meet both locally and in an annual Summit.

The Equal Justice Initiative was discussed.

The participants then discussed several community initiatives and informational resources.

A comment made by the Governor elect of Maryland, Wes Moore was discussed. Mr. Moore is a descendant of an enslaved man who escaped and returned to the United States. When asked why he said "This country would be incomplete without me". The thoughts of the participants included:

1. The need to acknowledge the contribution of people of color to the nation.

2. The need to explore the meaning of the fact that most people living in the United States are immigrants.

3. The need to explore the meaning of incompleteness when we fail to acknowledge each person and their contributions.

The next meeting will be December 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM PST. We anticipate that there will be many topics of interest relating to the Lame Duck congress and what they might be able to get done before turning over control of the House to a different party. By that time, we will also know the results of the runoff in Georgia and what the balance of the new Senate will be. All of these activities will definitely have racial implications which we will want to explore.

We are also open to suggestions if anyone has a specific topic that they would like to suggest for discussion. Please sent it to my email.