I am really, really annoyed. I have choices as a citizen. I can say “I don’t care” and do the great American shoulder shrug that implies “whatever.” Or I can mentally stand up and present another viewpoint. But I need to dial back my own annoyance!

With the Mohawk debate, perhaps I should try some unmentioned facts, the end game of this illogical mess, and/or trust the majority of folks with common sense. The daily list of grievances has no end. But do those advocates not realize most human beings have a tipping point in terms of maintaining angst, zealotry, aspirations, or witch hunts in the spirit, guise of Henry Miller’s “The Crucible.”

I wonder if a real teaching experience, as mentioned in a Recorder editorial, is possible? The recent letter from a School Committee member of Colrain with a link to a website falls short of the mark as an educational piece.

How about a similar situation but not around race but religion? Two years ago there was a petition article at the Annual Town Meeting in Groton, Ma. to change the town seal. The round seal has a book labeled “Holy Bible” and a plow along with the words “Faith” and “Work” and the date of 1655. Some argued that the seal was from a distant, past history when faith and work were pertinent. I recently attended an exhibition at another school where student teams presented the history of a country assigned to them. Each team researched why their country was not responsible for WWI. Now that was informative.

If students did research on the Caribbean and North American Native tribes, they may discover there were about 2 million people around 1600 in 567 tribes and they were not a monolithic nation.

Learning occurs in multiple ways. I discovered the Navajos and the earlier Papagos and Tohono O’odham through the late Tony Hillerman’s mystery novels that have continued with his daughter, Anne Hillerman. His/her novels have the Navajo Tribal Police officers as main characters. Subtly in their writings you come to understand and appreciate an ancient culture.

For example, as you drive your vehicle up to but not close to a hogan or house, one is expected to wait. If the landowner wants to speak with you, they will come to the door and open it. Good fiction writers will give you sources for certain facts. And so did Hillerman in one of his early books. He cited the work of Harold Bell Wright’s “Long Ago Told,” a 1926 collection of the oral stories. If you like origins mythology, I recommend that book.

To keep it somewhat local, I think a study of the French and Indian War might be enlightening. The trading of captives might surprise some. I would hope that the students would learn that Native Americans were human beings with traits of good and bad, family/tribe-oriented, deeply spiritual and conservationists.

Now we are told that it is wrong to appropriate from others’ cultures. I do it all the time when I seek recipes for Mexican, Chinese and other ethnic foods. But if anyone seriously thinks we should change the name of Mohawk, it is only logical to go to changing our state name. Massachusetts is an Algonquin Indian word for “large hill place” — probably a reference to the Great Blue Hill in Milton, the remnants of an ancient volcano.

Social justice warriors need a new line of work. Their divisiveness is tearing us apart. The local culture here is quiet, polite and neighborly. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to say “enough.” What say you?

Marguerite Willis is a resident of of Charlemont. She is is a Selectman and a former 15-year School Committee member of both Hawlemont Regional School and Mohawk Trail Regional School Disctrict. She said she is writing this as a private citizen.