Count me in as a supporter of the idea that the time has come to discuss changing the Turners Falls High School mascot. I am a proud and loyal Class of ‘70 graduate of TFHS, and my first two children are also graduates. I’m proud of its history of great teachers and of its feisty, fun, good-hearted, and talented student body.
I am not particularly proud of the fact that I wore an Indian headdress as drum majorette. My understanding now is that a headdress like that is a spiritual garment, reserved for elders who have spent a lifetime earning the right to wear it. I’ve learned that to those who know that, wearing one for fun is like wearing a medal of honor you didn’t earn. That’s how ignorant and careless we all were — adults and students — with another peoples’ heritage. We’re not so ignorant any more and we’ve learned not to be so careless.
What seemed like a joke to us was someone else’s proud and painful history.
Congratulations to the current Superintendent and the School Committee for opening the door to this discussion. Could we keep it that — a discussion? Does everything have to be a highly-charged debate, or an angry, divisive, public quarrel between increasingly-polarized contingents? I ask my fellow alums and others whom time and experience have made a little wiser over the years to come together on this and make it a satisfying, liberating, and maybe even unifying discussion. At the very least, we might all end up understanding a little better where those with differing opinions are coming from. Let’s use our TFHS PRIDE to show people how it’s done.
Patricia Crosby
Gill