In celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, my husband and I played host this past weekend to daughter Becka who, along with her husband, Ché, and their two Perfect Children, came to visit from their home in Newton, Massachusetts. Raised in reasonably rural Maine, Becka sometimes longs for the tranquility of rural life, the friendliness of Maine towns, and the absence of angry traffic. But she and Ché also love being a stone’s throw from the T and relish the arts, culture, sports, and diversity the Boston area offers. Their son’s second grade class includes children whose parents hail from Colombia, Russia, China, inner city Boston, and other places near and far. The students’ names at the college where Becka works suggest homes far from New England.
While the visit included more than a bit of sledding, it also consisted of conversations about the informal community network in Newton created to organize contributions of nightly meals for a young mother whose husband recently died; an assessment of the upcoming Senate battle in Massachusetts; and the recent election of Newton’s first African-American mayor, Setti Warren.
The other morning on NPR, Tovia Smith reported on the historic nature of Warren’s election in Newton, the first U.S. city with a popularly elected black mayor, governor and President. As Smith reported:
[Warren] says it was extremely emotional to be sworn into office alongside his young daughter and his parents, who are part of a generation that still had to fight for the right to vote.
"You know, my father marched in the civil rights movement. Jim Crow was prevalent across the country. And to go from that to having my daughter's generation have three African-Americans [in office] — mayor, governor and president," Warren says. "I mean, that's all she's ever going to know! It's just business as usual. I'm awed by it."
Warren spoke with both President Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick after he was elected, but no one mentioned the milestone.
I, too, marched in the civil rights movement and am heartened by the nation’s progress in achieving greater racial equity. But we in Maine have a long way to go before being able to claim Newton’s “business as usual.” If Maine is to succeed over the long-term, we will need to embrace our own diversity and others whose skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and experiences reflect the world outside our borders. I’m not at all sure how to do that, but I welcome your thoughts.