A parent's greatest gift

Recent events in the news caused me to reflect on my own attitudes toward racism, family, and values. With the recent passing of my mother, I remembered how my family gave me the greatest gift of all. Never did I ever hear a hateful word about people of color, different ethnicity or background.

My father's theater business entered my parents into a world of diversity. They both appreciated people who were different from them. I later passed these values to my own children, and my children continued to celebrate diversity with their children.

I tell this story because recently my grade school granddaughters sat at my kitchen table for lunch and initiated a conversation with me about the recent slurs cast by our president on the four freshman congresswomen. Why, my eight year old granddaughter asked, was Trump so mean? She mentioned her own good friend, a girl of color, and said, "How could anyone feel that way?"

The 10-year-old reflected those feelings about several of her close friends. All of the friends were people of color, a term that the girls had heard. I had no answer that could ever make sense, because there are none.

I agreed, praised their young wisdom and said that a great gift in life is loving all people and not seeing them as any different.

We are faced with a terrible problem in this society when young people are not given the greatest gift of acceptance for all people and celebrating the value each individual contributes to our society. We as parents, grandparents, educators and community members need to work extra hard to communicate this message to our children. Their future world depends on it. It is the greatest gift we can give.

Jennifer Buehler Shaw

Barrington