Superintendent’s Chat

Richard McClements, Shonto Preparatory School

One of the great children’s books was written by Dr. Seuss and is entitled, The Star Bellied Sneetches. A “sneetch” is a pretend animal in this book, and there are two types: those with stars on their bellies and those sneetches who do not have stars on their bellies. Those sneetches with stars on their bellies are considered “upper class” and extremely special sneetches.” They consider themselves superior to other sneetches who have no stars. As you can imagine, the sneetches without stars are very jealous.

A character comes into the sneetch town with a special machine. He tells the sneetches who have no stars that he can put stars on their bellies. Of course, the sneetches without stars line up and go through the machine. Out they come with stars. They are happy and proud. As you can expect, the sneetches who had stars all along are upset. They know they are “better,” and just because the converted sneetches suddenly have stars doesn’t mean to them that they are now the elite sneetches.

So the sneetches who originally had stars on their bellies now talk to the man and tell him that they want the stars removed so it is clear they are the best. So they go into the machine and come out without the stars. Now the sneetches who never had stars go back into the machine and have their new stars taken off. Soon everything is getting mixed up. Eventually, all sneetches discover that it is special just being a sneetch. It is a wonderful message.

In every society, there are examples of star bellied sneetches. They are always the haves and the have-nots that others look down upon. It isn’t right, but it is reality around the world. In some cases, it is color that makes the difference. In others, it is one’s religion.

As a person of Irish ancestry, how long can I blame the English for the terrible injustices they inflicted on Ireland from 1600 to 1920? They killed at will, ransacked the land of its valuables, overtaxed, provided few liberties, and literally treated the Irish as little more than slaves. Peoples and nations go through transitions. When the Irish started arriving in droves in America in the 1840’s, we Americans also looked down upon the Irish. There were signs posted in major cities, such as Boston, that read, “No dogs or Irish allowed.” They saw the Irish as dirty, drunkards, rabble-rousers, Catholics, and not particularly smart. Over the decades since, the Irish have flourished in business, education, and serve in all professional capacities. They are now fully accepted into mainstream life in America. The point is what was done to my ancestors centuries or decades ago has no bearing on my life. I came into this world having the responsibility to become all that I could be and to try to leave something positive behind when I leave this world. It is time that mankind stopped hating and blaming others because of religion or color. Whether the religion is Christian or Muslim,

How can I then, in 2004, hate the English for their past transgressions? I wasn’t alive during those periods. Actually, I admire the English people and their bond of friendship with our country. I know that if America really needed another nation to stand up and be counted, it would be Great Britain or Italy and not France, Germany, other European countries, or even Japan. After we defeated Germany and Japan during World War II and lost more than 200,000 men doing it, we totally rebuilt their economies and spent our treasure doing it. Spectators recently at the Olympic games booed every American athlete at every opportunity. There is a short memory and no gratitude for our generosity and sacrifices.

I just read an article that is so disheartening. It was about how Iraqi citizens were rejoicing at the fact that a bomb exploded killing a number of Westerners who were in that country to help rebuild it. What kind of people dance in the streets at the murder of fellow human beings? Is this type of hatred beyond our ability to understand?

My Chat column is not about political commentary. I mention this scenario only for our students to think about their responsibility to understand the basis for Muslim outrage. We are going to have to deal with this for years to come. The Middle East is an explosion waiting to happen. There is a history that goes back centuries to the Crusades.

Each of us must do his part to help our nation withstand the brutal attacks that are sure to come. One day, I fear that the terrorists will complete an act of violence that will make the World Trade Center tragedy pale in comparison. If we simply sit back and say that it is in the hands of our military or our intelligence agencies, we will never win this war. Knowledge is power.