February and March marked the celebrations for Black History and Women’s History Month respectively, and Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month is just around the corner.
Each history month is designed to explore the heritage and history of different cultures, races and people and what they have contributed to America.
One would assume that is a good thing, but in that regard one would be wrong.
How can celebrating history and heritage be a bad thing you might ask?
Easily. Squeezing the celebration of the various people that have made our nation great, no matter their race or creed or orientation, down to just one month is in itself degrading.
The contributions of African-Americans, Women, Gays & Lesbians, the elderly, and various other groups are nothing to just look at for one month and move on from. We are one nation, supposedly united in our goals.
Celebrating and learning about the founding fathers and the contributions of those deemed history worthy all the time in school yet only setting aside months for other people and groups does not fit a nation that claims to seek equality.
On the other side there will be those that argue that having the history months makes sure we don’t forget about the contributions of others. That through those months we get a chance to peel back the curtain and celebrate and learn about people of different groups than our own perhaps, while those in the groups get their time to shine.
The question posed to that argument is, why do they only get that one month to shine? The contributions of everyone in this nation should be celebrated and learned about at all times.
The founding fathers might have been instrumental in the formation of this nation but they were not alone, and in the time since then many others have played their parts.
Sure in history class one can learn about Martin Luther King Jr or Susan B. Anthony because those that decide what history we follow has deemed them important enough, but what about the rest?
Having some speeches or a chosen meal to signify a group is not enough when, come the end of the month we move on to another group. Why should events that are to celebrate women be relegated to just one month when they can be spread out over the year so that the contributions of the majority gender are always presented?
We don’t need September to October to be the month for Hispanic Heritage or for November to be National American Indian Heritage Month. What we need is for each and every day to be a day that we learn about and celebrate the people that make this nation what it is.
To have it any other way is to delude ourselves into believing we are truly reaching for equality, when it achieves thing but that at the end of the day.
