Director’s Notes

COLUMN DIRECTOR’S NOTES

YVONNE TAYLOR

As an English major, it is embarrassing to admit I’ve never read To Kill a Mockingbird – but I was recently lucky enough to see the play. That doesn’t have much to do with anything except for the line and theme, said by Scout, which transforms a courtroom’s “All Rise” into a call for us all to rise as people: we need to be better, and soon.

It is amazing to me how much time we spend dividing ourselves up into ever-smaller groups. By sex, color, national heritage, years in the US, meat eaters, religious affi liation, vegans, accents, and whether your chislic is beef or lamb. Do you eat lutefi sk? I do. Are we going to argue about that? As a typical independent-minded South Dakotan, I think most of this is none of my business. You be you, let me be, and we are all okay.

In South Dakota if we meet someone and can’t fi nd a common acquaintance or relative within three questions, the person we’re talking to isn’t from here. We go out of our way to fi nd common ground. We help people out, give them directions. (Mt. Rushmore is west!)

We certainly aren’t the root of this nation’s problems, but we all divide ourselves some and look at others based on whatever ideas we have buried within us. We need to call those out, be kind to each other and the strangers we meet.

ALL RISE. ■

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