Latest in a series of posts on the environment 
Recognizing the Original Inhabitants of This Area
We are located in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, a small part of what was Lenni-Lenape territory for over 10,000 years. We understand that the Lenape were friendly and accommodating—until the settlers gradually, and often violently, forced them out. We acknowledge the injustice and mistreatment indigenous people faced (and still face) as a result of colonialism.
Here, here. Another place from which all of the City – not just Council and the Mayor – must approach incorporating understanding of the HUNDREDS of years of oppression and “intergenerational trauma” in the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI).
It’s our responsibility to do everything we can to make it right, encouraging each other to seek out understanding.
The violence of colonialism was – and is- perpetrated not just “in the country” or “in the south” or “west”, but right here in “our” Lehigh Valley contemporaneously with those more notorious places.
Colonialism should be noted; it’s cause is greed; it is the greed that results in abuse.
The basic orientation of humanity needs to be modified in order to find something in remotely resembling a solution to greed. The selfishness of “me” needs to be converted into a selfishness for “us” where “us” transforms into a larger and larger group to ultimately include all. Christianity address this as do other religions and possibly some atheistic styles.
Education, beginning in the family, needs to create this beneficial transformation for each individual. If families are undervalued and moral education is rejected changes only make things worse. Programs and initiatives result in division rather than points of emphasis for discussion and improvement.
Righteous indignation is appropriate but basic individual change is required not specific reparative programs. One of these actions is easy, one takes some work and the other is impossible but needs to be undertaken to make real progress.
The suffering of the abused is honored if the abusers and those who follow create something better, something that is required by justice. Making America Great is an ongoing demand of our checkered history; it’s not a political pitch but a moral imperative.