I sent the following letter earlier today to my Representative in the US House.
Dear Rep. Slotkin,
Greetings from South Lansing! I hope you and yours, family and staff, have been okay and able to process the horrific events of last week.
My family and I came to MI this summer (we ‘podded’ w an old friend who now has children) after a decade living in Australia. We have a 9yo son and were happy to call MI home while we find work, homeschool, etc and stay in to avoid Covid. We liked the way Gov. Whitmer dealt with the epidemic & felt safer staying here than our initial plans of Wintering in the south, where we were raised.
Our little apt of three has been transfixed by what has become of the US.
Ultimately, being away for so long has made me a ‘better American’ as I struggled my last few years to put US history into context with Australian (as my son was learning in school), with the overlay of colonialism and all its ills. I finally feel like I can teach our history in school!
And I would very much like for our history to include Jan 6, 2021, the second time the Capitol has been stormed since 1814 by the British.
That history must include that we as a country united against Fascism and Racism in the strongest possible way. We outwardly condemn hate and the people who perpetuate to the point of sedition and insurrection. They are traitors.
Then we must, as a country, work through our past (more in the East German post WW2 model). We must come to terms with the fact that we have kidnapped and enslaved men, women and children as the backbone of this country; since 1619 at Jamestowne — slaves are a part of the US story. Black People were property. Think about how that has manifested itself, the level of hate that had to be sustained for lifetimes.
Reflect on how that hate got us to January 6.
We slaughtered our Indigenous Brothers and Sisters, the extent to which I did not learn until I was nearly 30 and did not fully understand until I went to live in Australia for a decade.
I learned about indigeneity from Aboriginal Australians, not from my countless years of and in education. I am working on understanding more about Indigenous Americans.
We as a country need to have a Reconciliation after we formally acknowledge and put into place concrete steps for all to understand our history in order to create a better future, not simply recreate predictable cycles of hate and violence, exploitation and graft.
To begin this process, I implore you to please support Rep. Cori Bush’s House Resolution 25.
These traitors must be investigated and expelled, stripped of any and all benefits of the humble office they betrayed.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like any assistance. Stay safe and take care.
Kind regards,
Misty M. Kirby, Ph.D., SFHEA (UK)