Thanksgiving spirit is to celebrate differences

It looks like these letters to the editor from the Sentinel are turning into a personal forum as well as becoming quite defensive. It’s rather obvious that everyone perceives things differently, and of course people’s perceptions are their own reality. I’ve read and reread the article that Veena and I submitted to the Sentinel, as well as Beth Klee’s letters and responses. Like in many situations, somewhere along the way the “issues” were lost in the shuffle and it’s turned into somewhat of a dispute. This was certainly not my intention.

The letter Veena and I responded to was basically to get the facts straight that Diwali was a 20-minute program in the morning with a 25-minute optional assembly in the afternoon. It was not a full day, as I believe Beth stated in her original letter. Also, there was not any type of Diwali program in either middle school so this statement was also untrue.

I agree that more should have been done regarding a Thanksgiving celebration. A couple of parents wanted to do something for Thanksgiving but didn’t have enough time or money to get something together on a larger scale. So they settled for juice and cake and focused on the concept of everyone from all cultural backgrounds being together for a “meal.” Let’s not forget that Thanksgiving began with two very different groups of people coming together and breaking bread.

Although Thanksgiving may have different meanings for everyone, I think the common meaning is that it’s about family, traditional or otherwise. It’s about being together. It’s about being thankful for what we have. No sales pitch. No commercialism.

It’s wonderful that Beth took a day off from work to go into her child’s class to share the meaning of Thanksgiving. It would have been great if there had been a committee at JMI [James Madison Intermediate School] to provide a Thanksgiving celebration on a grander scale for the entire JMI family.

But because this didn’t happen doesn’t give anyone the right to begrudge the parents who spent so much time putting together a fabulous presentation of their culture that they wanted to share with the JMI family.

I’m not really sure why Beth felt the need to defend herself about any past PTO involvement. We didn’t intend to misrepresent anyone’s involvement. The paragraph below is based on the here and now — on the issues of the past month or so for which the letter was written — and is not about any past involvement.

We invite Mrs. Klee to attend a PTO meeting or volunteer for a PTO-sponsored event so that she can see for herself how our very diverse community comes together for all our children.

On another note, I wasn’t judging anyone. I never presume to know what people have going on in their personal lives, nor do I question why or why not they do or don’t do things. As for extending courtesies, I always do. But not when it pertains to nontruths.

We can probably continue to go back and forth on a regular basis with opinions, issues, etc. Maybe we should all just “agree to disagree” about certain [matters]. But I’m hoping that the one thing that [Klee] — as well as everyone else — will agree on is that instead of spending all this time and energy focusing on our differences, wouldn’t it be time and energy much better spent focusing on the things we all have in common?

Klee summed it up in the final sentence of her letter: “We are all caring, giving members of our community.” Perhaps this would be a good place to start, with everyone in the community finding a “common ground.”

Darlene Delli Paoli

Edison