Linda Terwilliger: Each of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history

To The Daily Sun,

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s courageous stand against prejudice, name-calling and baseless far-right extremist rhetoric deserves our highest admiration. She recently said, “I want every student to feel seen, heard and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white and Christian. We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people’s lives.”

During her speech from the Michigan Senate floor, Sen. McMorrow passionately denounced the malicious lies about her in a political fundraising email from her Republican colleague, Sen. Lana Theis. McMorrow ended her speech with the words, “Hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen. We will not let hate win.”

Sen. Theis falsely accused McMorrow of “grooming” kids and supporting pedophilia, an obviously fake right-wing talking point that has no place in our national discourse. Theis’ awful political attack echoed a baseless conspiracy theory spun by a certain far-right extremist group.

In her speech, McMorrow said (referring to Theis), “I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. You can’t claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of 'parental rights' if another parent is standing up to say no. So then what? Then you dehumanize and marginalize me.”

Also, she added that learning about slavery and systemic racism does not mean that children are taught to feel bad about themselves.

Remember McMorrow’s words. No one today is responsible for slavery. We’re not responsible for the past. We cannot change the past. We can’t pretend that it didn’t happen or deny people their very right to exist. But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history.

Linda Terwilliger

Gilford