Dear Parishioners,
This past Sunday I watched the Miss America Pageant on TV. I was glad to see it return to its roots in
Atlantic City where it began in 1921. It
was exciting to observe the various local points of interest featured during
the pageant, including historic Boardwalk Hall. (Whether or not beauty contests send the proper message
to young women is the subject of debate for another day.)
The winner this year, Nina Davuluri, is of Indian descent—not the Native-American variety, but from India in South Asia.
Many stories about her victory
included the racial slurs and unfavorable comments generated because
of her racial background. Some of the published tweets from Twitter are distasteful,
to say the least.
It is sad to see that some
Americans still can voice (or text, tweet, etc.) visceral comments against
another person because of race. We, as a nation, have certainly come a long
way with an African-American (bi-racial) president in the White House. Many people, fortunately, have the ability to
be color–blind when it comes to a
person’s skin and try to see who the person is on the inside.
Then, we have the followers of Archie
Bunker still around spewing out racial slurs, derogatory comments and various
insults. (I fall in the meathead
category, being of Polish-American descent.)
I remember a song I learned back
in Catholic elementary school as a child.
The song asked: “What color is
God’s skin?” The answer came back: “. . . It's black, brown, it's yellow, it is
red, it is white. Everyone's the same in
the good Lord's sight.” Yes, it was a
little ditty from those Kumbaya days
still ingrained in my mind. Please don’t tell my friends.
America is a nation of immigrants. The diversity of races and cultures has made
us a tolerant people and a strong nation in so many ways. This is not to say that we haven’t faced
many, many challenges over the years.
Unfortunately, prejudice still rears its ugly head far too often.
Within our Catholic Church, we
need to strive constantly to rise above all forms of prejudice, following the
instruction of St. Paul:
For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3: 26-28)
Congratulations Nina on being the
first Indian-American Miss America! My hope and prayers are with you to rise
about the many obstacles that still exist when people judge others by their color
of skin.
What’s in the heart is certainly
much more important!
Fr. Ed Namiotka
Pastor
Miss America 2014: Nina Davuluri
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