I just received the results of my DNA ancestry testing. Here's what the lab revealed: I am 40 percent Eastern European. That's easily verified by my Croatian grandfather and Slovakian grandmother. I am 29 percent Irish. This high percentage was a real surprise, especially since my mother claimed that only one of her grandmothers was Irish. I am also 11 percent British, 9 percent Italian/Greek, 5 percent European Jewish, 4 percent Western European, 1 percent Spanish and Portuguese, and less than 1 percent Middle Eastern. The real surprise was the weak German connection — despite knowledge that three of my maternal great-grandparents came from Germany.
Here's how the testing works: My DNA was compared against 4,245 DNA samples from people whose genealogy suggests they are native to 26 global regions, e.g., close to being pure-blood Irish, Croatian or whatever. The company then did 40 different analyses of separate strands of my DNA, comparing each segment to this bank of samples from the 40 regions. This suggests that though I may have family roots in Germany, these ancestors originally came from another global region. Ireland and the British Isles are a logical conclusion, given the high percentage of my genes from there.
So, might some of my ancestors have been conscripts from the British Isles forced to accompany conquering Roman legions to what was then Germania? Perhaps. To such a question, the testing company answers: "Your family tree may go back hundreds of years, but there could be more to your family's story that's just out of reach of paper documents and conventional research."
Regardless, the fact is that I am a real mongrel, and I'll bet many of you are too. Very few Americans can consider themselves pure-bred. "We the People" is naturally an extremely diverse group. One person can represent many nations. This is something about which we all have to be mindful.
I couldn't help but think of my diverse DNA results as the controversy swelled around the "We the People" posters banned from Westminster High classrooms. Are the posters political and were they designed as a reaction to President Donald Trump's election? Absolutely. Should they be taken down from bulletin boards because they only represent one side of the debate? That's the sense of what Carroll County Public Schools spokeswoman Carey Gaddis said, "We allow political posters if it's part of the curriculum," adding that teachers would have to represent all sides involved.
Representing "all sides involved" certainly can't mean that the three posters labeled "We the People … Protect Each Other; Are Greater than Fear; and Defend Dignity" should be countered by teaching that we don't protect each other; we are not greater than fear; or we don't defend dignity. Of course, we do all these things. They are essential to living in a civil society.
So, Gaddis must mean that students should be invited to discuss why the posters were even thought necessary in the first place. That leaves the school system on the horns of a real dilemma. To discuss "all sides involved," students would have to investigate why we need to do what the posters preach. And that would mean examining why Trump delegitimized President Obama with his birther, born-in-Kenya movement; why he insulted the dignity of Mexican immigrants by calling them rapists and drug dealers; and why he believes we should fear immigrants from certain Muslim-majority nations and automatically suspect them of being terrorists.
The three posters only feature women. Students would therefore have to discuss Trump's history of misogyny, sexual predation and boasts of conquests and infidelities.
Teachers, too, would have to introduce the alt-right connections of Steve Bannon, Trump's White House strategist. The Breitbart website he formerly presided over is a favorite of white supremacists. Students would then be asked to speculate if there is a connection between the alt-right's poison and the recent rash of Nazi graffiti on mosques, bomb threats to Jewish community centers, and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. They'd also be requested to consider what it must be like to be prejudged every day if you wear a hijab, turban or yarmulke, or have a bindi on your forehead.
If high school teachers are willing to go the distance and have their students investigate and discuss all of the above, then "all sides" would surely become part of the debate, and those posters can be restored to their rightful place in the classroom.
Frank Batavick writes from Westminster. His column appears Fridays. Email him at fjbatavick@gmail.com.
