In almost any conflict, individuals and groups generally fall into one of three roles: Persecutor, Victim, or Rescuer.

At a recent Enumclaw school board meeting, there was a heated debate over the reading of a Native American land acknowledgement at the beginning of each session. This was posted on a wall. Here’s what is stated:

“We acknowledge we are gathered upon the ancestral lands of the Seattle Area’s Federally Recognized Indian Tribe, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, who historically lived throughout the areas between the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound, what is also known as the Salish Sea.”

As a history teacher, I acknowledge this statement as fact. It has been repeated at every school board meeting since 2017. Depending on your point of view in this discussion, members of the school board were either acting as a rescuer or a persecutor. If you were the majority of the school board, you saw yourself as a rescuer of the victimized Muckleshoots, whose land had been stolen by whites back in the 1850s. The Muckleshoots were the victims.

If you were part of the dissenters in the audience or the minority of the board, you saw yourself as a rescuer of residents whose school board had been co-opted by “the woke” — who became the persecutors. The victims in this case were the conservative residents who were made to feel guilty for what white settlers did 168 years ago.

Repeating this mantra is divisive and guilt-inducing to whites. According to the dissenters, this practice should end. Enough is enough. (Perhaps the school board could have compromised over this hot button issue by agreeing to read the statement once a year, or some other interval.)

The U.S. Senate agreed to a compromise on the very politically hot southern border issue until the Republican Senators were warned off by Candidate Trump who felt he needed an issue to attack his opponent, President Biden. What I see is that the phrase, “All politics is local” is true. The school board debate is just a reflection of what is going on at the national and international levels.

Former President Donald Trump claims to be the victim of a witch hunt by the Democrats — the persecutors, even though he has now been convicted by the courts for rape and fraud. He will be required to pay penalties of about half-a-billion dollars, including interest. As a “victim” and also a billionaire, he is asking his supporters to rescue him financially by sending in donations to his fund and/or buying his Trump bobblehead, his golden tennis shoes, or Cologne 47. There is irony in his argument of victimhood on many levels.

President Vladimir Putin also claimed victimhood for Russia when he invaded Ukraine two years ago. He accused President Zelensky, a Jew, of leading a Nazi government which threatened Russia. Ukraine and the West were the persecutors, according to Putin. Putin took the role of rescuer. How Ukraine, a nation about a quarter of the population of Russia, could be seen as a threat to Russia remains a mystery defying logic and reason.

It seems obvious that the Enumclaw School Board has been caught up in the political polarization of many of our nation’s leaders. Since compromise is not practiced at the national level, it’s very difficult to put into practice at the local level.

Perhaps it is time for our local governments to rise above the petty politics of our national leaders and act more maturely and less politically. We are not required to follow the political polarization of our “betters”. Perhaps the Enumclaw School Board can turn the tables on our national leaders and begin a grassroots movement by setting the right role model through compromise. Maybe they will see our example and copy us!

It’s worth a try.