‘Outwitted’

Editor, Times-Union:
Mr. Fribley, thank you for reading my ads as well as my letter in response to your comments regarding D.E.I. In your last, brief response in Friday’s Times-Union, you correctly called me out for not giving credit or reference to my favorite verse. I appreciate your attention to detail.
However, I must now call you out for accusing me of plagiarizing. The definition of plagiarize is to “take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one’s own …. or to copy from (someone) and pass it off as one’s own.” (Google online dictionary) I neither claimed credit for writing the verse nor tried to “pass it off” as my own. The title of the short poem is the title I chose for this letter, and it was written by Edwin Markham. I actually did not even use all of the correct words; therefore, I present:
Outwitted
By Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out…
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
This poem is very relevant to our personal back and forth discourse as well as the true meaning and purpose of D.E.I. programs … “the poet encapsulates the power of love and inclusion in overcoming barriers erected by prejudice and exclusion …. [the poem] serves as a timeless reminder of the importance of empathy and understanding in building a more inclusive and compassionate world … and … challenges readers to confront their own biases and prejudices and to strive towards greater acceptance and empathy toward others.” — poetrynook.com, 4/18/24
Finally, Mr. Fribley, I am so sorry to read that you “don’t care one way or the other” about diversity, equity or inclusion — since you are a senior — when all three of those concepts are so critical to the preservation of our better human values all the days of our lives. Is there an age at which we are excused from striving to work toward the betterment of mankind? I believe it is worth pointing out that the opposite of D.E.I. is uniformity or overall sameness, inequity or inequality, and exclusion — all leading to divisiveness, fear, cruelty, and even hatred.
My offer still stands to “‘take you in’ to a greater circle of acceptance, kindness, and neighborliness.” It takes so much less energy to love rather than hate; to embrace rather than reject, to seek truth rather than cave to unwarranted fear. Imagine what a world we could have! We’re never too old to be kind, caring, fair minded, or loving, are we?
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email