Land acknowledgments, reminders that Native American tribes were forcibly removed from the area, have become common at some entertainment venues nationwide, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and SOU. This letter to the editor and a Relocations column by Herbert Rothschild look at land acknowledgments from different viewpoints.

If you’ve attended a theater performance in Jackson County in the past several years, you’ve no doubt had to sit through a land acknowledgement reminding us that there were once Indian tribes living here. Why theater groups have adopted this particular cause to support is a mystery, but adopt it they have. I’ve no objection if they want to flaunt their political views on their websites or in their handouts. What I object to is being forced to sit through a recital of their politics before every production.

Neither the grocer, the pharmacist, nor the gas station attendant forces me to listen to their political cant as a condition of purchasing their product. Why do our theatrical purveyors think themselves so entitled? 

The answer is simple: It’s old-fashioned virtue signaling, the desire to make themselves feel good, and indeed morally superior. Otherwise, why not simply describe their efforts to support Native programs in the event’s program or on their website? Forcing patrons to listen to their self-serving statements as a condition of admission is moral exhibitionism at its worst.

OSF in particular seems not to have learned its lesson from the super woke days of the Nataki Garrett administration: “Push your politics in everything you do; your audiences need to be educated and you’ll feel better for doing it,” was her implicit mantra. Her reward? Empty seats.   

This overbearing moralism is woke culture at its worst. Give away tickets to Native individuals if you wish, but don’t make me sit through your self-serving announcements. Until you drop this practice, I’m boycotting your shows.

Dennis Kendig

Ashland