We Are One: Preschoolers know more than Trump voters

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In the lobby of the school where I work, there is a huge image of Earth taped onto the wall. It is made of kraft paper and crisscrossed with colorful broad strokes of tempera paint.

Circling the perimeter of the planet are cutout drawings of children holding hands. No two children are the same, partly because of the way the preschoolers scribbled and colored them in.

Above the planet are the words “WE ARE ONE.”

This is our world. This is our America. This is our country, which Trump and his delusional minions are trying to divide and conquer. They are unthinking wall-builders, not conscientious bridge-builders.

Science even supports “WE ARE ONE.” Recently I got my DNA results back as a participant in National Geographic’s Genographic Project. I am related to everybody. As are you!

I am 2 percent Western and Central African. Adam and Eve were African (as the fossil record shows), so not too much of a surprise there. What you may not know is Adam and Eve’s descendants mixed it up with Neanderthals. Therefore, all of us have some percentage of Neanderthal. For me, that is 1.2 percent.

A relative that I shared my results with asked, “Where’s the Mexican?” I said for me whatever is not East Asian and Arab is Mexican, which were the European and Native American percentages.

Interestingly enough, the Mexican American reference population that the Genographic Project uses is from samples taken from Los Angeles residents. The breakdown shows 36 percent Native American (indigenous), 28 percent Mediterranean, 20 percent Northern European, 8 percent Southwest Asian, 4 percent sub-Saharan African, and 2 percent Southeast Asian (indigenous American).

But for Mexicans from central regions of that country the Native American component is much more pronounced. Central Mexicans are 83 percent Native American and 4 percent Northeast Asian (indigenous American), with recent migrations reflected in 5 percent Northern European, 4 percent Mediterranean, and 3 percent Southwest Asian.

The history of humanity is encoded in you and me. Your DNA is your time machine into the past. What will your DNA tell you? One thing is certain. We each hold a piece of the map of ancient and modern migrations of humanity. Put all the pieces together and you will find – WE ARE ONE.