We are pleased to share the first winning entry in Brevity‘s Holiday Smile contest:

After freeze up, smiling Eskimo kids, imported Bureau of Indian Affairs kids, Federal Fish and Wildlife kids, Federal Aviation Administration kids, school teacher’s kids, missionary’s kids, and cop’s kids sat around faux wood tables at the yellow state-operated school. We spilled broken crayons from repurposed red No. 10 coffee cans to connect the dots then color in stock images. Smiling Indians offered provisions into outstretched hands of smiling settlers. We reached for Crayolas to color Indians a mix of tan and brown; pilgrims, peach. If we dug around and couldn’t find a sliver of peach, we left smiling settler faces blank. If we colored on construction paper, we grabbed white nubs.

We were American children sitting in compulsory school. We had already stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. After coloring, gluing, and stapling, we…