I haven't been to Mount Rushmore. Not yet. I have been to the Mount Rushmore of the South, Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was on one of the trips down from Michigan to see my aunt who lives outside of Atlanta we made when I was a kid. I don't remember much clearly about the trip, nor exactly how old I was, probably eight or ten. I do remember after learning that the enormous sculpture on the mountain is of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, that they should have just added Darth Vader as well. If you were going to have a big sculpture of those three villains, because that is how I was brought up to think of them, you might as well add the worst villain I could think of at the time. What were these people down south thinking? It also happens that Stone Mountain was the place of the rebirth of the KKK in 1915 shortly before they began work on the huge sculpture.
Since that time I've learned a lot more about the Civil War and the men who fought it, as well as about human nature as well. The reasons for the war were complex. I'm not one of those who will say that it really wasn't fought over slavery; it was. But the Confederate army wasn't comprised of plantation owners either. It was made up largely of men who owned no slaves at all. Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Union army before turning it down to fight for his home state of Virginia, and his own views on slavery were extremely complex. Interestingly, he emancipated the slaves at his Arlington plantation, just days before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves which had come down as an inheritance, which had originated with Martha Washington, to his wife. This wasn't out of the good of his heart, though, as he was acting as executor for the estate of his father-in-law who had said in his final will they should be given their freedom.
The institution of slavery is a horrible scar on our American history, one that we will never be rid of, no matter how much we would like to forget it. I think it is important to learn of the horrors of it, not because we are otherwise doomed to repeat our history. Those lessons though are what make me sensitive to the hatred in the current rhetoric of White Pride and this new nationalism. What I hear in the the rhetoric of these "alt-right" protesters of today is that of the plantation owners saying that "really this is about states' rights and our niggers are better off here where we take care of them than out in that world they are just not equipped to manage."
There was talk for a while that the bas relief of Davis, Lee, and Jackson should be blasted off the side of Stone Mountain. Personally, I hope it stays. It is a provocative piece of art in a beautiful, yet equally provocative setting. I hope future young visitors will visit and wonder why someone thought these men were important enough for such a memorial.
The catalyst for the protests in Charlottesville, VA, is apparently the decision by the town to begin removing Confederate memorials including a statue of Lee. I can see the arguments for and against removal of statues like that. I said above that I'd hate to see the sculpture at Stone Mountain go, but I equally would not be comfortable living in a town that had a statue of Lee. I believe it best left to the individuals who live in the community to decide what they want their community to be like. It's disgusting that the protesters who have congregated in Virginia are largely not from there and include groups from my home state of Michigan.
Those protesters are feeding off hatred. The entire alt-right, neo-nationalist movement is feeding off hatred. I say, don't give in to this hatred. It's difficult, because I can't think of those protesters down there without hateful words coming to mind. Change doesn't come through hatred though. Real change comes through loving compassion, regardless of how difficult that is to find. I leave you with the link to this story, which is more profound given the events of today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-man-daryl-davis-befriends-kkk-documentary-accidental-courtesy_us_585c250de4b0de3a08f495fc.
Since that time I've learned a lot more about the Civil War and the men who fought it, as well as about human nature as well. The reasons for the war were complex. I'm not one of those who will say that it really wasn't fought over slavery; it was. But the Confederate army wasn't comprised of plantation owners either. It was made up largely of men who owned no slaves at all. Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Union army before turning it down to fight for his home state of Virginia, and his own views on slavery were extremely complex. Interestingly, he emancipated the slaves at his Arlington plantation, just days before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves which had come down as an inheritance, which had originated with Martha Washington, to his wife. This wasn't out of the good of his heart, though, as he was acting as executor for the estate of his father-in-law who had said in his final will they should be given their freedom.
The institution of slavery is a horrible scar on our American history, one that we will never be rid of, no matter how much we would like to forget it. I think it is important to learn of the horrors of it, not because we are otherwise doomed to repeat our history. Those lessons though are what make me sensitive to the hatred in the current rhetoric of White Pride and this new nationalism. What I hear in the the rhetoric of these "alt-right" protesters of today is that of the plantation owners saying that "really this is about states' rights and our niggers are better off here where we take care of them than out in that world they are just not equipped to manage."
There was talk for a while that the bas relief of Davis, Lee, and Jackson should be blasted off the side of Stone Mountain. Personally, I hope it stays. It is a provocative piece of art in a beautiful, yet equally provocative setting. I hope future young visitors will visit and wonder why someone thought these men were important enough for such a memorial.
The catalyst for the protests in Charlottesville, VA, is apparently the decision by the town to begin removing Confederate memorials including a statue of Lee. I can see the arguments for and against removal of statues like that. I said above that I'd hate to see the sculpture at Stone Mountain go, but I equally would not be comfortable living in a town that had a statue of Lee. I believe it best left to the individuals who live in the community to decide what they want their community to be like. It's disgusting that the protesters who have congregated in Virginia are largely not from there and include groups from my home state of Michigan.
Those protesters are feeding off hatred. The entire alt-right, neo-nationalist movement is feeding off hatred. I say, don't give in to this hatred. It's difficult, because I can't think of those protesters down there without hateful words coming to mind. Change doesn't come through hatred though. Real change comes through loving compassion, regardless of how difficult that is to find. I leave you with the link to this story, which is more profound given the events of today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-man-daryl-davis-befriends-kkk-documentary-accidental-courtesy_us_585c250de4b0de3a08f495fc.
No comments:
Post a Comment