Barrett Rainey's Second Thoughts

We Americans are a “trendy” bunch.

New things, new ideas, new fads. We fall into the herd without really thinking about it. We must have this year’s “new” color, the very latest latte flavor, that new SUV with the latest features. We must binge-watch that new TV show or try that new restaurant. Doesn’t take much for us to get swept along with the crowd.

Something’s been nagging at me regarding the disjointed and somewhat over-the-top efforts to pull down statues and obliterate portions of history deemed unacceptable today. Especially in the South.

Down they come. Over here. Over there. Uptown. Downtown. On campuses, in city parks, capitol buildings and other places where they were long-ago considered important enough to be given prominent placement. No planning or coordination. Today, just get a rope, tie one end around the miscreant de jure and give it a fatal tug. Down! Just so much scrap iron.

As an elderly white male, never directly involved with the Confederacy or slaves or other Civil War tragedies, who never felt the height or depth of emotions of this country in the 1860’s, statues have never meant much to me. If I thought about them at all it was to assign relic tags to most, often briefly wondering who the originals were and what important things did he/she do to merit permanent, prominent metal placement. For pigeons.

But, now, with the destruction of so many in such far-flung locales, not recognizing many of the names, seeing the anger and aggression being vented by mostly young people who have little direct link, I’ve become more aware of the situation.

Seems many targets of today’s anger were quite prominent and respected. In their time. Businessmen, politicians, military leaders, educators and other assorted worthy representatives. Of their time. In their time. Maybe not “our time” when just a touch of political correctness can eviscerate someone’s otherwise significant contributions to the nation. But, their time.

Much of the vehemence offered to justify the currently accepted vandalism centers on “crimes” committed against Black people. Some targets of today’s wrath were apparently slave owners which, on its face, makes these monuments – and accompanying respect – no longer valid. So, down they come. Helter skelter, it seems.

Yes, many of the signatories to our founding documents – North and South – were slave owners. Thomas Jefferson is said to have had 600. Washington another 300. Others of lesser note had some as well. That’s what our nation considered as respected “property.” At that time. At that time.

No more. Not in today’s time. Not now. But, at that time.

I came across a quote by the late Golda Meir, former head of the Israeli government and one of my “heroes.” She knew and saw history being made in the toughest of times. It was largely because of her strength of character, her willingness to do whatever was necessary – at that time – to create a nation and a homeland for Jews all over the world, that Israel was born.

Golda had a high regard for everything that “was.” That time. She knew roots came before evolution and past history before today’s events. Check just this quote among many quotable thoughts of hers.

“One cannot, and must not, erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”

While my lot in life was not to live in Civil War times, it was to be present, as a child, when our nation committed other crimes. When we kidnaped and locked up an entire group of innocent people for no other reason than their race. Japanese Americans, who, by the thousands, were ripped from their normal lives and sent to God-awful places, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. They were kept locked away for years for no other reason than they looked different from the rest of us. Could that happen today?

To their credit, while some of those filthy camps have been “pulled down” like so many of those Confederate ironworks, others have been saved – rebuilt to remind how conditions were. At that time. They’ve been salvaged to stand as ever-present reminders of a notorious period when people of this nation acted in concert – like a herd – to commit a shameful, tragic, historical crime against humanity. At that time.

So, it could be, I think, with our current misbegotten efforts to blot out another national crime – slavery.

I hope historians and others step up to end these emotional, disassociated and seemingly unrelated efforts of uncoordinated anger. To catalogue what’s out there, what’s represented, who they were and what they meant to this country. In their time. At that time.

It seems to be the elderly – the ones who’ve lived long-enough to appreciate history – good and bad – who can see people and events in perspective. People and events – in their time. Except for the history erased from the American consciousness of Amistad and Greenwood or Red Summer or the atrocities against Native Americans. And Tulsa.

Yes, slavery was bad. It occurred during a period of our history that will be forever shameful, no matter how long this Republic lasts. But, it’s who we were. At that time. Not all of these reminders of that era should be erased from some cheap pedestals just because some folks feel bad about being reminded. Of that time. In their time.

As Golda said, they must not be lost just because “they don’t fit the present.”

Share on Facebook Both comments and pings are currently closed.