I live in the
Capitol City of the Commonwealth of Virginia. A town of 200,000+ folks of all
ages and colors and backgrounds and oh yeah, 150 years ago this was the Capitol
of the Confederacy. You know the Civil War or as referred to down here, that
time of Recent Unpleasantness or the Northern Aggression or the War Between The
States, even though we are a commonwealth. The Rebs could have picked any town
like Roanoke or Norfolk but they decided they’d settle for the city that had a
citadel on the hill designed by Thomas Jefferson and gave us “Give Me Liberty
or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry. There is a lot of history here.
Well the recent
events in this land I’ve lived in all my life have me reflecting on the past
and the future.
This city does
have some gigantic statues, monuments if you will, to that time when the Cause
was lost. The city was burnt and occupied after years of isolation and
depravity.
From what I can
understand, the soldiers came home and picked up the pieces and rebuilt and
started over under regulations and learned a new lifestyle and the little town
grew.
Still there was
resentment as in any lost. Check your blood pressure after your team loses.
Idols were
created and monuments built and a heritage of belief that the South Would Rise
Again was formed and it was called ‘Jim Crow’. Economy was still in the hands
of the white folk so people still knew their place and as long as you played
your role, everything was fine.
Then the
government of the United States (that included the CSA) decided to make it a
law it was illegal for people to have to use separate bathrooms.
The tradition
of what was an acceptable daily interaction between ‘races’ made the War
Between the States seem like a cakewalk.
If you didn’t
like the change then federal troops were brought in with fixed bayonets. The
change came and schools were integrated and then women made their stand and
then gays and then….
It was a time
of change.
The Stars and
Bars were put away no longer displayed in parades and football games. Any
reference to what some said was a heritage became a museum. Still proudly these
statues stood tall and proud on what is called Monument Avenue. They became a familiar
a sightseer attraction for visitors and forgotten by the locals.
I’ll add that
growing up in the ‘former’ Capitol of the Confederacy was an education in
intolerance, it was a lesson learned. Yet Stonewall Jackson rode high next to
my church.
So now up in a mountain
village an invasion came to preserve a block of cement and metal. If this had
been a group of artisans declaring the statue a work of art rather than a symbol
of bigotry, would there been a battle?
The folks who showed up for this past
weekend’s confrontation are truck drivers, factory workers, students, fathers,
sons, and daughters. That guy might be throwing your burger or processing your
driver’s license. He might be picking up your trash or she might be caring for
your grandmother.
They all will
go back home and declare victory that feeds their anger.
So take down
all the monuments to history and hide them under the rug or place more and more
statues like a cemetery.
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