8-21-17<\/p>\n
Do we need one more essay or column on the cultural\/political divide in our country? When certain points of view have not been articulated, I think so.<\/p>\n
Crowds gather to vent their spleen in Ferguson, Charlottesville, Boston, ready for fights. Itching \u2013 hence the ersatz riot gear, the homemade armor, the hoods, the intimidating costumes, and, sometimes, mace and sticks.<\/p>\n
Any of us who watched coverage of the day in Charlottesville knew beforehand that protesters were there to dissent from Robert E Lee\u2019s statue being torn down. The larger assembled group, armed and wearing hoods, were there to protest the protesters. The police were ordered to not keep the groups separated, for reasons still be to be explained.<\/p>\n
Initial reports noted that the driver of the car had a stone thrown through his windshield, and protesters rocked his car. Whether out of fear and panic, or premeditated vehicular homicide\u2026 we saw what happened. Copycat of Nice and London? Precursor of Barcelona?<\/p>\n
In coverage of the Boston protest, networks spent hours talking about \u201cprotesters\u201d and \u201ccounter-protesters,\u201d with no hint of which \u201cside\u201d was defined as free-speech advocates. Both? Neither? By the way, eventually the crowd estimates were released \u2013 about 100 conservatives; about 39,900 lefists.<\/p>\n
It is a circus, but largely a media circus. Many people are merely sheep, feeling the need to be angry; expressing inchoate frustrations; and willing to test the limits of discourse\u2026 for the cameras.<\/p>\n
A few years ago I had a meeting in the Summit Ministries office of Dr David Noebel at the Brannon Howze\u2019s Worldview Weekend headquarters. These are people and organizations that do much good, but I was struck by pictures framed on the wall \u2013 large, vintage portraits of Stonewall Jackson and other Confederate leaders.<\/p>\n
I am not a crusader on the slavery issue, mostly because it is, thankfully, dead and buried; or should be. There still is slavery in the world, but not of the \u201cSouth will rise again\u201d variety; on present-day slavery I am a crusader. Nobody in America dreams of its re-institution; however there are multitudes who profit from phony controversies and threats. I agree with Lincoln that \u201cIf slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,\u201d and I wish more people felt the same about abortion, our current social abomination.<\/p>\n
I remarked on the portrait of Stonewall Jackson in Dr Noebel\u2019s office and was reminded that he was a Christian who prayed every day with his troops. I replied, \u201cHe was also a \u2018gentleman\u2019 who defended slavery; and, after taking an oath to defend the United States, proved himself a traitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treason, vintage 1860s, does not bother some people. But neither does treason and anarchy today bother other people. Not \u201cAntifa\u201d protesters; not the slobbering media.<\/p>\n
As a historian, and an artist, and a patriot, I am deeply disturbed by actions to pull down and destroy statues and paintings. I am Christian, yet I was aggrieved to see the demolition of ancient Buddha statues by the Taliban. ISIS has destroyed priceless religious artwork in Africa and the Middle East. The Nazis burned books. Good company of the Antifa movement and Black Lives Matter. Role models?<\/p>\n
Even the French Revolutionaries let cathedrals stand. Bolsheviks did not destroy the Amber Room or the Winter Palace of the Czars (although the Palace was looted by Bolsheviks, especially its wine cellar, leading to the \u201clongest hangover in history,\u201d as it became known). Stalin, on the other hand, airbrushed his enemies from photographs. Futile, but it is what totalitarians attempt.<\/p>\n
In the rush to eliminate immobile \u201cvestiges\u201d of history, self-appointed censors have climbed up statues like monkeys and defaced or toppled statuary, a few of which, ironically, have been artistic allegories having no relation to slavery.<\/p>\n
There is a joke that goes: \u201cDo you know how to save a drowning bigot?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cGood.\u201d Bigotry, in whatever cause, and the crime of re-writing history, can never be allowed \u2013 at least by a society that needs to know where it has been, in order to know where it is going.<\/p>\n
In another nod to good intentions, I suppose, the county executives of Lee County FL, reached an agreement this week to hire an artist to doctor a portrait of Robert E Lee in the county seat. Lee will remain, but soon he will be clad in a business suit, not a general\u2019s uniform. Strange. Maybe his statue can be altered so he rides a Harley.<\/p>\n
Where will it end? Will black people refuse to drink from Dixie Cups? Stop driving through the Lincoln Tunnel? Before white radicals move their next nihilistic cause (remember when the names of \u201cChristian\u201d cities like St Louis and Los Angeles were targets? They moved on from that) will they burn those portraits of Andrew Jackson in their wallets? Teachers are fired for saying positive things about Southern authors, but a Missouri state senator is praised for openly calling for Pres. Trump\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
Statues are works of art (except when poorly executed, another matter) \u2013 but provide teachable moments. Talk to your children; don\u2019t teach them to make paint balls. Live a life so your grandchildren will honor you, maybe hang a portrait in your honor, or theirs; not slash a painting of someone else. Martin Luther King denounced homosexual marriage; should his statue on the Mall be felled?
\nIf you do not \u2013 if you cannot \u2013 learn from history, you will be its next victim.<\/p>\n
I have a solution to the current furor: Stop shouting, and learn sign language<\/em>. What do I mean by that?<\/p>\n I urge a variation of Marschall\u2019s Solution to the Pete Rose controversy. Should he kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame because he gambled and lied? No, I say. His statistics earned him a place. But his plaque should include, alongside his dates and numbers, the facts that he gambled and lied and was banned for life. History.<\/p>\n In the same way, write new signs beneath or next to statues and paintings of \u201ccontroversial\u201d historical figures. Birth and death dates; training, accomplishments, failures; then the \u201cnegative\u201d information. Numbers of slaves owned or people killed. If Civil War generals, the good (valor) and the bad (carnage) (both sides, sure; Trump was correct). And so forth.<\/p>\n History, laid out. The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. If future generations are too stupid to be informed and instructed by such signage, we are lost anyway. But let people glimpse history, and reflect.<\/p>\n And then they can yell at each other about the signs, instead of statues and paintings. Bad television, but good public policy.<\/p>\n