Disappointed

To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement.  NEISD, our home for Rachel's high school career, has caved in to social media bias and are removing another vestige of history.

When educational institutions use their erasers on history, we all lose.  It's bad enough that revisionist history might be taught to our children, when, instead of using history as a lesson for future change, they just blot it out.

How will future generations learn to avoid the mistakes of the past, when the past history of our nation is not even presented to them, when simple discussion becomes "racist", when our predecessors become stamped as "evil"?  What false narrative will be given to our children and grand children twenty years from now when they aren't even presented with the opportunity to ask, "Who was that guy and what mark did he make on our nation?"?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  George Santayana

The current wave of the destruction and removal of historical monuments amid the social frenzy inspired by our national media and various intolerant groups and politicians is disturbing and I cringe to think of the inspired ignorance that our future generations will endure.

Do these names and monuments glorify our slave owning past?  I say, to most of us, they do not.  They mark the passage of our nations turbulent history and give pause to question.  When these markers are erased, the questions will not be asked.

That so many, and I suspect that it is a marginal number, are "offended" by a statue, by a name, by a reference, is, to me, proof of ignorance, blind hatred , and a callous disregard for the truth.

In my own past, I have done "evil" acts.  Will my future generations blot me out, or will they use my failures as lessons, catalysts for positive change and avoidance of "evil" in their own lives?  I hope the latter holds true, but I have endured the label of "bigot" too many times from my own family, when simply stating my opinions on various issues.

Did America condone the slavery of human beings in the past?  Yes, she did.  Will the caterwauling of our citizenry change that inescapable fact?  No, it will not.

The irony of the current movement to erase the past is magnificent in its volume.  Giving in to the hate speech and actions of groups like Antifa, BLM, KKK,  divisionist politicians,  and the proliferation of "sound bite" journalism, continues to give rise to violence and the separatism that divided our country in 1861.

I cry that our nation must endure another civil war if we, as a people, continue on this course.  I will likely be gone before it happens, but I call out the possible inevitable, that if we continue to give in to hate, regardless of its source, we surely will fall as a nation, a nation founded on the very unity that so many seek to destroy.  My grandchildren will likely endure it, because we give in to it.

That's a lesson from our turbulent past.