2020 archive
Facing (up to) History 0
At the Greensboro News and Record, Joanna Winston Foley, descended from a Revolutionary War hero who was also a slaveholder, struggles with a renewed awareness of her ancestry in the light of the death of George Floyd and the cascade of events it triggered. It is a sensitive and moving piece, well worth your while.
I have long believed that one of the elements that make the myth of the lost cause and of the land of gracious living so tenacious is a desire of many Southerners to avoid facing the reality of what their ancestors did so as to profit from stolen labor.
I can empathize. Both of us are Southerners, both of us had ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and other ancestors who wore the grey. I think my turning point–not as regards my stand on civil rights or on treating other people like people, but as regards my view of my family’s history–came when, at the Harper’s Ferry Wax Museum, we were looking at an exhibit depicting one of my forebears defending slavery.
As we looked at it, one of my children said, “. . . he was on the wrong side?”
I had to agree.
Yes, he was.
In every possible way.
Here’s a bit from her article:
This blind spot, big as a boulder, remained in place until June 2020. The word “privilege” comes to mind — the white privilege of avoiding discomfort.
As those statues came crashing down, so did that blind spot that separated my feelings about my ancestor.
______________________
*Of course, that does not explain why those whose families did not participate in the war, indeed, whose families had not yet arrived here when the war was fought, bought into the lies. For that, look to a century and a half of one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in history, perhaps best represented by that over-the-top potboiler, Gone with the Wind.
Tales of the Trumpled Letter Office 0
At the Inky, Ellie Rushing describes her talk with a mail carrier; they discussed his job at the Trumpled Postal Service (he remains anonymous for fear of reprisals from higher-ups). An excerpt:
He stops in the shade and breathes. “They don’t understand how just holding one piece of mail can affect someone’s life,” he says, speaking of DeJoy and Trump.
The Fire This Time 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear is increasingly less sanguine (or should it be “decreasingly less sanguine? Oh, well).
Immunity Impunity
0
My local rag investigates how the “bad apples” manage to stay in the barrel. A snippet:
State law makes it impossible to strip an officer of their certification unless they have been convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors. And even when officers’ conduct reaches those narrow criteria, many are not decertified by the state board with that responsibility.
Rejecting Russian Impulses 0
At the Des Moines Register, a veteran who has voted Republican for the last two decades (which I suspect is entire voting career, based on the biographical bits in the article) explains why he cannot support Donald Trump. Here’s the gist; follow the link for his reasoning:
What Do You Meme by That? 0
Ella Taylor mourns the loss of nuance and deliberation. A snippet; follow the link for the rest:
I don’t agree with everything she says, but I think she makes some very good points in these times when thought seems to have been replaced by tweet nothings and thinkers by “influencers.”
Stray Question 0
PoliticalProf raises an interesting point.
