No sign of any racial tension in these parts this morning. But I’m guessing that somewhere around here there must be some sort of historical monument that might need defacing. Perhaps some tribute to a defeated Native American tribe? They lost, after all.
I’m told that some of the confederate monuments now marked for removal were actual reactions to the Civil Rights movement, and to whatever extent that is the case, that’s not going to go down in history as a high water mark, BUT the tradition of seeing the nobility in your opponent, despite his flaws, is both deeply a Christian and an American value. The first three centuries of European settlement in America saw bitter and bloody battle between native Americans and the advancing “Manifest Destiny” tide, but Americans now cherish their Indian heritage. Ever drive a Pontiac? Ever cheer for the Cleveland Indians? When the battle was between ourselves, when it was a family fight, we recognized the better angels of our opponent’s nature.
Maybe that’s too tolerant a concept for us now. Maybe we don’t recognize the virtue in the defeated anymore. Maybe we just mine the victim thing for all it’s worth — use it to land a professorship, Elizabeth Warren style. Now there’s an angle for the Southern heritage folks. Maybe monuments weren’t the right approach. Maybe they should be asking for reparations for Sherman’s march to the sea?
I happen to think that a perfectly reasonable approach to the race-pimping monsoon we’re enduring is to simply say, “all lives matter; anyone claiming racial supremacy, be it David Duke or Louis Farrakhan, is a dolt.”
But then that’s probably too even handed. I get the feeling that some folks won’t be happy until there’s blood in the streets.
