On Charlottesville
2017-08-18
On Charlottesville
The events and the
reactions to the events concerning last week in Charlottesville are
disturbing on many different levels.
First and personally, I had a
chance to live in Charlottesville in 1989-1990. As a student at the
University of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson's university, I went to
classes, I rented an apartment in the city, I worked in the local
Safeway, and I got to know many of the people in the surrounding areas.
The Charlottesville we saw last week on television was not the
Charlottesville I came to know and love. I do not believe for a second
believe that what we saw and what we have heard represents the
residents of Charlottesville.
Second, we have to ask the
question about what really happened. Was this about taking down the
statue? Was it really about something else?
On one hand, we have
to ask the question about why we are celebrating the people who sponsored
the Confederacy and the Civil War - they are also the people who supported
slavery. When we erect statues to the leaders of the Confederacy,, what
are we really celebrating? Are we celebrating the aristocratic traditions
of the South? Are we celebrating their independent or rebellious natures
that fought against the federal government? Are we celebrating their
allegiance to a system of slavery and econmic class warfare?
I do
not believe that taking down the statue, while-a justifiable act in and by
itself, will solve the problem that gave rise to the events in
Charlottesville. The dilemma is that we have far too many people in this
country who seek to rank their lives against the value of other's lives.
The entire challenge of the Confederacy was that it put more value on
white supremacy than any other person of any descent. All
lives matter- all lives, and not some more than others.
Until we
solve the educational, economic and cultural conditions which create rank
and explicit value propositions over personhood and individuality, then we
will never solve the problem revealed in Charlottesville. And
meanwhile, we must condemn the hatred and bigotry that gives rise to these
kinds of hate mongering.
Finally and perhaps most disturbingly, we
have a political administration in this country based upon that very
notion that one's rank in life is more important than the diversity of
other lives. Currently we live in a society that gives far too much value
to the aristocracy of wealth and the oligarchy of power. Far too
many of our leaders are ethically bankrupt. They have lost both a moral
compass and an ethical direction.
Last week's events in
Charlottesville peeled back many layers of hypocrisy revealing a history
and tradition of hatred and prejudice which we must resolve to overcome.
The actions of the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists have no place in our
society, none whatsoever, and the responses of our leadership need to
clearly indicate this.
