Davison's Doodle

Learning from History

Pardon a long set up for the transcript of the remarks by the Mayor of New Orleans, Mr.Mitch Landrieu about the removal of monuments to the Confederacy.  His words are an example of what could be called a thoughtful and reasoned exegesis of American history and the history or New Orleans.  Scroll down to skip my observations for a paragraph and link to Mayor Landrieu’s words.

In the alternative silos of facts and alt histories it feels like these United States, our United States, stands at a fork in the wood.  We have a choice to take the the path less traveled that recognizes the lessons of history as a guide and compass.  I remember from my college and graduate history courses that the victor(s) write the history from which we all read.  Honest history does not need to embellish factual narrative about the character of an enemy or anesthetize the reason for a conflict.  It need not flatter nor invoke divine Providence on behalf of the victor as reason or rationalization for victory.  History has become more a salve, rather than a teaching fable.

Over the last fifteen years I’ve argued in a few places, including this blog, that there is a new Confederacy.  It is clearly visible on an electoral college map, in State houses of government, and within the Congress.  Former President Obama, though unwilling to identify the new Confederacy, never the less dealt with it daily in the person of Senator Mitch McConnell and the Tea Party wave in Congress.  The new Confederacy manifest itself in ammo and gun sales following former President Obama’s election.  The ‘other’ had been elected, and thus the assumption must have been, would likely do to white Americans what some in white America did to the ‘other.’ And just as some segments of Christianity supported slavery, racial segregation, and social classism to maintain and, in some cases claim new power, it today supports the new Confederacy in the person of Fallwell Jr, Tony Perkins, Vice President Pence, and other self-described evangelical conservative Christians that are claiming power through a reverse victimhood with its banner of ‘religious liberty.’  This group cheers ‘States rights’ so long as those rights synthesize with their religious worldview.  If you are a Christian in these United States you are part of the privileged system.  Yes, there are some boundaries to our freedom, your freedom, because that is what secular governing requires to treat all equally under the law.

Observational science allows one to observe that a desired outcome of religious liberty laws and States rights would be to create what Chris Hayes calls A Colony in a Nation. Are there aspects of our Constitutional Republic where individual States have authority and rights to maintain taxes, order, and the common good.  Yes, of course.  But, if we are United States and ‘out of many one’ actually has meaning, then there are ideals of our Constitutional Republic that are basic rights for all breathing Americans, immigrants, and those awaiting documents no matter one’s State of residence. Look to Europe struggling to maintain a unity based only in shared economics.  A new wave of nationalism based in supremacy threatens a fragile unity. Separate, but equal is a path many have walked before.  Have the lessons been learned?  And, while mutual assured destruction might serve as a deterrent for rational actors, it does not unite diverse people in creating a fair and equal society, nor deter non-rational actors motivated by a religious certitude spoken, whispered, or silently seeking to reign supreme.

Mayor Landrieu offers a sobering, honest assessment of the Confederacy as he speaks about the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans.  I was initially against removing these reminders of segregation and slavery that threatened our Nation to keep from whitewash our history.  But, his words persuade me to consider the argument to have them removed and, like the buying of ammo and guns when Obama was elected, the Confederacy manifest itself in the rhetorical and visible pushback against their removal from politicians and the general public.  Apparently, there is no shaming supremacy even if those that profess supremacy also claim to follow Jesus of Nazareth.

From, Transcript of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Address on the Confederate Monuments

And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics, this is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once.

This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and, most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong.

Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division, and yes, with violence.

To literally put the confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, it is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future.