A Slippery Slope Indeed

First, to get it out of the way, no not "Everybody is talking about last night's episode of The Game of Thrones!"  I was bombarded with that as I opened my Comcast Web page.  In fact, I haven't talked to anyone who has talked about it.  For that matter, I've never seen the program nor have I ever spoken to anyone about it.  Maybe it's me......

It's a slippery slope indeed.  All this talk and movement toward statues and memorials regarding the Civil War, slavery, etc.  As I have noted in the past, upon reflection, I think it's not right to have places of honor for Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, et al.  It's not necessarily that they owned slaves.  It goes much deeper than that.  To repeat, they had choices and they chose the wrong side of history, of humanity.  They fought to perpetuate an evil against mankind and they lost.  I'm not in favor of destroying such statues and memorials, but put them in museums or some other such places where they can be used to teach, to demonstrate why we choose not to honor Davis, Lee, Jackson, etc.

But, as might be expected, the slide down the slope has started.  Where do we stop?  Founding Fathers such as Washington and Jefferson (who penned, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights......") owned slaves.  Are they to be removed from history, at least public history, too?  Can not their other contributions, significant ones, outweigh the fact that they owned slaves?  Washington and Jefferson create a different situation than Davis and Lee.

In Detroit over the weekend, protesters want a downtown statue of Chris topher Columbus taken down.  Yes, he enslaved people.  Did his "discovery" create the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?  No.  And if he didn't "find" the Americas, another European was certain to in a very short while.  Like it or not, what Columbus did was to open a vast part of the world to Europeanization, to Christianization as well as helping to create a wealth, in Europe at least, that led to significant advances in civilization.  I am not at all trying to condone anything evil.  All that Europeanization and Christianization could have been done without slavery.  (And don't forget that it existed all over the world before Columbus, that Asians and Africans as well as Europeans enslaved people, growing wealthy from the trade.)  But Columbus made a very, very significant contribution.  He changed the world, in one of the most important way ever.  (I hope there's nobody out there who still thinks the New World was some Eden, an idyllic place that bordered on Paradise.  It wasn't.  Here's just one thing to remember:  the natives here still practiced human sacrifice.)

Back to Detroit.  It seems the demonstration included some ignorant people.  I don't necessarily mean that as a pejorative.  I don't think these people are stupid.  But they don't know.  For instance, what does "Reclaiming Our History:  Detroit Without White Supremacy" mean?  Apparently the protesters could find no evidence of the Confederacy in Detroit, so Columbus became their target.  Of course, as one protester claimed, Columbus is "one of the key figures in this whole Western identity."  Is that supposed to be a bad thing, that Western civilization developed differently from, say, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia?  What's wrong with that Western civilization, the one that led the fight against slavery, fought for women's equality (albeit with a late start), guaranteed individual liberties, etc.?  I guess I don't understand these people.

I think they mean well.  But they are ignorant of history, ignorant of reality.  (BTW, someone should have pointed out that Columbus never set foot in what was to become the US.  In fact, when arriving in the New World, he thought he was in Asia.)  Of course the US isn't perfect.  We have a long way to go.  There are still far too many injustices, esp considering that this is the 21st Century.  But where else should be look for role models, for Utopias?  the African republics?  Islamic countries?  Commie China?

OK, get rid of the memorials and statues that honor Davis, Lee, Jackson, etc.  Put them away, preferably in museums.  But leave Washington, Jefferson, and even Columbus alone.  Celebrate the good that came because of these men, but also use the opportunity to point out they made mistakes, that they did bad things.

BTW, I am still thinking about the athletes, namely the NFLers, who are protesting during the National Anthem at games.  I think they have a right to their opinions and a right to make statements on their opinions.  But if it's during games and their employers, be it the NFL or team owners, say "Stop!" they should stop.  Oh, they still have their private times to speak up.  They can also quit their jobs (that is, playing in the NFL with its millions of dollars) and find other work that would allow them to voice their concerns.  Why do I not think that will happen?  Plus, I am really concerned about their selective outrage about the problems in America.  I know they are not necessarily equivalent, but where are these athletes and their concerns with other problems?  In Chicago last week, another 36 people were shot; half a dozen of them died.  That happens every week there.  What about other cities?  When the lawless rioters (and I won't call them "protesters") burned and looted businesses and neighborhoods in Ferguson, Baltimore, and other places, where were these concerned athletes?  Maybe someone should point out to them that a lot of lives were ruined.  People lost their business and, because those businesses were destroyed, a lot more lost their jobs/livelihoods.  People lost their homes.  People were beaten and even killed during these riots.  And how many were arrested or prosecuted or convicted or punished?

I've mentioned this in the past, but it bear repeating.  Dave Bing started a company in Detroit, creating a lot of jobs.  Willie Horton worked with Detroit kids after leaving the Tigers, for 40 years or more.  (And instead of kneeling, during the Detroit riots in '67, Horton, still in his game uniform, left Tiger Stadium to try to talk people out of burning down others' homes.)  How many others can we name who did likewise:  Jimmy Brown, Alan Page, Bill Russell, Arthur Ashe, Muhammad Ali, and Jackie Robinson?  The list is endless.  These men and women did something other than just kneel or raise fists.

Athletes and sports can transcend larger issues.  In many ways, that's how some people's minds get changed.  I always cite the Jackie Robinson story in my classes on the civil rights movement.  I believe Martin Luther King paid homage to Robinson and Don Newcombe, Lary Doby, and other baseball players telling them they "made all this possible."  I wish today's athletes could see that.  Yes, it's good to take stances.  But if there is no action on them, those stances remain empty.